BARK's Yelps

Do you know why second amendment people fight so hard? Because they are scared. They don’t have faith in God. Even though his love is the armor, they feel that they are weak. A gun gives them security. It reassures them that whatever it is that comes, a man made object will protect them. They feel that what God has given them, two hands and faith, is not enough. And to restrict others from guns removes the threat. They hate anything that is not like them because they think maybe God is on the other side. What if God is on the side of Muslims? Right makes might. Right makes might. The more convinced one is of his infallibility the more he will fight for it. Doubt is even more dangerous though. Doubt makes it a test. Then faith is not in the fact that God can and will protect, it is found in their works. The Crusades. The Jihads. The holy wars these cowards fight hiding behind taunts of “False God” to their enemies. And to prove how false their God is, they will destroy them. That’s what God wants.  

First question: Who can tell me what human rights China violated?

 

Second question: Are we holier than thou?

 

Third question: Why?

 

 

We are boycotting Olympic games…

For human right violations…

I wish this made sense to me.

 

“Enemy Combatants”

“Water Boarding”

“Abu Gharib”

“Habeas Corpus”

 

Maybe these words matter. Maybe they don’t. But they are fact.

This nation is an experiment in something new. The very words, “We the people” are the first move.

 

 

 

Power has been balanced in the West, for the greater part of our history, into two parties; the church, and state. (The ‘state’ has varying meanings. It can mean king, lord, governor, etc.)

 

 

 

For reasons I’d love to discuss, if anyone will respond to these things, we decided this nation would balance power between Man and the State.

 

 

 

All checks come back to the people. Impeachment starts in the House. Taxes start in the House. I hope we are all current on our Montesquieu and Machiavelli. The House is the most democratic arm of our law.

 

 

 

The balance tips as it always has. There are times when the church would have consolidated power, then the lordships would fight back with other policy that would swing the pendulum yet again. The same here as there.

 

 

 

Our power, being balanced between people, and state, is strange to watch. Many things cost the church power in the past, investiture, cruelty, gluttony, but never political apathy. The state lost power many times as well. It lost for tyranny, oppression, gluttony. But once again, there was never a shortage of knights ready to kill a couple monks. Apathy was never their problem.

 

 

 

Our problem is apathy. But Jefferson saw this coming. I believe it was in his correspondence with Madison in which he said that revolution was necessary for the people. He meant that the spirit of the revolt would be the harnessed force for political change. Elections were a compromise for him. In that the emotive power of revolt is all that could instill the efficacy of the populace sufficient to a degree which would force them to know who messed up. Impeachments as well.

 

 

 

That is sloppy above. Let me clarify.

 

 

 

Machiavelli said that the people as a whole are dumb and susceptible to fads. I think most people agree that on the whole most people are dumb in the political sense, and susceptible to fad. The strength of the people was their collective morals. This is why the house is the most democratic. Smaller district, shorter terms, more chances to face the jury.

 

 

 

Now our founders had to find a way to give power to the people that was only usable when enough people demanded it. This is the idea of pluralism. They never saw interest groups coming. Neither fully automatic assault rifles. Maybe Clarence Thomas should cast 3/5ths of a vote.

 

 

 

Now, when our government gives us stuff we become complacent. The roaring twenties lead to the great depression. The depression was caused by business asking more of government that it should. In this case they asked to be left fully alone. This gives government much power, and people little. Eventually people suffer and revolt. The revolt was coming up in FDR. The turn to socialist programs was one of the biggest revolts imaginable. How much more revolt can one ask than to go from free market to social programs to build national infrastructure and create work? Yes ladies and gentlemen, the New Deal was a revolt. We just never called it that.

 

 

 

Then the forties came and we had something to give. Hitler and Hirohito sucked in all senses of the word. We all hated them. Our government asked the world of us. Men have to die, women have to work, and kids gotta give up lots of stuff too. They asked for it and we gave it to them hand over fist. Then they gave us victory.

 

 

 

WE beat tyranny. As soon as they gave us something we became apathetic again. Then all you had to do was say this blank list has the name of commies. “Oh sure hate commies. We are the commie slayer, da dada da. Kill commie”

 

 

 

Government: “He’s a commie”

People: “Kill a commie”

Government: “Want proof?”

People: “Nah we trust you”

 

 

 

Lets see what else happened then? PR systems across the nation were ended because socialists and blacks were getting in. Jim Crow was around. KKK rose. Our vote was stifled. We believed in them so much that they stifled our vote and we let them.

 

 

 

Then hippies got voting rights back. KKK and Jim Crow means weak people power/ high government power.

 

 

 

Hippies mean high people power/ low government power.

 

 

 

Twenties means high government power/ low people power.

 

 

 

New Deal means high people power/ Low Government power.

 

 

 

Low government power means they are less free to do as they please because of lack of trust. People make requests and government has to respond to the requests first because they are so overwhelming.

 

 

 

High government power means they can do as they please. We ask nothing of them but entertainment. As long as that is furnished we are ok. Roaring twenties. The consumerism of the eighties and nineties. Drugs. As Long as they furnish these we are apathetic.

 

 

 

If you chart people power and government power you see both operate in inverse frequency waves. One peaks as the other valleys.

 

 

 

Right now government power is lowering. People power is rising. We got a black dude and a chick running for president.

 

 

 

Welcome to the revolution.

 

 

 

PS. If you want all this cited, give me a research fellowship. otherwise I have to tend to Jobs. Gas costs more than thinking brings in. Food costs more than thinking brings in.

 

 

 

I heard it said once in a house debate. If you want to encourage something you offer subsidies. To discourage you tax. Federal subsidies to schools are low right now. Subsidies for 30 thousand dollar cars are high. Expensive solar panels get subsidies. Are they encouraging thought and innovation or consumerism?

Thank you, but please stop trying to spare my feelings and thinking I am not mature enough to hear the truth. And if that is not the reason then you need to stop begging for people to like you. And if that is not the reason THEN STOP FU@&!^& LYING!

 

 

 

I.

 

 

 

I know the business of running a government is no easy thing. I won’t pretend that it is. I know times come when decisions have to be made and do you know why we flay you when you do and don’t? WE DON”T TRUST YOU!!!

 

 

 

You damned if you do and damned if you don’t because you chose it. When things that we need to do involve another nation and some people might die, any idiot who puts a smiley face on that kind of operation has got to be sadistic. Any man that smiles when he speak of a war he is conducting is SICK! You are not doing us any favors by saying it will all go well. You are not doing us any favors by saying it will not take any real time, expense, or lives.

 

 

 

One of the wisest things I have ever heard was given me by a clerk at Diamond Shamrock. He said, “When you lie, you take away someone’s choice. You have just given them a sales pitch.”

 

 

 

This is so true. The last Neo Conservative administration sold us on a war. I wish they would have just told us the truth.

 

 

 

II.

 

 

 

I also know that politicians are supposed to be likeable. Molly Ivins said there are two criteria by which to begin evaluating a politician, or a bubba. Campaigning and governing. Governing is actually doing the work of office, and campaigning is getting people to like you.

 

 

 

Democrats are the worst at it because liberal minds are so easy to sway. Liberal minds hold beliefs, but they believe in Utopia, and dreams. We all have them. All we have to have is one person come and exploit our ideals.

 

 

 

“We promise that with a democratic congress we will bring the war to an end and get our troops home!” F You.

 

 

 

The power is not there. You gave that up in 73. Now congress just gets to play credit card when war begins. Just because you want the war over, and you are tired of seeing dead babies in Basra, and just because you hate government subsidies going to multi millionaires; don’t use your feelings to get me to like you. Tell me honestly what YOU can do in the office you are running for. Every liberal wants to change to world, and we need to stop allowing them to make us believe every liberal WILL change the world.

 

 

 

Stop begging for us to like you.

 

 

 

III.

 

 

 

Now little Shrub. I know that the world is big and scary, but if you want to run for the office of president you have to remember that a lot of people have video cameras, and other people have a thing called memory. You had no intention other than rebuilding the nation of Iraq into your idea of a democracy and global competitor. However you said that we are not nation builders.

 

 

 

You claimed to be a leader. It took you a handful of minutes to MOVE, physically stand up and move towards where you were needed as a leader, after hearing our nation was under attack that Tuesday.

 

 

 

I know you don’t fully understand meteorology, and neither do I, but a big circle in the gulf with flashing red lights and a pretty lady saying ‘hurricane’ means something. It was possible to get on the ground during before and after the storm. How do I know, there were people on the ground? I saw news coverage before, during, and after the storm. A handful of days is too slow.

 

 

 

News people are tough enough to put their boots on the ground in New Orleans, but the National Government has no people brave enough to be there? I don’t believe that! I know a few marines! They would have been there if their LEADER told them to be there. You are not a leader. Do not claim to be.

 

 

 

IV.

 

 

 

Lies, pandering, and sparing us…

 

 

 

My leaders.

A guy in Iran came over to the US and did an interview with CNN. He said he was sorry for the 1979 thing. He said he neither endorsed nor encouraged US flag burning. He said Iran could be democratic and Islamic. And he said he viewed the US as a model for democracy.

 

A guy in America said a friendly Iran would provide balance in the region. This guy went to the big speaking engagements the guy in Iran gave. He said Iran may be justified for feeling anger.

Then a woman here in the US said: she regretted 1953 and the support we gave Saddam. She lifted sanctions on carpets and pistachios.

 

It was Khatami, Clinton, and Albright respectively.

 

They were willing to work together, but the pressure from both populations came to be too much. Both populations at this time now are full of young people who want to see change, but there are more old people who harbour old anger. The old people bested the young people and we now hate each other. (The two nations, not old and young people.)

 

An ultra conservative replaced Khatami.

 

An ultra conservative replaced Clinton.

 

Now we are about to war. Is it worth it old people? Is being right about another nation you know next to nothing about worth a war? Are you going to pawn this debt off on us as well old people? We are about to take over this nation and you want to give us debt up to our eyes, and a world who hates us?

 

YOU BETTER BE READY!!! We are better than we have ever been before. Understand that when you pass the reigns to us we will halt your course and change it drastically. We will write of the xenophobia and blatant racism and religious persecution ya’ll have felt comfortable with very disdainfully.

 

George W. Bush. I respect you as a man, but my generation will not allow you to go unquestioned. You slid in before we had a chance to fight, but we are here now. You are this generations Richard M. Nixon.

 

Like it or not, our generation will be the first to befriend nations you and our predecessors have hated since William Knox D’Arcy.

 

We are informed, motivated, and have nothing else left to lose; ya’ll made sure of that.       

Conservative philosophy: Police Actions

 

Police actions are meant to stunt the effect of inhumane acts occurring throughout the world. The argument is that we are the strongest nation and we have a burden to bear. We must be the ones to do it, because who else can?

 

The other argument is basically isolationism where nations are sovereign and we have no right to meddle.

 

I am a liberal, but I take the conservative side here. I believe it IS our job. I just bet that the Jews on the St. Louis wish more people felt like this in 1939.

 

President Bush lied to us in his campaign. He said that we were not nation builders. This is a platform lie. Conservatives are not nation builders. This was good for votes, but he lied.

 

Iraq is not about oil, Democracy, or Global Capitalism. Iraq is a longtime program that presidents for many administrations have had to weigh. President Bush decided to be the “Decider” and finish what has been a program of ours for about 30 years. Even President Clinton furthered this program. Iraq, we have come.

 

We now are building a democracy. How much does our cost us? And we want them to do it with no water or power? No, we are gonna pay for this, lock stock and barrel. We provide welfare, and medicare, and other services for them that we do not even provide here. This is Bull Stuffy! I do not want my nation to shoot someone and then fix them. We are not nation builders.

 

Darfur. This screams for police action. I was watching the Senate run this one over. The Democrats are saying they want to do something, but we have no power to now. Our military is taxed, overburdened, and can not begin another front successfully. Darfur would take about… ohhh. I don’t know, maybe in the verbiage of a true conservative, “A Hundred Hours.”

 

Darfur is calling for our help. Iraq is no threat. If they get nukes Israel has proven effective at stopping nations before. They stopped Iraq, and they just stopped Syria. Besides what were they gonna do? Fed Ex the bomb over here? N. Korea can hardly work out a delivery system, Iraq damn sure can’t under sanctions.

 

Darfur is conservative. Iraq is Neoconservative.    

The problem with science and religion is that the two don’t know they are saying the same thing in different languages. There are tons of these stories, but I’m gonna go with numero uno.

 

In the creation story, believe it or not, science and religion jive. It is real simple. The people who wrote the Old Testament are ancient Jews. More properly, Hebrews. They got a language. It is called Hebrew. Now I used to work in a Jewish Deli here in Houston. It never ceased to amaze me. To old Jewish women when coffee is lukewarm they can make it seem like ice crystals are forming at the top.

 

Asking some of them how their day was going often times lead to a story of their childhood and parents. If it was drizzling that day, they would relate that it was pouring cats and dogs. It is a charming feature many people have retained from a language that is poetic in its form.

 

In captivity the Hebrews thought they were going to be wiped out. They wanted to leave a record of them. They remembered all the old stories that had been orally transmitted with quite a bit of idiom and literary license utilized. Their work was metaphoric, but they understood what was happening in the world. They just hadn’t amassed enough data to relate it scientifically so they told a story.

 

First there was darkness than there was light:

 

 

3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

(Genesis ch. 1)

 

Well if you have outer space… It is dark.

A “big bang” is very bright…

 

6: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7: And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8: And God called the firmament Heaven.

(Genesis ch. 1)

 

This is the atmosphere, now the molten rock that this planet was can cool, and the waters can freeze into ice at the caps and the lands seem to emerge from the depths of the ocean. Pangaea. So far bible and science line up. Next:

 

9: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so

(Genesis ch. 1)

 

Then plants come to the land. Scientists, are we still doing ok?

 

20: And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

(Genesis ch. 1)

 

Life in the water, then life in the air. Remeber in ancient Hebrew "Heavens" means everything above your head. That is why the Holy Spirit is symbolized as a dove. Because they can fly from "Heaven" to earth.

 

24: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25: And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

(Genesis ch.1)

 

This is generational development. Even Darwin would agree that animals that can breed fertile offspring constitute a species.

 

Now this is where it gets tricky. Now we are in the second chapter and motive is needed.

 

9: …the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

(Genesis ch. 2)

 

Now the tree of life represents knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge is primarily found in the frontal lobe of the human brain. Phineas Gage is our case study here. When that pike flew through his head it went directly through his frontal lobe. After the accident he functioned fine. His other lobes had not been damaged, but his frontal damage made him an a$$ h*!e. He was inconsiderate and brutish. Less than human emotions. He had them before, now they are gone.

 

By science, the defining characteristic of anatomically modern homo sapiens is the frontal lobe. Our anatomic and symbolic, tree of knowledge.

 

17: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

(Genesis ch. 2)

 

Death is defined as separation from God in the Bible. Plants and animals in the Bible routinely “cease to bear fruit.” “Are offered as sacrifice,” but death is a distinctly human trait. The newer translations fuddle this some, but not too bad.

 

The Biblical creation story also thinks the Garden of Eden is in Ethiopia.

 

Scientists traced Y chromosomes, and Mitochondrial DNA and guess where they think original man and woman come from?

What constitutes victory? In his speech after the towers were hit, GWB said that the terrorists could not run or hide. He said we will destroy them all and those who shelter them. He said we would be able to end the threat they posed.

After Afghanistan was hit, Bin Laden came out and said he would mess up our way of life. He would show us how wrong we have been.

Where there used to be two main madrassas in SE Pakistan, there are now four. In 2001 there was no Al Qaeda presence in Iraq, now they have as many Islamist recruiters on their streets as we have armed forces recruiters on ours.

The Patriot act has changed policies in this nation that have taken 230 years to create. Habeas Corpus is suspended, which is constitutional, but Thomas Jefferson wrote a piece showing how the odds of that ever paying off were highly unlikely and historically speaking how it never has paid off.

Though not in our constitution there is a common idea in this nation about the right to privacy. Wire taps and legalized spying have changed that value.

We don’t trust our neighbors anymore, we are building barriers on our borders… Come on ya’ll this nation prides itself on breaking down walls, not building them. We were happy to see Berlin’s fall, we were not happy to see it built.

We have failed our commitments in Geneva. I thought that a mans handshake here was as good as his signature. We did both in 1949, but as soon as that was no longer convenient we acted as if we misunderstood the terms of the contract.

If our goal was to end their existence, and we have only increased their numbers, and their goal was to mess with our way of life, then seriously, who won?

Ok right and wrong doesn't matter right now. I am not supporting the war, and I am not opposing the war. I am not a liberal, I am not a Conservative. I am a republican, and I am a Democrat. I support gay rights cause gay people want them, and I support no gay right cause moral people don't want them. I am everything, I am nothing, I speak as an american first last and only.

Strictly from a cost benefit analysis I want to view this war.

The simple truth is that the weapons we found were not what we were asserting at all. As an analogy it would be like a police officer getting a warrant to search a house for a weapons stockpile and finding a single .22 revolver. al Qaeda never had bases until we created a situation in which they could thrive. As long as these gangs of thugs have shadows and instability they will be ok, but before life in Iraq wasn't this bad. What got you in trouble was talking bad about Saddam. And yes sometimes it would look like a scene from 1984, but it was not this bad.

Yes the Kurds were gettting shat on, but what about Darfur? What about China.

I think the taxpayers could have gotten more utility from their tax dollars by doing things here. The emotion we felt after the attacks was justified and worth responding to. But that fight is in Afghanistan. We got swept up in the moment and attacked a country that we have had issues with for a long time. I don't think it was the right time. Maybe we could have gotten Iraq in a few years, or maybe we should have gotten them before, but now those options are off the table.

Shock and awe disabled the electricity and water, which I believe we all can agree are very necessary for sanitation. We simply have not turned them back on. That is reprehensible for a civil nation to do. I feel shame that we asked them to believe in our mission, we asked them to rise and fight with us, we asked them to turn over terrorists, but we denied them an election when they asked for it (2003), and we deny them still basic neccessities. We could easily get them back on line. This is AMERICA! We can do at least that for them.

Now the people there suffer, and some fight. And it costs us alot. Personally I say FORGET IRAQ! Lets give some money to lenders to help their business out, lets try to help some homeowners get back home.

Lets work on cancer research and new technology. Lets solve issues about poverty by giving grants to universities to study the problem. Lets cut back unneccessary programs and use the money to help ourselves. We earned it. We paid taxes. Why are WE as taxpayers paying to destroy and rebuild a nation for people who do not want us there. If they did want us there they would not kill us. And if those in power wanted us there, they would not ignore our benchmarks and disrespect our requests.

This war will end up costing alot. The exact number I don't care about, I think the term ALOT, should suffice.

It cost us money.

It cost our morals.

Whatever you agree with, we made conventions saying when we fight wars we are good enough that we don't need to cheat. We signed that. And even that is not the issue. Take up all the legal arguments you want. But we agreed as a man would agree, not to do things like this (Geneva Conventions). If nothing else we broke our word. You should not lawyer the hell our of your word. A combatant is a combatant. POW thats what they are. We all know we are in a war. That is a duhh. We call it the Iraq war, not the Iraq situation or anything else. We backed down from our word.

It cost our constitution.

The expansion of executive power is the most unconservative thing I have heard in a long time. Putting more power into the office of ONE man, at the federal, not the state level is antithetic to the ideas. We have implied that war power are the executives when strictly speaking this is wrong. That power goes to congress. That is constitution 101. Unless you consider even the few thousand people here illegally an invasion, we have no right to suspend habeas corpus. Only in rebellion or invasion. I think the term is insurrection.

This is too much to bear. I am PROUD to be an American because we are BETTER than most of the rest. Our ideas of liberty are far superior to anyone's tyranny. Our belief that our systems are strong enough as are, to deal with some crazy whacked out Muslims should prevail. Unless we have no faith in our justice system we should let them speak. If they are a terrorist we should kill them. But they should have to stand before our courts and AMERICAN CITIZENS ie. a jury, and tell me why they want to destroy my country. That is a big part of the legal system. It is not just about the prosecutor and defendant. It is about open trials where people answer for the things they cause here. I want those in GITMO to answer to me. And as long as they keep them behind a curtain where I can't see them, they are denying my AMERICAN RIGHT to see justice being adminstered to those who need a little american law in their world.

On this show on CSPAN in the morning a woman sits at a desk. She has a phone on her desk. A chair is to the left of her desk.

 

Her phone rings from one of three lines. One line is for Democrats, one for Republicans, and one for Independents. She devotes equal time to all three. She does not respond directly to the caller, mostly. She lets them make their point. However long it takes, she gives them. But she lets them make one point. She then thanks them, recaps the question, and asks for the ramifications.

 

Politicians regularly come on this show. Not the famous one. DeLay won’t go, Craig won’t go. Cheney won’t go. Spitzer won’t go. The ones she brings on are people who are on committees such as the Armed Forces, Judiciary, Agriculture, etc. They work in Washington everyday.

 

The politician sits in the chair to the left of the desk. He says hi to the host. The host then begins taking calls. Dumb, drunk, cowboys call in and rant about immigration. The host and Politician listen. As soon as he begins to repeat points, or ramble, he is told thank you and hung up on. Not once have I heard a caller exclaim they have something else to say. They get their time.

 

Then some bleeding heart screams about how Bush is the gravitational center of evil in the universe. As soon as they begin to ramble or repeat points the call is politely ended.

 

The politician must then answer. The politician is given his time. The politician fields questions by Republicans. The politician says thing that no one even knew politicians could say. I never knew they could say sentences longer than talking points. From what I understand about politicians from O’Reily, Stewart, Colbert, and whichever one the conservative of Hannity and Colmes is, politicians only say 1) Stupid things. 2) Mean things. 3) Inflammatory things. That is all those shows ever show.

 

People say it is boring. Why? Because they don’t use CGI? Because there are not ten flags waving all over the screen? Because this station believes we are a little older than color coded threat levels? Why is this boring?

 

As a Poli Sci student I have to wonder what we are in store for when our future analysts, politicians, and lobbyists enjoy pretty graphics more than information. 

Over the past week an argument that has been argued for more than half a century has done the inevitable. It has gotten longer. And yet to this day no more substance is in it than when our grandparents argued this malarkey. In essence we continue to do what we did as a child. Point fingers.

We argue back and forth about who started it. It is useless. Our parents taught us to accept when we do something wrong. Funny thing is that all I see happen as we get older is we find ways to circumvent the rules we will someday teach our children. Whatever happened to two wrongs don’t make a right?

Listen, this is the first time in history that we can see the whole world wide over. Our parents only heard about Israel in Church. Odds are they never knew a Palestinian. Today we do; especially here on this campus (University of Houston). We can see both sides in living color. And what are we going to do with our new found treasure trove of experience? Walk in with preconceived notions and point them out in front of everyone.

Right, we argue it in class while we look at our professor, not our opponent. But outside of class we all get along fine. The religion center really is a great place. Why are we going to continue our parents’ argument? The way I see it they are both enemies. That is agreeable no? They are in a war, or at least, a continuation of hostilities with intermittent period of relative calm, no? In war the worst in people comes out. They both do evil things. When a kid in Tel- Aviv dies from some whack job who thinks Allah EVER sanctions suicide; a kid in Tel- Aviv dies. When the IDF tanks destroy a building and a kid in Gaza dies; a kid in Gaza dies, ok! There is no right in that. EVER! And I don’t care who started it. Who is going to stop it?

This generation has a chance to do things no generation ever has before. Forget right or wrong, had we put as much money into R&D for cancer, and AIDS, with the minds we have today, and the availability of information, as we have put into the war, we would have cured both of them. That is real! If you take all the scientific advances our grandparents saw in their lifetime, and squashed it into ten years, I doubt that would be able to hold a candle to the last ten years we just saw.

Are we seriously going to sit at the footstep of this chance for real world change and continue the fights of our elders? Everyday, we, sounding more and more immature?

It is time for Christians to fight back. It is beyond belief what politics and arrogance have been able to do to our religion; the church scandals, the controversial friends. How do we allow this? How is it that a handful of church leaders like Falwell and Robertson managed to overshadow the efforts that good grassroots churches are doing in their communities everyday?  Why have we allowed these extremists to create an image that Christians love America more than we love God?

 

True there is an element in our community that speaks optimistically about governmental murder plots, and yes there are those who think that a clash of cultures is inevitable BECAUSE of religion.

 

How have we managed to let ourselves descend to the depths of allowing our government to speak for us? Remember the Pharisees? That is the blend of politics and religion.

 

Christianity is a belief that begins in your soul and emanates from your very pores casting a glow that should be evident for all to see. We are not supposed to involve ourselves with politics. Jesus refused to march on Rome. What he did was to concern himself with feeding the hungry, comforting the impoverished, and loving Jew, Gentile, saint, and sinner. He drew people because condemnation was not in him. He asked for nothing and was want for nothing.

 

Christians, we need to leave philosophy to philosophers, judgment to God, and we need to reassert our role as community centers and safe sane asylums.

 

The term Evangelical is not a pejorative, but we are not being that right now either. We have shifted our eyes from communities and neighbors, and aimed our sights on politics and prestige. These are not the goals of Jesus, neither should they be ours.

 

In America, right now as I type, we have two year old girls showing signs of puberty; byproducts of decomposing plastics. A man is pregnant. Divorce is skyrocketing; especially among Christians. Like it or not the evils are here. These are exactly the issues we should be taking on right now. Passing judgment takes one minute. Working to better our communities is a lifetime of work. Does God love one minute of condemnation from us more than a lifetime of work? It is not our job to be politically intolerant of these people who define their lives differently.

 

In the Bible it says to give Caesar what is due him. Never does it say to bow before him and become his tool. The idea of separation of Church and state is as much about protecting the state from the Church, as it is protecting the holiness of the Church from the secular state.