President Obama, put away malice

The following is an open letter to President Barack Obama:

“President Obama, Put Away Malice.

“As Christians, we are called to be respectful and loving toward our neighbors, honoring their intentions even if we disagree with their plans. We are also called to ‘put away falsehood’ (Eph 4:25) and to refrain from slandering, belittling, or speaking out of contempt for anyone.

“If these are the standards God has set for us in our personal lives, our church communities, and our neighborhoods, how much more so should they be the standards of those Christians who choose to be in the public eye? Shouldn't we also expect our brothers and sisters in politics to speak the truth in love and to extend respect and goodwill even to those with whom they disagree?

“In questioning not only his opponents’ policies but also their motivations, President Obama went far beyond what could be considered acceptable disagreement and into what seemed like open contempt for a political opponent.

“To be blunt, we saw very little of Jesus’ love in his recent health care speeches, as he heaped contempt on those who disagree with him politically, while offering no vision for how to resolve the critical issues facing Americans today.

“Therefore, we call on the president to repudiate his attitude of contempt towards political opponents and to tell the whole truth, not only for the sake of a more honorable politics, but also for the sake of our Christian witness in the world.”

By the way, if the above statement sounds somewhat familiar, it’s excerpted, with some changes, from a 2008 statement made by Matthew 25 Network, slamming Gov. Sarah Palin for her speech at the Republican National Convention. And I’m sure M25N will be jumping on this bandwagon, to urge Obama to exercise Christian values in his speeches, backroom deals … I mean negotiations, treatment of allies such as Israel and Great Britain, and in curbing some of that unchristian foul language we’ve been hearing from those around him, including his vice president.

Glenn Beck hates Jesus—or "progressive Christians" hate the truth?

With the health care nationalization debate heating up this week, complete with President Obama’s whining and Speaker Pelosi’s sleight-of-hand attempts at railroading the legislation through Congress (hey, Matthew 25 Network: how about a “Speaker Pelosi, Put Away Deception” campaign? Oh, I forgot—you only attack GENUINE Christians), an interesting slander was pulled off by Obama’s legions among “progressive Christians” against talk show host Glenn Beck this past weekend. According to a Time magazine article by Obama “spiritual advisor” and acolyte Jim Wallis, Beck now “hates Jesus.”

First off, I need to state that I have tons of theological problems with the heresies of the Mormon Church, to which Beck belongs. It must also be noted that Beck is gracious to evangelical Christians appearing on his Fox News TV show; in fact, Joel Rosenberg appears periodically on the show to discuss biblical prophecy as it relates to the Middle East. The criticism against Beck’s exposing the progressive movement’s destruction of America amounts to little more than ridicule of his methods. You hear about his crying on the air, for example, but you never hear where he is wrong on anything of substance (except when his enemies—including among the “progressive Christians” who apparently forget about all those Bible verses about bearing false witness—twist the truth to slander him).

Looks like Wallis’ attack is a desperation shot against Beck’s unmasking the health care nationalization campaign for what it truly is: a power grab by progressives, who want to tell us how to live our lives (Wallis’ clever slander may have also been calculated, counting on evangelicals to stay mum in defending Beck). And the resulting e-mail campaign against Beck by “progressive Christians” is truly pathetic, similar to the one Matthew 25 Network aimed at Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family last year. One letter after another (featured on M25N’s website) talked about how the writer loved the “Adventures in Odyssey” radio show while on the mission field, but gosh darn, how awful Dobson and his ministry had become for opposing Obama’s far-left agenda (you know, with all those people being missionaries, you would think the world would have been converted three times over by now).

It’s ironic that, with droves of people awakening to abandon the Obama altar, the ones who stay steadfast in their worship of him claim to be Christians! Maybe they should heed the words of a Christian who was forced to oppose his nation's idolatry of a leader—Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Should the leader allow himself to succumb to the wishes of those he leads, who will always seek to turn him into an idol, then the image of the leader will become the image of the misleader. This is the leader who makes an idol of himself and his office, and thus mocks God” (from a 1933 speech).

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols,” the Bible warns in 1 John 5:21. That includes political idols, Mr. Wallis.

New US health care "reform" critic: China

With all the so-called health care nationalization "debate" (read: railroading) cluttering the airwaves in Washington, you might have missed a critique of Obamacare from an interesting source: no, not Rush, Hannity or Beck, but CHINA. You read that right. The homeland of Anita Dunn's favorite inspirational leader is expressing its concerns over the viability of the plan, according to Reuters' reporter James Pethokoukis:

"Guess what? It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Barack Obama’s health care reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions.

"Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade."

Get that? China owns $2 trillion in US debt. Our lender, if you will, is raising a red flag--it's a like a banker noticing that you're behind on your car payments, and wondering why you suddenly have a hankering to buy a boat.

President Obama and his health-care nationalizers should check out the Bible (which would be a great start) and consider Proverbs 22:7 (ESV): "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."

Best comment of the year

When Sarah Palin nailed President Obama's health care nationalization bill for containing provisions for "death panels," it all but stopped the behemoth bill in its tracks. The massive protests at the town halls, already in full force, picked up the battle cry, and Obama was forced to loudly whine about the comment to his supporters. The battle to stop this monstrous grab for power is still far from over, but this Palin salvo could well have crippled it (and to think, the former governor wrote his on her Facebook!).

It's also hilarious to see the Left's tactics being used against them. Arch-Leftist Saul Alinsky, in his Rules for Radicals "community organizing" book that Obama and his followers live by, states in Rule 13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it." That's exactly what Palin did to Obama's health nationalization bill with her "death panel" statement. Mr. President: How does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine?

On Ted Kennedy

My one and only Ted Kennedy story goes back to 1980, when I worked at a state park on Long Island where Kennedy had docked his boat (actually, it was docked there for him), in the midst of his sinking presidential bid. I remember the workers of the park having to scrub that park clean and pull up every stray weed we could find, to make the place immaculate for the great senator. Finally (with us lowly workers safely kept away), Kennedy bounced out of his car, waved (I think), got on his boat and sailed away. Alas, so much for the “common touch."

Oh well, maybe that’s the way senators are (although I had met others who were or were to be in the Senate, who seemed to have no such problem talking with the public; I interviewed former Senator and Vice President Dan Quayle in 1994 and soon-to-be Senator George Voinovich at about the same time; and chatted with Senator Gary Hart in 1983).

As much as part of me wants to praise the “Lion of the Senate” for his lifetime of achievements, I can’t. I’m sure his dealings with political opponents were cordial and friendly; and maybe he DID think highly of Rev. Jerry Falwell, whom he befriended, and Falwell was able to speak some of the truths of God into his life (much the same way, I believe, that Rev. Billy Graham was able to do so with the senator’s older brother, President John F. Kennedy, according to Graham’s autobiography).

So why CAN’T I offer my accolades for Kennedy?

1) Let’s start with his unbelievable fanatical support for abortion on demand, which has led to millions of unborn being slaughtered. He did this flying in the face of his Catholic upbringing, and in contradiction to a statement in 1971 that he believed in protecting the life of the unborn (click on his letter on the matter above). Is it any wonder Pope Benedict XVI has kept mum on Kennedy’s death?

2) There’s tons of materials on the Chappaquiddick incident, so I’ll let you sort through all that. What the 1969 incident comes down to is this: he was willing to leave a young woman, Mary Jo Kopechne, to drown in his submerged car--and subsequently to lie about the accident--to save his political career. While Chappaquiddick did prevent Kennedy from becoming president, it did not stop Massachusetts voters from blindly voting him back to the Senate. And if he ever formally apologized to Mary Jo’s family, I have yet to read about it.

3) Then there was his collaboration with the KGB, to try and derail President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy dealings with the Evil Empire, the Soviet Union. See this link.

4) “Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?” Kennedy made this statement when ex-President Richard Nixon was pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1974, following the Watergate scandal. The same question should have been put to him. The arch-environmentalist, for example, opposed having wind mills set up near his Cape Cod sailing waters. The champion of women’s rights was infamous for his exploitation and abuse of women. And yet the national media never really called him to account for these contradictions. In fact, one of the few times national media came close to criticizing him was at the end of the 1980 Democratic convention in New York. President Jimmy Carter had just given his famous nomination speech (when he called Hubert Humphrey “Hubert Horatio Hornblower”). The defeated Kennedy then joined Carter on stage—and roamed around accepting applause, while ignoring Carter and refusing to lift up Carter’s hand to acknowledge his support for the president. The TV commentators were perplexed by Kennedy’s selfish display.

So I’m sure the media will be bellowing its mourning for Kennedy until the end of the year (unlike its coverage of other long-serving senators from both sides of aisle, including Humphrey and Jesse Helms). I sympathize with the fact that Kennedy suffered from brain cancer, a horrible death I would wish on no one, and pray for comfort for his family. But you’ll have to excuse my not joining in on the national dirge (which President Obama will no doubt use to try and ram through his flailing health care nationalization).