Liberty and Tyranny

“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name—liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different an incompatible names—liberty and tyranny.” Abraham Lincoln 1864.

So…we see that two persons, both looking at the same phenomenon, may see it entirely differently—depending upon the perspective each brings to the situation. As for me, however, I accept the first definition given by President Lincoln. I believe that liberty is the freedom to do whatever one wishes with one’s self and one’s produce—so long as it does not impinge upon the freedom of others, of course.

Is the President Keeping His Promises? NO!

Americans cannot trust President Obama to keep his promises. For instance, he promised more government transparency in making legislation when he promised that any negotiations on health care would be broadcast on C-SPAN, “so the American people can see what the choices are,” and not conducted behind closed doors. “Such public negotiations,” he said, were “the antidote “to “overcoming the special interests and the lobbyists who…will resist anything that we try to do.” He made this promise eight different times, indicating that this was not an idle whim. He had thought this promise through in a thoroughgoing way. But what do we see now? Closed session legislative planning that excludes his political opposition and hides the issues from the American public. We see no formal legislative conference between the House and the Senate on this issue.

His style is clearly seen to be backroom legislative drafting to keep the negotiating away from the American people. Where is the “transparency” he promised our people?

Sex Infections Still Spreading in the U.S.

The United States is among western countries with the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, says John Douglas, director of the division of STD’s at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are three highly treatable infections that show continued spread in the U.S. Gonorrhea is stable at unacceptably high levels while Chlamydia is on the increase. Syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated.

Objective findings:
 1.2 million cases of Chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007
 Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.
 Adolescent girls 15 to 19 had the most Chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.
 Blacks, who represent 12% of the U.S. population, accounted for 71% of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all Chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.
 Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of Chlamydia and gonorrhea.
 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18% increase from 2007.
 63 % of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.
 Syphilis rates among women increased 36% from 2007 to 2008.

Overall, the CDC estimates that 19 million new STD’s are transmitted each year, almost half among 15-24 year-olds.

The only effective answer to this epidemic is abstinence from sex outside of a bona fide marriage to a monogamous partner. Condoms partially prevent STD spread.

Obama—Timid on Foreign Policy

President Obama’s policies have been made crystal clear in the past year, i.e., intrusive regulatory government at home and retrenchment abroad. He does not seem to realize that we have many powerful enemies “out there” in the foreign world, enemies with whom we could deal effectively to the benefit of the whole free world.

He has withdrawn from our task of protecting our allies, e.g., Poland and the Czech Republic when he withdrew the missile shield from Eastern Europe. He was forever dragging his feet when it came to sending adequate troops to Afghanistan to get the job done there. He has failed to even rhetorically support the democrats in Iran who badly need his endorsement to throw off a tyrannical regime. He even continues to court the cooperation of the Ahmadinijad government in thinking seriously of sending a John Kerry delegation to that country to continue the useless talks with the present government of Iran, begging them to give up their nuclear ambitions. He has tried to get the Israelis to attempt another useless gesture to trade land for peace with the Palestinians on the west bank of the Jordan River when he asked the Israelis to quit building villages there.

In all this, he has stepped away from the policies of protecting America, which were clearly supported by other Democrat presidents in the past, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy.

Under Mr. Obama, we have pulled back from the foreign world. We are weaker for accepting the false choice between burdens at home and burdens abroad; and the world beyond our shores is more hazardous and cynical for our retrenchment and preoccupation with health care at home and other domestic problems.

Let’s try to get our government back from the liberal “blame America first” crowd in the 2010 elections.
This post was partly excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 12/31/09 page A13.

The Threat of Postmodernism

Academics and other astute observers seem to agree--the modern era of society has ended. A new era of thought has emerged, i.e., postmodernism. This new thought dominator says that there is no such thing as truth, meaning (even in written literature), and individual identity. These are social constructs. Human life has no special significance, no more value than animal or plant life. All social relationships, all institutions, all moral values are expressions and masks of the primal will to power. Convulsed over "political correctness" and "diversity," universities no longer operate under the modernist assumption that one, objective, rational, truth, exists.

The old system, carried to its natural extreme, i.e., the society of the USSR, has collapsed. Their system based on materialism, atheism, and social engineering did not work to the advantage of people. Traditional American ideals of free market economics and individual freedom are sweeping the globe.

However, society is segmenting into antagonistic camps. Tribalism, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and culture wars are tearing the globe apart.

Despite all the fracturing of society we see before us, we should still remember that in every age, orthodox Christians have had a presence; and this new age will always have us around reminding the world that Christ and the Bible still exist to point the way to truth, unity of belief and causation, redemption from our sin and error, and eternal significance for the individual. We, Christians, must use these days to effectively express our understanding of Christ and His ways--He is the only way to help and life!

What's Beyond Charity?

Have you ever wondered what you can do to alleviate the poverty, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and disenfranchisement problems in the inner cities of America? Dr. John Perkins has outlined three things that need to be done:

One: RELOCATION. Christian people need to relocate their residences into the ghetto of the inner-city (or, at least, as near the problem as they can tolerate). Only by doing that can the values of Christian society be transmitted to our deteriorating neighborhoods.

Two: REDISTRIBUTION. This does not mean redistributing money. Redistribution means redistributing skills, values, and ethics. Our inner cities need people who value faithfulness in marriage; trustworthiness in business; commitment to stable marriages and healthy, productive, children; a sense of value in life issues, i.e., avoiding abortion and euthanasia; valuing stable, heterosexual marriages; bringing helpful professional skills; and, above all, a commitment to Christ, the Savior.

Three: RECONCILLIATION. A Christian witness, well communicated by words and deeds, is absolutely required to bring real peace and productivity to the inner city.

Is all the above what Barack and Michelle Obama are talking about when they talk of “community organization?” Absolutely not! They are talking about the Saul Alinsky type of godless pragmatism which will accomplish any desired goal at the cost of ethical rightness. There is no hint of Christian charity in that kind of “community organization.”

Some of the ideas in the above post come from the thinking of John Perkins, the author of Beyond Charity. I would strongly recommend that you read that easy and informative book.

What’s Wrong With Our Government, Today?

The economic policies being proposed these days are very bad. But the principles behind them are worse. They represent a return to the idea that the American Revolution repudiated—the idea that some are equipped by nature or training to manage the lives of others without their consent. The underlying principles of our new laws, today, are based on the idea that government bureaucrats and czars are better suited to govern us than we are, ourselves. The idea of equality under the law is apparently gone from government! Our political leaders today have been taught to look on us common people as material to be shaped and perfected by experts who have the proper technical training.

Our government leaders have been conditioned to deny the existence of absolute truth. The “good” has become subjective and the only standard of behavior is what we want—“we” in the political sense, meaning the government or bureaucracy. This thinking reduces politics not to right, but to force. That is why there is a seeming bullying spirit about our government today.

Christian people believe that there is a higher rule, a higher loyalty than that of the bullying bureaurocrat. We believe that God rules by His sovereignty and His love. We are far, far, from that concept, today, however, in our government.

If you doubt what I say, you should read what Barack Obama, himself has written in his book, The Audacity of Hope: “Implicit in [the Constitution’s] structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology or theology or “ism,” any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single, unalterable course....” From this, we can plainly see that according to our leader in the White House, today, that the idea of “laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” as stated in the Declaration of Independence, are reduced to “tyrannical consistency.” Well, as for me, I prefer this kind of “tyrannical consistency” in my life, the rule of God over the rule of men.

Much of this post has been excerpted from Imprimis, December 2009.