As most of you know, I've been troubled by the recent behavior of certain political folks and of some of the protesters.
Most of the so-called Tea Party members say that they are Christians. I noticed the following passage while reading the other day and thought it might give some who read it pause to think about their actions from the biblical perspective.
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2 Peter 2: 9-11
"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord."
Many people see themselves as generally good and therefore really have no need for putting an awful lot of effort into this specifics of God?s word. We all have faults we need to correct. We all have thoughts and heart felt beliefs that separate us from God. We all need to make a specific effort to draw nearer to God, or to whatever moves you.
I for one never believed in God like most do. I believe in his teachings, not the blind worship. I don't attend church because it's not required to do so. I don't read the bible because those words are already in my heart.
Yes it is. In fact, Jesus Himself said the very same thing while explaining the church leadership of the day. Think of it! Jim Rojas didn't realize that he's a preacxher of the gospel. :^)
There's no point in trying to explain it to you. Because you may be completely disengenuous you would not accept anything I say.
Alternatively (and much worse) because you might actually believe these people are good, God-fearing Americans they claim to be, the argument would prvide nothing but further opportunity for you to play games with me. I choose not to engage in that sort of thing.
No offense is intended. I simply don't want to spend my energy arguing with you.
If you were sincere about not wanting to argue you wouldn't have posted this in the first place.
You seem to equate the threats to several members of congress to members of Tea Parties which has yet to be proven in fact it appears to usually be the exact opposite, for example the only member of that militia group that was recently arrested with any proven party membership is a registered Democrat, same with the guy who shot into Mickey Kantor's headquarters. The supposed racial slurs and spitting against a group of black congressman during a Tea Party has yet to be proven and only one member of that group seems to be making accusations, no film, no witnesses, no nothing. So far I've yet to see any Tea Party events dissolve into an angry mob trashing the surrounding area and making death threats that are often seen done by events sponsored by the left, according to the latest survey they appear to mostly be average citizens who've never protested anything before in their lives and strangely enough 2 out of every 5 are Democrats unhappy with members of their own party. If a few nuts? Sure but all studies so far indicate very few.
You also seem to have no issue whatsoever with the President and leaders of the current congress who, in addition to a massive increase in deficit spending, have no qualms about outright bribery and bending House and Senate rules to pass a massive government healthcare plan that nobody seems to have read or knows what exactly is in it. That I find rather strange.
It's simple, now that the left is in power, the folks on the right are now doing the same sort of stuff the to the folks on the left that the folks on the left did to the folks on the right back when they were in power. Of course the folks on the left are crying foul 'cause now they are the one's getting hammered - so they are saying the same things about the folks on the right holding signs protesting the folks on the left that the folks on the right said about the folks on the left holding signs protesting the folks on the right.
see - simple
"What a field day for the heat, A thousand people in the street, A-singin songs and a-carryin' signs, Mostly say Hurray for our side..."
It's not that simple. When Bush came to power, we did cry foul because we believed the USSC played politics, among other things. Sure, we protested, but no one called for violence. No one made threats on the lives of Republicans. No one, especially none of the losing Democratic (note: the word is "Democratic", not "democrat") candidates suggested that people come to Washingtion "Armed and Dangerous". None our presidential candidates went around, as Sara Palin has, encouraging a "revolution". This has been like no other presidential term in our history.
I personally believe that a significant part of Tea Party motivation is race hatred, though that's just my gut reaction with no specific evidence so I'm not offering it as proof, only saying what I think. I fear that if the right doesn't slow this down we may have an assassination.
Whatever happens in the long run, nothing that the hard-line right has done this year is in any way patriotic. It's just vulgar, power and money-grubbing, lying hatred of the worst kind and it is not American! We all say this is the gretest country on Earth. It's time we all started acting as though we believed that. And that last part applies to some on the left as well. I'm not unaware of some of the selfish, crooked acts among members of the Democratic party.
OK, allow me to explain without passing judgment on you or your "outlook".
There is some debate among biblical scholars as to the authenticity of 2 Peter. However, assuming that the book is authentic, its main emphasys is dealing with problems among the faithful. My purpose in posting was to share what the Bible has to say about the way we ought to speak about our leaders.
In sharp contrast to the things I see going on among the hard right, I have a "cousin-in-law" (marrying my cousin) Gary, who is a hard-line, right-wing, gun-toting, farmer (yeah, we still have farms in Sarasota county). During the election we would argue continually over the merits of first Hillary vs McCain and then Obama vs McCain. All this was never in angry tones, just deeply committed beliefs in a set of ideas about what is best for our country.
The day after the election was over I asked Gary how he fealt. His reply? "He's my President now. I'll take abullet for him." Gary is the kind of person who, if he says it, he'd do it. He's a patriot first and a Gof-fearing Republican second. Sad to say when I look in the mirror I don't measure up to that level, but I'm working on it. No offense but how about you? How about any of us?
I hope neither this nor my original comment on this thread are taken as accusatory or judgmental. They wre and are intended to provoke us to think about how we think and speak about our leaders. I've already said that I realize I didn't treat Bush with the respect due his office regardless what I thought of him personally. What about the rest of us? Can you say that we measure up to the biblical standard in this area? I'm not asking if you believe in Jesus, only about the way we all live in comparison to what this passage sugests is the right way.
I'm asking one more thing. Can you limit your reply to what we're taling about? I'm not asking for your assessment of me as a person. That's irrelevent to the conversation and is only done by some folks to divert from the subject.
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