Here we are, Rudy's still in the lead among the Republican Party, Fred "Boring" Thompson is managing to bumble some traction, Romney has just about everyone forgetting that he is a cult member and Mike Huckabee is not getting the attention that he deserves.  If everything freezes where it is what do we have?  Another Schwarzenegger, faux conservative with the same values as Bill Clinton in office.  As I continue my non-support for the Republican candidates that are socially liberal, I am continually bombarded by fellow conservatives and radio show hosts with the "We have to beat Hillary!"  message.  The last time I checked I am not a member of the Democratic Party.  Isn't that the same mantra of the left?  "We have to beat Bush!"  Aren't we out to make this country better?  Don't we want to repeal Roe v. Wade?  Maybe we need to lose this one to the woman who would take this country to the lowest level that we have ever been.  We need a wake up call.  I would like to think that we are not out to just win elections or maintain power for the party.  That is what we observed in the former Soviet Union.  Maintain party control.  No thanks, I still believe that values matter.  I would rather lose the election than be responsible for putting someone comfortable with a "culture of death."

In my mind I see a sliding scale with the middle line dividing the left from the right.  Hillary has shown herself to be at the far left edge of the scale and she will support the wrong side of all of the issues that anyone should care about.  Since she is so far from even the middle of the scale, a candidate that is in the middle or even slightly left of the middle looks good.  This is where we were when I lived in California with Gray Davis.  He was completely left and Arnold was moderate, left leaning.  But he looked better than Mr. Davis.  So we threw out Davis and brought in the moderate.  Just for the record, I voted for McClintock.  What was gained?  Nothing.  If you are paying attention, Arnold has made his left side very apparent.  He wants to jump on the "greenie" bandwagon, he wants to give licenses to illegal immigrants and he wants to rush to meet every demand of the homosexual community in California.  So you will excuse me if I do not want to do to America what was done to California.

I will not cast my vote to win.  I'm told that there is no perfect candidate, but if you're not trying to be perfect, you're not getting my vote.

I scan news headlines every morning and read some that catch my eye.  One that caught my eye this morning was on Fox News, Boy Suspended for Sketching Gun.  Apparently a 13 year-old boy drew a gun and the faculty and administration of this school interpreted it as a threat. 

Man, if I had gone to that school when I was 13 I would have gotten the electric chair.  I would draw battle scenes where planes were strafing people on the ground, tanks rolling over soldiers, atom bombs exploding, bombers carpet bombing everything and flowers.  OK...maybe not flowers.  My son does the same thing.  We are stricter on him with movies, TV shows and video games and he still draws these kinds of scenes.  Yes, there are people who have problems with violence, but I believe that men are born warriors, protectors.  We have this in-born sense to protect our turf and our family.  Men love power, period.  Why else do we see guys flock in droves to air shows and Air Force base open houses?  We want to see the big, powerful jets.  We want to know that our military is number one in the world.

This overreaction by the school is just another example of the influence of the "thought police."  As a Christian I am accused of being too strict and of repressing my children's, and others I influence, social and sexual development.  Because I have a absolute standard for morals I and others like me are dubbed the "thought police."  The funny thing about is that I believe that the government should have little control over our states and local government.  I believe in the first amendment rights.  You can think, worship and say anything you like.  I know that the words of God will not return to Him void so I do not fear the freedoms we have in expressing ourselves.  The one thing that strikes me the most is that in order to be more liberal, excuse me, "progressive," we are required by the movements proponents to surrender more and more of these rights.  We cannot pray in school, they do not want you to talk about God in the school, at work, at home or in the public square.  You cannot  be a "real" scientist or a "real" and credible anything if you believe in God.  They want to absolutely control and regulate school curriculum.  In order to end the repressiveness of our society we must give up our rights and think exactly like they do.

If liberals are so progressive and their arguments are so compelling, then what are they afraid of?

Farm Aid, (PRODUCT)red, Live Aid, and now Live Earth.  Man, do these people know how to party or what?  I'm certain that each of these events/organizations have some members who believe that they are doing this for the good of humanity.  I never could understand how a rock concert could solve the world's problems, but who am I to know?  I understand that they raise a lot of money, but how about taking all of those people and putting them to work.  It's easy to give money, it's noble to give one's time and effort. 

Recently in a meeting with African officials Bono and his organization were asked to quit helping.  The reason given was that Africa needed to get strong and pull itself out.  Free money does nothing but produce freeloaders.  You have to give the African officials credit, they could just sit back and let the western elite babysit them for the rest of their natural lives.  Instead, they want to develop, they want to learn how to fish.  The first Biodome experiment failed because the trees would grow only so high and then they would fall down to the ground.  The scientists could not explain what was happening.  After awhile they figured out that there was no wind in the Biodome.  The trees were not being blown, so the roots were not being strengthened.  Adversity makes the trees stronger.  The same can be said for a people.  Look at America, we've been a country wrought with adversity since that paper was signed in 1776.

Live Earth.  Save the planet.  Why?  Have these people thought this through?  Who are you saving the planet for?  The earth is a big piece of mud.  If we and all that are on it die, does the earth care?  I hardly think so.  I believe that God mandated us to be good stewards of our planet in Genesis when he commanded Adam to work it and watch over it.  This does not mean that we all wear hemp tunics and drive Flinstone cars.  It means that we should do what we can without harming our fellow man.  The extreme solutions that Al Gore and his cronies suggest would stifle the development of third-world countries.  It would also send developing countries back into the third-world.  Every day we are seeing more and more evidence exposing the junk science that has been used to create this alarmist attitude that we are seeing everywhere.  In my experience it is amazing to see people who are skeptical about a God that has presented so much evidence of Himself, but Al Gore makes a movie and WHAM! they are absolutely convinced that we are spinning out of control and that killer tornadoes will unite, swoop down, and suck us out of our beds as we slumber.  If you're so worried about it maybe you should quit driving that SUV of yours and lay off of the methane producing cheeseburgers.  Every single person that I know that has bought into the myth of global warming is in a very comfortable position and supports any action by the government to cut carbon emissions within businesses and any entity that is not them.  Try to convince them to only use electricity two days a week and see how fast they jump off of that wagon.

How much paper will be consumed for CD cases of Live Earth the CD?  How much gas/diesel will be pumped to truck in the supplies and lighting and sound equipment?  How much energy will be wasted on lighting and sound?  How much carbon will be emitted in the parking lot as concert goers park their SUVs and limos?  How much of all-of-the-above will be wasted in the cleanup?  I could do this all day.  How many yuppie coffee cups will be littering the ground?  How many pounds will be added to each and every one of the funnel-cake eatin, people in attendance?

I love the outdoors.  I love to hunt and fish and just hike to see the countryside, but we were put over the creation, not creation over us.  We should be responsible, but we can still enjoy what the Creator has given us.

It seems like an eternity has passed since the day that congress was on the steps of the White House singing "God Bless America."  Really?  Was that sincere?  Should we expect any blessings from God?  We are quick in asking for the favor of Almighty God, but slow in showing our gratitude.  We ask for Him to bless us with health, wealth and defense of our country, but ignore even the most basic of truths that He has revealed.

No doubt about it.  We are the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world and we have more opportunity to bless God and others with what we have received.  To say that our founding fathers were secularists is to completely ignore their writings and deliberations.  If you read just the deliberations that were had during the framing of the US constitution, you will see that they were very afraid of not protecting the freedom OF religion, not the freedom FROM religion.  You can see arguments in the Federalist Papers for a constitutional recognition of this freedom.  You can also see in the Anti-Federalist Papers arguments opposing the same.  The Anti-Federalists were afraid that this would lead to government interference into the matters of religion.  Their fears are even now being realized.  I came to this knowledge through the reading of the aforementioned papers myself as a suggestion by our pastor just this past Sunday morning in worship service.  I give him credit for enlightening me to these facts.  (Ronnie Rogers)

Once the public schools belonged to the people.  They are now state-run institutions with government approved curriculum.  Teachers are indoctrinated to believe that they are the primary educator and influence of our children.  This does not relieve the parent of the God-given responsibility to be the primary educator of their kids.  The school should be seen as the secondary educator and should compliment what the child is learning at home, not be diametrically opposed to it.

We believe ourselves to be a sovereign nation, but we have ignored the sovereign God who delivered the pilgrims from the tyranny of England.  They came here with a dream to worship God as they pleased and to not be oppressed by the Church of England.  Worship God, not allah or bhudda or any of seven million Hindu gods.  Ronald Reagan said, "When we are a not a nation under God, we will be a nation gone under."

This Independence Day let's examine the Declaration of Independence.  Let's realize that the authors of this great American document included the author of our rights.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (emphasis mine)  They understood and believed that we were created in the image of God and that from this we are special.  This is why murder is against the law.  This is why it is wrong to abort our unborn children.  It was self-evident to our founders it has been clouded by the elite of our day.  Let this be our Independence Day.  We have recently seen that this is still a government "For the people" in the defeat of the immigration bill that would have granted amnesty to so many illegal aliens.  While there are men fighting for us in foreign countries and abroad we need to continue to fight here at home so that they have an America to come home to and one that is worth fighting for.

Elections are becoming more like holidays every day.  They seem to start them earlier and earlier.  I've been asked numerous times who I will be voting for.  I have to tell them that I do not have a candidate yet.  They look at me funny because they know that I am a conservative and am pretty much a partisan voter.  Unless something drastic happens, this election season will be quite different for me.  I have what I feel are serious issues with the current candidates running for the republican nomination.  I am one of a few who still believe character counts.  I believed it counted during the Clinton debacle and I believe that it counts now.

Mitt Romney is the most conservative of the top three, but I have no intentions of electing someone to office from what is a cult parading as a mainstream Christian religion.  That's really the crux of the matter with him.  Some will say it is religious bigotry, well, I'm not a pluralist.  I believe that there is only one way to go to heaven, which is through Jesus.  Mormons do not believe this. (What does Mormonism teach?)

John McCain is a spatula.  One day he is a conservative the next he is a social liberal.  Based on interviews that I have read I do not believe that he is strong on pro-life.  I know that he like the other big 3 do not believe in creation, but rather subscribe to the lie of evolution.  He does not have enough staying power or integrity to win my vote.

Giuliani is a mess.  He has had multiple marriages and has even publicly humiliated one wife.  His own son won't even support him.  If you cannot manage your home life, what makes you think that you can manage the most powerful country in the world?  He is extremely liberal and supports abortion rights.  I will not vote for this man and I cannot imagine any thoughtful, biblically minded Christian voting for him.

Don't get me wrong.  I do not believe that we should be living in a theocracy.  I want the president to be grounded in biblical values, but the bible does not command our government to be run by the Levitical and Sabbatical laws laid down in the Old Testament.  The people of the Old Testament rejected God as their king and he gave them what they wanted, a human one.  Jesus did not come as a political savior.  He came as a personal one.  Although we may not be ruled governmentally by the bible, we should, however; be able to draw our moral direction from it.  It makes clear statements about what is right and wrong.  Even though it does not speak about foreign affairs directly, we can still draw direction from its teaching.

If the choices froze as they are right now, I would vote on everything on the ballot in 2008 and stay my vote for president.  I cannot, with a clear conscience, presently vote for any of the candidates.  If I expect character of others, then I should expect nothing less of myself...or you.

I am amazed, completely amazed at how much space is given each and every day to claims of evidence for life elsewhere in our universe.  We have seen stories about meteors from space frozen in Antarctica that "may" contain fragments of Martian life, or water is found on the moon of Saturn, and most recently in the New York Times, "Astronomers Find Planet Outside Solar System."  Apparently some scientists have discovered what they consider "Earth's Twin", and it may or may not be capable of sustaining life.  The planet is 20 light years away, that's about 100 trillion miles, give or take a few.  Astronomers found it by observing a star's wobbling affect.  The planets mass orbiting the star causes it to wobble.  Once again the media over-inflates the discovery by throwing in a statement from Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, "Moreover, it orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right."  Isn't Mr. Udry jumping to conclusions?  Can we have a bucket of water that does not contain life?  What is the probability that we could purify every trace of life from a glass of water?  Would life reappear out of thin air?  Or would the glass of water continue to be an ordinary glass of water?  How many billions of years would it take for a glass filled with the molecular contents of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom produce anything remotely similar to life?  I am not a scientist, at best I consider myself a student theologian and I will not pretend that I understand chemistry or biology on a doctorate level.  I will leave the technicalities of the argument to those who are qualified to do so. 

What I am more concerned about is why people are obsessed with finding life somewhere else.  Why does it make headlines everyday?  Why don't we see the same coverage when yesterday's headline turns out to be false?  We only see the initial explosion of positive possibility.  This type of coverage, whether intentional or not, alludes to the world's view that man is nothing special.  We are nothing but highly evolved protoplasm.  Everything that we feel or think is nothing more than an accident.  We are subjected to these injective headlines in order that we might accept them as valid arguments to the subject of origins.  I cannot count the number of times that I have been involved in a discussion where the opposing view is argued in sound bytes.  They are given credibility based on the fact that the majority of the people in the room also heard it on MSNBC or ABC News or read it on the front of the New York Times.  If they report it, then it must be true.  You never see corrections or retractions or negative follow-up stories on the front page.

I get amped up over these stories, but if we would all read these stories with some discernment then we can see that there really is no story.  You will see a lot of "may" or "maybe" or "possibly" or "probable."  None of these words are words of commitment to the truth.  I would also advise with every news story you see, to look for coverage of the same story by other media sources.

The most interesting aspect of this specific story is the fact that they have Stephane Udry on the one hand saying that it is positively possible and probable based on the planets size and location, of course he is one of the astronomers that discovered the planet.  Immediately after his positive statements he cautions that it is too soon to make assumptions about the presence of water.  Basically, they know nothing and will not make any statements about anything.

This, like all the other E.T. type discoveries, will soon fade to the back section of the news never to resurface.  Regardless of whether we find life on other planets or not, astronomically not, we can rest assured that our Creator, God, created us and only us in His image.  We are special because of it, and no other being in the universe has a claim to the inheritance that is ours through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Here in the "Great State of Oklahoma" we are supposedly at the heart of the "Bible Belt."  We have traditionally been a red state upholding Christian values and standards.  In the past I have been under the belief that Oklahoma would never elect a Democrat as governor and that Oklahoma would never, ever support abortion if it could help it.  Well, if we're at the heart of the "Bible Belt" now, the country has its pants around its ankles.  Our state legislators took the opportunity passed down by the Supreme Court ruling on partial birth abortions by passing legislation making the act illegal in our state.  It passed both the State House and Senate and was placed on Brad Henry's desk where he promptly vetoed the bill.  He made the statement that the language did not make exemptions for rape, incest or fatal birth defects.  This is the same old pro-abortion, pro-death arguments that are used time and time again to garner sympathy for the visible mother.  We do not draw the picture of a baby's body being delivered to the head and then brutally killed by a "Doctor" who inserts an instrument  into the baby's skull and sucks out his/her brains.  Brad Henry needs to be educated on exactly how many reported rape cases result in pregnancy, less than 1%.  He needs to be educated as to how many mothers actually abort their children in the case of rape, even fewer, the assumption is that all women who suffer the crime want to kill the child.  The statistics are even lower among incest cases.  Brad Henry should also be humbled to the fact that he and others with his opinion are not God and do not have the right to decide when a "defective" baby is to be killed in the womb.  Some of the most amazing people have lived short lives, but these same people have been known to make a more significant impact than even Brad Henry could make in his own lifetime or even in the current position that he occupies.  Are we to say what God has planned for that PERSON whom the government has deemed moral to rip from a mother's womb and destroy? 

There have been other cultures in our past that have devalued human life in such a manner.  In Leviticus 20:2 God tells His people that anyone who gives his children to Molech is to be put to death, the people in the community are to stone him.  Molech was a god of the Ammonites in which these people would sacrifice their live children in ovens, burning them alive to appease this detestable, false god.  Other societies have followed suit with the Ammonites, a similar god, Moloch, was worshiped by Carthaginians.  This was a highly civilized culture who would roast their children alive in the same manner as the followers of Molech and Baal.  Does it make it anymore palatable that we can have a procedure done in the privacy of a doctor's office instead of before worshipers?  At least the cultures of old had the common decency to wait for the baby to be born before brutalizing it.  We live in a decadent age of narcissistic adolescents.  As G.K. Chesterton so profoundly stated in his book, The Everlasting Man, "For Carthage fell because she was faithful to her own philosophy and had followed out to its logical conclusion her own vision of the universe. Moloch had eaten his children."

An article in the Washington Post, "Gore Films Sparks Parents' Anger", tells of a teacher in Federal Way, WA who attempted to show Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", to his class of 7th graders.  The parent stated:

"No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation -- the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet -- for global warming,"

and the Post reported that:

"he believes that a warming planet is "one of the signs" of Jesus Christ's eminent return for Judgment Day."

While I agree whole heartedly that he has every right and a responsibility to say what his child will and will not view, I think that he could have responded a little better.  Because we are scrutinized to the Nth degree on how we respond as Christians and conservatives, we need to be careful to speak and respond in a very well thought out and concise manner.  We cannot be given in to the type of emotional outbursts that we receive from those on the other side of the issue.

I don't know from what text the parent gets his belief on global warming being a sign of the return of Jesus.  I know that Revelation talks of wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and other natural disasters, but I don't even see global warming as a catastrophic event.  A better response would be that if you examine the scientific evidence instead of the summary information that is provided to the media and to politicians, you will see that we are well within normal temperature variations and that "greenhouse gases" from humans are a very small contributor.  As I read articles on "Global Warming," I see more and more scientists who oppose the mainstream view, categorized as ignorant and irresponsible.  We seem to have gone from sitting and examining the evidence from both sides of the table to determine the truth to attempting to embarrass those who have a different opinion of the evidence.  The one who wins the day is the one who can convince the talk show hosts to make jokes about the opposition.

The documentation that is used to make these statements is the IPCC Political Summary which is a document composed mostly by politicians for politicians in the U.N. to make political decisions about "Global Warming."  A lot of politics in that last sentence, huh?  They do not wait for the full IPCC report to be published before making policies or sweeping statements on TV. (Al Gore)  The IPCC full report, until published, is a living document that can be edited and will be edited to coincide with the summary.  How can you refute the politicians when they can edit the scientific documents as needed to fit their world view?

Well, how do we address this whole "Global Warming" issue as Christians?  I believe that the bible has charged us to be good stewards of what God has provided for us, but we are not to forget why we are here.  We are not here to worship the creation, neither are we here to buy huge SUV's and drive around tearing up said creation.  Something that the politicians are not making a big fuss about are the poor.  There are billions of people in under-developed countries that do not have access to energy.  They do not have lights, heat, air conditioning, etc...  They cannot afford it.  If we impose the radical propositions from extremists, we will edge out more and more people from being able to afford the same comforts that we enjoy in our more developed countries.  Do these people deserve any less than us?  Shouldn't we be concerned about them?  There are billions of people who would say that they are already suffering from catastrophic conditions.  We are more than capable to have a balance and provide cheaper clean energy to these people.  In this arena of legislation I cannot help but to conclude that those that are pushing the hardest for it are those that have a personal agenda or a monetary interest.  When working a problem we need to consider all of the variables before we accept a solution.

If you have been listening to any of the conservative or Christian talk radio, you have undoubtedly heard about section 220 of Senate Bill 1.  It is the section that defines grass roots movements and forces them to register all of their communications with and about the government.  It would force these small organizations to hire personnel just to help them comply or face stiff monetary penalties and in some cases even criminal prosecution.  This would effectively muzzle those groups that would persuade their members and listeners to contact their representatives about issues that concern them.

How far are we going to go?  A pastor in Sweden is arrested for quoting scripture from the pulpit because it is deemed "hate speech."  How soon will we see the open persecution of Christians in the United States?  How long will it be before we have political officers reporting on the actions of our military leaders?  When will I go to church only to find that it has been turned into a library?

First and foremost we need to keep the main thing the main thing.  Jesus Christ and His saving message is the only solution for a increasingly despotic world.  While we must be participants in the democratic process, we must not fear what might happen to our country.  The apostles of Jesus did not have to worry about the "what ifs," the nation that they lived in was already under the rule of the Roman Empire.  They were sure to be persecuted, sawed in half, beheaded, fed to wild animals, dipped in tar and burned to serve as a street light just to name a few.  We need to pray for our country and for our leaders, democrat or republican, left or right.  Romans 13 tells us that we should submit ourselves to the governing body because God Himself has put them in place and that He is the ultimate authority.  This does not mean that we should accept our government when it violates moral truths from the word of God.  The bible clearly teaches that life is valuable and should not be taken away by man.  He teaches that we are made in His image and this makes every one of us extremely valuable.  If He cares enough to feed the sparrows, how much more does He care for those created in His own image?

Because we need to participate and make informed decisions we need these grass roots organizations to be there for us.  We all can't sit around and watch C-Span all day long to catch what is going on.  Most of us would also fall asleep amidst all of the legalese contained in the bill itself.  These groups typically have analysts who can give us a summary of what the bills contain and help us to understand what it means to us.  In addition to these organizations I am of the belief that we should get our information from different resources.  Everyone has a presupposition.  This is good practice to help you discern what is true and what is embellished.

We should thank God for hearing our prayers and interceding in the Senate.  We also should thank our Senators for listening to us and acting on our behalf.  A special thank you should be offered to the democrats that broke ranks and voted for the Bennet amendment.

As we celebrate a victory we should stay focused as we have not won the war.  This bill will still be presented to congress.  We need to continue to pray that the needed votes will be acquired to exclude section 220 from Senate Bill 1.

In Christ

Ah the task of naming your blog.  It is a difficult job, but it's a required field when filling out the form to create your own opinion outlet.  How do I decide?  If I use the wrong name, will people be put off?  Do I need to use a name that will shock people or a name that is humorous?

When I was young my father instilled a strong sense of patriotism into me and my siblings.  We lived near an Air Force base and my father loved to go to the open house every year.  More than anything I loved to get in and climb around the different pieces of military hardware.  We would spend the entire day climbing in and out of airplanes, tanks and armored cars of all sorts.  We would talk to the veterans and listen to all of their stories.  I wanted so bad to be a pilot and to fly off to the "Wild Blue Yonder."  Well, too many C grades later and I'm making pizzas.  I did, however; follow my father's example and serve in the Army.  Through the influence of my father and the service that I did I have learned to love my country very strongly.

Even more important than my love for my country, is the love for Jesus that my grandparents instilled in me at a very young age.  My grandmother was my Sunday school teacher and insured that I was in church every week.  I got a solid foundation in the basics of Christianity in a small church called Hilltop Baptist, which, coincidentally was actually located on a hilltop!  When I joined the Army I turned from God and looked to the world for education.  I experimented with the usual suspects.  Fortunately I woke up and realized that the world had nothing to offer for eternity.  In recent years I have formed a love for theology and apologetics.  I firmly believe that the bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God and it is the final authority in all matters that it addresses.  This makes me a Christian first and a U.S. citizen second.  Paul boasted of his Roman citizenship, but he also spent a lot of time in prisons for his beliefs.  He never put his citizenship in Rome before his citizenship in heaven.

So, here I am a Christian Citizen of the United States of America and I will be using this medium to convey my thoughts and my opinions always with the bible as the starting place for my world view.  I hope that through these writings I can respectfully share with you first the love of Christ and how He can change your life and secondly how we can address the issues in our country from a Christian perspective.