Israel is in trouble. Once again their mouth has written another check that their backsides can’t cash. Bravado and excessive testosterone have been trumped by a whole host of unconsidered realities now coming back like chickens to roost. Should we be surprised? Judging by their past actions and a nagging inability to listen and heed a good word in due season, Israel’s actions are as predictable as day and night.

Are we to be held captive to the continuous folly of the Israeli government’s mindset? God is clearly telling Israel will be like a knife twisting in our backs until He returns and takes His throne to rule over the nations. Does that mean we sit back and let Israel hold the world hostage? As Christians, we are commanded to not only to confront, but to fight evil, suited up for battle in the Armor of God, so my guess is no, we are not to turn a blind eye and pretend we don’t see the elephant on the couch.

Part One         Part Two         Part Three

Tip: Right click on links, choose “open in new window”, and you can read each segment without leaving this blog.

I’m about as an unpopular person as one can be these days; I’m Christian, American, formerly identified as a Republican, and definitely evangelical. This combination will definitely not win me any accolades among any group – even fellow Christians, as I have discovered.

Truth is a sketchy thing, demoted to being “relative” instead of “absolute”, which is why we’re all in trouble.

On Friday afternoon, I discovered on a large Christian news website a story headline that read like this: “Terrorists Back the Democrats”, and “It’s Official! Terrorists are Democrats!” As I started to write an angry letter to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade for attempting to influence the U.S. election system (which really amounts to throwing the election to the Republicans), I heard God’s quiet voice in my head. “How do you know this story is true?” I realized I didn’t.  ...more

It’s easy to believe that some level of change will take place now the elections are behind us, and to some degree there will be. What I fear are the changes no one is talking about or might notice – the regrouping of the GOP, Israeli interests, and the religious right wing. There are two old sayings that come immediately to mind: never corner a wounded animal, and never come between a mother bear and her cubs. I’d almost rather be bear food than GOP religious right wing chow. Knowing history repeats itself, we must be hyper vigilant during this break or else we will be back on the merry-go-round, spinning out of control.

For those who are quick to assume, “ahhh, here’s another angry Democrat!”, you’re wrong. I’m a recent convert from the GOP to a third party, and I’m an evangelical Christian. I changed my party, and I fully admit, my religion has morphed into something that isn’t biblical. It would be fair to say several groups for political exploit, have hijacked Christianity.

Throughout the 1980’s we were told if the GOP had all three houses, they could cut spending and trim down the government. We gave them the chance in 2002, and the world took the roughest beating the neo-conservatives could dish out. What the hell happened?  ...more

I was watching TV the other day when something bothered me. The former Secretary of State James Baker III was chatting away on the PBS Charlie Rose Show, speaking about Lebanon and Hezbollah. The more he talked, the more it bothered me. I’ve been aware for some time of the Iraq Study Group he heads up and their recommendations to help save President Bush’s backside, so I was listening without the respect I used to have for the man. I listened for his unspoken agenda. When old politicians from previous administrations start showing up in Washington on a regular basis, you should sit up and take notice. In his case, he wasn’t there to sell his recommendations for the Iraq Study Group; he was peddling a new book he’s written.

Either way, as I said, when old warhorse politicians start flooding Washington, it’s best to pay attention. Baker isn’t the only one to have surfaced in recent times to the eyes of the mainstream press – Henry Kissinger is back as well. I’m doubtful it’s for tea and cookies at the White House; you don’t get in there without a donation or an idea that will bail you out of trouble. In this case, both men are advising Bush #43 on war – as if he needs help in how to stay in the arena and get more innocent soldiers killed. That’s what the Pentagon’s budget shortcuts are for – how else can they afford substandard body armor and vulnerable Hummers? “Err…according to the budget, we can’t afford any more phosphorus weapons, but we’ve decided to give you roman candles to light things up instead!” “From bad to worse!” is their standing motto.

The more I watch politicians – formally retired and those who do nothing and act retired – the stranger the thoughts become. I sat there and watched the interview, hearing a passing reference to the “Party of God”, and then it really hit me:

What’s the difference between Hezbollah and the Neo-conservative Republicans, who both claim to be the “Party of God”?   ...more

The elections are over and the dust has begun to settle. Among the many surprises last Tuesday brought America was its first Muslim in Congress. I didn’t think too much about it at the time, and to some degree, I’m still not sure what it means.

Truth be told, a different series of thoughts have been rolling around in my brain for a few weeks. I relaxed on my bed and carefully combed through six pages of the “Amman Message”, but this time, I had a pen and highlighters handy to jot down in the margins any thing that hit me as being “wrong” or somehow “off”. As I marked up the document, one word kept jumping out at me: “nation”. On the face level, it’s quite innocuous, however, the more the document talked about “the nation” and Islamic principles, I couldn’t shake this nasty thought: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, not the Middle Eastern definition of Islam.

Could part of the reason Americans don’t like Muslims be in part, due to the very poor image of the Nation of Islam? How many people blindly assume they are the same because they contain the same word: “Islam”? ....more

I was browsing through a website today when I came across an article titled, “Israel has the right to defend itself”, and although most of the world has heard President Bush reiterate this statement during the Israeli–Lebanese war, it suddenly struck me how this line has become repeated gospel to every Christian Zionist, republican, and those still convinced and angry nineteen Arabs hijacked four flights on September 11, 2001. Out of the blue the alarm bells went off and the thought hit me squarely between the eyes: “this is propaganda….this is a fallacious argument!”

Soberly I sunk into my chair, realizing this simple statement had slipped under my radar screen all this time. I flashed back to my rhetoric and logic class in college when one of my assignments was to watch TV commercials and collect newspaper clippings, searching for examples I had been oblivious to.  ...more

I was watching television the other day when the major networks broke into regularly scheduled programming to carry the President’s second press conference in less than a month. Although he said many things while saying nothing, one grabbed me by the throat and posed a very heavy question.

To paraphrase, President Bush said we were in Iraq to help bring democracy to the Middle East (after Saddam Hussein wasn’t originally found, along with the fabricated weapons of mass destruction story. Everyone knows this was the third strategy plan change). It wasn’t that long ago that Condi Rice was slapped across the face by the Arab world when she discussed the “birth pangs of the Middle East”. It’s not hard to figure out who the “daddy” was in this case. These two statements came together and hit me with a question I hadn’t pondered before: is it possible for a hypocritical nation like the United States to export democracy?

How can the United States actually “export” something that is being stripped bare from the citizens of this country? The citizens of this nation are being treated like little kids who can’t take care of themselves without Uncle Sammy’s supervision, when in reality the elected officials are OUR employees. If you haven’t noticed, our employees have been robbing the store blind through pork barrel projects and a big brother spy government.  ...more