EVANGELICAL HYPOCRITES?

Many voices are calling "HYPOCRITE!" on evangelicals for their presidential vote.  Are evangelicals two-faced?

How could they preach about moral character and vote for Trump?

Let's put our minds in reverse and return to 2016.  What were our three choices?

#give up your vote by spending it on someone with no chance to win



#vote for a candidate whose history showed manifold moral issues of her own

#vote for someone who probably had marital unfaithfulness in his past

That wasn't much morality from which to pick.  The R's had run sixteen men (some of good moral character)...but we didn't want any of those.  The D's had only two choices, one of whom completely failed to read the mood of the country.

Americans saw their country on a dangerous precipice.  We have do-nothing politicians who promise but don't deliver...while making a personal fortune in office.  We have  staggering debt, corruption, and a loss of freedoms (in particular,  freedom of speech and religion).

Which candidate was likely to drain the swamp?  Perhaps change would come with someone rich (so they wouldn't be swayed by dollars) and perhaps a maverick outside the establishment (so they wouldn't be swayed by the good-old-boys).

The pick was a brash New Yorker with sharp elbows who was challenged by a management job larger than he had ever attempted.  His orange hair and rough mouth ran neck-and-neck to be uppermost in his persona.

We didn't hire Trump to be a pastor; we hired him because he was a hail Mary pass for saving the country.  The R's offered a man who cheated on his wife...while the D's offered a woman whose career was characterized by immorality.  THERE WAS NO MORAL CHOICE in 2016.

What is exquisitely ironic about all  this?  D's have raised up on their moral hackles.  The same ones who told us Clinton's love life was his own business...now charge President Trump lacks morality.

TO THIS DAY that same party adores their world-class philanderers such as JFK/RFK/Teddy Kennedy/John Edwards/Bill Clinton. Remember the roar at the last Democratic National Convention when Clinton took the podium?  WJC was even known as "Slick Willy" because people marveled at how good he was at getting away with lying.

And what about the others?  Teddy and Chappaquiddick?  Or you could ask Mimi Beardsley.  She was a 19-year-old intern who came to JFK's White House and lost her virginity on her fourth day at work. LINK or LINK

And that's not all...

What does this party of Woodrow Wilson, Robert Byrd, George Wallace, and Bull Connor say?  They say TRUMP is a white supremacist.  What does the party who promised Russia a "reset" button, sold Russia our uranium, and promised Russia more "flexibility" about nukes (while patting Medvedev on the leg) say? That same party says TRUMP colluded with the Russians.  Pretty rich, eh?  Smile, Mitt.  You were right about Russia.

Our country has POLITICAL POSERS stuck in our collective craw.  In 2016, we said it was time to give an outsider a swing at bat.  When the outsider won, what was the losing cry?  "We got more votes!"  Yes, you did...but that's never been the way we decide elections.  The electoral college is a brilliant and fair way to protect the individual vote.  If the same most populous states always carried the majority vote, the votes of the people in the middle of the country would not count.

Now sixteen months since his inauguration, Donald Trump has withstood the most venemous hailstorm of loathing.  Still, his base holds firm, and even expanded last month by a point.  The other side is bumfuzzled and cannot understand why their flaming arrows keep missing the mark.

Americans don't trust the media OR attacks on Trump.  We are weary of being led by societal experimentation that tells common sense to take a hike.  We know which bathroom to use, the difference between a man and woman, when life begins, and how important family is for the next generation.

And what are two final things that Christians know?

*We know ALL men are morally flawed and hypocritical.  Morality begins with conformity to God's law, which calls us to love one another.  Mankind views murder as an act ending in death...but God has a different view.  He says hatred in our hearts is murder.  So be careful, friends, when even the mention of Trump's name draws a hateful response.

*We know that throughout world history, God has chosen to use some heads-of-state who were particularly unsavory (think Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, and even Herod).  God may use  them one of two ways:  sometimes He changes their heart to love Him, while other times He uses them to illustrate His righteous wrath.

Let's pray He will use Donald Trump for the former.

WHO HAS THE "SAY"

I'm in that green crowd that was excited about the royal birth. William and Kate look to be great parents...and that Kate is a birthing champ. But what about the other baby?

Both babies have inherent worth because each bears the mark of God's image. Both are born with specific purposes known only to God. Why is one more special than the other? Louie might grow up to be the King of England one day, but Alfie is just as precious to God.

Who gets to "say" whether a baby lives or dies? Are the parents or the state in charge of a baby's life? 

The state can only come to a decision based on formulaic budgetary numbers. Knowing they cannot pay out the wazoo for an unlimited period of time, the state sets an arbitrary number. Isn't that what Sarah Palin said? In cases like Alfie's, socialized medicine IS a death panel.

If the parents are in charge and can come up with funds, shouldn't the child be free to live until natural death? Why should that be any skin off Britain's nose? Why wouldn't their system release the baby to Italy (who offered medical care and a plane to come get him). Soon we saw that Alfie was not getting out of Britain alive.

Sometimes God uses contrasting circumstances to allow us to see truth clearly. The truth is that we are not God and we dare not usurp His position. We give the state authorization to make death decisions in capital punishment cases, but socialized medicine ended Alfie's life based on dollars.

That is why the "say" does not belong to the state. That is why something intended for good can go very wrong. That is why in the land of the free, we cannot give over individual liberties.

PIPELINE TO ASSAULT

The Florida school shooting was a conundrum to me.

When the sheriff blamed his men...publicly shaming them as "cowards"...that seemed very off-putting.  Yet if the officers weren't the problem, what WAS the problem?

Was it the gun and police had not been issued a jacket that would withstand AR15 fire?  Was it their procedure which called for them to set the perimeter and wait for the SWAT Team?  Surely the gunfire called for a response.  It bothered me that things didn't add up.

Now some things have come to light.  Have you ever heard of the "School to Prison Pipeline"?

In 2013, a program was established in Florida to alter the percentages of young brown/black inmates and to also make college and a brighter future possible for troubled kids.  So far, so good.

Federal money for the program and political sway complicated things.  The theory was that kids were "over-policed and under-educated" and to combat that, they would NOT CALL INTO ACCOUNT minor infractions.  In plain English, criminal behavior slid by.

Just as kids know how to act when they have a substitute ("cra-cra"), these kids quickly figured out how to work the system.  Besides them, who else would benefit from such a convoluted system?  Robert W. Runcie was the Superintendent of Broward County Public Schools.  He bragged how student arrests had plummeted under his bold leadership.

Federal money came to the school systems and continuance was insured by a downturn in criminal referral numbers.  They agreed not to report, arrest, or prosecute students like Nikolas Cruz.

And there was another problem.  It would seem that Cruz as a "student of color" suffered as a victim of racist policies.  So the school district didn't do anything about his behavior while Cruz's behavior SCREAMED for intervention.

Who did speak up?  The "School Security Specialist", Kelvin Greenleaf, and the head of JROTC, Peter Mamoud spoke up.  Who else?  Kids showed the school staff Cruz's repeated messages threatening to kill them.  They filed written reports that he brought weapons to school.  Threatening to kill someone is a felony.  A felony would have kept Cruz from buying a gun.  Protection was in place but went unused.

Somehow in the death of common sense, it escaped notice that bad behavior only encourages more bad behavior.  The new policy seemed to say to the kids that they didn't need to behave in high school; they just needed to leave high school with no criminal record.

The system seemed to think arrests and referrals to the criminal justice system were the problem.  So SNAP!  Problem eliminated.  What began as an attempt to help troubled kids have a brighter future...came with unintended consequences.

Here are the officials who signed onto the agreement on November 5, 2013:

Robert W. Runcie, Superintendent of Schools

Peter M. Weinstein, Chief Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit

Michael J. Satz, State Attorney

Howard Finkelstein, Public Defender

Scott Israel, Broward County Sheriff

Franklin Adderley, Chief of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department

Wanly Walters, Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice

Marsha Ellison, President of the Fort Lauderdale Branch of the NAACP 
         and Chair of the Juvenile Justice Advisory Board

(taken from an article entitled "The School-to-Mass-Murder-Pipeline")  

CHEETAHS AND BEREANS

One of the nice things about living at Butterfield Trail Village is that you can just spontaneously meet another couple and eat together.  It's hospitality-lite.

Sunday we did that with two couples and took a table for six.  Sunday is always a good day at the HOME because they fluff the menu up on the Lord's day.

During table talk, I think someone asked for a Will story.  Or, it COULD be that I volunteered one.  But here's the story:

Our favorite Kindergartener came for an overnighter last week.  I was getting my love tank filled while he and I were piled up in the recliner watching a Nature show about the great cats.

Will's particular favorite now is watching "Wild Kratts" on PBS and he can tell you about every animal...how fast they run, what they eat, how it compares to other animals in that species, etc.  Will especially likes cheetahs and leopards.

Here's a random thought alert.  I'm smiling now because I'm thinking of a friend's saying about how "all old crows think their babies are the blackest".  But really.  This grandboy is bright and does have a killer vocab.

Now back to the recliner.  All at once the narrator stated a fact and that little head popped up as if an alarm had gone off.  "Well, THAT'S awkward that they would say that because cheetahs don't go ___ miles per hour, they go ___ miles per hour."  (Of course Mimi can't even remember the facts, but I'm sure Will was right because doesn't he look like a scientist with those big glasses?)

So as I'm telling this story around the Sunday lunch table, our friend Karen said "Oh, Will must be a Berean".  We all said "WHUT?"

Karen told us when the apostle Paul went to Berea, the people there received his message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.  Those Bereans were thinkers and so is our Will.

MAY WE ALL BE SEARCHERS OF TRUTH.

DEATH OF SELF RESTRAINT

Yes, Oprah had a rousing speech at  the Golden Globes.  Why was it rousing?  She spoke against wrongs.

But may we speak frankly?  In order to know "wrong", we must know "right".

"Right and wrong" have been missing from the national discourse, replaced by whatever looked right in each man's eyes.  That led to many ills, including the death of self-restraint.

Dan Menninger wrote a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about the death of self-restraint.  LINK

At the Golden Globes, the CONTRIBUTORS TO THE COARSENING OF THE CULTURE sought high ground as they roared their assent to Oprah's call for truth, for being empowered,  for hope on the horizon, and...never again would there be "me, too".

Well...sure.  Who's not for that?  So what's the problem?  It's only rhetoric if there's no power to accomplish it.  "Wretched man that I am; I do not practice what I wish, but do the very thing that I loathe."

Can we move past the fluffy words of the moment to think how moral restraint might actually be accomplished?

Oprah spoke of the media in the quest for "coarse" correction.  The media has the power to expose  someone, but not the power to help someone employ self-restraint.

Surely the fear of being outed might work for some, but most people pursing the love of self aren't swayed by the threat of exposure because they think they'll get away with it...or they'll pay for silence.

Of course moral restraint is found by moving toward THE Source of power.  But do any in that room full of influencers help others by using their work to do such a thing?

THEY'VE SPENT THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS TRYING TO CONVINCE US MORAL RESTRAINTS ARE RIDICULOUS...AND EVERYTHING'S KOSHER UNDER THE SUN.  And if you disagree?  You're the problem.  And you're weird.

Want proof of that assertion?  Know what was awarded BEST TELEVISION SERIES?  The award went to a vicious attack on Christianity called "The Handmaid's Tale".

Dovetailing with the popular theme  "women are stripped of their rights", the Golden Globes lifted high a show about a post-nuclear America run by evangelicals.

Scripture is read while a mean woman in charge zaps an uncooperative handmaid in the face with a cattle prod.  They sing a precious hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" while impregnating handmaidens to "allow the women to experience God's plan for all women, the bearing of children".

That is unbelievable that it would even be on the air, much less be honored! Wouldn't it be unthinkable to write such a show about Islamic scripture or songs?
   
Bottom line, what would you say was the message from the Globes?  Speak truth to power?  Oprah said there would be no more turning a blind eye to injustice because the abusers' "time is up".   But as long as the entertainment industry honors what is evil, the industry's boat is not headed for the right harbor.

I was thinking about Harvey Weinstein's judgment and how lickety split the timing was.  For years he was boss hog...and the next minute, he's a bum.  That's how the timing of Jesus' return will seem to those who aren't expecting Him.

It would be nice to think that we could get rid of Weinsteinism, and right now the pendulum has swung toward that direction with abusers dropping off like fleas off a dog with a new flea collar.  But it won't last.  Why?  Human nature.

Self love will remain until a heart circumcision is performed and the individual begins to love God more than self.  Even after that, the love of self keeps popping up like that maniac Glenn Close played in "Fatal Attraction".

Sanctification begins when Christ enters a life, but then our part in the process is to cooperate daily to die to self.  We would be lost in that process without the power that God the Father sends us in the person of God the Holy Spirit.

As appealing as Oprah's words were, without a source of power her words are just wishful thinking.  God is the only real source of Empowerment, Truth, and of Hope.

WARM THE GLOBE, PLEASE

Is there global warming?  The climate is always changing, but has man caused it?  Will it be  catastrophic?

I've found my resting place in the book of Genesis, where a Trinitarian creation is set into motion.  Later we read that the Lord's hand continually holds the universe together by the power of His Word.

But not everyone sees the order of things with God at the top.  If God is not in charge, then who?  Some think man is able to cause disorder in the universe by his lifestyle.

Global warming folks say human activities such as human expansion, cutting the rain forest, the use of fossil fuels, car emissions, etc....combined with bovine flatulence...are the causes of the "greenhouse effect" (where trapped radiant heat causes Earth's temperatures to rise).

Former Vice President Al Gore says "the Earth has a fever" and man is to  blame.

Man-made global warming is one theory, but it certainly isn't "settled science" as it is sold to be.  Not all scientists agree and there is a lack of intellectual honesty when one side shames the other with name calling...and then displays no scientific intellectual curiosity.

What proof is offered as evidence that man has caused it?

The man-based model has been supported by 1,300 climatologists world-wide in conjunction with the United Nations.  Now enter the monetary angle.  These scientists' jobs and findings are symbiotic.  And when they put certain numbers into the computer model, the outcome can be skewed toward their assumption.

Normally we wait 30-40 years for a climate "trend" to show up, but this week we've come to immediate conclusions about our 2017-2018 winter.  It's global warming.  Wait, what?  If it's hot it's global warming and if it's cold it's global warming?  Tripe!

That brings us to the anointed spokesperson for global warming, former Vice President Al Gore.

Over and over the former VP's dire predictions are contradicted.  He predicted in his first book that a Greenland ice melt would put NYC under water.

He had to come off that one in his sequel book.

At the same time VP Gore would direct YOUR carbon footprint, he gorges his own footprint with homes and jets...and hypocritically sells his TV network to oil-producing Al Jazeera.

What a curious choice for a spokesperson!  He profits from something that he preaches against...something that he says puts us in "peril".

Other global warming warriors  made the news in July, 2016 when scientists were sent to the Arctic to study the disappearing Arctic ice...and got stuck in the ice.

Then there was this headline from 2000 which said "SNOWFALLS ARE NOW A THING OF THE PAST!  CHILDREN AREN'T GONG TO KNOW WHAT SNOW IS!"

Wouldn't you say this winter's snowfall has caused that hysterical prediction to bite the dust?  Surely global warming alarmists took a step back.  No.  Doubling down, they have said this week it was "natural" to assume global warming would cause an increase in snowfall.  Really?  Can't have it both ways, Fellas.

Listen.  Saving the planet is above our pay grade.  We are here to point PEOPLE to salvation.  What could be more important than that?  But isn't it easy to see how others might view global warming as a type of "religion"?  They even sell "indulgences" that they call carbon offsets.

Let's don't get our books confused.  Which book do YOU think has credibility?  I think I'll go with the Book that has proven accuracy.  #seetheBible'sfulfilledprophecies

My money is on the One who says the world moves ON HIS TIMELINE AND ACCORDING TO HIS PLAN.

Remember the old Mom warning "I brought you into this world and I can take you out"?  God brought the universe into existence and He has the keeping power to hold it fast until the right time.

On that Last Day, He will roll the sky up like a scroll, fire will destroy the Earth with intense heat, and THAT will be global warming.

The Earth and her future belong to the Lord Almighty.


P.S.  If you like videos, this one is helpful as it simply lays out the global warming issues.  It has had a million/half viewings!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwqIy8Ikv-c

STARTING 2018

Albert Einstein was right when he said time is an illusion.  One minute you have kids, and the next minute they're having kids.

As 2017 is done and in the books, nostalgia has caused time to lurch backward for me.  Why?

I've been watching old reruns of "Brooklyn Bridge" on YouTube.  It's my favorite Gary David Goldberg sitcom, written about his childhood recollections while growing up in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Bridge pictures a "time" of innocence that 2017 wouldn't recognize.

Just think about our pockmarked old year.  Besides all the vitriol on the airwaves, there was devastation from triple hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and awful fires out West that may lead to mudslides.

There were senseless killings by domestic terrorists in a TX church and at a NV concert...plus masked and hooded antifa thugs dressed in black and carrying clubs into the streets.

Then there were the men who behaved like brutes.

How we hurt the ones we love!  You only need look at this wife's face to know the humiliation that her husband brought upon her.  Imagine  Matt Lauer having to hurry to his teenaged son to explain the charges against him before they were made public. It is painful when your sins find you out.

Faithful men are to be prized.

Events like that are beyond our control, so Mike and I have been talking about the year-end review of OUR business.  We wanted to remember what God has taught us this year so that we will "get it" the first time through.  No one wants to go to summer school to have to relearn our lessons.

So this picture was us in 2017.  Even as our outer man is decaying, our inner man is CONTENTED, confident in God's sufficiency, and grateful for where He has us.  We love Butterfield and count it a real blessing.  

At ages 75 and 70, our dependence on the Lord is not just blah blah blah.  We actually believe the words that we've espoused for years. As we get closer to seeing Him, the truth that He loved us first propels us to go tell.

Besides, the Cruses can't complain.  We've felt our mortality this year, but what's a goozle-stretch or bone spur removal compared to what some friends are going through?  Getting older helps you focus on what is really important.

The Lord has sharpened our minds through Bible studies (Mike is teaching Genesis here at Butterfield and my BSF study is in Romans)....and undergirded our rocky places.  Our old year probably was like yours.  We loved our answered prayers, and we keep praying for things not yet resolved.

As we've gotten older, we have a better sense about what we can do and what we cannot do.  Some things only God can do.

A Romans 5 verse lit up that truth last month.  There are some unsavory characters that are described as the ones Christ came to save...the sinner, the ungodly, and the helpless.  That described Mike and I once, so that's why we're so grateful for His intervention in our lives.  We're all helpless without God's intervention.

Jesus is the only thing that doesn't change in life.  He stands true when all else moves...His kingdom is unshakeable and He promises to be with us forever.

Mike and I get up each morning and look to see if the other is well.  That's not macabre...it's just life.  We say daily that we are thankful for each other and thankful for the Lord's sovereign hand on our lives.

You know, some might think Gary David Goldberg wrote "Brooklyn Bridge" with more fondness than accuracy.  Maybe you think such innocence never existed.  Perhaps.  But we know FOR CERTAIN that there is such a place up ahead.  Mike and I hope to see each of you there one day.

Meantime, we wish you God's blessings in 2018...with our love.