Politics

Chilling Effect

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Knowledgeable Web denizens know Google’s motto: Do no evil.

Cute, right?

Well, that motto was put to the test when Google opened in China and conformed to the Chinese Communist government’s wish to censor search result. But that’s China. You expect that out of China.

Recently, a site opened here in the States that should bother any sane person. It’s not a Google site per se, but it uses Google’s Map API to a chilling effect.

Witness eightmaps.com.

What eightmaps does is correlate required political donation data to pinpoint the houses and businesses of each person or company that donated money to support Proposition 8 in California. A roadmap to vandalism--or worse...A yes vote on 8 demanded that California enforce the statewide ban on homosexual marriage that voters enacted a few years ago, effectively eliminating the recent localized rulings in favor of such marriage, such as those in San Francisco.

It doesn’t take a genius to extrapolate the message sent by the posting of these names, home and business locations, and donation amounts in such an easily accessed image.  Nor is there any need to ask why these maps only feature donation info for those who voted in favor of Prop 8.

Rather scary, isn’t it?

Regardless of where you stand on Prop 8, the reality is that many Prop 8 supporters are Christians. As I cruised through eightmaps.com, I could envision the maps becoming the names and locations of people who preach such wacky truths like “the Bible is true,”  “Jesus is the only way to heaven,” and “unless you repent of your sins and turn to Jesus, you will be eternally separated from God and cast into hell.” You know, hatemongering. Or at least that’s what the kiddies call it nowadays.

Think how easily the inhabitants of two ancient towns (no longer on the map, by the way) could have tracked down the house of that Lot fella if they had a cool tool like eightmaps, powered by Google. Do no evil, indeed.

Get ready people, the persecution is coming. Perhaps sooner than we think.

Misty Monday Morning Musings

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Random thoughts running through my head…

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Though we’ve flirted with it in the past, this is the first year that I can say without hesitation that we Americans bypassed Thanksgiving entirely and went straight to Christmas. Boy, doesn’t that say it all.

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I don’t see many leftover Obama/Biden signs. You’d think the pair lost considering how quickly their signs vanished. On the other hand, McCain/Palin signs remain rooted in yards like oaks. I guess some people still believe.

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I predicted this years ago, but few heeded the call. What does it say that we are caught flatfooted again?

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My indulgent snack of choice are Frito Lay Cheetos. I got the last two 10-ounce bags at my local grocery store. The new bags are 8.5 ounces.  Sigh.

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The truly countercultural Christians? Those who are making a vow to pray daily for the new president-elect rather than grind their teeth over his election while plotting his overthrow.

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Charismatics—a group with which I am closely associated, if only as being seen by some as an insider contrarian and quintessential wet blanket—blew it on Lakeland. Then they blew it on the 2008 election. Somewhere on this planet, rational, God-fearing charismatics still exist. I’m beginning to think they are an endangered species, though. Blame it on a reckless inability to test prophetic revelation against Scripture and a misunderstanding of the basic message of those same Scriptures. Add in a complete fascination with using politics to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven while ignoring the Great Commission altogether and you’ve summarized the entire state of far too many charismatic leaders, churches, and followers. God help us if we don’t wise up.

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I simply don’t understand why the online prices of some retail stores are  often lower than their own brick-and-mortar incarnations. Case in point, why does it cost so much more to buy a book at a physical Barnes & Noble location than from their online store? I mean, how dumb does it sound for me to ask a store clerk, “Uh, your price online is 20 percent less for this. Will you match your own online price?”

Another killer:  I need a digital voice recorder for my work now that my old microcassette recorder flaked out on me at an inopportune time. And I need it now. So I walk into a half dozen brick-and-mortar stores; they all have the same price on the model I was considering, $100. What kills me is the average online store is selling the same model for $20-25 less. I’m sorry, but that’s a big, deal-breaking difference. You feel robbed if you buy it from the brick-and-mortar. So I didn’t. I guess I’ll have to make do with flaky and pray really hard. I find it inexplicable that the big box brick-and-mortars, all things considered, can’t get within $10 of the online price at Joe Bob’s Gizmo Shack.

The fact that I’m worrying about the cost of a digital voice recorder when people are living in squalor in much of the world troubles me. I just don’t know what to do about it.

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Children do grow up fast. Especially when you don’t see a particular kid day in and day out. One day they’re teething and the next they’re texting.

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Spotted: $1.69/gal. for gas. It’s like 2005 all over again—except without the hurricanes.

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Am I the only one who thinks that Russia is looking scarier and more unhinged every day?

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I heard on a radio program discussing the economy that China needs to create 24 million new jobs each year to prevent its economy from collapsing. Get this: Employment in China is in a freefall. Say it with me: “Uh-oh.”

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My son asked for one toy for Christmas. One. This weekend only, every discount store cut the price of that toy from $25 to $10. And you guessed it, every store I visited had a gaping hole on its shelf where that toy would have sat. As much as I really hate consumerism, there’s something about that gaping hole that makes one feel like a lousy parent.

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Is it just me or are Lego construction kits the greatest toys ever created for boys?

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Apart from Lego, my son doesn’t seem to like any of the toys I liked as a kid. That would send most dads into a shopping black hole, I think. It’s worse for my wife; she grew up with two sisters and no brothers.

On that same note, my son just started Cub Scouts and my wife drew me aside to ask if the level of mayhem that often ensues at meetings is common with boys under the age of 10—to which I gave the classic “Jack Benny stares into the camera knowingly” pose.

BTW, thank you to all who contributed their comments to my “About a Boy” post. I appreciate the insights.

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One of the greatest American success stories of the last 50 years: Frozen pizzas are W-A-A-A-Y better than they used to be.

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Hey, I know some of you have your own businesses. A few weeks back, I offered to help you promote your business free of charge by increasing your links through my Employ the Body! page. Since Google loves backlinks, here’s your chance to ramp up the visibility of your business’s site, so check out the link.

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My church held its annual Thanksgiving feast yesterday.  Due to enormous containers of food stretching over a dozen full-length folding tables, no one left hungry. The hall was warm and filled with healthy people. No state police broke in and arrested anyone while we prayed. Father God, thank you so very much.


Christ Alone in All Things, Even Politics

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Believe it or not, this isn’t a political post.

Despite what weather satellites may reveal, the United States, if viewed from space, has never more resembled a massive, angry red wound than it does now. And the salt? Try the Iraq war, terrorism, our status in the world, immigration, or the economic meltdown. For those reasons, people are losing their heads, Christians included, though not quite as thoroughly as in the French Revolution.

Given the election year, the mania is worse than ever. Some are billing Election 2008 as either salvation or damnation for America. Oddly, the Church used to have a term for people who thought that way: the lost.

Still, despite the fact that the One who is to serve as our Lord, Guide, and Model had very little to do with politics, many Christians are looking to politics as the answer for the crises we have made for ourselves.

So in one corner is a former POW who didn’t roll on his country when tortured. In the other corner is a man who says he is full of new ideas. One paints himself as a maverick and the other as the candidate of change.

Critics of Sen. Change note that he’s astonishingly light on any notable political output. They claim the extent of his political will includes his “win at all cost” efforts to champion one political issue more than any other: the right of a woman to have a doctor jam an aspirator into her unborn child’s skull and vacuum out his/her brains.

A little stung by that charge that their man, Sen. Change, fights so hard to kill the unborn, critics of Sen. Maverick come back with claims that while Sen. Maverick doesn’t actively crusade for barbaric deaths for babies, he’s allied with people who are even worse: those who don’t really care all that much about what happens to people after they are born.

Those same pro-Change people like to also note that despite the fact that their man earnestly contends for a policy that leads to the certain death of the most vulnerable in our society, he also represents a vague feeling that may lead to a possible better future for some people at some time—maybe.

This has led some born-again Christians to jump onto Sen. Change’s ship.

Here’s what the Bible says:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days….
—Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
—2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price….
—1 Corinthians 6:19-20a

The side of Christ is life and blessing. The side of antichrist is death and cursing.

The side of Christ is light. The side of antichrist is darkness.

The side of Christ is surrender to Him. The side of antichrist is surrender to self-interest.

To choose the side of self-interest, death, and darkness is to choose the side of the barbaric skull-vacuuming and dismemberment of the very least of these, the most helpless of all in our society. It is to choose the side of antichrist.

As Christians, we must never choose the side of antichrist. For this reason, we must never, under any circumstances, ally ourselves with those who represent antichrist. Our love for Christ compels us.

Can a Christian still be a Christian if he or she holds a mistaken position that supports antichrist? I believe so, as long as that Christian actively seeks to repent of that mistaken position and choose Christ in all circumstances.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. We will all answer on Judgment Day. Everything will be revealed. The intentions of every heart will be made known.

Those born-again Christians who think themselves so brave to be endorsing one who supports antichrist positions are really fooling themselves. Theirs is the coward’s way.

And it’s also the coward’s way to vote for the opposing candidate for no other reason than to not vote for his opponent.

The way that honors God in all things, political or not, is to choose Christ’s way at all times.

Jesus Christ said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If we are in Him, then He will make a way for us because He is the Way. He will show us truth because He is truth.

How does this play out in reality?

Let’s consider the election. Those who live by their own self-interest will vote for those candidates that will give them what they want. Those who live by the Spirit of God will vote for those candidates that best reflect what God alone wants.

Here’s where that becomes true counterculture: The one who is guided by Christ alone will vote for the people who best honor His Kingdom even if that means they vote for candidates Two roads, but only one Waywho are not among the major parties. It means they will vote for the one who honors the Kingdom of God even if that person has no chance of winning the election. Even if that means writing-in the name of a godly person who might only garner one vote, that is what the Christian must do. Because the Christian seeks to reflect light, life, and blessing in all things, even if no one else in the world does.

Therein lies bravery. Therein lies the only real choice for the believer.

And so it must be for all decisions Christians make. We honor Christ and no one else. We choose light and life and blessing in ALL things, not just some. We reject outright anything and anyone set in opposition to Christ in anything.

The road to destruction is wide and many take it. Sadly, many people who consider themselves born again will take it in November and in the days ahead.