Power Corrupts

Lord Acton's axiom, "power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely," is once again being evidenced in the current IRS and Benghazi scandals within the Obama administration.  As James Madison said, nobody should be trusted with very much power.  It takes an extraordinary person not to succumb to the temptations that power puts into the hands of human beings.  It is one of the most intoxicating diseases humanity has ever been plagued with.  Men like Adolf Hitler cared little for money, but he was overwhelmed by his lust to control others.  And, of course, it cost millions of lives.

As I said, it takes a special type individual to be able to handle power, and there are very few people like that (Madison understood that).  Certainly mediocre incompetents like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, etc. are terrifying with power in their hands; the death of four Americans in Libya and the tyrannizing abuse of--how many?--by the Internal Revenue Service are full indications of this.  Never has the United States had such unqualified, yet arrogant, narcissistic, and immoral leadership.  "Little people" in the IRS are given certain decision-making, but very important, powers over others, and these are powers that most of them, as is now obvious, have absolutely no business wielding.  Again, it's democracy--you give mediocrity power, and this is the kind of corruption a country ends up with.  Because mediocrity certainly has no business ruling anybody.

Power should only be in the hands of virtue, self-control, and self-discipline, people who know what is right and what is wrong, who understand their own limitations, and so importantly, who know the incredibly corrupting nature of power.  There aren't many people in the world like that, which is exactly why government should be kept as limited as possible.  Certainly none of that comes even close to describing anybody in the current administration in Washington, D.C.

But, as I noted in my last post, there will be nothing come of this.  The Democrats and their media allies will circle the wagons around Obama and Clinton and the tyrannical circus will continue until the whole tent comes crashing down.  It's...history.  The American Founders warned about it, but Americans are too self-centered, pleasure-seeking, and morally base to pay attention any more.  We get exactly the kind of leadership we deserve--power-hungry inept bunglers--because we fail to listen to God and the lessons history has repeatedly taught us.

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I do intend to return, as time permits, to my series on "Let Them Be Heard."  The school year has been especially busy this spring, thus hindering my writing time.  But I have more to publish on that series, and the wise will see just how...wise...our Founders were.  They exposed Barack Obama 250 years in advance.

The Republicans Are Wasting the Taxpayers' Money

The Benghazi hearings.....

It does not matter what they find out.  It makes no difference how incompetent, evil, bungling, or anti-American Obama and Clinton are exposed to be (something wise Americans already know, by the way)....the mainstream media and the Democratic Party will do everything they can to protect those two.  I've noticed that much of the "media" is ignoring the hearings.  What a surprise.  I wonder how they would cover it if George W. Bush were President.

A waste of time and money.  But then, most things government does nowadays are a waste of time and money.

China Up, America Down

A recent leader to a story from a news source in China:

"China's cabinet announced detailed plans on Monday to deepen economic reform, cutting government interventions that hinder robust growth."

And America, under Obama, is doing exactly the opposite....It's why China is growing economically and America is sinking. 

But Obama is too busy asking God to bless baby murderers, praising queers who come out of the closet, and endorsing 15 year-olds having sex to truly help his people.

Media Sadness

Before the Boston bomber(s) were (apparently) identified, one could perceive a major theme running through the hopes and desires of the "mainstream", i.e., liberal, media:  "Oh, please, please, please, dear State"-- for that's the god they pray to, of course--"please let the bomber(s) be a white, male, evangelical Christian, pro-life, anti-queer marriage, NRA and Tea Party member, who listens to Rush Limbaugh and reads Ann Coulter, who voted a straight Republican ticket, who hates Obama and government, and who has written reams and reams praising Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and wants tax cuts and less government spending..."

And the disappointment was equally manifest as it has been revealed that the bombers (apparently) are Islamic fanatics, who are simply doing what the founder of that religion did, i.e., kill people.

Meanwhile, there is this enlightening headline that tells us exactly the kind of people leftists are:  "Philly Abortion Horror:  Baby Born Alive in Toilet, 'Swimming,' 'Trying to Get Out'...."

The left kills people, folks.  That's the thing they do best.  The Jacobins, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, the Kims in North Korea--hundreds of millions of people.  They can't do that in America because Americans have guns and can shoot back, which is, of course, why the left in the United States is obsessed with taking them away.  So, for the moment, the only people these godless heathen can kill--legally--is innocent babies.  And they've certainly done their share of that.

No God, no respect for human life.  And hope, hope, hope to pin atrocities on your enemies to utterly destroy any influence they might have.  Because you can't kill them--yet.  But keep the pressure on to get their guns.  When you finally have all their guns, then...you can do what Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. did.

And, you can also, at the moment, bemoan the fact that the latest mass murderer in America was another Islamic terrorist, not a Tea Party, Christian, Republican.

Let Them Be Heard Again—III

Here is another quote from Thomas Jefferson, in our series on the foundation principles of America:

“The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.  A student’s perusal of the sacred volume will make him a better citizen, a better father, a better husband.”

In other place, almost the same thought:

“I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make him a better citizen, a better father, a better husband.”

This is so blindingly obvious that, if I didn’t know history and understand human nature (as revealed in history and the Bible), I would be shocked that people don’t understand it.  How could any rational human being deny what Jefferson writes here?  Christianity, with its high, holy, righteous moral teaching will elevate any human who endeavors to follow its principles.  No citizen, who follows the doctrines of Jesus, would violate the rights and freedoms of others.  Those who adhere to Christianity live, in family and society, as responsible, virtuous, moderate, concerned, and caring individuals.  What Christian father would abandon his children—or have children out of wedlock and leave the mother, in shame, to live off others?  Where is the Christian husband who beats his wife, or fails to train his children in ways that would uplift their behavior in society once they leave his charge, promoting and advancing that which is good and beneficial to society, rather than contributing to its moral debasement?  How can anybody, with an ounce of brains, attribute the immoral rot infesting the United States to any part or portion of the Christian religion, as taught by Jesus and His disciples?  Is it Christianity which is destroying the American family—or a philosophy which is diametrically opposed to it? 

As Jefferson said in another place, “I hold the precepts of Jesus…to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man.”  No society—or individual—will perfectly observe all the precepts of the Son of God.  But the farther we, individually or collectively, remove ourselves from them, the more depraved our behavior becomes.  And because men love the pleasures of sin, they hate Christianity.  And as a result, America is currently floundering, directionless, with no moral compass, and overwhelmed within a decadent stench of her own doing.  And therein lies the real problem—men love sin, so they hate Christianity.  And because of that, they will find any excuse they can to reject the Christian religion.   

Don’t blame Jesus or those who follow His teachings for the putrefaction stinking up America today.  Don’t you dare blame Jesus or those who follow His teachings.

One more quote from Thomas Jefferson:

“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their ONLY FIRM BASIS, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God?  That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?  Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

As noted in my last post, the second in this series, Jefferson and other early Americans, argued that liberty's foundation comes from God--the foundation principles of America are rooted in an eternal God.  We have the freedom to do what is right, according to the eternal moral nature and laws of Jehovah; we do not have the freedom to do what is wrong.  When we violate God’s laws, we trample on freedom, we hurt ourselves and/or others, and this is a defilement of the second greatest commandment, “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Freedom comes from God; all our blessings do.  When we deny that, as the “intelligentsia,” the “progressive” in America today so obviously does, then we have nothing left to fall back on but public opinion, of man making his own rules—“every man does that which is right in his own eyes.”  That is a disaster in progress, as is so clear in the United States today.  Did Christianity destroy Detroit—or did modern, anti-Christian “progressive” liberalism do it?  Are the political leaders in Washington, D.C., exalting the virtues of Christianity as the guide for the nation today, which would promote excellence in citizens' behavior, frugality in governmental economics, and moderation and respect for other countries in the realm of foreign affairs, or does an elitist arrogance exist, on both sides of the aisle, that believes it knows better than God how to guide the welfare of mankind?  Is the American government growing today because of Christianity—or because we have rejected it, individually, economically, and collectively, as a guide in moral policy? 

Who is the liberal’s “god”—Jehovah or the state?

In one sense, it is not the government's fault; government only becomes necessary when people refuse to discipline themselves and act civilized.  But government leaders are at fault when they don't lead; and the greatest acts of leadership point the people to a virtuous, self-disciplined, responsible, righteous, humble life--in other words, towards Christ and Christianity--and freedom--not to an atheistic self-indulgence, which can only lead to more bondage--enslaved first to one's own carnal appetites, and then eventually enslaved to a government who will have to force obedience so that a civilized order can exist in society.  For there will be order in society, one way or another.  People can either do it voluntarily--i.e., freedom--or they will be forced to do it by government.  And again, if someone is forced to do something they would not do of their own voluntary will, it might be a good thing--but don't call it freedom.  And the righteous will suffer, too, because government tyranny is rarely selective.

 

But what do Obama and the liberals want--more Christianity, more righteousness as revealed from the Creator of heaven and earth?  Or more government which they can control, and thus control as many people as possible?

 

Whom do you trust, dear reader, God or Obama?

And if you don't believe if God, and Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and American politicians are your hope, I truly feel sorry for you.

Yea, indeed, how long will God’s justice sleep?
 

Let Them Be Heard Again—II

What are the founding principles of the United States, that upon which the country was built, principles that are now being destroyed by an elitist, egotistical, atheistic left with no sense of history or ability at rational thinking?  The men who founded America, and who lived in her earliest generations, are the ones who can clearly tell us what they were doing—and why.  Let us hear them again.

Before I begin, I want to add one caveat.  Anything quoted here is not to affirm that these men always lived consistently—or taught consistently.  They were imperfect human beings.  Their words are what they are, but they come from men who knew history and understood that an eternal moral law exists. 

I will start first with some quotes from Thomas Jefferson (all the capital letter emphases in these quotes will be mine):

“The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [false teachers] have invested it, and brought to the original purity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to LIBERTY, SCIENCE, and THE FREEST EXPANSION OF THE HUMAN MIND.”

Jefferson, and all of America’s founders, understood that freedom, true freedom, comes from God, who is also the Author of all true science, philosophy, morality, indeed, of everything that is “truth.”  Freedom is not a license to do anything we want; obviously, we cannot give murderers, thieves, rapists, et al, the freedom to commit their atrocious crimes, because this would violate other people’s freedoms.  And thus freedom has restraints, called “law” (more on this in a later post), and those restraints are inherent within the very nature of freedom.

Since freedom comes from God, it is based on what is right and wrong, the knowledge of which also comes from the Eternal Deity (much of it is “self-evident,” but not all).  God has given us the freedom to do what is “right,” but not the freedom to do what is “wrong” (“Thou shalt not kill…steal…commit adultery…covet”, etc.).  And those who would argue, “well, as long as I’m not hurting anybody else, I can do what I want,” argue falsely, because when I do evil (violate any of God’s laws), even if only to myself, I hurt myself, I slowly destroy my conscience, I lower my moral inhibitions, I make myself a viler, more depraved individual, and a person like that will, eventually, violate the freedoms of others. Such people will ultimately need government to step in and defend their “freedoms” (e.g., pay for their abortions, provide money for their children born out of wedlock, subsidize research to cure diseases caused by immoral sexual activity) and by doing so, infringe upon the liberties of those who try to live virtuously (I am forced, by government, to pay taxes to support these immoral deeds.  And when someone is forced to do something, that’s not freedom).  God has given us no freedom to do any evil, but only the freedom to do good; that’s crucial to understanding the thinking of the men who founded America.  If all men would do only good, and never evil, we wouldn’t need government; if all men were angels, James Madison wrote, government would be unnecessary.  But because men do violate the laws of God and harm others, government becomes essential in order to restrain those who will not be restrained without force or the threat thereof.  People who harm others, or themselves, are violating true freedom.  When we freely choose to do the right thing, then we will have the most possible freedom of all, because we will need less government confining us, and we will be using freedom in the way God intended it to be used—for the betterment of mankind, not for personal pleasure or glory, the latter which almost always leads to violations of individual or collective liberty.

As Jefferson wisely understood, pure Christianity—that which was taught by Jesus—is the purest, and I would add final, expression of the mind of God.  Since freedom, science (true science, not Darwinian mythology), and the creative mind come from God, then, as Jefferson noted, Christianity provides the greatest access to all of these things.  Again, it is critical to understand that, to America’s founders, we are NOT free to do evil—of any kind.  Obviously, the immoral masses in America today, especially on the left, want as much “freedom” as possible, mainly for sexually licentious behavior, but also to promote a vile welfare state that keeps them in power.  For such people, who have gained control of Hollywood, the media, much of the government, it is easy to understand why Christianity is their greatest enemy.  But in truth, Christianity is the greatest supporter of individual liberty—the liberty to do the right thing, to benefit society, to not harm ourselves and others, to build and create a worthy civilization, not to destroy it—a destruction that is so evident in America today, because we have turned our backs on the foundation principles of the country. 

The more Christianity we have, the less government we need.  The less Christianity, the more government.  Which way has America gone in the last generation?  It isn’t Christianity that needs more government.  It isn’t Christianity that is infringing upon people’s freedom to do good.  It isn’t Christianity that is destroying the United States of America in 2013.

Let Them Be Heard Again-I

The most important part of any building is the foundation.  It must be strong, firm, and capable of lasting a long time.  When the foundation crumbles and or is willingly destroyed, the building obviously collapses into a heap of rubble, dust, and carnage.  The greater the building, the mightier the destruction.

This analogy is true for nations, too.  There is a reason why Rome became a long-lasting republic and empire and the Girgashites didn’t.  And much of that is to be found in the foundations Rome was built upon.  The Romans were far from perfect, of course, and could be brutally cruel and barbaric.  But they understood character and moral worth, the value of family, law, and tradition, and they survived 1,000 years because of it.

America is changing, and I would argue, given history, headed for either utter ruin, or worldly irrelevancy, like modern England.  Remember, 100 years ago, it was the British Empire that ruled the globe.  The Germans had a lot to do with destroying that, but so did the quality and character of the British people.  Read the great British novels of the late 19^th century—20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, the Sherlock Holmes novels, etc.—and you see a completely different people than today.  You see a religious people, a nation with character, strength, duty, moral values, and earthly perception—no egalitarian nonsense.  Today England has sacrificed itself on the altar of political correctness, and it is a bankrupt country in all the ways that matter.  And, as I noted, largely irrelevant in world affairs.  Who fears the British today?

The United States was not founded by perfect men, of course; there are no such creatures.  But they were, by far, the most perceptive and perspicacious men who ever established a country.  They founded America on Christian principles—and they made no bones about it.  Christianity was the substance upon which America was established.  And Christianity is, of course, the mortal enemy of today’s “progressive,” the thing he hates with the greatest vilification, the one element of society he wants to destroy more than anything else.
 
And he is succeeding, right now, almost beyond his wildest dreams.

And with it, he is destroying America, because he is abolishing that upon which the country was founded.  Destroy the foundation…and the building disintegrates.

Nobody will listen because it is too late, but we need to hear—again—the men who founded the United States.  So I propose to write, over the coming weeks, a series of articles quoting the great, far-sighted, historically-brilliant architects of the United States.  Oh, yes, they knew history, they knew it well.  And they built the greatest national structure in the totality of mankind’s existence.  The only thing they couldn’t do—try though they did—was protect it from wicked, power-hungry human beings.  Abraham Lincoln destroyed the governmental foundation—and today’s liberals are using what Lincoln put in place to destroy the moral one.  No nation can survive that.

History doesn’t work fast—or I perhaps should say, God moves at His own pace.  It was right after the fall of man that He announced a Savior would come (Genesis 3:15); it was 1,000s of years later before He sent Him (Galatians 4:4).  Isaiah predicted the destruction of Babylon almost 200 years in advance of the event (Isaiah 13).  Hosea uttered Israel’s downfall a full generation before it happened (Hosea 1).  We cannot rush the Almighty, for His purposes are as far above ours as heaven is above the earth (Isaiah 55:8-9).  All we can be assured of is that He will not acquit the wicked (Nahum 1:3).  But He will do it in His own time.

America’s founders pointed the way.  We will see what they said.  And the wise will discern why America is in the forlorn condition she now finds herself.  The foolish will discern nothing.