[NOTE #1: PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT today’s broadcast of "Truth That Transforms," (in Orlando, 5 p.m., ch. 55.1). It presents the second of a new two-part video entitled, Can America Survive the Coming Economic Earthquake? It will help you understand why the present economic course of our nation is clearly immoral and needs for the leaders of the Church to speak up about NOW! Again, in Orlando, if you miss today's broadcast, please tune into a re-broadcast Monday, 7 p.m., ch. 52.2)]
[NOTE #2: On April 21st, we saw the Home-going of Chuck Colson, someone I have long considered a modern day prophet who challenged the Body of Christ to be more than passive spectators in these critical days of history. He is one of the handfuls of Christian leaders I MOST hope to meet in Heaven one day to personally thank. While the mainstream media has hardly mentioned the REAL legacy his life has led, there have been dozens of articles written in tribute to him since his passing. The following are just a few, with the link to the Colson Center revealing the most. You will note that he was the author of almost all of the commentaries at Breakpoint.org that I've passed on to you. I hope that you will sign up for future articles from that site as I am confident they will continue his fine analysis of the critical issues of our day.]
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Chuck's Gift to Us - 'Loving God'
By: Eric Metaxas|Published: April 24, 2012. Breakpoint.org
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19256
...By now you’ve surely heard that Chuck Colson went to be with the Lord on Saturday afternoon. Those of us who knew him are sad, thankful, and hopeful: sad that he is gone; thankful to have known him; and hopeful that we will be reunited with him one day. Please continue to keep the Colson family and Prison Fellowship [his primary ministry] in your prayers.
Chuck’s passing, as you'd expect, has been covered in the press. Some of the coverage was pretty good, but none of it does justice to what my friend Rod Dreher rightly called “one of the great American public lives of the 20th century.” So with your permission, I would like to spend some time re-acquainting you — or perhaps acquainting you for the first time — with the things that made Chuck Colson’s life so great.
A good place to start is with what, for me at least, is Chuck’s best book, Loving God. Other books may have better demonstrated Chuck’s intelligence and analytical skills, but none of them matched Loving God when it came to answering the question “How Now Shall We Live?”
“Loving God” was Chuck’s response to our culture’s increasing preoccupation with the Self. He saw people whose pursuit of celebrity, materialism, and success had not made them happy but, instead, “self-absorbed, frightened, and hollow.”
Their response to the failure was not repentance but to becoming even more preoccupied with the self. Even worse, the Church had bought into this same value system instead of showing a way out of the dead end of self-preoccupation.
That way out required replacing self-absorption with the love of God. That of course requires understanding what it means to love God. And for Chuck, the answer lay in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote: “Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes.” Loving God requires viewing our faith as a “living Person for whom we are willing to lay down our lives.” A “vibrant strong faith” is not “just knowledge but knowledge acted upon.” It is “not just belief but belief lived out.” Real faith, which is the cure to self-absorption and the way out of the prison we construct for ourselves, consists of “believing and act obediently regardless of circumstances or contrary evidence.”
I’ll never forget reading Loving God after I became a Christian. I had never read or heard anything quite like it. This is the stuff of transformed lives; this is the stuff of which a world turned upside down is made. The thing is, Loving God is even more timely today than it was in 1983. It scarcely seems possible but our culture is even more preoccupied with the Self than it was thirty years ago. A survey of college students found that today’s student score significantly higher on the Narcissistic Personality Disorder than those of thirty years ago. At the same time, they are less likely to be happy.
Chuck’s message to the Church — that faith is inseparable from obedience and faithfulness — is every bit as essential today as when he wrote Loving God thirty years ago. It is part of his gift to us — a gift I will be telling you about over these next few weeks and one that I pray you will claim for yourself.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION
Born Again by Chuck Colson | Hendrickson Publishers | 2008
Loving God by Chuck Colson | Zondervan | 1997
_____________________________________________________________________
Life Sentence - Chuck Colson Never Left Prison
By: Eric Metaxas|Published: April 25, 2012
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19266
"...Apart from Watergate, Chuck is best-known for his ministry to prisoners. But to say that Chuck ministered to prisoners is to miss the point almost entirely. The seven months Chuck spent in prison changed the way Chuck saw the world and his role in it. It placed prisoners and their families at the heart of Chuck’s concerns and priorities..."
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Recalling Our Roots - Prison Fellowship and the Colson CenterBy: Jim Liske|Published: April 26, 2012
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19274
"...Chuck’s three final efforts to rouse the church — the Manhattan Declaration (http://manhattandeclaration.org/home.aspx),the Doing the Right Thing series (http://www.doingtherightthing.com/dtrt-home on ethics),and the Breaking the Spiral of Silence conference(http://www.colsoncenter.org/the-center/columns/talking-points/17444-breaking-the-spiral-of-silence) — were typical Chuck Colson. His optimism was boundless. He knew that God is sovereign. Because he himself — the former White House hatchet man — had been transformed by Jesus, he knew that every man, woman, and child made in God’s image could be as well..."
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Recalling Our Roots -Prison Fellowship and the Colson CenterBy: Jim Liske|Breakpoint.com: April 26, 2012
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19274
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Remembering Charles Colson, a Man Transformed - The real story of how "Nixon's hatchet man" ended up in, out, and back in prison (and the White House), shaping a movement in the process. by Jonathan Aitken - 4/21/2012 (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/aprilweb-only/charles-colson-aitken.html)------------------------------------------------------------------
For[MANY] More Articles about the Life of Chuck Colson, go to: ColsonCenter.org (http://www.colsoncenter.org/topnews/entry/44/19245)
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Thank You, Chuck; The Next ChapterBy: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.orgApril 20, 2012 http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/19240
"...Of course, what set Chuck’s life apart was that it was not his own. It had been bought, by Christ, and returned to Chuck, redeemed. You know once in a sermon, Dietrich Bonheoffer said, 'Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.' What transformed Chuck’s life is now what transforms his death. I’m reminded of what C. S. Lewis wrote to close the Narnia adventures. I think it applies here: 'now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.'...
Suggested Reading - >How Now Shall I Live? - Chuck Colson & Nancy Pearcey | Tyndale | 1999
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
#202 (4/20) - "A Global Genocide Against Christians Underway?" (2 stories)
[NOTE: It makes me sick that there is so much news coverage centered on the Secret Service scandal. Really! THAT'S a major news story for a week now?!!or is it just another convenient distraction?]. Even in news on the Middle East, I strongly doubt you will have heard anything in the mainstream news outlets like the ones you will read below (2 articles). In truth, it almost seems as though there's a news blackout about anything concerning Christians (unless of course it is something scandalous or otherwise negative, of course). No, that's not cynicism, just the TRUTH OF THE MATTER. P.S. - Please sign the action point/petition noted at the end of the first article as I have.]
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- By Julie Stahl, CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network -cbn.com)News Middle East Correspondent; Friday, April 13, 2012
JERUSALEM, Israel -- While Saudi Arabia is one of the worst persecutors of Christians in the Middle East, it is a problem that's getting worse throughout the region.
Since 2003, Islamic radicals have bombed 70 churches in Iraq alone. And that's only the beginning."We're seeing a very vicious attack on Christians in a number of countries. In fact, in many places in Iraq we're seeing a religious cleansing," Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, told CBN News."That's a euphemism. It means that Christians are being killed and driven out," she said.Shea said the phenomenon has affected the two largest Christian populations in the Middle East. "About two thirds of the Christians in Iraq have already left," Shea said.
In Egypt, we're just beginning to see those with green cards, those with visas are fleeing. Those who can leave are leaving." "They're very, very worried about their future because there's an Islamist parliament now," she said.
For years, Middle East Christians lived under the protection of long-time dictators. The so-called Arab Spring ended that with the overthrow of regimes like that of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "The old secular order -- even though it was a dictatorship, military dictatorship at that, very oppressive for them -- they nevertheless, were able to have churches and to pray as Christians," Shea told CBN News. "Now they're concerned that they can no longer do that."
In Saudi Arabia [a long-time American ally], most Christians are foreign workers. No churches are allowed. And Shea revealed that, now, the government is even hunting down people who pray in their homes."There was an incident in December of 2011 against 35 Ethiopian Christians. These are Ethiopians who are working as domestics for the most part in Saudi Arabia, and 25 of them were women. They were abused in prison. They were simply holding their weekly service, prayer service," she explained.
Shea noted that it's not just the Middle East that's seeing Muslim radicalization. "There is a radicalization of Islam going on throughout the world and this is having an impact on the tolerance that there is for non-Muslims. So Christians are very much threatened throughout the world," she said. Those countries include Nigeria, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and Pakistan.
"Anyone who defends them who are Muslim -- they're being attacked and killed. And of course the blasphemy law in Pakistan carries a death penalty," Shea said.
Yet this widespread persecution is largely ignored by the mainstream media. A rare exception is this Newsweek article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is described as a Somali-Dutch feminist, writer and politician. Hirsi Ali wrote that the world often hears complaints about Muslims victimized by the West, "but, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway." "(It's) an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives," Ali told CBN News. "Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm." Ali said the West needs to use financial and diplomatic pressure against offending countries.
Shea specifically points to the United States as not doing enough, especially in Egypt. "We have to start speaking out and we can use quiet diplomacy," Shea suggested. "We can use more public statements to signal that it matters to us, that we're not indifferent, not a green light for them to continue killing Christians and disrespecting their worship." "So I think that we have a lot of levers to pull and we just need to start doing it," she said
ACTION POINT: Say "No" to US Giving $800 million Radical Islamist Groups Overseas
Please go to the following website:
http://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/money-to-muslims?utm_source=TIA_Import_11_21_2011&utm_campaign=017c4df820-4-11-12+Muslim+%231&utm_medium=email
...and sign the petition which states:
"As a U.S. citizen and a member of your congressional district, I am asking you to vote “no” to the section of the administration’s recently submitted 2013 budget that calls for $800 million in economic aid to “Arab Spring” countries.I believe this is a grave misuse of American dollars and puts our country in danger as we could potentially fund the activities and actions of radical Islamic militants who oppose democracy and hate the United States.I call on the House of Representatives to eliminate this proposed $800 million in aid from the 2013 Federal Fiscal Year Budget"
-------------------------------------------------------------
Israel a Christian Haven amid Islamic PersecutionBy Erick Stakelbeck,CBN News Terrorism Analyst - Wednesday, April 11, 2012
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/April/Israel-a-Christians-Haven-amid-Islamic-Persecution/
...Growing Islamic Threat
Before Islam's prophet Muhammad died in 632 AD, he declared that no two religions could co-exist on the Arabian Peninsula, meaning Islam must reign supreme in the region. Muslim leaders there today take Muhammad's words seriously. Saudi Arabia's [once again a U.S. ally] Grand Mufti recently issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that all churches on the peninsula must be destroyed. The decree was a stunning statement by Saudi Arabia's top religious authority. Yet it received little attention in the mainstream press and the Obama administration has yet to comment.
"This is giving license to the destruction of churches, by the way, at a time when churches are being burnt in Egypt, in Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, country after country -- sometimes with the worshipers inside them," Cliff May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. May told CBN News the Saudi mufti's statements are part of a troubling pattern."What we have right now--and this is, I think, one of the biggest stories taking place in the world that most of the media are refusing to cover--is increasing and widespread persecution and cleansing of Christians throughout the so-called Muslim world," May said.
Middle East expert Raymond Ibrahim recently wrote that in the month of February alone, churches and Christian monasteries were attacked or destroyed in nine different Muslim countries.During that same time frame, Ibrahim noted, dozens of Christians were murdered, beaten, or harassed across the Muslim world. Those were just the incidents that were reported.
Last Mideast Safe Haven The so-called Arab Spring, which has seen radical Islamic groups like the Brotherhood rise to power, has only made things more difficult for the region's Christians. In Israel, however, it's a different story.
While Christians are fleeing the Muslim Middle East in droves, their numbers have increased by a thousand percent in Israel since the nation's re-founding in 1948. "Christians are in every aspect, every realm of Israeli society. They're in the Knesset. They're on the Supreme Court; they're in academia," Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren said. "The Israeli Defense Forces was at one point printing out Hebrew versions of the New Testament because there's so many Christians swearing in for duty," he noted.
Oren told CBN News that Arab Christians living in the Jewish state are among the most educated and prosperous in the Middle East. And all Christians, citizens and tourists alike, have free access to their holy sites."And we protect them," Oren said. "Several years ago there was an attempt to build a mosque in Nazareth right over the Church of the Annunciation, and Israel intervened and stopped that from happening." Things aren't always perfect. Jewish believers in Jesus have experienced difficulties over the years.
Yet Israel's overall acceptance of Christians is like night and day when compared with the Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza and the West Bank, where Christians are frequently persecuted and even killed.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- By Julie Stahl, CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network -cbn.com)News Middle East Correspondent; Friday, April 13, 2012
JERUSALEM, Israel -- While Saudi Arabia is one of the worst persecutors of Christians in the Middle East, it is a problem that's getting worse throughout the region.
Since 2003, Islamic radicals have bombed 70 churches in Iraq alone. And that's only the beginning."We're seeing a very vicious attack on Christians in a number of countries. In fact, in many places in Iraq we're seeing a religious cleansing," Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, told CBN News."That's a euphemism. It means that Christians are being killed and driven out," she said.Shea said the phenomenon has affected the two largest Christian populations in the Middle East. "About two thirds of the Christians in Iraq have already left," Shea said.
In Egypt, we're just beginning to see those with green cards, those with visas are fleeing. Those who can leave are leaving." "They're very, very worried about their future because there's an Islamist parliament now," she said.
For years, Middle East Christians lived under the protection of long-time dictators. The so-called Arab Spring ended that with the overthrow of regimes like that of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "The old secular order -- even though it was a dictatorship, military dictatorship at that, very oppressive for them -- they nevertheless, were able to have churches and to pray as Christians," Shea told CBN News. "Now they're concerned that they can no longer do that."
In Saudi Arabia [a long-time American ally], most Christians are foreign workers. No churches are allowed. And Shea revealed that, now, the government is even hunting down people who pray in their homes."There was an incident in December of 2011 against 35 Ethiopian Christians. These are Ethiopians who are working as domestics for the most part in Saudi Arabia, and 25 of them were women. They were abused in prison. They were simply holding their weekly service, prayer service," she explained.
Shea noted that it's not just the Middle East that's seeing Muslim radicalization. "There is a radicalization of Islam going on throughout the world and this is having an impact on the tolerance that there is for non-Muslims. So Christians are very much threatened throughout the world," she said. Those countries include Nigeria, North Korea, China, Vietnam, and Pakistan.
"Anyone who defends them who are Muslim -- they're being attacked and killed. And of course the blasphemy law in Pakistan carries a death penalty," Shea said.
Yet this widespread persecution is largely ignored by the mainstream media. A rare exception is this Newsweek article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is described as a Somali-Dutch feminist, writer and politician. Hirsi Ali wrote that the world often hears complaints about Muslims victimized by the West, "but, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway." "(It's) an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives," Ali told CBN News. "Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm." Ali said the West needs to use financial and diplomatic pressure against offending countries.
Shea specifically points to the United States as not doing enough, especially in Egypt. "We have to start speaking out and we can use quiet diplomacy," Shea suggested. "We can use more public statements to signal that it matters to us, that we're not indifferent, not a green light for them to continue killing Christians and disrespecting their worship." "So I think that we have a lot of levers to pull and we just need to start doing it," she said
ACTION POINT: Say "No" to US Giving $800 million Radical Islamist Groups Overseas
Please go to the following website:
http://www.truthinaction.org/index.php/money-to-muslims?utm_source=TIA_Import_11_21_2011&utm_campaign=017c4df820-4-11-12+Muslim+%231&utm_medium=email
...and sign the petition which states:
"As a U.S. citizen and a member of your congressional district, I am asking you to vote “no” to the section of the administration’s recently submitted 2013 budget that calls for $800 million in economic aid to “Arab Spring” countries.I believe this is a grave misuse of American dollars and puts our country in danger as we could potentially fund the activities and actions of radical Islamic militants who oppose democracy and hate the United States.I call on the House of Representatives to eliminate this proposed $800 million in aid from the 2013 Federal Fiscal Year Budget"
-------------------------------------------------------------
Israel a Christian Haven amid Islamic PersecutionBy Erick Stakelbeck,CBN News Terrorism Analyst - Wednesday, April 11, 2012
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/April/Israel-a-Christians-Haven-amid-Islamic-Persecution/
...Growing Islamic Threat
Before Islam's prophet Muhammad died in 632 AD, he declared that no two religions could co-exist on the Arabian Peninsula, meaning Islam must reign supreme in the region. Muslim leaders there today take Muhammad's words seriously. Saudi Arabia's [once again a U.S. ally] Grand Mufti recently issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that all churches on the peninsula must be destroyed. The decree was a stunning statement by Saudi Arabia's top religious authority. Yet it received little attention in the mainstream press and the Obama administration has yet to comment.
"This is giving license to the destruction of churches, by the way, at a time when churches are being burnt in Egypt, in Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, country after country -- sometimes with the worshipers inside them," Cliff May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. May told CBN News the Saudi mufti's statements are part of a troubling pattern."What we have right now--and this is, I think, one of the biggest stories taking place in the world that most of the media are refusing to cover--is increasing and widespread persecution and cleansing of Christians throughout the so-called Muslim world," May said.
Middle East expert Raymond Ibrahim recently wrote that in the month of February alone, churches and Christian monasteries were attacked or destroyed in nine different Muslim countries.During that same time frame, Ibrahim noted, dozens of Christians were murdered, beaten, or harassed across the Muslim world. Those were just the incidents that were reported.
Last Mideast Safe Haven The so-called Arab Spring, which has seen radical Islamic groups like the Brotherhood rise to power, has only made things more difficult for the region's Christians. In Israel, however, it's a different story.
While Christians are fleeing the Muslim Middle East in droves, their numbers have increased by a thousand percent in Israel since the nation's re-founding in 1948. "Christians are in every aspect, every realm of Israeli society. They're in the Knesset. They're on the Supreme Court; they're in academia," Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren said. "The Israeli Defense Forces was at one point printing out Hebrew versions of the New Testament because there's so many Christians swearing in for duty," he noted.
Oren told CBN News that Arab Christians living in the Jewish state are among the most educated and prosperous in the Middle East. And all Christians, citizens and tourists alike, have free access to their holy sites."And we protect them," Oren said. "Several years ago there was an attempt to build a mosque in Nazareth right over the Church of the Annunciation, and Israel intervened and stopped that from happening." Things aren't always perfect. Jewish believers in Jesus have experienced difficulties over the years.
Yet Israel's overall acceptance of Christians is like night and day when compared with the Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza and the West Bank, where Christians are frequently persecuted and even killed.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Saturday, April 14, 2012
#201 (4/18) - "The Buffett Rule is a Calculated Distraction from Obama’s Failed Leadership"
[NOTE: Although even the Democratic Senate the other day failed to pass the President's so-called Buffet Rule(that seeks to require millionaires to pay twice the rate they are paying now), don't expect this ideological liberal gimmick will be given up on. On the contrary, KNOWING it will do nothing to solve our debt crisis, the effort will still be cynically pursued in the months leading up to the election in order to play on the envy of many people toward the rich. Let's PRAY that the American people and especially the voters will be too smart to be taken in and will see through this desperate ploy.Check out the following TWO items.]
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- by J.D. Foster, Ph.D. and Curtis Dubay April 10, 2012
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/10/the-buffett-rule-is-a-calculated-distraction-from-obamas-failed-leadership/
What do you do when you’re losing a debate? Change the subject. That’s really all you need to know to understand President Obama’s resuscitation of his infamous “Buffett Rule” that would impose a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate on businesses and families earning $1 million.
The Supreme Court gave Obamacare a nasty audition two weeks ago, leaving even staunch defenders of the law grasping for straws while the former constitutional law professor now in the White House outrageously flailed the court for doing exactly what the Constitution intends. So what is the President’s response? Change the subject, of course.
After releasing a non-budget that completely ignored the nation’s near-term, medium-term, and long-term fiscal plight – an extraordinary trifecta not easily achieved – the President then tried to take the House Republicans to task for their proposed real solutions on all three. Nothing highlights irresponsibility like responsible behavior, and so Obama found sharp rhetoric and a frowning visage to be thin gruel when you’ve no policies of your own. Response? Change the subject.
Soaring gas prices have put enormous strains on family budgets and business plans. The President might deflect some of the resulting popular anger if he actually had an energy policy that might produce more energy. Instead, his policies have produced only more examples of why government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers (Solyndra). When your most notable policies relating to gas prices is to kill a major oil pipeline like Keystone, propose algae as an energy source and seek to raise taxes on oil companies, you’ve nowhere to hide. Response? Change the subject.
Then came last Friday’s [4/6] jobs report, which was universally acknowledged as disappointing: job growth cut in half from the modest levels of previous months, and an unemployment rate that fell only because thousands of Americans just gave up looking. If Washington had merely left the economy to heal itself, performance today would have been much stronger and unemployment markedly lower. Instead, almost everything this Administration has tried has failed noticeably, and voters have noticed. Response? Change the subject.
With nowhere else to go, Obama has fallen back to his most comfortable setting – class warfare. Now that it is painfully obvious the Buffett Rule is the President’s chief policy priority and the centerpiece of his reelection campaign, it is fair to ask, what would the policy do to address any of the nation’s problems?
The answer is – absolutely nothing.
Strengthen the economy? No, when it comes to economic growth the Buffett Rule would weaken the economy. The tax would fall most heavily on job creators like businesses that pay their taxes through the individual income tax, investors, and entrepreneurs. The higher levy would confiscate from them resources they would otherwise use to start new businesses, grow existing businesses, and hire more workers. This will slow economic growth, job creation, and wage increases.
Reduce the budget deficits? More like “budget pixie dust” in the words of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). According to a recent analysis by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the Buffett Rule would raise $47 billion over ten years. And that assumes no negative economic effects, which are certain to reduce the revenues gained. For perspective, during that period President Obama’s budget calls for adding $6.7 trillion to the national debt. The Buffett Rule would reduce the increase in debt in Obama’s budget by about one half of one percent. No joke.
The Buffett Rule debate is desperate political prestidigitation. President Obama is losing the fight over Obamacare, which remains intensely unpopular. Gas prices show no sign of descending. The economy at best is muddling. And the nation is looking for answers on the budget and the President has none. The President needed a change of subject. For Obama, what better time for a distracting, divisive fight over fairness?
When a President refuses to address the issues the country cares about, they tune out. Obama’s fairness fight is likely to fare about as well as the rest of his policies.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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The Buffett Rule Obfuscates the Real Debt Crisis
Posted by Daniel Horowitz http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2012/04/11/the-buffett-rule-obfuscates-the-real-debt-crisis/ Wednesday, April 11th
Over the past few weeks, Obama has exhibited the intensity of a Navy SEAL in his execution of class warfare. He is trying to convince everyone that those who earn 17% of Adjusted Gross Income, yet pay 36.7% of federal income taxes don’t pay anything, while those who pay little or no taxes shoulder the entire tax burden. Obama will continue to toss out misinformation throughout the campaign about all these billionaires that supposedly pay little in taxes. While he is prosecuting his class jihad, we should remind him of these facts and figures:
•Obama has accrued more debt in 3 ½ years than Bush did in 8 years – and Bush was a big spender. When President Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001, the total federal debt stood at $5.728 trillion. On January 20, 2009, the day he left office, the debt had increased to $10.629 trillion, a jump of $4.9 trillion. Just 38 months later, the debt has increased another $4.992 trillion to a grand total of $15.621 trillion (as of April 9)!
•Amazingly, $4.577 trillion, or 91% of Obama’s debt increase comes from the public share of the debt, which now stands at $10.88 trillion.
•We are on pace to breach the $16.394 trillion debt limit before the November elections. That means that he will have amassed almost (or more than) $6 trillion in debt by the time he, God willing, leaves office next January. It took from our country’s founding until 2002 to amass $6 trillion in debt.
•The debt has increased $1.327 trillion in the past 9 months since we “solved” the debt crisis with the Budget Control Act. That’s about as much as the top 1% of income earners make in 12 months.
•When Obama took office, the gross federal debt was 76.5% of GDP, while the public share of the debt stood at 45% of GDP. Now, those numbers stand at 102% and 71% respectively.
•The debt per taxpayer stands at $137,751, up from $89,330 just 4 years ago.•The monthly deficit for this past February was a record $232 billion. We didn’t start accruing annual deficits of $230 billion until this past decade.
•In February, we spent $335 billion in 29 days. It comes out to $11.5 billion per day; $480 million per hour.
Remember that none of this even begins to account for the $70 trillion+ unfunded entitlement liability and Obama’s new proposed spending that he wants to pay for with the “Buffett Rule.” Even Obama claims that he understands how massive tax increases would be counterproductive and that he only wants the rich to pay “a little more” to fulfill their “fair share.” The fact is there is no way the Buffett Rule, which would raise $46.7 billion in revenue over 10 years, will ever solve the debt crisis, even if you subscribe to the notion that we can and should raise some taxes.
Now that Mitt Romney has all but secured the nomination, he has an opportunity to combat Obama’s Buffett Rule with the Romney Rule. Government spending should not grow faster than the private economy. That is the only way to solve the debt crisis. Period
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
------------------------------------------------------------------
- by J.D. Foster, Ph.D. and Curtis Dubay April 10, 2012
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/10/the-buffett-rule-is-a-calculated-distraction-from-obamas-failed-leadership/
What do you do when you’re losing a debate? Change the subject. That’s really all you need to know to understand President Obama’s resuscitation of his infamous “Buffett Rule” that would impose a minimum 30 percent effective tax rate on businesses and families earning $1 million.
The Supreme Court gave Obamacare a nasty audition two weeks ago, leaving even staunch defenders of the law grasping for straws while the former constitutional law professor now in the White House outrageously flailed the court for doing exactly what the Constitution intends. So what is the President’s response? Change the subject, of course.
After releasing a non-budget that completely ignored the nation’s near-term, medium-term, and long-term fiscal plight – an extraordinary trifecta not easily achieved – the President then tried to take the House Republicans to task for their proposed real solutions on all three. Nothing highlights irresponsibility like responsible behavior, and so Obama found sharp rhetoric and a frowning visage to be thin gruel when you’ve no policies of your own. Response? Change the subject.
Soaring gas prices have put enormous strains on family budgets and business plans. The President might deflect some of the resulting popular anger if he actually had an energy policy that might produce more energy. Instead, his policies have produced only more examples of why government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers (Solyndra). When your most notable policies relating to gas prices is to kill a major oil pipeline like Keystone, propose algae as an energy source and seek to raise taxes on oil companies, you’ve nowhere to hide. Response? Change the subject.
Then came last Friday’s [4/6] jobs report, which was universally acknowledged as disappointing: job growth cut in half from the modest levels of previous months, and an unemployment rate that fell only because thousands of Americans just gave up looking. If Washington had merely left the economy to heal itself, performance today would have been much stronger and unemployment markedly lower. Instead, almost everything this Administration has tried has failed noticeably, and voters have noticed. Response? Change the subject.
With nowhere else to go, Obama has fallen back to his most comfortable setting – class warfare. Now that it is painfully obvious the Buffett Rule is the President’s chief policy priority and the centerpiece of his reelection campaign, it is fair to ask, what would the policy do to address any of the nation’s problems?
The answer is – absolutely nothing.
Strengthen the economy? No, when it comes to economic growth the Buffett Rule would weaken the economy. The tax would fall most heavily on job creators like businesses that pay their taxes through the individual income tax, investors, and entrepreneurs. The higher levy would confiscate from them resources they would otherwise use to start new businesses, grow existing businesses, and hire more workers. This will slow economic growth, job creation, and wage increases.
Reduce the budget deficits? More like “budget pixie dust” in the words of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). According to a recent analysis by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the Buffett Rule would raise $47 billion over ten years. And that assumes no negative economic effects, which are certain to reduce the revenues gained. For perspective, during that period President Obama’s budget calls for adding $6.7 trillion to the national debt. The Buffett Rule would reduce the increase in debt in Obama’s budget by about one half of one percent. No joke.
The Buffett Rule debate is desperate political prestidigitation. President Obama is losing the fight over Obamacare, which remains intensely unpopular. Gas prices show no sign of descending. The economy at best is muddling. And the nation is looking for answers on the budget and the President has none. The President needed a change of subject. For Obama, what better time for a distracting, divisive fight over fairness?
When a President refuses to address the issues the country cares about, they tune out. Obama’s fairness fight is likely to fare about as well as the rest of his policies.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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The Buffett Rule Obfuscates the Real Debt Crisis
Posted by Daniel Horowitz http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2012/04/11/the-buffett-rule-obfuscates-the-real-debt-crisis/ Wednesday, April 11th
Over the past few weeks, Obama has exhibited the intensity of a Navy SEAL in his execution of class warfare. He is trying to convince everyone that those who earn 17% of Adjusted Gross Income, yet pay 36.7% of federal income taxes don’t pay anything, while those who pay little or no taxes shoulder the entire tax burden. Obama will continue to toss out misinformation throughout the campaign about all these billionaires that supposedly pay little in taxes. While he is prosecuting his class jihad, we should remind him of these facts and figures:
•Obama has accrued more debt in 3 ½ years than Bush did in 8 years – and Bush was a big spender. When President Bush was sworn in on January 20, 2001, the total federal debt stood at $5.728 trillion. On January 20, 2009, the day he left office, the debt had increased to $10.629 trillion, a jump of $4.9 trillion. Just 38 months later, the debt has increased another $4.992 trillion to a grand total of $15.621 trillion (as of April 9)!
•Amazingly, $4.577 trillion, or 91% of Obama’s debt increase comes from the public share of the debt, which now stands at $10.88 trillion.
•We are on pace to breach the $16.394 trillion debt limit before the November elections. That means that he will have amassed almost (or more than) $6 trillion in debt by the time he, God willing, leaves office next January. It took from our country’s founding until 2002 to amass $6 trillion in debt.
•The debt has increased $1.327 trillion in the past 9 months since we “solved” the debt crisis with the Budget Control Act. That’s about as much as the top 1% of income earners make in 12 months.
•When Obama took office, the gross federal debt was 76.5% of GDP, while the public share of the debt stood at 45% of GDP. Now, those numbers stand at 102% and 71% respectively.
•The debt per taxpayer stands at $137,751, up from $89,330 just 4 years ago.•The monthly deficit for this past February was a record $232 billion. We didn’t start accruing annual deficits of $230 billion until this past decade.
•In February, we spent $335 billion in 29 days. It comes out to $11.5 billion per day; $480 million per hour.
Remember that none of this even begins to account for the $70 trillion+ unfunded entitlement liability and Obama’s new proposed spending that he wants to pay for with the “Buffett Rule.” Even Obama claims that he understands how massive tax increases would be counterproductive and that he only wants the rich to pay “a little more” to fulfill their “fair share.” The fact is there is no way the Buffett Rule, which would raise $46.7 billion in revenue over 10 years, will ever solve the debt crisis, even if you subscribe to the notion that we can and should raise some taxes.
Now that Mitt Romney has all but secured the nomination, he has an opportunity to combat Obama’s Buffett Rule with the Romney Rule. Government spending should not grow faster than the private economy. That is the only way to solve the debt crisis. Period
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Thursday, April 12, 2012
#204(5/4) - "Obama's 'Fairness' Fiction"
[NOTE:(1)Please be sure to check here for this Sunday's Sunday Special about the Home-going on 4/21st of Chuck Colson, truly one of the giants of the Church. (2) Also on Sunday, be sure to watch this week's "Truth That Transforms" for the second part of a video entitled “Can America Survive the Coming Economic Earthquake?” It will help you understand why the present economic course of our nation is clearly immoral and needs for the leaders of the Church to speak up about NOW!(You can also download it at www.truthinaction.org) (3) Be sure to check out this week's great editorial cartoons at www.worldmag.com/editorial cartoons]
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by David Harsanyi04/10/2012 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50768
President Barack Obama kicked off his re-election campaign in earnest this week with a stirring message of hope and unity for the American people: Eat the rich!
According to media reports, "fairness" will be one of the central messages of the entire Obama campaign. So fittingly, the Senate will pretend to vote on the Paying a Fair Share Act -- or the "Buffett rule" -- later this week. Sure, the United States may own $15 trillion of debt and a stagnant, underemployed economy, but nothing says leadership like coordinating your populist message with a sham congressional vote to propel fundraising in Florida.
"Fairness," an elusive idea normally exploited by spoiled children, is now the foundation of the Democratic Party's economy policy. If implemented, anyone earning $1 million a year or more would be required to pay at least 30 percent of his income in taxes. That would help reduce the deficit by raising $31 billion over 11 years, according to congressional tax analysts -- 2.8billion a year, or less than a day's worth of new debt incurred by Washington.
That's nothing to sneeze at, says Jason Furman, a key member of the Obama economic team. "We think $47 billion is actually a meaningful amount of money for us and most Americans," he explained, overestimating the Buffett rule. And it is. It is meaningful enough to be the centerpiece of the Obama campaign, though, not meaningful enough to cut from a budget and save taxpayers the burden of paying it back.
The Buffett tax offers little in the way of revenue, because inconveniently, history shows that lowering rates on investment income typically benefits federal treasury. Higher rates, on the other hand, incentivize investors to unearth inventive ways to avoid paying taxes. It also means that investors will often stop allocating capital productively and start parking money in existing investments to avoid taxation.
Most economists (as the president likes to say) agree that the most effective tax system avoids taxing income, dividends and capital gains and focuses instead on promoting savings and investment. Not sure whether it's fair, but it would probably be smarter to reward, rather than punish, those who risk and succeed. So, the opposite of a bailout.
As for fairness, the wealthy already pay more than a fair share (the top 1 percent of income earners make 16 percent of income but pay nearly 40 percent of federal income taxes), and -- notwithstanding Warren Buffett's secretary -- every category of the wealthy pays higher tax rates than the non-rich. (Let's hope that Obama doesn't start getting technical about "fairness," because the plutocrats would be in for a huge tax break.)
And Obama's plans, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out this week, would also raise the capital gains tax to 20 percent on anyone who earns $200,000 or more (or couples making $250,000 or more) and add a 3.8 percent surtax to fund Obamacare -- all before implementing the Buffett tax.
We can never know exactly how the economy will react to policy, but it's the parameters of the conversation -- based largely on fiction -- that are probably the most harmful part of this distraction. Despite the implicit message of the president, wealthy people are not wealthy because they are taking something from the poor or from government. And they don't stop anyone else from being wealthy.
And the wealthy did not create our debt; government did. Government -- this administration in particular but all of them in general -- is, by nature, risk-averse and never deals with the consequences of its failed "investments." It is the un-entrepreneur. Really, should the head of an organization that annually spends $1.6 trillion it doesn't have be setting the parameters for a discussion on "fairness"?
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
------------------------------------------------------------
by David Harsanyi04/10/2012 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50768
President Barack Obama kicked off his re-election campaign in earnest this week with a stirring message of hope and unity for the American people: Eat the rich!
According to media reports, "fairness" will be one of the central messages of the entire Obama campaign. So fittingly, the Senate will pretend to vote on the Paying a Fair Share Act -- or the "Buffett rule" -- later this week. Sure, the United States may own $15 trillion of debt and a stagnant, underemployed economy, but nothing says leadership like coordinating your populist message with a sham congressional vote to propel fundraising in Florida.
"Fairness," an elusive idea normally exploited by spoiled children, is now the foundation of the Democratic Party's economy policy. If implemented, anyone earning $1 million a year or more would be required to pay at least 30 percent of his income in taxes. That would help reduce the deficit by raising $31 billion over 11 years, according to congressional tax analysts -- 2.8billion a year, or less than a day's worth of new debt incurred by Washington.
That's nothing to sneeze at, says Jason Furman, a key member of the Obama economic team. "We think $47 billion is actually a meaningful amount of money for us and most Americans," he explained, overestimating the Buffett rule. And it is. It is meaningful enough to be the centerpiece of the Obama campaign, though, not meaningful enough to cut from a budget and save taxpayers the burden of paying it back.
The Buffett tax offers little in the way of revenue, because inconveniently, history shows that lowering rates on investment income typically benefits federal treasury. Higher rates, on the other hand, incentivize investors to unearth inventive ways to avoid paying taxes. It also means that investors will often stop allocating capital productively and start parking money in existing investments to avoid taxation.
Most economists (as the president likes to say) agree that the most effective tax system avoids taxing income, dividends and capital gains and focuses instead on promoting savings and investment. Not sure whether it's fair, but it would probably be smarter to reward, rather than punish, those who risk and succeed. So, the opposite of a bailout.
As for fairness, the wealthy already pay more than a fair share (the top 1 percent of income earners make 16 percent of income but pay nearly 40 percent of federal income taxes), and -- notwithstanding Warren Buffett's secretary -- every category of the wealthy pays higher tax rates than the non-rich. (Let's hope that Obama doesn't start getting technical about "fairness," because the plutocrats would be in for a huge tax break.)
And Obama's plans, as The Wall Street Journal pointed out this week, would also raise the capital gains tax to 20 percent on anyone who earns $200,000 or more (or couples making $250,000 or more) and add a 3.8 percent surtax to fund Obamacare -- all before implementing the Buffett tax.
We can never know exactly how the economy will react to policy, but it's the parameters of the conversation -- based largely on fiction -- that are probably the most harmful part of this distraction. Despite the implicit message of the president, wealthy people are not wealthy because they are taking something from the poor or from government. And they don't stop anyone else from being wealthy.
And the wealthy did not create our debt; government did. Government -- this administration in particular but all of them in general -- is, by nature, risk-averse and never deals with the consequences of its failed "investments." It is the un-entrepreneur. Really, should the head of an organization that annually spends $1.6 trillion it doesn't have be setting the parameters for a discussion on "fairness"?
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
#199 (4/13) - Enough With All the Zimmerman Stories!; Sadness At Santorum's Withdrawal
[NOTE(1):I'll have lived in Orlando for 20 years this November and except for the humid summers, I like it here. But why is it that in the past few years this area known world over for the home of theme parks such as Disney World has become "ground-zero" for high profile cases such as those of Casey Anthony and now George Zimmerman. That's all the local news channels seem to want to talk about and honestly, it's driving me crazy! By the way, do you notice a similarity with those two cases: both times the prosecution seems to be over-reaching in it's charges, to be responding to public pressure than what they can reasonably prosecute someone for. And in both cases, the media has so taken over prosecuting this case in the public that it's questionable that the defendant can really be tried by an impartial jury. People have been so busy pressing for "justice for Trayvon" that I would like to see people praying for justice for Mr. Zimmerman, whatever that may be!]
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[NOTE(2): The following contains excerpts from the only article I've been able to find that speaks to Rick Santorum's candidacy before his withdrawal on Tuesday. As you know, I was not a supporter of his from the start but I did become one. I particularly admire how he spoke passionately about what are called social issues, as though they are necessarily secondary to economic issues.(The US economy IS unquestionably in as grave danger as it has been in many decades but I don't fear it's collapse as much as what will happen if the foundational "social" issues are not given their proper focus.) In the weeks prior to former Sen. Santorum withdrawing, I became frustrated by so many conservatives not standing with him (who has obvious more foundational conservative values than Mr. Romeny) but instead jumping on the Romney bandwagon and actually calling for Senator Santorum to withdraw. I strongly believe it's wrong to support a candidate "because they have the best chance of winnning" than because of their RECORD of conservative stands, and not just their rather recent rhetoric (which I believe is the case with Mr. Romeny). Let us just pray that as former Governor Romney becomes the nominee and hopefully defeats our current President, he PROVE by his governance that he is not just a conservative in rhetoric but in truth. For anything less will only mean policies that are "Obama-lite" which is just not going to be good enough )]
[NOTE(3):Please be sure to check in for my Sunday Special about that day's 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster,]
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"Rick Santorum’s impossible dream"- by Cal ThomasApril 12, 2012
http://online.worldmag.com/2012/04/12/rick-santorums-impossible-dream/
"... Political “experts” believed his [Rick Santorum's]chief foe, Mitt Romney, was unbeatable. Santorum played an important role by exposing some of Romney’s weaknesses, but early enough that it will help Romney in the general election campaign."
"Santorum was forced to “bear with unbearable sorrow” the health struggles of his daughter, Bella, and he did it with a grace that allowed others who are struggling with physically and mentally challenged children to identify with him. No one could credibly accuse him of being an elitist and out of touch with average Americans.The former senator ran where others would not, or could not, go successfully."
"Santorum is a decent man in an indecent age, preaching to a largely hedonistic culture about old-time values abandoned by many, perhaps even a majority of Americans. At the very least, too many are indifferent to them. In doing so, he attempted to “right the unrightable wrong” and encourage others to be 'better far than you are,' even when their 'arms are too weary'..."
"...Rick Santorum’s greatest contribution to the Republican campaign may have been to force the now presumed nominee, Mitt Romney, to the right. Romney claims he has always been a conservative, but he has had a difficult time convincing voters who were attracted to Santorum, whom they believed to be the true conservative in the race..."
"...If Santorum ends up campaigning for Romney and brings his religious and conservative values voters with him, Romney will owe him in a big way and that might make him an important powerbroker. He could also serve as a useful attack dog, snapping at President Obama’s heels. Should Romney choose to use him in that role, he could be an effective counter to Vice President Joe Biden, who has been engaging in demagoguery against Republicans in recent speeches."
"... If Santorum does the job well enough, he could find himself in a Romney Cabinet, say, secretary of Health and Human Services, where he could focus on those moral and cultural issues about which he cares so much. Or, he might even be Romney’s choice for vice president. There have been stranger bedfellows in American politics..."
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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[NOTE(2): The following contains excerpts from the only article I've been able to find that speaks to Rick Santorum's candidacy before his withdrawal on Tuesday. As you know, I was not a supporter of his from the start but I did become one. I particularly admire how he spoke passionately about what are called social issues, as though they are necessarily secondary to economic issues.(The US economy IS unquestionably in as grave danger as it has been in many decades but I don't fear it's collapse as much as what will happen if the foundational "social" issues are not given their proper focus.) In the weeks prior to former Sen. Santorum withdrawing, I became frustrated by so many conservatives not standing with him (who has obvious more foundational conservative values than Mr. Romeny) but instead jumping on the Romney bandwagon and actually calling for Senator Santorum to withdraw. I strongly believe it's wrong to support a candidate "because they have the best chance of winnning" than because of their RECORD of conservative stands, and not just their rather recent rhetoric (which I believe is the case with Mr. Romeny). Let us just pray that as former Governor Romney becomes the nominee and hopefully defeats our current President, he PROVE by his governance that he is not just a conservative in rhetoric but in truth. For anything less will only mean policies that are "Obama-lite" which is just not going to be good enough )]
[NOTE(3):Please be sure to check in for my Sunday Special about that day's 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster,]
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"Rick Santorum’s impossible dream"- by Cal ThomasApril 12, 2012
http://online.worldmag.com/2012/04/12/rick-santorums-impossible-dream/
"... Political “experts” believed his [Rick Santorum's]chief foe, Mitt Romney, was unbeatable. Santorum played an important role by exposing some of Romney’s weaknesses, but early enough that it will help Romney in the general election campaign."
"Santorum was forced to “bear with unbearable sorrow” the health struggles of his daughter, Bella, and he did it with a grace that allowed others who are struggling with physically and mentally challenged children to identify with him. No one could credibly accuse him of being an elitist and out of touch with average Americans.The former senator ran where others would not, or could not, go successfully."
"Santorum is a decent man in an indecent age, preaching to a largely hedonistic culture about old-time values abandoned by many, perhaps even a majority of Americans. At the very least, too many are indifferent to them. In doing so, he attempted to “right the unrightable wrong” and encourage others to be 'better far than you are,' even when their 'arms are too weary'..."
"...Rick Santorum’s greatest contribution to the Republican campaign may have been to force the now presumed nominee, Mitt Romney, to the right. Romney claims he has always been a conservative, but he has had a difficult time convincing voters who were attracted to Santorum, whom they believed to be the true conservative in the race..."
"...If Santorum ends up campaigning for Romney and brings his religious and conservative values voters with him, Romney will owe him in a big way and that might make him an important powerbroker. He could also serve as a useful attack dog, snapping at President Obama’s heels. Should Romney choose to use him in that role, he could be an effective counter to Vice President Joe Biden, who has been engaging in demagoguery against Republicans in recent speeches."
"... If Santorum does the job well enough, he could find himself in a Romney Cabinet, say, secretary of Health and Human Services, where he could focus on those moral and cultural issues about which he cares so much. Or, he might even be Romney’s choice for vice president. There have been stranger bedfellows in American politics..."
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
#198 (4/11) - The Economy: Is This REALLY the Best We Can Do?
[NOTE: The big news yesterday was the withdrawal from the Republican Presidential race by Rick Santorum. I was one of I know millions who were very disappointed and I plan to have more to say in an upcoming post. Stay tuned.]
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"Obama Economy Leaves Little Changed"
Posted By Mike Brownfield On April 6, 2012
America is at a crossroads. Today’s jobs report shows that two years into recovery the U.S. economy is still woefully underperforming, adding only 120,000 new jobs in March, about half the rate of job growth of the previous three months which were, themselves, somewhat disappointing for this stage of recovery.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the jobs report is the extent to which the labor market was “little changed,” an impression the report returns to repeatedly. For example, the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent, still two full percentage points higher than the peak during the 2001 recession, was “little changed.” Other examples, with italics added:
•The number of unemployed persons (12.7 million) was “little changed in March.”
•“Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (25.0 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (14.0 percent), and Hispanics (10.3 percent) showed little or no change.”
•“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was essentially unchanged at 5.3 million in March.”
•“The civilian labor force participation rate (63.8 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were little changed in March.”
•“In March, 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier.”
•“Among the marginally attached, there were 865,000 discouraged workers in March, about the same as a year earlier.”
Thankfully, the economy continues to create jobs, yet growth can only be described at this stage as spotty, anemic, and disappointing. America’s economy should, instead, be booming. That confirms once again that President Obama’s economic policies not only have failed to spur recovery, but have almost certainly held recovery back by increasing regulatory costs, increasing uncertainty, ballooning the budget deficit, and constantly threatening higher taxes consistent with a political ideology antithetical to economic prosperity.
So, what next? Where America and the American economy goes from here remains highly uncertain as Washington grapples with fundamental questions about which policies to pursue today and into the future. Fortunately, the upcoming national elections will focus all Americans’ attention on these difficult questions.
Of course, President Barack Obama will try to paint a happy face on this disappointing report, arguing that all manner of headwinds are thwarting his plans for prosperity but that, nevertheless, he will vacuously assert the country is headed in the right direction. But take a step back and remember where the President promised we would be. Under his trillion-dollar stimulus, he said, unemployment would never rise above 8 percent. He was wrong. And not just in his economic policy.
Energy policy? Under his Administration, gas prices have doubled. And under his watch, countless jobs are being left on the table thanks to his decision to say “no” to the Keystone XL pipeline while pursuing “green” energy programs that even Vice President Joe Biden’s former adviser says [1] do not create long term jobs, despite costing billions of taxpayer dollars.
Budget policy? President Obama talks a good game about budget deficits and debt, but now the contrast in competing visions for America’s fiscal future has been laid bare. On the one hand is House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) “Path to Prosperity Budget” [2] which passed the House last week and includes proposals similar to those in Heritage’s Saving the American Dream [3] plan. It’s a strong, positive effort that advances the serious and necessary conversation about securing America’s future, and it does so with market-based reforms to health entitlements, a tax plan that will help the economy grow, and spending cuts now and into the future.
On the other hand is President Obama’s FY 2013 budget [4], which was unanimously rejected by the House. His plan delivers massive tax increases and a fourth consecutive annual deficit exceeding $1 trillion with spending that rises from $3.8 trillion to $5.8 trillion in 2022. That’s no way to plan for the future, especially as America faces a near $16 trillion debt and a budget crisis that will cripple Social Security and Medicare, while foisting an unbearable tax burden on future generations.
Smarting from the failure of his plan to win not even a vote in the House, President Obama delivered a speech on Tuesday in which he painted the Ryan plan as a nefarious scheme of social Darwinism [!] which would rob college students of financial aid, preschoolers of an education, seniors of their health care, and the middle class of a decent life.
Knowing that his best weapon is to try to deflect attention from his own policy and leadership shortcomings through class warfare, the President turned to divisive rhetoric and scare tactics. And next in his repertoire was a series of warmed-over complaints about President George W. Bush’s policies, the failings of supply-side economics, and predictions that under Ryan’s plan, the poor will suffer while the rich prosper. Top that off with a call for taxes on those making over $250,000 as a form of economic “fairness,” and you have the blueprint for Obama’s vision of the future. Enter an endless era of big government, stage left.
Today’s job growth once again raises serious questions why America’s economy is not doing, much, much better. Meager growth is not good enough, and the country’s fiscal realities are nothing future generations can bank on, especially with an unbalanced budget, a mounting tax burden, debt that’s too high, energy that costs too much, and a military that is stretched too thin.
And so, America has a choice. Will it choose to accept its current path of mediocrity and ignore the fiscal crisis that it faces, or will it choose to confront its challenges head on and enact policies that will lead to a sounder, stronger future? Now is the time to decide.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/06/morning-bell-obama-economy-leaves-little-unchanged/
URLs in this post:
[1] says: http://freebeacon.com/fmr-biden-advisor-green-jobs-oversold/
[2] “Path to Prosperity Budget”: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/20/first-reactions-to-ryans-path-to-prosperity-a-blueprint-for-american-renewal/
[3] Saving the American Dream: http://savingthedream.org/
[4] President Obama’s FY 2013 budget: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/13/reaction-roundup-heritage-responds-to-obamas-2013-budget-proposal/
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
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"Obama Economy Leaves Little Changed"
Posted By Mike Brownfield On April 6, 2012
America is at a crossroads. Today’s jobs report shows that two years into recovery the U.S. economy is still woefully underperforming, adding only 120,000 new jobs in March, about half the rate of job growth of the previous three months which were, themselves, somewhat disappointing for this stage of recovery.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the jobs report is the extent to which the labor market was “little changed,” an impression the report returns to repeatedly. For example, the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent, still two full percentage points higher than the peak during the 2001 recession, was “little changed.” Other examples, with italics added:
•The number of unemployed persons (12.7 million) was “little changed in March.”
•“Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (25.0 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (14.0 percent), and Hispanics (10.3 percent) showed little or no change.”
•“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was essentially unchanged at 5.3 million in March.”
•“The civilian labor force participation rate (63.8 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were little changed in March.”
•“In March, 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier.”
•“Among the marginally attached, there were 865,000 discouraged workers in March, about the same as a year earlier.”
Thankfully, the economy continues to create jobs, yet growth can only be described at this stage as spotty, anemic, and disappointing. America’s economy should, instead, be booming. That confirms once again that President Obama’s economic policies not only have failed to spur recovery, but have almost certainly held recovery back by increasing regulatory costs, increasing uncertainty, ballooning the budget deficit, and constantly threatening higher taxes consistent with a political ideology antithetical to economic prosperity.
So, what next? Where America and the American economy goes from here remains highly uncertain as Washington grapples with fundamental questions about which policies to pursue today and into the future. Fortunately, the upcoming national elections will focus all Americans’ attention on these difficult questions.
Of course, President Barack Obama will try to paint a happy face on this disappointing report, arguing that all manner of headwinds are thwarting his plans for prosperity but that, nevertheless, he will vacuously assert the country is headed in the right direction. But take a step back and remember where the President promised we would be. Under his trillion-dollar stimulus, he said, unemployment would never rise above 8 percent. He was wrong. And not just in his economic policy.
Energy policy? Under his Administration, gas prices have doubled. And under his watch, countless jobs are being left on the table thanks to his decision to say “no” to the Keystone XL pipeline while pursuing “green” energy programs that even Vice President Joe Biden’s former adviser says [1] do not create long term jobs, despite costing billions of taxpayer dollars.
Budget policy? President Obama talks a good game about budget deficits and debt, but now the contrast in competing visions for America’s fiscal future has been laid bare. On the one hand is House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) “Path to Prosperity Budget” [2] which passed the House last week and includes proposals similar to those in Heritage’s Saving the American Dream [3] plan. It’s a strong, positive effort that advances the serious and necessary conversation about securing America’s future, and it does so with market-based reforms to health entitlements, a tax plan that will help the economy grow, and spending cuts now and into the future.
On the other hand is President Obama’s FY 2013 budget [4], which was unanimously rejected by the House. His plan delivers massive tax increases and a fourth consecutive annual deficit exceeding $1 trillion with spending that rises from $3.8 trillion to $5.8 trillion in 2022. That’s no way to plan for the future, especially as America faces a near $16 trillion debt and a budget crisis that will cripple Social Security and Medicare, while foisting an unbearable tax burden on future generations.
Smarting from the failure of his plan to win not even a vote in the House, President Obama delivered a speech on Tuesday in which he painted the Ryan plan as a nefarious scheme of social Darwinism [!] which would rob college students of financial aid, preschoolers of an education, seniors of their health care, and the middle class of a decent life.
Knowing that his best weapon is to try to deflect attention from his own policy and leadership shortcomings through class warfare, the President turned to divisive rhetoric and scare tactics. And next in his repertoire was a series of warmed-over complaints about President George W. Bush’s policies, the failings of supply-side economics, and predictions that under Ryan’s plan, the poor will suffer while the rich prosper. Top that off with a call for taxes on those making over $250,000 as a form of economic “fairness,” and you have the blueprint for Obama’s vision of the future. Enter an endless era of big government, stage left.
Today’s job growth once again raises serious questions why America’s economy is not doing, much, much better. Meager growth is not good enough, and the country’s fiscal realities are nothing future generations can bank on, especially with an unbalanced budget, a mounting tax burden, debt that’s too high, energy that costs too much, and a military that is stretched too thin.
And so, America has a choice. Will it choose to accept its current path of mediocrity and ignore the fiscal crisis that it faces, or will it choose to confront its challenges head on and enact policies that will lead to a sounder, stronger future? Now is the time to decide.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/06/morning-bell-obama-economy-leaves-little-unchanged/
URLs in this post:
[1] says: http://freebeacon.com/fmr-biden-advisor-green-jobs-oversold/
[2] “Path to Prosperity Budget”: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/03/20/first-reactions-to-ryans-path-to-prosperity-a-blueprint-for-american-renewal/
[3] Saving the American Dream: http://savingthedream.org/
[4] President Obama’s FY 2013 budget: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/13/reaction-roundup-heritage-responds-to-obamas-2013-budget-proposal/
Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved.
Friday, April 6, 2012
#197 (4/8) - Sunday Special - Part 2 of My Best Easter Weekend – in Jail
[Note: 1) Once again, please remember to watch today’s broadcast of "Truth That Transforms" (Orlando - Sun.-5 pm, ch. 55.1; Mon. 7 pm, ch. 52.2) or download it at www.truthinaction.org; and 2)Be sure to check out the Sunday Funny at the end of this posting.]
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[Note: The following concludes what I began sharing in blog posting #196 on 4/6); The Lord is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!]
Later on the Saturday of Easter weekend, 1989. Later that afternoon, I was taken with several dozen other men to a large jail cell with dozens of bunk beds and toilet facilities on one wall with no privacy. (As hungry as one might have been, the embarrassment of needing to “go ” killed at least my appetite.) While I don’t remember any conversation I had with the other men, I remember being struck how guys had come from throughout the country for that Rescue. I also remember some men crying that they didn’t know how long they would be there and were very concerned about their wives and children. It touched me to see men going up to one another and comforting them with words and hugs. I also remember one incident where a guy spoke up and said that he was a Seventh Day Adventist and that he was afraid that he would not be supported but rejected by those at his church once he got out. I remember men gathering around him, putting their hands on him, and praying for him. The sight of all of this was so moving that I realized (or did the Spirit again just speak to my heart?) that what I was witnessing was the biblical concept of the Body of Christ being a caring community of believers. I became aware that I had probably sat next to many men in church Sunday after Sunday for many years, or had sat with others at some conference (and I had been to quite a few in my years in full-time ministry) and heard some great speaker teach, but I had never known that kind of true, intimate caring by another believer.
[Observing those men reminded me of how a few weeks before that weekend, I had been to a meeting of pro-life leaders in my community as a first time visitor. During the discussions, the subject of Operation Rescue and the concept civil disobedience, of risking arrest to – at least for a day – stop abortions from taking place at one killing center. After awhile, there was a long pause in the discussions. Suddenly, one of the men turned to a guy sitting next to him and said (in effect), “ If I end take part in this and end up being arrested, will you take care of my family until I get out.” After a few seconds during which I think I held my breath, the man he spoke to looked at him and said, “You have nothing to worry about. I’ll be there for them.” I remember then thinking to myself, “Wow! Could I expect such mutual love and support from any person I sat next to in church on Sunday? ” and I really wasn’t confident of the affirmative. Could you be?]
VERY early the next morning, Easter Sunday, 1989. We were all suddenly awoke for breakfast even though we could see through the one barred window high up in our cell that it was still dark outside. As we were being led out, word was passed among us to bring back any piece of any bread product but no explanation was given. As we were quietly eating, I remember making sure I wasn’t being watched and breaking off a piece of (what I think was) French toast and slipping it into my pants pocket. Not long after we were all returned to our cell and the guards had left, word was passed for all of us to assemble at a large area that had been cleared away. As we all sat in a semi-circle, I recognized a Catholic priest who was in our cell sat facing all of us. He explained that we would then have a simple communion service and opened us in prayer. As he finished praying, he began to cry. He then explained that in all his years at priest, he had never celebrated communion without real bread and wine and that our simple observation went against his teaching and beliefs. He then asked each of us to pull out whatever piece of bread we had brought back, and after praying for it representing the body of Christ, we all silently ate our morsel. Just then, a shaft of light came through the bars from the window above us and illuminated the spot where we were gathered. Really! Talk about a God-moment – and on Easter morning!
Final Thoughts. I hope at some future time to share about the other 2 days I was under arrest back in 1989 as well as the aftermath of those days. It may surprise you that my time after being incarcerated was in some ways more difficult than my days there. Reading my recollections should tell you why ever since I have never been excited about attending any conference that involved just absorbing someone else's teaching. Beginning with personal evangelism, I believe only as the members of the Body of Christ regularly put their faith on the line will they truly have opportunities to have a true sense of the presence of God. Finally, I pray that the Body of Christ would seek out opportunities to step out together in faith, as only then can a true, intimate fellowship of believers be developed. (We just need to recall the Church in the Book of Acts to realize this truth.)
A Sunday Funny (c/o MickeysFunnies.com)
It was Palm Sunday but because of a sore throat, 5-year-old Johnny stayed home from church with a sitter. When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm fronds. Johnny asked them what they were for. "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by," his father told him. "Wouldn't you know it," Johnny fumed, "the one Sunday I don't go and He shows up."
----------------------------------------------------------------
[Note: The following concludes what I began sharing in blog posting #196 on 4/6); The Lord is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!]
Later on the Saturday of Easter weekend, 1989. Later that afternoon, I was taken with several dozen other men to a large jail cell with dozens of bunk beds and toilet facilities on one wall with no privacy. (As hungry as one might have been, the embarrassment of needing to “go ” killed at least my appetite.) While I don’t remember any conversation I had with the other men, I remember being struck how guys had come from throughout the country for that Rescue. I also remember some men crying that they didn’t know how long they would be there and were very concerned about their wives and children. It touched me to see men going up to one another and comforting them with words and hugs. I also remember one incident where a guy spoke up and said that he was a Seventh Day Adventist and that he was afraid that he would not be supported but rejected by those at his church once he got out. I remember men gathering around him, putting their hands on him, and praying for him. The sight of all of this was so moving that I realized (or did the Spirit again just speak to my heart?) that what I was witnessing was the biblical concept of the Body of Christ being a caring community of believers. I became aware that I had probably sat next to many men in church Sunday after Sunday for many years, or had sat with others at some conference (and I had been to quite a few in my years in full-time ministry) and heard some great speaker teach, but I had never known that kind of true, intimate caring by another believer.
[Observing those men reminded me of how a few weeks before that weekend, I had been to a meeting of pro-life leaders in my community as a first time visitor. During the discussions, the subject of Operation Rescue and the concept civil disobedience, of risking arrest to – at least for a day – stop abortions from taking place at one killing center. After awhile, there was a long pause in the discussions. Suddenly, one of the men turned to a guy sitting next to him and said (in effect), “ If I end take part in this and end up being arrested, will you take care of my family until I get out.” After a few seconds during which I think I held my breath, the man he spoke to looked at him and said, “You have nothing to worry about. I’ll be there for them.” I remember then thinking to myself, “Wow! Could I expect such mutual love and support from any person I sat next to in church on Sunday? ” and I really wasn’t confident of the affirmative. Could you be?]
VERY early the next morning, Easter Sunday, 1989. We were all suddenly awoke for breakfast even though we could see through the one barred window high up in our cell that it was still dark outside. As we were being led out, word was passed among us to bring back any piece of any bread product but no explanation was given. As we were quietly eating, I remember making sure I wasn’t being watched and breaking off a piece of (what I think was) French toast and slipping it into my pants pocket. Not long after we were all returned to our cell and the guards had left, word was passed for all of us to assemble at a large area that had been cleared away. As we all sat in a semi-circle, I recognized a Catholic priest who was in our cell sat facing all of us. He explained that we would then have a simple communion service and opened us in prayer. As he finished praying, he began to cry. He then explained that in all his years at priest, he had never celebrated communion without real bread and wine and that our simple observation went against his teaching and beliefs. He then asked each of us to pull out whatever piece of bread we had brought back, and after praying for it representing the body of Christ, we all silently ate our morsel. Just then, a shaft of light came through the bars from the window above us and illuminated the spot where we were gathered. Really! Talk about a God-moment – and on Easter morning!
Final Thoughts. I hope at some future time to share about the other 2 days I was under arrest back in 1989 as well as the aftermath of those days. It may surprise you that my time after being incarcerated was in some ways more difficult than my days there. Reading my recollections should tell you why ever since I have never been excited about attending any conference that involved just absorbing someone else's teaching. Beginning with personal evangelism, I believe only as the members of the Body of Christ regularly put their faith on the line will they truly have opportunities to have a true sense of the presence of God. Finally, I pray that the Body of Christ would seek out opportunities to step out together in faith, as only then can a true, intimate fellowship of believers be developed. (We just need to recall the Church in the Book of Acts to realize this truth.)
A Sunday Funny (c/o MickeysFunnies.com)
It was Palm Sunday but because of a sore throat, 5-year-old Johnny stayed home from church with a sitter. When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm fronds. Johnny asked them what they were for. "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by," his father told him. "Wouldn't you know it," Johnny fumed, "the one Sunday I don't go and He shows up."
#196 (4/6) - My God-Ordained BEST Easter Weekend - In Jail (Part 1)
Yes, you read that title right. My best Easter weekend had nothing to do with going to a special service at church and later having a special Easter meal with family and friends. And NO, it had nothing to do with a drunken weekend in college. That special weekend was spent in jail with believers I had never met before from all over the country - for trying to save babies! It was a time I REALLY wish you could have been a part of - honest.
Good Friday, 1989. In a previous post (#177, 1/22), I shared how in the fall of 1987 I was awakened to the evil nature of abortion and of how it was not a “Catholic” issue but a moral and therefore a Christian one. In the spring of 1989, I learned about a group called “Operation Rescue” that was going to hold a rally in Los Angeles (I lived about an hour east of there at the time) and I decided to attend it with a group of friends. The highlight of the rally turned out to be when we (there were almost a thousand of us gathered) were all asked to silently walk past the body of a baby that had been aborted. For the first time, I no longer just looked at a sonogram or even a photograph of an aborted baby but passed within a few feet of a dead, fully developed baby with burn marks where it had been burned to death by an injection of a saline solution in the mother's womb before it was extracted. My friend, there is nothing like seeing an actual dead baby to impress on your mind just how horrific is an abortion. After that viewing, abortion went from being simply an issue of great concern to being an evil you just had to do all you could to try to stop. (Did the soldiers who saw the actual results of the Holocaust when they came across Hitler’s extermination camps feel any less resolved that they had brought a great evil to an end?)
The Day After – Saturday. After spending the evening in discussion and prayer with my friends, we all slept in the cramp quarters of a mobile home we had traveled in to the rally. The following morning, all who felt called by God were to travel to the largest abortion clinic in the city where they would join together and physically block all entrances to the clinic. (Operation Rescue focused on civil disobedience by non-violently blocking the entrances of abortion clinics with people sitting or standing at its doors to shut them down for at least a day.) I remember having a restless night because, while I understood the reasoning behind the action that was planned, as one who had not been in any trouble with police except for one traffic ticket), the thought of getting arrested if I participated terrified me – big time!
The following morning I awoke to the sound of my fellow travelers dashing out the door of the trailer and rushing toward a building in the distance. I remember feeling extremely conflicted as to what to do until I believe the Holy Spirit simply asked me in my heart if what they were about to do was of God or not. (Its funny how in the most difficult moments in life, God makes the issue involved so simple.) When the answer was obvious and I felt an incredible peace, I simply dashed through the door and ran after my friends and joined them to sit in front of one of the doors of the abortion clinic's huge building.
For the next 6 hours or so, I and more than 600 others scattered at other entrances around the building simply prayed and sang songs and read scripture. We didn’t yell slogans and, as we had been told beforehand, never got into any discussion with the counter demonstrators who eventually gathered at a short distance yelling slogans and obscenities at us. (Many of the males clearly seemed to be homosexuals.) Near noon, the counter demonstrators now stood just several feet from us, continuing to scream obscenities and in some cases came right up to some of us and begin kicking them (and sometimes spitting at us). As instructed, none of us responded to the taunts and assaults but just stood with locked arms, unmoving. Soon, in the distance I could see policemen on horses slowly moving through the crowd coming towards us, with the obvious intent of arresting us. I will never forget the fear welling up inside of me as the policemen approached, but suddenly I felt the Spirit direct me to the long-haired guy standing just feet in front of me screaming obscenities. As I focused on him, I felt God say, “Stan, that guy yelling in your face has more to fear from Me than you ever will from that officer coming to arrest you.” In that instant, as that truth hit me, I felt my fear melt away, an incredible peace fill my heart, and I then found myself praying for the salvation of the guy yelling in my face! It was in that moment that I knew I was about God’s work and I just needed to rest in Him. (THAT God-moment was one of the most incredible experiences of my life!)
One other thing. I remember seeing one of the officers advancing on their horses with tears in their eyes. It took me just a moment to realize that some of them had to be Christians as well and they were crying because they supported what we were doing but were sworn to do their duty. Recognizing their silent support and their great personal conflict proved to also be a great encouragement.
After we were all arrested, we were temporarily placed inside a nearby gymnasium. I remember initially most of us were so exhausted that we hardly indulged in conversation. What I will never forget about that time in the gymnasium was that I suddenly heard someone distinctly quoting Scripture. Ordinarily that would not be unusual but we had had any item like a Bible taken from us when we were arrested. After awhile, I suddenly realized that the guy was quoting a very long passage from memory. He went on for so long he must have recited several chapters. Talk about someone challenging you to scripture memory and “hiding His word in my heart!”
[Please check my next posting (#197) on Easter Sunday for Part 2 of my story.]
Good Friday, 1989. In a previous post (#177, 1/22), I shared how in the fall of 1987 I was awakened to the evil nature of abortion and of how it was not a “Catholic” issue but a moral and therefore a Christian one. In the spring of 1989, I learned about a group called “Operation Rescue” that was going to hold a rally in Los Angeles (I lived about an hour east of there at the time) and I decided to attend it with a group of friends. The highlight of the rally turned out to be when we (there were almost a thousand of us gathered) were all asked to silently walk past the body of a baby that had been aborted. For the first time, I no longer just looked at a sonogram or even a photograph of an aborted baby but passed within a few feet of a dead, fully developed baby with burn marks where it had been burned to death by an injection of a saline solution in the mother's womb before it was extracted. My friend, there is nothing like seeing an actual dead baby to impress on your mind just how horrific is an abortion. After that viewing, abortion went from being simply an issue of great concern to being an evil you just had to do all you could to try to stop. (Did the soldiers who saw the actual results of the Holocaust when they came across Hitler’s extermination camps feel any less resolved that they had brought a great evil to an end?)
The Day After – Saturday. After spending the evening in discussion and prayer with my friends, we all slept in the cramp quarters of a mobile home we had traveled in to the rally. The following morning, all who felt called by God were to travel to the largest abortion clinic in the city where they would join together and physically block all entrances to the clinic. (Operation Rescue focused on civil disobedience by non-violently blocking the entrances of abortion clinics with people sitting or standing at its doors to shut them down for at least a day.) I remember having a restless night because, while I understood the reasoning behind the action that was planned, as one who had not been in any trouble with police except for one traffic ticket), the thought of getting arrested if I participated terrified me – big time!
The following morning I awoke to the sound of my fellow travelers dashing out the door of the trailer and rushing toward a building in the distance. I remember feeling extremely conflicted as to what to do until I believe the Holy Spirit simply asked me in my heart if what they were about to do was of God or not. (Its funny how in the most difficult moments in life, God makes the issue involved so simple.) When the answer was obvious and I felt an incredible peace, I simply dashed through the door and ran after my friends and joined them to sit in front of one of the doors of the abortion clinic's huge building.
For the next 6 hours or so, I and more than 600 others scattered at other entrances around the building simply prayed and sang songs and read scripture. We didn’t yell slogans and, as we had been told beforehand, never got into any discussion with the counter demonstrators who eventually gathered at a short distance yelling slogans and obscenities at us. (Many of the males clearly seemed to be homosexuals.) Near noon, the counter demonstrators now stood just several feet from us, continuing to scream obscenities and in some cases came right up to some of us and begin kicking them (and sometimes spitting at us). As instructed, none of us responded to the taunts and assaults but just stood with locked arms, unmoving. Soon, in the distance I could see policemen on horses slowly moving through the crowd coming towards us, with the obvious intent of arresting us. I will never forget the fear welling up inside of me as the policemen approached, but suddenly I felt the Spirit direct me to the long-haired guy standing just feet in front of me screaming obscenities. As I focused on him, I felt God say, “Stan, that guy yelling in your face has more to fear from Me than you ever will from that officer coming to arrest you.” In that instant, as that truth hit me, I felt my fear melt away, an incredible peace fill my heart, and I then found myself praying for the salvation of the guy yelling in my face! It was in that moment that I knew I was about God’s work and I just needed to rest in Him. (THAT God-moment was one of the most incredible experiences of my life!)
One other thing. I remember seeing one of the officers advancing on their horses with tears in their eyes. It took me just a moment to realize that some of them had to be Christians as well and they were crying because they supported what we were doing but were sworn to do their duty. Recognizing their silent support and their great personal conflict proved to also be a great encouragement.
After we were all arrested, we were temporarily placed inside a nearby gymnasium. I remember initially most of us were so exhausted that we hardly indulged in conversation. What I will never forget about that time in the gymnasium was that I suddenly heard someone distinctly quoting Scripture. Ordinarily that would not be unusual but we had had any item like a Bible taken from us when we were arrested. After awhile, I suddenly realized that the guy was quoting a very long passage from memory. He went on for so long he must have recited several chapters. Talk about someone challenging you to scripture memory and “hiding His word in my heart!”
[Please check my next posting (#197) on Easter Sunday for Part 2 of my story.]
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