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The True CrossPosted Sunday, January 31, 2010, at 3:57 AM
Through her letters and articles, we learn of the terrific fight and struggles by Christians to stand against slavery and help those in slavery. Traveling across country in 1855 was hard. Mrs. Lovejoy's four year old daughter got sick and died a week after reaching Kansas, and all their belongings were stolen the day they arrived. Liberals often portray Christians during the western expansion as blood thirsty killers, eager to take everything from the Indians. There are efforts made to show that Christian people were happy with slavery and tolerated slavery, much in the way today's progressives tolerate abortion. Liberals point to Col. Chivington and the Sand Creek Massacre as proof to wild claims that Christians murdered 20 million Indians. Seldom do Christians get credit for their tireless work to end slavery, or to help Indians. In one of Mrs. Lovejoy's letters we get a glimpse into the daily life of a pioneer bloody thirsty Christian imperialist when a pro-slavery mob came looking for her and other Christians, "I caught my darling babe from the bed, moaning as he went, I rushed to a place of safety out of town as fast as my feeble legs could carry me..." In August of 1863, Mrs. Lovejoy saw many of her friends killed by Confederate raiders. Two hundred men and boys were slaughtered in the streets for standing against slavery. After the massacre, Mrs. Lovejoy wrote, "...we are glad we can labor for God and freedom here, where sin abounds. Let me do and suffer all the will of God is my prayer. Kansas must be redeemed and saved, and we want a hand in helping on the good work." Christian heritage is rich in America. The bravery and kindness shown by early Christian pioneers in our country is too often ignored or maligned in what passes for History classrooms today. The focus of progressives and liberals is to malign the true Christian story in America. Daniel Boone's son, Morgan Boone, led a Methodist group to eastern Kansas in 1819, to help teach displaced Indians how to read and write, and help them farm. Let us not forget Sarah Davis, and her husband, Thomas Johnson. Sarah worked 35 years directly with Indian people in a mission her and her husband set up in 1833. That is what Christian people do. I have friend, Pastor Joe, from a church in Susanville, California that participates in mission trips to the Ukraine. While politicians bluster and proclaim, Christians quietly go about the business of helping people around the globe. My brother in law works with Christian groups reaching out to poor kids in Central America, and my brother returned not to long ago from a mission trip to Sri Lanka. These folks don't make headlines, the just get results. I will say this, speaking to my fellow Christians. We have a great life here in America, even with Barack and the progressives. We don't have to endure the hardships that Mrs. Lovejoy conquered to stand for America, to stand for the unborn, to stand for Liberty or Christianity. Progressive thinking has already killed untold millions of lives in this past century. Every day, liberalism kills the unborn. Are we so busy watching Deal or No Deal that we cannot take a few minutes to work for God? God honors the sincere efforts of Christian people. We have a heritage that we can be proud of. However, that very tradition calls to us to stand for what is right, and we must not ignore our calling, or the sacrifices and blood of those before us. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
Hot topics Trying to Understand Liberal Morality(194 ~ 2:22 PM, Mar 21)
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Great column, Sam!
Amazing stuff Sam. Do you even know how much we appreciate you?
Very nice, Dad. I think we forget how recently all of that happened... how hard people had to fight for all of the things we take for granted. It wouldn't hurt any of us to take a little bit more time and have a little more recognition for the struggle our families endured to create the lives we enjoy. Thank God for the relentless faith that drove them.
"...relentless faith." What a marvelous phrase.
That's a good write, Sam. It is a testament to the fact that there is no black and white us vs. them. If we try to put each other in a box and slap a label on them it does a great disservice to the great many who don't fit in a little box. (Most of us)
Gearjammer,
Until you try the twist at the end to get in a political dig -- you wrote a great piece.
Find a major flaw --
You attribute good only to Christians.
Down in Navajo/Hopi/Zuni land in the southwest for well more than a half century -- one licensed trader had the unqualified trust of those three Native American groups.
At no charge, he was their banker for decades.
They brought their woven and silver-smithed "estates" to him to store, maintain the inventory, loan against that inventory when needed and only sell with their approval when he could get top market value.
He built huge fire-safe and fullysecure warehouses to store his friend's "bank accounts of rugs, blankets, jewelry, belts, etc.
When one friend told him of another going through hard times, the help was delivered within hours, be it cash, food, clothing, fuel or school tuition.
He was not a Christian.
Just a lone Jew, living his faith.
In California, during the 60s, 70s into the 80s, a PHd (Genetics and Plant Breeding) and his librarian wife, maintained an open door policy toward overseas students at four community colleges and several universities.
Overseas students of every faith, race and nationality were welcome at any time.
The hosts helped with State Department, college and local government red tape, finding a "faith center" for individuals of all faiths.
They were and are devout, practicing Muslims.
Good is not exclusive to Christians.
Non-Christians are mostly about the same in their conduct toward others as any practicing Christian.
Evil is not exclusive to any race, creed on nationality.
Evil is evil.
Whether it be the Missionaries who went to Hawaii about 175 years ago -- TO DO GOOD.
Five missionary families stayed - AND GOT WELL!,
while the Hawaiians, especially Christian converts, had everything stolen by the former Missionaies.
There were no Muslims grabbing land in Hawaii.
Hank - I know I am going to take crap for this, but I must disagree with your statement that God is not exclusive to Christians. I suppose we could argue some semantics for a bit, like what does exclusive mean, or will God work in the lives of non-believers, etc.
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me".
Christ is either who he said he was, or the most phenomenal delusional of all time. I settled this question in my heart years ago by deciding that Christ was who He said He was.
After witnessing the phenom of Barack, I can see how some people, in their narcissism, might come to think and act as if they were the Messiah. Progressives have polluted many black churches with Rev. Wright type of garbage and with the idea that voting for Barack was somehow a holy thing to do.
I just look at the way Jesus conducted himself, and the way Barack conduces himself. Christ never called for the rich to be robbed, never supported the deaths of the unborn, and really, spent no time at all in politics or advancing himself. Barack does the opposite of Christ while claiming to be His disciple.
We Christians have a real battle on our hands, and not with non-Christians, rather with each other. There are too many Christians satisfied, in my opinion, to sit in their fat pews, while millions die, and our country "slouches towards Gomorrah".
I am all for a country that allows folks to believe whatever they want, however, this silly notion that somehow this nation was not founded by Christians, is wrong. Were they perfect Christians? NO. But they prayed and asked God's Blessings and Wisdom before, during, and after all of their work to from this nation.
The country paid for its mistake of slavery by bloods of hundreds of thousands, but it was Christians, that never stopped in opposition to slavery. They never gave up, even when the politically wise at the time said, each state should have a choice as to slavery, the Christians said NO.
I liken the abortion fight with the fight against slavery. Abortion is this nation second great sin. Slavery, now abortion.
Now I am really gonna make you mad, and I apologize in advance, okay?
You people that sit by and try and wash your hands of the abortion mess, are just like many folks pre-civil war. They tried to wash their hands of slavery.
I can hear them, can't you? "Hey, I don't beleive in slavery, but how can I tell people in Alabama how to live? That is their state, that is their business.
Sorry to ramble Hank, but as a rambler yourself, I thought you'd understand.
Cause they couldn't figure out how to put pontoons on a camel, Hank!
I remember from sunday school about the rich man who wanted to follow Christ and Christ told him to give up all of his riches..
"I'll say it again. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
-Jesus (Matthew 19:24)
...or does that one not count?
Camel still won't float!
Yeah, man, everyone gets your Arab joke. It's just that most folks, even the ones that share your... prejudices, aren't as eager as you are to share them. Makes you seem really backwoods. Anonymity is great, yes?
Sam,
"Christ...never supported the deaths of the unborn..."
While perhaps Christ never did, God did kill all the first born little innocent baby boys in Egypt, right?
"We Christians have a real battle on our hands..."
How do you feel about Christians in places like Spain, Italy, Ireland, England, the Middle East, etc., who at the same time support both Christianity and socialism/communism/fascism, and typically follow the edicts of Christianity much more closely than the majority of Americans? Will you fight them too Sammy boy? Are they your sworn enemy also?
Cause I'll tell you something, put Obama in a place like Italy and he would be considered so far to the right that he would be laughed off the ballot. The ideas you express about Christ really having little to do with Christian thought or even Christian dogma, but rather your troubling and deeply seeded political ideology.
Backwoods anonymity? Works both ways, Jack!
Jaded - Thanks for bringing up that Scripture, as it is often used by liberals to justify robbing the rich.
If you read just a tiny bit further, after Jesus made the comment about how difficult it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom. His disciples asked him to explain, so the lesson did not stop there. Jesus then said, "how hard it is for them that TRUST in uncertain riches."
Just like Guillermo, in the past, misquoted the Bible he says he knows so well, money is not the root of all evil, the LOVE of money is.
That is the danger of taking Scripture out of context.
Sorry Guillermo, but entire little rant was childish, complete with made up facts, and your polluted opinion.
I disagree with your premise. A commie is a commie, in China, in the USA, in Europe. A commie is still a commie.
And your little attempt to make it seem that people all over the world love their lives in socialist Utopia's, was even more foolish. You and your Marxists buddies better spend a bit more time on your answers. You are really stinkin' up the joint.
Sam,
Ill challenge you with same one you (laughably) put out...tell me where I made up a fact.
Sorry Sam, the Bible says precisely that profit is abominable.
"[If a man]...lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself." Ezekiel 18:13
And in not so specific terms:
"We brought absolutely nothing with us when we entered the world and we can be sure we shall take absolutely nothing with us when we leave it. Surely then, as far as physical things are concerned, it is sufficient for us to keep our bodies fed and clothed." 1 Timothy 6:6-8
And FYI, here is something else it says about being educated over earning profit...you know for giggles...
"How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For its profit is better than the profit of silver, and its gain than fine gold. ...Long life is in her right hand." Proverbs 3:13-14
In all seriousness, I am sorry your God committed mass abortion, and I am sorry that undermines your entire position on the subject. But don't blame me for your religion's inadequacy to live up to your personal political desires.
And I am even MORE sorry (and shocked) that your Christian brethren around the world, despite their man-made and environmentally caused political differences, draw your hatred and spite. I am sure Jesus would hang His head in shame at that sad fact about you.
Actually, GI, the Bible does NOT say that profit is abominable, rather it teaches that you should not loan or borrow, but if you do loan, it should be at no interest...exactly as your quote says. :-)
Beyond that, when we are given a profit (and there are MANY examples of God giving a profit), we are to give to the needy from our profit...something that Christians, American Christians, do far more than ANY other group.
I suppose you have missed the "minor" fact that God owns all humans. Every death is His, every life is His. It matters not at all whether He chooses to take a human home 2 minutes after conception...or 120 years after conception.
Abortion, on the other hand, can ONLY be committed by humans upon other humans. With no right, no knowledge of the human murdered, even with no knowledge of our own future, we condemn innocent life. Thank God, He is there to greet the tiny life we destroy. Thank God, He is a JUST God, and justice will eventually prevail.
I'm sure that Jesus would hang His head in shame at all humans. Thank God, He loved us enough to redeem our sins! If you care at all about His shame, perhaps you should also bow your head and Thank Him.
MrsSmith, don't be obtuse dear. It says to profit on a loan is abominable. Our entire nation was built on the profit from loans, our entire economy runs (occasionally) on the very principle which according to the Bible is abominable. Clearly the Bible states in numerous places, a few of which I pointed out above, about what it means to have excess (profit), what it means to be desirous of excess (profit), and what you are supposed to do with your excess profit).
And as far as your slavery to God (i.e., God "owning you") I am sorry to hear about your luck.
I do admire your justification for God "slaughtering" all the first born babies in Egypt, I like your characterization of God "calling them home." The Bible of course says something different, the Bible says it was a punitive measure...vindication...slaughter....you say it was "calling them home." Nice euphemism.
Guillermo,
How is killing the first born abortion? Leaving aside the whole it's not up to me to judge God,(who apparently you believe is not your God, I thought you said you were a Christian who didn't like organized religion in the past) Do you not see a distiction between terminating a pregnancy vs. and killing children and adults? I thought the whole argument in favor of abortion is that it was a mass of cells that hadn't gained life yet. Can you explain for me the apparent contradiction?
As for profit: I don't see how you take a statement against usury and apply it to all forms of financial profit. I thought you were smarter than to make such easily refuted statement. Two quotes later it indicates that profit is not abominable.
On Education: Where in that proverb does it say anything about formal education, it clearly says wisdom. Do you contend that only those with a formal education can be wise?
"In all seriousness, I am sorry your God committed mass abortion, and I am sorry that undermines your entire position on the subject."
This line here really demonstrates what makes conservative Christians dislike liberals. In it you declare that humans are equal to God. Is your argument: if God does it, we should do it too?
GI, tsk, tsk, tsk...you call me "obtuse," then make the exact point I made...that we are not to profit from LOANS.
As for excess profit from honest labor, at least Christians do the right thing with it...unlike most leftists and liberals! :-)
God owns all humans, all animals, all the earth, all the universe. He gave us free will, but that doesn't mean He handed us the title. I take it you haven't quite figured that out? Oh, well, you will...you will.
As for your charge of "euphemism," facts are facts. When a human dies, that human goes to God. When God takes us, it's called "natural causes." Even for humans in Egypt... :-)
Unless you happen to be a Being that can speak mass and energy into existence, you really can't even start to figure out why He does what He does, can you? But hey, if you managed to make that "evolutionary step" or whatever, let us know. Until then, calling out judgement on your owner is kinda foolish.
Technically, speaking SW, an abortion takes place inside the womb, you are right about that. But I have heard nearly every Christian I have argued abortion with state: you cannot murder a child outside the womb, so why should it be legal to abort a child inside the womb? If Cons are going to call abortion "baby murder" or whatever other sensational nonsense they drum up, and Cons are going to insist that abortion is the EXACT SAME AS MURDERING A CHILD then lets look critically at God's slaughter (or abortion according to Christians) of innocent children too...or does that make you uncomfortable?
I take a statement against usury as an example of where the Bible argues against profiteering because it is EXACTLY what it does. This example is very explicit. Profiting of off a loan is abominable and those who do so will "have [their] blood on [their] hands."
BUT there are plenty of other less explicit examples, as I argue above, of places where the Bible iterates what the desire for excess (profit) will get you, and what a follower of Christ is to with excess (profit).
En re education: no, you can be wise without being "schooled." But the endeavor of higher-education, especially a liberal arts education, is to create as many pathways as possible to the wondrous varieties of worldly epistemological systems. Intellectualism is the quest for understanding, by definition. A farmer in Guinea is likely to have a very focused knowledge, whereas a person who has dedicated their life to learning of the world (be it formally or informally) has profited "better than profit of silver...gained more than fine gold."
"This line here really demonstrates what makes conservative Christians dislike liberals."
That line wasn't intended to earn friends, it was meant to point out the glaring hypocrisy inherent between the Christian religion and politics of American Conservatives.
MrsSmith you are being obtuse, especially if your belief is that the Bible somehow supports profiterring (monetarily). It doesn't--in any form, loan interest or otherwise.
But since you seem stuck on the loan thing, why don't you follow up to my premise I put forth...America was build on banks and investment firms loaning (and profiting from interest on loans) to individuals looking to create small businesses. The Bible is clear, the loans that made (and make) America possible ARE AN ABOMINATION, at least if you believe the Bible (lucky for me I recognize its REAL value).
"...facts are facts. When a human dies, that human goes to God."
A) This is not a fact, this is your superstitious belief;
B) The Bible doesn't refer to it as "calling these babies home," the language the Bible uses is a bit more vindictive and violent.
And I assure you that God does not own you or me, anymore than an IDEA can own a person. Here is the reality, you were told a a really great fictional story by a group of people you trusted, who were told that same story by a group of people they trusted, and on and on, and now you all believe the silliest things most irrational and unprovable things because you have never thought to question; never realized the exhilaration and freedom of critical thinking.
GI, the Bible does not teach that profit is evil...as you would know if you bothered to study with Christians instead of reading leftist-lying sites.
"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
Because we know this, conservative Christians outgive every other segment of society. :-)
You may not believe that you'll end up in front of God one day, but you'll find out eventually. Meanwhile, you stand proud and arrogant on an earth provided by Him, breathing air provided by Him, eating food grown by Him, using sunlight provided by Him. Unless and until you're "big" enough to make these things for yourself, you are vulnerable to having Him remove them at any moment. :-)
Tell me one other thing...if it isn't a child that is murdered in the womb during abortion, what exactly is it? The Bible calls him/her a child, so God obviously disagrees. :-)
I studied for all of my formative years with Christians MrsSmith, it was quite a brainwashing I endured, but I outgrew the fairy tales.
"You may not believe that you'll end up in front of God one day, but you'll find out eventually. Meanwhile, you stand proud and arrogant on an earth provided by Him, breathing air provided by Him, eating food grown by Him, using sunlight provided by Him."
I asked for none of these things. I was doing just fine not existing. But if God wants me here as Christians proffer it is its own fault for a) making so many contradictions and silly errors, thus for laying itself open to criticism, b) creating beings with the capacity to discover and talk about these silly errors and contradictions.
There is of course the idea that God does not exist, or that a creator exists but in trying to fathom him every religion humans can dream of have gotten it (and inevitably will forever get it wrong). Maybe something created the Universe and is no longer tending the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe God, as Nietzsche postulated, is dead. A few discerning glimpses of humanity today emboldens that argument.
"Tell me one other thing...if it isn't a child that is murdered in the womb during abortion, what exactly is it?"
A mass of tissue with no discernible shape, with no consciousness, and with no nerve endings is removed, dear MrsSmith, so long as the abortion occurs during the first trimester. After that, unarguably there is a fetus with distinct human characteristics, which is why the Supreme Court decided a woman has a choice until the second trimester, and her freedom of choice trumps the government's oppression of her choice. After the second trimester states get to decide whether abortions are legal, based on the health of the mother and the child--logic, symmetry, freedom.
"Week 5:
Eyes are starting to form, a mouth-like opening appears near the "head"; finger and toes are beginning to form. The brain now has three recognizable divisions, as it does in the fully-developed baby and adult.
Week 6:
The beginnings of a nose and palate appear; eyelids cover the eyes. The brain is growing rapidly, making a prominent bulge in the head region. The length is not quite one inch.
Week 7-8:
More brain growth. Inside, intestines, liver, kidneys, lungs, heart are all taking shape. Ovaries and testes can be seen. The first muscle movements take place.
By the end of the 8th week, all of the main organ systems are in place, although not in their final form. The embryo sits in the shape of a C, with its large head bowed, and legs flexed upward. It weighs about 1/3 of an ounce, and measures about 2 inches from top to bottom."
8 weeks after conception...LONG before the end of the first trimester, the CHILD has a brain, all his or her major organs including the sex organs. It sounds like more of your lefty sites are lying to you, GI.
The Mayo Clinic is hardly a "lefty site," MrsSmith. Nobody is arguing that the fetus ISN'T developing, that is sort of what happens during the non-miracle of gestation.
Although in my haste I admittedly wrote "...so long as the abortion occurs during the first trimester." Which should have been "...so long as the abortion occurs early during the first trimester."
But dear MrsSmith, developING and developeED are two very different things. A fetus doesn't have nerve endings until well into the 2nd trimester, and without a fully developed and functioning brain, there can be no self-awareness, no consciousness. Thus, a fetus nearing the end of the first trimester, may indeed have shape and indeed is developING, there are no nerves; no consciousness, and whether or not the pregnancy continues is the choice of the woman. It is how it should be...all fake outrage aside.
Guillermo,
Why would your circular arguments make me uncomfortable? In your response to my questions were you intentionally obtuse or did you not answer my questions accidentally?
SW: Do you not see a distiction between terminating a pregnancy vs. and killing children and adults?
Me: Technically, speaking SW, an abortion takes place inside the womb, you are right about that...
SW: Can you explain for me the apparent contradiction?
Me: If Cons are going to call abortion "baby murder" or whatever other sensational nonsense they drum up, and Cons are going to insist that abortion is the EXACT SAME AS MURDERING A CHILD then lets look critically at God's slaughter (or abortion according to Christians) of innocent children too...
SW: Do you contend that only those with a formal education can be wise?
Me: No, you can be wise without being "schooled." But the endeavor of higher-education, especially a liberal arts education, is to create as many pathways as possible to the wondrous varieties of worldly epistemological systems. Intellectualism is the quest for understanding, by definition....
SW: Is your argument: if God does it, we should do it too?
Me: [That line] was meant to point out the glaring hypocrisy inherent between the Christian religion and politics of American Conservatives.
Now its your turn to answer a question SW, what is about this blog and the Conservative minds it attracts that inheres posters such as myself need to spell everything out for them?
Doggone,
Here we have folks from every political spectrum arguing scripture and the New and Old Testaments.
I'm still waiting for answers to my question -- "How am I to accept as divine law the writings of men who absolutely knew the Earth is a FLAT surface.
They absolutely knew, "If you sail a ship too far, your ship will fall off the edge of the Earth."
They absolutely knew, "The Earth is the center of the entire universe, with the sun, moon and all the stars orbiting around the Earth."
Plus, the really good one designed for Mrs. Smith, "Women are the property of their fathers, who shall give the woman to her husband, after which she will be the property of the husband."
Gearjammer, do you think it might be a trifle entertaining to watch when Mr. Smith tries to exercise his property rights? When Mrs. Smith don't want those rights or anything else exercised?"
And hank,
Who in the Bible claimed the world was flat? Who in the Bible said ships would fall off the edge of the Earth? Who in the Bible claimed the Earth was the center of the universe?
By the way Sam, a great post!