A Fatal Attraction

 

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that we are all making choices every day, and those choices are making us better or worse. We are changing “either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself.”[i]  No one person makes all the choices correctly. The point is whether we are trying to make good choices and what do we do when we realize we have made a wrong choice. Do we correct it? Making choices based on the principles of God’s Word transforms us into people of the light, as does the wrong choices into people of darkness.

Take, for example, the sin of envy; it is an acceptable sin to many today. I have had conversations with people who will declare they don’t think it’s right that the rich have so much and they have so little. It is one of the forces driving socialism. However, no context justifies envy. Cornelius Plantinga describes the difference between covetousness and envy:

Envy is a nastier sin than mere covetousness. What an envier wants is not, first of all, what another has; what an envier wants is for another not to have. To envy is to resent somebody else’s good so much that one is tempted to destroy it. The coveter has empty hands and wants to fill them with somebody else’s goods. The envier has empty hands, and therefore wants to empty the hands of the envied. Envy, moreover, carries overtones of personal resentment: an envier resents not only somebody else’s blessing but also the one who has been blessed.[ii]

There are numerous examples of envy in the scriptures, and it is always ugly. Cain not only wanted what Able had; he wanted his brother dead. Even when offered a second chance by God, Cain chooses the inevitable consequences of envy, and that is to attack the envied. Take, for example, the envy of Saul. Saul was king and David, his servant, so it makes no sense for Saul to want what David has. This is the insanity of envy. It blinds you to what you have and makes you resentful of the other.

Envy was what drove Joseph’s brothers to their horrific deed of selling their brother into slavery. They cared nothing about owning Joseph’s beautiful coat. They tore it into pieces. What the brothers resented was Joseph having the coat. They resented him and what the coat represented. That was why they stripped him naked and beat him, and tossed him in a pit to die.

Why write about envy? Because it is rearing its ugly head in so many places. Do you want to know the greatest antidote for envy? It is gratitude! Learning to be grateful for what you have and who you are keep envy out of your life. Let’s make choices that make us more like Christ!

 

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[i] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1952), p. 86-87.[ii] Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), p. 162.

When Liberals are in Charge

I am a native of the Golden State, and one look at California offers a frightening picture of where liberals want to take the entire country. When I visit California, I am stunned at the decline. Roads are deteriorating; new highways are not built, bridges are poorly maintained, there are rolling blackouts and on and on. Forest fires are much worse than they should be for lack of forest management. The state’s central part, which supplies much of the nation’s food, suffers from lack of water, while liberals insist on sending an abundance of water to the sea (the stupidity is bewildering). The LBGTQ and radical environmental groups have gained a decisive influence shaping the laws in this state. The rolls of those not working yet receiving a monthly government check have grown by millions while the workforce grows smaller. Taxes go higher each year. People and companies by thousands flee the state every day, yet the left changes nothing.

The unborn child needs protection. Science confirms that life begins in the womb (but that science is ignored). Consider the spending of our tax dollars; it appears no bureaucrat knows how to balance a budget. We have every right to expect our government to protect us from danger and maintain law and order in our cities. Politicians that support and appease lawlessness in our cities must be voted out. We must hang on to our right to protect ourselves. We need judges that will preserve the constitution and accurately interpret it as our forefathers wrote it.

We want the freedom to practice our religion everywhere. How many bakers, artists, photographers, florists have been prohibited from practicing their faith in the workplace? The educational system has been high jacked by leftist principles of anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-democracy, anti-biological gender. Radial laws that undermine the nuclear family stripping authority from parents are regularly passed. Immoral sexuality is taught to young children in public schools while parents are sidelined. We need people elected to office to confront the influential lobbyists who perpetuate these antithetical principles to our Biblical beliefs. The leftist views of our environment would utterly destroy our economy. We must use the earth’s resources wisely as good stewards, but we must stop the left’s obsession to enslave us with their green policies. You wouldn’t even have control of the thermostat in your own home. If you believe in freedom—the very freedoms outlined in the constitution and the Bill of Rights, then let’s vote to keep those freedoms.

 

Animal Farm

 

 

Having the ability to see what is going on before it actually happens is a rare gift; it is called insight. Few people have this ability. Winston Churchill had the insight to see that Hitler was a dictator intent on conquering the world while he appeared to people like Charles Lindbergh and Lady Astor as a gifted world leader. Lady Astor hated Churchill for his criticisms of Hitler, so once she said to him, “If you were my husband, I would put arsenic in your tea.” Churchill responded, “If I were your husband, I would drink it.” There were plenty in the world media who praised Stalin for his transformation of Russia and the Soviet Union while ignoring the atrocities that were so common. They said that Stalin was a man of the people who really cared about lasting and meaningful change.

George Orwell saw through the lies and deception of the purported utopia of communism by Comrade Stalin before most of the world did. Orwell wrote an allegory of what Stalin’s communism really was in a small book entitled Animal Farm. It was published in 1945 though It could have been published earlier, but publishers were afraid to do so.

The book describes a rebellion led by a pig named Napoleon, who took over a farm that belonged to Mr. Jones. Napoleon made many wonderful promises to the animals—all animals would be equal; all animals would have an equal share. Life would be better on Animal Farm now that Napoleon was in charge. But, life didn’t turn out to be too good for the animals—except for Napoleon, of course, and the rest of the pigs and his dogs who served as his guards. Napoleon took care of himself and frequently changed the rules to benefit himself and his fellow pigs. I highly recommend the book because it is relevant to what we see happening with Black Lives Matter and the coverage of BLM by the media. Just listen to the racist remarks coming out of the mouths of BLM leaders. Listen to their promises of better justice when they will one day be in charge. But, does anybody know how their millions are being spent? Are not the ones at the top changing the rules for themselves even now?

Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and other revolutionary groups on the streets have no intention of making life better for everyone. They all have their own Napoleon, who lives like a king and will dispense with anyone who appears to be a threat. Oh, yes, this cancel culture is very reminiscent of Stalin’s liquidation of anyone who disagreed with him—the Gulags were built to cancel millions, and millions more were executed. Others were sent to the Sharashkas, prisons for engineers & technicians working for the state.

If you love this country, don’t fall for the lies of BLM and other similar groups. Look how they treat innocent bystanders trying to eat a meal. Look at the gang mentality of how they pile on with their numbers forcing people to raise their hand in allegiance to their cause. They are telling us who they are by their words and actions. If they gain power, they will be like Stalin, whose word cannot be questioned, and the rules are made to benefit Napoleon and those he chooses as his ruling class.

Totalitarians always have a strawman—someone who is responsible for the chaos. For Hitler, it was the Jews; for Stalin, it was the wealthy, educated classes, and for BLM, it is you and me. Their arrows are pointed at us. Anyone who does not endorse and affirm everything about BLM is targeted and harassed, and even harmed. Search the world over, and you will not find a country with a better justice system, a country with less prejudice. They know that! This revolution is about Napoleon and his fellow henchman taking over the farm. Napoleon will always be changing the rules and lying to his followers, but it’s the animals that really get hurt, and it’s we, the common people who are losing our freedoms.

Our Kids’ Lives Matter

History will judge us by our decisions during this pandemic. One of the most critical decisions is whether or not we reopen our schools. If we fail to open our schools next month, the consequences of this decision will be far-reaching.

Learning to prioritize in life is essential to doing the right things. Almost always, the urgent is not the most important! It just screams the loudest and gets our attention. As the nation has navigated through this pandemic, it has not been easy to prioritize. However, one area that should be a no-brainer-priority for the entire country is our children. We need to prioritize their present and future wellbeing by reopening our schools! I have been advocating for families for decades. As I see all the squabbling over the schools opening in the Fall, I feel obligated to weigh in on this issue because the welfare of millions of children is at stake.

Our kids need to be physically present in school to ensure their academic progress. Most have already suffered from an incomplete spring semester and the hit and miss online classes. An academic foundation is essential to traversing the higher levels of education. There is no substitute for in-classroom—teacher-led classes for the smaller children. They have to learn to read, write, and do math and add to their necessary educational skills. Online classes are nearly impossible for the younger grades, and even many older children struggle because they are not in a classroom.

The social aspect of school is critical for children. School is the arena where those skills are learned and practiced. Depriving students of these crucial opportunities will diminish their interpersonal skills.  Special Ed students desperately need the individual attention they receive in the classroom.

The possibility of children and teens becoming depressed because they have to stay home and cannot reenter school is real. Severe depression in teens is already an indisputable fact, and increasing the risk of teen suicide is tangible. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for children, adolescents, and young adults age 15-to-24-year-olds. The majority of children and adolescents who attempt suicide have a significant mental health disorder, most often depression. Depression is an ugly thing, and we need to take it seriously in our kids.

The science has proved the risk to children from COVID-19 is minimal because this is primarily an adult disease. Trying to eliminate the risk of infection to Covid-19 is impossible! The risk of not opening schools will be higher than the risk of opening them. The risk of keeping children home and not allowing them to reenter school will be greater to their mental and social health than the risk of the Corona Virus. When we ask, “What is better for children?”, the answer is obvious. Let them go back to school.

It is unthinkable that politicians would be playing games with our children’s futures to further their political agenda. Using children as ponds in a real-life game of chess is despicable! Politics has a horrible reputation, but using children will be a new low for politicians who chose this issue to fight for their cause.