UI – Part 231 – America as Babylon

 Defending America

We often find problematic terrorist actions that claim the attacks, bombings, mutilations, kidnapping and overt killing, the taking of lives (any non-Muslim) and desire to continue (until all is for Allah) are due to America as the big gorilla in the room.  America attempts, or has in the past, to be a policeman to the world.  America has retaliated towards events that caused harm to Americans, military or civilian, at the hands of extremists.  The extremists of late have primarily been Islamists. We defend ourselves. 

America’s doors, for the most part, are open. There are those who come to America legally and enjoy the comforts, beauty, modern elements, educational advances, jobs, safety and freedom we offer. They do so as visitors or emigrants from another culture.  They are welcomed.  There are those that arrive illegally, but for the same reasons. Freedom and opportunity are synonymous with America.  We are the preferred currency, the preferred investment market, the safe haven for wealth, and the beacon of human rights and freedom of speech (at least to date). We are modern and not afraid of modernity.  Americans embrace change.

Middle Ages

Recently Greg Gutfeld, a co-host of the Fox News network show The Five suggested (3/27/2013) renaming the Middle East, the Middle Ages.  This was a poignant note as if it were not for oil even more of the Middle East would be third world, more the dark ages than even the Middle Ages.  America is a vision of Paradise for many Muslims, a view of the world that can be.  But know what it is; it is where free people, industrious, objective people can achieve.  Such freedom is problematic for the Islamists, thus we are pagans, infidels, living where they proclaim change is needed.

Why Blame USA

Why blame a successful nation; why target them for terrorist killing?  Is it jealousy? Is it revenge, revenge for history, even the history of the Christians and the steps they took to gain a foothold in a new world. America was founded by God loving and fearing individuals who wanted the freedom to live without autocratic dictates.  Muslims continue to fight the Crusades. The Islamists continue to reference the wrath of God in the Old Testament, not the New Covenant and opportunity for rebirth in the New Testament.

I will defend as an American, as a Christian too, our rights and respect for others as any other. America is not the Great Satan as Muslims often state.  But there is a concern.

Babylon

The fall of Great Nations almost always came at the expense of moral values in decline.  The emphasis in Paul Kennedy’s book[i], The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, was more focused on economic decline.  Wealth production is important to sustain a great Power.  Capitalism is thus essential.  When the emphasis is altered, decline follows.  One concern for America is reflected in Obama and his Democratic Party’s disregard for the debt levels that continue to increase, along with a lack of courage to attack the true problem – Entitlements.  ‘The poor will always be with us’, that is Biblical. (Deuteronomy 15:11, Matthew 26:11)  But Republicans cannot escape being at fault as well.  Our elected officials are expert in ‘kicking the can down the road.’  Along with financial weakening, when minorities voices seems to deafen the voice of reason, or that of the majority – favoring selfish wants, the ‘me’ generation, more food stamps, overly extended unemployment benefits, less work for more pay, equal rewards for less than equal work, wealth redistribution and the removal of incentives to improve one’s lot in life– concerns should be raised about the Nation’s future.

We are experiencing that in America.  Almost 40% of children are born out of wedlock.  Fathers go on to father other children, not the same mother, a sex-sport with unintended consequences and a lack of support for the miracle baby outcome. Unwed fathers do not form a home for the birth mother and child.  Marriage is not contemplated.  Our system of education is soft on biblical principles employed in the founding of America.  Efforts are made daily to eradicate any reference to the bible or religion in schools. Obama is not a President that fears God, nor does he respect God. The voice of the atheists, the homosexual, the abortionist, the immoral, the secularist, is changing the laws, to the detriment of appropriate society standards. Are we redefining what is appropriate? Tolerance of others is one thing, but how to live an ethical and moral life is another. Fathers are not present to raise children, especially boys.  The examples being provided children are that of single-mother families, homosexual habits allowed, abortions at any stage, free access to contraception, with man-man, woman-woman parents totally normal. 

The liberal mindset has allowed significant moral issues to become political tools used to condemn individual values that embrace godly standards. Issues such as abortion, contraception and marriage should be avoided by the government when associated costs are to be born by society as a whole, leaving the expense of pursuing such controversial personal decisions to the individual. That is choice. Choose to respect godly values or not; the government should not make it political or universal.

The preferred, by most of society, male-female, and mother and father kind of family will be OK.  They are needed to reproduce.  Reproduction is required to sustain a society’s growth. But too often we hear the collective directive, ‘divorce if you feel like it.’; that marriage commitment, well, like the rest of society, ‘it is not something you need to live with forever.’ What this causes is a breakdown of the family, our culture, which in turn is reflected in our economic future.

Then there are the opiates.  The increase use and access to mind numbing escape pills and powders make life easier, less challenging and more tolerable.  It reflects the dependency mirror.  Know this, life without suffering, without struggle, is no life at all. The addicted lose sight of reality.  This approach dishonors God.  It is a mess without standards.  Whatever standards there were, of a Biblical variety, are being rapidly eroded.  How does that make America an example to the rest of the World?  It is the leadership at the top that is being discounted as being too soft, and without proper moral standards

Liberal Bashing

Liberals attack conservatives who call for less government, smaller with fewer regulations. They attack conservatives who call for reductions in welfare payments or entitlements as a whole. They attack anything that reduces spending, suggests fewer government departments and workers, and takes anything from the hands and pockets of the poor, as the liberals define poor. Since welfare was begun the number of poor has not declined.  Under Obama the middle class is being squeezed and the poor are increasing. 

What is odd is how large corporations are benefitting from the egregious number of regulations that the Government is imposing, at the expense of entrepreneurship, smaller businesses that create jobs.  Only the largest entities can deal with all the requirements the Government is imposing on our society.  Government claims they are protecting the masses, big business too, but in truth they are amassing more dollars, indirect taxes, to spend as they wish in part to keep the dependents pulling the voting lever for their candidates.

It used to be that not everything was regulated.   There was some freedom to do things – to build, create, invent, develop, explore.  But today members of the legislatures seem to believe if something is not regulated they are making a mistake and must find a way to regulate it.  It could be called the Mayor Bloomberg Syndrome.  The nanny state is where the government feels people can do nothing for themselves; the government must protect, secure and provide.  That is the audacious attitude of power; and we have all experienced how effective government is, how efficient government is, when having to protect and provide.  It is costly to every citizen.  We need to keep our own money and our own guns.

John Stossel of Fox suggests the government privatize as much as they can, “There are some things government ought to do, but just a few things. Most of life works better if the central planners butt out, leaving individuals freedom of choice. That happens when we leave things in private hands. Markets aren’t perfect. But they allow for a world where prudence is rewarded and sloth is punished – a world in which people are more likely to take risks and innovate. That’s a world where more people prosper.”

We need to privatize more, encourage more capitalism, not less. We must encourage and stand-up for independence.  We need to find a way to regain control over the moral substrate of America.  Rational minds, strong father-figures, godly persons, need to lead America forward.

The Poor Can Remain Poor

The liberals seem to prefer the poor remaining poor and on the dole.  They are voters. Keep it that way.  Any change in the system, an alteration of the dependency model, and the Party of the liberals would lose their status, along with access to the power and the financial benefits of Washington, DC.  Keep them fed, ignorant, healthy, and dependent. I call it the Party of the Dem&Dumb.

Praise the Successful

It is too easy to attack the successful; not for their achievement, but for the wealth, the incentives they received (not from government), their rewards, the side-benefit of hard work, long hours, and attention to improving their knowledge, contribution to society and their status. Why not praise them, praise them long and often, for the improvements they have made to our lives, the jobs created, their generosity and the better America they have enabled. 

I pray those who succeed do what they do, along the way, in total obedience to God, honoring our Lord and Savior in how and what they do.  I know there are exceptions, as does God.  Becoming rich is not a crime as long as no sin is committed to achieve.

Morals & Ethics

Moral and ethical values are essential to maintain a stable society.  We have become an Entitlement society lacking the incentives and discipline needed.  Not everyone can succeed and made to feel successful. Where there is family (the male-female, mom-dad variety) faith, proper guidance by a loving parent/mentor, individuals are more prone to achieve.  It is a fact.

A View from the Outside

Is it possible the outside view of America as a leader of the world has changed (it is changing).  In addition to the Al Qaeda look-a-likes and Islamist extremists vengeance for attacks justified by America’s position in the World, America defending its people, is the expressed hatred by the Islamists.   Islamic cultural brainwashing, their teaching, as to the immorality of a free nation infecting the pure Muslim strain is bizarre.  The light that is shining from the shores of North America is not what the Islamic world, its culture, finds attractive. At least that is what they are told repeatedly to believe.  The moral standards of Islam are high [except when the men are conducting escapades in the infidel’s locales, enjoying every moment (they are visiting Paradise)].  The conditioning by the scholars to maintain standards of enmity towards infidels only allows for Sharia, Islamic Law.  It is the only answer.  Sharia Law is to be the Constitution for Muslims wherever they dwell. 

Fall of Great Powers

In a blog by Omar Upegui R.,[ii] he notes, “There are two red flags that I see endanger this great country if it wants to remain as a global economic and industrial empire:  the soaring public debt and the enormous burden of its military expenditures.  As the United States declines, China and India are emerging as the next great global players. According to some alarmists, the entire country is falling down a steep slope that lacks morality and responsibility.  I don’t think this is true, but I will have to admit there are black clouds in the horizon that need to be addressed by those responsible of leading the nation.” (Read More) The Islamists are focused on those ‘black clouds’ in their teaching to the youth of the Muslim world.

If America falls, China or India emerges, I see notably less tolerance towards Islam than is here in America.  Islam will not rise as an empire except possibly territorially, as was the case for the Umayyad Caliphate (the largest Empire in area ever). 

It is the population with the greatest numbers of Christians, however, I sincerely believe, that will be the most successful.  It will not be a military overthrow, but God acting on the behalf of those who truly believe in Salvation. His believing children, for whom he sent his Son to endure His wrath as a substitute, being punished for your sins and mine, will be saved.

God Bless America

Dear Lord, help to awaken America, the people of the Great Nation, to the edge of the abyss they are approaching.  Show them the path, the right turn to make to insure the democratic beacon we came to shine on the world is fully restored.  May our past glories be revived and the future for our citizens be even brighter.  May the freedoms we enjoy be understood, those that fought for them fully appreciated, the moral compass steadied, and the entitlement nature of a growing number come to realize the fallacy of their selfish desires. May the actions and intent of false teachers become known, recognized, and the appropriate measures taken to thwart inroads being made by following a deceptive idol.  May the future that of the heirs of our citizens, our children, increase the opportunity to believe without coercion and to fully enjoy the fruits of individual labor.  May each person be able to contribute to society as they prefer without being compelled to alter their belief system.  May we be able to grow an estate, if we can, save without the government taking our funds, and leave a better place for our offspring.  May God Bless America. May there be a Great Re-Awakening to the power and glory of the Lord.

America is not Babylon – yet.

 Grace and Peace