What Makes Jesus RADICALLY Unique

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman
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Posted at Daily Paul and Freedom4um.
If you would like to post this elsewhere, please email me and just link to this URL as I update my articles fairly frequently. Thanks!
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Every year, I say I am going to write something new for Christmas. However, I always wind up just fiddling with the original.

Christmas Benson

Steve Benson, Arizona Republic, 12/25/88

Every year since I have been a Christian — 30 to be precise — I become depressed by what Christmas has become. Was it ever any different? Perhaps. There is no biblical basis for celebrating Christmas on December 25. A grotesque oversimplification of why we celebrate Jesus’ birth at this time of year can be traced to the ancient pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. Christians jumped into the game with their own celebration in late December. The tradition is cultural, not biblical.

black friday saleFor all of our self-congratulation about “human progress”, our morals have not changed over the centuries. Contemporary Christmas is, for too many people, all about gift giving and commercialism rather than Christ. (I once heard a radio talk host say that a retailer’s favorite hymn is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”) Too many Christians are caught up in this secular mirth.

I am a theological doofus and will probably always be one. The deep questions of theology dumbfound me just as much as questions like “How does my car run?” or “What do women want?” I will not let this deter me in my attempt to explain what makes Jesus RADICALLY unique.

Christianity is not a religion. “Christian religion” is an oxymoron. I am not a religious person. (I have a bad attitude about most churches, especially the larger ones.) Religion is man’s attempt to reach God on man’s terms. Christianity is when God reaches down to man on His supernatural terms. Our good deeds may impress man, but they will not save us. (Ephesians 2:8, 9) God spells out a plan for salvation, which comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. (Acts 4:12) This is so much easier than all the good works religions demand.

Jesus 3 steps downAnd so it was one night two thousand years ago that the King of the Universe was born to a virgin peasant girl in a forgotten backwater of the Roman Empire. Jesus never accumulated any wealth, invented anything, wrote any books, won any awards, broke any records, held any office, commanded any armies or did any of the other things that the world equates with greatness. At the age of 33, He was crucified for treason. (Luke 23:2) Yet, He lived the most remarkable life in human history. (Read the prophesies in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.)

He was born of a virgin and He arose from the dead. How’s that for remarkable? And He performed numerous other miracles in between. The secular evidence for the scriptural claims about the details of His Life is more abundant than that of any human life ever lived. It has been said that Christianity is either the greatest story ever told or the biggest hoax ever perped. 

Jesus claimed that He was God. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) How is that for audacious? You simply cannot make a more audacious claim than this.

If I told you I was Oprah Winfrey, you would take me for a raving lunatic. But that is nowhere nearly as bold as if I claimed to be God. If I told you I was a particle physicist, it would be very easy to ascertain that I was lying. But this would not be nearly as outrageous a lie as if I had told you I was God.

Jesus I amJesus was one of three things. He either was Who He said He was (i.e. God), or He was the biggest liar in history, or He was hopelessly delusional. Why would anyone want to follow, let alone worship, a pathological liar or a stark raving lunatic?

No religious leader – not Abraham, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha or Joseph Smith – ever claimed to be God. They may have said that God was somewhere up there in the heavens or that God spoke to them and commanded to proclaim what they heard. However, none ever claimed to be God. This makes Jesus radically different.

Jesus_is_Just_Alright“Cafeteria Christian” is a phrase describing those who pick and choose which characteristics of Jesus they like, and disregard the rest. Many people think of Jesus as some kind of good dude, but they do not want to surrender their lives to Him. I call this the Doobie Brothers School of Theology. Jesus is just all right to them, but they do not want to be convicted of their sinfulness and need for redemption.

I have heard it said that the Gospel cannot be presented in a non-threatening manner. Just as Jesus rocked the world in Judea two millennia ago, He can rock your world today. Accepting Jesus means admitting that you do not have all the answers either in your own life or in your ability to influence the world around you. It means admitting that there is a God and that you are not He. It means admitting that you are wrong.

This is what it all came down to for me. I had been looking for the meaning of life for years. Wherever I went, I ran into these Christians who kept prodding me about Jesus. Finally, on October 22, 1986, I looked up into the sky over Tempe, Arizona, and asked: “God, please tell me what it is that all these Christians know.” I had an incredibly good supernatural feeling come over me and, while I certainly did not understand it all, I received Jesus into my life. I am no better than anyone. I am still a sinner. But my sins are forgiven through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ.

Credit: xeniabaptistchurch.org

Credit: xeniabaptistchurch.org

Hebrews 4:12-13 states “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” This is heavy stuff, especially for the haughty and arrogant. Contemporary, trendy spiritualism may make you feel good. But, Christianity is not about feeling good all the time. (Nor is it about feeling rotten all the time.)

God’s First Commandment states, in part, that, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) A Christian counselor once gave me a thought experiment. He asked me to complete the following sentence: Life depends on _______. He said that if I filled in the blank with anything but Jesus Christ, I was practicing idolatry.

tebow-john-3-16

Tebow’s football glory was short-lived. However, he always new his true significance was as a Christian rather than a quarterback.

We act as if 1001 things are more important than our relationship with our Maker. Scripture never forbids us from pursuing excellence in business, academics, science, music, sports, etc. However, we are never to make worldly excellence our God. Worldly success is okay, provided you do not also lose your soul. (Matthew 16:26) Glory is fleeting. It comes and goes. It does not last. Your life is a vapor. (James 4:14) Kings and presidents are toppled. Empires fade into the dustbin of history. Mighty corporations go bankrupt. Scientific theories are proven false. Most athletes are over the hill well before 40. Fads in music and fashion come and go. The hair grays and thins. The love handles do not go away like they used to. However, the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Credit: youthgrouptruth.com

Credit: youthgrouptruth.com

King Solomon had it all. He had more wealth than Bill Gates, more wisdom than Socrates and more women than Mick Jagger. And yet he tells us time and again in Ecclesiastes that it was all vanity. Indeed, Ecclesiastes is an extremely eloquent and poetic way of saying “I can’t get no satisfaction.”

It is quite fitting that perhaps the most famous song of the last 50 years is “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Mick Jagger has spent his life looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places. So, for the most part, have you and I. None of us is all that different from Mick.

I maintain two websites – here and here – devoted at least superficially to politics. More accurately they are about the uselessness and vanity of it all. Jesus had no political agenda. He would not join your party or mine. He would not vote for your candidate or mine. He had no blueprint for society or plan for humanity. He proposed no Great Society, Great Leap Forward, Five Year Plan or Thousand Year Reich. Indeed, He was offered political power three times – Matthew 4:8-10; John 6:15; Acts 1:6 – and each time He rejected it.

Jesus changeHowever, He offers a New Deal. His New Deal has nothing to do with the secular politics. Politicians always promise to transform society from the outside in and from the top down. However, the True Change that Jesus offers comes from the inside out and from the bottom up.

Jesus came into the world as a helpless baby. Right from the beginning, the kings of the earth felt threatened. (Matthew 2:3) Jesus never promised Utopia. However, He has a power that no earthly ruler will ever have. He has the power to change your life and to give you eternal life, if you will just make Him Lord over your life. He is the only King you will ever be able to elect, and in His Kingdom any day can be Election Day. And, unlike the secular state, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)

When Napoleon was dying in exile on the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic, he said this of Jesus: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His Empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him.”

If you want to give and receive gifts and spend time with friends and family on December 25, then do so. But if Our Savior’s birth is not at the center of your day, it is all for naught. Jesus offers you so much that the world simply cannot.

I leave you with the last verse of the Bible, Revelation 22:21: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

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On the Centennial of the Fed: Shut It Down!

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

I wish I had time to blog on this myself, but I don’t. Please take some time to read one article and watch one video.

Excellent article from Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog – On The 100th Anniversary Of The Federal Reserve Here Are 100 Reasons To Shut It Down Forever

MUST WATCH VIDEO – America: Freedom to Fascism

end the fedRon Paul: the one man who told us THE TRUTH!Ron Paul: the one man who told us THE TRUTH!

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Was Jesus a libertarian?

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman
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A lot of this is a bit raw, as I wrote it in 1997.

Jesus changeIf Jesus were alive in America today, would He be a Republican or a Democrat?

Would He be a socialist, a pacifist, and promote every sort of social deviance? Or would He establish a police state in order to eradicate all social ills?

To hear it from the mainstream media, as well as from many churches, Jesus would favor one or the other of these scenarios. Indeed, many preachers are almost as eager as politicians to tell us that how we vote is a barometer of our religious faith.

Or, would Jesus be a libertarian? He just may be, if you spell it with a small “l”. Just as a chaplain leading a team in pre-game locker room prayer asks for more important things than a victory in the upcoming game, it would be frivolous to ask God for Libertarian political victories. Instead, what I mean here is that Jesus did not have a political agenda. He never put a gun at anyone’s head and said, “Follow Me!”

As He said to the church in Laodicea, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) Even though this was a wayward and spiritually weak church, Jesus would not force His way back in. Rather, He would re-enter by invitation only… 

Christian nationThis is what Christianity is all about. Individuals become Christians voluntarily by accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It is important to note that only individuals can become Christian. There is no such thing as a “Christian nation.” Jesus’ mission was not to force us to stop sinning, but to show us the way to a right relationship with God. This reconciliation comes as a result of individual choice.

Contrast Jesus’ methods with those of government. The common denominator in all government activity is the use of force: government either forces you to do things, forces you not to do things, or forces you to pay for things. If Jesus never used force to accomplish His ends, then who are Christians to initiate force in the name of God?

A Christian friend of mine left the Libertarian Party because, he said, “Libertarians are diehard relativists.” If this is so, then Jesus was a diehard relativist. His Kingdom was not of this earth. (John 18:36) Jesus had no intention of being a political threat to the Roman regime. To be sure, Jesus was powerfully direct about what was right and wrong in God’s eyes. However, He never suggested that secular government could remake society along godly lines. When He tells us to “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s.” (Matthew 22:21), He does not grant Caesar unlimited license to determine what is Caesar’s, much less that Caesar should arrogate unlimited power in God’s name.“

road to utopiaThere is no Biblical promise of some utopian society without poverty, racism, drugs, illiteracy, or any of a host of other social ills, much less that secular government can bring about such a society. And yet every day, politicians ask for greater government efforts toward eradicating these problems. It is doubly discouraging when church leaders do the same. Where do our church leaders get the idea that secular government can accomplish what God Himself never promises? They certainly do not get it from the Bible.

Christians who wish to return America to its biblical roots by force of secular law need to recall the time before they accepted Jesus. Even if they were not hostile toward Christianity, they very probably resented the idea that people wanted to force Christianity on them. Indeed, the political impulse is so pervasive among Christians, that millions of people perceive Christianity as something it manifestly is not: a means of coercion and social control.

Acts 2:42-45 describes a First Century community of Christians in Jerusalem who “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers … and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” This passage is often used to propagate the lie that the Bible promotes socialism. However, this community was a product of divine inspiration, rather than statist fiat.

salvation armyWhen Jesus says to give to the poor, He does not mandate a welfare department and expanded powers for the tax police. In fact, He repeats the Old Testament commandment against theft (Matthew 19:18), thus putting His stamp of approval on private property. The New Testament also states that, “that if any would not work, neither should he eat” (II Thessalonians 3:10) and that “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (II Corinthians 9:7). God asks for a voluntary contribution of 10 percent of our earnings, whereas Caesar puts a gun at our heads for half of our earnings.

In his classic book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes “the real snag” in creating a Christian society: “Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party… A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and most of us are not going to want it until we become fully Christian.” This will not happen until enough individuals choose to become Christians. Even then, while our social ills may abate, they will not disappear.

Utopia, TX - 83 miles from San Antonio

Utopia, TX – 83 miles from San Antonio

“Now hold on there, Newman,” you are saying. “Wait just a cottonpickin’ minute. Aren’t you cherry picking from Christianity to find support for the views of your party.” Well, my party is unique among political parties in that it is consistent in its commitment to a philosophy which says, among other things, that government cannot solve problems, and that we should therefore not count on it to do so. Jesus, likewise, never suggested that we look to the government to solve our problems.

Should Christians act on their very real concerns about abortion, poverty, education, drugs, racism, crime, family breakdown, etc.? Absolutely, as “faith, if it hath not works, is dead.” (James 2:17) The Bible never suggests, however, that we can rebuild society through politics. The works to which the Bible exhorts us involve taking care of individual needs and spiritual hurts voluntarily. Christians should be guided at all times by the words of Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Doing so will prove extremely beneficial both for America’s spiritual health, as well as for the tarnished image of Christianity in a nation that has forgotten God.

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Go Experience Combat Yourself, and THEN Tell Me about PTSD

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman
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Posted at Daily Paul, Freedom4um and Facebook.
If you would like to post this elsewhere, please email me and include a link to this URL. Better yet, just link to the article as I do make frequent updates to what I write. Thanks! ___________________________________________________________

Ever since I served as an infantryman in the first world war, I have had a great dislike of people who, themselves in ease and safety, issue exhortations to men in the front line.

— C.S. Lewis

We all have opinions. Some of us have more than others. This is not about your right to your opinion, but, rather, the value of your opinion.

If you have never experienced something yourself, it you need to be careful what you say. And if you have never (a) raised kids or (b) experienced actual combat, you need to be extremely careful what you say.

Watch the following video clip featuring televangelist Kenneth Copeland and religious right yapyap David Barton.

They tell combat veterans that they should never experience guilt or post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing combat. They quote Numbers 32:20-22: And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord to war, And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, And the land be subdued before the Lord: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.:

Barton tells soldiers who have been through battle to “come back guiltless” and that they are in the “faith hall of fame”.

Whenever I hear a politician, media hack, pastor or anyone else who shapes public opinion advocating war, the first thing I do is check their military record. Neither Barton nor Copeland has ever served a day in the military. Surprise!

The left has its limousine liberals who stand in eternal solidarity with the downtrodden masses from their brownstones in Manhattan and their cribs in Malibu. The right has its chicken hawks.

If they had merely said what the coach of their favorite team, or the manager of their favorite restaurant or even the president of the United States should have done in a particular situation, that would be one thing. But here they are talking about combat.

coffinsWar, for Barton and Copeland and their ilk, is a pornographic fantasy. For many – not all, but many – of those who actually experience combat, war is a grotesque, soul-torturing and life-changing reality. Most who march off to war do so very idealistically. However, many who come back from war think differently. War is like any other government program. Those who advocate it are in total denial about what it actually means at the retail level.

Pastor Chuck Baldwin has written the following: “To those who are engaged in war, the consequences can be nightmarish! Arms and legs cut off. Eyes put out. Flesh burned. Intestines ripped out. Backs broken. Skulls crushed. Lives lost. Families torn apart. Homes destroyed. Children left without parents. Parents never able to see their children again. Wives without husbands. Husbands without wives. Souls snuffed into eternity. Emotional scars that never heal. These are the realities of war. And this is what the neo-cons who profit from war never have to see up close and personal.”

cheneyFred Reed, who is legally blind in one eye after being shot in Vietnam writes: “In wars, there are many enlightening things to see. For example, the Marine with a third of his face and half a lung, going ku-kuk-kuk as red gunch rolls out of his mouth and he drowns in his blood. Ruined or dying teenagers whimpering the trinity of the badly wounded, Mother, wife, and water. The brain-shot guy jerking like an epileptic as he tries not to die. Ever see brain tissue from gunshot? I have. It makes a pink spew across the ground. Like strawberry chiffon.”

In the movies, General Patton asks the troops to imagine “(putting) your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face.”

The opening scene from Saving Private Ryan is not gratuitous.

Patton also said, “The bilious bastards who wrote … for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating.” The same goes for Barton and Copeland and so many like them. Their personal lives may very well be beyond reproach. However, know absolutely nothing about war!

veteran_suicide_prevention_hotline

IF YOU ARE A VETERAN CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE, GET HELP! TALK TO SOMEBODY!

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine reported that 22 veterans per day committed suicide. Military.com reported that, in 2012, more military members died from suicide than died in combat. Can you name ten of them? Can you name one?

But you can sure name your favorite chicken hawk, war pansy politician or media whore who profits most handsomely from promoting perpetual war.

Copeland, Barton and so many other influential evangelicals commit blasphemy by equating the American military with the Lord’s army in the Old Testament. America is not ancient Israel. Our military is not the Army of God. And the American president is not God. (And I don’t just mean the current president. None of them are.)

Yes, there were divinely ordained wars in the Old Testament. However, because of Israel’s sin and disobedience, God would eventually allow Israel to be overrun and conquered by several hostile enemies. If God was not unconditionally on Israel’s side, what makes us think God is unconditionally on America’s side?

Numerous imperial armies have marched into battle proclaiming that God was on their side. Among them were the Romans, Byzantines, Czarist Russians and the Nazis. Please note that all these empires are out of business.

America aborts one million babies per year. God is not on our side.

And where is America in the Bible? Revelation 18, I believe. And it isn’t pretty. The Bible mentions numerous nations by name, most of which you have never heard of and that faded into oblivion centuries before Christ. It mentions Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Libya and Persia by name, but not America. How important does God truly think America is?

And can a “Christian nation” be a “superpower”? Not according to Matthew 4:8-10.  mass deception

What is really sad is that hustlers like Barton, Copeland, John Hagee, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, etc. have such large followings among those who profess to follow Christ. Why are so many who claim to follow the Prince of Peace such rabid warmongers? Why do so many believe every American war and act of war is righteous and “just”? Why do so many believe “American exceptionalism” is a license for America to wage endless war and that God favors America over all other nations?

The Bible prophesies this in II Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

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Please Don’t Thank Me for My Service

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman – email me here.
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Posted at the Daily Paul.
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boot campOn 11/23/82 – 31 years ago today – I raised my hand and swore my enlistment oath. I love the Navy and I love the military. However, I hate the way our courageous sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines are being chewed up and spat out in endless wars based on endless lies that are waged a bunch of pond life who – for the most part – couldn’t be bothered to get one speck of dirt under their pretty little fingernails serving a single day in the military.

SUPPORT THE TROOPS … BRING THEM HOME … NOW!!!!!

END THE WARS … NOW!!!!!

And please don’t thank me for my service. Rather, take a few minutes and get honest about the alarming amount of freedom we have given away over the last three decades … and get honest about the fact that it was given away rather than taken away … and get honest about the fact this was all happening long before the current president took office.

And stop demanding endless handouts from Uncle Sugar … and stop giving away your civil liberties in the name of security … and stop looking for a political savior.

And start realizing that tyranny ALWAYS comes wrapped in SOMEBODY’S noble intention … and start scrutinizing EVERYTHING the government and its media lapdogs tell you, even if you happen to like a particular government agency or elected thing or media hack … and start realizing that it is not right versus left or liberal versus conservative or Republican versus Democrat, but rather it is THE GOVERNMENT VERSUS YOU!

I saw it coming in the early 1990s. Why don’t you?

22 years ago, right about now, I had my Big Brain Snap about the direction this country was headed. Since then, I have been on a mission to rattle as many cages as possible. I would consider this my TRUE “service to my country”. And there are MANY true freedom fighters out there more knowledgeable and energetic and eloquent and devoted and influential than I will ever be.

Thank them before you thank me, as they are far more deserving.

Matthew 24:3-4 ~ r3VOLution ~ peace

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It’s Not Just About Getting Stoned, Part 88,317 – Letter to the Denver Post

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman
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Editor:

People ought to be just as upset about today’s federal raids on several area medical marijuana dispensaries as they are about Obamacare. And it has nothing to do with whether or not you yourself smoke marijuana.

The medical benefits of marijuana for numerous maladies are extensively well-documented. If you would make it an offense – federal or otherwise – for a person to heal themselves with a plant that is much more benign than tobacco or alcohol, you already believe that the government should micromanage our health decisions. The mindset that drives opposition to medical marijuana is the same as that behind Obamacare. This mindset opposes individual liberty.

The Constitution puts very strict limits on where Uncle Sam may tread. Obamacare and the War on Drugs severely violate these limits. Both must be resisted with equal vigor.

Medical-marijuana-sign

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It Is God, not the Soldier, Who Gives Us Freedom

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman
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Posted at Daily Paul.
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God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God?
– Thomas Jefferson

boot camp

Me. 1983. Ricky Recruit.

This is Veterans’ Day. It is always about this time as well as Memorial Day when we often see the following poem passed around.

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

No it is not.

North Korea Military ParadeMilitaries, properly employed, serve a most noble purpose: defending the borders, shores and airspace of a nation. However, they do not and cannot provide freedom. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia had enormous military establishments and they were not free. North Korea has a higher percentage of troops per capita than any other country on earth and almost impenetrable borders. It is also the world’s worst dictatorship.

The United States currently has the mightiest military the world has ever seen. We account for roughly half the world’s military spending. We have 300 ships in our Navy as well as thousands of planes and tanks in the various branches. We have enough nuclear warheads to kill every person on the planet several times over. And we are losing our freedoms at an alarming rate. (And we were doing so long before the current president took office.)

Consider what has happened in the three decades since I enlisted.

·         The debt has grown from $1 trillion to $17 trillion.

       The federal budget has grown from $600 billion to $3.9 trillion.

·         The prison population has grown from 300,000 to 2.2 million.

·         The number of people on food stamps has grown from 1 in 50 to 1 in 7.

.      The police have gone from being a minor annoyance to being an occupying army.

·         A national health insurance mandate has gone from being Ted Kennedy’s pipe dream to an ugly, tyrannical reality.

·         Since 9/11, the majority of the American people have accepted – in the name of “safety” and “security”: warrantless searches and spying, the suspension of habeas corpus, sexual assault as a condition of travel, indefinite detention without any semblance of due process, severe restrictions on peaceful protest and surveillance drones in our skies watching our every move.

The United States has fought wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. We have engaged in acts of war against Iran, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. We were recently on the brink of war against Syria. We have a troop presence in 130 countries. No foreign country poses any threat to our freedom.

The last time any foreign nation invaded us with the intent of conquering us was in 1812.

Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Pearl Harbor Memorial

But what about Pearl Harbor? Pearl Harbor is 5000 miles from Washington DC. Admiral Yamamoto warned against invading the mainland as, he said, you would find a skilled marksman behind every blade of grass.

But what about 9/11? 9/11 was a suicide attack. The hijackers are dead! You cannot impose sharia law when you are dead! The proper Constitutional response was a letter of Marque and Reprisal, which is a congressionally authorized warrant to pursue the specific perpetrators, i.e. those who had a hand planning and funding the attacks.

So if the military does not provide liberty, who does?

How about God?

Our founding documents are not explicitly Christian. However, they rest on the premise that the rights we have come from a Creator and not from governments. There is a very strong biblical basis for much of what we find in these documents. Examples include:

Our religious liberties have their roots in Daniel 3 and 6, as well as Acts 4:19 and 5:29.

Our political liberties have their roots in Exodus 19:21-27 and Proverbs 27:17.

Our right to keep and bear arms can be traced to Luke 11:21, 22 as well as 22:36.

Our Bill of Rights is the Golden Rule – Matthew 7:12 – applied to political life.

Our Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination come from Luke 23:9 as well as John 18:23.

Our Sixth Amendment protections for those accused can be found in several places. (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 19:15-19; Job 31:35; Proverbs 24:28 and 25:16; Isaiah 50:8; Matthew 18:16; Acts 25:16 and 27.)

gold silverThe concept of honest money tied to a specific weight of gold and silver can be found many places as well. (Genesis 23:15-16; Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 19: 35, 36 and 25:27; Numbers 3:47 and 18:16; Deuteronomy 22:19 and 25:13-16; I Kings 10:14; II Kings 5:22-23 and 6:25; Nehemiah 5:15; Proverbs 11:1, 20:10, 23; Jeremiah 32:9-10; Ezekiel 45:10-12; Amos 8:4-7; Micah 6:11.)

Let’s look at our Declaration of Independence.

The concept of “nature and nature’s God” – i.e. natural law – can be found in Romans 2:14-16. The idea that we are all created equal comes from Acts 10:34. The right to life is found in Genesis 2:7. The right to liberty comes from Leviticus 25:10, II Corinthians 3:17 and Galatians 5:1. The “pursuit of happiness” comes from Ecclesiastes 3:13.

For a much more in-depth treatment of this subject, please click here.

So where do we get this idea that militaries provide liberty? Historical ignorance perhaps?

tienanmen (2)

Keeping China free.

When he was walking out of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Ben Franklin was asked what had been accomplished. He responded that they had crafted “a republic, if you can keep it.”

It was Thomas Jefferson who said that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

We must be eternally vigilant against our government at the local, state and national level if we wish to be free. We must be eternally vigilant against even those agencies of government that we might like. And we must be eternally vigilant against even those public officials that we might like.

filming copsThe responsibility is on you and me to preserve our liberty. We must know our rights. We must assert our rights against every infringement. And we must stand up for the rights of others when infringed upon, even if we don’t like these people.

We need to assert our rights whenever we encounter a police officer, an IRS agent or any other government agent. We need to know our rights and duties as jurors, and that jurors have the power to nullify bad laws. We must resist any and all enticements to give up our liberty in the name of lofty-sounding ideals. We must never vote for the “lesser of two evils”, even in the name of electability. And we must educate our friends and neighbors to do likewise.

This is where the freedom fight happens. This is where the rubber meets the road. The military cannot fight this fight for us. We need to fight this ourselves.

It is the grossest form of disrespect to the troops to send them overseas to fight and bleed and die “for our freedom”, while we give up our liberty here at home.

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Ted Williams: Semper Fi at Fenway Park

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

By Doug Newman
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Originally posted here on July 11, 2002.
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Last week’s passing of Boston Red Sox baseball legend Ted Williams has prompted me to deviate from commenting on the business of politics and focus instead on what happens in real life. My friends in the freedom movement frequently deride sports as insufficiently serious. Given the choice between watching a game and, say, watching a movie or reading a science fiction novel, I’ll watch a game anytime. Here’s why.

ted williams 1939

The Kid.

When Ted Williams was a 20-year-old rookie, he said, “All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street folks will say, ‘There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived.'” Many, if not most, experts consider him to be just that. He batted .344 for his career — no one has matched this in the 42 years since he retired. He batted .406 in 1941 — no one has hit .400 since. He won six batting titles, two Most Valuable Player awards, and two Triple Crowns (leading the league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average in the same season). He holds the major league career record for on-base percentage. He hit 521 home runs.

 

Semper Fi.

Semper Fi.

World War II and Korea made for two interruptions in Williams’ career. During these five years, Williams may well have hit 200 homers, and surpassed the Bambino. Williams served in the Marines as a pilot. (In Korea, he flew in a squadron with a not-yet-famous Marine named John Glenn.) Both times, Williams resumed his baseball career without missing a beat.

The Marine Corps motto is Semper Fidelis, or “Semper Fi”, which is Latin for “Always Faithful.” Williams, as much as any athlete in history, was always faithful to his craft. Hitting a baseball is the most difficult thing in sports. The best of the best fail 65 percent of the time. (Michael Jordan could not hit his weight in the minor leagues.) Williams was the best, because he worked the hardest. He made himself the best. The words “vocal” and “vocation” have the same Latin root. A vocation, properly understood, is a calling or a summons. Hitting was Williams’ calling. We should all be so faithful to those tasks for which we are gifted.

ted williams 1960

Last AB, last HR.

Novelist John Updike was present for Williams’ final game at Boston’s Fenway Park in the fall of 1960. He described Williams as exemplifying “the hard blue glow of high purpose.” He wrote: “For me, Williams is the classic ballplayer of the game on a hot August weekday before a small crowd, when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill.”

Oh sure, I could go on and on about all the rotten stuff in sports today. I could talk about the possible baseball strike, the possible contraction of Major League Baseball, the tie in the All-Star Game, inflated salaries, greedy and spoiled players and owners, steroids, sexual promiscuity, illegitimate children, criminal records and so many other things. Let us leave that for another day.

ted williams batsWilliams’ significance in the history of baseball, and in American life in general, lay in his relentless and uncompromising pursuit of excellence. In his superlative book Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, George Will wrote that, professional athletes may play games, but they do not play at them. Getting to the major leagues and staying there requires an extremely admirable level of dedication.

Author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar is fond of saying that “Spectacular success is always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” There is nothing glamorous about showing up an hour early for batting practice every day, doing pushups, lifting weights, running laps, sinking putts or hitting a blocking sled. There is nothing glamorous about missing a foul shot in the last seconds, costing your team the game, and then coming home and shooting 200 free throws before you go to bed.

ted williams dimaggioYet this is what champions do. They do this because they know that if they don’t, who knows how many people are gunning for their job. As I write this, countless kids across America (and, in the case of baseball, across Latin America, Canada, Japan, and Korea) are lying awake at night dreaming of playing leftfieldah for the Red Sawx, pitching for the Dodgers, etc.

ted williams carewAs Nolan Ryan, whose strikeout records just may stand for the ages, once said in a commercial, “There is no off season anymore.” In Williams’ day, players did not get in shape until they reported for spring training. Not so in this day in age. Steroid rumors notwithstanding, today’s athletes make fitness a year round priority. Our knowledge about training and fitness and nutrition is far more advanced than it once was.

I haven’t a clue as to Williams’ politics and, quite frankly, I don’t care. The media liked to whine about Michael Jordan’s “failure” to “speak out” on political and social issues. Yes, he supported fellow hoopster Bill Bradley in the 2000 presidential primaries, but other than that, he said next to nothing. This was his prerogative.

Florida Marlins v San Diego Padres

With Tony Gwynn.

If leaders in business, education, and other segments of society placed such a premium on excellence, my guess is that we would have far more peace and quiet in society. There ain’t no free lunch. And yet we constantly act as if there were. Even though no one owes us anything, we too frequently act as if everyone owes us everything. Thus, we want political “solutions” for absolutely everything.

The answers are not in Washington, in the 50 statehouses around America, or down at city hall. We may find them in our families, at our jobs, and in our communities. What are you doing in your family, at your job, and in your community to make a difference? This is where the rubber hits the road. Are you the best doctor, plumber, salesman or parent you can be? If not, you had better not be waiting for some politician to pass a program to change things in your life.

ted williams greatestBecause the sporting world is such an unforgiving meritocracy, the great athletes know that they must perform if they want to stay around. No one is going to perform for them. If only this ethos of excellence and personal accountability permeated all aspects of society.

C.S. Lewis once likened the traditional understanding of education to old birds teaching young birds to fly. In sports, and especially in baseball, the fundamentals do not change. You can innovate and improvise all you want, but if you don’t do the basics, it is all for naught. The great athletes understand this.

ted williams 1999

1999 All-Star Game.

Which brings us back to Ted Williams. In baseball, more than in other sports, legends from the days of yore speak to us in the present day. Aspiring quarterbacks don’t sit at the feet of Sammy Baugh and aspiring hoopsters don’t ooh and aah over every word spoken by George Mikan. However, today’s aspiring baseball players can’t get enough of the wisdom of Teddy Ballgame, who was a superstar before Pearl Harbor.

ted williams senatorsFor years after he retired as a player (and after four mediocre years at the helm of the Washington Senators), Williams stayed around baseball. From the Yuma sandlots to Yankee Stadium, they came from far and wide to take in the wisdom of the Splendid Splinter himself. Why do we not have this same hunger for excellence in all that we do?

Ted Williams Tribute

The Green Mawnstah.

Throughout his career, much was made of Ted Williams’ personality flaws. He was what he was, a mere mortal. While his candor was refreshing, there were more gentlemanly players. (Lou Gehrig and Sandy Koufax come to mind.) However, we need more people in all walks of life with Williams’ passion, focus, and dedication. People who respond to their calling by pushing their gifts and talents to the limit. People who do the unspectacular basics to attain the spectacular results. People who are, in true Marine Corps fashion, semper fidelis — always faithful — to their callings.

What is your calling? Are you listening? Are you always as faithful to your calling as Ted Williams was to his?

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The Pat Tillman Story (Full Video)

Posted on October 19, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

https://www.intellectualrevolution.tv/videos/the-pat-tillman-story

I am not sure what language the subtitles are in, although I am guessing it is Romanian.

Warning: rough language.

pat_tillman

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Meet Michael New, One of my Heroes

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Food for the Thinkers

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When you join the military, you swear an oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Also, society tells you that you are “serving your country.”

Read the story of Michael New, the Army medic who was given a Bad Conduct Discharge for the crime of refusing to wear a blue United Nations ball cap and serve under foreign officers.

Of course today, he would probably have been imprisoned indefinitely on presidential orders with no due process at all under the NDAA.

 

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