Foodforthethinkers's Blog

By Doug Newman

Last September, a Gainesville, Florida preacher made a pluperfect gluteus maximus of himself when he threatened to burn copies of Koran on September 11. Even though he would change his mind as the scheduled burning drew closer, millions of Christians were extremely vocal on both sides of the issue.

This is not about the First Amendment, which rightfully protects all sorts of gratuitous publicity stunts. The proposed burning was a horribly bad witness for Christianity.

Many of the same Christians who were so animated about the Florida episode have been quiet about a much bigger outrage: the U.S. military burning Bibles in Afghanistan in the spring of 2009.

Jesus Great Commission – Matthew 28:18-20 – states:

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

A few observations:

1)    It does NOT say “bomb the crap out of countries that haven’t done anything to you and kill countless thousands of innocents.” The proper, moral, constitutional response to things like piracy and terrorism is a Letter of Marque and Reprisal. This is a sort of warrant to go after the specific perpetrators of crimes like this. There is no reason whatsoever for a massive decade-long American troop presence in Afghanistan.

2)    According to the above video, an American church had sent bibles printed in Dari and Pashtun, the two major languages of Afghanistan, to soldiers in Afghanistan. American officials had become concerned that these bibles would be used to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity. U.S. Central Command’s General Order 1 forbids “proselytizing of any faith, religion or practice.” An American official expressed concern that such evangelizing could “promote a violent backlash” among Afghan Muslims. (As if the presence of American troops in the Muslim world has never gotten anyone’s dander up.)

3)    Ultimately these Bibles were burned in the name of “force protection.” (As if putting troops in harm’s way doesn’t endanger them enough already.)

4)    The Message of Jesus Christ, by its very definition, is supposed to shake things up – Luke 23:2, Acts 17:6-8. The New Testament talks endlessly about evangelizing, while saying nothing about joining any imperial legion.

5)    This is not an isolated incident. Be they soldiers in Afghanistan, school teachers in Indiana or whatever, Christians are being called more and more to make very tough decisions about who to serve. (1) It is all part of the ramp-up to the Great Tribulation.

Perhaps taking this chip will be your decision point.

Christians cannot serve two masters – Matthew 6:24. When Christians disregard their faith to serve Cesar, they become like the chief priests who were asked by Pilate “Shall I crucify your King?” They answered, “We have no king but Cesar.” – John 19:15.
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(1) I am not telling anyone to quit their job or break their enlistment contract tomorrow morning. That is not my call. Rather, there will be a decision point for all of us. If you are truly led by the Holy Spirit, you will know what to do and when to do it. Scripture is very clear as to what we should do and where we shall place our faith – Matthew 6:33.
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Update: The State Department reported on October 10, 2011 that , as of March, 2010, there were no more Christian churches in Afghanistan.  Somehow, I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind when He said in Matthew 28:19: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”  ______________________________________________

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By Doug Newman
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“The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism.” — U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis, Ex Parte Milligan (1866)

I often hear that we should not “give rights to terrorists.” There is a problem with this statement that may sound philosophical and theological, but has enormous practical implications.

America was founded on the “self-evident” proposition that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Hence, the rights that we enjoy are gifts from God that are inherent in our humanity. They are not man’s to give or to withhold. They apply equally to all, including native-born Americans and immigrants, citizens and non-citizens.

Consider the wording of the Bill of Rights. It acknowledges rights that existed in 1787 and would exist absent a written Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amendment begins with the words “No person” and goes on to say “nor shall any person.” The Sixth Amendment begins “In all criminal prosecutions…”

It means what it says. And if it doesn’t apply equally to everybody than it doesn’t apply to you.

The biblical requirement of two witnesses to establish guilt can be found in Deuteronomy 19:15. There is no “terrorism exception.” The Golden Rule – Matthew 7:12 – demands the presumption of innocence. Torture – i.e. presuming guilt and forcing a confession – does not measure up to these Scriptural standards.

Furthermore, Scripture tells us to treat foreigners the same way we would treat anyone else – Exodus 22:21 and 23:9; Leviticus 19:34 – and requires equal access for aliens to unbiased justice – Leviticus 24:22; Deuteronomy 1:16, 24:17, 27:19.

Then people object: “But, they are war criminals.” No they are not! There has been no congressional declaration of war, as the Constitution requires. Moreover, terrorists are not “waging war” against us. They can’t, as they have no armies, navies or air forces. They don’t even have uniforms! They don’t even control the government of Yemen, so the idea that they could take over America is beyond absurd. Indeed, it has been several centuries since a Muslim country conquered a non-Muslim country.

(9/11 was an attack on persons and property, but not on our liberty. According to the official story, it was a suicide attack and the 19 hijackers are dead. You cannot take over a country, force everyone to speak Arabic, impose Shari’a law and do all these horrible things when you are – I will say this one more time – DEAD!)

So what is the practical application of this? There is a great quote from St. Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons:

“What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? … And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s, and if you cut them down — and you’re just the man to do it — do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

What goes around comes around. It is easy to disregard the Bill of Rights when your party is in power and their intentions sound noble and high-minded. However, just know that there are other people out there who think differently than you and who have other philosophies and priorities. And if you are willing to give your party a free pass, don’t expect the other party to behave any differently.

Millions of right-wingers were oh so nonchalant about the Patriot Act and its violations of the Fourth Amendment. “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear”, they said. “They can probe through my finances if it helps stop terrorism.” Well, now the other party is in office and these same people are now oh so indignant over Obamacare and its violations of financial privacy. You can’t have it both ways.

Many people who would smugly and self-righteously deny others the right – guaranteed by Ninth Amendment – to smoke marijuana are the same people who assert their right – guaranteed by the same Ninth Amendment – to homeschool their children. When you disregard the rights of others – for whatever reason, even an apparently good and noble reason – don’t expect your rights to be safe.

When the plan was to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City – pursuant to the Sixth Amendment – numerous objections were raised, none of which had anything to do with the rights of the accused. One of the common ones was that “it would be a slap in the face to the 9/11 victims’ families.” (1)

John Belushi at 3 am?

First, don’t be so arrogant as to think that all the 9/11 victims’ families are of one mind about things.

Second, when you violate the Constitution, you set a precedent. It would be the ultimate slap in the face for a relative of a 9/11 victim to one day be hauled off and tried in New Mexico for something they were accused of doing in Hackensack and arbitrarily denied due process protections spelled out in the Bill of Rights.

As if the Bush agenda wasn’t bad enough, Obomber has just issued an executive order claiming the power to incarcerate Guantanamo detainees for the rest of their lives even after acquittal.

(Expect to hear nothing from any Bush groupies about this outrage. Contrary to their fulminations, Obomber is not the polar opposite of Bush. Just as Bush was Clinton on steroids, Obomber is Bush on steroids.)

And if they can do this to scary looking brown guys with funny names and diapers on their heads, they can do it to you. After all, the entire post-9/11 agenda has been about reversing the presumption of innocence and making us all terror suspects.

White-gloved Michael Jackson was creepy enough. Blue-gloved Herbert the Pervert, on the other hand, destroys children’s innocence on the taxvictims’ dime in the name of “keeping us safe.”

This isn’t just about “protecting terrorists.” It is about protecting me.

And, reader, it is about protecting you.

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(1) The Santa Rosa (CA) Press-Democrat on April 7, 2011 listed numerous examples of terror suspects being tried in the very places where they were accused of committing crimes. And no the earth did not spin off its axis and crash into the sun. Nor has Sports Illustrated started doing an annual burqa issue.

By Doug Newman

The gang at Christians United for Israel (CUFI) has its undies in a bunch about Ron Paul’s amendment to the fiscal 2011 funding bill that would end aid to Israel.

I have an idea: why not try a free-market approach to supporting Israel? I am quite serious. Here is my three-step plan for free-market Zionism.

1)      Shaking down the American taxpayer to provide aid to Israel – or, for that matter, any foreign country – is not just unconstitutional. It is also unbiblical. In the words of II Corinthians 9:7, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Christians are never to bankroll their works by force. So if CUFI truly wants to support Israel, let its members reallocate their funds. Instead of, say, building bling-bling megachurches that resemble the Burj Al-Arab Hotel in Dubai, why not pass the hat for Israel? Perhaps CUFI supporters could take a special love offering after each service.

Are there Marine recruiters in the lobby? I bet not.

2)      Of the 12 current senior members of CUFI, only two have any military experience. Instead of sending kids from places like Camden, New Jersey and Muskogee, Oklahoma to fight and bleed and die all over the Middle East for the sake of Israel, why don’t they pay the bill with their own blood? Why don’t they enlist as infantry privates in the Israeli Defense Force? (IDF) And why don’t they encourage the CUFI rank-and-file to do likewise?

Pay the bill with your own blood, Hagee!

3)      If the IDF will not have them for whatever reason, let them form their own detachment to fight alongside the IDF. There are precedents. During the Spanish Civil War, for instance, a group of Americans calling themselves the Abraham Lincoln Brigade fought for the Spanish Republican forces against Franco’s Spanish Nationalists. To be sure, a lot of them were communist sympathizers, but I will give them this: they produced enough testosterone that they put their own lives on the line for their convictions.

Let them call it the Sword of the Lord. It’s just an idea.

The Abe Brigade.

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Update: 5/20/11. This from a CUFI conference. The fact that these … <<<clears throat>>> Christians cheered this monster shows that they have forgotten all about Jesus Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.

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By Doug Newman

Simply put: no.

Watch this quick 2:25 video, which gives a brief history of empires in the Middle East.

They have come and gone over the centuries. You have probably never heard of some of them. None have survived permanently. Where, then, does America get off thinking it can bend the Middle East to its will?

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By Doug Newman
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In the following clip, Obama tells the National Prayer Breakfast: “My Christian faith then has been a sustaining force for me over these last few years.”

So there you have it. Obama talked about his Christian faith. It must make him a Christian. Why he might even be almost as great a Christian as his predecessor, Bush Almighty.

Whether or not Obama is a Christian is not my call. That is between him and God. And that is not what this is about. Rather, it is about the gullibility of the American people.

In 2000, when he was running for president, Gubna Dubya was asked what philosopher influenced his thinking the most. He responded: “Well, it’s Jesus Christ because he touched my heart.” That was all that millions of professing Christians needed. Even though he almost never talked about Jesus after that, they made him the object of endless adulation and adoration. Not only was he, like, the most totally awesomest Christian ever, but also, to paraphrase Sting, every little thing he did was Christian.

As Chuck Baldwin once put it, “they (wanted) to add Bush to the Holy Trinity.”

Jesus told His followers to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing and to know people by their fruits – Matthew 7:15-20. The fruit on Bush’s tree included unprovoked war (1) and the wholesale mass murder of innocents, torture, warrantless searches and spying, guilt without trial and doing nothing to stop the abortion holocaust.  (2) He told the media that we all worship the same God, even though John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 say otherwise. He celebrated Ramadan at the White House.

The last thing these Bush groupies wanted was to be confused with the facts about Our Great Christian President. He said one thing about Jesus one time on the campaign trail and that negated absolutely everything else.

Now that Obama has openly professed his Christian faith, will these same Bush groupies now stop seething with hatred toward Obama and prostrate themselves before him like they did Bush?

When I ponder the fact that so many Christians were so infatuated with Bush and so unconditionally supportive of everything he did, I know exactly why God has allowed an Obama presidency – Daniel 2:21.

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:”
– Amos 8:11

This is exactly what has happened in America. Only in a land of rampant biblical illiteracy could so many people who call themselves Christians be so hopelessly deceived by a man like Dubya. Only in such a land could so many people who say that they worship the Prince of Peace be such bloodthirsty warmongers.

When the Disciples asked Jesus what will be the sign of His Coming and of the end of the world, Jesus replied: “Take heed that no man deceive you.” – Matthew 24:3-4.

By “no man”, Jesus meant just that: NO MAN! Not even Bush. Not even Obama.

Revelation 13:3 tells us that the whole world will one day idolize a political ruler. The personality cults surrounding Bush and Obama are part of what I call the Big Ramp-Up to the fulfillment of this prophecy.
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(1) The proper, moral, constitutional response to things like 9/11 is a “Letter of Marque and Reprisal.” This is a sort of warrant to pursue the specific perpetrators.
(2) And, no, he wasn’t a “conservative” at all. He outspent Kommunist Klinton by $1 trillion per year.
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By Doug Newman

Oh really?

Please take 1 minute and watch this video of a drug raid on a Utah home. The video may well be disturbing, but it is not at all gratuitous.

Do you still think only the police and the military should have guns?

Related links at Opposing Views, The Huffington Post and the Salt Lake Tribune.

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By Doug Newman

This picture has been making its way around recently. It was posted by a Facebook group called “American’s Against the Tea Party.”

Jesus was not a socialist. He condemns theft and covetousness, i.e. the twin pillars of socialism, as evil – Mark 7:22. Other than kicking the moneychangers out of the Temple, He never initiated force.

Indeed, He had no political agenda, either left-wing or right-wing.

When Satan, the prince of this world, offered Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world,” Jesus rejected the offer – Matthew 4:8-10. Hence, He would have been appalled by America’s troop presence in 140 countries, and its endless aggression and warmongering.

Jesus would not fit into either the left-wing or right-wing mold. His Kingdom is “not of this world” – John 18:36.

Left and right? Liberalism and conservatism? These are worldly philosophies and thus doomed to failure – I Corinthians 1:19-20. Christians are not supposed to yoke themselves unequally with worldly political factions – II Corinthians 6:14.

Stop trying to fit Jesus into your partisan political box. Instead, examine your own worldview and political beliefs. If they don’t measure up to Christ’s Teachings, change how you think.

I have had to do this many times in my life.

"These be thy gods, O Israel..." - Exodus 32:8

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By Doug Newman

(This was originally published on 1/29/11. I updated it on 12/18/11 upon the news of the death of Kim Jong-Il.)

North Korea has single-payer health care, for which many on the left clamor. It also has the world’s most comprehensive most comprehensive national security apparatus, for which many on the right clamor.

Would you want to live there?

Utopia always sounds good, when someone else is on the business end of it.

Aerial photo of the Korean Peninsula at night.

Don’t be so smug and prideful to think that it can’t happen here. Here are 11 ways that America is trending in the North Korean direction.

North Korea, The Dark State – from 60 Minutes.

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By Doug Newman

I am way too busy now to do much formal blogging. So here are just a few thoughts on the thirty-eighth anniversary of the supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

1. The above picture is taken from a remarkable photographic essay from 1999 by a man named Michael Clancy. It documents spina bifida surgery performed at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville on little Samuel at the 21-week mark of his mother’s pregnancy. The picture you see shows Samuel wrapping his hand around the doctor’s finger. A “potential” baby cannot do this. Only a real baby can. Please read this web page in detail.
2. Roe v. Wade was never the “law of the land.” By definition it could not be. Judges cannot make law. Only legislators can. The only reason Roe ever had any weight whatsoever is that so many millions of Americans gave it the weight of law.
3. Republican judges have shown themselves to be just as worthless as Democratic judges in overturning Roe. Five of the seven supreme Court justices in the Roe majority were picked by Republican presidents. In the years between 1973 and 2008, when GW Bush left office, eight of the 10 supreme Court appointments were made by Republican presidents. Moreover, when GW Bush left office, probably two-thirds all federal judges had been appointed by Republicans.
4. It is a complete lie that the Founders never foresaw a rogue judiciary and therefore failed to make provisions to restrain it. Article 3, Section 2 of the Constitution empowers Congress to set limits on the powers of the judicial branch. Indeed, Congressman Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act calls on Congress to do just this. To date, it has three co-sponsors.
5. Nullification is all the rage nowadays, and this is a good thing. Numerous states are asserting their prerogatives under the Tenth Amendment to repel Obamacare and marijuana prohibition. Why were they not doing this years ago and just saying no to Roe v. Wade? All it would take is one pro-life governor to step forward and proclaim: “As the chief executive of (name the state), my first duty is to protect innocent life. With this in mind, when the legislature sends me pro-life legislation I am going to ignore Roe v. Wade and sign it into law. And if Uncle Sam doesn’t like it I am going continue ignoring Roe v. Wade and tell Uncle Sam to drop dead.” (Where were Mike Huslterbee, Most Holy Mother Sarah and Bush Almighty when they were governors?)

In the current political climate, I hold no hope that we will see any changes in the legality of abortion any time soon. Education is a very powerful weapon. I cannot urge you too strongly to read Mr. Clancy’s web site in detail. Secular science confirms what the Bible teaches – Psalm 139:16. A baby in its mother’s womb is a person too. To abort it is to kill it. Abortion is murder.

"A person's a person, no matter how small."

Slavery was well on its way too extinction in 1860 and would have gone away without the Civil War. This happened because of profound changes in the hearts and minds of American people regarding the humanity of slaves. The change in laws followed. We may not get our way for now in the legislative realm. However, we can keep talking to people and we can keep educating people about what actually happens in an abortion.

And we can keep on praying that people hear our message. As someone once said, “Praying is both the least we can do and the most we can do.”