Faith belongs in political action

"In those days Israel had no king, so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes." Judges 17:6 (NLT)

The attitude of the religious Americans is much like those of the Israelites......'while the cat's away, the mice will play' mentality of tolerance at the cost of moral authority and absolute Truth. We cannot know what God is thinking, because we interpret and decipher by our experiences and wisdom, so truly no one can know what God is..... and therefore our beliefs cannot be used in the arena of public opinion or even politics.

So many of Senator Barack Obama's supporters have brushed aside concerns that he was once a member of a church that preached Black Liberation Theology....many Americans don't know what that theology is....and was once 'taught' under Reverend Wright, a bambastic and viral preacher. They would point to the fact that Obama no longer is a member of the church, only to hide the fact that he has once never distanced himself from the BLT movement, where God is for blacks and against whites or the black race will kill him (God, that is). He has denounced the Reverend's words, but never the Reverend's teachings. The young Senator, both in terms of physical age and time in government, is very 'tolerant' of a free-for-all, universal religion....and for separation of church and state, except for his 'faith-based intentives.'

Senator McCain's camp would have you believe that faith is a personal thing, not to be dug into beyond the simple acknowledgment of having some. His running mate, Sarah Palin, would have you nominate the Republican ticket based on anything other than her moral and religious views; which she doesn't hide, because she is running for public office, not a pastoral one.

Nothing contributes more to the support of morality and 'due administration' of freedom than the support and implimentation of religion...under God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Evidenced by Israel's behavior in the Old Testament and America's behavior in the modern age, when we are without moral leadership (i.e. Kings) to keep good order and disipline among all people, God is forsaken, his appointed leadership in the community neglected, and everything declines, much like today where children are carrying guns to school, the Christian faith is distorted and weak, and the structure of society, the family, has been decimated by the sinful and medically perils of lifestyles and behaviors that historically have ruined many a nation. Magistracy (government) and ministry need each other.

Good government, ran on mercy and spiritual principles, give the governed hope; through prayers, intercession, and giving thanks to the ultimate ruler. Good administration leads to a thankful people, who will in times of outward loss and struggle, bend their knees in prayer. Bad, immoral administration leads to a hopeless people, who have nothing in times of struggle but the curses their own 'right' has brought on them.

According to a 2007 the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll, the majority of Americans (69%) feel that it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs even though the majority (63%) feel that churches should not endorse candidates. Only 28% feel that churches should state which candidate is favorable for the position of public office.

Social issues don't dominate the landscape for this election, even though a majority of Americans oppose homosexual marriages (55%) and 38% stating that such issues will affect their voting decisions. Overwhelmingly, 78% of Americans have focused on the domestic issues of the economy, health care, and the environment as their litmus test for who should be the highest and most powerful citizen in the nation.

"The question of religion and politics is not the same as the question of church and state." Kenneth Cauthen, the John Price Crozer Griffith emeritus Professor of Theology at the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester New York states in his article "Church and State, Religion and Politics." "Religious beliefs have moral and social implications, and it is appropriate for people of faith to express these through their activities as citizens in the political order."

Both candidates have the view that universal, emprical, and liberal policies of the United States Of America are what is best for this country. Each have a view of what is 'right' for this country and its former glory as a nation 'under God'.

Neither will run the government according to biblical principles and spiritual morality, their faith not having an effect on the decisions that will affect 83% of the American population that claims Christianity as their religion.

There is no longer a question of whether this country will continue its decline in morality, ethical behavior, and economy blessings.

The only question, with the nomination of the Democratic or Republican candidates, is how long will it take to reach the bottom?

If you don't stand up the rock of spiritual authority and moral 'right', nominating a candidate as you (and I) have in the past by the litmus test "which one is the 'better,'" we will continue to be responsible for the lackluster, unexperienced, and spiritually corrupt candidates that the major parties give us as 'the best of the best.'

With one candidate being compared to Christ, "a community activist", and the other party's vice-president being referenced as a governor, "like Pontius Pilate," is it any wonder we stand in the moral decay and decadence of the ungoverned?

After all, we THE PEOPLE, have accepted the choices given for years.

Vote your faith this election, not your opinion of 'who is better.'

http://pewforum.org/surveys/campaign08/

God is being made in our image.....

"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:2-5

They say that I am sometimes inflexible, to the point of separating myself from the very people that God wants to reach, because I am not one who appreciates, condones, or edifies the church doctrine of "revelevancy to the culture" type of preaching. When man decides what God is saying, rather than seeking God's wisdom that stands above and beyond man's interpretation, we find ourselves recreating God in our image. This leads to the hard questions of "Why?" and "Good and Evil; which does God do?" and "God is love, but He punishes the wicked."

In today's world, we have defined God by human characteristics and action. This so that we can feel unburdened by the sheer separation that lies between us and God, due to our own sins and the failure we face as we struggle to be the men and women that God intended and designed us to be. We figure if we can make God human, then we won't face judgment and God would give us the 'freedom' to make our own morality and ethics. This is what is preached and why churches are the size of thousands (called mega), because we all want to feel good about our relationship with God......without accountability, without fuss. The smaller, intimate churches of old are dying--- if not already dead --- because that would call into the spotlight the folly of our making of God in our image. Truth would destroy the fantasy of the Mega-God.

"God is not a man, that He should lie. He is not a human, that He should change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?" Numbers 23:19 (NLT)

God is beyond man's complete understanding and therefore is immeasurably unknowable, in our linear mindset. What He said, stands. What He did, remains in silent testimony to the will and the power of this Almighty God. His message hasn't changed in thousands of years, only the way and the amount of truth that the Church decided to deliver to a culture that doesn't want absolutes, but watered and leave alone gospels. That is why true bible-teaching, accountable churches are slowly dying in the landscape of the American consumerism culture.....if you don't preach what I want to hear, I'll leave and find some place else that does.

An up and coming church, once finding that 'elusive' formula that dances with the Truth and appeals to the masses, will refuse to hear any descension from anyone else; branding them intolerant, haughty, and demon-possessed. As one preacher told the congregation, "You bible theologists and teachers who don't agree with Henry Wright's theology (God wants us never to be sick), think that you are God's gift to the church and you can just leave."

Just because the fulfillment of this scripture is seemingly coming true, it doesn't not relinquish me from the calling to speak what I believe is truth. In all situations, circumstances, and communities.

Even the saved can stray.....