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The Audacity Of Drones: Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 4)

February 14, 2013 by 7 Comments

Drone SC The Audacity Of Drones: Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 4)

After four years of the Obama administration’s increasing use of remote-controlled, unmanned drones to kill our enemies, there are suddenly a few more in the media feeling obligated to report on the policy.

A new set of ethical issues is being discussed. The FAA is looking into how to regulate what some call ‘the drone age.’ When liberals say things like ‘Bush would have been impeached if he did what Obama is doing,” rest assured it’s newsworthy and conservatives should jump on the story.

Tina Brown, editor for the Daily Beast/Newsweek basically admitted to media hypocrisy saying:

“He’d be impeached by now for drones if he was George W. Bush… a Republican president; the outcry about drones would be far greater.”

Recently, memos on the president’s drone-use policy were released, perhaps to make Obama look stronger in fighting terror. Ironically, when first elected, Obama used the word “terror” only once in his 2009 inaugural address. Times have changed. The Obama administration has openly carried out more than six times the drone attacks approved by the Bush White House; and the main reason most Americans are unaware is the media looks the other way.

Obama made closing the Guantanamo Bay prison a campaign issue and has been unable to follow up on his promise. Instead, he now seems to favor a policy of killing to avoid prisoner detention. With few exceptions, the media has apparently been fine with openly using drones – that have killed many innocent bystanders – when they feverishly protested the use of enhanced interrogation techniques under Bush. They and Obama considered waterboarding prisoners to be ‘torture’; but they justify this policy of bombing suspects with no judicial review or trial.

The drone controversy has been brewing for months now. Judge Andrew Napolitano recently emphasized that the government’s legal memos on Obama’s policy to kill people overseas includes American citizens. Memos were released after a year of stonewalling federal judges who were seeking legal justification on drone use. What is this administration’s legal basis for claiming the right to kill without due process, thus suspending guaranteed constitutional protections?

The undated and unsigned 16-page document leaked to NBC refers to itself as a Department of Justice white paper. Its logic is flawed, its premises are bereft of any appreciation for the values of the Declaration of Independence and the supremacy of the Constitution, and its rationale could be used to justify any breaking of any law by any “informed, high-level official of the U.S. government.”

Under the Constitution, the president can only order killing using the military when the United States has been attacked, or when an attack is imminent. Obama and his advisers have used the word “surgical” to defend the use of drones as humane and necessary; but the fact is that out of the 2,300 drone-caused deaths, approximately 14 percent have been innocent civilians.

Such gravitas caused PBS’s Bill Moyers to question those who gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, implying it has become tarnished. Moyers now feels the president is indifferent to collateral damage and even called Obama’s drone use “cold-blooded.”

Ultra-liberal Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill even admitted the media refuses to hold Obama accountable, saying “I think the problem is we [Democrats] have convinced ourselves that Obama’s drones are somehow softer and kinder and gentler than Bush’s drones.”

Eric Holder’s Justice Department provided justification for killing the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico, in an American drone strike in September 2011. Note that Obama and Holder had the audacity to denounce the legal method of interrogating terrorists by waterboarding, decrying former VP Dick Cheney’s defense of the policy. The double standards are astounding.

For once, I give the ACLU credit for calling the new memo a disturbing document, saying it’s a “stunning overreach of executive authority.” In his confirmation hearing for the CIA, John Brennan defended Obama’s counterterrorism program; and despite evidence, he stated that drone attacks are carried out “as a last resort, to save lives when there is no other alternative.”

Where is the line drawn? It should alarm us that our government also has the authority to use drones against its own people. During the Obama administration, conservatives, Tea Party participants, and even our veterans can be scrutinized by as dangerous or suspicious.

Referring to a 2012 DHS report, retired Army lieutenant colonel Robert Maginnis writes:

Is this a slippery slope whereby the government might turn drone technology on Americans at home it labels “terrorists”? That’s an alarming thought, but so are past statements made by this government…  [The 2012 report advocates] warning police to be suspicious of anyone that feels their way of life is endangered, anyone that is religious, and anyone that might be interested in “personal liberty” and/or firearms.

The domestic drone market is now expected to grow quickly. Congress must debate this controversial policy and set clear boundaries before it gets out of hand. I’m all for defending America, but not at the expense of increased government power and authority over the very citizens they’ve pledged to protect and serve.

Evangelist Ray Comfort produced a documentary (180 movie) in which he gets people thinking about ethical dilemmas involving life. Comfort asks: “It’s 1939, you have a high-powered rifle, and you have Hitler in your sights. Would you pull the trigger?” After most respond “yes,” he then asks: “If it was 30 years earlier, would you have killed Hitler’s pregnant mother knowing what you know now?”

If drone killing isn’t controversial enough for the media to report on, either they don’t value all life – including life in the womb – or they prioritize protecting the president they voted for over telling American citizens the truth. Maybe it’s both.

 

*To catch up on the first three articles in this media malpractice series, click here.

Photo credit: axeman3d (Creative Commons)

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Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 3): ‘Occupy Vs. The Tea Party’

February 9, 2013 by 7 Comments

occupyVSteaparty Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 3): ‘Occupy vs. the Tea Party’

Do you believe recent polls or reports saying the Tea Party is dwindling? The media has swayed public opinion on this, but conservatives must be reminded to stay the course.

Occupy Wall Street was promoted effusively by the mainstream media; yet on the one year anniversary of OWS last September, New York City could only muster 1,000 demonstrators. Where are they now? A common catalyst leading to the breakout of the Tea Party in 2009 and Occupy in 2011 was the policies of Barack Obama.

It’s been proven that OWS was about as spontaneous as the attack at Benghazi. The movement was a planned uprising organized by socialists, unions, and left-wing activists. We now know many protestors had jobs, good incomes, or college degrees while hypocritically demanding economic justice in the hopes of overthrowing America’s systems.

In contrast, I recently spoke at a Tea Party meeting. Though the movement has branched off into many organized groups, there are hundreds of weekly and monthly meetings continuing to take place across America. The TP has not gone away and continues to be a thorn in the side of the Obama White House and the moderate Republican establishment.

These were two of the biggest public movements affecting America in years, but there was a stark difference in how the media reported on them. For example, Occupy Wall Street drew 24 broadcast network stories in the first nine days of coverage while the Tea Party drew only 19 in the first nine months! This isn’t journalism, folks. The media practically became OWS’s public relations department.

The Tea Party is a conservative grassroots entity. Occupy Wall Street is [was] a well-organized creation supported in part by the leftist Tides Foundation (a major recipient of George Soros’s funding), MoveOn.org, and international interests. Massive government spending and the passage of Obamacare were two major factors that galvanized the TP while Vancouver, Canada-based AdBusters, an anti-consumerist publication, sounded the initial call for OWS.

The TP endorses cutting both spending and taxes, reducing the national debt, and adherence to the US Constitution. They also aim to call awareness to issues challenging the security or sovereignty of the United States. OWS protested the disparity of wealth in America, capitalism, corporations, and big business. The primary OWS goals are equal distribution of wealth by government through taxation, financial aid for students/more jobs for college graduates, corporate regu­lation, and bank reform.

ABC, CBS, and NBC flooded their morning and evening newscasts in October 2011 with 33 full stories on OWS. In contrast, the Tea Party was initially ignored.

The story ratio was nineteen favorable to only one critical of OWS (190 to 10.) When confrontations erupted between the police and protestors, networks, being sympathetic to the OWS cause, were much more likely to pin the blame on police. Overall, American media continued to overlook arrests, property damage, public health concerns, assaults, and anti-Semitism.

What did OWS produce? Over 7,719 arrests in 122 different cities as of December 2012 (over two thousand in New York City alone.) Charges included civil disobedience, disturbing the peace, trespassing, drug use, and vandalism. Police rap sheets showed dozens of inci­dents of sexual assault, violence, and extortion.

There were at least nine deaths. The media also failed to report on the OWS money trail leading to big unions such as SEIU. The Nancy Pelosi-endorsed, White House-approved (President Obama said “We are on their side”) protests included American flags hung upside down, desecrated, or burned. Some protesters openly admitted to being Socialists, Communists, and Marxists; but the media was virtually silent on these associations.

Groups openly supporting OWS include the Communist Party USA, Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam, CAIR, the American Nazi Party, the Marxist Student Union, and the Socialist Party of America.

Conversely, the Tea Party produced the mobilization of tens of millions of American patriots, many of whom have never before been involved in politics. They fly their flags at peaceful rallies, and they’re proud of America’s founders and Constitution. They love this country and are willing to stand up to big government.

The DNC called the Tea Party “rabid right-wing extremists.” ABC said they were a “mob.” CNN accused them of “rabble rousing.” Harry Reid called them “evil mongers.” Nancy Pelosi said they were “un-American.” Anderson Cooper and other liberals simply insult them.

President Obama has unleashed a tidal wave of bills, executive orders, and policies in efforts to make good on his promise to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” The result has been monstrous debt, relentless regulation, increasing taxes, and social policies that go against our Christian values.

Remember when this administration caused such a massive voter backlash in the 2010 Midterm elections that the media had no idea how to spin the landslide? The GOP gained a record 65 seats in the House; Republicans also gained 680 seats in state legislatures and picked up ten state governorships. It was the largest margin of victory since the 1930’s. People of America woke up, spoke up, and voted. However, this is now about changing culture.

Our freedoms are under attack. We missed an opportunity in 2012 by failing to keep the momentum going. A friend recently reminded me, “Elections are not the leading edge of change. Elections are the lagging indicators of what’s already changed.”

Some now suggest our strategy needs to be: re-brand, retool, recruit, and re-engage. OWS may be plotting from underground, but the Tea Party is publicly active. We know what side the media is on. Let’s keep exposing hypocrisy and sharing the truth.

 Click here for Part 2, exposing Green Energy Failures/media protecting Obama:

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Media Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 2: Green Energy Failures)

February 5, 2013 by 7 Comments

EPA Green Regulations SC Media Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 2: Green Energy Failures)

Concerned American citizens who don’t know the facts about how our government uses taxpayer dollars are being misled because the truth is not reported by the media. Before the massive economic stimulus bill passed in 2009, VP Joe Biden insisted “We have to spend more money to keep from going bankrupt.” That was three and a half years ago, and Americans are still paying the bills.

We have a consistently anemic economy and high unemployment as well as increasing energy and healthcare costs. Is the government corrupt, or is it incompetent where handling taxpayer dollars is concerned? That stimulus money was supposed to lead to shovel-ready jobs – immediate economic growth – but as the president himself chuckled, “Shovel ready was not as shovel ready as we expected.”

Just last week, Obama shut down the Jobs Council that apparently was created as a photo op used to dupe the public into believing they were trying to get people back to work and recharge the economy.

In the case of the energy market, the government’s decisions have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Let’s look at some under-reported facts.

Ten months ago, another Obama-backed solar company in California, Solar Trust for America, declared bankruptcy after receiving $2.1 billion in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy (DOE). According to the Wash­ington Examiner, Energy Secretary Steven Chu boasted the deal was “the largest amount ever offered to a solar project.”

Through the massive economic stimulus, the Obama administra­tion basically funneled money to their Democratic allies; and even with all the evidence of failure, the media protects the administration, disregarding American citizens in the process. It sounds good to ‘invest’ in green energy and the future of America, but government typically rewards companies that are loyal to those who make the policies. Crony Capitalism 101.

Reports have noted that $80 billion was set aside in the 2009 Obama stimulus; and instead of creating desperately-needed jobs, the administration funded politically preferred energy projects. The DOE immediately provided over $35 billion in loans, loan guarantees, and conditional commitments to renewable energy companies before the American public knew what was going on. Sadly, many still don’t know.

Money was poured into companies that had poor track records. More than 36 companies have received money from generous U.S. taxpayers and have either gone bankrupt or are in the process of major cuts and layoffs. One spectacular failure is Brightsource Energy, which used $1.6 billion in taxpayer money.

First Solar received $1.46 billion. Next, Solyndra, a solar manufacturer, received a $535 million loan guarantee from the DOE and went bankrupt. Fisker Automotive, the electric vehicle manufacturer, received a $529 million DOE stimulus loan and has gone through layoffs. Evergreen Solar received $527 million.

Abound Solar received $400 million and has declared bankruptcy. Battery maker A123 received a $249 million stimulus grant from the DOE and has had layoffs. Ener1 received a $118.5 million stimulus grant; now, they are bankrupt. (Ener1 was on the White House list of 100 Projects that are Changing America.)

A few other glaring green energy failures include: Johnson Controls ($299 million), A123 Systems ($279 million), Babcock and Brown ($178 million), LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($151 million), ECOtality ($126.2 million), and Mascoma Corp. ($100 million). See Heritage Foundation’s extended list.

THIS ISN’T NEWSWORTHY? Even an AP report showed Solyndra hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars years before the Obama administration signed off on the $535 million loan! The California-based company was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy. Obama looked at the “investment” into Solyndra as a model.

At the time, Michigan Republican Fred Upton, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, warned:

“In this time of record debt, I question whether the govern­ment is qualified to act as a venture capitalist, picking winners and losers in speculative ventures and shelling out billions of taxpayer dollars to keep them afloat.”

Solyndra announced bankruptcy on August 31st, 2011; and in October, the Media Research Center released a study that exposed ABC, CBS, and NBC because they rarely mentioned it. It was just the opposite of their reporting on Enron, an energy company with Republican ties during the Bush administration:

“In just the first two months of 2002, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts cranked out 198 stories on the Enron debacle, compared to just eight (at the time of this study) on Obama’s Solyndra, which is a 24-to-1 disparity.”

How about investing in the private economy? There is no substantial proof green jobs are going to be successful in the near future. The green energy loan program was supposed to create 65,000 jobs, but reports could claim only 3,545 jobs.

The Obama White House and DOE stuck with Solyndra because its largest financial backer was George Kaiser, a major financial donor to Obama. Accuracy in Media’s Roger Aronoff stated: “This goes against the media narrative that Obama operates on a higher ethical plane than previous scandal plagued politicians.”

An entire month after Solyndra declared bankruptcy, a Pew survey found 43% of Americans “had never even heard of the scandal.” As for MSNBC, their primetime lineup went months without even acknowledging Solyndra.

Will this administration relent on its agenda? Just three months ago, Obama told an audience in Wisconsin that they’d continue to gamble with taxpayer dollars on green energy projects, confessing that “some of the businesses we encourage” with government loans “will fail” like Solyndra.

Bankruptcies and failures won’t diminish the Obama administration’s drive to keep spending our money as long as the media refuses to hold them accountable.

 

In Part 1 of this series on media malpractice, we noted the lack of truthful reporting on abortion, and an overall abuse of power.

Photo credit: terrellaftermath

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The Media: Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 1)

January 30, 2013 by 22 Comments

Obama Media Sleeping Dog Lie SC The Media: Keeping Americans Uninformed (Part 1)

The majority of Americans don’t believe that the mainstream media reports accurately and fairly. Polls also show that distrust of today’s media is at a record high. It is important to understand where their loyalty lies; and by their reporting, it’s extremely easy to see that the elite media has an anti-Christian, secular-progressive worldview. Pay attention to how they report the news, especially when it comes to religion, politics, and social issues.

Does the media monitor the power of the United States government, regardless of whether there is a Republican or Democrat in the White House? Do they report on subjects such as abortion or same-sex marriage with no bias, and do they treat conservatives differently than they do liberals? Do they omit certain stories if the facts don’t support their narrative? Most of us already know the answers to these questions.

We’re going to examine the growing March for Life movement and look at the actual numbers, but let’s first look at a few basic Principles of Journalism:

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to tell the truth

2. Its first loyalty is to citizens

3. Its essence is a discipline of verification

4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover

5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power

Has the media reported in detail on the hundreds of executive orders President Obama has signed – more than any other president – in just his first four years in office? He recently signed 23 executive orders on gun control alone. Today, however, we’re talking about life.

Approximately 83% of Americans feel abortion should have some restrictions placed on it by law, but only 3% of media elites do. Translation: the media often believe or support the exact opposite of the majority of citizens to whom they report the news. The president’s abortion views are extreme. On last year’s Roe V. Wade anniversary, Obama said he intends to “continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.”

According to Life Site News, the 2012 March for Life was estimated at around 400,000 participants, likely putting this year’s event at the half million mark. At what other time in America do a half a million people rally for the same cause every single year?  The event was promoted and shared by many on social media through blogs, photos, status updates, and tweets; but the major media outlets either downplayed the story or ignored it altogether.

Instead, they preferred to report on Beyoncé lip-syncing the National Anthem, a college football player with an imaginary girlfriend, Hollywood liberals handing out more awards, gun control, and the First Lady’s new hairstyle. Instead of holding State Department officials accountable for the Benghazi assassination scandal, the media chose to swoon over Hillary Clinton, even though her testimony was calculated, masterfully evasive, and uninformative.

Polls have shown that a majority of Americans believe abortion is morally wrong. According to one Gallup poll, 61% say abortion should be illegal. Next to preaching the gospel/free speech, this is the most important Christian battle in the public arena. We rarely hear much about abortion in the news media.

As a general rule of thumb, esti­mated numbers at pro-abortion marches are doubled or multiplied while numbers at pro-life events – if mentioned at all – are cut in half, minimized, or ignored. This is interesting, given that the pro-life movement is much larger than the civil rights movement ever was.

The culture war in America often intensifies whenever liberals feel outnumbered or threatened. Remember Chick-Fil-A Day last summer? The battle for life is no different.

One of the biggest battlefields in the country is the media. Think about this for a minute: you can search the Internet for, watch on television, or read about nearly everything imaginable under the sun. However, isn’t it peculiar and suspicious that it can be extremely difficult to find detailed, factual information on the truth about abortion?

We’re talking about one of the most common, frequent ‘medical procedures’ in America. Try finding helpful, biological, and medical specifics about exactly how abortion is performed as well as any possible cautions, repercussions, and side effects. Last week, I wrote about the anguish of abortion, including verifiable symptoms a woman may experience as well as many cases that resulted in death.

Celebrated and sold as choice, freedom, privacy, and rights, abortion has been covered up by the mainstream media or re-framed as a fight for birth control. Sadly, the message to kids and young single adults is sex without consequences. What a disservice, especially to women who’ve gone through the grief, guilt, or regret of their decision.

The new normal where journalism is concerned is if a story doesn’t fit their narrative and their politics, the mainstream media with their anti-biblical worldview simply refuse to report the honest facts to citizens they’re supposedly informing. Rather than telling people about problems in America that affect us, they ARE part of the problem in America.

The media has too much power: power to influence people, affect public opinion, and sway elections – and they do. Know the truth, share information, and help change culture.

If you’re concerned like I am about the lack of truth in journalism today, know what news outlets you can trust and share those sources with others. Talk to friends, write, blog, email, and, most importantly, pray for this nation! We should be asking God to open people’s eyes to what’s really happening in this country. Maybe He will still have mercy on America.

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The Anguish Of Abortion: What They Won’t Tell You

January 22, 2013 by 7 Comments

Abortion Protestor SC The Anguish Of Abortion: What They Won’t Tell You

Last week, graphic autopsy images were released of a woman dying from a legal abortion. Her mother insisted the photos be made public. The story broke my heart.

As 18-year-old Marla Cardamone lay in her casket prior to viewing, the funeral director suggested to Marla’s mother, Deborah, they close the casket so people would not see Marla’s disfigured face. Deborah Caramone told him to leave the casket open. She hopes to expose the lies of the abortion industry and wants people to understand that abortions are not always ‘safe and legal’. In order to do this, she bravely chose to show her daughter’s bruised and swollen face, caused by abortion-related complications. Marla died at a Pennsylvania hospital, and Deborah Cardamone vowed her daughter would not be forgotten.

Just a few days earlier, a medical counselor pushed Marla to have an abortion, telling her that the prescription medication she had been taking would cause her baby to be born with severe birth defects. Following Marla’s death, it was determined by doctors that her baby had no abnormalities.

Father Frank Pavone once said that “America will never resist abortion until America sees abortion.”

Thanks in part to advances in technology such as ultrasound imagery, it’s clear and easy to see a growing and moving fetus inside a mother’s womb, which has raised awareness that an unborn child is alive and human and that abortion is murder.

Americans have tolerated the evil of legalized abortion and have become so desensitized to violence and death that we don’t see eliminating innocent human life as a brutal or selfish act – or at least we don’t speak up about it enough. God have mercy on our hardened hearts.

I recently had a head-spinning conversation with a young woman about defining life. She was so disconnected with the Bible, reality, and science that she insisted that if she became pregnant, whatever it was growing inside her was not technically alive unless she was at a point in her life where she was ready and wanted to have a baby. Apparently, this is called ‘reproductive justice.’

On this 40-year anniversary of Roe V. Wade when approximately 57 million babies have been legally prevented from being born – thanks to un-elected federal judges enforcing immorality on all Americans in 1973 – Planned Parenthood receives $542 million a year from U.S. taxpayers. Some states are trying to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, but this barely puts a dent in their $1 billion annual budget. Regardless, abortion on demand remains the law of the land.

You may have heard the numbers: 1 in every 9 women who visit Planned Parenthood ends up having an abortion, which results in one every 94 seconds. (In all abortion clinics nationwide, there is an abortion every 26 seconds.)

A new Marist poll shows that 83% of Americans favor significant restrictions on abortion. Nineteen states enacted 43 restrictions on abortion services last year, and even more restrictions were enacted in 2011. However, restricting the murder of the unborn is not enough. Even reversing Roe v. Wade wouldn’t stop the evil of man. Our culture is too far gone, and only God through Jesus Christ can change human hearts. We need to reach people with the message that every single life is a divine gift and has value.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about America’s Culture of Death: the dark history of the abortion, birth control, and eugenics movement in America pioneered by Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger. It’s important to understand her warped worldview along with her atheist, feminist, and elitist mindset that justified population control in order to successfully engage in the present battle for life and morality.

Sadly, we seldom hear an extremely important part of this discussion in the pro-choice media or anywhere: the trauma of abortions often cause years of emotional pain, torment, and anguish. This is both deceptive and problematic.

Many young women who tell others about their abortion try to act normal and hide the fact that they are in physical or emotional pain. Many experience severe trauma soon after receiving an abortion. These are some of the verifiable symptoms a woman may experience:

  • Alcohol or drug use to distract from the pain, anger, anxiety (probably non-specific or in form of panic attack), and abusive relationships (believing she doesn’t deserve anything better).
  • Denial/repression (the “pushing down” of intolerable emotions), depression, deterioration of self-worth/self-image, disruption in relationships (increasing inability to be intimate or social with friends and family).
  • Eating disorders, feelings of helplessness or powerlessness, flashbacks, grief, guilt, having unprotected sex or increased sexual activity as self-punishment.
  • Nightmares about a baby crying, death, or the same nightmare over and over; preoccupation with the abortion procedure or thoughts of babies.
  • Regret, remorse, sadness to the point of inability to handle basic responsibilities, self-destructive behavior, and suicidal thoughts or attempts.

If you have had an abortion, here are a few questions to consider: What were you like before your abortion, and have you changed? Would you now advise your best friend or sister not to have an abortion if she were considering it? Did you have an abortion in spite of believing it was wrong at the time? Do you experience explosive emotions, or do you shut down? If you were a Christian before having an abortion, has your relationship with God changed?

In a study of post-abortion patients only 8 weeks after their abortion, researchers found that 44% complained of nervous disorders, 36% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor.

According to Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University, “Women who have had an abortion have an 81% higher risk of subsequent mental health problems compared to women who have not had an abortion. Also, women who aborted have a 138% (another study showed 160%) higher risk of mental health problems compared to women who have given birth.”

A New Zealand study that tracked women for more than three decades discovered that 42% of women who aborted experienced major depression. There is accurate information available; but the media, Hollywood, government, and the abortion industry rarely address this issue.

Tragically, ignoring or denying these truths only increase chances that there will be more cases similar to Marla Cardamone’s.

In 2012, the mother of a 24-year-old woman who died after an abortion filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Illinois. Tonya Reaves died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital July 20 after she began to hemorrhage at a Planned Parenthood clinic. They waited for over five hours before sending her to the hospital. The Autopsy stated that Miss Reaves suffered from an incomplete abortion. The story got little coverage.

Several years earlier, 25-year-old Diana Lopez was 19 weeks pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Los Angeles for an abortion. Before the day was over, Ms. Lopez – just like Ms. Reaves – had bled to death from a botched abortion.

Another 18-year-old, Holly Patterson, entered a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hayward, California seeking a chemical abortion. She died seven days later (September 17) as a result of an incomplete abortion causing a severe bacterial infection. A Women’s Enews correspondent reported:

Holly had taken RU-486, an abortion drug that has been used by more than 1 million women worldwide and is widely viewed as a safe alternative to surgical abortion. But Holly died tragically of a massive infection after taking the drug protocol.

In July 2011, the FDA reported 2,207 adverse events in the U.S. after women used the RU-486 regimen. Among those were 14 deaths, 612 hospitalizations, 339 blood transfusions, and 256 infections (including 48 “severe infections”).

Tragically, many so-called ‘counselors’ at abortion clinics downplay mental and physical health risks the majority of the time in order to sell customers abortions, not to mention the fact that the procedure will violently end a child’s life. My heart goes out to those who believe the godless lie that this “procedure” is justified under the labels of choice and privacy.

In our sexually permissive and progressive culture, it’s no wonder young women are sexually active; and those who have had abortions need our prayers, not our judgment. Being a product of American culture, post-abortive women, especially religious women, are most likely suffering enough for their sin. At that point, they first need God’s forgiveness and then need to learn how to forgive themselves.

The promotion of biblical principles and abstinence education in churches, schools, and society is vital in order to affect positive change. Stop messing around, yes. Use protection, yes. Limit abortions, yes. Vote for pro-life candidates, yes. Stop funding Planned Parenthood with our tax dollars, yes! But we also need to remember the power of prayer; the Word of God; and true, caring Christianity. People may not respond to debates, laws, or rules; but they most always – eventually – respond to unconditional love. Let’s keep speaking the truth and fighting for life.

“Christ died that we might live. Abortion kills so that someone might live differently.” -John Piper

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Washington’s Spending Addiction And Fiscal Deception

January 12, 2013 by 3 Comments

Congress Washington’s Spending Addiction And Fiscal Deception

There has been plenty of confusion and misinformation about the national debt, the fiscal cliff, and new taxes on Americans thanks in part to the use of clever White House talking points and a complicit national media. Let’s clear up some of the current issues with facts and truth by looking at the numbers.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the latest fiscal cliff deal will add an additional $4 trillion to the national deficit. This is not a good way to begin 2013. What we do know is that the 150-page Obama-Biden-Reid ‘Tax And Spend’ increase passed the Senate and House with few details getting out to American taxpayers. Only ignorant and under-informed citizens still believe that there is any accountability in the Obama administration or that they’re attempting to govern with transparency.

With new Obamacare taxes already kicking in as of January 1, this is not a good sign. We constantly heard the president and his minions say that “taxes will not increase for the majority of Americans,” especially for those making less than $250,000 a year.

What we now know is the farcical fiscal deal doesn’t just hit the wealthy hard; taxes now increase for 77% of Americans because the temporary payroll tax cut was not extended, causing the Social Security tax to jump 2%, from 4.2 to 6.2 percent. We are now taking home anywhere from $50 to $189 less every month.

Already, many poor and middle-class folks have reacted in anger or shock, including some Democrats who believed it would not affect them. The average American family making $50,000 a year will be hit with around $1,000 due to tax increases.

How quickly we forget that in just one term, President Obama increased the national debt as much as all prior Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush combined.

Before continuing, let’s recall a 2008 quote from then-Senator Obama who blasted President Bush for adding $4 trillion to the national debt – even though most Democrats and Republicans agreed to the spending in the hopes of avoiding a crash of the U.S. banking system and economy:

The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child.

Hopefully, more open-minded Americans now see the hypocrisy of Obama claiming that the Bush administration’s spending was both “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.”

To raise taxes on people in all tax brackets (not just “the rich”) was a mind-boggling move in what many call a recession, but this is exactly what they enacted. Cuts were not considered, now was the national debt of $16.4 trillion; so the hard-working people in America lose.

Before we detail some of the pork, it needs to be pointed out that the bill seems to take direct aim at married couples, penalizing them with hundreds of dollars in what might as well be called fines. Heterosexual marriage is practically being discouraged against. Families are the backbone of the free market system and key to getting the economy growing again. We’re now seeing evidence that this administration has much more invested in growing government than the private sector.

Senators received the fiscal cliff bill at the last minute and voted on it without reading through the legislation. Who can forget the Obamacare bill being shoved through Congress (while Nancy Pelosi infamously said “You have to pass it to find out what’s in it.”)? What did Pelosi think of the fiscal cliff resolution? She said it was “a happy start to a new year.” The bill contains $25.1 billion in cuts, however; big government liberals are thrilled because the same bill also increases spending by $330 billion over ten years.

Basically, the deal contains $10 in tax increases for every $1 in spending cuts. Imagine trying to operate a family budget or small business using this method.

President Obama approved of the temporary band-aid as he continued his Hawaiian vacation on the taxpayer dime. He successfully piled America’s fiscal problems onto taxpayers, further showing he never cared about cutting spending. This is who half of American voters chose to reelect.

Also seeing major tax increases are those earning $400,000 and couples that make $450,000 – sounds like a marriage penalty to me – including capital gains and dividend taxes. Moreover, deductions are now limited for individuals making more than $250,000 ($300,000 for couples). It seems like the Left no longer only considers millionaires “rich.”

Our government is adding about $4 billion a day to the national debt while the new ‘spending money we don’t have’ deal provides generous tax breaks, perks, and pork to selected corporate friends. The list includes:

$12.1 billion for the wind-energy (green) sector, $430 million for Hollywood film producers, $222 million for rum distillers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, $331 million for railroad operators, $650 million tax break for manufacturers of energy-efficient appliances, and $59 million to algae growers for biofuel efforts.

Meanwhile, unemployment has barely budged, food stamps have massively increased, and U-6 Total unemployment remains at 14.4 percent.

If any good news can come from Republicans caving again, John Boehner told the Wall Street Journal he will never again negotiate with Obama behind closed doors because the president has shown his true red colors, and his actions don’t match his public statements.

At one point several weeks ago, the President said to me, ‘We don’t have a spending problem.’” Once he got over his shock, the House Speaker fired back, “‘But Mr. President, we have a very serious spending problem.’

In keeping with the motto of not letting a good crisis go to waste, even the Senate wouldn’t even help hurricane Sandy victims without dealing themselves millions in new pork. Nearly a quarter of the $60-billion package goes somewhere else than directly to the victims or the infrastructure actually damaged by the hurricane. No surprises here. Both parties are at fault.

It seems our leaders in Washington keep doing the same things over and over again and expect different results. It’s fiscal insanity. Democrats now say the fiscal cliff is just the tip of the taxing iceberg while Republicans say they’ve compromised enough. According to The Hill, the President’s party is pushing for another trillion in “new revenue” before the year is out. Revenue (government income) to them means taxing the people. Americans are taxed enough already. Have we now gone past the point of no return? How much more will the people take?

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America’s Culture Of Death: We Need Abortion Control, Not Gun Control

January 6, 2013 by 13 Comments

abortion is murder America’s Culture of Death: We Need Abortion Control, Not Gun Control

“The most merciful thing a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” –Margaret Sanger

America does not have a gun problem; we have an apathy problem. Our consciences have been seared, and protecting the innocent is no longer a priority. We have become desensitized to evil, the very evil that has led to life being devalued in the United States. If polls show that the majority of American citizens do not approve of taxpayer funding of abortion, why do we continually pay for this brutal act? If the average American doesn’t speak up, at least Christians should.

Less than two percent of abortions are due to rape or a mother’s life being threatened, so why do we rarely hear an honest discussion about reducing or eliminating the 98% of abortions performed because of convenience, selfishness, and other unbiblical reasons? Furthermore, why do we continue allowing government to force all working Americans to pay for all of abortions in America?

In Psalm 139:13-16, the Bible teaches about God creating life:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and won­derfully made; your works are wonderful…. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

We need to look at how this ongoing evil has come to be accepted; and in order to do this, it’s important to expose Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s legacy of death.

The following is an excerpt from Eradicate: Blotting Out God in America:

Ninety-six. Remember this number. A baby is aborted at a Planned Parenthood facility somewhere in America every 96 seconds. In that same amount of time, Planned Parenthood receives about $1,056 taxpayer dollars. That equals eleven dollars a second and allows them to abort 910 lives every day. How did it get to the point in America where we kill our own and call it a choice? It sure did not happen overnight, but it does occur – Every 96 seconds…

Eugenics: Shocking history of a Warped Worldview

Most everyone would consider Adolf Hitler pure evil, and yet few people know he was as inspired by the eugenics movement in America as Margaret Sanger was about Germany’s progress. Eugenics is the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics), OR encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics). Hold on to your coffee while we connect some dots.

In her 1922 book The Pivot of Civilization, Margaret Sanger wrote:

Constructive Eugenics aims to arouse the enthusiasm or the interest of the people in the welfare of the world fifteen or twenty generations in the future. On its negative side it shows us that we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all – that the wealth of individuals and of states is being diverted from the development and the progress of human expression and civilization.

What Adolf Hitler did to millions of Jews through eugenics and sterilization, Margaret Sanger has dwarfed by pioneering a movement causing the abortion of over one hundred million babies in the United States alone. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger promoted a eugenic ideology that eventually led to the gas chambers in Germany. A truth seeking, fair-minded person cannot read Sanger’s writings without seeing her influence in America and the world.

Sanger’s publication, The Birth Control Review, was founded in 1917; and through the years, she often published articles from eugenicists such as Ernst Rudin.

Ernst Rudin (1874-1952) was a psychiatrist who worked as Adolf Hitler’s director of genetic sterilization and founded the Nazi Society for Racial Hygiene, which was Germany’s racial purity program. But what most people fail to realize is that it was the United States that led the forced sterilization movement, which began on the mentally ill and on prisoners. Between 1907 and 1939, more than 30,000 people in twenty-nine states were sterilized, many of them unknowingly or against their will, while they were incarcerated in American prisons or mental institutions. Nearly half the operations were carried out in California.

In 1932, Margaret Sanger published “A Plan for Peace” in the April issue of her Birth Control Review, which included the following as part of her agenda:

“To give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization. To apportion farm lands and homesteads for these segregated persons where they would be taught to work under competent instructors for their entire lives.

  • “The first step would thus be to control the intake and output of morons, mental defectives, epileptics.
  • “The second step would be to take an inventory of the secondary group such as illiterates, paupers, unemployables, criminals, prostitutes, dope fiends; classify them in special departments under government medical protection; and segregate them on farms and open spaces as long as necessary…

Ernst Rudin’s article, “Eugenic Sterilization: An Urgent Need”, was also published in 1932 in Sanger’s Birth Control Review journal. The following year, Rudin drafted the Nazi Sterilization Law in Germany that originally called for the sterilization of “schizophrenics”, “alcoholics”, and “manic-depressives” – the subjects of Rudin’s research. As these legal sterilizations began, programs were already underway to sterilize “black” Germans and expanded to include Jews, Gypsies, and, in the words of Rudin, other “inferior race types.” This led to the establishment of a killing program that began at several of Germany’s psychiatric hospitals.

After World War II had concluded, the horrors of eugenics and Nazi atrocities – including the use of concentration camps, human experimentation, and the gas chamber – were exposed. Sanger acted deceptively and quickly to attempt to distance herself and the Birth Control League from the Third Reich’s “Final Solution”. Her idea to change the name of her organization was a shrewd one, desiring no trace of her close Nazi associations. Until that time, the birth control and the eugenics movements were nearly impossible to separate…

At the Nuremberg Trials in 1945, Allied prosecutors recited the appalling account of Nazi crimes, including the practice of forced sterilization. One of the excuses given by the German Socialists who defended their drastic population control measures was that they were inspired by the progress of the birth control movement in the United States, which was not a lie. By 1956, abortion became legal in eleven more European nations; and within another few years, UN Agencies would begin to subsidize Planned Parenthood programs in many other countries…

Some may argue that Planned Parenthood is not just about choice, but also about women’s health, and they provide other services such as counseling. If they make money with every single abortion, but lose money if a young woman changes her mind and walks out their door, which way do you think Planned Parenthood ‘counsels’ girls? Of all pregnant girls and women seen by Planned Parenthood, 91% end up having abortions. First of all, thank God for the nine percent!

Recent statistics show that the ratio of aborted babies to adoption refer­rals is 340 to 1. For every one potential adoption, 340 lives are destroyed. Total Planned Parenthood health center income from all of their “services” is nearly $405 Million. When we add the federal funding to this figure, it is over $1 Billion dollars! Planned Parenthood has now grown to nearly 900 clinics across America.

We must pray that America miraculously develops a conscience again and that Christian hearts are softened. Our ministers, pastors, and priests must get involved again and talk openly about abortion. We must also elect more con­servative, pro-life, and pro-family representatives to local and state legis­latures. This truly is one of the most important battles in our culture because our rights – including out right to life – comes from God. We need to tell people the truth and highlight the contrast of two completely opposite worldviews.

“It is a vicious cycle; ignorance breeds poverty and poverty breeds ignorance. There is only one cure for both, and that is to stop breeding these things. Stop bringing to birth children whose inheritance cannot be one of health or intelligence. Stop bringing into the world children whose parents cannot provide for them. Herein lies the key of civilization.” – Margaret Sanger

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; Jeremiah 1:5

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In The Midst Of Evil, Hope: The Christmas Message

December 19, 2012 by 3 Comments

Cross SC In The Midst of Evil, Hope: The Christmas Message

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished… The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble, And He knows those who take refuge in Him. (Nahum 1:3; 7)

A horrific tragedy, so close to Christmas, leaves a shocked nation mourning.

The darkness and ugliness of evil has captured America once again. This time, it was a massacre inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a masked gunman took the lives of six adults and twenty children between the ages of 5 – 10. Stories are emerging, and details will continue to be learned about that day about the victims, the heroes, the school, the security of public schools, and the motives and psychology of the killer, Adam Lanza. Debates will continue about how to prevent something like this from happening again.

Many will try to make this a political issue and point to gun control, better security, or safer buildings and classrooms. Few will suggest there is no way to stop someone that is committed and determined to kill. How unthinkable that a person could aim a gun at precious, innocent children and take their young lives. There are reports the twenty year-old killer may have had mental health problems; but how could anyone take so many lives, especially children? He saw them as objects rather than human beings.

Early reports said the killer was a ‘goth kid’ into dark video games. Have we become desensitized to how violent video games have become? They don’t rate many of them ‘M for Mature’ for no reason. Guns have been around for hundreds of years; video games have been around for just over a few decades.

Hollywood continues producing the most violent, sadistic movies, television programs, and morbid video games that glorify graphic violence and killing people. They’re selling like crazy to today’s youth and our entertainment-driven culture. Some kids now have a harder time differentiating between fantasy and real life when it comes to violence. Why don’t more people cite the countless studies that have been done proving violent movies, TV, and video games encourage children to act out and to justify violent behavior?

Why are we reluctant to call this what it truly is? This is a moral issue, and America has all but abandoned God in the public square. Satan is a very real enemy, and the Bible teaches: “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10) Jesus, however, came to lay down His own life for us that we might have access to God the Father and be given eternal life. (John 10:11)

Yes, the Sandy Hook school massacre was a senseless, heart-wrenching tragedy; but we are powerless to completely stop the forces of evil. Pure evil cannot and does not wait; evil respects no one. A shocked America has again been reminded of this present darkness. The answer is not more laws, better security, or thicker windows and walls in public places. The answer is not gun control. (In Israel, female teachers carry guns in school to protect children.)

Are we ready to face the truth about evil? Will we now take some responsibility for how and what we are teaching young people in American schools? The killer had been out of school for less than two years. Almost anything is allowed in government-run public schools that the Bible would consider unwise, harmful (and in many cases, sinful.) Conversely, what has been kicked out of public schools? Prayer, the mention of Jesus Christ, God’s laws, and the Bible itself. How has this been working out for us?

Kids are learning moral relativism, and more Americans are having a hard time discerning good and evil. Our standards of morality and responsibility have dropped dramatically, and we have allowed life itself to be devalued in our ungodly society. We are naïve to think that ignoring the causes of evil will eliminate evil. We need common sense.

American culture devalues life and in the process has all but eradicated God and the Judeo-Christian principles we were founded upon. The tragedy in Connecticut will leave many broken lives, but we can be confident because we know Christ can heal broken hearts. However, too many of us forget the ongoing abortion holocaust in a country that claims to be predominantly pro-life. I’m talking about 55 million babies killed in mother’s wombs since unelected judges legalized abortion in 1973.

A cowardly killer takes the lives of twenty children at a school, and it impacts a nation while complicit killers take the lives of thousands of babies every day in America; and we silently give them permission to use our tax dollars to help fund the slaughter.

Last Friday’s tragedy in Connecticut reminds us that there is a spiritual battle between good and evil; without God, there can be no morality. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  (Jeremiah 17:9) Newtown, CT is a very small community about 45 miles from Hartford. If this kind of evil can occur in a small town, it can happen anywhere; but who knows – it may not have happened at all if God had not been blotted out of the public square starting in 1962.

It’s awful it had to happen so close to Christmas, and yet we know God allowed it – so close to Christmas. The only answer is the life, person, and teachings of Jesus Christ, without whom there is no cure, no hope, no solution, no salvation. He was sent to heal the brokenhearted and preach the good news to the poor in spirit. (Isaiah 61:1-2)

This is the message of Christmas: God sent His only Son – because He loves every one of us. In spite of the darkness, wickedness, and our ungodly culture, Jesus is called ‘Immanuel’ (which means: ‘God with us’.) This is the hope we profess. Our God is faithful, His love is everlasting, and His promises are true.

There will always be evil in the world, and what happened in Newtown, CT is a sobering reminder of why we must understand the times and share the Gospel with others who need hope. Let’s not just say ‘our thoughts and prayers go out’ to the hurting; let’s actually pray.

Only God knows the number of our days. While we’re here on earth, we are called to love, to bear one another’s burdens, and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) Jesus didn’t promise an easy life; but through Him, He did promise an overcoming life! In dark or desperate times, people are more open to the love and life Jesus Christ offers. Though we’re in a spiritual battle with evil all around us, we’re never without hope. Let’s share this message of Christmas today and all year long.

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Social Justice Politics And Class Warfare

December 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

Spirit Of Obama Class Warfare SC Social Justice Politics And Class Warfare

As I was preparing to write my weekly article, I came across a brand new report: According to the USDA, a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty. A few actual news outlets have reported the very real possibility that by the end of 2012, the numbers in the U.S. could surpass a mind-boggling 50 million Americans living in absolute poverty and collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person instead of working. In fact, just two months before the presidential election, the media kept a lid on the fact that there were three times more food stamp recipients added to the economy than jobs.

Big government is not just a present threat; it is a growing mindset and worldview. It is important to understand this battle for power. Here is an excerpt from my book, ERADICATE, BLOTTING OUT GOD IN AMERICA:

Social Justice is a code phrase of the left that believes in a class­less society and that all differences in wealth and property should be eliminated. It is a political movement that generally believes that people are born into an inflexible social order.

Religious liberals have invaded evangelical Christian churches with their version of social justice. They claim to back up their fight for pov­erty and world hunger by the use of selected Scriptures about helping the poor. Every individual Christian is responsible for obeying God’s Word and doing what we can to manage our resources to help those in need, and humanitarian efforts should coincide with the preaching of the gospel. Christians need to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but poverty and hunger will never completely be eradicated.

The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me (Mark 14:7 NIV).

To liberals, social justice means a level of fairness as defined by them and enforced by the state. Their argument is that the church has not done a good job taking care of the poor – which is true – so the government must step in. The solution should never be government intervention. When government gets involved, who decides how to allocate money? This promotes an unholy alliance between the church and state. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 5 that it is our responsibility to take care of “widows and orphans” and those who are unable to care for themselves.

Christians are to voluntarily tithe to the church and share their finances (distribute wealth) with the needy, not be forced by the government through taxes to unwillingly give to whoever the government says needs it the most (redistribute wealth). Can government be trusted to use the people’s money honestly?

If their definition of social justice is implemented and many poor people are fed, this meets their temporary physical need. With govern­ment involved, however, it would then be illegal for Christians to share the gospel with the poor to meet their spiritual need.

Life is not fair, but God is good. He is sovereign, all powerful; and He hates injustice. However, unfairness is inherent in the human con­dition. God is just; human beings typically are not. That’s where the church comes in. Jesus did not commission the Roman Government to help the poor, and He never advocated taxation on the wealthy to pay for the benefits of the less fortunate. The early church took care of the needs of the poor and also demonstrated how a system of heartfelt, voluntary distribution could work. The communal sharing of the early Christians in Acts chapter 2, for example, was virtually the opposite of the socio-economic Marxism some church leaders are calling for today.

We need to be careful about throwing the word “social” around. What is “socialized” is state-controlled. Here in the United States, we have tried throwing more money at the problem of poverty, and we have found it does not work (see Detroit). When corrupt men are in charge of distributing money, it most often does not get to the people who really need help. Communism has also failed worldwide, and Marxism should have taught the world a permanent lesson.

Over the years, our churches and ministries in America have made the average citizen better, have fed countless millions around the world, and financed the spreading of the gospel. Without nations influenced by Jesus Christ and biblical Christianity, the world would be a much darker place; and there would be considerably more poverty both spiri­tually and economically. Would a system of socialism allow the church to do any of this?

Author and commentator Erik Rush, the man credited with breaking the story about President Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Black Liberation Theology, called social justice Christians another “well-organized group of traitors” to America. Rush said their religion has become superficial:

As with health-care reform … many are aware that social and environmental ‘justice’ issues are not about justice at all; they are calculated to deliver unprecedented levels of power to the federal government. I declare that ‘social justice Christianity’ is apostasy; its adher­ents have abandoned their faith for a cause…. While some are misguided Christians, others (like Jim Wallis) are out-and-out Marxist posers. Proverbially, they now stand with the Saddu­cees and Rome, against Israel. While I pray that God will have mercy on their souls, we must show them no mercy politically.

Jesus did not teach that the Spirit of the Lord anointed the federal government to preach. That’s the job of the church so the power and will of God can be revealed. In Isaiah 61:1-2, a verse Jesus quoted in the Gospels as well, He gives six reasons for which God had anointed Him; and not one of them mentions money:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God…

God calls us to give cheerfully from our hearts (2 Cor. 9:7), but God does not advocate additional tax burdens on the whole of society for any cause. When Jesus faced Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, He didn’t ask Pilate for financial aid for the poor. Jesus didn’t complain about injus­tices in Galilee or Nazareth or Bethlehem. He didn’t ask for the Roman government to step in and spread the wealth. In fact, Jesus stated: My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).

Jesus Christ loved and cared about the poor. He did not abandon them, nor did He feed them immediately with the resources at his dis­posal. The first thing Christ himself did for the poor was to teach them… most independent thinkers admit that government programs can’t separate the truly needy from those who would cheat and take advantage of the system.

Conversely, private Christian charities and organizations are so much more effective at meeting needs and changing lives instead of basically throwing taxpayer money at the problem. Most charities run a tight ship by necessity and are just the opposite of government when it comes to eliminating fraud and waste while offering compassion to those in need.

America’s free enterprise system is not keeping people poor; it is their best chance for economic advancement. Social justice advocates would have you believe that it is the system that is the problem.

The bottom line is that if we don’t preach the gospel and lead souls to Christ, it won’t matter if they’re well fed come Judgment Day. In Romans 13, the people’s taxes paid for governing authorities put in place by God for their good, but the government never had anything to do with practicing compassion or mercy.

Other leaders of the social justice movement… often place emphasis on this present temporary world and minimize the importance of repen­tance from sin against a holy God. Humanism and socialism – the ways of man – will always fail, but God’s ways always succeed.

America finds itself in a dangerous place; we have a media and an administration selling class warfare and massive spending – and people are buying it. Many citizens forget that the gov­ernment is supposed to protect the people, not provide for them.

Socialism has failed miserably throughout the world. History proves it; and yet there are some who are willing to give it another try, this time in America. Share the truth! Education is vital, and this movement must be stopped in order to save our great Republic under God.

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Fast And Furious Scandal Revived By Gun Control Agenda

December 6, 2012 by 12 Comments

Eric Holder 13 SC Fast And Furious Scandal Revived By Gun Control Agenda

It appears NBC’s Bob Costas spoke too fast and made many conservative Americans including gun owners and the NRA furious. It happened the day after the murder-suicide involving Jovan Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs. Not only was Belcher’s live-in girlfriend, 22 year old Kasandra Perkins, a victim, but the couple’s three month old baby daughter Zoey, is now an orphan. Most of us know Costas opportunistically used his halftime segment during “Sunday Night Football” to lobby for stronger gun-control laws.

Second Amendment advocate Ted Nugent ripped Costas and used Twitter to share a few thoughts such as: “Hey Bob Costas, we all know that obesity is a direct result of the proliferation of spoons & forks.” And another, “We thought Bob Costas was smarter than that. Only fools blame tools instead of human failings. Shame Bob,” and another, “Blaming guns for crime is like blaming helmets for head butts…”

Making his case, Costas quoted Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock stating that he, “said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of his article.” Costas continued, “Our current gun culture,” Whitlock wrote, “ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.”

“Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions, and their possible connection to football, will be analyzed… But here,” wrote Jason Whitlock, “is what I believe: If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”

Bob Costas believes what Whitlock believes, but according to the American Association of Suicidology, about half of 2010′s suicides were by firearm. The other roughly 50 percent were by such things as hanging and poisoning. To hypothetically say if someone didn’t own a gun, they would never have acted out in violent anger or taken their own life is absurd.

Let’s look at one more example. According to CNS News, the Chicago Tribune reported there were 192 shootings in that city throughout the month of November – a 49 percent increase from 2011! Police records also reveal that shootings increased more than 11 percent in 2012 compared with a year earlier. Total homicides in Chicago rose to 480 with one month to go in 2012 which is a 21 percent increase in just one year.

Rahm Emmanuel believes he’s doing the right thing, but Second Amendment supporters say he has blood on his hands. Like many cities with strict gun laws, the disarming of law-abiding citizens doesn’t take guns out of the hands of criminals and evildoers. What gun-control laws often do is leave innocent victims vulnerable.

This brings us back to the Fast and Furious scandal and how the media prevented it from becoming Obama’s Watergate. We just learned another member of the Justice Department resigned this week. Gary Grindler, Attorney General Eric Holder’s chief of staff, will serve his last day at the Justice Department today, Wednesday. As deputy attorney general, Grindler oversaw the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which led the failed “gun-walking” operation.

A report from House Oversight Committee chairman Darryl Issa recommended disciplinary action against Grindler and 13 other officials; Grindler was accused of “passing the buck” and failing to take charge of the department. With the gun control issue at center stage again, it’s important to revisit a scandal the media failed to cover.

In June 2012, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was voted in con­tempt of Congress by 259 members of the House of Representatives for stonewalling the investigation into the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. In all of American history, no sitting Cabinet member has been held in contempt of Congress until now. President Obama even stepped in and used his “executive privilege” to protect Eric Holder. If Holder did nothing wrong, why did he need protection and why not cooperate with the investigation? What’s Holder hiding?

The media keeps glossing over corruption, and those of us who are informed have watched in astonishment. The Obama administration defies laws on marriage, immigration, gambling, marijuana, and por­nography, and conservatives are fed up. In this case, American guns were used in the deaths of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, Immigra­tion and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, and approximately 300 Mexican citizens. The gun used in Terry’s death was purchased in Arizona, and the gun used in Zapata’s death was purchased in Texas. Both were “Fast and Furious” guns.

From 2009 to 2011, the Obama administration’s Bureau of Alco­hol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran Operation Fast and Furious (a.k.a. Project Gunrunner), a program to track U.S.-purchased firearms headed to Mexican drug cartels in order to get to cartel heads.

Critics believe the real purpose of the operation was to undermine the Second Amendment by vilifying gun owners and sellers so the govern­ment could enforce stricter gun laws in America. Either way, it went terribly wrong.

One problem with the plan was that our DOJ didn’t even notify Mexican authorities that thousands of semi-automatic firearms were being sold to people in Arizona thought to have links to Mexican drug cartels. ATF agents “were ordered not to intercept the smugglers, but rather to let the guns ‘walk’ across the U.S.-Mexican border and into the hands of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.”

Fast and Furious was botched when over 1,400 guns, including AK-47’s, were lost. The operation was halted in December 2010 after two weapons the department lost track of were found at the murder scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. His family has since filed a lawsuit charging that the top federal prosecutor in Phoenix lied to them about the guns found at the crime scene in an attempt to hide the weapons’ connection to the ATF’s operation. The media has made this a political issue, and Holder has even accused Republicans of racism.

Rep. Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requested the Justice Department release thousands of documents related to the inner workings of Fast and Furious. The Justice Department delivered less than ten percent of the 80,000 documents. Issa also released a report suggesting top DOJ officials had extensive knowledge of and involvement in Fast and Furious than previously acknowledged. Writing for Forbes, author Frank Minter asked, “Is it even conceivable that Attorney General Eric Holder didn’t know about this secret program? And if he didn’t, shouldn’t he have?”

However, in February 2011, the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress denying the operation even existed! Ten months later, the Department retracted the letter. Then, Eric Holder insisted he did not even know about the program until early 2011. After months of inves­tigation, the Justice Department finally acknowledged the allegations were true. Why did it take nearly nine months for the Department to acknowledge Holder’s earlier denials were false?

In other words, people died and Holder lied. Why did senior Justice Department officials who knew about and received briefings on the operation fail to stop it? By the way, Gary Grindler isn’t the only personnel change in the DOJ. Former ATF Director Kenneth Melson began talking to inves­tigators and pointed to a cover up. Melson was moved to a new position with the ATF. At least four more ATF officials were also reassigned or promoted by the Obama administration to other positions in Washington D.C.

Naturally, Holder has not only received continued support from President Obama, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “He absolutely stands by the Attorney General, thinks he is doing an excellent job.” Can American citizens still have confidence in their own chief law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice?

We should now be seriously considering whether this current administration is above the law. Similar to the flagrant corruption over the Benghazi tragedy, even if the truth is finally exposed and Holder resigns over Fast and Furious, the media successfully protected the president. Regardless of American deaths, whether a murder-suicide or corrupt policy and politics, we can conclude it’s not the tool or weapon that is responsible, but the people who misuse them.

Photo Credit: European Parliament (Creative Commons)

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