Tag: religion

Netanyahu’s coded message to Sarah Palin at AIPAC.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his speech Mar 4 2012 to AIPAC said this:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This week, we will read how one woman changed Jewish history.

In Synagogues throughout the world, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. We will read how some 2,500 years ago, a Persian anti-Semite tried to annihilate the Jewish people.

And we will read how that plot was foiled by one courageous woman – Esther.

In every generation, there are those who wish to destroy the Jewish people.

The next day  Netanyahu handed US President Barack Obama a gift that spoke volumes about Israel’s tensions with Iran – an ancient Hebrew tome about a Persian plot to annihilate Jews, otherwise known as the Scroll of Esther.

The Scroll, or the Megila, tells a tale of palace intrigue featuring a Jewish beauty, Queen Esther, who charms a Persian king into foiling an evil adviser’s genocidal plans for her people some 2,500 years ago.

“Then too, they wanted to wipe us out,” Netanyahu told Obama, according to an Israeli official.

History was made last week. Did you miss it? There was but a one paragraph mention in most of the news clips.

For what it is worth here is my take on it.

Sarah Palin visited India in 2011 (She came, She spoke, She conquered, Hindustan Times).

On the way back she and her husband Todd visited Israel. She wore a large David’s star as a necklace. One of the stops was to celebrate Purim with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. At the feast of Purim it is customary to read the entire scroll of Esther. That Purim was no exception. They mentioned they talked about many things, but mentioned Esther in particular.

When Netanyahu spoke Sunday night he was not only talking to all Jews, but it was a coded signal to Sarah Palin. When Sarah Palin abruptly resigned as Governor less than 3 years into her term, she went fishing. The press was there and asked her many questions. She claimed the reasons for her resignation were so obvious that anybody should get it. Liberal interviewers are not just anybody, so they kept asking. In one of her answers she said the phrase from Esther, slightly concealed “If I die, I die”. This was too deep for the interviewers, for they do not even know there is a book in the Bible called Esther, and if they do they would never admit it, for the Bible is not something about which they are supposed to acknowledge any positive knowledge.

Anyhow the exact quote is: Esther 4:13-16 (ESV)

13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

I believe Netanyahu reminded Sarah Palin about her quote from Esther and the consequences if she doesn’t answer the challenge.

I also believed Sarah wore the same necklace in Hannity’s interview of her the same week to respond in solidarity with the Jewish People.

Excerpts from the interview can be found in a desperate Obama fundraiser video where Sarah’s remarks are taken out of context to deliberately generate a false narrative of Sarah. But there it is: The David’s star necklace. In Obama’s narrative only a racist can support the Jews.

Please explain your theology, Mr. President.

Mr. President!

On the resent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. you said:

“Jesus would back my tax-the-rich policy.”

You went on to say that your understanding of the Bible is the basis for your economic policies.

Campaigning in Ohio, presidential candidate Rick Santorum was criticizing your radical environmental views, which he said hurt the American people.

“It’s not about you [people],” Santorum  declared. “It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible — a different theology.”

Very few commented on your statements at the prayer breakfast. People seem to be perfectly happy that you are using your understanding of the Bible as the basis for your polices.

When Rick Santorum challenges you on your understanding of the Bible, saying that your  theology is open to challenge, everybody is jumping on him, saying that any criticism of your Christian belief is over the line.

You invited a discussion on your understanding of the Bible since you use it as the basis for your economic polices.

What is your biblical basis for not having an opinion whether we should have a budget or not?

What is your biblical understanding on abortion? The only references on abortion I can find in the Bible are child sacrifices, as was practiced in Baal worship. Is that your basis?

Where is the biblical justification for Government regulation trumping Religion?

Please let me know where you stand on the Bible since it is your understanding of the Bible that is the basis for your economic polices.

You were in Rev. Jeremy Wright’s Church for twenty years. You said you never listened to his sermons. How did you obtain your understanding of the Bible?

 

98% of Catholic women use contraception. Really?

Planned Parenthood and NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) are telling their members that 98% of Catholic women use contraception.

My first observation is that this is a surprisingly large percentage. One Catholic woman in fifty is not using birth control. How can that be? Why would an 80 year old nun use birth control? 10% of all women are lesbians (this is a statistic that cannot be challenged), what type of birth control do they use? Or, is the very fact that they are lesbians a form of birth control? If so, why use the word contraception?

Planned Parenthood is quoting from a study made by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, a former Planned Parenthood affiliate. Did they exclude any women from their study, thus inflating the numbers?

Indeed they did. They included only women between the ages 15-44, normal child-bearing age. They excluded any woman who had not been sexually active in the last 3 months. They also excluded all postpartum or pregnant women. All women trying to get pregnant were also excluded. In fact, the only women included in the study were (pg.8 of the study) “those for whom a pregnancy would be unintended and who are “at risk” of becoming pregnant.” It is unclear if women whose attitude is: While I am not trying to get pregnant I am trusting in God, and if I do get pregnant it is the will of God to do a miracle in me. My hunch is that more than one Catholic woman in 50 has that attitude, so they would have to have been excluded as well.

The study probably should have been stated: 98% of all Catholic women using the services of Planned Parenthood use contraceptives and other forms of birth control, such as abortifacients  and abortion. That may be close to the truth.

There is no profit for Planned Parenthood in promoting abstinence. Yet it works every time.

Nancy Pelosi is informed as always. The hearing was on the constitutionality of the mandate, not biology.

This is her attitude to the Constitution of the United States:

“Mormonism, America’s Islam” Can that possibly be true?

“Mormonism, America’s Islam” is a book written in 1912 by Bruce Kinney. Can that premise possibly be true?

Let us find out what Mormons and Muslims have in common.

Here is a list of Similarities between Muhammad and Joseph Smith:

– Visited by an angel.  (Muhammad: Gabriel. Joseph Smith: Moroni)
– Given visions.
– Told that no true religion existed on the earth.
– Was sent to restore the long-lost faith as the one true religion.
– A book produced from their teachings claimed to be “inspired by God.” (1)
– Each claimed to be illiterate or uneducated and used this as proof the book was inspired.
– Each claimed the Bible was lost, altered, corrupted and unreliable. (2)
– Each claimed his new holy book was the most correct and perfect book on earth.
– Each claimed to be a final prophet of God.
– Each claimed he was persecuted because of his pure faith.
– Each was a polygamist who had many wives.
– Immediately after his death a fight broke out from among the “faithful converts” as to who would succeed him.
– Both religions have those who follow the “original doctrine” of the founding leaders and like these founding leaders, have been violent, polygamists, and have revelations justifying their evil actions. (3)
– Each has progressive revelation. (“New” revelation always replaces older revelation that became inconvenient to the prophet.)

– Each advocated a theocratic type of government.

– Each rejected original sin and the doctrine of the trinity.
– Each taught a salvation by good works.

– Each taught a here-after with graded rewards for works.
– Both claim Mormonism and Islam to be the world’s fastest growing religion. (4)

 

(1) Joseph Smith: The Book of Mormon, Muhammad: The Quran.

(2) The golden plates with reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics shown to Joseph Smith are nowhere to be found, so no source critical analysis can be performed. The sayings of Mohammad were written down in part, but mostly carried by oral tradition until 130 years later when the Quran was written down and agreed upon by a committee.  No source critical analysis is allowed, since this would blaspheme Muhammad. Contrast this with the Holy Bible. It has received many revisions of source critical analysis, and when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found it turned out that most, if not all claims of alteration were false.

(3) Mormons have turned peaceful, no violent conversion is permitted, but if you want a Temple wedding you have to fulfill your missionary duty. Muhammad started the concept of Jihad, or Holy War. In the Quran it means just that, and according to Sharia Law 1/8 of all your charitable giving must go to Jihad. Many modern Muslims take Jihad to be proselytizing by persuation.

(4) The fastest growing faith is Evangelical Christianity, mostly in Asia and frequently of the Charismatic type.

 

What is worse, Romney and cult or Hillary and occult? A Limerick.

Does Romney belong to a cult?

Did Hillary seek* the occult?

If you are and adult

It is not difficult

You’d rather a cult than occult consult.

*Following the November, 1994, midterm elections, in which the Democrats were thoroughly defeated by the Republicans, even losing control of both houses of Congress, Bill and Hillary turned to a group of New Age channelers and spiritualists for advice. This shocking development further proves our contention that Bill and Hillary are practicing witches, for this kind of action is precisely what witches would do.

The very fact that Bill and Hillary turned to these type of people at a most trying time in their lives further proves our point that Bill and Hillary are practicing witches. Witches regularly practice this type of spiritual activity, all of which God severely and consistently condemns.

Let us continue with our feature story, as Jean Houston and Mary Catherine Bateson get together several times over the next year, to conduct seances with Eleanor Roosevelt. You will remember the stories in the first year of the Clinton Administration, when Hillary confessed that she regularly communicated with Eleanor; stories at the time even labeled these communications as seances. Not only did Hillary admit she talked to Eleanor, she said Eleanor talked back ! This admission clearly identifies these sessions as seances, since an imaginary, creative mind exercise where a person only imagines they can talk with an historic figure, and can only imagine what response that figure might make based upon what is known about them, never, ever involves that historic figure talking back. (cuttingedge.org)

Obama’s 2011 Thanksgiving proclamation vs. George Washington’s 1789 proclamation. A contrast.

 Left: President Obama at second swearing in ceremony in the White House. Notice the absence of the Holy Bible.

Things like that are not important to this President.

Obama’s 2011 Thanksgiving Proclamation: One of our Nation’s oldest and most cherished traditions, Thanksgiving Day brings us closer to our loved ones and invites us to reflect on the blessings that enrich our lives. The observance recalls the celebration of an autumn harvest centuries ago, when the Wampanoag tribe joined the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony to share in the fruits of a bountiful season. The feast honored the Wampanoag for generously extending their knowledge of local game and agriculture to the Pilgrims, and today we renew our gratitude to all American Indians and Alaska Natives. We take this time to remember the ways that the First Americans have enriched our Nation’s heritage, from their generosity centuries ago to the everyday contributions they make to all facets of American life. As we come together with friends, family, and neighbors to celebrate, let us set aside our daily concerns and give thanks for the providence bestowed upon us. Though our traditions have evolved, the spirit of grace and humility at the heart of Thanksgiving has persisted through every chapter of our story. When President George Washington proclaimed our country’s first Thanksgiving, he praised a generous and knowing God for shepherding our young Republic through its uncertain beginnings. Decades later, President Abraham Lincoln looked to the divine to protect those who had known the worst of civil war, and to restore the Nation “to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.” In times of adversity and times of plenty, we have lifted our hearts by giving humble thanks for the blessings we have received and for those who bring meaning to our lives. Today, let us offer gratitude to our men and women in uniform for their many sacrifices, and keep in our thoughts the families who save an empty seat at the table for a loved one stationed in harm’s way. And as members of our American family make do with less, let us rededicate ourselves to our friends and fellow citizens in need of a helping hand. As we gather in our communities and in our homes, around the table or near the hearth, we give thanks to each other and to God for the many kindnesses and comforts that grace our lives. Let us pause to recount the simple gifts that sustain us, and resolve to pay them forward in the year to come.

 NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 24, 2011, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage the people of the United States to come together whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors to give thanks for all we have received in the past year, to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and to share our bounty with others. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.

God is not mentioned until the second paragraph, where He is referred to as a generous and knowing God. The original 1621 Thanksgiving celebration is now referred to as a feast which only purpose was to thank the Wampanoag tribe. Nothing could be more incomplete. While they did invite and thank the Indians, the primary object of their thanksgiving was the Sovereign and Almighty God for his bountiful provision.

Compare this 2011 proclamation with:  George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:” Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becomming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best. Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

This reminds me of a famous quote from Fiddler on the roof: Chava: The world is changing, Papa! Tevye: [rounding on her] No! [calmly] Tevye: No. Some things do not change for us. Some things will never change.

And so it is: God is still God Almighty and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Chrislam, Crusade or Jihad? Or maybe Marx?

The type of belief that Chrislam marks;

It has no convictions, unlike Rosa Parks.

Obama the conman

deceiver and corps(e)man;

His faith is to emulate ChrIslaMarx.

 

A very good article explains the movement:

One weekend in Nov 2010, the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston along with Christian communities in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit will initiate a series of sermons that have been designed to produce an ecumenical reconciliation between Christianity and Islam. In addition to the sermons, the Sunday school lessons will center on the inspired teachings of the Prophet Mohammad. Qurans will be placed in the pews next to the Bibles. The concept of Chrislam, now embraced by such preachers as Rick Warren and Robert Schuller, appears to have emerged from a program on the meaning of “love your neighbor” at Grace Fellowship Church in Atlanta, Georgia “In 2001, like most Americans, we were pretty awakened to the true Islamic presence in the world and in the United States,” says Jon Stallsmith, the outreach minister at Grace Fellowship. “Jesus says we should love our neighbors. We can’t do that without having a relationship with them.” Stallsmith maintains that a rapprochement between Muslims and Christians can be achieved by the fact that Jesus is mentioned twenty-five times in the Quran. The Chrislam movement has gained impetus by statements from President George W. Bush and that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same God and by Rick Warren’s reference to Isa (the Muslim name for Jesus) in his prayer at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Only 30 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Muslims, according to a Pew Forum poll. At the same time, more than half the country says they know “not very much” or “nothing at all” about the Islamic faith. “The recent political developments and the fact that we’re fighting two wars in Muslim countries should sharpen that need to know how to talk to these guys,” Stallsmith insists “We want to find peace, reconciliation around a scriptural understanding of Jesus.” Jesus in the Quran is neither the only-begotten Son of God nor the Messiah who was divinely appointed to restore the House of David. He is rather viewed as a prophet who was appointed by Allah to prepare mankind for the coming of Mohammad. In the Quran, Jesus neither suffers nor dies on the cross but is rather raised alive into heaven: “That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of God”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Nay, God raised him up unto the himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise” (4: 157-158) The victim at Calvary, Islam teaches, was either Simon of Cyrene or Judas Iscariot. The Quran mentions that Jesus was born of the virgin Maryam – – not by an immaculate conception but rather the will of Allah and that He performed miracles to show the Jewish people that He was a maseh in the manner of Moses and Ibrahim (Abraham): “In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against God, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every – one that is on the earth? For to God belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For God hath power over all things” (5:17).

Belief in the divinity of Jesus is condemned in Islam as shirk (filth). Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

http://thelastcrusade.org/2010/11/04/chrislam-spreads-throughout-america/

The Rev Wright’s Church in which Obama was a member for 20 years had a more than life size portrait of Karl Marx in their Library as a centerpiece painting in 2008.

Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons debate. A Limerick.

The Delaware candidates for senate had an interesting debate in 2010. Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell asked the question:  “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” Democratic candidate Chris Coons was quick to tell O’Donnell that religion and government are kept separate by the First Amendment.

Later in the debate, O’Donnell challenged Coons to name the five freedoms of the First Amendment. He came up four freedoms short.

The five freedoms in the first amendment are: Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the rights of petition and assembly.

The exact text of the first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Limerick:

Amendment, the first: We all know, of a sort.

Chris Coons, when she asked, came up four freedoms short.

O’Donnell did know

All five, and did show:

“Church and State” is not mentioned; she is a good sport.

The Pope warns visiting U.S. bishops of Radical Secularism. A Limerick.

The Pope warned of Radical Secularism.

As bad as his youth was in Hitler’s Nazism.

Religious freedom

Gone from our czardom.

What remains is a Secular Humanism.

Pope Benedict XVI issued a solemn warning about the erosion of religious freedom in the United States, in a January 19 address to visiting American bishops. He told the bishops that “it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.” He added: “The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life.” The US should be a land thoroughly committed to religious freedom in light of its history and the fundamental principles of the nation’s founding, the Pope argued. He said: “At the heart of every culture, whether perceived or not, is a consensus about the nature of reality and the moral good, and thus about the conditions for human flourishing. In America, that consensus, as enshrined in your nation’s founding documents, was grounded in a worldview shaped not only by faith but a commitment to certain ethical principles deriving from nature and nature’s God. Today that consensus has eroded significantly in the face of powerful new cultural currents which are not only directly opposed to core moral teachings of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but increasingly hostile to Christianity as such.” The loss of religious freedom, the Pontiff warned, is “a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself.” He explained: “When a culture attempts to suppress the dimension of ultimate mystery, and to close the doors to transcendent truth, it inevitably becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul II so clearly saw, to reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society.”

Like this:

My testimony and the tragedy in Arizona.

The tragedy in Arizona three years ago has affected me deeply from that time, not in the way I expected, but much more profoundly. To fully understand what happened, let me go back, way back to my days in Sweden as an agnostic liberal, for most Swedes are liberal or socialists. We still had the hope of a better world under the careful and wise guidance of the United Nations, under the excellent leadership of the Swede Dag Hammarskjöld. After all, the evil of the second world war was over, and the innate goodness of all men was destined to be triumphant. Peace, love, equality and solidarity were to be the guideposts for our future. Medical and technological advances would abound, President Kennedy had just said: Let us go to the Moon! And then, he was shot! We got a comedown, a jolt. But it must have been some of those evil, reactionary, racist Southern Democrats that did it. Yeah, except for those reactionary Democrats people are still basically good, especially the Northern Democrats. And it was America. We Swedes were ages more advanced in our understanding of true freedom and Social Justice.

A few years later I attended a debate between the Social Democrat Olof Palme and a moderate, whose name I cannot even remember. Palme was by far the better debater, speaking of income transfer, social contract, solidarity and social justice. The moderate tried to put forward individual responsibility and reward for work, freedom and the likes, but he was quickly neutralized by Palme’s oratory. I decided, this will not end well, so I made up my mind to try to emigrate from the cradle of freedom, enjoyed since Viking times.

The year was 1968, the papers were in order, the lung X-rays paid for, and I stood at Kennedy Airport in the immigration line. The officer took the tube of immigration papers, looked through all the papers and held up the x-rays to the light. A long line waited impatiently after me, but he took his time. Then he gave me a big smile and a hand shake: Welcome to the United States of America! A few weeks earlier Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. When I checked into my room at the YMCA in Rochester, N.Y., I found out that Robert Kennedy had been killed. I looked around  the lobby of the YMCA. What have I done?  Why did I get here? Even though I was an agnostic, I knew in a strange way I was on a divine calling from destiny. My wife and I were married a few days earlier, and she had yet to get her papers in order. She, a Dane was going to go on the Swedish quota, for the Danish quota was full. But to do that I had to be in the U.S. with work, so she could not follow on our honeymoon. Everything was accomplished before July 1 1968, when they abolished the quota system. She came, and we have been together ever since. Then followed the normal life of newlyweds: Traveling, dreaming and building a household. We got beautiful children, a boy and a girl, a large house with a two car garage, a good income, in short, a dream-life. But my wife grew more and more unsatisfied. Something was wrong. “I have everything I thought important, and yet, I am unhappy. What is wrong?” she asked me, day in and day out. Well, you do the best you can, right and truth will prevail, and this earth will be a better place. “And then what?” she countered. I had no idea. This was as far as I could think. Everything else is pure speculation. She went to a discussion group about great literature, and for some reason the Gospel of Matthew was in it. She read it and concluded those ideas were too far-fetched to really believe. Better stick with more sane philosophy. She had a neighbor that had taken an interest in her, for she “Had just found Christ”. She used to be an Episcopalian, but had married a Jew, so officially she had become a Jewish convert. She asked her to come to a bible study to find out. My wife was good at excuses, but after a couple of months, she just said: “Yes, I have lots of questions for the teacher, so I will come with you once. If I don‘t like it, don’t ask me again”. They went, she had lots of questions, the teacher was patient and answered as much as she could in a very loving way. So my wife went again to find the answer to the rest of her questions. And again she went. Then she tried the teacher’s answers on me, and we had many long discussions. One day she just decided to believe, and she started to work on me, since I did not have any answers.  I thought; this is good for her, her problems are solved, this is good alternate reality building, but it is just that. We all need an alternate reality to be able to cope with this brave new world.

We had tried to try to go back to Sweden or Denmark, but the doors were closed. Coming back to U.S. after four weeks of vacation my wife decided to take up aerobic exercise and the local Baptist church had started aerobics. The old friend was there to prod her along. I did not think favorably of Baptists since childhood, after my father, a secondary school teacher had had a student, a foster child that was kicked out after he started smoking. “They did that, because they were Baptists.” Those prejudices from youth linger. But it was free, so I said: go ahead. Then she started to attend church, first alone, then with our children. One day she came home after church and said: We didn’t have any choir today, for there were no tenors.

I smiled. Then, that Monday night I had a problem from work I took home to try to flowchart and debug. I put on the record changer and put on a record I had received as a farewell gift from my choir in Sweden. The music was Bach cantatas. I did not notice the record changer kept playing the same LP over and over again. Suddenly I looked up. I had solved the problem. And it was three o’clock in the morning. Waking up I realized: Bach knew something I don’t. I better find out what it is. So on Thursday I said to my wife: Are there any regulations to join the choir? She jumped on the phone and asked the secretary. “Can he? He is not saved?”  Wel,l the secretary said, I never heard this before, but you don’t have to be a member to join the choir, so I guess it is o.k.

That Sunday, my first Sunday in church, I sang in the choir. After a few months I started to feel like a hypocrite. The pastor spoke, everybody prayed for me, but it was still all an alternate reality. I thought to myself: I better find out once and for all if this is real. So I started to read the Bible, King James Version. Since my wife had read the Gospel of Matthew and rejected it, this was a good place to start. That would give me time, and yet I would be doing what I could. So I did. Everything went fine until I came to Matthew 27, the place where the Pharisees ask Pilate for a guard.  “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: So this last error shall be worse than the first.” That’s when it hit me. That is exactly what I had done. By denying the reality of Christ, and his resurrection I was still locked in my alternate reality. This changed everything. He is Risen!

Fast forward to Sep 11, 2001, the day that changed reality again. The forces of evil are more active now than at any time in history, and we will never look the same at the world again. But I got back to normal. A few years passed.

My wife is Danish, so I follow the Danish news. The newspaper Jyllandsposten had issued a competition for the best cartoon of Mohammed. This was in response to a threat from the Muslims. There had been an honor killing in Denmark, and the Danes decided: We will not put up with this. So they gave lengthy sentences to all six involved, including the taxi-driver, since he too was in on it. They got death threats for the way they reported it. So they decided: We are not afraid. Over a hundred deaths have occurred since the publication of the cartoons. The Danish flag now has the honor of being burned together with the Israeli and U.S. flag.

I followed in horror. Is this the face of Islam? Why do they not condemn the insanity of it? I told the Lord in prayer. I am going to find out about the Muslims. The Lord answered: You may do that, but first you must learn the Holy Bible fully. So I put the Bible to Power-point, 11000 slides and growing, then I put the Koran to power-point, 2040 slides. I was disappointed in it. The message from Mecca is peace and tolerance. The message from Medina is War, holy war, arbitrary laws(sharia), and mind-control. This is evil.

Last year came the latest installment on my transformation. When the news of the tragedy  in Arizona broke I immediately jumped on the internet to see what my friends and opponents in the blogosphere had to say about it, and a frightening picture emerged. In less than two hours over 50 entries blamed it on either the tea-party or Sarah Palin – or both. I was running behind. Nobody knew anything, but whatever it was, Sarah Palin and the tea-party were to blame. It was as if I was watching a well orchestrated conspiracy. This is not possible, I muttered to myself. My wife got worried. “Who are you talking to? She asked”. Nothing important, nobody, I answered, still staring at the screen in disbelief. Then it hit me. Yes, it is this bad. Islam is one force that is trying to take over, but this may be even worse.

After three days of watching the news develop, the acts were found to be performed by a pot-smoking Marxist anarchist with paranoid schizophrenia. Sarah Palin was still to be blamed, for “she is an idiot and does not know what she is talking about.” All she had done up to this point was to send out a short condolence, on her usual communications media, no direct contact with the press, which they complained about, and they were going to let her have it.

Sarah put out an 8 minute compassionate video, a vigorous defense of free speech and constitutional principles, but she acknowledged no guilt in the tragedy. MSNBC proclaimed the end of her political career. So I watched the video for myself. This was pure Sarah. With two words she managed to change the whole tone of the dialog. This time the two words were “Blood libel”. I had no idea what that meant, but it must be bad, because the media said it was a very inappropriate choice of words. So I looked it up on Google, and my eyes opened wide. Never in my life have I seen more apt words to describe the happenings of the week. One by one people started to defend Sarah. After the obligatory “I am no fan of Sarah” they grudgingly acknowledged that in a wider context this is probably the most fitting term possible to describe this type of false accusations. Again, having been low for three days I raised my chin: Yes things are still possible in America, but only if we fight back, not with violence, but with words that cut and heal, and with votes.

Later that night at the memorial service President Obama held a rallying speech complete with t-shirts depicting “Together we thrive” thereby starting the 2012 election campaign.

By the way, “Together we thrive” correctly interpreted means that an individual is important only as part of a collective.

I now know we have a tough row to hoe, but it must be done, or the weeds will choke what is left of our freedom. With the words of the original Liberty bell:

“Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” (part of Leviticus 25:10)