Just a few thoughts.

I haven't written a blog post in quite some time. Here are just a few thoughts. 

I am thoroughly disgusted with the direction our nation is taking. I'm not coming from the leftist Never Trump/Blue Wave Republican angle. I'm not coming from the progressive angle. I'm coming from a constitutionalist/individual ordered liberty angle. 

I have a visceral hatred for all things populist. I'm not a joiner by nature. I'm highly skeptical of large groups of people trumpeting the same cause unless it's the cause of Christ(something people have been willing to give their lives for), and even then, there are so many apostate movements, I try everything I hear through the lens of the Bible. 

I'm being spurred to write because tonight the Iowa Caucuses are going to start the 2020 presidential nomination process. The GOP side is currently working to cover-up all of Trump's failures and make him into something other than a loud mouthed braggart and carnival barker, all while adopting all of the Democrat premises for their own. The Democrats are currently trying to decide how far toward the Soviet system they would like to go. I will have nothing to do with either of those sides.

So what is a person who doesn't see a path forward on either of those sides supposed to do? If I'm being blunt, I'm not sure. I do know this, though. A person holding onto principles of individual natural rights and limited government has no real power in either party. All we get from Republicans is lip service (see Trump speaking at a pro-life rally while signing bills to fund Planned Murderhood), while they seek to adopt policies of the Soros backed left, like criminal justice reform(also known as letting violent felons out of jail early) and state mandated and funded redistribution of wealth like post childbirth government funded supplementary income. This is stuff  that Democrats wouldn't have supported 20 years ago. In fact, Joe Biden was a major player in getting landmark crime crackdown legislation passed in the 1990s. He now runs away from that victory, as do many Republicans.

You might ask why someone who trumpets individual rights, like myself, wants to be hard on violent criminals. I'll tell you why. I don't think we should lock up someone for petty theft or minor drug offenses for years upon years, but someone who assaults a child, traffics large amounts of illicit drugs(thereby funding violent transnational cartels), violently assaults a woman or child, traffics or uses child pornography, or commits murder(unborn or already born) should be put away until they are too old to have an effect on anyone. Frankly, I'd like to see pedophiles, child sex predators, and those who commit first degree murder put to death because they forfeited their right to liberty and life by usurping the natural rights of others. 

Another conundrum I find myself in is the issue of life, especially of the innocent and unborn. Trump speaking at the March for Life was just lip service. He signed every spending bill out in front of him that funded Planned Murderhood since he's been in office. Abortion is murder and should be punished as such, both for the person contracting for the murder and the person carrying out the contract. Pro-Life Inc says we should make abortion unthinkable, all while stopping every effort to actually do so. Abortion would be unthinkable if the consequences were the same as those of any other murder. The abolition of abortion is the only moral position. Regulating child sacrifice analogous to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Abolishing child murder it is the only way forward. Using the Titanic analogy, abolition is the fleet of life boats on the Titanic. 

The Republicrats, Trump included, have done precisely nothing to push back against the illogical and illegitimate SCOTUS ruling from 2015 that made up a non-existent right for anyone to marry anyone else. For over 2000 years, western civilization has been built upon New Testament biblical families and biblical marriages. The Trump GOP has caved on this issue. This isn't about liberty. It's about government redefining words and making things up. The left wants to destroy the family, much in the way the Chinese did, by limiting children born in wedlock. The reason they laud sodomite marriage is because no children can come from those unions. Children born to biblical families will likely be enemies of totalitarian states.  The GOP has done precisely nothing to combat this. In fact, Republicrats have made idols of out the courts, in effort to absolve themselves of from having to do anything about this issue.

I can't get along with parties that have no appetite for reigning in spending. Our debt, deficit, and overall size of government has not slowed in its growth since Trump took office. He's not a disruptor that so many though him to be. He's a typical Republicrat cog in the gears of big government. He's done nothing that will stand up to the next Democrat president in terms of limiting government influence in the business sectors or bureaucracies of government. He's done hardly anything to get decent people hired as the heads of the myriad number of federal agencies that come under his authority. In fact, he's done such a poor job of getting decent cabinet level secretaries confirmed that Obama and Clinton era bureaucrats are effectively running many cabinet level departments because acting secretaries can't hire and fire people without the Senate approving them. Trump isn't leader his cult thinks him to be. 

All while the Republicrats are conspiring against their rank and file voters, the Democrats are actively searching for a way to find their vehicle to the October 1917 Soviet revolution. Bernie Sanders is now the default leader of the leftists in this country. The guy who spent his honeymoon in Moscow in 1988, lauding the failing Soviet system, is now leading in many polls. As I write this, he's likely on his way to winning the Iowa Democrat caucus and that will lead to a win in the New Hampshire primary. This will give the nearly 80 year old communist a leg up on the Democrat nomination for president. If this turns out to be the case, the nation will be left with a choice between a left of center nationalist statist in Trump and a radical collectivist communist in Sanders. There is no good way forward out of that situation. The GOP may retain control of the Senate, but if it does, it will be a 51/49 majority(Gardner and McSally are cooked). The House is lost for several cycles because Trump doesn't inspire people to vote for other Republicans. I know this a bunch of gloom and doom, but wait, there is hope. 

Start locally. Run for city council, county commissioner, or a local school board. If you don't, help find good people who will and help them campaign. Help recruit actual conservatives (not Trump sycophants or Romney types) to run for office. Go to city council meetings and lobby them to stop spending money on progressive issues and start standing for the right values. You have much more sway with locals than you do with a bought and paid for US Senator. Make sure your state house reps and senators know who you are. In fact, make them afraid of you. Bother them. Make their jobs difficult if they step out of line. These are all things you can do to have an actual impact. 

Lastly, and most importantly, know that you are a born again Christian, that Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified, died, was buried, and rose from the grave 3 days later to save you from sin and hell, if only you trust upon Him. Get rooted in a Bible preaching church with a biblical pastor. Once you've done that, start proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus. The reason the Chinese, North Koreans, Putin's Russia, Cuba, and many islamist countries ban the preaching of the Gospel and the Bible is because when someone is truly born again, they stop seeing the government as their end all be all. There is hope. It's just not found in the GOP or the Democrat parties. 

Political Free Agency

It’s been almost a year since I’ve written a blog post. The reason is surely not because I’ve haven’t had any ideas about what to write. It’s been more of a feeling of nobody having an appetite to see things through a lens not focused by the worldly tribe that they’ve chosen to place themselves in, but I think a few of these ideas need to be out there.
Many of you who know me personally, will know that I have left all party affiliations behind. Much like free agency has, for good team purposes or not, given players in professional sports much more control of where they play, I think voters need to approach their government in much the same way. I truly believe it is time for the party organizations to be left bereft of any sort of man power or financial support. Like the duplicity seen here in Iowa in the party leadership establishments, most states are in the same position with their party leadership cabals. The people in leadership are only concerned with their own power. This accommodation must stop. Policy outcomes don’t support their calls for joining one party or the other. I think we need to approach politics as free agents. We only give support, whether volunteer time, money, or both, to those candidates that have shown the ability and principles to stand for what we demand they stand for.
The election of the current president has shown that most voters are more apt to go with someone willing to say something close to what they want to hear instead of actually having the battle scars to prove their campaign rhetoric. The 2018 Republican primaries have shown a great slide toward the mushy middle, despite the partisan rhetoric coming from the White House. Actual, proven, small government candidates in places like Virginia, Missouri, and Oklahoma have been displaced by big government establishment picked Unibrow Party members or idiot nationalist cultists. I don’t care if Republicans win, if they won’t be discernibly different from the leftists trying to spend this nation into the Marxist poor house.
The greatest betrayals have been on budgetary issues. In March, President Trump said he’d never sign a bloated big government continuing resolution again, but just last week, he signed another omnibus style bill that funded every priority that the former Marxist in Chief sought to implement. Instead of showing leadership and using his veto pen, he made the establishment argument of “keeping the government open” in order to betray his campaign promises. Even with this betrayal, his cult keeps showering him with “at least he’s not Hillary and he loves this country” types of worship. The latest GOP written funding bill actually had more House Democrats support it than it did have GOP votes. Talk about #UnibrowParty.
I know the hand wringing over a judicial supremacist, who has been pulled through the progressive mud, has sucked up all the oxygen in the room as far as the news cycle goes. That doesn’t give voters the cover to ignore this duplicitous nature emanating from the GOP power structure. The reason they put so much weight on the Supreme Court is they need the Court to absolve them from governing in a small government matter.
We must step back from the short sighted “most important election ever” rot gut and start playing the long game. Only vote for people with the small government credibility and battle scars of standing for principles, even when it costs them an elected seat or position of power. Just winning elections is worthless if the people winning will capitulate to the Unibrow cabal as soon as they get into office. Sometimes winning means we stop playing the game. Be a free agent and only sell your vote to someone worthy of buying it.

A Nation at a Crossroads

Our nation continues to slide into moral decay. Everyday, I see stories of people openly mocking the source of our rights. So many now reject objective truth. The Bible was held as the standard for morality and instruction in our nation until about 75 years ago. In the last 75 years, we’ve fallen so far, but the rate at which our culture has decayed has accelerated to a point in the last 10 years, that I see no point of return on a national level without a true spiritual revival. 

I truly believe God has taken his hand of blessing off of our nation. A nation that endorses the murder of babies, openly mocks God’s design for families and marriage, and a burgeoning entitlement state that replaces God with government will be the downfall of this country, if we don’t push back. 

My goal is to fight back on a local level. I intend to explore running for mayor of Washington, Iowa in 4 years. The mayor elected last night is onboard with the current progressive plan of cultural decay and decadence. We can’t continue to mock God if we seek revival. The Body of Christ needs to rise up.

I am frustrated at churches and pastors who won’t speak up. In my research, there are only a handful, a small minority of churches in all of southeast Iowa that actually preach the whole word of God. Part of the cultural decline is a culture of churches selling out to the world and tickling ears instead of preaching with conviction. You can do your part, no matter where you live. If your church doesn’t preach and teach the whole of God’s word, leave that church and find one that does. 

To this end, I will also continue to reach out and work to see souls saved. We have to get the word out that we are living in perilous times and without Jesus, things are going to continue to get worse. 

It’s time we choose. We must either choose to let the forces of darkness win, or we must fight back. I choose to fight. I hope you join me.

I normally use links in my text, but I’ve chosen to cite a few stories below to illustrate my points above. Check them out and let’s continue the discussion.

 A Blue Wave.

Seattle Continues It’s Slide Into the Sound.

The Texas Church Shooting and it’s Sick Perpetrator

We can’t approach people from a place of hate, but we also must not be afraid to proclaim truth in love and we mustn’t be silent. We must proclaim the Gospel and all that goes with it. I’ve been guilty of being lax in following God’s law in the past. If anything, the slide our nation is in has prompted me to draw nearer to God and to pull back from a culture seeking to destroy all that is good and true.

It’s time for Christians to stop fellowshipping with forces seeking to destroy them. It’s time for people of faith to pull their kids from public schools. It’s time for people of faith to shut the TV off. It’s time for people of faith to stop going to movies made by people who wish to see us destroyed. It’s time we stopped supporting musicians who wish to see the Gospel minimized. It’s time to stop dressing like the world. It’s time to support the right kinds of businesses and to remove our support from businesses that seek to do us harm. We need to stand up and make our light be seen. 

Authenticity

Odd, I know. Two posts in a day. I just had to get this off my chest.
My pastor said something last Wednesday that stirred this up and continued to challenge me today.

Too many people aren't real. Too many people have public personas, all polished up and sanitized, yet at work they are nothing like their home or church personality, or their church personality is different that their personality away from church. I gravititate toward those that are the same in all areas, so that I can know them for real.

Be open. Be who you are. People who put on a face for church or for work or for guests in the home bother me. I can't tell if they are sincere or not. I don't want to have to read your mind to know if you are being who you are, or who you think I want you to be. Don't be plastic. Be you, flaws and all. God made you and as long as you aren't trying to be something you're not, I'm good. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. If I stink at doing something, I'm ok with saying it. If I don't have experience in an area, I'm glad to ask. If I am an expert in something, I'm glad to lend a hand or teach someone.

Be joyful because you're a Christian, but don't over sell it. Don't be someone you aren't. Just be yielded to God and your true joy will shine through.

The Enemy is the Enemy

What has happened in Charlottesville, Virginia over the past several days has given me pause. I see some people on the political Right siding with the people protesting the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue. Both sides are making mountains out of mole hills in the situation. If the group protesting the removal had not engaged in Nazi symbolism and claimed Ku Klux Klan lineage, I could see their point. Once they became about race and "White Nationalism", they lost the argument. They are no different than the Black Lives Matter or Antifa(anti fascist) groups opposing them.

Here is where I draw the line. Once a group starts using race and identity in their political argument, I'm done. I don't think the speech rights of either side should be compromised, but once their speech goes kinetic, so to speak, their rights end. Driving a car into a group of people you disagree with is terrorism, the same as if a some jihadi nut from ISIS had done it.

Both sides in this mess are essentially two sides of the same vile group of people. They both seek to have the government right perceived wrongs. As much as I disagree with government white washing history, we risk becoming idolatrous if we place the importance of a statue over that of a human life.

Here is the solution. Elect different people. If you don't want your local reps doing away with a statue you see as honoring your heritage, elect different people. If the majority of voters in a town want to elect people who would remove these monuments, let them. As long as the Federal government isn't dictating what statue goes where and what is OK, I have no issue with it. Use the Constitutional tools at your disposal. Don't act like the voters aren't the ones who are truly responsible.

All sides in this mess are seeking government to right perceived wrongs. Stop depending on government. There is the real solution. Talk to your neighbors. Go to church. Seek God and seek His will. Stop putting government where God should be in your life. Government is not an end all, be all. The White Nationalist/Nazi bigots and the BLM/Antifa statists are all really the same, in the end. They seek to have government impose their will on others. I'm out.

Some will ask, "Well, if you are OK with the removal of these monuments, then you are OK with government saying a baker must bake a cake, etc". Nothing could be further from the truth. What individuals do in the carrying out of commerce is none of the business of government. The maintenance of public areas is the business of government. If a duly elected council or legislature removes a statue, that's on the voters. The government telling a person what to do in their personal lives is unconstitutional. The government pulling down a statue is not unconstitutional. It may be in bad taste, but it isn't illegal. Find new leaders who won't pull down the monuments.

This all comes back to people not reigning in government. All of it. We must move past expecting government to save us or prop us up. Our focus must be on producing citizens who love liberty. Fix the culture of government dependence and all of this will end. This is on all of us who allow it to continue. I pray for revival of the true Church and that the message of the Gospel will be proclaimed. If you trust in God and on His only begotten Son, your need of a nanny state government to do your bidding goes away.

How Do We Relate to Other Christians? How Should We?

This piece is more of a written sermon than a regular blog post. I need this just as much as anyone who reads this post.

Matthew 18:

15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

16 But if he will not hear [thee, then] take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell [it] unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

I think we let things go between believers too often. We let issues fester amongst friends and fellow church members. We need to be more open with what an issue that may, if left to fester, would likely divide people. Rather than couching things in patronizing tones or glossing over issues, I think we need to do what the verses in Matthew say and, with love and through prayer, take our issues to the person we have the issue with. We need to forgive, but in order for us to grow, we need to be upfront with each other. Too often, Christians choose to bury their issues with one another and there continues to be an underlying issue that our enemy uses to divide friends and churches. 

This is just a hypothetical example, but hear me out. Away from church, fellow believers have a business issue that is causing strife, whether it be a business and customer conflict or an employee and employer conflict. Rather than concealing our thoughts and trying to tight rope on what we think the other person wants hear, we need to be more open so issues don't remain. We must always seek wise counsel before doing so, but letting a problem simmer just below the surface is unhealthy for all parties involved. I know that if a friend of mine has an issue with me, rather than just talking to others about it, I'd rather be hit square between the eyes with the issue they have with me. I don't like reading between the lines. If someone has an issue with me, I want to work on it. The issue should be brought out in the open between the two parties and then everything possible should be done to make sure there is no strife left in the relationship. I've seen friendships harmed and worse yet, whole churches harmed because people just couldn't be upfront and open with one another.

This could also apply to politcs. If we took our issues up with the source of them, I think we'd find much more satisfaction in achieving a satisfactory result. I, for one, am not afraid to call a state or national representative or Senator and bring the issues I have to someone who may be able to do something about them. 

So many times, we don't seek wise counsel on issues of great magnitude before we make the mistake of saying something of great consequence. I've been guilty of this many times. Even the Bible says this in Proverbs 12: 15 The way of a fool [is] right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel [is] wise.

If we can't take wise counsel on a given issue, we need not be involved with what ever we are trying to do until we come to a place where we are willing to heed the counsel of those who've dealt with the issue or problem before. Rather than thinking we have the whole thing figured out because we've read some book(other than the Bible) or we've studied a lot, there is still no substitute for asking for help from those who've been there before. Pride may get in the way of us coming to the realization we need help, but we must not let that happen. Pray, seek wise counsel and then, and only then, step out by faith that what you are doing is what you should do. If it is biblical, we'll see our efforts blessed by God. 

There is no substitute for experience. I am always seeking to learn from people older than me. I also seek people with different backgrounds to learn from. If I am entering a new business, I ask the person who's done it for a long time. When I was new at my church, I sought out a few people that had been there for a long time. If I have an isssue that I don't know much about, I learn about if before diving in. I seek counsel. I ddin't always do this and I bear the scars from those stupid decisions. I think if people, myself included, would seek out each person's strong points and help lift those up, we'd see fewer conflicts in churches and between friends. 

Even marriages break up because people don't seek wise counsel and because the two parties can't be upfront with one another. As humans, we're no good at mind reading. We must be more upfront with one another. Rather than taking offense to someone bringing an issue to our attention, we should thank them for helping us get better. I've learned to yearn for bluntness. I pray more people find this trait for their lives. I'm not talking about insulting one anther. I'm talking about when someone sees an issue, whether of your own doing or not, and brings it to your attention, you step back and see the big picture. Your choice involves many more people than just yourself, no matter how insignificant you see that choice being. 

I think the root of all interpersonal conflicts boils down to two things. Pride (my biggest fault) and doing things out of a sense of duty instead of doing things out of a sense of godly love for one another. If we can't get past our own pride and humble ourselves, we'll have a hard time moving forward for God. Period. If we do things, whether they be at church, at home or in our public lives, with a sense of true Christian love and we do things out of a sense of duty, the task or ministry will falter and fail. It will grow stale and eventually wither and die on the vine. I know I've struggled with both of these issues. I pray and seek counsel to overcome both.

In closing, I think we need to be more upfront and honest. We need to kick our sense of personal pride to the curb and we must seek wise counsel from people (including those outside our normal spheres of influence). If I want to learn to weld, I'm going to go find a welder to teach me. I'm not going to go to a restaurant owner asking how to weld and so on. Lastly, let's put the biblical princples on how to resolve conflict and seek counsel into practice. Our churches and our interpersonal relationships will be the better for it.

I'd love to open this up for discussion. Respond below and let's start the conversation.

Worthless

The GOP is worthless. Period. End of story.

With this latest budget battle being ceded to the left leaning establishment Republicans and the Democrats, the GOP has ceased to be of any use to conservatives. Why someone with a conservative view point, who holds fast to small government principles, would vote for a member of the GOP is beyond me.

Paul Ryan campaigned last year on the anti-establishment wave that swept through the party. Little did people who supported him and the shiny, combed over objection of cult affection know, but they were sold a bill of goods. This administration is fine doing things that only require executive action, but the administration of Donnie Smallhands has become a footstool for the establishment wing of the big government majority in the Republican party.

How can a party that controls every part of DC not pass a budget? If only voters had given the supposed small government party majorites in both houses of Congress and the White House...oh, wait, I guess voters did that very thing. The Constitution mandates that Congress send the President a budget, not a continuing resolution. We need to know where our tax money is going. We need to be able to call out the departments that need to be padlocked and scuttled. This nonsense of funding the whole Obama agenda is lunacy.

Planned Parenthood was not touched in the budget bill. Obamacare is fully funded. These two line items alone are totally unacceptable. I don't want to preached at by stupid people saying conservatives need to take control of the party and change it from within. The cancer is so widespread, if we excised the whole amount of the cancer from the party, the party would die. We are better off ditching this cancer ridden body and starting a new one.

I, for one, am totally on board with the new Federalist Party. I know the people involved. I trust the people involved and I look forward to doing work on the ground here in Iowa for this new party. It's time to start taking over city councils and county commisions. School boards and library boards. State House and State Senate races. We need to show the current two party duopoly that we mean business and if we start at the bottom, when we run a presidential candidate, it won't be a fool's errand.

I love what I've seen so far from this new party. There are different from other minority parties. Those other parties try to start at the top and run a presidential ticket and they always fail because they have no base and no ability to muster a massive nationwide ground game when the time is needed. The people in the Federalist Party are different. They realize that politics should be local. Once the local stuff is tended to, we can work to take back our state and federal governments from the big government forces in both parties. The Federalist Party knows that the 10th Amendment gives the states the power to do things the federal government should not be invovled in. Lets return to a federal government of defined and limited power.

I urge you to do the research and to join our efforts. Click here to check out the Federalist Party and learn how you can help us return to state's rights and individual liberty.

Click here to connect with me on Twitter. You can DM me if you have questions about the Federalist Party. Comment below to start a discussion or if you have general questions.