Failure

Being on a trip has allowed me to do things that I normally do not do, like going to McDonalds. No, I will not be talking about the evils of that restaurant. I do not come to eat, I come for the WiFi and the endless $1 iced tea. Instead I want to talk about the local newspaper that McDonalds provided.

The headline was that local healthcare businesses were going to lay off people. Shocking. Of course it was not mentioned that healthcare in America is a giant sink hole of disaster. The paper proposed that this layoff was the fault of the legislature which had "failed" to pass the extension of Medicaid required to fill in gaps in ObamaCare.

Two points I think are important. The first is that the article was not an editorial. Thus the article had the pretense of objectivity. Notice also the use of the word "failure." A loaded word that was designed to show that the Missouri had "failed." No, the Republicans had decided that to expand Medicare was a bad idea, they had not failed. Of course they could have been "dead wrong." My observation is not that there is a correct choice, I don't care about such things much anymore. It is that more and more the media is not even pretending to pay homage to the myth of objective journalism.

Never forget that you are being played. Never trust anything you read, see, or hear in the media. Of course you can trust me! No, you can't trust me either. I am just as biased as anyone else. As unlikely as it is, I could be wrong. The solution is to seek out books and articles you disagree with. Read them. Do not read the same old sources that already agree with your preconceived notions. Expand your horizons beyond the "usual suspects." Read critically. I doubt that most readers noticed the use of the pejorative word "failed." Be the person that notices such things.

Never forget that you are being played

This Is God's Country

A man can be a Christian or a patriot, but he can't legally be a Christian and a patriot -- except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. - Mark Twain's Notebook

The history of the US is a history of war and of lies and deceit. For an interesting walk through US history from the Prophecy Podcast blog click here. It is not pretty. Even "the good war" was based on deceit. The main argument I often hear is that the other countries are worse. Maybe. 

As Paul said in Galatians 6:

4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

We are each responsible for our own lives. This is true in a national sense as well. Unfortunately we as members of a nation state will suffer along with everyone else. Saying we are better than others, even if "true," keeps us individually and nationally from doing better. We can do better. We must do better. 

There is a certain irony in the modern Christian Nationalism. For if it is correct in the implicit comparisons to ancient Israel, and I often make such comparisons myself, then we are headed for a judgment. 

7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Or as the more poetic KJV says, "God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he also reaps." This is also true for nations. 

What does the Gardener do with weeds? 

Facebook Fraud?

One of the main attributes of Babylon is the rather rampant fraud that is a basic part of its heart. The whole political system is based on campaign "contributions." I remember reading years ago that the reason that Microsoft had anti-trust problems was that it was not contributing enough to the powers that be. Other companies, almost as monopolistic as Microsoft, seem to get a pass. I am not sure if the lack of contributions was a factor, but Microsoft does make more contributions now and they no longer have the same issues.

The food industry in no exception to this. I wonder how many industry executives actually eat the products they sell? Do they feed them to their children? 

Advertising, while technically not fraud, is designed to build artificial demand for the product. I advertise my business, so I am not against it in an absolute way. It is the whole system that is bad. I had even considered advertising on Facebook to promote this blog. 

Ultimately my distaste for looking at ads myself decided for me. Why would I impose something I hate on someone else? After watching the following video, I have another reason to be glad I decided not to advertise. How much of Facebook's "click throughs" are actual people? 

Watch and see if you are interested. If I had Facebook stock, this video would make me sell it. 

This Is God's Country

A lot of times we think things are new when they are not. There were no good ol' days. 

Under a dictatorship the Big Business, made possible by advancing technology and the consequent ruin of Little Business, is controlled by the State - that is to say, by a small group of party leaders and the soldiers, policemen and civil servants who carry out their orders. In a capitalist democracy such as the United States, it is controlled by what Professor C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite.

This Power Elite directly employs several millions of the country’s working force in its factories, offices and stores, controls many millions more by lending them the money to buy its products, and, through its ownership of the media of mass communications, influences the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of virtually everybody.

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited 1958

While I would not call our system democracy or capitalism, we all need to understand that the whole system, America the Beautiful as the song calls it, has a Potemkin village kind of beauty in its veneer. 

But ugly is what is really there. It was ugly in 1958, in 1858, and the ugliness is still there. Like the Eagles song Hotel California, "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." I am mixing my metaphors here as I have always advocated leaving the system behind...just look at the subtitle to the blog, "Leaving Babylon the Great." 

We are all stuck in Babylon. Even if you emigrate to New Zealand, you will find Babylon there. But each of us can strive to leave it in all the most important ways. You may be forced to be in the system--just refuse to pay your taxes and see what happens. But you can refuse to be of the system. 

This is oddly enough why I try to blog every Friday about food and health. I refuse to eat the food of Babylon. I want something different. As Huxley mentioned, Babylon controls the media, so it tries to control even our feelings along with our thoughts. This is why I do not watch much television. This Is My Country! This is also why I talk about religious matters. Most churches have been co-opted. If you think I am wrong, on a weekend around July 4, go to church with an open mind and listen. 

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

Do these lyrics sound familiar? Have you heard it sung in church? But have you heard this section from Jeremiah 7 preached and related to the modern situation in the US? 

8-11 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’”God’s Decree!

Is this God's country? Not so much. 

Are You A Gang Member? Part 3

Are Catholics bad? 

Some would say yes. But instead I am going to offer that they are a part of a system that has become corrupted. Why did various Catholic Bishops protect pedophiles? One aspect might have been pedophiles protecting each other. But the most likely explanation is that rather than doing what was right, the desire was to protect the institution, the gang to which they belonged. Bishops talk to other religious leaders in their church who have the same background. A group-think develops to defend the institution, and instead of being fired, or even transferred to an institution where there are no children, the pedophiles were just assigned to a different parish.  This is the classic definition of insanity--you keep doing something that is not working hoping that this time it will work.  

It didn't. 

It is possible, to paraphrase Jesus, to be in the system, but not be of the system--sometimes. It depends on the system, it depends on the individual. It is always hard not to be a team player even when the team is corrupt. We believe the lies of the team, and as the gang member I quoted in part 1 said, "It is all lies." 

I remember being a part of a religious gang over a decade ago. I supported the church financially. I drove hundreds of miles a month. The church would reimburse some for mileage, I never did request it. I spoke every week, and was the main speaker in the area. I wrote on Internet forums to defend the interests of my gang. I became a hack. 

When a difficult situation arose locally, I naturally expected to receive back from the gang the support I had given it. I journeyed to denominational headquarters to present my case. I expected that I would be supported. But alas, those that had the preeminence both locally and denominationally prevailed. How naive I was. While I was never technically decredentialed, I found out later, I was put in a position where I had to leave. It could, and probably was, said that I had made the choice myself to leave.  

Any system naturally corrupts those that belong to it, they that are "of" the system. Thus Catholic Bishops, whose lifetime devotion to their church and ideals should really not be questioned, became corrupt because it was necessary to defend the institution. The gang trumps all. 

I am not saying in this three-part series that one can never vote for a political party, although I am less and less interested in such matters. Nor am I saying one cannot be a member of a nation state. Nor am I suggesting you not join a church. But instead, I am saying you need to understand the corrupting nature of being a gang member, and leave that behind. 

I remember singing a song written by the uncle of the founder of my denomination. It was a reworking of the first psalm. I sang that I "would not stand in sinners' way." I had no idea what this meant. Later I came to understand that it meant not to associate with sinners. As you read the words of the psalmist ask yourself who are you like? Are you a tree standing tall, bearing fruit for all? Or do you hang out, defend and associate with the gangs of this world? 

Are you a gang member? 

Psalm 1

The Message (MSG)

1 How well God must like you—
    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. 

Instead you thrill to God’s Word,
    you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
    bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
    always in blossom.

You’re not at all like the wicked,
    who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
    unfit company for innocent people.

God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.