I Was Wrong!

I have come to my senses. I have been wrong all along. It’s hard for me to say this but the war in Iraq and my support for Israel has been misguided.

I have seen the light. A wiser man than I am has shown me the way.

Here are the facts that changed my way of thinking:

The real aggressor toward the Palestinians is Israel.

Israelis are making life more and more difficult for the rightful owners of the land of Palestine. In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief.

The war in Iraq is another thing I was wrong on.

Consider these truths: Since the commencement of the US military presence in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced. Terrorism in Iraq has grown exponentially. With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty. The US Government used the pretext of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but later it became clear that that was just a lie and a deception.


What it has done to our country:

One hundred and fifty thousand American soldiers, separated from their families and loved ones, are operating under the command of the current US administration. A substantial number of them have been killed or wounded and their presence in Iraq has tarnished the image of the American people and government.


Even a beat of my heart goes out to Cindy Shehan:

Their mothers and relatives have, on numerous occasions, displayed their discontent with the presence of their sons and daughters in a land thousands of miles away from US shores. American soldiers often wonder why they have been sent to Iraq.

And the cost of war:

I no longer consent to the billions of dollars of annual expenditure from the treasury for this military misadventure.

Then there are the atrocities which continue to be uncovered being commited by our troops:

The US administration is kidnapping its presumed opponents from across the globe and arbitrarily holding them without trial or any international supervision in horrendous prisons that it has established in various parts of the world. God knows who these detainees actually are, and what terrible fate awaits them.

The worst are the Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib prisons. The US administration attempts to justify them through its proclaimed "war on terror." But every one knows that such behavior, in fact, offends global public opinion, exacerbates resentment and thereby spreads terrorism, and tarnishes the US image and its credibility among nations.

Then there are the losses of civil liberties:

Under the pretext of "the war on terror," civil liberties in the United States are being increasingly curtailed. Even the privacy of individuals is fast losing its meaning. Judicial due process and fundamental rights are trampled upon. Private phones are tapped, suspects are arbitrarily arrested, sometimes beaten in the streets, or even shot to death.

It would be so much better if we spent the money we spend on the war on things at home:

Now that Iraq has a Constitution and an independent Assembly and Government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home, and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people? As we know very well, many victims of Katrina continue to suffer, and countless Americans continue to live in poverty and homelessness.

My hope is that the new leadership in congress will get a handle on this:

If the new US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America. But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration's policies.

And to be certain that these revelations come to you as well, these did not come from John Murtha, the New York Times, or Daily Kos. I didn’t trust them. You’ve heard all this from them. It took a Man of God to show me the error of my ways. You can read his letter to me that turned it all around.

It’s funny it all sounds so familiar. I can't remember where I've heard all this before.

Merrrrrrry Leftivus from the ACLU

I wish I had thought of this. From Worldnetdaily.com

Campus activists plan to display an "ACLU Nativity Scene" at the University of Texas in response to the civil liberties group's "extreme" campaign to remove Christmas from the public sphere.

"We've got Gary and Joseph instead of Mary and Joseph in order to symbolize ACLU support for homosexual marriage, and of course there isn't a Jesus in the manger," said Tony McDonald, chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas branch on the Austin campus.

McDonald told WND his group has been working on the "crèche" at his apartment and plans to install it on the West Mall of the campus for display Monday and Tuesday.

The three Wise Men in the display are Lenin, Marx and Stalin, McDonald said, because ACLU founder Roger Baldwin was a backer of Soviet-style communism.

As director of the ACLU in 1934, Baldwin wrote an article entitled "Freedom in the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R." in which he said "the Soviet Union has already created liberties far greater than exist elsewhere in the world."

"The whole scene is a tongue-in-cheek way of showing the many ways that the ACLU and the far left are out of touch with the values of mainstream America," McDonald said in a statement.

The scene will also have a "terrorist shepherd" and an angel with Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi's face, using a photograph of the soon-to-be speaker of the House from San Francisco

"The ACLU and other left-wing extremist groups are working diligently to destroy Americans' rights to the free expression of religion," said the Young Conservatives' Executive Director Joseph Wyly.

Wyly pointed to the city of Chicago's decision this week to ban advertisements for "The Nativity Story" movie from a local Christmas festival, fearing they might offend non-Christians.

"It's just more evidence that there is a war on Christmas being waged by the far-left in this country," he said.

CyberChurch

DATELINE: Christmas 2020 AD

First Bapticostal Church opens it’s Premium Service, the Sunday Before Christmas in Geneva IL.

Many in attendance

Pastor Jimmy O’Donnell (who is actually located in Virginia Beach Va) preaches a sermon delivered holographically to the sanctuary. He is entertaining, clever, moving and the best high quality preaching you could ever hope to find.

First of Geneva is one of 177 holographic pulpits to see and hear Brother Jimmy “live”. Oh there had been some complaining when the Holographic Service was initiated, but PR Jimmy was so good and people said, “We need to have first class preaching when we have church”. So now First and 176 other churches have first class preaching.

What was even more amazing everyone heard the message in their own tounge. By a unique targeting method and recognition the image generator also generated the voice in a language you would understand. This eliminated the need for translators and made spreading the Gospel around the world much better without the need for human intervention.

One of the essentials in becoming part of First was having a chip implanted under your scalp. That’s how much of the ministry took place. The equipment knew who you were by the chip.

The giving system long ago moved to automated giving. Behind every seat in the sanctuary was a smart chip sweep reader and a keypad. When Br Jimmy took the offering people made a sweep by the chip reader. Some signed up to have a tithe directly drawn from their Amero Dollar accounts. Since the unification of North America the Amero Dollar was the universal currency.

It was communion Sunday. People filed past the Communimatic Machine. It was able to use the chip reader and in a clear and reassuring voice give individual communion to every person by name. This was much better than pastor Don who was the last human pastor of the church. By walking up to the beautiful spiritual-looking altar encasing the comminimatic, a wafer and a small cup of wine or grape juice was dispensed. It knew by a prior questionnaire which you preferred. The beauty of the communimatic was the fact that it never forgot a name. It always knew who you were.

And the music. Wow! Who could complain about it. In the same holographic presentation that PR Jimmy came to them, a complete worship team from the best churches in the world were displayed in holographic realism. Hillsong, Maranatha, Lakeland, Morningstar. When worship music was played it was the highest and best worship possible. Did God deserve any less? People from the congregation were invited to join the holographic worship team although they weren’t allowed to have their instruments or voices actually heard. But, those who did saw it as a privilege to be able to play along with such a good band, even if it was 10,000 miles away and 6 weeks ago. No one would ever have know the difference except for the one time when there was a lightning strike on a power transformer and the worship band melted away in front of the congregation.

Baptisms were automated. The immersion tanks had a leaning bar, the theological argument postualated was there was nothing scriptural about having human hands actually do the baptizing. In fact they were right. So the candidate after viewing an online preparation stepped into the tank and leaned back on the leaning bar. Baptism were thusly initiated, the person let down and lifted up with the words according to the creed selected, Jesus name only, or Jesus Name and Father Son and Holy Ghost or just Father Son and Holy Ghost. People accepted this and it was convenient. There became 24 hour baptistrys. A reasonable contribution allowed families at 3AM to bring a candidate to be Baptized. For Churches that sprinkled, the Rain Bird corporation had produced a wonderful machine that was sanitary and sprinkled at just the place a laser pointer would point to. You just held the baby and water and words were delivered.

People seeking a prophetic word from God were served by an Automatic Prophetic Word Generator. The theology that justified this was that God could cause the computer to give just the right word for that person at that time. People would come, make a small offering with the wave chip and presto a word like, “Lo the Lord is with you at all times, and the answer to your question is YES. Be bold be brave for the Lord our God is with you.” Sometimes this caused confusion when the word seemed to give approval and encouragement to a questioner contemplating divorce or suicide.

If a person needed healing there was the Healing Cloth Dispenser. Using the verse in Acts where Paul blessed cloths and they were laid on people for healing, the person in need of healing came forward, rehearsed into the HCD what the problem was. A dollop of anointing oil was delivered by a tube directly to the forehead in the sign of the cross while words of faith and deliverance for healing were played from the machine. People loved this. They took the cloths home and revered them. Testimonies were given about this wonderful administer of God’s grace. Little did they know that the machine and the cloths were made in China and the Oil came from a factory in Iran. The only blessing that ever happened was a priest from the old school visited the docks where shipping containers were being unloaded containing the cloths and machines were being unloaded. He would say a few words over them, make the sign of the cross and go home to watch reruns of Seinfeld.

If you wanted prayer, did they have a program for you. There was a realistic representation of a section of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. You could approach it and stand there alone or if you asked a loving man or woman image would appear holograhically. They would agree with you in prayer saying "Amen, Yes Lord and Help him/her Lord" as you poured out your heart. Those prayers were automatically transmitted via broadband to a receiver in Jerusalem that transmitted those words of prayer directly into the wailing wall. You could be sure God could hear you better if you prayed so that the God of the wall could hear. Voice recognition remembered your prayers and stored them. Pr Jimmy's Holograph could give assurance of God’s blessings as you left the service.

The beautiful part of this whole thing is Church never closed. It was open 24-7. Many of the other participants in the service were holographs from other churches piped in so that it looked like every service was full. The singing was exuberant. The amens from the congregation were lively. Every service was multicultural. It was such fun. Not real, but fun.

And when the service was over, a holographic image of Pastor Jimmy stood by the door and greeted you and your wife. He would aske about the kids, how your back problem was coming along, your job, how bout them Cubbies and was warm and caring. He missed absolutely no one. And never forgot a name. Never caught a cold, never was absent, never went on vacation and never was tired. The perfect Pastor. Of course all responses to Holograpic PR Jimmy were processed by voice recognition and stored for your next meeting. Pr Jimmy knew all, saw all. Better than Jesus some thought.

Of course all teaching, all Sunday school and all children’s activities were equally cyber-delivered. Keeping track of your kids was never a problem since the Nannybots had subdermal chip readers to know at all times where your kids were. And singing those troublesome Sunday School songs like Jesus Loves Me? No problem, the kids became part of a marvelous little cyber holograph kids singing group and even if they sang off key looked like they were brilliant at all times. No one attending any of the Sunday School Programs ever knew what or who was real or what was Memorex. The parents thought their little darlings were so brilliant.

You didn’t have to wonder what was going on at First. Long since any bulletins or announcements were obsolete, just log on to WWW.CYBERFIRSTGENEVA.ORG and you would learn everything you wanted to know. Or have announcements, prayer requests, and pleas for money send directly to your PDA.

If you had a virtual reality headset you didn’t actually have to leave home to attend First Bapticostal. You could enjoy the whole thing from your easy chair and no one knew that while in Church you also were enjoying a scotch and water and a nice cigar while singing along with the Holographic worship team from Austrailia. Besides, when you logged in a well groomed representation of you showed up in the congregation holographically. People thought you were actually there.

Funerals were given completly over to funeral providers. They did it so well and professionally as they published electronic reviews of a persons life, pictures, videos, imported a few canned holograpic singers of sad songs and family spoke. Many attendees of the funerals accessed and viewed them online with online condolences. Graves were considered messy. So all funerals became mandated to end in cremation. Funerals didn't fit into CyberChurch. It wasn't much of a loss. Funerals could be messy and unprofessional. I mean we can comfort one another can't we? Who needs a Church to do that?

Marriage was outlawed by President Lily M. Johnson D (IL). Weddings were considered discriminatory against homosexuals after the big battles over same sex marriage waged by Christians. So to avoid any sign of religious intervention in "Family" development all weddings were eliminated by an act of congress and the ACLU. There were a few underground weddings but not many. People would just move in together. The New North American Bible written in Spanglish the national language of North America was cleansed of all references to husbands and wives. "Others" was the replacement word for any references previously made about husbands and wives. So much neater and cleaner. Besides, marriages had become messy in the church what with the bitter divorce of the pope and his wife.

Oh there were subversive groups who insisted on doing things without all the electronic cyber froo froo. They were looked upon as old fashioned. Luddite in mentality. They dropped out of cyberchurch and formed little groups in homes. They were questioned and indicted at being anti social; even unchristian. There were laws past. House church became illegal. The government controlled what went on in CyberChurch. They took a piece of the "take" to protect them from Muslims and other alternative religions (like house church).

Sadly there weren’t many Pastors left to visit them. The offices and occupations of Pastor, Minister, Prophet, Teacher, Evangelist, Apostle, Sunday School Teachers and Worship leaders was all but eliminated by the CyberChurch revolution. George Barna III railed against these developments but was laughed off the platform by those insisting "that Jesus deserved the best" even if it did look like a Macys Store with fake decorations, fake muzak, fake friendliness.

Church had become perfect; high quality, clean, always starting and ending on time, professional, sterile, souless, empty and powerless. In other words having a form but nothing else. But, "Did Jesus deserve anything less than professional excellence?" proponents of CyberChurch asked. Opponents of CyberChurch said Jesus didn't die for computers. The computers laughed.



Personal Note:
I know those who know me well know I have grave misgivings about the direction the Church in America is taking. Me Church it’s called by some. Always in the name of doing things even more excellent for Jesus. In the end when you carry something to it’s logical extension you will see that where we are headed with the whole cyber-church phenomena that is invading the church is an abomination I want no part of.

What’s really sad is we aren’t far from much of this right now in the church. Worse, some of these “Ideas” are some that a person with fewer scruples will say, “Hey, that’s a good idea, lets do it”. Sadly many of these ideas are already common and accepted in the Church. We are in such deep doo doo.

Everything I talked about is linked to something that is already in place or contemplated. This is not theory. How far down this slippery slope are you willing to go?

Now that I’ve let the cat out of the bag I’ll probably see the Communimatic advertised in the next issue of Charisma.

Me and my big mouth.

I Find Romeo

Last Night Peggy and I went to see Romeo and Juliet (the Opera) by Gounod. We saw the Massenet iteration of this a few years ago and I was less than excited by it. Massenet can be good, I loved Thais.

Well, I was wowed. I don't mean impressed. Wowed. The singers were fabulous in every way. And the music, who can understand how anyone can write such beauty.

I will admit, I'm familiar with Faust and the Gounod Ave Maria. Both kept popping up. I guess like any composer who he is shows up over and over again. I once spoke with a prominent composer and asked him why his compositions all seemed to have a very similar sound. Didn't he ever just write something completely different.

He said music is like making love with the same woman, although each time is different there is a familiarly that makes it accessible and adds to the enjoyment.

This opera is also one of the great "date" operas of all time. La Boheme was made famous as a "Date" opera by "Moonstruck" the movie. I am here to say, I think this opera has it beat.

I wonder why I don't see it performed more? This was my first encounter.

Oh, and not to shock you, even Christians and Opera lovers think about love and sex. Just thought I'd let you know.

The Kingdom of Self - Most Churches

Next Saturday I am teaching on the true Spirit of Christmas. It should be the true Spirit in the Church. It should be a Spirit and Truth experience every time we darken the Church House Doors. It doesn't attract much because most of the Church in America is pretty putrid to God. And we are putrid to others.

I don't say this because I hate the Church. In fact I love it too much not to call it what it is. Lost and sinful. God will have a Church without spot or wrinkle at the end. It won't look much like the Church of today. I lifted this from a source I am using next Saturday. I'll not give attribution right yet.

Nations around have no reason to be attracted to the God of Israel because they see the constant hypocrisy of His people.

God's charge is that the people are busy pursuing their own pleasures and pursuing their own business as first priority. It was each man for himself. "It is OK for me to be a believer as long as God doesn't interfere with my plans and the way I want to live my life." "God helps those who help themselves, I'm only looking out for Number One."

This attitude in the Church produces FALSE WORSHIP

False Worship

* Religion that is impersonal, formal turned-inward, purely liturgical, program centered.
* Comes into place by habit and tradition. "This is the way we have always done things here." Seems logical, reasonable.
* Self-serving (what can God do for us?)
* Isolationist, Escapist (God will save us out of this awful evil world). Country-club Christianity
* Predictable, comfortable, controlled, orchestrated, no surprises, runs on autopilot
* Passive involvement by most of the members, (ignoring the reality that God is a deeply personal Being)

"...a religion which assumes a relationship with God while discounting a relationships with the people."
J Vernon McGee calls this "playing church."

"Religion that it pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James)

Ray Stedman says "the ultimate test of faith has always been: does it lead you to serve, to help somebody in need? Do you feel motivated to act? If you do, your faith is real. Otherwise, as James says, it is a "dead faith." The acid test is not, "What does my religion do for me?" but, "What does it make me do for others?"

A selfish life brings inevitable clashes with friends and family alike. We can not do things our way without violating the rights and boundaries of others. In the New Testament, James says that wars and violence are a direct consequence of a life lived hedonistically for one's own pleasures and goals. A self-centered life takes advantage of others--pressing onward and upward oblivious to the needs of others around us who are less fortunate than ourselves. But, a self-centered life brings frustration--it runs contrary to the way things were created. When we reach our goals we find them hollow and empty. The resulting frustration leaves us angry, resentful, and even murderous in our hearts. "I want 'my rights,'" "I deserve a good life, I earned it."

Liars Lie (again) and the MSM Spread the Lies

Yesterday a friend of mine called and was quite distraught with the situation deteriorating in Iraq. I listened to him and was quiet.

It had to do with a news story that Reuters had published that said 6 men were dragged from their mosque and burned alive. That the police stood by and did nothing. You have probably heard the story. As soon as Reuters went with it the AP picked it up and it has now been published round the world. Reaction has been predictable. Horrors.

Now, it seem that all this was a hoax. A reputed liar, Police Captain Jamil Hussein told this tall tale. He did so because it gets him publicity. So, now, we have people all over the world upset, frustrated and retaliation going on for something that didn't happen.

All over a lie.

Reuters should have vetted the story. They didn't. They just went with it without any check. The AP were sheep. That's our mainstream media for you. They report any lie as long as it made the war look futile and Bush look bad.

So, what? We must become critics of what we hear and read. The lies are deep and wide. It's not as bad as they report. It's not as good either. The truth is out there, but it's not easy to find.

Learn to see thru all the fog and look for the truth. That's always the issue, when people hear lies they go nuts. They jump to conclusions. They believe what is convenient.

It's like AL GORE and his goofy movie. No one wants that either. It's lies. The scientific community is running as fast as they can from his allegations.

There's always a hidden agenda, follow the agenda or follow the money and you will be safe. It's either self promotion (Al Gore) or it's money.

Liar Liar pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire.