5 posts tagged “christian”

1. Challenged The idea that any person who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour is saved (even if that person doesn't properly understand God's desires (as of yet)
2. You have implied that somehow Islamic Law has more authority than what is outlined in the Bible ("according to Islamic Law he is a Muslim." your exact words in opposition to his statement to the contrary)
3. You have demonstrated that somehow a person who has a disagreement with another professing Christian's interpretation of scripture (correct or incorrect) has the right and authority to publicly question that person's salvation.
4. You have called upon the fear of those in Islam to convince us that somehow Senator John McCain is the Godly choice for our nation effectively putting all of God's eggs in the McCain basket - what happens if he becomes president and is nowhere as Godly as we make him out to be (history shows that this could most likely be the case) the church again looks collectively crazy and sets the stage for loosing more political influence than ever before (winning the battle at the expense of losing the war)
5. You have used a page and a half of scary statements to take the worst most evil doctrines of Islam, tie them to a person who proclaims himself to be Christian, and manipulate those easily influenced by such tactics to believe that God wants them to vote for John McCain as God's messenger for the next four years.

I received this in an email and felt the need to respond...

Revelations Chapter 13 tells us it is 42 months and you know what that is.
Almost a four-year term to a Presidency. All I can say is Lord Have Mercy on
us! According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is: The anti-Christ
will be a man, in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations
with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the
prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will
promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy
everything..

Is it OBAMA??

There are absolutely no statements in revelation that say the “anti-Christ” will be from any country, any age these ideas come from Daniel and have been interpreted to say all kinds of things. I remember when Ronald Reagan was president there was this trip going around that he was the anti-Christ because of the amount of letters in his name. I actually remember his middle name because of the amount of times it came up. Ronald Wilson Reagan the number of man three times 666 (six letters each name). And we wonder why people who are not Christian think we are all crazy. It is not even if this man is or isn’t the antichrist that is in question at this point, it is that we will twist the Bible to support our arguments.

The Pharisees and Scribes knew the Bible and what it said, but would stretch everything to adjust what it said to fit how they felt about issues. In my lifetime (I noticed this more before I was saved) I have heard so many ideas about someone (usually someone unpopular with American churches) that tried to tell me this person was the anti-Christ that if the real anti-Christ came and sat down to dinner with me I probably would no longer have any way of even considering that he was the anti-Christ. The church has cried wolf (anti-Christ far too many times to suit their own needs of the time.

I am saying this to help us consider this fact. The truth is that Barack Obama is simple a terrible candidate for president on many levels. John McCain is not only a terrible candidate, but he is terrible at picking people for his political regime (he has several people that other presidential candidates including Ronald Reagan fired because of the level of attacking and dirty campaigning they were doing). Here we are looking at such things.

I make it a point to try to look at both sides of any political argument, but this campaign has had people at McCain rallies screaming racial epithets out loud, screaming things like “kill him” etc. without a word from the McCain campaign to stop it. There is a pastor who stands In front of the entire nation this weekend and says that if Barack Obama wins it would somehow show other that God is not powerful and their gods are more powerful. A man last week, from the McCain campaign in Virginia wrote an article (click here to see the actual article) which I was personally offended by. I am perplexed by the idea that several people have tried to put before me that the McCain campaign is somehow a move of God (seriously, does God really move like that) against the evil of Barack Hussein Obama.

It is also amazing to me that suddenly the guy who lost his mind berating Christians in the media in 2000 is suddenly the great hope for God and Christianity all of a sudden.

I have a unique view of this election for several reasons – I am very into politics, I am an independent, I am of mixed race and comfortable with both African American folks and Caucasian folks, I feel I have a pretty good working knowledge of the Bible, I am in the middle class (not the rich that McCain seems to tend towards and not the poor that Obama seems to tend toward), I have a home bought during the questionable period, and I am very worried about healthcare and my retirement.

I think both parties have become outright silly. For me race will not choose a president, neither person even remotely has God’s best interests in mind (unless you are of the opinion that the only thing that will matter to you and your family over the next four years is the possibility of having an abortion), neither candidate is going to help me out financially according to the plans they have outlined so far, and neither has a plan that will help my family out at all.

They are both absolutely terrible candidates but only one has the audacity to assault and insult my ability to reason with repeated attacks on the other that are designed to raise fear in me and make me think that my only hope is to vote for him (the technical term is manipulation). If we are relying on anything that has anything to do with either of these candidates to determine our relationship to God and how close we are to the end of the world there is good news. We can stop worrying about health care and retirement plans because we won’t be needing them.

My favorite president of all time, Theodore Roosevelt once said; “Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.” (another way to say this is that every tree has it’s fruits and nuts) I deeply wish to be a part of the reform of our nation but not on the lunatic fringe. The one thing I will do however is let somebody use things I hold dear to me to manipulate me, particularly letting a candidate manipulate my belief in God to force me to vote for them. That goes double for rumors based on statements made in a book written by someone who is literally insane whose statements have no basis (Read about it by clicking here).

The worst part is that the statistics are showing that I am not the only person that is offended by all of this attack campaigning, but we are still seeing it. Obama is not winning the campaign; these ungodly tactics are losing it for Senator McCain. And these tactics are the type of underhanded tactics I want to see from our president.

Over the past couple of weeks my blogs have often been pretty much anger at the McCain campaign for running such a poor campaign and doing such a disservice to Senator McCain and Governor Palin while also not allowing us to have real choices for president (keeping in mind that the person ultimately responsible for the campaign is the candidate).

The Battle for Republican presidential hopeful is about to takeoff at full speed.  The big problem Senator McCain is gong to have is that this battle is with the conservatives within his own party. 

Senator John McCain, who has had more than his share of troubles with the more conservative of his party, has been trying to straddle the fence and keep both the moderates of his party and the ultraconservatives happy.  Both ends (and the middle of his party) have been carefully watching him with one eyebrow raised. 

While Senator McCain was using the gopher campaign technique (staying underground and poking his head out every once in while, here and there) and letting the democrats annihilate each other, this problem seemed to be dissipating.  

Now that the campaign has moved into the phase where you start to see each of the candidates more and more, there is a push to have him clearly make a stand on some issues that are important within his party. 

The few stands he has made have not been popular with the conservative end of his party and the conservatives are ready to confront this head-on beginning at the Republican Convention. 

What this means is that the riding the fence days are over.  He is going to have to make the clear stands and risk loosing the votes of those that do not approve.

The troubling part (if you are a Republican) is that your candidate has made it to July and is drifting away from having the party united instead of just going through the last needed changes to finish unifying the party.  It is as if his campaign is in reverse. 

Both Senator McCain and Senator Obama seem to having problems unifying their parties, but Senator McCain seems to be headed in the wrong direction.

The real question is; can the Moderate Republicans, the Ultra-conservative Republicans, and those somewhere in between come together and agree with Senator McCain.

If not there will be third, forth, and fifth party candidates this election season that will be looking to happily take those votes from him and absolutely destroy his chances of becoming president.

I for one am very curious where this is headed and wonder how those in his campaign will seek to unify the soon to be warring factions.

Senator Barack Obama has ventured into a battleground that a year ago would have been a suicide mission for most Democrats particularly one with a voting record like his. 

Tuesday, Senator Obama had an open discussion with Evangelical and Catholic leaders many of which did not support him or hold what is generally perceived to be his views.

How the world has changed when the Christian Right is looking left.  A few years ago Senator John McCain has struggled to gain the confidence of the Christian Right after his tirade in 2000 where he screamed at this same group who he now needs to support him.

This year has been a year where there has been no major push from the Christian Right for any candidate in either party. 

Senator Obama’s “first strike” in the Christian community is a smart move politically.  He allowed the group to ask him the tough questions and he answered the questions.  The reports so far from both supporters and those who oppose his views that attended were favorable. 

The question again has to be; “Is the guy that the Evangelical and Catholic leadership the same guy who would show up in the Whitehouse?” 

If the Christian Right is asking who is more of a churchgoer, it is hard to tell although far more has been said about Senator Obama’s going to church and Senator is still a Christian-hater in the minds of many believers.  On the other hand, the press about Senator Obama’s Church attendance has not been favorable.

If asking who more represents the views of the Christian Right it is a toss up when you look at the voting records.  I would probably give the advantage to Senator McCain.

Clearly from the how little outspoken support for Senator McCain has come from the Christian Right (traditionally considered to be Republican voters) up to this point there seems to be a sentiment of voting for the lesser evil. 

The rumor mill has been turning all year about how the Christian right has lost it’s power and is dying and so on.  I do not believe that is the case.  It seems clear that out of all of the candidates in both parties who ran in the primaries there was not one candidate that represented the collective beliefs of this group.   This is a huge failure on the part of both parties to exclude the desires of such a large segment of the population when putting up candidates (particularly along the Bible Belt). 

This seems like it may be a big step forward for Senator Obama, but there is always that voting record that would scare anyone but the most left.  I cannot say what this did for the Christian Right, but it must have been a huge step forward in winning over the Evangelical and Catholic Left and Moderates.

Senator John McCain has just rejected the endorsement of televangelists John Hagee and Rod Parsley.  These are very influential right wing leaders and this is an interesting turn of events.

John Hagee was about to be Senator McCain’s version of that Wright person that has caused Senator Obama such trouble after and old tape emerged of him stating that Adolph Hitler was sent by God to help the Jews get to the Promised Land.

The Problem with Rod Parsley has to do with his comments about Islam being a violent religion.

The thing ii, with all of the statements about how he would have never gone to a church like the one Senator Obama went to for all of those years etc., he has absolutely no choice with these major players in the Republican Party but to turn his back on them. 

The question is how will this play out for him as he is trying to convince the skeptical party that he is Right Wing enough to be the Republican candidate. 

I wonder if the Democrats are thinking that all they have to do is look at every minister or televangelist that begins to support Senator McCain with a microscope and find something negative to put in the media.  If they can get Senator McCain to turn his back on every minister that attempts to support him, keeping in mind that the Christian Right Wing is skeptical of him to begin with, it is only a matter of time before they return the favor.

In these cases, he not only turned down their support, but he spoke out against them and their messages publicly.  Will they do the same and speak out to their large segments of the community against him. 

Isn’t it amazing how this sort of distraction has become the focus of the primaries of both the Democrats and the Republicans?  Realistically, a few years ago Senator McCain was screaming to the public about how the Religious Right was such a huge problem in this country, now he is counting on the support of these same people to carry him to the presidency.  These people, who were not in his corner to begin with, decided they would stand behind him because he is a Republican even though they were not huge fans. 

Well now what happens?  He needs the support and the people of whom we speak will not vote for a Democrat and this crazy guy just turned his back on them and then went one step deeper and spoke out against them publicly.

The Republicageddon is near.  The Republicans Party is already on the ropes according to the polls and the cracks in the party are starting to grow.  The question this election season is really which will come first; the Republicageddon or the implosion of the Democrats (the Democrolypse) with all of this crazy race stuff going on over there.

This has been such a good year for those of us who do not belong to a political party.  It is great to have already chosen to be outside of a system that you know to be crazy when everyone else is finally realizing how crazy it is.  Our party and election system is clearly broken.  This whole primary season is about racism, pastors and televangelists, crazy supporters (some of which are the candidate’s husbands), and stupidity.  Our government is playing party games using all of their energy to make the other party look bad while we are all forced out of our homes and go broke on gasoline.  Particularly confusing is how the Democrat ruled segments of government and the Republican White House are voting, vetoing, and fighting over everything. 

It looks like Senator McCain has finally gotten all the way into the pool of chaos.  It seemed like he was just putting his toes into the water before.  Let’s watch and enjoy as he begins to fight with his own support base and the Democrats destroy each other.