America in the Bible

Dear Uncle Sam,

I found your bio in the Bible:

"A worthless person, a wicked man, Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who points with his fingers; Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, Who spreads strife. Therefore his calamity will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing. There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers." (Proverbs 6:12-19)

You have lied and deceived your way into every war Americans have entered since the War of 1812 - every single one. Your self flattering propaganda has served your purpose in each war. You aren't "spreading freedom" or defending us against enemies - you are spreading fear, and making our country a pariah among the nations, and are yourself an enemy of the Constitution you claim to support.

Add abortion, and you have the blood of untold millions on your hands.

So, I don't want to hold hands with you!

We, the people of America, have been bountifully blessed - IN SPITE OF YOU, NOT BECAUSE OF YOU.

I mean no offense, but when the choice is allegiance to you or to Jesus, I choose Jesus (cf. Exodus 20.3)

Lord, have mercy on your people in the midst of your righteous judgment.

Healing: Reality or Illusion?

My post on Bill Johnson's Facebook page 111811
Seriously...I don't know what you believe, but I'm for all the gifts, the fulness of God in the body of Christ, and restoration, etc. etc. And I finally had a chance to sample Bro Bill Johnson's ministry firsthand last Friday...He led 800 p...eople into a wonderful time of spontaneous worship to the King. I'm not kidding. However....the Bentley thing was bad for the church, bad for the name of the Lord, and bad for Todd Bentley. I wrote to Bethel about it, gently btw, and got not even a courtesy reply (I asked for one). We have a serious problem with idolatry. Truly gifted ministers are surrounded by sycophants, and if anyone expresses a concern, the peanut gallery is there to shout them down. No accountability in place, because only affirmations are of God - all criticism is of the evil one. Just read the threads here for examples of what I'm speaking...God help us, and He will! Time for the Body of Christ to be discerned. Liberty for prophetic utterances - yes! But also liberty to judge them! Oops, I said "judge" - that's profane to many of the brethren - I shall be branded a Pharisee! My desire is that these gifted prophets (they aren't apostles, no matter what Peter Wagner says) would venture out now and then and touch base with some regular folks who love Jesus and discern some problems that will not be solved by gold dust or even documented miracles. There are people who saw things amiss with Todd Bentley that were completely missed by those who commissioned him, and their followers. They are not all "fearful" like they've been characterized, they are a needed part of Christ's body and denouncing them as Pharisees and persecutors is hasty, at best.
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BJ interview where he states that we should believe reports on the basis of our inner witness

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=1JE1FNNU


"We were just in Spokane, Washington for the Healing Rooms Conference with Cal Pierce. In one meeting, we had 54 people testify to metal dissolving in their bodies; screws, plates and rods. One woman was missing certain tendons in the left leg and she had a metal brace holding it all together. She didn't have anything for doctors to surgically repair in the leg, they had told her she would need the brace for the rest of her life. The brace helped by locking her leg so she could walk. She took the brace off in the meeting and ran! Another woman had been in intense pain for 15 years because of a back injury. She had a fused spine and was completely healed! The curvature in her back was restored and she was able to squat and get back up with no assistance! A first in a long time!"http://www.bjm.org/testimony/31/testimonies-from-spokane-conference.html 110611

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxKWj8VZ5Y&noredirect=1 Randy Clark ministering at Bethel, calling forth those with metal in their bodies. Testimonies, but no corroboration!

Homosexual Marriage: It Doesn't Exist

Government should be out of the marriage business. Marriage is a sacrament ordained by God; government involvement violates Jefferson's separation of church and state doctrine.

The church has greatly erred by accepting secular government authority in the form of 501(c) 3 incorporation. The same mindset causes the church to appeal to government to hold the line against spiritual deception overtaking our culture. That's the church's job. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.." Caesar's "things" don't include marriage, church licensing, or educating our children. Until we start giving to God the things that are His, we should forget admonishing our culture to be righteous.

Idolatry in the Church: Community Chapel

Scriptures re idolatry and Community Chapel:

Idolatry Scriptures


The Wikipedia page:

Community Chapel Wiki



Here are some articles from former member of Community Chapel. Some of mine are under my own name (Steve Maxwell) and some under the pseudonym "Frank."

Writings from ex members of Community Chapel

Good message preached by Earl Thurner on Dec. 20, 1981:

"The Father"

Marxist Left, Fascist Right: Twins!

Last week, a self described "liberal" accused me of blind allegiance to Ron Paul.

Today, a "Conservative Animal" (blog name) called me a "paulie" (sic).

For the record, I do agree with Ron Paul, but my opinions were largely in line with his before I began to pay much attention to him, about six years ago. Plus, whatever is wrong with my opinions, a lot of thoughts go into them, and so ad hominem arguments are resented, chiefly because they indicate no respect for my time.

The "Left - Right" paradigm in which we frame political discussions seems more absurd to me everyday.

.
"Left" and "Right" have much more in common than their shared disdain for the simple honesty of Ron Paul.

* They both have the exact same plan to deal with our national debt problem - blame the other party.
* Democrats spoke against Bush's military adventurism; Republicans decry Obama's. But in the end, both keep funding our unsustainable worldwide military presence.
* Neither has any respect for the Constitution: Conservative Animal is offended by the confidence with which Ron Paul supporters cite the Constitution (it's our fault that hardly anyone else reads it?), and  thinks the Federal courts are the sole arbiters of its meaning. Animal thus affirms the hubris of Chief Justice Hughes: "...we are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is..." My "liberal" critic thinks the Constitution is subservient to popular opinion, and inadequate for modern life, and since his view is shared by the statists who dominate the federal judiciary, he, like Conservative Animal, is happy for our country to be governed by de facto tribunals of judges.
* Both quickly play the race card when they have no answers: the liberal thinks objections to Obama's massive expansion of the federal government is rooted in racism; Conservative Animal accused me of being anti-Semitic because I think Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty in 1967. Since I didn't mention the Liberty attack in my post on Mr. Animal's blog, I'm guessing somebody searched out my comments about it elsewhere online. I'm opting out of participation on that blog, as the proprieters are given to overbearing and verbose tirades full of ad hominem arguments, red herring, and ipse dixit assertions posing as axioms. See for yourself here.
* Both are ignorant of, or OK with, the President having authority to imprison American citizens indefinitely without charging them.

The Left side of the box is still the box. Ditto the right side.

Ron Paul's ideas are not really profound. He just cuts through the bullshit; and millions of people are ready for someone to do that.

Unfortunately, many more millions are still thinking in the box.

Pray and think. Please.

George McGovern: RIP

I much prefer real liberals like McGovern over modern corporate statists such as Reid, Romney, Obama,  Boehner, and the Clintons.

George McGovern was a Christian gentleman. His chief fault was a sincerely held, but erroneous, theology that conflated the gospel mandate to care for the poor with the foolish utopian schemes of the welfare state.

He was a real liberal in the same sense that Robert Taft was a real conservative; and both had more in common with each other than either has with the current leaders of our two ruling parties.

On account of foreign policy.

McGovern was speaking against intervention in Vietnam as the Kennedy administration sent thousands of combat troops there and backed a CIA led coup in which South Vietnamese President Diem was killed. Taft opposed involvement in Korea, and NATO - part of the reason the muscleheads running the GOP sabotaged their 1952 convention so that Taft was pushed out in favor of Ike.

Our ongoing foreign interventions - about which neither candidate in tonight's debate will have the slightest qualm - are not consistent with either "liberal" or "conservative" policy.

They fit nicely with fascism, though.

Taney County Republicans are Chicago Democrats

Attend a gathering of Republicans in Taney County, and it's a safe bet that you'll hear derisive comments about Democrats.

Full disclosure: when those comments have been about Barack Obama, I've often agreed with them. There is an unbroken chain of corruption in the Chicago Democratic machine going back at least to the Capone gang in the 1920's. This machine brought the deceased to the polls for JFK in 1960, and lately helped launch Obama's career.

However, there's an elephant in the room - pun intended - when local Republicans focus on the foibles and malfeasance of the Democratic party.

Actually, a couple of elephants. And maybe a snake or two.

First Elephant

There's no corruption in the Taney County Democratic Party.

Since there's no organized Taney County Democratic Party. There isn't one Democrat on the November ballot for any county office.

The few Democrats who have held office in this county have been honorable people, and have served competently and honestly.

Second Elephant

There is a history of corruption in the Taney County Republican Party. And the biggest scandal that I remember, was brought to light by...

.... A Democrat!

Back in the mid 1990's, the Treasurer of Taney County resigned. The Governor fills such vacancies by appointment, and our governor at the time was a Democrat. Governor Carnahan appointed John Willett,  a young man in his early twenties - and a Democrat.

In those days I had a couple of lively conversations with John at the county fair. We disagreed vigorously, but John was respectful at all times - never insulted my person. When I'd see him in town, he'd encourage me to drop by his office sometime for a visit. I very much regret never having done so.

Later, I learned that John was working high up in one of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. We lost a fine citizen from Taney County that day.

During John's tenure as Treasurer, he came upon a number of checks payable to then County Clerk Ron Houseman and then County Collector Dwain Basham.

Seems these two officials were collecting "commissions" from tax revenues that they were collecting on behalf of municipalities around the county. Checks amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. One check to Ron Houseman was for over $80,000 - yes that's right an eighty thousand dollar bonus. His regular salary was a little over $42,000 at the time.

Charges were dropped on technicalities. Either the law was insufficient, or these handsomely rewarded public servants were well connected.

But they did lose their bids for reelection in 1998. And since then, those elected to the offices of Clerk and Collector have not enriched themselves with lucrative commissions.

Things have changed in Taney County since then - or have they?

Despite being involved in this monumental scandal, Ron Houseman was hired by the county in 2009 to help obtain Obama stimulus funds for the county. The decision to hire him was made by the County Commission on a 2 to 1 vote. The two who voted for the hire were Western Commissioner Jim Strafuss and Eastern Commissioner Danny Strahan.

             Oh, and I'm running against Danny Strahan

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: The author of this blog is running against the aforementioned Danny Strahan for the position of Eastern Taney County Commissioner.

This is negative campaigning, which brings another IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: I'm not opposed to negative campaigning IF it is factual and relevant. I very much oppose negative campaigning that is misleading ("my opponent publicly masticates in restaurants") , irrelevant ("my opponent wears a toupee"), or merciless ("my opponent was a Communist when he was 20, but grew out  of it").

This is an issue: Danny Strahan voted to hire Ron Houseman, despite his record of appropriating exhorbitant amounts of public funds for himself.

I would have voted NO on this hire.

What's the difference between the Democrat machine in Chicago and the GOP machine in Taney County?

Scale.

Chicago is much bigger.

Certain prominent Republicans in Taney County have sought to intimidate other Republicans for daring to support an Independent candidate. Back in August, Taney County GOP Chairman Buddy Roberts went to the County Clerk's office to review my nominating petitions (I'm an Independent candidate for the County Commission). At the next GOP luncheon, Republicans whose signatures were found were chastised.


However, there is a double standard in place: Mr. Roberts subsequently contacted the County Clerk on behalf of Jim Strafuss - outgoing Western Commissioner who failed in a bid for the State Senate -  in order to find out how Jim could run as a write-in candidate against REPUBLICAN Jeff Justus, who won the August primary to be the GOP nominee for State Representative, 156th District.

Apparently, Mr. Roberts was recently pressured by other members of the Central Committee - to their credit - to be consistent and affirm that if a good Republican can't support an Independent running against a Republican, then a good Republican shouldn't support a write-in running against a Republican, either.

While it is good that Republican officials in Taney County seek to apply a uniform standard, it'd really be nice if they took a glance at the Constitution - which they've taken an oath to support - and learned that there's no restriction in this country on supporting the candidate of your choice, even if you belong to a political party.