How should a Catholic vote?

Jeannie Gaffigan, the hot pocket comedian's wife, tries to tell us why it's the right and proper thing for a catholic to vote Democrat.  

The pope has had his own strong words for American Catholics in recent months. Following the killing of George Floyd, Francis said in a message to the people of the United States, “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.” The dignity of the human person extends to all of us created in his image, both in the womb and out of the womb. As a Catholic I desire to support a society that strives to protect every life. Systemic racism in our culture has led to such economic and social inequality that it is virtually impossible to have a “culture of life” without addressing the fact that we have been complicit in a long history of devaluing our fellow human beings based on the color of their skin or the way they came to this country.

Can we really sit in our homes with our private health insurance and judge our neighbors who have nothing? How can we strive to heal the tragedy of abortion without acknowledging the deep wounds and life-threatening crises that drive people to it? How arrogant we are to condemn women of any color living in poverty, faced with the unimaginable and horrific circumstances that would drive them to seek an abortion, without taking a good look at how we have failed them by not offering adequate health care, child care, education and employment opportunities? Do we ever stop to think about how far we are from achieving a “culture of life” in light of the well-documented and video-recorded police brutality against Black Americans? Are refugee children, homeless pregnant women or the prisoners on death row not also “society’s most vulnerable”?

Her logical thought process goes something like this.  

• Abortion is bad
• Republicans created a system that might cause people to seek abortions
• Yes, democrats love abortion but they want to make the system better
• Therefore, vote for the people who are actively trying to make more laws allowing something that I already agreed was bad...

In order for that logic to work she would have to prove without a shadow of a doubt that Republicans didn't just work to create a bad system, but instead worked specifically and actively to make laws that allowed people to go out and legally murder these "women of any color living in poverty".  

I would guess that voting is not terribly important in God's eyes, but if one chooses to vote that it would be fairly important to Him that you not vote for people who actively create laws allowing abortion. 

They don't really mean it

Recently, my wife got an email from a local church inviting moms back to mom's group.   The verbiage included "just come as you are (you can even wear pajamas!)".  This church is one she has been involved in and was great to see such an invitation after they shut down basically all events due to Covid19 fears.  My wife wanted to test the waters though.  She replied asking "When you said come as you are, does that mean masks are not required?"

They quickly responded saying that masks are required and the only way she could attend without a mask was via Zoom.

The Churchian leadership are Prometheans.  Many good people will be fooled and many more will go along willingly.  The lyrics of the droning modern "worship" song Come Just as You are even refutes their current stance.  The song itself being a debauchery and inversion of the classic hymn Just as I am.  The new position is "Come just as you are unless you don't have a mask, we fear corona more than Christ."

Come just as you are
Hear the spirit call
Come just as you are
Come and see
Come receive
Come and live forever

Remember, we are not given a spirit of fear.  God calls us all to himself and He doesn't require a mask, he requires repentance.  

The "Faith leaders" of Church, Inc.

The liberals think that "faith leaders" are going to save them from 4 more years of a Trump presidency.

The prometheans are making inroads into your church buildings.  A tactical advantage to be sure but not a mortal blow.  Morality is intrinsically tied to the church and just as they have taken morality from the fabric of American culture, replacing the church body with Church, Inc. is the next step.  We would do well to remember that Christ's followers ARE the church.

Consider this video where Billy Graham and the interviewer talk about a "wideness in God's mercy."  God's mercy is not wide or general, is all-encompassing for those who seek it, but the road to get there is narrow.

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:14

 

Don't send your kids to college

Especially not Liberty University.  $10.5 million dollars will be going directly to a literal cuckold.  

All the money you've put into getting your kids an indoctrination education, all that time and hope and this "Christian" university just gave it away.  Did they actually help your kids?  Did you go into debt to send your kids there?  Did your kids go into debt to attend?

Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself. - Ezekiel 18:13

Stop supporting Church, Inc. and start supporting your actual church family.  Support your local Christian brothers and sisters, you don't need these buildings and institutions that are built to serve the god of this world.

A story of convergence

On Convergence

I moved my family to an almost rural community in Central Virginia just over four years ago.  After a while I felt called to bring my family to a local church community and we started going to a rural Baptist church. 

The old folks appeared to have a handle on the community and control of the culture even though they had a very liberal pastor in place.  There was little convergence at this point however because he did not control the people who controlled the culture.

After about 5 months of attendance, the liberal pastor left and things got even better.  Our community seemed to flourish.  A few months later, however the church got an interim pastor who had spent his career with the International Mission Board organization.

Soon after becoming the interim pastor, the "pastor search committee" - which I will point out did not consist only of the elders of the church but was at least half women - decided to make a motion to have the interim pastor join full-time.  We weren't members yet so we couldn't vote and my few reservations may not have completely convinced me it was the wrong move anyway.  The church voted and he became the full-time pastor.

Immediately, he cut the number of hymns down from 5 to 3, changed our traditional Doxology to a simple and ill-fit melody, changed service time from 10:15 to 11:00, and soon fired the old lady who played piano for years and replaced her with a young buck.  Soon after, he did a library liquidation and sold or gave away all the books in the church's library. 

The preaching now started including quips about the "corporate sin" of racism that is common for us Virginia Confederates.  Messages about a generic love that will "break down walls between communities" abounded.  Missionaries were brought in to teach about the importance of caring for refugees.