Be a Christian First, American Second.

As Americans, we often take many things for granted and when making decisions and forming opinions, we often misplace our priorities. I was speaking with a good friend of mine the other day and we were discussing different forms of democratic government ranging from republics to socialist states. He opined how he had not spent much time thinking about a social democratic type of government but his basis for forming the opinion was formed largely on the foundation of how many freedoms he had to give up.

So I went to the Bible (figuratively, I was driving, kinda hard to read while you're driving.)

I said "The Bible doesn't promise us any freedoms (politically.)"

Holy Crap what?!? You mean my freedom to do such and such isn't guaranteed by Almighty God in his inspired word? No. In this physical temporal natural world, there is no such guarantee, and our freedoms are provided only by ourselves and our government system.

This American view that we are guaranteed all these "freedoms" is something that is doing a lot of damage to what could be a great thing in this country. The political discord sown by the right through the Christian Right to the gullible masses is hindering bringing health care to the poor, something the Bible explicitly endorses. Doing it the wrong way you say? Well sure, the "right" has had all the opportunity in the world to do it "right" and has instead opposed providing anything to anyone but the rich, and especially not the the most needy, both of which the Bible explicitly condemns.

I just recently heard a pastor (not in front of church) talk about tired he was of all the "spiritual" people he knew up in arms simply because Obama is president. He was talking about these people going so far as to set up "safe houses every 20 miles" I guess so if we get universal health care they can hide from it or something.

Be followers of Jesus people. Hate your country, hate your freedom, hate your political party, hate your ideology all for the aim of following Jesus. A lot of people hate conservatives, a lot of people hate democrats, but when it comes right down to it, it's really hard to hate Jesus. Our english Bibles sometimes gloss over the fact that the word for "servant" in the New Testament is perhaps better translated as "slave" or "bond servant" which means nearly the same thing. Freedom is not our goal, freedom is not our salvation, freedom is not our reward, Jesus is. To be his "servant" is to be his "slave" and slaves have no freedom. So when Jesus gives you a government, make the best of it. Revolution is not a Christian ideal, it's Marxist, and Marx was not a Christian.

So no matter how many freedoms you think you may have to give up (not likely many or any) when we become a more (believe it or not, we already are quite a bit) socialized nation, just remember, it doesn't matter. Like my dad always said "it doesn't amount to a hill of beans." Because there are Christians in every country in the world, in communism, fascism, socialism, totalitarianism, monarchies, constitutional monarchies, Islamofascism, theocracy, democracy, republics, emirates, territories, dictatorships, and anarchies. And the last thing that really matters in the world is what Americans think because we've lost all the respect in the world we had earned, and no one gives a burning sh!t about what we think. But as Christians, some fantastic things can and will be done.

Because Jesus never bombed brown people.
WiredForStereo

Military Service

I am a person who goes to a church in the Bible Belt, most people I know are conservatives, and many I know have either been in the military, or are considering it. That being said, I am not a southerner. I don't have the accent, I don't have the big pickup truck, and I don't eat pork very much. A significant portion of our military personnel come from the south.

A little background, my father served in the US Navy back in the late sixties, early seventies. He had been promised that he would not be sent to Vietnam when he enlisted, and when to work becoming a ship's electrician. He did very well. Someone then decided to send him in the bottom of an old boat to Vietnam, or so he tells it. Like I said, he had no plans to do that, so he signed drug amnesty and got an honorable discharge. My grandfather served in the Army Air Corps in WWII. So I do have some military in my family background.

However, it's that experience (from my father) that has particularly shaped my view of the military. The recent wars have done even more.

Let me tell you under what circumstances I would carry and use a gun or other weapon. If the US was invaded by some foreign force with intent to do grievous injury or something else, the first thing I'd do is install my scope on my Ruger 10/22 and get it sighted. Then I would do my best to protect my country and my family as an honorable citizen thereof with that gun and my 12 guage. You don't know how much damage you can do with a .22 rifle and a scatter gun.

Let me also invite you into my mind. You see, we have a whole bunch of propaganda circulating when it comes to the military. We hear all these great things about our service men and women protecting our freedom and our interests overseas.

I think it is a great thing to protect our freedom. However, what our soldiers are doing overseas is not protecting our freedom, it is threatening our safety. How is it even fathomable that protecting our freedom involves blowing up brown people who have never even entered our country. What's more is all the innocent bystanders (also brown) who get blown up too. If our freedom is to be protected, it is to be on our own soil. If our people are to be protected, it is to be on our own soil. We cannot attack other countries and expect anything other than continued violence and attacks. Islam especially is a religion based on a revenge-friendly theological system. No matter what they do to you, the only way to get them off your back is to leave them alone. If you kill someone, his brother will come after you, and his son and probably his wife. If you then kill any of them, you have their relatives to deal with as well. It is a quickly escalating mess. The only way to deal with Muslims is by following what the Bible says. "Revenge is mine says the Lord." If you are a follower of Jesus or believe in the bible, you must not take revenge, revenge must be left up to God. That's why our freedom can only be protected on our own soil. We police, we investigate, we incarcerate the guilty, but it must be here and only here.

And the interests we are protecting are not ours either. It's those darned interests that really get to be the problem. It's the interests of multinational corporations and their paid politicians who are served in wars, not those of the American people. We just want to get along with everyone and not be killing brown people. If we hadn't been dragged into pointless wars, we'd probably have plenty of money for health care and whatever else anyone wants to do. Those are not my interests. Those are not my interests. I have an interest, let's instead of buying Saudi oil or blowing up Iraq, let's rent some desert and put up some solar panels and make some money on clean renewable energy! If the price is right, we can't lose!

Blood is precious. And I'm not just talking about the blood of our soldiers, but I'm talking about he blood of those they kill as well. Human life is precious. Humans are created in the image of the invisible God, the pinnacle of creation. God never intended for them to die, and he certainly did not intend them to kill each other. He intended them to live in peace, in harmony with him, each other, and with creation.

So I'm essentially against service in the military. I for one am not willing to sacrifice my life on the orders of someone I barely know and for a cause I do not believe in, and I don't want to lose any of my friends that way. I believe our interests as Americans are best served in the world by closing the vast majority of our bases around the world. Our footprint should be no larger than the land encircled by our borders and our shores. We could save loads of money with which to pay down our national debt and become a strong nation again, not strong in military power but in influence and in a good way, and for peace. Being American used to mean something, but now, no one gives a cold shit anymore. We're just bullies. Our economy drags the rest of the world down. Our wants drag the rest of the world into working conditions akin to before the industrial revolution.

I just want innocent people to stop dying. I think the military is getting in the way of that goal.
WiredForStereo

Truth is Over There!!!

I was pondering Jehovah’s Witnesses again the other day, and just going over their modes of thinking to try to understand just how they work. And something came to me. I remember growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist, and I really didn’t know what the world was all about. The vast majority of the Seventh-Day Adventists I know (and am related to) are what I’d call religious but not spiritual. The truth is, the Spirit is what draws a person, religion draws people who want to be right. That is what religion really is after all, it is a system wherein you learn the truth handed down in the form of rules. Thus, if you follow the rules, you are right, end of story.

Spirituality and true Jesus Freakiness is about a relationship. Jesus fulfilled the law and all the rules, so they are no longer in a list for us to follow, but they are written on our hearts. We don’t need to do something or not do something because the Bible says so, we do or don’t because it is the way we have become. We live as Christ lives in us. This was the kind of thing I didn’t understand as an SDA. When I wanted to reach out to a neighbor girl (I was like 8, as was she) all I could do was to invite her to church. I did this because I didn’t know Jesus, the best I could do was to point her to someone who did, I thought.

I find this same philosophy or mentality with JW’s. All they have is what they have been told, what they read. There is nothing written on their hearts. They are not Jehovah’s Witnesses, they haven’t witnessed anything, they just heard about it, that makes them Jehovah’s Gossips. How does that play out? They leave Watchtowers and Awake!s around at bus stops and park benches and hospital lobbies where I find them and take them home to add to my collection. What they are saying is "Look at this, surely this will convince you because I'm shooting blanks spiritually speaking." Some SDA's can tend to do the same thing with Ellen White.

Perusing the internet, I found a website called something like Six Screens of the Watchtower. This guy had been disfellowshipped and actually taped the meeting by sticking a recorder in a cut out in one of the books he had brought to the meeting. After he had pled his case and offered his arguments, he was temporarily dismissed for a closed door meeting. And then………….virtual silence. What was going on? All to be heard was rustling of pages. No speaking, and as far as I could tell, no critical or individual thinking. They were looking up verses and passages in their books, there was not a thought among them. That is what separates a religious person from a spiritual person. Spirituality in the correct context draws all power from the Holy Spirit. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in the Holy Spirit per se, therefore, they can’t really come up with much creative content.

What impresses me is when someone can witness without a Bible in his or her hand, because you know it is in his or her heart, and they do not need to get the words right because the Spirit is working directly through them. This is what the essence of a true believer is. We don’t all need to be missionaries to other countries, but we do all need to be missionaries here where we do live. We can’t all be preachers or pastors, but we can all disciple others.

And for any Jehovah’s Witnesses, before you complain about being insulted, why not actually read what is written and ask yourself if it is true.

If it is not, then complain.

WiredForStereo

The Good Guys

I was listening to a message delivered by Donald Miller at Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan the other week. You can find it via their site or iTunes. Much of the message related to stories. In fact, you might see it as a parable in a sense, though instead of using agronomy as Jesus did, Don used the form of a good story. You might know Donald Miller from one of his several books, but especially one I loved and highly recommend, Blue Like Jazz. Every good screenwriter and author knows that a good story needs a good protagonist, that is, main character. But more than just being a good hero, or being attractive, strong, whatever, the hero needs to have a few important traits in order for the audience to like him or her. Firstly, he must never think he is better than anyone.

For the sake of long windedness, that’s the only thing I’ll cover today.

For the past few days, I have been mulling this over in my mind, what does this have to do with us, you know, us Americans. I think it has been coming together. I want to be very careful and not blame the world situation today on a single trait of a single nation, but as in a movie, a single trait never makes a character.

But Don tells us that a single trait can make or break a character in a movie. A good example of a movie with a humble protagonist is I Am Legend. Throughout the movie, Will Smith’s character is always simply driven to right the wrongs. Several times he does not allow the blame for Armageddon to pass to others, he has decided that the problem must be fixed, and that he will fix it.

Now us.

What is one of the most common things said among patriots in the United States of America? “The United States of America is the greatest nation on earth.” I won’t dispute this, but I also will not affirm it. Is it possible to think that maybe we are not always the good guy? Are we the good guy, but our movie was a box office flop because the audience does not connect with the character? I think a little of both.

We live in a world of turmoil. Some may disagree, but this has always been the case. So who is to blame? Other than the fact that we are on this side of the garden, in many cases, the US is. The US is almost single handedly responsible for the Islamic extremism that we see today. That is not to say that Muslims aren’t responsible as well, because everyone is responsible for their own actions, no matter the trigger. But when a country continually meddles in the affairs of another country, or many other countries, the result is never good.

If you ask the average person on the street if they are better than anyone else, the answer will almost invariably be no. It is just not something that is acceptable in our culture today, and for good reason, because according to Jesus, we are all equals. But if you ask if our country is better than other countries, the answer will far more likely be yes. So what is the difference? None, if you ask both questions of the same person and get different answers, that means one of the answers is a lie. Does that mean that the US does not have a higher standard of living, better health care, or lower crime? No, just as being better than another person should have nothing to do with how healthy they are or how much money they have.

What am I trying to say?

I am trying to say we need humility. As a nation, that is the single thing we lack the most. It spills over into everything we do in the world. You cannot walk into a business meeting and say “you suck, I never want to be like you, you have nothing to offer me but money, so you might as well just hand it over now.” That is not how deals are made, and of course, that is not how our politicians work, but it is the prevailing attitude. The only things the US has more than any other country is consumption and money. So our country’s defining characteristic is materialism. How sad.

So let me answer some things before I finish. Am I an American? Yes. Do I love my country, yes. Do I think it needs help? Absolutely. Why did I write this? People need to know, people need to think, people need to realize that being an American affords you nothing, it is simply where you live, because where there are freedoms, they can be taken away. There are six billion people who don’t live in America, and many of them love their country. They go on about their everyday business just like we do, they are just like us, inherently no better, and no worse.

Freedom is our greatest attribute, sure, but no freedom is ever guaranteed permanently.

WiredForStereo