I'm going to do something today I haven't done before, because I think there is great value in both showing an example of where I disappear to and for those of you who care, how I think and where I've arrived in my years walking after Jesus. I'm going to cut and paste the substance of a conversation I entered into over Facebook. I will withhold the names of both the hostess and the single commentator I was responding to as their identities aren't the subject, nor am I attempting to cast dispersion on the individual with which I disagree. The subject through the whole winding thread is Truth. And I ask as Andy Andrews asked in his book "How Do You Kill 11 Million People":
If it is correct that "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free," then is it possible that if you don't know the truth, its absence can place you in bondage?Let me set the stage by saying the original post was an anti-Obama post with a captioned picture challenging the tactic of those who say anyone who doesn't support Obama or his appointments to key positions within his administration is racist. I will present the comment that sparked my initial involvement and proceed from there without editing or elaborating. I need to explain one final thing before we begin, why I was enticed to enter the conversation.
Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil
Ecclesiastes 8:11
Opponent: No matter what you say or how much you beat that dead horse, he is our President and deserves respect !!!!
Me: respectable people deserve respect, lawless people deserve punishment for the good of society as a whole.
Opponent: Really, exactly what crime did he commit ?
Me: Here are a few crimes: 1.) Under the UCMJ as CIC he is blatantly guilty of article 92 gross dereliction of duty leading directly to the death of US citizens and soldiers due to foreseeable circumstances under which he failed to provide adequate defense of sovereign US soil in Benghazi, Cairo, and 19 other embassies throughout the Muslim dominated regions where we have missions. 2.) Obstruction of justice in the matter of his instructions to AG Holder to not defend DOMA when it reached the Supreme Court for challenge - this was his first blatant Constitutional violation to my knowledge. 3.) Obstruction of justice and collaboration with intent to defraud with regards to Fast and Furious - again a matter that lead to the foreseeable death of US citizens and caused harm and insurrection within another country. 4.) Recess appointments of Cabinet positions without Congressional approval, WHILE CONGRESS WAS IN SESSION - willful disregard for the system of checks and balances established within the Constitution - and then refused to remove them from their posts when he was called on the matter by Congress who stated they did not approve of the candidate as being qualified in one instance. 5.) there are at least 8 other blatant violations of the Constitution by his direct approval very thoroughly documented by others with more time and space than a post on FB. If you are truly interested they are easy to find, as well as a copy of the Constitution from your local bookstore wherein you could compare the list to the documentation and test their veracity. The problem is our whole electorate has become lawless, pretty much an accurate reflection of their constituencies, most of us want what we want right now and will do whatever we have to to get it - damn the consequences to anyone else. Traditionally we have been a nation founded under a rule of law, with a healthy fear of God as ultimately keeping us accountable to a power greater than ourselves. With every little compromise from rock solid principles however we find ourselves to have usurped God's role and placed ourselves on the throne. So now we live in a nation with 545 small 'g' gods all working against each other to the detriment of all, leading all their citizenry to follow example in their little bailiwicks
Opponent: Any time that I have bothered to check claims of those opposed to President Obama, I found them to be either distortions or falsehoods. The lies and distortions that Obama-haters keep going is reprehensible. Hey maybe the strategy is, if you tell a big enough lie frequently enough,some people will believe it. Enough already !!
Me: It's all right miss Terrie, if we can't agree on a foundational rule of law against which to objectively compare his actions, then we can't even have common ground to stand on for this discussion, we're talking at and around each other. You see hate and disrespect toward a man, whereas informed conservative thinkers are calling his score card based on rules by which our president and electorate refuse to abide. I realized as I was working and thinking about this whole thing yesterday that the only way you could possibly not know what the real basis of the charges against the man are is if you don't want to know. And that's really the root of the problem with our country from the top down, we're in love with a dream of how we think things OUGHT to be, rather than objectively evaluating how things actually ARE. Those of us who have a love of the truth keep our feet on the ground and work to see our dreams fulfilled by putting our hard work and time proven disciplined efforts toward building and maintaining the foundation that provides an environment wherein those dreams can come to fruition. I'll share a current real life example with you: I have a neighbor whose 19yo son has openly been dealing drugs for almost two years and was arrested two nights ago, in possession, selling near a school, resulting in a fruitful search and seizure of additional quantities from his house across the street from my home. After the police left, two of us neighbors stood with the father and discussed what had happened - and the man stood there in understandable tears and told us what a good boy he was and how he was raised well and was respectful... so on and so forth, my other neighbor just called him on it and said "...your son and all his friends throw garbage out on all our lawns, even after being confronted, they have abused you as the parent multiple times - THAT'S NOT RESPECTFUL... you all had to know what the boy was doing and the dangers he was putting himself and us in and we've all talked about these issues before..." You see, the father never stepped back and objectively evaluated the actions of his son - he stayed in love with a dream that had no foundational work under it to build his son's future as they pictured it being. And that friends and observers is almost a perfect microcosm example of the biggest problems with our whole country right now, the sheer number of people in denial and refusing to abide by knowable objective truths by which to evaluate good and evil.
Hostess: encore!!
Me: Here's my encore. One last piece that comes directly out of this and brings it closer to home for all of us, and I'm going to step off from the real life example I shared to make my point which can be extrapolated back out to cover our governance gripes. This father is an alcoholic, he has made a life choice centered around a legally obtained drug which temporarily allows him to escape his real life worries and stresses and numb whatever real pain he refuses to address in a more constructive manner. The Bible tells us this is a love of pleasure rather than a love of truth. The father drank up the profits from a successful independent business, stopped maintaining his company assets which were the means by which he provided generously for his family, and has successfully perpetrated a claim of disability which allows him to subsist on meager income. Mom is now the primary breadwinner and stressed to the limit with the example of her husband and the actions of her only son. Having spoken with her repeatedly I know she is now working to personally clean up her side of the street and get her head screwed on straight moving forward. We have known this family for over 7 years now, and at least one of the unspoken lessons this boy has learned through his dad's choice is that he doesn't have to face reality either - he can do as he pleases regardless of the consequences to those around him. So why work diligently when you can score big? If he can just distribute enough he'll have the Escalade or Mercedes some of his rich kid friends park around my house all the time. To hell with the vandalism that has occurred to neighbors and parents cars/property, to hell with the tears and pleas of his mom and dad... to hell with the multiple conflicts and hassles the boy has already had with the neighbors and police. In the child's mind he says none of us understand what he's going for... I know because he's told me that to my face... while in most of our minds we don't understand why he can't see he's plunging headlong toward death, institutions, or insanity. And to bring the long example around full circle, the father thinks he raised his son well and taught him to be respectful. How can the father possibly think this? Because he refuses to look in the mirror. He can't see that he laid the foundation for his son to disobey and refuse to abide by proven moral standards and ethics that would ensure a future and a hope of real success that others can admire for something other than "bling". And the way that example extrapolates out is this: everything we do matters, it affects all of us in sometimes unforeseen ways. When our legislators and civic leaders do not make solid choices that are truly good they are choosing the delusion of temporary convenience just like the father chooses the bottle. Let me throw one other example in so we can more easily see the effects of an unspoken message that has wreaked untold havoc on our society: Playboy magazine. Yes there are others, but Playboy started the avalanche in this manner: it taught men and women that people are disposable and they exist solely for our pleasure. When the man gets the magazine in the mailbox, even if Miss June isn't quite to every nuance of his liking it's alright, because Miss July is on the way. So he puts Miss June on the shelf and picks up Miss July or goes back temporarily to Miss May while he waits. The corollary to the woman regarding this is that if her man isn't toeing the line in the manner she sees fit, she'll just take her "goods" elsewhere to someone who will appreciate them/her. So we take our Playboy and Playgirl magazine habits into our relationships with human beings. When we're done with them we throw them away. We can easily see cause and effect of almost any course of action if we will objectively look back at examples that show us clearly what a course of action will result in. It's not just dry history, or complex sociology, or political theory - it's our lives that are being either secured for liberty or shackled to servitude and it starts in my home, and in yours. If I will not lead a self disciplined, self governed life, submitting to knowable, objective, proven truth that leads to a healthy and constructive future then how can I expect my government to do the same. Those of us who are the maddest about what's happening around us have already learned this lesson even if we never put words to it as I have today. We aren't mad because we're racist or we didn't get what we want, we aren't being subjective and egocentric - we're being objective and we're mad because we objectively know that in the end there's nothing in it for any of us other than death, institutions, or insanity shackled to servitude because we had a great party today. Now if my focus is on God and His objectively proven standards of morality, with an expectation of blessing or punishment inherent in my relationship and my submission to a loving liberty providing owner of the universe, everything falls into place as it should. If my focus is anywhere else, or has placed man on a throne reserved only for the Creator, then I'll reap accordingly. So we find great wisdom in making sure we keep the kids or anything else from playing on the throne, and this requires self examination and vigilance on our part. The rewards are worth it. There is always hope and healing available for individuals and nations, but only as we name things rightly and expose them to the light of truth and move on in a different direction. Does that hope remove the scars and inherent consequences of past mistakes - NO, but it does provide a healthier future wherein we can share our experiences and snatch others out of the flames that are eagerly awaiting their destruction. The Truth matters more than we can imagine in every one of these supposedly political arguments, and there is no disrespect to a man to call him into the truth and hold him accountable. I would argue that to refuse to tell people the truth would be the ultimate disrespect.
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