What Freedom Means to Me...

I recently read a news story that really upset me. Two girls at a California community college were with their teacher, in her office, praying for her because she's sick. The girls are suing because the school is now threatening to suspend them. The school actually said that "faculty offices were 'places for teaching and learning and working' not 'protests, demonstrations, prayer' or other disruptive activities." Personally, I had no idea that praying for a sick teacher could be considered disruptive.

The first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which I believe is the single most important part of the Bill of Rights, says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." So, let's put a few things to the test. I will list some examples, and you ask yourself, "In any of these instances, is Congress making a law? Or is Congress prohibiting the free exercise of religion?

• Two girls pray for their sick teacher in her office.
• A Christian student opens his graduation speech with a prayer.
• The local post office displays a nativity scene at Christmas time.
• A group of high school athletes pray together before a football game.
• A judge displays the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.

Now, in any of these cases, has Congress made a law of any kind? Specifically, has Congress made a law forcing people to adhere to a certain church or religious group? In fact, has Congress done anything at all? Has anyone made a law of any kind? Has any person been forced to join a particular church? Nope. However, in each of these cases, people are prohibited from freely expressing their religious beliefs. It happens every single day.

Liberals and atheists like to throw around the phrase "separation of church and state," but actually, it is found nowhere in the Constitution. It was in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists, and it is frequently taken out of context (basically, the church group wanted him to get involved in a dispute, and he said it was none of his business). Now, what did Jefferson really think about God's role in American government?

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson

See that? Jefferson basically said that it is essential for us to remember that God is the source of our rights and our liberty. He said that our freedoms can no longer be thought secure if we remove God as their only firm basis. By the way, Jefferson was also the one who wrote the Declaration of Independence, which says that we are all endowed BY OUR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights. It's pretty straightforward, really.

We need to start remembering the real meaning behind those words written in the Declaration of Independence: that God gave us freedom and liberty and life forever and ever. I may rant and rave a lot about our government and other terrible things I see every day in the news, but I pray that we all would remember that real freedom doesn't come from the government or an old piece of parchment. One of my favorite bands, Five Iron Frenzy, said it best. Their song "Anthem" ends with the phrase, "Jesus Christ, the only thing that freedom means to me."

Jesus Christ is the ONLY true Messiah

We are a world crying out for a savior, but collectively, we have placed our faith in the wrong place. We are fools. We are lemmings. We are die-hard members of the cult of personality. If you voted for Obama because you like his policies, great. That's your right. But if you're one of the deluded masses who sees him as the second coming of Christ, then prepare to be gravely disappointed. I don't think the following quotations need any explanation:

"I have thrown myself into a new world—one in which fluffy chatter and frivolous praise are replaced by a get-to-the-point directness and disciple-like devotion. It’s intense and intoxicating." - Samantha Fennell, associate publisher for Elle Magazine

"When [the election] happens, it will change everything. You'll have to measure time by 'Before Obama' and 'After Obama.'" - Spike Lee, film director

"Lord, we have again come to you in prayer, and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from the state called Illinois, a man called Barack to heal our land." - prayer by Larry Younginer in an Atlanta church

"No one saw him coming, and Christians believe God comes at us from strange angles and places we don't expect, like Jesus being born in a manger." - Lawrence Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel

"To God be the glory, great things he has done. Obama, thy kingdom come, thy will be done." - poster at Obama's campaign headquarters in Lake City, FL

"This is bigger than Kennedy. Obama comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the new testament." - MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews

"No wonder we so desperately need of this shot of ethical morphine. No wonder we invest in this messianic figure. Confronted with evidence of the mass horror we permit, we better find a way back to self love. Cue, Barak Obama, our saving grace." - Sarah Gillespie, singer-songwriter

"Now, the greatest of all political acts in the world is the election of Senator Barack Obama from Illinois as President of the United States of America...Barack Obama is not only president of U.S.A., but president of mankind." - from the article "The Messiah Has Come As Barrack Obama" by Morikeh Fofana

"Barack Obama is our collective representation of our purest hopes, our highest visions and our deepest knowings of who we are as a people, and as a country." - Eve Konstantine, Huffington Post

"He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. The other great leaders I've heard guide us towards a better politics, but Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves." - from the article "Obama's Gift" by Ezra Klein

"When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking." - Louis Farrakhan on Obama

Attack of the Antitheists

I read a disturbing article on CNN.com today. I don't want to put a damper on anyone's holiday season, but I think we should all see the direction our world is headed. Here are some quotes:

An atheist sign criticizing Christianity that was erected alongside a Nativity scene was taken from the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, on Friday and later found in a ditch.

The sign, which celebrates the winter solstice, has had some residents and Christian organizations calling atheists Scrooges because they said it was attacking the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth. "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds," the sign from the Freedom From Religion Foundation says in part.

Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher and co-founder of the group, said it was important for atheists to see their viewpoints validated alongside everyone else's. Barker said the display is especially important given that 25 percent of Washington state residents are unaffiliated with religion or do not believe in God. (A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 23 percent of Washingtonians said they were unaffiliated with a religion and 7 percent said they didn't believe in God.)

"It's not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest," Barker said. "If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views."

He said if anything, it's the Nativity scene that is the intrusion. "Most people think December is for Christians and view our signs as an intrusion, when actually it's the other way around," he said. "People have been celebrating the winter solstice long before Christmas. We see Christianity as the intruder, trying to steal the holiday from all of us humans."

The atheist message was never intended to attack anyone, Barker said. "When people ask us, 'Why are you hateful? Why are you putting up something critical of people's holidays? -- we respond that we kind of feel that the Christian message is the hate message," he said. "On that Nativity scene, there is this threat of internal violence if we don't submit to that master. Hate speech goes both ways."

Now let's be clear. The people in this story are not atheists. They are antitheists. And there is a big difference.

An atheist simply does not believe in God. Atheism is passive, and it is not really a belief system in and of itself. Rather, it is merely the rejection of theism. However, antitheism is active. An antitheist is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "one opposed to belief in the existence of a God." These people are specifically and purposefully attempting to defeat Christianity and all other forms of theism.

During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was a self-proclaimed militant antitheist. He defined this as "carrying on untiring atheist propaganda and an untiring atheist fight." Likewise, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is an organization based in Wisconsin, which strives to promote the complete separation of church and state, the removal of religion from public life, and to educate the public on matters relating to atheism, agnosticism, and nontheism.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has succeeded in removing Ten Commandments monuments and crosses from public land, overturning a state Good Friday holiday, and making it illegal to present any religious beliefs as viable or true in public schools. They have also attempted (unsuccessfully) to remove "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency and to remove the phrase "So help me, God" from the oath portion of tax forms. They are currently attempting to put an end to the National Day of Prayer.

Unfortunately, this is where our nation is headed. I believe that within the next 50 years or so, Christianity will become an underground faith. We will no longer be allowed to express our faith in any kind of public forum. We will no longer be allowed to evangelize, because even implying that someone else’s religious beliefs are wrong would be considered hate-speech. The Bible will be banned as offensive literature, since it speaks of sin and damnation. Let's all remember that we are living in a world at war. This war has been raging since Satan fell from Heaven, and right now, we're in the Battle of the Bulge. So this Christmas season, let's make it extra clear to all those around us what it is that we are really celebrating.

Is Allah the same as YHVH?

Many Muslims like to claim that Allah is the same as YHVH, the God of the Bible. Now, let me be clear. I think that if you walked up to any Muslim today and asked him or her this question, they would say that Allah and YHVH are one in the same. In fact, Mohammad even said they were. But are they?

Mohammad was born in Mecca, a large trading center. Larger towns like Mecca often had Kaabas - cube-like structures that would attract pilgrims during holy months. The Kaaba at Mecca housed various idols, including the black meteorite that remains to this day. In addition to the black rock, Mohammad’s Quraish tribe worshiped a moon god called Allah. Other gods were recognized as well, and the town of Mecca was renowned for religious tolerance, where people of all faiths could come and pray at the Kaaba.

So this in an interesting fact. The name "Allah" (which can be translated as "the God") was used to describe the pre-Islamic pagan moon god, this highest god in their pantheon. This god had other names as well. The star and crescent, which is the symbol of Islam, can be traced back to this pagan worship of the sun, moon, and stars. If you check it out on Wikipedia, the article states that "most sources agree that these ancient celestial symbols were in use by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberian Turks in their worship of sun, moon, and sky gods."

It would seem that Mohammad basically took the deity and traditions of his own Quraish tribe and merged these ideas with Jewish and Christian monotheistic views.

This idea can be cemented when we look at the "Satanic Verses" incident. At one point while in Mecca, Mohammad agreed to recognize the local gods in addition to Allah. This pleased the Meccans; however, Mohammad soon changed his mind after seeing his own people begin to lose faith in him. He claimed that Satan had spoken through him, and he rescinded recognition of the Meccan gods. Who were these Meccan deities? Well, they were Allat, al-'Uzza, and Manat. In Pre-Islamic paganism, these three goddesses were known as the daughters of Allah, the moon god.

Mohammad also utilized pagan rituals in Islam, such as the pilgrimage to Mecca. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "pilgrimage had been performed to certain temples of the moon gods, with rituals similar in many details to those of the pre-Islamic and Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca." The various acts involved in the pilgrimage ("the Hajj") such as running around the Kaaba seven times, kissing the black stone, running up and down two hills, throwing stones at the devil, etc. are all pagan in origin. Additionally, Muslims are commanded to pray toward Mecca five times per day. This practice is derived from the fact that pre-Islamic pagans prayed five times a day towards their local temples.

More important than the pagan origin of Allah is the character of Allah. According to Islam, Allah is remote and completely beyond comprehension. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that "the Judeo-Christian precept to 'love God with all thy heart' is nowhere formulated in Islam. The emphasis is rather on God's inscrutable sovereignty, to which one must abandon oneself." So we can see that the Judeo-Christian belief that God is ultimately loving and has a personal relationship with man contrasts sharply with Islamic teaching.

I don't advocate walking up to Muslims and telling them that they actually worship a pagan moon god. They'd probably think you were a bit looney. However, we should be accurate and know the truth about this kind of thing. I had a professor in college who told our entire class that Allah and YHVH were the same god. If we don't know the truth, we can be very easily deceived.

"The Freedom of Choice Act"

The Freedom of Choice Act is a bill that is in Congress right now, and if it is enacted, the bill would abolish all restrictions and limitations on abortion in the United States. It would invalidate all parental notification laws, waiting periods, requirements of full disclosure of the physical and emotional risks in abortion, or restrictions on late-term abortion techniques (i.e. partial birth abortions). It would force the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which restricts the use of public funding for abortions. It would also invalidate the ability of religiously-based hospitals to refuse to perform abortions based on the violation of their consciences.

Barack Obama has become a co-sponsor of the Senate version of this Bill, and in a speech before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, he said, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do."

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not just about the election. Yes, knowing that signing this bill is first on Obama's agenda makes me sick, but this bill does not live and die with him. I encourage anyone reading this post to write to your congressmen and senators and express your outrage about this horrible piece of legislation.

Socialism Is Immoral

"Thou shalt not steal." It's the eighth commandment. Parents teach this simple rule to their children when they are very young. However, it seems like our government has a hard time remembering it.

You see, the idea of the welfare state is basically immoral. Without question, it is wrong for any person (or government) to take money from a man who has worked for it and give that money to someone who hasn't. Thou shalt not steal. In a free market economy, monetary transactions are voluntary. Individuals choose what to buy, what to invest in, and who to give their money to. However, in a welfare state, transactions are coercive. The government forces you to give money to people who have not earned it, and if you don't do it, you're in big trouble.

Liberals support this as a form of social engineering. In this way, they wish to create a true class-free system, in which there are no "rich people" or "poor people" but just people. While it is admirable to help the poor, the welfare state creates a class system itself. Instead of rich vs. poor, people are divided into "tax payers" and "tax consumers." The tax payers are punished in order to reward the consumers.

All men should be individually rewarded for their own work, and individually punished for their own sloth. Similarly, mankind is judged individually by God. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul said, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."

A man reaps what he sows. You get what you work for. Yeah, that sounds like capitalism to me.

Yes, our God is loving and merciful. However, He is also just. Although the Bible commands us to give of ourselves and help the poor and less fortunate, this is meant to be an individual choice. We are meant to give freely to the poor out of love, not out of forced government coercion.

"A socialist policy is abhorrent to the British ideas of freedom. Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state. It will prescribe for every one where they are to work, what they are to work at, where they may go and what they may say. Socialism is an attack on the right to breathe freely." - Winston Churchill

Was Jesus a "Community Organizer"?

At the Republican National Convention, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin mocked Barak Obama for claiming that he has the experience needed to be president because he was once a "community organizer." Well, that got the Democrats all ticked off, and a bunch of them started saying, "Jesus was a community organizer, Pilate was a governor!" just to take a stab back at Governor Palin.

Okay, there are several things wrong with this idiotic statement. Firstly, three of our past four presidents were (gasp!) former governors. George W. Bush was Governor of Texas, Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, and Ronald Reagan was Governor of California (by the way, all three of them served two terms). So, making fun of governors by comparing them to Pontias Pilate is pretty stupid.

Secondly, the liberals are always the ones who never want conservatives to mention Jesus. They spent eight years mocking President Bush for talking about his faith. And yet here they are, invoking the name of Jesus Christ (a name they usually want banned from the public forum) to support their own agenda. How very hypocritical.

Lastly, Jesus was NOT a community organizer. What did he organize? Did he organize pep rallies or bake sales? Did he organize protests or groups to lobby the government? Did he organize a rebellion against the Romans? No, he didn't do any of those things (although the Jews wanted him to). Jesus acted on his own, and people followed him. He taught on his own. He healed people on his own. And the last time I checked, there was no community group hanging next to him on the Cross. Jesus led by example, and those who followed him did so because Jesus knew what it meant to bring real hope to mankind.