Societal Issues

Most churches in America today are focussed primarily on the society around them, “Winning their community for Christ,” “Reaching the lost with the gospel,” and “Ministering to the needy with the love of God.” The church I attend has that as the final third of its mission. Allow me to quote a summary:

“Our Vision is to raise up Godly generations of believers who are:

•  Learning to follow Jesus

•  Living as the family of God

•  Engaging the World as Disciple-makers”

There is a key here that a few of you might have missed. If the primary focus is on reaching people with the gospel or meeting the needs of the poor, it quickly becomes nothing more than a social gospel. That is “good works,” “dead works,” and “eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” I call it religiosity.

Look again at our Vision Statement. First we must “learn to follow Jesus,” learn to know His voice and follow His Holy Spirit, and even dwell in Christ and He in us so we become intimate with the Heavenly Father. Second, we must put it into practice, “Living as the family of God.” When those around us see us truly loving and caring for each other, when they see the nature and character of Christ being developed in us, they will get interested. Then and only then can we “Engage the World as Disciple-makers” and address those societal issues.

Those who put the last step first, are trying to accomplish it in their own strength. Jesus warned His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, assuring them that “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall [then] be My witnesses…” (Acts 1:3-8)

One of the reasons I attend the church assembly that I do, is that they get the order right. Our focus is not on bringing the lost into the church so the pastor can get them saved! It is on maturing the believers in the church, so that every one of them can go out and lead others to the Lord.

Too many churches are full of lost people! They come because it’s fun, like a social club or a show, and because they are made to feel welcome, loved, “just as they are,” with no condemnation for their vices or worldliness. They may even call themselves Christians, because they go to church. They happily claim the promises of God – heaven and it’s delights – even though they remain quite comfortable in their sins. But you will note that all those churches preach a secret pre-tribulation rapture, where their church members will be instantly made holy and snatched up to heaven before God’s judgments fall. You cannot have a church full of lost people without the secret pre-trib rapture; otherwise you might have to tell the truth about sin, and all those lost people would either leave or repent.

I hit the pre-trib rapture heresy pretty hard in my book, and summarize it in this controversies section in a separate essay. I also discuss the correct approach toward sinners, which is to neither condemn them nor excuse their sin, but rather to introduce them to Jesus “who takes away the sins of the world” and His Holy Spirit who empowers us to walk as He walked. It is only the light of His holiness that exposes sin for what it is. As you focus on Jesus and His power to change lives – as you learn to love what He loves and hate what He hates – the sins drop off behind you. There’s no sense criticizing the sinner; He doesn’t know Jesus! Of course he sins. But show him the Savior and watch in delight as the Holy Spirit does His work of convincing, convicting, and judging. That should not be controversial.

 This essay has a different purpose. Once we get past the first two steps, how should we engage our society? What about all those major controversies between liberals and conservatives such as the economy, big government, abortions, “gay” rights, welfare, illegal aliens, guns, or medical care? If I want you to read my book, you have a right to know how I feel about such things. Though my book does give clues, it does not directly address issues like these, hence this essay.

First, I always vote. In America it is a Christian’s duty to know the issues and vote according to Christian principles. Any Christian who does not vote is in direct violation of the Scriptural injunction to, “… be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist were established by God.” (Rom 13:1) In America, the “governing authorities” are ”We the People.” If we do not vote, we are not doing our God-ordained job. It is the loss of so much of the Christian vote that has resulted in America turning sharply against God and His laws in the last 50 years. It is also essential to know your American history, so you can vote responsibly and not be fooled by lying politicians. For example, it is the Republicans, not the Democrats, who traditionally stood up for the civil rights of blacks and minorities, to give them a hand up, not just a handout.

So, am I a Republican? At one time I tried to help start a new political party, the “American Heritage Party,” focussed on Christian principles. It sounded great on paper (I helped write the platform), but in fact it failed. America has a two-party system, and third parties rarely get any significant portion of the vote. I was a “purist” who couldn’t bring myself to vote for a “flawed” candidate. Then I began to see the “flaws” in some of our own candidates! God did not seem to be running for President! I finally discovered that all we were doing was robbing votes from the better of the candidates who had any chance of winning. So now, yes, I am just a conservative Republican, with strong Libertarian leanings.

Why am I not a Democrat? After all, they are the party representing the poor, the downtrodden, the minority, the immigrant, the “stranger that is in your midst,” (Ex 20:10) while the Republicans are “just the party of the greedy rich and the big, evil corporations.” I’m sure you’ve heard the line, but it is a blatant lie, repeated endlessly by Democrats and the mainstream media (which is owned and run by Democrats). In fact, Republicans do support business (big or small) and the free enterprise system because it is consistent with Biblical principles and has proven to be the best system on earth to bring freedom and prosperity to all people. It turns out that making a profit is not evil – it is essential to remain in business. Only companies who make a profit can be generous to their employees and the community around them. Yes, there are flaws in every candidate, and I have seen some greedy and power-hungry Republicans too, but in general, Republicans are the party of godly moral principles, while Democrats have now become quite unprincipled in their desire to increase their power and control over the people.

I did vote for a Democrat once – Jimmy Carter, because He was a “born again Christian.” It was the worst vote I ever cast. He was a “social issues” Christian who had absolutely no clue about how to run a country. Remember, he was the one who gave away the Panama Canal, tried to give away Israel to the Palestinians, and very nearly gave away the whole country to the socialists and Communists who wanted to destroy us. It took a Republican President Ronald Reagan to rescue us.

So, what about those social issues? Let’s go over the list, comparing what I, as a “Republican, leaning Libertarian” believe with what the majority of Democrats currently seem to believe. Bear in mind that there are still many Democrats who are Christians and who sincerely believe the media lies I mentioned. If you are one, I pray God will open your eyes to the truth of what I‘m about to say.

 The Economy. I believe that government has no business messing with the economy. Other than enforcing consistent standards and basic rules of conduct (honesty, keeping contracts, punishing theft and libelous lies, etc) and establishing a stable value of the dollar, government should keep its grubby mitts entirely off business. The private enterprise system allows good businesses to prosper and bad businesses to fail, as they should. Anything the government tries to do beyond the basic functions I listed is only a drain on the economy, as any task done by the government can be more efficiently done in the private sector. The only exceptions to this are the functions that require the overarching authority of the government, such as national defense, setting national standards and basic rules of conduct, and executing criminals. Government by definition is force; it has to be to do its job. But we, unique in all the world, have been given a nation founded in liberty and individual rights and responsibilities. The more we cede to government, the less freedoms we retain for us or our children. Once government has taken over something, it is exceedingly difficult to ever get it back.

Democrats believe that their federal ”experts“ know best how to run our lives, and that every problem has its solution in their big-government regulations and spending. The fact that this has never worked doesn’t deter them in the slightest. They don’t know their history. In this, Democrats are exceedingly foolish. They do not understand that more government jobs does NOT grow the economy, it stifles and drains it. More government spending does NOT stimulate the economy, it just builds up a burden of debt for our children to pay. Government must first take out of the economy anything it puts back in,  and in the process, at least half is wasted in governmental red tape, inefficiencies, and foolish boondoggles.

Law. I believe in the rule of law. America was founded with a Declaration of Independence, a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights. These were all based on Biblical law, as is obvious to anyone who knows our history. This foundation gave us the best country in history, which has by God’s grace remained strong and prosperous for many years, and to which people all over the world desire to come for refuge. I believe it is our duty as citizens to defeat laws which conflict with this foundation and to support laws in harmony with this foundation, using interpretations consistent with the writings of our founding fathers.

Democrats believe in the rule of men, and in adding and changing laws with the changing culture. They have worked hard to re-write our nation’s history to remove it’s Biblical foundations, because they hate having an unchanging standard for law. Especially God’s moral law, embodied in the Ten Commandments, must be removed from schools and all public view. How can they make laws according to their own lusts and desires if God’s law is staring people in the face!

Morality. My Libertarian bent says that, other than violent crimes such as rape, murder, theft, assault, and kidnapping, legislating morality is not the government’s job. Government should “stay out of the bedroom” of consenting adults, and neither condemn nor condone things like adultery or homosexuality. That is the church’s job, and the church should have the freedom to speak out boldly against all such harmful and wicked behavior without fear of lawsuit or government intervention. (Yes, this will offend some people, but only those who love their sin and hate God’s righteous moral standards.) The one exception to this is the sacred institution of marriage, which is so valuable to society that government should do all it can to encourage it, such as favorable treatment in the tax code.

 Democrats do understand that immorality is harmful, both to the individual and to society, and they use it like a club to beat up Republicans who fall into sin. But secretly they condone immorality and the growing cultural acceptance of most forms of sexual deviance. Why? It is a fact that straight, church-going families are more likely to vote Republican, while those who pursue deviant lifestyles are more likely to vote Democrat, the party of “Someone else is to blame” for the painful consequences of their immorality. Some Democrats even justify and defend immorality, but only in Democrats (as with President Bill Clinton).

 Evolution. I believe God created the universe in six days, exactly as the Bible says, and my book is my attempt to explain how He may have done it. I believe, not in evolution, but in “devolution.” We were created “very good” and have been devolving ever since the first sin. Adam and Eve were smarter, stronger, larger, healthier, and more capable than we, though they were immature and naïve regarding the terrible power of evil. However, I also believe that all will be restored one day, though that will take the supernatural intervention of an almighty, all-wise, and all-loving God.

Democrats must believe in evolution. They have to, to be consistent with their desire to throw out God, the Bible, 200 years of history, all our nation’s founding documents, and any absolute standards of truth and morality, and replace them with their relative standards according to the changing “evolving” culture. Oh, many Democrats will say they believe in god, and even support school classes about the god of Islam, the god of the Native Americans, the Hindu gods, the old Norse gods, the Greek gods, and so on. Thus they claim to be “tolerant.” All these false gods are no threat to them, as they are powerless and have no authority. The only God they will not tolerate is the one true God of the Bible, whom we know as Jesus Christ. Since He is the Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge of all, they must remove Him from public discourse, lest they be held accountable for subverting His moral laws. The only alternative to a Creator God is evolution, teaching the preposterous notion of spontaneous generation of life from pond scum. Therefore evolution must be taught as “fact,” as they carefully remove all mention of the Creator God of the Bible from public education.

Abortion. I believe that God created man in His own image, the pinnacle of all creation, and made him to rule over all creation, just as the Bible says. Thus man is uniquely precious and all human life is sacred. As our Creator and giver of life, only God gets to decide when a life is to end. There is only one exception to this. God has delegated to government the responsibility to execute a person convicted of murder. If a murderer is not executed, human life is cheapened. God’s law even extends this to kidnapping, forcible rape, and a few other things which essentially “take a human life” by destroying the good life they might have had. But by no stretch of the imagination can an innocent unborn baby be worthy of execution, even if it is the result of a rape or a regrettable “one night stand.” There are many couples who would gladly adopt such an unwanted child. The only time I think abortion may be justified is if the life of the mother really were at stake, but that is far more rare than you might think. If I were President, I would insist that adoptions be made easier, faster, and less expensive. I would also make executions of convicted murderers easier, faster, and less expensive, and would try to extend this to convicted kidnappers and rapists. I would not want on my conscience one of these violent criminals who goes out on parole and destroys another precious human life! And of course I would insist that the infamous ”Roe v Wade“ case go back to court, to expose the false information that resulted in it’s passing.

Democrats claim to be the defenders of the poor, the weak, and the helpless, but they’ve turned against the most defenseless among us. They vigorously, even violently support the abortion of a child for any reason up to and including partial birth. They will throw you in jail if you harm the egg of a bald eagle, for example, so they really do know when a life begins, but in a breathtaking bout of inconsistency they insist that human life doesn’t begin until the mother decides she wants it. God have mercy on their souls. America is now missing 55 million children who should be growing, inventing, creating, growing the economy, working to support the retiring seniors – all gone, leaving a dark hole that may never be healed in the moral fiber of America. As expected, legalizing abortion has cheapened human life. If the abortionist fails, or if a mother regrets postponing her abortion until it’s too late, of course they feel justified in correcting their mistake after the baby is born. How long after? As the baby comes out, plus or minus a few seconds? one minute later? an hour later? ten years later? What difference does it make? The baby still dies. If you truly believe it is a mother’s right to kill her child then to be consistent it ought to be legal up until the child becomes an independent adult at age 18.

If the abortion lobby had then been as strong as it is in America today, Joseph would have hustled Mary off to Planned Parenthood and “taken care of it,” and that would have been the end of the Redeemer. Democrats must hate the entire story of the miraculous birth of Jesus, for it puts the lie to their desperate attempts to make the products of conception merely a “blob of tissue.“ I’m not saying that Democrats can’t be Christians, but I cannot conceive of any true Christian going along with the Democrats’ abortion agenda.

 Human Life. As I said above, I believe that human life is precious, sacred, of infinite worth to our Creator and thus to all who accept His Word. In a properly structured society, everyone has value, even the elderly, the infirm, the retarded, the crippled, or the poverty stricken. This value comes from God, not government. As our Declaration of Independence says, I believe that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” I believe that “Governments are instituted among men” primarily “to secure these rights,” and “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.” Thus I cannot accept the false premise that because resources are limited, we must limit our population growth. People are our finest resource! If we run out of coal or oil, for example, people will invent new forms of energy. But if we run out of eager, enthusiastic, energetic young people, all is lost.

Democrats value the life of a whale, a wolf, a polar bear, a spotted owl, a snail darter, or a horned lizard, for example, but they refuse to consider human life as uniquely precious and sacred. In their minds, humans are overpopulated, so if it‘s a choice between saving the life of an endangered snail or a human they will side with the snail. Here again is a breathtaking inconsistency. They claim to accept the evolutionary concept of survival of the fittest, but want to intervene like gods, helping evolution at their whims to ensure the survival of the least fit at the expense of the fittest. They only get away with their ”overpopulation“ mantra because their policies keep so many people impoverished and jammed into big cities. There are vast untouched lands available if government would get out of the way and allow lazy people to go hungry and good hard-working people to prosper. (God created hunger to help lazy people become good workers.)

Racism. Believing as I do that “all men are created equal,” I cannot, I must not be racist. The temptation is strong, when I see entire cultures like the Islamists that are dysfunctional in their injustice, bigotry, anger, violence, and hatred. But I must fight that temptation, for God created them in His own image just like myself, and I know that many are trapped by their culture and would escape it if they could. To the best of my ability I must allow each person the right to demonstrate his or her character, which for an Islamist may indeed turn out to be commendable considering all they have suffered. Like Martin Luther King, I long for the day when all will be judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin.

Democrats are deeply racist. They must be, to be consistent, just like they must believe in evolution. If evolution is true, then some races are more “evolved” than others. Charles Darwin and in fact all the founders of the theory of evolution were deeply racist. They used their new theory to justify their hatred of Blacks, and some openly advocated for eugenics and sterilization of Blacks, Jews, and other “less evolved” races. Adolph Hitler justified his obsession to annihilate the Jews to purify his Aryan “Master Race” based on evolution. The original Ku Klux Klan was almost exclusively Democrats, and they targeted white Republicans as well as freed Blacks. Modern Democrats have managed to hide their history pretty well, but they are still racist. When sane people rightly criticize our current Black President for his broken promises or harmful policies, rather than try to defend the indefensible, Democrats just howl “racist.” It’s a conditioned response. Now that you understand it, you know that they only do it because they know racism so intimately. Racism is at the core of their character, though now many have turned it upside down to justify crimes by Blacks, while condemning as “hate crimes” similar actions by Whites against Blacks. Affirmative action, giving Blacks an unfair edge in hiring or entrance exams, is supported mostly by Democrats. And as expected, these “helps” actually do far more harm than good. Blacks thus “helped” develop a “victim” or “entitlement” mentality, for the unspoken message is that they are unable to make it on their own merits and require government assistance to succeed. Thus racism continues, for they now and forever must vote Democrat, as that is the party of the government assistance they’ve become dependent upon.

 Welfare. State and local governments of course must have the freedom to set up welfare programs, preferably in concert with the private sector (churches and hospitals), to provide a safety net for those who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and if people decide to use their local government to aid the poor that is their right. Most of us would vote for taxes to help those who truly need assistance. That said, I believe first, that our federal government has no authority to grant any kind of welfare, personal, national, or foreign. That includes foreign aid, corporate welfare, farm subsidies, state kickbacks, and other kinds of bribery. That is not one of the enumerated powers granted it by our Constitution. Second, charity is not true charity if it is forced. Taking money from one who earned it to give it to one who did not earn it is still theft. Third, any valid welfare program must have a time limitation and a work requirement for those actually capable of working. The Christian principle here is, “If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.” (2 Thes 3:10) Fourth, welfare must be managed at the local level. The people involved must see the faces of those they are helping. That is the only way to reduce abusers from gaming the system. And fifth, people with self-destructive behavior must not be rewarded for their bad behavior. For a drunk to live on welfare, or for an unwed mother to collect increasing benefits for each new illegitimate child, is flat wrong. And it is unkind for abusers as well. If they get hungry enough, they will change their self-destructive behavior. If they‘re incapable of changing (addicts or mentally incompetent), they should be hospitalized or institutionalized. I know that sounds heartless, but the only valid alternative is to let God correct their bad behavior, which brings us back to where I wish we had never left – the churches and caring Christians should be taking care of all welfare needs!

  Democrats routinely use welfare to buy votes. And they routinely try to shame Republicans for “not caring” about the poor by trying to put them back to work. But in fact it is the Democrats who don’t care. They work to create dependency and encourage bad behavior such as “free sex” and indulgent lifestyles, for the natural consequences of such behavior results in more Democrat votes. This ties in with their insistence on removing God and the Bible from public life, for God teaches us that our bodies are “a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1 Cor 3:16-17) There are consequences for bad behavior, and in trying to eliminate those consequences through welfare programs, Democrats are guilty of fighting against God. Yes, all men are created equal, but in trying to force the equality of outcomes in spite of self-destructive life choices, Democrats are denying a basic Scriptural principle. “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” (Gal 6:7)

Education. I believe that education is the parent’s responsibility. The Federal Government has no Constitutional authority here. While I am not against public education, it must be managed at the local level, and it should not be a monopoly. Even poor parents must have the freedom to home-educate or to put their children into private schools, and all educational tax funds should follow the child. When all parents have free choice in their child’s education, they will become more involved and will pick better schools, thus failing public schools will either improve or go out of business. Do not try to tell me that the state is more interested in a child’s education than the parent, for God has deeply ingrained in parents the desire for the best for their children.

 Democrats claim to believe in “choice” but it is a lie. They actually only believe in choices that agree with their agenda, such as a mother’s right to kill her babies or a homosexual’s right to “marriage.” Educational choice, Democrats hate with a passion. They claim that some bureaucrat in Washington DC can make choices for your children better than you. They want Federal standards, which of course enforce their ideology. They must retain the monopoly of public education, as it is the only way they can conceal God, the Bible, and traditional morality from inquiring young minds. Besides, they have the support (and millions of dollars of campaign contributions) from the public school unions. This is in spite of the fact that both private schools and home education have been proven to be better for the children, at far less cost. Whenever you hear the Democrat mantra, “It’s for the children!”  know that it is not for the children. If they really cared about children they would protect them from abortionists and give their parents educational choice.

 Sex Education. While I believe this is best done at home by godly parents, I can’t deny that this battle has been all but lost. In any environment except home education, today’s kids get much of their information from the gutter, from billboards and magazines, from movies, from gossipy smut amongst their peers, and from the internet. All we can do now is damage control (or home educate!) Even down to pre-school there is little innocence left. I deeply regret that, but at this point, acknowledging the cause – the removal of God and the Bible from our educational system – isn’t going to help. All I can recommend is that caring parents keep a tight reign on what their kids watch and who their friends are, and choose their schools and teachers carefully. Most importantly, keep the channels of communication open with your kids, and train them early in self-control, integrity, and the consequences of choices that violate God’s moral law. Youngsters are NOT capable of making wise life choices without parental guidance. That’s why God gave us parents.

Democrats do recognize the problems, but have no clue how to solve them because they do not accept the absolute standards of God’s moral law. The best they can come up with is to teach kids how to have “safe sex,” provide free condoms, and make it easy to abort the unwanted results. They can’t understand the concept of “abstinence,” remaining pure until marriage. To them, we are just well-evolved animals anyway, so they expect kids to behave like animals when it comes to their primal urges. Thus all their training becomes enabling. Why are they surprised when the kids experiment with what they’ve been taught? This is another reason why we must work towards school choice.

Marriage. I believe marriage is a sacred covenant made before God, binding one man and one woman together for life. It has been that way from the beginning, between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before there was any sin. (Gen 2:24) This is exceedingly important, both for the protection and well-being of the man and his wife, and for the nurturing of any children they may have. I further believe that it is in the best interests of any government or culture to protect and promote this sacred institution, as it provides the foundation for a stable society.

Democrats can’t seem to understand this basic concept, even though it has been demonstrated for thousands of years. As a result, we are already far down the slippery slope of marriage redefinition. It started simply with easy “no fault” divorce laws. Then tax policies benefiting cohabiting couples. Now we’re at homosexual “marriage,” and polygamy won’t be far behind, all in the name of “equal protection under the law.” Within a few years people will be demanding the right to marry their own brother or sister, or even their pet poodle. After all, they are in “love!” And you won’t be able to use the argument that “incest or bestiality aren’t healthy” because you already lost that argument when you legalized homosexual marriage. Again, Democrats are being foolish in their push to normalize homosexuality. The cost to society of the open acceptance of moral perversions is immense. Unless this momentum is turned around, it will result in the destruction of Western Civilization just as surely as it resulted in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the fall of the Roman Empire. Note that I never said government should prohibit adultery, cohabitation, or homosexual “marriage,” just not normalize or condone it. Only the church has the authority to speak out against it.

One Parent Families. Of course it is best for any child to have a loving and supportive mother and father. If any of those four are missing, the love, the support, the mother, or the father, the child will suffer. Yet we do not live in a perfect world. Many times one of those are missing (often the father), and sometimes more than one are missing. What to do? I believe this is where the church is invaluable. A supportive church family, filled with the love of the heavenly Father, can fill up the need and restore a broken family to wholeness. This is our job, one of the main reasons we Christians remain on this earth.

Democrats do not accept either the authority or the ability of the church to heal broken families. Remember, they are the party of big government, and “only big government can fix societal problems.” Thus they step in with a zillion laws to “protect” the child, as if he or she belonged to the state. Now, you and I both know that government bureaucrats are rarely loving and supportive. Government is not made to be loving and supportive; it is all about force. The result, all too often, is that the children also grow up broken, in a never-ending spiral of child abuse, crime, absent fathers, unwed mothers, and more broken families.

 Guns. In a perfect world, guns would not be needed (even for hunting). We do not live in a perfect world. The evolutionist likes to think we’re getting better and better but in fact we are not - we as a society are simply getting more sophisticated and more capable in more kinds of wickedness. And what’s worse, society seems to have lost its sense of shame. Immorality that used to horrify polite conversation is now freely discussed on the public airways, degrading pornography is now easily accessible, and crimes that used to hide under cover of darkness now occur in broad daylight. You might think that I am about to ask every law-abiding American citizen to consider getting and learning how to safely use a firearm for the purpose of protecting his family, but that is secondary. If you really want to protect your family, move out of the big cities and develop loving and supportive relationships among your neighbors, your community, and your church. If you do that, you will rarely need weapons to protect your family. They have a different primary purpose. It is clearly stated in our 2nd Amendment. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The purpose for guns is to maintain the security of a free state. This can only be accomplished with a well-armed and trained Militia made up of the entire body politic. Any citizen who cares about America and the freedom we have will want to maintain that freedom for the next generation by supporting gun rights, and not just for hunting rifles! Governmental tyranny can only be held in check if we maintain as much firepower as they have. They may own the tanks and fighter jets, but we have 50 million patriots with high-powered assault rifles, many of them in our military and in those tanks and jets, and they know it.

Democrats, of course (believing as they do in big government) support all kinds of laws to take guns away from free citizens. They need to get rid of high-powered assault rifles and high capacity magazines. They need to register all gun owners in preparation for confiscating their guns. They need to limit the purchase of ammunition. They create gun-free zones in schools, public transportation, and eventually all public places. They hate concealed-carry permits, even though they are proven to reduce crime. Their ultimate goal is a gun-free America, or so they say. But it is a lie. Their utopian gun-free America still has lots of guns - all in the hands of their ideal all-powerful government. They claim this is good, as it will eliminate violent crime, but that too is a lie. In reality, criminals will always be able to get guns. That is why criminals always side with Democrats. Democrats not only make their criminal activities easier, they also are far more lenient with criminal sentencing and tend to sympathize more with the criminal than with the victim. So, all those feel-good gun control laws that Democrats push after each terrible gun massacre? Never forget that they are aimed at you, the concerned American patriot, rather than the madman who just shot up the local school. He only laughs at laws tying the hands of us who care about protecting our nation and its people.

Immigration. We’re a nation of immigrants, and it has made us strong. We are compassionate and generous to our immigrants. They have prospered here, pursuing the American Dream, and have fallen in love with America. More people all over the world long to follow in their footsteps. I strongly support legal immigration, even more of it, as long as everyone coming here is able to learn the language, the laws, and the culture, become self-supporting, and meld into society. However, I have a problem with those who come here wanting our prosperity and our freedoms but having their own agenda - such as Muslims wanting to pervert our law with their Sharia, or Mexicans wanting to take back California for Mexico. Those who refuse to learn English and assimilate should go home.

 Democrats have found race-baiting very profitable. They gain Black votes by stirring up anger against the Whites, and White votes by stirring up sympathy for the Blacks. They gain Hispanic votes by promising welfare, free health care and eventual amnesty for illegal Mexicans coming across our southern border, and they expect to continue this for the foreseeable future, despite their promises to work on securing the border. They do not want immigrants to learn English, settle down, get a job, and become productive members of society, because they know that will most likely turn them into Republicans. Therefore, any reasonable reforms to control immigration and block amnesty for illegal aliens (undocumented Democrats) will meet with strong Democrat opposition.

 Voting. Every law-abiding citizen must have a vote, or our Republic “of the people, by the people, and for the people” has failed. I believe that violent criminals forfeit their right to vote, but I go much farther than that. Immigrants who refuse  to learn English and assimilate should also forfeit the right to vote - how can they know what is good for our nation if they do not know our language? Therefore I support a law requiring all governmental functions be conducted only in English. Also, those who do not care enough about America to take the effort to get a valid identification proving they really are law-abiding citizens ought to forfeit the right to vote. I support laws to verify citizenship before voting. I would like to go even farther than that and abolish the 24th “Democrat Empowerment” Amendment. Those who pay no taxes, but only live off government handouts, should forfeit the right to vote. Of course they will always vote Democrat, the party of easy welfare, but it’s more than that. We’re talking about the betterment of our nation, here. Those with no stake in the game have no incentive to vote for a better America. Those who care about America enough to contribute a fair share in taxes (even if they are poor and their share is very small) have earned the right to vote.

 Democrats win elections by putting a great deal of effort into “get out the vote” drives. Sadly for our country, much of this effort involves those on welfare, the indigent, the mentally disabled, non-citizens, criminals, and those who have already died, so of course Democrats “help” them vote. Even more sadly, when they can get away with it they help them vote multiple times. If Republicans do this it is called voter fraud and prosecuted, but when Democrats do it it is OK, as they have to do it to have any chance of winning elections. That is why they must at all costs block efforts to require voter identification or citizenship verification prior to voting.

Taxes. Ideally, our federal government should take no taxes from its people, although to do this would require some major changes (such as privatizing social security and medicare and transferring numerous functions back to the States). The feds could run all their core Constitutional functions using funds collected by tariffs on foreign-made goods and foreign-owned corporations in America. That’s not going to happen, so the next best solution is a “voluntary” flat tax on personal income, maybe 2% or so, with deductions for one’s wife and each dependent, and no other deductions or loopholes. Those who pay get a “Patriot” card giving them access to government functions, including national parks and the right to vote. Those don’t pay could always gain access when they “caught up” with their payments. And no tax should be levied on American businesses – it all gets passed on to the consumer anyway. Thus American business would flourish here and be more competitive overseas. Under this system government would not have enough money for all their unconstitutional social “meddling” such as their subsidies to states, schools, and businesses that toe the party line. No federal tax money should ever return to the states; if it does, you know bribes are involved.

 Democrats think every problem should be solved with higher taxes and bigger government. They will never go for a flat tax. They must have a highly progressive tax system to “soak the rich” and buy off the poor. The code must be exceedingly complex to hide the loopholes for rich Democrats. It has to give tax credits for State taxes, so high-tax liberal States can survive. It has to have a mortgage deduction to encourage more debt. (Democrats love debt.) It must have deductions for charitable contributions to all their liberal churches and tax-exempt foundations. (Giving to get a tax write-off is not true charity.) Taxes must be high enough on the middle class to pay for their pet social engineering projects and to fund welfare for their voters. And they must have a powerful IRS collection agency to put the fear of god into taxpayers and to harass conservatives. But please note that for Democrats, taxes are not primarily about funding their big government, they are about taking care of loyal voters and punishing those who voted against them. A flat tax, which treated everyone equally, would never work for them, as they’d lose all their voters in a heartbeat. They insist that it is only “fair” for the rich to pay more. Yes, a flat percentage does that. But what is fair about punitive taxation on those who work hard, and rewarding those who are lazy? Yet Democrats must do just that, for lazy people are reliable Democrats (the party of easy welfare), while hard work results in more conservative values (more Republicans).

 Medical Care (mis-named “Health Care”). This is not a government function, and America will rue the day they let the feds gain control. The right solutions to the medical care problems we face are first, block malpractice lawsuits from honest doctors who make a mistake. Doctors are not God, they are people, and people make mistakes. You find the best doctor you can and he does the best he can, but one mistake should not cost him his career. Second, provide an easy online forum for price and quality of service competition among doctors and hospitals, such as the “feedback” system on eBay. Good doctors and hospitals that keep their prices low and get good reviews from satisfied customers should succeed, and those with lots of complaints and excessive costs should fail. That’s the free market system. I know, when you have an emergency you don’t have time to check the market, but by then you should have already done your homework. Third, allow no one to get a “free ride” at the expense of others. That only guarantees they will be unconcerned about the cost. Everyone, even the very poor, needs to pay something for every visit. When you have to pay to see the doctor, you will take better care of your health, and you won’t abuse the system by going to the doctor for every ache or sniffle. Fourth, encourage everyone to get accident insurance, yet let the individual decide what he can afford and how much deductible he can handle. Fifth, keep it local. Let each doctor and hospital decide how much to bill and whether they ought to forgive the debts of those unable to pay, based on each patient’s circumstances. When free care is mandated by government, people expect it and take advantage of it, but if it is granted by an individual it will be appreciated. And finally, medical care starts at home. Encourage all kinds of nutritional and body-building guidance and put alternative remedies and “natural” health providers on a more-equal basis.

Democrats for many years have set their goal for government to take over the nation’s medical care. They have very nearly succeeded, by secret back-room deals, buying votes, and making outrageous promises about “free” medical care for the poor, reduced health insurance premiums for the middle class, and lower costs and more-efficient procedures. But now all their lying promises are starting to ring hollow, as medical costs skyrocket, insurance premiums double, doctors flee the system, hospitals go broke, and government bureaucracy crashes down on our heads. America, you had the best medical care in the world, and you were warned. Whatever made you think that a government that can’t even balance its own budget can manage something as intimate and complex as medical care?

The Environment. We’ve done a lot of good things in the last 30 years. We’ve learned how to treat sewage and where not to dump it. We’ve reduced some of the pesticides and dangerous chemicals. We’ve made the workplace a lot safer. Yes, we have a ways to go. We still put poison in our teeth (mercury) and in our drinking water (fluorides), we still use pesticides, antibiotics, preservatives, and chemical fertilizers by the ton, and we still use dangerous drugs, radiation, and highly toxic chemicals in our medical treatments. But we’re learning. Those who are careful can expect a pretty long and healthy life. Again, I would prefer the government minimize its regulations and let the free market take its course, only keeping the public well-informed. Government cannot prevent all harm to the environment, but it can minimize it by letting people know the effects their activities are having. An example: a sign on a trail up Mt. Rainier saying, “Please stay on path. This meadow is fragile.” That’s all it takes. Most people are glad to care for the environment, and protect rare and endangered wildlife, when they know what to do. Everyone wants clean air and pure water.

Democrats, once again, want to control people. Threats of “global warming” (which used to be “the coming ice age” and have now turned into simply “climate change” ever since global weather again turned cooler) are simply opportunities to gain more control. They like to play god. Their scare tactics are still believed by some, but most of us have moved past their Chicken Little “the sky is falling” days. Normal people realize that the primary threat to our planet is not the CO2 in the atmosphere, it is the hot air blown around by our politicians, many of whom aren’t smart enough to realize that CO2 is in the air they exhale in every breath.

 Energy. Any hard-working, productive society needs energy, lots of it. And it must be relatively cheap and dependable. America has been foolish to wait this long to gain energy independence. We should be researching new sources, drilling, fracking, piping, and inventing our guts out until we are free from dependence on our nation’s enemies for daily necessities. This is a national security issue as well as an economic issue. Yes, we need to take care of our environment, but national security comes first. We’re getting better at preventing environmental catastrophes such as with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and we’ll have fewer yet such spills when we stop shipping our oil from half-way around the world. Oil, gas, and coal may not be renewable, but hydroelectric is and should be supported. By the time our oil, gas, and coal run out, we will have invented better alternates anyway. Solar, wind, and biofuels are nice, but may never become economically feasible until the government steps out of the way to let them compete on the open market. Nuclear energy is the most promising, now that we have solved most of the safety problems. Now all we need is a way to fire the spent nuclear waste into the sun.

Democrats hate cheap and dependable energy, as it empowers the people. They have worked hard to block oil and gas drilling, to shut down coal electric plants with impossible regulations, to prevent oil fracking, to block oil pipelines, to tear down hydroelectric dams, and to do everything they could to increase the cost of energy in America. Their claim is that solar, wind, and biofuels can take up the slack, but even they are not that stupid. They have an agenda, They want America to become a weak, third-world socialist state like Greece. If they can make energy expensive enough and our national debt big enough, they may succeed.

Debt. Speaking of our national debt, ours is rapidly approaching 17 trillion dollars. That is worse than insane, it is criminal. If I were president, I would take immediate and drastic steps to start paying down that debt. This would include declaring bankruptcy, eliminating most federal departments, firing most government bureaucrats, reducing the salaries of any remaining workers (my own included), re-negotiating medical benefits and retirement packages (you can do that when you declare bankruptcy), transferring most federal functions back to the states and privatizing those that can’t be transferred, going to a flat tax and eliminating the IRS, halting all foreign aid, corporate welfare, subsidies, and federal grants, selling off federal land to the States, and authorizing oil drilling, logging, and recreational uses of other public lands to gain revenue. I would focus my resources on paying down the debt, and withhold congressional salaries for bad behavior until it was paid (the 27th Amendment notwithstanding). I would fire any judge who tried to stop me, again for bad behavior. Running up an impossible debt like that is the epitome of bad behavior. Finally, I would insist on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and levy fines on the senators who failed to submit a budget each year as the law requires.

 Democrats? They are quite happy with a 17 trillion dollar debt. They intend to ensure that it climbs past 25 trillion in the next few years. They despise honest budgets and have no plan to pay down the debt, as they have no intention of paying down the debt, ever. That is a cornerstone in their plan to fundamentally transform America into a weak, third-world socialist nation. They do want higher taxes, but not to pay down the debt. For Democrats, tax revenue is just a tool to increase their power and further their agenda. When the excessive debt burden enslaves the people, so much the better. And as for the thuggish IRS – Democrats use it to threaten and harass their political opponents just like they use the complex tax code to burden honest workers and job creators.

So, have I portrayed Democrats as mindless idiots who don’t understand the most basic concepts of economics, biology, or sociology? Who don’t know where babies, money, or jobs come from? Who haven’t a clue regarding America’s history, Judaeo-Christian values, or Biblical foundations of our law? Who can’t figure out the connection between immorality and poverty or the difference between freedom and tyranny? Who believe that eliminating guns and providing easy welfare, free condoms, free medical care, and free abortions will solve the human nature defects behind crime, disease, and poverty? I hope not, because it’s not true.

Democrats are not stupid. They won the last two presidential elections! Sure, they had to lie and cheat like crazy to do it, but they won. They convinced the electorate that all the problems they caused were the fault of Republicans, and even in the face of their disastrous economy they beat a candidate with a proven record of fixing economic problems. No, they’re not stupid; they are shrewd. They hide their true agenda while vigorously insisting that they are fixing the problems they caused.

What is their true agenda? I have to be careful here, because few Democrats are as evil in their desire to impoverish and enslave Americans in their socialist tyranny as I have described. Most good Democrats, though foolish ideologues, are pretty straight about it. They really do want to force those greedy rich fat cats to foot the bill for those who take advantage of their easy welfare system. And they really do believe that the “experts” in their big government are better able to run everything than “common” people. In that, they don’t understand human nature. Giving their “experts” that much power always results in tyranny and corruption. And taxing hard work while rewarding laziness always results in less work and more laziness. But those are just surface issues.  The real problem is not really Democrats and their generosity with other people’s money. It is deeper than that.

What about that human nature? Democrats insist that it is getting better as we evolve into higher, more sophisticated levels of civilization and society. Is that their agenda? To push this evolution by getting rid of us conservatives who still hold on to the old fashioned ideas of God, Country, Constitutional law, and Biblical morality? Again, Democrats misjudge human nature. Without fixed standards of law and morality and the threat of Judgment Day by an all-knowing God, society will soon sink to shocking levels of immorality and inhumanity against their fellow man. Democrats think they are immune, but again, they forget their history. Yet still, that is not quite it. Sadly, I believe it goes even deeper than that.

I sense a visceral hatred of God, the Bible and God’s Law, Christians and their standards of morality, and the conservative Biblical principles woven deeply into America’s history. That’s not coming from Democrats! They really are quite tolerant of everything else, including any false gods and evolutionary theories (no matter how preposterous) that try to explain away the one true God and His laws. Their intolerance for anything to do with true Christianity comes from a deeper source. There is a battle going on. It’s the battle between good and evil, the battle between those who serve God and those who serve Satan. Which side are you on?

Most Democrats don’t really want to “fundamentally transform” America into a weak, poverty stricken third-world nation as I said above. I was extrapolating as if they could see the natural consequences of all their policies. But no, they really can’t see that that’s where they are headed. They have been deceived. Their eyes are blinded by the master deceiver. They really think they are headed for a socialist paradise with themselves in power. It didn’t work in the USSR, or in China, or in the Third Reich; it isn’t working in socialist Europe or Greece; but they still think they can get it to work. Only Satan himself could accomplish such mass deception.

 It is a clash of world-views. Those who believe in the Creator God of the Bible, the immutable standards of His moral law, and a Judgment Day to come are on one side. On the other side are all the rest: those foolish ideologues I described as well as the demonically inspired socialists who really do want to destroy America. This whole thing began way back in the Garden of Eden, when Satan the Serpent told Adam and Eve, “You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” That is the modern Democrat. He can’t accept the true Creator God, so he lives as if he were his own god, doing everything according to his own knowledge of good and evil. Since Satan the master deceiver is behind it, most Democrats don’t even realize that their knowledge of good and evil is twisted, contrary to what is true and right.

Democrats are “liberal,” which used to mean merely generous and now means generous with other people’s money. Many of them actually think they are helping people by taking from the rich and giving to the poor. They feel that the primary purpose of government is the “redistribution of wealth,” as if the economy were a limited pie and it is their job to make sure everyone gets an equal slice, or as if they can make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. They want to enforce equality of outcomes regardless of one’s individual efforts, abilities, or life choices. They really do not understand Satan’s goals here, which are to enslave everyone in poverty and tyranny, bring torment and despair, and ultimately destroy the nation and all its people – and doubly so because he knows that America was founded on Biblical principles and Satan is filled with hate for God and His Holy Bible.

Well, I am a conservative. Conservatives don’t want to redistribute the wealth, they want to grow the pie. We want a system of equal opportunities, so that everyone who wants to work hard and avoids self-destructive life choices can get rich - the richer the better. We want a system that rewards good character - integrity, hard work, loyalty, and kindness - and that penalizes bad character - lies, laziness, cheating, and stealing. It’s called the free market place, as defined by our founding fathers in our Constitution. We want our government to do what we hired it to do and stop moving the goal posts in the middle of the game. Most of all we want the freedom to live according to our conscience and the unchanging standards of God’s moral law, without our government insisting that everything holy and right is now prohibited in public and everything evil and unjust is now a legally protected “freedom of expression” or “right to privacy” and thus supported by our tax dollars.

I like America the way it was in World War II, the “greatest generation,” when America and a few allies rid the world of the most evil empire in modern history. We were the powerhouse of the world then, with unbounded energy, enthusiasm, patriotism, and faith in God that our cause was just. We were willing to fight and die to preserve liberty and prosperity for generations to come. And, in case you’ve forgotten, we were all proud of being a Christian nation back then! We valued Christian moral principles like integrity, hard work, moral fidelity, and clean living. Back then, “a man‘s word was his bond,” and politicians who lied to us or behaved immorally were voted out of office. We were generous – with our own time and money! We were glad to teach the Bible in public schools, post the Ten Commandments on the wall, encourage public prayers of repentance for our national sins, and implore God’s blessings upon our nation. We were a shining light on a hill, giving people all over the world hope that someday, they too may come to America and achieve the American dream. But if America’s light goes out, if America’s greatness is lost, tell me, where can they go?