As a Christian, first and foremost, I have been really anxious to elucidate, on my website, how my faith informs my politics. This task is ever more important because there has been some infiltration into the church by some wolves. Some Christian principles have been used to justify the abridgment of our political and religious freedoms, and this has been done in the name of Christian charity and they have also misrepresented Jesus’ teachings on the poor and the sin of slothfulness. Now lest you think that politics don’t matter, tell that to the pastor in Canada who has been censored and fined for expressing his views on homosexuality (there is “Hate Crimes” legislation before the House that will severely abridge our freedom of speech and freedom of religion). There is a movement called the Christian Left that has exploited our goodwill for the purpose of expanding government, abridging our freedoms, taking our money and giving it to causes that hurt the individual. 

Here is what I mean: My Christian faith teaches me that we must provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. We must “remember the poor” (Gal. 2:10); be open-handed (Deut. 15:11; look after the widow and the orphan (Jas. 1:27), and each of these injunctions are directed to the individual. Yet Scripture also tells us that “lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (Prov. 10:4),  “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desire of the diligent are fully satisfied” (Prov. 13:4). and my favorite, for its clarity “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thes. 3:10). This is not cruelness (anymore than kicking your 20 year-old son in the butt and telling him to get a job!) because we know that human kind is fallen and because of this state we also know that when we are given anything free for a prolonged period of time without recompense we develop an attitude of entitlement (those of you who are parents know this is true!). And herein lies the mistake (if I may call it that!) of the Christian Left. The Christian left seeks to use the power of the federal government to take, by force, whatever it needs to “feed the poor” (the definition of “poor” keeps expanding). And anyone who does not desire to work can quickly become “poor” and so qualify, thus corrupting good character. So, in socialism, we see how government corrupts behavior and discourages the traits of diligence that are so vital to our economy and crucial to the development of good character.

What does Scripture say about government mandated “giving” i.e. socialism? “Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). Socialism is incompatible with Christianity because charity begins in our hearts and flows from a love for our fellow man and a desire to be obedient to Christ. These virtues cannot be forced upon one from without by government. Socialism is coercive. It forcibly takes what it needs. Socialism, in Europe, has seen the death of charitable giving. And why not? When a greater and greater chunk of one’s paycheck goes to government programs, little remains to give to charity. One can then rationalize that government will take care of the poor thus relieving one of any guilt and responsibility to the truly needy. So giving out of love stops and so too, caring for your fellow man. And the welfare recipient becomes resentful of being “on the dole”.  A bad deal all around.

Charitable institutions in America have always been vital and thriving precisely because government had not interfered to mandate our giving. Our American founding fathers, Christians all, knew this, and so enshrined in our guiding documents limits on the power of government. But we have seen the growth of more and more government entitlement programs crushing the desire of many to be “diligent”.

I feel it necessary to clarify these points because it appears that when a politician runs on his Christian faith, quite a lot of you will stop asking questions about the issues. Does he believe in limited government? In lowering taxes? Ronald Reagan did not run on his faith even though he was a Christian believer but he had sound, conservative ideals which limited the size and scope of government and it’s role in our lives. Jimmy Carter ran on his Christian faith yet we suffered through some of the worse economic times in our memory. Need I say more? 

Remember this: When a politician makes promises to make your life better by using government programs RUN AWAY!  Bigger government NEVER makes our lives better. Every new law enacted takes away another freedom. 

Which brings me to my mission in life. All of us have a gift and it is our Christian duty to use it in the furtherance of God’s kingdom. For some that may be teaching, for others it may be a Christian ministry and still others work in the secular world. For me, the one thing that I am most passionate about is politics and how my Christian faith intersects that arena. I love ideas. Big, grand ideas. The kind of ideas that set our founder’s hearts on fire. Liberty, freedom, honor, integrity and how God intercedes on our behalf when all is lost. That is the story of America. Only by His mighty intercession could an undisciplined, untrained group of farmers have beaten the greatest military power on earth! And patriotism, love and thankfulness pour out of the Christian heart because we are mindful of the great gift we have in America, that we have been given “...and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26).  What will we do with this great gift? Will we surrender it to the forces of secularism or will we be duped by fine sounding words while ignoring the fundamentals?    

I pray not. 

Caroline Kennedy has endorsed Obama because "he's just like my father". Isn't she supposed to be really smart? An attorney or something? Her father, John F. Kennedy, was an anti-communist and a tax-cutter. He would no doubt be against same-sex marriage. He was a conservative. Has Caroline Kennedy even looked below Obama's hype? Or does she just like him because he uses the word "hope" like her father? My estimation of her just plummeted.

SO John McCain has an old member of Vicente Fox's administration, Juan Hernandez, on his payroll. He is McCain's "Hispanic Outreach Director". Of Mexicans that migrate to the United States Mr. Hernandez says "I want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think 'Mexico first".  He also says "We must not only have a free flow of goods and services, but also start working for a free flow of people". What do you think McCain's views on immigration are? Hmmmm?

Is David Frum for real? In this article, he asks "why is the Repubican stool wobbling"? and what he presents is a picture that shows economic, social and foreign policy conservatives blaming each other. For one thing, one would never find a conservative framing the war in Iraq as an "endless"  war that is driving up oil or castigate social conservatives because of their stance on same-sex marriage. A true conservative is not a one issue kind of person but ideologically complete. It's our underlying foundation that informs our stand on issues. Now, there may be some one issue Republicans out there but they can hardly be called "conservative". Mr. Frum, I'm afraid, has thrown in with all those who say the Republican party must be "reformed". He says that supply-side economics is "no longer a winner". Wrong, Mr. Frum. We just don't have an articulate leader who is brave enough to withstand media critics. They all want to be liked more than they want to lead. He says opposition to same-sex marriage is dwindling. Is he kidding??! This article is just so much of the same blue-blood Republican distaste of the Christian Right. Mr. Frum couldn't be more wrong.

Well, well, well. On top of all the bad news of America's health problems, lack of insurance, obesity, blah, blah, blah comes this news: Heart disease plummets below the American Heart Association's prevention goal for 2010! Hmmm. Aren't we the obese country that eats too much red meat and doesn't exercise enough? Not like those skinny Europeans who have such wonderful health care (NOT!). Yep, our rates of heart attack are falling drastically and maybe it has something to do with this: "Overweight more likely to survive heart attack" says a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Florida! Have some more steak!

I was really sad to hear about Heath Ledger. I first saw him in A Knight's Tale. It's still one of my favorite movies (I have a big list!). It would have been different if it had been Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears. They are, after all, constantly in the party scene, abusing themselves. And maybe it's just because I don't keep up with celebrity news but Heath Ledger seemed to keep to himself which makes it all the more sad. A sad, depressed man; Hollywood takes it's toll on another young life.

With the left panting with excitement at what they think is a recession coming (instead of what it is; a correction) they're missing the news on our Mexican border. The head of the border patrol has called for an armed presence of our military! Also Judicial Watch has unearthed documents from the Clinton Administration's Health Care Plan which states that the "media is willing and waiting for guidance"  and also sets out their strategy against opponents which is to "expose the lifestyles". Politics of personal destruction, anybody? 500 FBI files come to mind!! Where is the main stream media on all this??! As far as the economy goes, it can be talked into a recession and the left is trying their darndest! One only has to consider how far and how fast we've come. In a matter of 9 months we went from 12,000 to 14,000! A correction is due and what a great opportunity! So calm down, America!

I just have to laugh so hard at the left and all the efforts to get away from horrible, terrible OIL. Oil comes up out of the ground, through the ocean floor. It bubbles up and by the time it reaches the surface the brine has scrubbed it away. Isn't God something? He figures out how to give us this natural fuel that runs our cars, warms us and protects our skin only to have the hysterical left crying about how terrible oil is and how we must find a substitute. What we need to do is DRILL. Drill in the frozen tundra, away from civilization where the warmth of the pipelines would probably create a population explosion among the wildlife as it has for the caribou around the Alaska pipeline. Drill in the gulf, drill in the Pacific. What could be more natural than oil? It is, by definition, ORGANIC. It occurs naturally. God put it there. We just have to go get it. So there are all these biofuels that are being created to take the place of oil because we want to be kind to our planet, don't you know. Well, I guess God's idea is better because, come to find out, BIOFUELS DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD! HAH! Just like paper is better than plastic after all and bottled turns out to be no better than tap, so we'll spend millions only to find out that we're back to square one, right where we started!

I didn't know this: "Critically Ill Canadians Rushed to US for care". The Canadian nationalized health care system, because it is so overwhelmed, has to bring a lot of their most critically ill patients to the states for emergency care. You have an earache? Sorry, there are 200 people in front of you with intercranial bleeding. Government health care is a loser. Americans are so used to being able to go the doctor for anything they want, be it a hangnail or an earache. If we paid out of our pockets the prices would come down (just as they did for laser eye surgery, which is usually not covered by insurance) and the free market would fix our current health care woes. Any fixes to our health system must be in the private sector. We are only asking for trouble when we ask the government to provide it for "free".

Where is Hollywood on this? Don't you know that if this was a Republican it would be a cause celebre? Liberals everywhere would be demanding investigations and expulsion from congress of William Jefferson-Democrat. He's the guy that had $93,000.00 in his freezer in cash when rescued from the flood waters of Katrina! Hollywood has already made a movie, Blood Diamond, with Leonardo DiCaprio to "raise awareness". Well, how 'bout some awareness now, where it counts? Apparently, Mr. Jefferson was fighting in congress on behalf of the Botswanan diamond industry to derail legislation to outlaw "blood diamonds". I guess all that fightin' took some cash!

I tend to blog more about ideas than i do about news items. Big general ideas that will expand our understanding of conservatism and how, as Christians, we practice conservatism in politics and in life generally. IGNORANCE IS EXPENSIVE i've heard it said and how true that is!  With the internet at the ready knowledge is at our fingertips. Just be careful the source! I would NEVER take economic advice from a socialist or political advice from a Liberal! 

Liberal revisionism? History is not as it seems. Ghandi's grandson is in agreement with his grandfather and it's not good. The legacy of peaceful resistance was sprinkled with a good dose of anti-semitism. 

This is why, here and here, proponents  of human-caused global warming have now switched to calling it "climate change". The weather is not cooperating so the change in terms. It is nothing more than a trojan horse for implementing a sweeping socialist agenda that will cripple our economy and change our lives in ways that we can't even imagine and it won't be for the good.

Ignorance is expensive-

“Wealth is not a pizza.” — P.J. O’ Rourke

The people in the top 1% are not the same people every year and certainly not every

decade. “They” don’t sit around figuring out how to get a bigger share of the pie and

passing laws to keep the rest of treading water.

Between 1930 and 1939, the income of the top 1% fell 7%. Did that mean that the other

99% did better? They did not. That was the worst economic decade of the 20th century.

The fall in the well-being of the top 1% was symptomatic of everyone’s suffering rather

than an indication that the pie was divided more fairly.

I suspect people care more about the absolute size of their slice than they do about

whether they are getting a bigger or a smaller share. Especially when you have no idea

of what your share of the pie is. You might be able to tell me your money income last

year. You would have a harder time telling me your compensation—your money

income plus a monetary value for the fringe benefits you received—health and dental

care and any retirement contribution of your employer. You might even be able to tell

me whether your compensation last year is larger than it was five years ago. But even if

you knew the full number inclusive of fringe benefits and that number five years ago,

there’s no way you know whether you’ve “fallen behind” or “gotten ahead” of other

Americans—whether you’re ranking in the income distribution has gone up or down.

Unless you’re Sergei Brin. He’s gotten ahead. He founded Google, going from

somewhere near the middle to the very top. When he and others did that, they may

have increased the share “going to the top 1%.” But the top 1% of the population didn’t

necessarily get richer. Just the amount of money in the top 1%. They are not the same

thing.

For those of you who enjoy reading political history and commentary you really have to read LIBERAL FASCISM by Jonah Goldberg. This isn't a name-calling book ala Ann Coulter; it is instead a historical book tracing the roots of fascism and how it most resembles today's Leftist ideology. For those of you who don't read much this article, Liberal Fascism Explained, does a great job of explaining the book. It is a great read and the next time you hear some lefty call someone on the right a "fascist" you'll know they are so wrong. After all, it isn't the right that wants to make you stop smoking, stop eating fries, stop buying SUV's, regulate what you hear on the radio, tell you what to do with your money, how to raise your children, how to use your private property, what kind of toilets to use, that you have health insurance and if they are providing it they will darn sure tell you what to eat and mandate exercise and penalize you for gaining weight! It never hurts to be informed!