We are at a crossroad; follow man or God?
I was among the thousands of Americans who recently received an unsolicited email – on White House letterhead – from David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Barack Obama. It explained why health care reform is so important and what the President proposed to do about it. For me, it did not have the intended effect.
I did not ask for such information and it made me wonder how The White House got my email address. Am I on some list kept by The White House because of my political views and because I am a Christian? Was it sent as a subtle, psychological message letting me know they know who I am and what I do? What do they intend to do with my email address in the future?
I have known for sometime that my columns are monitored by so-called “right-wing watch groups.” Funny, I have never considered my columns influential enough to be the object of liberals acting like Internet peeping toms. They are not interested in debating ideas, just suppressing those with whom they disagree. Someone once suggested that liberalism is a mental disorder. Such behavior supports that view. Liberals, or as Mark Levine rightly describes them as “statists” because they believe government has all the answers, are mistaken if they think such antics will intimidate me in an effort to suppress my freedom of thought and expression. As Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan warned: Never, ever give in to the tyrant.
Standing firm is not easy these days because liberals are emboldened. They pretty much have control over all three branches of government and they have had their way with the Church in America for quite sometime. They got abortion legalized and the Church did little or nothing. They got prayer kicked out of public schools and the Church did little or nothing. They got euthanasia legalized in at least one state and the Church did little or nothing. They got sodomy legalized, opening the door for pedophilia and polygamy and the Church did little or nothing. They imposed “don’t ask, don’t tell” and Wicca witches on our military and the Church did little or nothing. They authorized taxpayer dollars to fund Planned Parenthood, the despicable organization that makes money by being America’s largest provider of abortions, and the Church did little or nothing. So why are Christians screaming about taxpayer-funded abortions being included in any health care reform bill? After all, we are already paying for them.
President Obama signed an executive order allowing for tax dollars to fund abortions overseas. Barely a whimper was heard out of the Church. Emboldened, the president is now prepared to sign the so-called Hate Crimes Bill that threatens First Amendment rights and the freedom for ministers to publicly proclaim homosexuality as a sin. If our track record is any indication, the Church will do nothing.
More is to come. If we have a government takeover of health care, rationed care will come and with it euthanasia – or something worse. Liberals are redefining what constitutes a “family.” A season of persecution surely is not far behind (some would argue it has already begun).
All the while we have a president – elected by 53 percent of voters – who misuses Scripture – and smiles about it. “Secularism with a smile” is how R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described it during the presidential campaign. The Church cannot say it was not warned about a man who for nearly two decades sat under the teaching of a radical liberation theologian like Jeremiah Wright.
Prior to his election Obama cited the Sermon on the Mount to justify civil unions for homosexuals. “If people find that controversial, then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans,” Obama said in a campaign speech last year. Obscure? There is nothing obscure about Romans 1:24-32, which declares homosexuality is a sin, or any other part of God’s Word for that matter. As far back as 2006 Obama used the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy to mock socially conservative views and cast doubt on the sufficiency of Scripture.
It should be clear to Christians that we have a president who either accidentally – or willfully – appropriates Scripture to justify his liberal political agenda. On Aug. 20 Obama sought out several liberal religious leaders, urging them to use their pulpits to convince their congregations to support his government takeover of health care (so much for separation of church and state). Obama called supporting his plan “a moral issue.” He went on to call those of us who oppose controversial portions of the proposed health care reform legislation as “liars” and violators of the ninth commandment which says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Of course this came on the heels of his liberal supporters calling some of us “un-American,” part of “a mob” and “Nazis.”
President Obama uses sort of a sophisticated sophistry in claiming that the proposed health care reform legislation does not include taxpayer-funded abortions. Obama knows it is not needed because the courts have already declared abortion legal and thus it is assumed that any health care reform legislation will include taxpayer-funded abortions unless it specifically says otherwise. This is why pro-lifers have attempted to amend the legislation to explicitly say abortions will not be taxpayer funded, but liberals have blocked every attempt to do so. Who is deceiving whom here? It is a shell game of life and death.
Too many “Christians” believe it is improper to mix religion and politics. Others say, “Just win them to Jesus!” Jesus is certainly the answer, but Scripture clearly teaches that not everyone is going to heaven. So what are we to do with the pagan lurking in our government chambers?
The Church should follow Moses’ example. He cried out to God and then trusted Him for direction – and the results. Moses did as God commanded and confronted Pharaoh. In the end, God was glorified and a nation won its freedom.
The Church, sooner of later, is going to have to either follow man or follow God. Do the former and expect misery and judgment. Do the latter and it may exact a temporary, earthly price on our heads, but we are not to worry about such things. We must pray, asking for God’s direction and for courage to obey Him no matter the cost.