From Cato:
Indeed, the administration’s programs remind us that today is July 2, the 233rd anniversary of the day on which the Continental Congress voted for American independence, issuing a document that declared, among other things,

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance

.

We are so far removed from 1776 that we’ve forgotten why it is they craved freedom, and have given ourselves to a quick, painful, regression to slavery. Kyrie elaison.

Davids home now: Can there be a right to Medical Care
When I was in medical school, there was no insurance. People got care. Doctors charged and received payment with a direct doctor-patient relationship that was mutually sustainable and satisfactory, medically and financially. Poor people received care through the dedication and compassion of the doctor and community.

I was taught, “Save the widow the farm.” That is, when Farmer Joe comes in with a lung cancer, one might encourage him to undergo extensive, expensive surgery that would require that the farm be mortgaged. However, the results were dismal. After Joe’s death, the widow frequently was unable to pay the mortgage and lost the farm.

Instead, one could explain the situation with compassion and frankness and Farmer Joe and his wife, using the same frugality and value system by which they had otherwise lived, would accept the reality of the situation, a reality that bespoke a meager chance of benefit that was not appropriately affordable. Joe’s plight would be alleviated by all palliative means medicine had to offer. This rational, realistic decision was the norm. Indulgence in futile care to the point of threatening the whole system was not a problem.

This is a great blog post from a retired doctor on what’s gone wrong in health care in the last 50 years or so.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalms 2:1-12, ESV)

Today, many people are having reactions to last night’s news. And they will continue reacting as more news comes in today. The voting is over, and as the final ballots are counted news will abound.

In January Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States. And many of those who did not vote for him are fretting about what kind of Presidency he will have, and in a future post I will deal with that fretting.

First, though, about reactions. The King of Kings is still enthroned. And as I wrote yesterday, it is God who removes rulers and sets others in their places. In our republic He does that through the means of the voters and the electoral college–but it is God who does it. And God has determined that Barack Obama will be the next President.

And Christians will be tempted to react many different ways today.

To those who voted for McCain: He did not lose because of your brothers who did not vote for McCain. Do not curse your brothers who voted for third parties, or even those who voted for Barack Obama. Furthermore, consider the additional executive powers that you were just fine with President Bush exercising and remember why limited government is important: power shifts. And if you’re not comfortable with Barack Obama wielding certain powers you shouldn’t want George W. Bush to have them either. And sit down and pray for our nation, and for our next President (more on this in the next post). You voted as you thought you should, and God will bless that–rest in that and trust in God for what will come next.

To those who voted for a third party: Do not gloat over the inability of the centrist, “RINO” McCain to inspire the nation. Do not say “I told you so” or bite back about how horrible it is that your brothers voted differently than you did. Don’t revile VNS for bad third party reporting. Don’t take a “holier than thou” attitude towards others who voted differently. Sit down and pray for our nation, and for our next President. You voted as you thought you should, and God will bless that–rest in that and trust in God for what will come next.

To those who voted for Obama: Do not gloat in his victory. And more importantly, despite whatever inspired you about him, never forget that he is a man. And many men, good though they appeared, have been corrupted by power even if they were not before. Also, be prepared to watch him do things that he said he would that you paid no attention to like signing the Freedom of Choice act and pursuing the so-called fairness doctrines that may hamper your free speech. I will resist the temptation to say “I told you so” later, but consider those possibilities now and do not be surprised if those things happen. And do not look down on your brothers for not voting the way you did. I am very happy that the USA was willing to vote for a Black president so soon after our war, even though I am sad that the first Black president has the views he does. And maybe this will bring some of that healing, but do think of those who did not vote for him as racist or betrayers. And sit down and pray for our nation, and for our next President. You voted as you thought you should, and God will bless that–rest in that and trust in God for what will come next.

Finally, to the title and verses above. There are many in our nation who want no part in the holy God who created them. They want to cast the cords that bind them away–rage against the Most High. No matter what happens in the public square over the next four years, God is neither surprised nor shaken. In fact, the efforts to throw off His control he scoffs at. He laughs! Our King is still enthroned, and He watches over our world, and He will not be dethroned no matter who rules on earth over any nation.

So pray for President Bush. Pray for President-elect Obama. And trust in the King. And serve no King but Jesus Christ.

Every four years many Christians seem to forget that what matters most is not who is in the White House, but Who is on the throne. We will have a president, one way or another. More importantly, we have a King. His Name is Jesus.

Daniel 2:20-21, says:

“Daniel answered and said, ‘Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons, he removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;”

Most of us understand that Daniel was living in exile when he spoke these words. As we approach this year’s election many of us may hearken back to the 2000 presidential election. The election that didn’t seem to end.

As I write this I do not know who will be elected president. I don’t know whether he will prove to, in hindsight, be a good man or an evil man. But I do know, as Daniel did, that God alone removes kings and sets up kings.

When Daniel said this, he may have hearkened back himself to Isaiah’s words, when God calls the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar His servant. Daniel had no way of knowing when he said these words that Nebuchadnezzar would become a believer. But he did know what you and I can know-that God sets up kings.

We need not fear what lies ahead-because God knows and has promised that that gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church. We can bless the Name of God for ever and ever because He alone sets up kings. He alone gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. And He has promised to care for us.

Tomorrow morning many Christians may be fretting over the election of Barack Obama. The Republicans may lose even more ground in the Senate. No one expects them to even make up ground in the House of Representatives. But no matter who is ruling inside the DC beltway-Jesus rules from Heaven without fail.

Psalm 2 says that kings rage against the Messiah-but that the One in the Heavens laughs at them. He knows. He knows that they must stand on His lap to slap Him in the face. He knows that they are not mighty-and that they will fall at His command.

In 1997 I was diagnosed with adult onset asthma. Several times over the past years I have come close to death because I could not bring that next breath into my lungs. I have lived for years now with the ever present awareness that God holds every breath that we take-both for me and you.

Sparrows don’t fall to the ground without God’s knowledge. God knows when we sit down and rise up. He knows the words we speak before they are on our tongues. God’s thoughts for each of us outnumber the sand! Do we need to fear what man can do to us?

Psalm 118:6-9-”The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.”

Is our trust in princes? May it never be! Our help comes from the Lord on high-and He has not ceased to sit upon His throne for one nano second since He ascended on high almost 2000 years ago.

Whether our President be John McCain or Barack Obama-Jesus is our King. Let us live today and every day trusting in Him alone. Let us worship Him with every breath that is in us and glory in His providence every moment.

“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” (Ps. 118:29)

Public TVs are things people tend not to touch. So if you’re alone in a waiting room and turn the station to something you won’t be distracted by and turn the volume down, but not quite all the way down, people will assume that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

I found that extremely helpful today when I really didn’t want to see constant “we have an election in 2 weeks” coverage. :0)

On September 10, 2001, my parents had been visiting and we left the Peoria area, following their RV, for St. Louis. Just outside of St. Louis, only a few miles from the campground where we’d be staying that night, Clifford’s (the big red van, yes) fuel pump died. Dead. Six lane road, at the stop light, van full of children (including Peter who at the time was just shy of 3 months old).

We managed to get everyone loaded into the RV and I waited (somebody helped me tow the van out of traffic) for the AAA tow guy to come and take it to a mechanic. They were able to get it in and told us they could finish it in the morning.

The next morning (before we’d gone to pick up the van) dad and I were working on clearing a drain in the RV and somebody came up and told us that we should turn on a TV because somebody had just flown a plane into the World Trade Center. We missed the second plane, but we saw the people jumping and the buildings drop to the ground even as firefighters were running in.

Moriah, who was just five then, was asking questions and we were explaining, some of us through tears, what was going on. After a bit of watching we decided we needed to go on with our day.

When dad and I went to pick up the van, there were lines around the block at many gas stations. People were acting erratically.

We had planned to go up in the arch, but it was closed (or we knew it would be). But still we went to the zoo. I remember vividly finding a dollar bill in the parking lot and not letting the kids touch it because of the anthrax scare going on, and I remember there being a feeling of haze over our visit. I have more memories of the previous trip to the zoo when Elsie was a few months old than I do of this one.

Since that day, things have changed. But on that day, and every day, I am thankful that I know, would I have been in that building or someplace nearby, or in any dangerous place, that God is watching over me and that death takes me Home.

Many families still mourn the losses of that day, as do I. But one thing that was true before 9/11 and is true since: God is merciful and slow to anger and wishes to bestow His grace on all who will repent and turn to Jesus.

So in that crisis, and every crisis, an opportunity exists to turn to Jesus for forgiveness and life. He is the only one in whom it is found, and He gives it freely to all who ask in faith.

Sunday I posted that we are expecting another child. We are joyously fearful in that news. We are joyous because this child is a life, being knit together inside Theresa, and is an amazing and wonderful creature in God’s image. And we are fearful because between Peter and Margary we lost six children to miscarriages and at one point in 2006 we thought we were losing Margary too. And God allowed her to be with us and she is a deep joy in our lives. One that we wouldn’t trade for anything.

Death is ever present in this world. Death surrounds us every day, and we ignore it or embrace it, but it is there whether we remember or not. And Jesus comes to bring freedom from death and it’s power, and He will destroy death in the last day.

9/11 was the last day on earth for thousands of people. Today may be mine, and I pray that I will live it in the same way that I would if I knew that. And one day will be yours. Don’t hesitate to come to Jesus and be freed from the sting of death. Consider where you were, and where you should be. Come, repent, and live.

I found the contradiction ironic. Secular government coalition using the term “monstrous evil.” How do they know? What constitutes a monstrous evil? How do they know that this is evil?

I believe that the killing of defenseless people is murder, and therefore it is evil. Murder is a violation of God’s law (6th commandment, 5th for my Lutheran readers), and God says it’s wrong. Throughout God’s Word he elaborates on why and when killing is murder, and when it is not. And killing Jews because you don’t like them is murder (Hitler). Killing citizens because they might rise up against tyranny is wrong (Stalin). And killing your baby because he might change your life in a way you don’t like is murder (3,500 babies today, tomorrow and the next day).

And I can say this beyond doubt because I’m relying on a standard outside myself. This is evil. Life is good. End of argument.

For the Coalition for Secular government, defining good and evil is somewhat more complicated. Who gets to decide what is good and evil? Majority vote? Nine men and women in black robes? The Coalition for Secular Government?

You see, neither Hitler nor Stalin believed what they were doing was wrong. And they religiously attacked those who they hated, and used their power to kill.

People who do not love babies viciously attack the unborn and kill them. And other women are either fooled into believing their babies are not human or are lead to think they have no other options when in fact those options exist. To the tune of 1 baby murdered for every 3 babies born.

God created us to be worshiping beings. It’s written into our makeup as creatures created in His image. We were created to worship Him. homo adoranis. homo sapien is inadequate.

And that natural proclivity to worship is undeniable and inescapeable. Even the rebellious who turn their backs on God worship something. It may be a baseball team. It may be an ideal, even an ideal that is a good ideal like personal liberty. It may be personal peace and affluence. For everyone, there is something in your life that is worth more than anything else. Even if that something is yourself.

The Coalition for Secular Government worships secularism. They want to be freed from all reminders that they were created by a sovereign, loving, just, holy God. And they want to make laws with no foundation. And their false worship will drive them further from God as they try to bury His image into something unrecognizable. And Jesus Himself, in David’s Psalm 2 tells us that this will happen, even among the kings of the earth:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
(Psalms 2:1-3)

But they can’t. Because it’s inescapable. God exists. The next verse in Psalm 2 says He laughs at these efforts. His image in man exists. And so even they will use the term “monstrous evil,” even though they don’t have any way to define what is evil and what is good.

True religion involves turning to the creator and submitting to Him.

Sad thing is that you can’t. Not on your own at least. And that is why the loving, holy, sovereign God sent His own Son to become a man and to pay for the rebellion of people like you (and me!), and to bring into the world the power to turn from death and darkness and evil to a loving Son who takes us to the Father in forgiveness.

I know what is good and evil because Jesus came to divide the waters and to give evil people like me life for death and a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. May those at the Coalition for Secular Government turn to and honor King Jesus, and may each of us do this today and every day.

And I thought about that in terms of political incrementalism. Right now most people who are politically active are concerned about a broad base of issues. And there are many important issues out there: school choice, gun rights, abortion, the war, taxes ….

In the 1986 Action/Fantasy film Highlander, a group of “super-beings” has a lone calling of killing one another until there is only one left. “There can be only one!” is the cry as each one is killed, and only by cutting off the opponent’s head. And there can be only one–in that there can be only one thing that is most important.

Only one.

And I agree with Joshua that the choice isn’t even close, when it come to public policy #1: it’s abortion. Everything else is second by a country mile.

I also agree with Seth, that the battleground is not only, or even primarily, the political realm. And I will have more to say about that later on, but right now it’s major political season. The conventions just ended, and the national election is heating up. It’s less than two months away now.

And while “single issue voters” get dissed in the public eye sometimes, you can call me that. Though not really. I have lots of issues, just one that is a dealbreaker. You can’t want to kill babies. None. Not some, not most, not any. Not ones that come from the sin of the father, and not ones that belong to poor people. Nada. And if you’ve ever either helped support the killing of babies or you haven’t supported the end of the killing of babies you’re out. No vote from me. Doesn’t matter who all is on the ticket–I’ll write in “none of the above” if I have to.

There can be only one.

Some may accuse me of not being incremental in my thinking. I am very incremental in my thinking about the public sphere. Incremental in the sense that I think we take one thing at a time. Most of the people who might argue with my version of incrementalism should consider this: If you were a Russian at the time of Staln’s purges and were allowed to vote, would there be any issue to compare to saving the lives of those Stalin threatened daily? If you were living in Georgia, in the antebellum South, would there be any more important issue than the lack of equal treatment under the law to (watch the anachronism here) african-americans? If you were alive in Hitler’s German would there by any issue that even compared to the ongoing slaughter of the Jews?

Likewise there’s no better issue to start with than extending the rights of life and liberty to whom they divinely belong: every human being from conception to death. And if those rights are being denied by legalized murder, it is up to those who say they agree to act NOW and save those lives, by whatever legal means necessary until this scourge of legalized murder is driven from our land.

I highly recommend the movie, especially if you haven’t seen it.

It did, though, raise some thoughts.

First, the movie tells the story, with honor to Christ, of a man who loved Jesus and lived for Him. Preaching right up to the last minute. But never once did the producers let the Gospel of salvation through forgiveness in Christ alone by grace alone shine through. Not surprising, even in 1955, but sad.

Second, the church that Marshall pastored is still there in Washington DC. The seminary he attended is still standing. Both are abominably liberal (in the theological, not political sense). They have a wonderful history, and yet today they stand as a shadow of what they used to be. I found that sad, especially since this is less than 100 years ago.

Marshall’s highlight sermon (though I don’t know the veracity of this part of the film) was to a group of Naval Graduates on the day of his son’s birth and just before Pearl Harbor. He changed his sermon at the last minute, and preached, not knowing what was to come, about the brevity of life and the importance of liberty.

It was a great film, and despite its flaws I encourage you to see it if you haven’t. You will laugh and cry, and while there’s some singing it’s not a musical (that’s for you, Seth).

Marshall is a man to be admired, who went to Washington and made a difference. And he made a difference not by flowing with the town, but by rightly ministering to the people that God brough his way, including a freshman senator. I look forward to meeting Dr. Marshall one day.

Matthew 25 Network
mission statement
The Matthew 25 Network is a community of Christians – Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Evangelical – inspired by the Gospel mandate to put our faith into action to care for our neighbor, especially the most vulnerable.

The election of our public officials, and the politics they stand for, are a reflection of our core values. We believe that those elected to public office carry an important trust, as their decisions have a profound impact on our nation and our world.

We believe that people of faith should actively participate in the political process as an important avenue for social change. We are called by our faith to engage in the world as it is, while we seek after and hope for God’s Kingdom.

Therefore, while no elected official will be without flaw, we come together as individuals to support candidates for public office who share the values of the Matthew 25 Network: promoting life with dignity, caring for the least of these, strengthening and supporting families, stewardship of God’s Creation, working for peace and justice at home and abroad, and promoting the common good. (emphasis mine)

Sounds like something we can all get behind, right?

I want to call upon all Christians to actually vote in ways that will protect those who are most vulnerable: those children who our nation allows their own parents (with the help of licensed physicians, I might add) to murder while in the womb.

If you are a part of a church whose pastor is in the Matthew 25 Network, false shepherds who want to steal money from the rich in order to pay for, among other things, the murder of the unborn children of the poor, then you need to call on these leaders to repent.

May God have mercy on those who would lead so many astray.