We ask that you bless our leaders with wisdom, even those who would decide of their own free will to ignore it. And we ask that you guide the hands of those newly elected to replace the old who had worked against the will of the people and your inherent blessings. Keep their hands steady, their hearts true and their actions righteous.

We ask all this in your name, Amen.

Now spare me the “judge not,” complaints from your sensitive minds. Every time I point out how unChristian liberals are I get the mandatory cut and past talking point emails from them berating me for daring to “judge” them. Alas, it is not I that is judging them however. It is God that is judging them as bad Christians. I am just pointing out what God said and reminding them of it.

The funniest thing about liberals and their “Christianity” is that they always seem to find their warped sense of religion at the strangest times and for very odd reasons. Take for example the Bergen County Education Association in New Jersey. Liberals spend a lot of time berating much better Christians than themselves for sharing their religion in any setting because of fear that someone might get offended. But when liberals want to appeal to God for something, like say the death of New Jersey’s recently elected governor, that is ok.

Here is what they wrote about Gov. Christie because the governor has begun to tackle the massively bloated state spending which has New Jersey in the red. He went after education spending, which liberals claim is never high enough, which teachers unions claim is never enough, yet continues to produce students less and less literate in important subjects even as spending increases. They can’t read. They can’t do basic math. But they sure as Hell can put a condom on a banana!

Quote:

“Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

According to reports the governor got a “swift apology” once the reference came out.

Joseph Coppola, President of the Association, said that he issued the “prayer” as a “joke.”

Yeah. Ok.

Teachers and their unions get upset whenever anyone talks about cutting spending and doesn’t exclude them from the hatchet. Teachers deserve to get paid, but they are, ultimately employees of the states and districts they work in. That means if there simply is not enough money to pay them what they want or even what they are currently getting then yeah, like everyone else, they may have to take pay and benefit cuts. It sucks. But that is the reality the rest of us live with and government workers should not be exempt from the basic laws of economics.

Anyway, people that go into teaching and bitch about the pay not being enough are not really in the profession for the right reason if you ask me. It is sort of like a priest complaining about the whole no sex thing.  That goes for any employee in the government that is paid with tax payer dollars.

But just think for a moment how upset the liberal left would have been had the last reference in the prayer been to President Obama and not Christie. They would have been furious and whomever would have written it would have had the FBI and Secret Service at their doors within hours as the liberal “Christians” would have come up with all the phony outrage they could muster at someone daring to wish ill on a man willing to spend out grandchildren into slavery to this generation and the federal state. But wishing ill on a man trying to liberate future generations from the yoke of oppressive government? Well, that is legitimate cause to wish death!

According to the gospels, Jesus implies that it is deeds and not just words that are required to enter into the kingdom of Heaven and that to generate “grace” one must do good works and do so freely. Some modern day sects of Christianity disagree, preaching instead an unconditional grant of this blessing by God just by virtue of the fact that all of us are his children and that by simply claiming to believe in Jesus Christ we shall enter into Heaven. I strongly disagree. God and his only son, Jesus Christ, are not the “do as I say, not as I do” types and I find it very hard to believe that God would except such as a valid excuse from those awaiting entrance into the hereafter. You cannot say to God, “But I believe in Christ and his teachings,” when you did nothing to show that you really do believe in such things. Words are great. But deeds are the ultimate proof of concept and your faith.

When I talk to liberals who fancy themselves as Christians while promoting their big government ideas, forced wealth redistribution plans, and other socialist programs, the reasoning that they often give to me as to why they believe in such things is that they are just being “good Christians”. They just see themselves as doing God’s will and that they are doing good works. They believe that far too many are not capable of doing these good works without their guidance. They believe that by levying taxes on Americans, including themselves, and using that money to help others that they are doing God’s work and are doing good deeds that they will be rewarded for. Well, they may want to go back to their Bibles and get out of their left wing Churches because, I am sad to say, nothing could be further from the truth.

Often those on the left cringe at having their “Christian” credentials challenged and will hurl the typical admonishment about not judging others less I also be judged. I have often proudly said that I am very secure in my relationship with God. So with that said once again, I say very confidently to let that judgment of me be swift and true and that I certainly do not fear it.

As a Christian, but a non-denominational Christian because I have grown to distrust so many of the organized churches over the years, I believe that, like my liberal acquaintances, generating grace is the means to entering Heaven. But for me, grace is generated by not only professing a belief in Jesus Christ as one’s savior, but by also doing as he and those that followed him in life taught us. This includes doing good deeds to others.

A reader to my website recently reminded me of one particular admonishment that Christians, particularly liberal “Christians” who think that by using taxes and government to “help” through coerced “giving”, should take note of. This admonishment comes from 2 Corinthians.

“Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 9:7

Let us remember this. It does not say God loves, and gives grace to, those that are coerced to give or those that force others to give. It says that God loves those that have decided in their hearts to give. This means that if you are a liberal who thinks that you will be rewarded in the next life because you promoted high taxes and wealth redistribution plans to force yourself and others to give, then think again. You have not done the right thing in God’s eyes.

This is not the only example of how Christians are commanded to act when it comes to charitable giving and helping others. Proverbs 11:24-25 tells us once again that those that give freely, without coercion, are favored by God.

“One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

Once again, nothing about being forced to give, forcing others to give or being forced to give is seen here as being a means to gaining favor with the Almighty.

And there is another passage of which I am reminded of from Matthew which speaks of the same ideals. But this passage goes even further. It tells us that those that give not for the recognition of having given and helped their fellow man, but that give in private are the ones that are truly blessed with God’s grace.

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

I would say this is pretty clear and that if you are one of those “Christians” that are constantly running around promoting enforced giving through wealth redistribution and social welfare programs and on top of that running to the microphones (like our elected officials so often do) to let everyone know that you are doing these things and talking about how you are doing them in God’s name, then you have received your own shallow reward. But you are gaining no favor with our Father in Heaven.

Now, I understand that all of this that I have talked about this week is meaningless to some. They will continue to believe that they are “‘good Christians” just like Nancy Pelosi will continue to believe that the issue of when life begins has not been settled by her church of choice, the Catholic Church, even after being shown to be wrong and told so very bluntly by those in positions of authority within the church itself that she is wrong. That is basically the definition of a liberal though; one that will believe what they want to believe even in the face of all logic and reason.

Just remember that God is all knowing and all seeing. And you cannot scrub that which is shameful from your resume come judgment day. And if you coerced others into giving as you decide they should, force yourself to give because you cannot bring yourself to do so freely in your own heart and above all else do so for the public recognition of having given then just please remember that you are not quite as “Christian” as you believe yourself to be.

These days in America we have a subculture of poorly educated Americans who erroneously believe that somehow, somewhere in the Constitution there exists a “separation of Church and State” which precludes government from recognizing Almighty God and the faith of those that founded this nation.

Our first amendment provides only two simple and powerful restrictions on the government with regards to how it handles the religious beliefs of the people. First, it prevents the Congress from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion”. Second it prevents the Congress from making laws that prohibit the “the free exercise” of religion by all citizens even if they are elected officials. That’s it and nothing more.

James Madison, once remarked during the discussion of the amendment that if the amendment were clarified by adding the word “national” before religion such confusion over what was meant would be easily corrected. For you see, that is what the founding fathers really and truly meant.

What they feared was what they and their ancestors had escaped from; a national church headed by the government. In England you either belonged to the Church of England or you life was made miserable at the very best.

The founding fathers completely disagreed with those today who would strip the vestiges of God from the public lives of the people. One need only look at the very Constitution itself where those that affixed their names proudly proclaimed that their act was “done in year of our Lord”. Hardly something that a group of people who believed God should be stricken from American life would do.

In fact the first amendment is nothing more than a means of preventing a mandate by government as to how the people would be allowed to worship Almighty God.

In the years that followed the birth of America, our founders publicly implored Americans to give thanks to God in no subtle terms and furthering this belief that religion was important to the public lives of Americans. George Washington, John Adams and even James Madison all proclaimed days of thanksgiving often with the blessing of Congress where they pleaded that Americans remember the blessings of God and show humility before Him.

They however never ordered the people to participate not did they dictate the manner in which those that participated worshipped. That would have been unconstitutional to its core by violating the right of all Americans to worship (or not worship) God as they saw fit.

Since then, Thanksgiving has become a national holiday no longer decreed by Presidents who implored the citizens to remember God. And while many people who gather on Thanksgiving Day will certainly give thanks to God, many more will not. Such is their right.

To some Thanksgiving is simply about food and family and not God. But no matter whether you chose to give thanks to God or not on Thanksgiving, remember that religion was important to both the public and private lives of those that came before us. So much so, that they made sure to write into our federal Constitution that they firmly believed in the Almighty God who gave his only son for us.

That is powerful. And it needs to be remembered. Laus Deo.