Philosophy

Hating Evil

Do some churches willfully ignore their mission to fill seats?

A few days ago, I wrote a prayer.

My suggestion that hate is addictive does not mean we cannot oppose the ideas of those who mislead us.

Clearly, there are areas in which the Christian can focus negative energies battling the subversion of our cultural norms.  The further away we get from traditional family and positive standards of behavior, the easier it becomes to allow others to become our life surrogate. Government easily fills the vacuum left with an absence of the standard core of mother and father.

We know how well that works.

But where is the Christian at risk?  We attend our churches, express our faith in Christ, and depending on which congregation it is, may find ourselves listening to nonsense.  The pastors and church leaders too often overlook or misrepresent the teachings of Christ so as not to offend those who fill the seats for each service.

Many speak to the desired message instead of that which is clearly laid out in the bible, often offering excuse for what is clearly sin and an offense to God. Why? Because we are to love.  The implication that we be permissive and forgiving of acts that are biblically abominable.

A friend puts it this way: “The Heart is the door in which the devil steals our souls.”

On April 27, 2019 the MICPAC hosted several pastors and conservative thought leaders as part of it’s event.  Pastor Christopher Thoma speaks to this topic.  With conviction.

Enjoy.

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Headlee History

One of the most impactful tax limitations in Michigan history.

For decades, or rather for FOUR decades, we have enjoyed protections from over taxation.

At the April 27, 2019 MiCPAC event, Patrick Anderson & Norm Hughes discuss Richard Headlee, the history of Headlee legislative efforts, and the impact on Michigan’s ability to abuse the taxpayers.

Enjoy, and plan on attending the MiCPAC next year.

Or  check out the 2019 UPCPAC event June 14

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National Day Of Prayer.

John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

We can all be redeemed.

It is a decision one has to make.  We can accept the grace of God, or we can wallow in bitterness and hatred for others.  Hatred poisons the soul.  It physically manifests as addiction, and it binds us negatively to those with whom we find disagreeable.  Hatred is a trap, and is spiritually incompatible with the professing Christian.

The worst of us are made worthy already in the eyes of God through Christ our Lord.  And surprisingly, some of those who profess this belief cannot get beyond hatred of the man  who is our president.  He lives in their thoughts to be permanently scorned, abhorred, rejected outright. No matter the results of his efforts to secure for us a more prosperous, and healthy nation.

To which I offer this prayer.

Oh Lord, Father, Creator, giver of life, hear the cries of this nation.  Hear the despair that manifests itself as antipathy for the President, a man you have sent to lead our nation.  Right the hearts oh God, of those who cannot separate themselves from the hate to which they hold so tightly in their hearts.  Heal their wounded souls so they might know the difference between disagreement and willful revulsion.

Cure the poison within us Lord, so that we may find the path to you in righteous posture. Cast out our addiction to hatred and indignant pride. Reveal to all the love in Your holy word. Make a way for us to open our hearts and expel that which binds us to continued pain through obsession.

Oh Father hear our pleas.

Show those who seek you, how to love as you instruct. Put us in the paths of those who do not, we your willing servants, so they might know the way to you oh God.  Give us the strength to guide them to you Father in the name of your son Jesus who bore the weight of our sins and offered us eternal life.

Amen.

 

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Site Prep

When the MEDC says "hold my beer.."

Turnkey operations are clearly the next step.

It’s true, why not turn our government bureaucracies into full blown business incubators? Buy a number of corner buildings, land, ready spaces, and turn em into a new 7-11 chain, tux shop conglomerate, or CBD syndicate. Then, turn em over to someone willing to fill out the paperwork, stand on a stage with a governor,  and swear allegiance to the bureaucracy and our sacred Eco-Dev Central!

the MEDC is having a birthday.  In fact it is apparently ready to graduate from simple cronyism, to full blown Fascism.  Government determining which component of the economy it will promote with taxpayer money is certainly bad, but when it actually does the site work?  From Crains:

Are there are some areas outside of your control and domain that you think we ought to be focused on as a state in order to improve our chances to land the next company from San Jose?

The one that’s in our domain that we have started doing some work on — working with our local partners — and that’s having ready sites. Whether it’s just raw acreage that has the right infrastructure available in terms of electrical capacity, water and sewer. …

We are not a state that has a lot of available spec buildings — the 180,000-square-foot size buildings that have been built speculatively by developers that we can immediately turn to a prospect and say here’s a building you can move into in 60 days. We’re doing some work in that space both on the spec building side … as well as on the raw land site improvement to help get us better prepared or ahead of the curve to take advantage of some of the opportunities that are out there.

In other words “if we build, they will come”

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The New Stasi

Michigan's new thought police effort violates the 1st and 14th Amendments according to lawsuit by AFLC

Some of Michigan’s new administration’s nonsense goes beyond ‘virtue signalling’ or shaming.

We’ve had a few minutes for it to settle in.  But the bottom line is that Michigan’s newest Attorney General Dana Nessel is clearly using the power of the state to persecute those who would disagree with her worldview.  To the level legally possible, she is using public monies to pressure those who have something to say to either shut up or be pilloried in the court of public opinion.

And this publicly funded defamation, riding under the guise of fighting ‘hate speech’ is being done indiscriminately, and lazily.  Nessel’s new thought police unit is using a map to target, and developed by the SPLC, a private, ideologically driven legal services cult that frequently identifies churches or family organizations as hate groups.

One of those groups is having none of it.

In a lawsuit naming (the new hate crimes unit) DANA NESSEL, and AGUSTIN V. ARBULU (Michigan dept of civil rights director), the American Freedom Law Center has charged that Nessel has officially sanctioned the SPLC’s opinions as those of the state, putting groups like the AFLC officially under the umbrella of hate as described by a private entity.  Officially sanctioning the partisan opinions with the use of taxpayer dollars and the authority of the office to punish free speech and educational activities engaged in by the AFLC.

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Sunday Sermon – Render Unto Caesar

Who owns the vineyard.

Luke 20:1-24

One of the questions I get, as a pastor, is how I go about writing a sermon. For me, it begins with a review of the scriptures we have been given for the week. I think all of you know that we are a tradition that uses the common lectionary, which is a three year cycle of readings, that includes an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a New Testament Reading and a Gospel reading. I start by searching for one of the readings that might have a relevant message within in it.

When I read through the Gospel lesson, however, which was only verses 9-20, I was a little confused because the parable by itself made no sense at all. So, I pulled out one of my bibles and began reading from the beginning of the chapter and continued on a few verses beyond the parable. This is what I just read to you, and when I had the context of the situation it made much more sense to me. It was then that I could see that Jesus was begging the question, “who owns the vineyard?”

The chief priests, the scribes and the elders knew they had been bested by this question so they plotted further to trip Jesus up. So they send spies who pose the question of taxes. I am going to actually begin with that question, because it offers us a little context of the day.

The Jews of Jesus’ day were vexed at living under a foreign, pagan government, whose rule was enforced by an army of occupation. The Jews paid a land tax, an income tax, a poll tax, an import tax, and a tax on grain, wine, and oil. We may think we are heavily taxed today, but things were far worse in first century Israel. Well that is unless, of course, our current governor gets her way.

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Clown Bigotry – The Greatest Show On Earth.

Nolan Finley puts his head in a lioness' maw.

The reality over the years is that when we disagree with the clown from the Detroit News, its based on a reasonable difference of opinion over the facts.

We don’t hate clowns.  We are just don’t take em so seriously very often.. We call out clownish pranks and goofiness as such.  And truth be told, I once had a (sort-of) clown as a good friend. So there is ..that.

But the bottom line is that once in a while, a clown makes a point.  And today The News’ big top car stuffer is spot on.

Combating hate crimes is a worthy endeavor. But the new campaign announced by Attorney General Dana Nessel has the real potential to morph into thought policing.

Nessel, in partnership with Agustin Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil rights, say they will create a process to document incidents of hate and bias that don’t rise to the level of criminal or civil infractions.

That could translate to speech or expressions of opinion that some may find offensive, but are protected by the First Amendment. Bias is protected by the Constitution until it infringes on the rights and freedoms of others, and hate is often in the eye of the beholder.

If what Nessel and Arbulu are targeting are words, thoughts and opinions, this could easily become a weapon to shut down groups they find abhorrent, but are operating within the law.

Its true. 

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Thursday’s Divertere: Dr. Sebastion Gorka

Sad as it is to accept this is where we’re at today, folks. For those who have been paying attention, if your memory serves you well, you will recall the indoctrinated functioning illiterate in this video posted here are today’s 52%, which Dr. Gorka is speaking about.

That stated, this is why for at minimum the next 4 years in Michigan, we will not be moving ahead, no, we will be expending that energy on curtailing if not stoping dead in its tracks- garbage like this.

Oh, I know, losing the top three offices was completely unavoidable because of a “boat anchor” and/or The Grassroots™ had a fart stuck crossways or, something to that effect. It is how Boobus Michiganderus rolls on the Right.

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Showing your true colors.

Despite the calls for “bipartisianship”(remember when THAT was the buzzword), “tolerance”, blah-blah-blah, etc, AG Nessel officially went off the reservation yesterday and signed Michigan onto a multistate lawsuit AGAINST Pres. Trump and his actions to protect everyday Americans from the illegal aliens massing along the southern border.

This is what happens when the republican kakistocracy runs a boat anchor at the top of the ticket and p.o.’s The Grassroots when it doesn’t cut ties with a certain Supreme Court Justice. Tom Leonard would NEVER have signed off on this!

Curiously, as of this morning, she didn’t feel that it was important to share her passion to protect a major threat to Michigananians with the rest of us through official channels.

I’m running late for a run, but more to follow later…

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