Were You ATLB ? (Among Those Left behind)

We have now passed the May 21st, 6pm doomsday deadline, in all time zones around the world.  If you are a Christian and reading this, you've been  'Left Behind' and not 'Raptured'....

The 200,000,000 (two-hundred million) or so that were presumably 'raptured', have left some unintended benefits for us...

- less usage of fossil fuels like oil and gasoline, thus lowering the carbon footprint..

- more job openings available for us, thus lowering the unemployment rate..

- less demand for food, clothing, transportation and housing, thus softening the market, lowering the demand, and hopefully lowering prices..

- I could go on and on, but you get the picture...

....also notable 'Christians' like George Bush, Rev. John Hagee, Hal Lindsay, Sarah Palin, Rev. Franklin Graham, George Romney, Glen Beck, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Scalia, Paul Crouch, etc.,  are presumably among those millions who just floated upward and out of this sphere - for this we can all say amen, hallelujah and good riddance!


note: unfortunately, some non-Christians like Michael Savage, Charles Krauthammer, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, and assorted other infidels, are still  here, but we'll continue to deal with them as best we can....

Real Persons vs. Faked Persons

The law of sowing and reaping has never been more evident than in the recent supreme court ruling - granting personhood to non-human corporations.

I believe that God has caused this abomination because His justice requires that those who denied the full personhood of His human creations who are black, have to now accept the personhood of corporations who are not even human. This denial of personhood was not only applied to blacks in this country, but in the countries victimized by our foreign policy as we sought cheap resources, labor and land, such as in Haiti. Haiti's current condition is a direct result of our interventionist foreign policies toward it, along with the foreign policies of other European imperialists, such as the French.

Some are calling it a major threat to democracy and rightly so, but it's the 'sowing' of the historical, horrendous, inhuman, denial of personhood to blacks, which now is about to be 'reaped' in having to recognize the humanness of non-human corporations.

With their unlimited financial resources and their increased ability to buy any or all of our democratic institutions and representatives as they see fit, these fake human corporations will demonstrate another precept of God - "The love of Money is the root of all evil"

I predict, we will soon see the awesome truths of these precepts as we have never seen them before!....

How Dare You, Jesus!

This is the month of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the only Eternal God and Creator of the Universe.....

But since His birth and earthly ministry, His teachings has created a conundrum and a dilemma for those Conservatives who consider America to be a 'Christian' nation, yet hate, resist and ignore most of His teachings, particularly those they consider to be too socialistic, too communistic, or too pacifistic.

When Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, 'eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matt. 5:38-39), Conservatives reply, 'we consider this to be unrealistic - in fact we believe in capital punishment and Bush's doctrine of Preventive War that justified the bombing, invasion, and rape and pillaging of Iraq.'.....how dare you, Jesus!

When Jesus says, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." (Mark 10:25), and in Matt. 6:19 He says "do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth", and a few verses later, in Matt. 6:24, He says "You cannot serve both God and Money". In Luke 6:24 He says, "woe to you who are rich." Conservatives reply to all this, 'we believe in being filthy rich and we love the tax cuts for the rich that Reagan and Bush lavished on us while the standard of living for the middle class and the poor worsened every year....and to expect us to 'sell everything we have and give to the poor' (Mark 10:17-22), is pure insanity - only a communist would expect us to consider doing something like that.....how dare you, Jesus!

So every year about this time, Conservatives of every stripe are reminded of how far from the teachings of Jesus they really are, and in no sense can they claim to be Christians or claim America to be a Christian nation.... Jesus says they are not, and how dare He?

A Christian Nation?????

I don't see anything christian about the preemptive invading of a sovereign country on the pretext of suspecting them of having WMDs, and then 'shocking and awing" them to death numbering in the thousands, while sacrificing thousands of our own citizens.

If the nation had collectively risen up and denounced the criminals who planned this, and then impeached and jailed them for their criminality, then we could at least claim to have some Christian virtue. Instead, most of the nation supported this slaughter, and 60 million voters just voted for McCain/Palin to continue this atrocity done in our name.

What about the billions of taxpayer funds stolen by war profiteers, with no-bid contracts and other ruses to facilitate their thefts? Would a Christian nation sanction and allow such stealing with impunity from the national treasury?

If this is a christian nation, then we will have to re-define what 'Christian' means, from following the teachings of Christ, to following the evil in the hearts of the men who lead this nation.

My Thanks to 2 Gods

Thanksgiving is the time of year to express our thanks to God for the blessings of faith, family, health and strength, and all the other blessings of life that we enjoy.

I'm particularly thankful to God for His miraculous intervention on Barack's behalf, where He brought him from being the most unlikely candidate for president, to 'the one' who beat all of the more likely candidates who were ahead of him. This is the God who was able to hear and answer the prayers of millions of Obama's ancestors and supporters, by responding in a miraculous way on his behalf.

I also want to be sure to thank the 'god' of the John McCain and Sarah Palin supporters, who either couldn't hear their prayers, ignored their prayers, or merely decided to punish them by allowing an outcome that they absolutely could not conceive of and did not want. In fact, the TBN gang could barely whisper their usual, "Praise The Lord!". If I was their 'god' I would have also been offended by what many of them prayed for. One of their prominent supporters, James Dobson, who is a leading Evangelical, had the temerity to pray and ask his supporters to pray, that Obama's acceptance speech at the Colorado convention, would be rained out. Others hoped their 'god' would let something unfortunate happen to Obama, to prevent him from winning the presidency. Still others hoped their 'god' would kill him because Sarah Palin said that he 'palled around with terrorists', and was not like what a good [white] American should be.

All these ungodly prayers were being uttered on behalf of two of the worst candidates for president and vice-president, in the history of this country. What an insult it was to a 'god', to have to listen to these kinds of offensive prayers on behalf of two unqualified, unworthy candidates. It's no wonder he or she, either tuned them out, or exacted the ultimate retribution by turning the tables on their requests.

The last thing I am thankful for, is that this election made it abundantly and absolutely clear, that there were and are, two different 'gods' being prayed to. One is the true and living God of many of the Obama supporters, who not only could hear their prayers, but answered in a most convincing and miraculous manner. The other is the false 'god' of the right-wing, and particularly many Evangelicals, who left them high and dry, searching for an explanation of why he failed to grant their most earnest prayers, entreaties and supplications.

Never again should anyone think that just because someone calls himself or herself a Christian, that they are following and praying to the same true and living God. Millions have been unknowingly or secretly following their own false christian god, that finally got exposed this past Nov. 4th.

All thanksgivings to the true and living God.

"...And Let Them Have Dominion.." Gen. 1:26

The dominion that God mandated is a far cry from the perversion that is practiced by the likes of Palin, Robertson, and Bush and their many evangelical supporters.

Their version calls for subjugation of inferiors, pre-emptive wars, manufacturing and lying about presumed threats to the US, murder and slaughter in the name of their god, illegally occupying another country, 'shock and awe', profiting from war, authorizing and condoning torture, waging war on all social programs that help the least able to help themselves, and opposition to hundreds of health, environmental and safety laws designed to benefit our society. Additionally, one writer said, -

"Dominionism has proved itself to be hooligan in nature. It is Machiavellian to the core. Dominionists take what is not theirs; they grab what belongs to others; they steal from the poor to give to the rich; they bribe; they punish with smears and condemnation. And they win elections at any cost—even at the cost of American democracy. In the end, that is the stated goal of Dominionists—they desire to establish an American Theocracy, where every one of them shall reign as “Theo.”

Where Jesus said to “turn the other cheek,” the Dominionists say, “dominate them; ruin them; run them out of power.” Their philosophy is anti-Christian and anti-Christ to the core. Dominionists have gained extensive control of the Republican Party and the apparatus of government throughout the United States; they continue to operate secretly. Their agenda to undermine all government social programs that assist the poor, the sick, and the elderly is ingeniously disguised under false labels that confuse voters.

Dominionism started with the Gospels and turned the concept of the invisible and spiritual “Kingdom of God” into a literal political empire that could be taken by force, starting with the United States of America. Discarding the original message of Jesus and forgetting that Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” the framers of Dominionism boldly presented a Gospel whose purpose was to inspire Christians to enter politics and execute world domination so that Jesus could return to an earth prepared for his earthly rule by his faithful “regents.”

"Dominionism’s purpose is to create theocrats (a Christian class of rulers). But in order to successfully place only certain Christians in positions of power, Dominionism divides Christian believers into classes based upon political ideology and certain hot point issues such as the privatization of Social Security and Medicare, freedom to decide on medical procedures with ones own physician, freedom of the press and freedom of speech, freedom of the arts, and certain rights like the right to a fair trial and protection from governmental intrusion into the privacy of marriage and adult associations.

The Dominionists have lost more American jobs in the last three years than since the days of Herbert Hoover. And now they want to eliminate the minimum wage laws too. America’s unions have helped to create a better life for millions of workers. The Dominionists want to break all unions apart (especially the teacher’s union). As Americans, we love our schools and are proud of our educational system. The Dominionists want to destroy all public education in America and force Americans to be educated in their religious schools. Americans love our culture and the arts. The Dominionists want to destroy that culture."

But God miraculously orchestrated Barack Obama's election, and it appears that He is throwing a monkey-wrench into the plans of these haters of freedom. Judging from the anguished cries and hand-wringing from their supporters, It appears that their attempt to sneak Palin/McCain across the finish line to continue Bush's dominionist reign, has been derailed, at least for now - All praises be to our God.

A Win By God For Man

"....and he doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth and in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will...." Dan. 4:25,35

Not only did God move the chess pieces of history, but He did it in a most amazing way - He took the seed of a pure black African man, and united it with the egg of a white woman mixed with European and Native American ancestry. From this union was born Barack Obama, an African-American, who was able to put together the best presidential campaign in the history of the world, and to withstand the most vicious and racist opposition in the primaries as well as the campaign, to become the next president of the United States.

Along the way were millions of Americans who were brought here as slaves or came here as immigrants, who worked, sacrificed, bled and died, while looking forward to this day ordained by God.

I, along with millions of others, never thought we would ever see a black president in our lifetimes, but this just proves that God's plans are way beyond anything man can think or imagine.

We have now been given another chance to make right what has been wrong, and to make amends to those we have wronged - we better take this chance and make the most of it.

And in the end, Palin and McCain did not fool me or many others one bit, they confirmed that they were the nastiest, fear-mongering, guilt-by-association, racist pigs that we thought they were - with lipstick, and we rejected them with a landslide vote for Obama.

As the 'Australian' news elegantly said, - "It is a sublime moment - Barack Obama to succeed George W. Bush, an affirmation of America, its foundation mission, its abiding dreams."

"The American people have turned the page. This is more than a vote for change. It is a act of renewal, a turning point in American history and a quest for a better nation.

The American people chose Obama yet most of the world also wanted Obama - that invests his Presidency with a potential authority unknown in history and an opportunity to touch not just Americans but people around the world."

Farewell Falwell

Upon just hearing the news of Falwell's death, my mind reviewed some of the unseemly things I remembered about him - nothing positive among them.

Here is what I remembered:-

He was a staunch segregationist who supported hate icons like Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Strom Thurmond and others; Called the Civil Rights movement for justice, the 'civil wrongs' movement; Smeared and libeled Martin Luther King; He and other racists of his time - including J. Edgar Hoover, publicly gloated when Martin Luther King was assassinated; Financed a movie that falsely alleged Ron Brown and Bill Clinton murdered Vince Foster; Supported the evil system of South African apartheid and recommended that his congregants buy the South African Krugerrand to help support that immoral, murderous regime; Falsely attributed national disasters like 9-11, Katrina etc., to gays and pagans whom God was punishing; Called Liberals and public schools satanic; Claimed to be a Christian, yet exhibited the most un-Christlike views and actions; Instituted and sponsored a thinly-veiled curriculum of racial hatred and bigotry at his university when he started it in the early 1970s; Supported Israel's claims that the lands of Palestine belonged to them, and turned a blind eye and refused to criticize their inhumane treatment and dispossession of the Palestinians who they found on the land; Started an organization called the 'Moral Majority', that was neither moral nor a majority; Blasphemed by falsely claiming to speak for God on numerous occasions; Never missed an opportunity to disparage the poor and less fortunate of our country; Lastly, he conflated his extremist religiosity with his right-wing politics to the ultimate detriment of our country.

Fox news and others, will doubtlessly try to venerate, canonize and deify him, and they will be tripping over themselves trying to burnish his image, but no amount of trying will alter the despicable record he has left behind.

What I remember, is only a fraction of the sorry misdeeds in his life that he will have to answer for in the next one. I did not wish him dead, but I'm grateful that he will not be drawing any more breaths to heap more abuse on the humans he despised while he was here. Pat Robertson is his evil-twin and his spiritual and political soul-mate, (Pat publicly called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez) - maybe he can repent and save himself from Falwell's fate while he still is alive and breathing.

In my view, the world is better off without him.

Spiritual Fruits or Religious Nuts?

What does Jim, Jimmy, Paul, Ted, James, George, Jeff, and Mike have in common? The first four; Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggert, Paul Crouch, and Ted Haggard, are all right-wing, republican Evangelicals who have railed against sexual sins in others, but have been exposed and outed for having secret sinful sexual lives themselves. The next two, James Dobson and George Bush, are close friends and confidants of these and the recently outed, Ted Haggard, a mega-pastor and head of a 30 million member evangelical association. The last two, Jeff and Mike, are admitted male prostitutes. Jeff Gannon was given cover and unlimited access to the White House as a fake journalist in the press corps, and Mike Jones is the male escort that has accused Haggard of paying him for monthly sex over a 3 year period and also was the procurer for his drug of choice, crystal meth. At first Haggard denied knowing Jones, now he flip-flops and says he went to him only for a 'massage'. He also admits to buying crystal meth from him, but "threw it away before using it". We don't need to speculate if he is telling the truth or not, but it should be noted that he has quickly resigned from both of his high-profile evangelical positions. If I were similarly accused but innocent of these charges, I would never resign, but instead, sue my accuser for slander, and every publication that printed the accusation. Let's see if he does this. The experts say that $200 worth of crystal meth, is not a quantity that a first-time user would buy. Instead it is the quantity that only a regular user committed to this drug and it's effects, would buy. Further, buying this drug in any quantity is a felony in Colorado, so Haggard is probably not only a regular user, but is also an admitted law breaker and felon as well. Rumor also has it that the gay community in Colorado Springs has known about Rev. Ted for years and that he not only has had sex with gay prostitutes, but has also had a ten-year long affair with one of his male aides, and has come on inappropriately to many of his young staffers. Once again it seems, here is a case of another so-called 'godly' person, who along with right-wing pundits like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly, regularly brand the rest of us as 'godless, leftist secularists' in the culture war, but who has now been exposed as the ultimate hypocrite that we suspected, but did not have proof of, until now. These are the fruits of the more moral, more holier-than-thou crowd, that wraps itself around the flag and the Bible, and proclaims their righteousness and morality, while savaging and persecuting gays and other undesirables, and conducting their own depraved lifestyles in private. These are also the phonies who claim to be 'pro-life' while supporting a war which has killed thousands of innocent Iraqis and American servicemen and women, using lies and deceptions to justify their actions.

Are You a 'Red-Letter' Christian?

I just came across this label for Christians that I like much better than 'Evangelical Christian', which has been unfortunately conflated with right-wing politics, as evidenced by the 83% of Evangelicals who vote Republican. 'Red-Letter' describes a Christian who knows that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and the words of Jesus that are in red in most New Testament versions, are His directives that are meant to be followed. I am disturbed by policies that have made life much worse for those already poor, the increasing imperialism and militarism, the pre-emptive doctrine that has resulted in the loss of life for hundreds of thousands of our neighbors who don't look like us, the lack of a national healthcare program for all our citizens - all these policies and actions are condemned by the red letter words of Jesus. In these words He calls on us to take care of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner, as if we are doing it unto Him. He tells us to be merciful, to be peaceful and be peacemakers, to love our enemies - not kill them in a war on terrorism, not to look at the loss of civilian life as mere 'collateral damage'. He does not tell us to cut the taxes of the wealthiest while cutting the food stamps of the poor. His is a message of justice, peace, compassion, integrity and equity, which are all conspicuously missing from the policies of our right-wing administration and supported and endorsed by many Evangelicals. Their Christianity consists of affluent conformity, greed and covetousness, political party loyalty, support for Israel no matter what the outrage is, and their mantra is 'God Bless America while killing our enemies' - all are at variance with the central message of Jesus Christ. His message transcends partisan party politics, it is anti-consumerism, and meeting the needs of the poor is the prime message and responsibility given to His followers.

To those of you who are Christians, which kind of Christian are you?

"...Let Their Habitation Be Desolate....

....and their bones cleve to their skin...." These words describe some of the judgements pronounced by God on the enemies of Biblical Israel. As I continued to watch the footage of the 9/11 carnage, all I could think about was the need for some similar Divine retribution on the conspirators and the perpetrators. More than most, I was affected because I could identify with the victims as well as the location of the catastrophe in lower Manhattan. Previously, most large-scale attacks have occurred in foreign lands which are much more remote and removed. But this one was right at home, virtually at my doorstep! I'll admit I'm suspicious, and I don't buy the conclusions of the official 9/11 report. But being suspicious is not enough to prove what did or did not happen, and who was responsible.
Happily and gratefully, I can leave the job of retribution to the Creator God who knows all, sees all, and judges all, righteously.