THE ADOLESCENT ELECTORATE

After the 2016 election, some commentators referred to its results as a temper tantrum. So, fair is fair & I would like to compare some of the results of this year’s midterm election to adolescence. Let me say up front that this is probably going to come across as snarky, but that is not my intention.

Adolescence is very much a creation of 20^th century American culture. It is the awkward time between childhood & adulthood. In the American context, the idea is that the teenager will by trial & error, based hopefully on the lessons learned during childhood, learn to make the right decisions.

In the process of learning, the adolescent will make a lot of mistakes & will eventually come to realize that the adults really did know what they were talking about. Hopefully those mistakes are expensive enough to motivate learning, but so expensive as to cause long-term damage.

When I refer to the adolescent electorate, I’m talking in terms of moral/social issues & economics that they have voted about.

The electorate in my home state of Michigan has decided that recreational marijuana is a good thing. A lot of adolescents have made the same short-sighted mistake. Apparently, if you can generate tax money from something that debilitates people in tasks that they should do unimpeded, it’s OK.

A local ballot initiative in Albuquerque overturning a 20-week limit on abortion also passed. Isn’t it nice to be given additional time to sweep “problems” under the rug, never to be bothered by them again? Ask women who spend decades regretting the exercise of their “right to choose” if it really stays invisible under the rug.

A number of victories by Democrat Socialists have been won. Let’s see if this generation of people who in many cases have no real-world experience understanding of how economics works are able to FINALLY get Utopia to somehow stick its head up over the distant horizon.

The so-called temper tantrum of 2016 (were those who came up with this looking in the mirror after the began protesting the election?) had what an unbiased observer would see as positive results in many categories. It remains to be seen if the adolescent electorate will learn anything from their short-sighted choices in this year’s midterm election.

Unfortunately, not every adult is willing to learn the lessons of adolescence. My generation is full of such people. May God be merciful to us as the results play out. Because whatever comes out of Pandora’s box will not be...

THE NEED FOR LABELS

Every few years an interesting group of people that calls itself something like “No Labels” raises its head & demands to be heard. Since it is probably made up of progressives posing as unbiased observers & quasi-conservatives who want to sound smart, I always find it mildly entertaining & get a very small chuckle out of it. 

That is especially so, since the same people don't seem to have any inhibitions about labeling me & others whose ideas don’t fit into what they think is right.

I also chuckle because they are the kind of people who seem to think that there should be warning labels on just about everything under the sun.

One of the irritating things about political ads, at least in our area, is that you often need to dig deep to find out what a candidate’s party affiliation is. What motivates that? Fear? Somebody’s idea of good campaign strategy? I dunno.

Maybe its just me, but it seems like the best strategy is honesty, conciseness, & being straightforward about what we believe. If a candidate or party feels the need to be anything less about that, I automatically begin to suspect they aren’t being honest with the electorate.

WHY I’M NOT INTO THE IMMIGRANT FAD

I need to start out by saying thank you to some of my progressive friends for motivating me to write this. I’ve generally avoided this subject. It’s possible that because we are beginning a ministry to the International Community (aka immigrants) that a lot of people assume we buy into the idea that anyone who wants to come into the US should have the right to do so.

Just to be clear, we don’t believe that.

Here are a number of reasons we don’t buy into what I call the “Immigrant Fad.”

First, to do so would be intellectually dishonest. If someone does something that violates law, they are doing something illegal. It makes no difference how they view existing laws. Existing laws may or may not reflect someone’s view of morality. But if someone doesn’t believe the laws reflect his view, those laws don’t magically cease to exist. They are still in force, & he is still subject to them. In other words, illegal immigrants are still illegal immigrants because they violate existing laws.

Second, to do so is intellectually lazy. I’ve heard or read people saying things like they would be glad to have an illegal alien come & live with them. The analogy fails. In saying this, they agree with the idea that permission needs to be given to someone before that person can come into a place that is not theirs. It is one thing to extend hospitality to someone; it’s entirely different for them to knowingly & sometimes forcefully enter where they are not allowed to go.

Third, to do so betrays either an ignorance of history or the hope that others are ignorant of it. If you google the name of most any recognized Democrat leader to find out what they were saying about illegal immigration a few years ago, they took a similar policy stance as the current administration does. That kinda makes one wonder about the motives of those same leaders today.

Those are just a few reasons I don’t buy into the fad.

WE’RE NOT INVINCIBLE

If you’ve been in church for very long you may be familiar with the story in I Kings 18 about Elijah & the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. You may have heard preaching about that story or the one that immediately follows it in chapter 19, where Jezebel threatens his life & Elijah flees as far south as he can to escape her.

I was just reading those 2 chapters & it reminded me about something that is really important for all believers. It reminded me that no one is invincible or immune from getting hit hard on the gridiron that we call life. 

Something very notable in chapter 18 is that every step Elijah took in confronting & overcoming the challenge was taken in conscientious obedience to God’s direction. God directed Elijah to confront Ahab (18:1, 36). Every word & action of the prophet reflected the boldness & confidence of someone who had clearly heard from God.

The execution of the Baal prophets, along with the miraculous end of the 3-year drought likely caused Elijah to believe that Israel had turned a corner & could now be restored to right relationship with God.

Boy, did he get a surprise the next day!

When Ahab told Jezebel what had happened, she didn’t take it lying down. Instead she went on the offensive & threatened to have Elijah killed. Instead of the great victory he anticipated, he got hit in the face with a huge disappointment. Instead of Jezebel folding, the “invincible” man of God folded & ran.

We can fall into the trap of seeing ourselves as invincible. Sometimes because of youthful energy, faithfulness in spiritual disciplines, previous ministry victories, etc. we think that nothing can stop us. True, God’s redemptive plan cannot ultimately be stopped. But it may experience what appear to us to be setbacks. We can be disappointed when what we expected doesn’t happen as we hoped. We can experience emotional highs & lows.

In a word, we’re not invincible.

But the Lord is. 

Let’s be encouraged today by that, not by our own feeling that for whatever reason we won’t experience setbacks & disappointments.

WHY ECONOMICS ISN’T BORING TO ME

I’m neither an economist nor the son of an economist. But I have been puzzling over something for a while. It’s how individuals could each have a degree in economics & come to totally different conclusions.

For example, the new heartthrob of the Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, apparently has a degree in economics & is a full-blown socialist. 

On the other hand, Walter Williams has spent much of his adult life teaching economics at the university level & is a rock-ribbed economic conservative.

My question has at least in part been answered. There are at least 2 basic theories about how economic transactions should be done.

The first (objective view of economics) is based on the idea that the process is more equitable & just if an economy is managed. This view necessitates there being a governing authority over a nation’s economic system. What is the expression of this belief? Socialism. Planned or managed economies. 5-year economic plans. Government intervention to pick winners & losers.

The other major view (subjective view of economics) sees the process of economic transactions as a dynamic thing that in a sense has a life of its own. People simply participate in it, & it is constantly changing based on the changing desires & demands of the participants. What is the expression of this belief? A free market, where people are at liberty to make their own decisions as buyers, sellers, producers, etc.

This difference in views determines how someone will see the process of economic transactions. The objective view requires that there be a class of people who can predict what will happen in the future. They will (hopefully) base economic policies on what will be the fairest for the most people.

This view assumes a lot. First, it assumes that these “smart people” can somehow predict the future. Second, it assumes they will use this power for the benefit of the people they are supposedly smarter than. These are the assumptions that have brought us such failed experiments as the Soviet Union, Cuba, & today’s Venezuela.

IS THE HEX A HOAX?

Do you remember the movie, “The Exorcist?” A lot of people see such things as just entertainment, but not reflecting a dark demonic reality with actual beings exercising power to influence the visible world & destroy people’s lives. At least that’s what good, obedient post-Enlightenment secularists &

materialists are supposed to believe.

Biblical references to spiritual warfare involve a lot, including individualized demonization & exorcism & localized demonic activities. In addition to that, passages such as II Corinthians 10:3-5 & Ephesians 6:11-12 seem to imply satanic activity & influence that affect the way people reason & think. Satan seeks to control the thought processes of masses of people, not just individuals. He seeks to trivialize or drive away all biblical concepts from the way people view themselves & the world.

II Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

Ephesians 6:11-12 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/12/brett-kavanaugh-be-hexed-witches-brooklyn-new-york-liberal-sherpa-says

According to this report, a group of witches will host a public event for the expressed purpose of placing a hex on Justice Kavanaugh. Notice the clear difference in how the interviewer & interviewee regard the event & the potential danger.

As incredible as it may seem, we’re seeing the merging of radical secularism & a return to some of the traditional pre-Christian religious beliefs & practices of the Western world.

The battle is real. God’s people need to pray. And we need to pray in the authority of Christ, who is:

“Raised from the dead and seated at His (the Father's) right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 2:20-23).

THE INQUISITION COULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN, RIGHT?

I’m going to paint some broad strokes, but my hope is you can see the parallels I’m trying to point out. Those parallels are between the regression that is in danger of happening in our legal system now, & what we left behind centuries ago.

All of the things I’m going to mention have one thing in common. Here goes...

Many people in our country believe that the Inquisition was a pre-Enlightenment occurrence. They believe that was carried out by religious bigots who persecuted people they thought who wanted to leave a church organization. There is some truth to those ides, but the reality is that the Inquisition was more a reaction to the political changes that were affecting the ability of the Roman Catholic Church & various European monarchies to prop up each other.

The French Revolution was really not much different in its attempt to acquire & maintain political power. It simply targeted a different group of people. In claiming to right the wrongs that were committed by the monarchy, the revolutionaries executed those associated in any way with it. People who happened to be part of the aristocracy, regardless of age or any other consideration were assumed to be the enemy of the new regime & of the people.

Each of these historical processes, the Inquisition & the French Revolution, was similar to today’s class warfare that is waged by the Left; certain classes were assumed to be guilty & others were assumed to be in the right. The individual was judged based on what class he or she was part of. Does that sound familiar?

There is good reason to be alarmed at what is happening in the Kavanaugh hearings. Elected officials are attributing guilt to him simply because he is a white male. His accuser does not have the responsibility to prove guilt because she is in a class that is by default to be believed.

That’s the way the Inquisition worked. You were lucky if you weren’t in the guilty class. Too bad for you & your loved ones if you were.