Caffeinated Thoughts

Today is the Anniversary of the Worst School Massacre in United States History.
The need for compromise when we won’t.
The Law of Unintended Consequences
Huckabee, Obama and Morally Repugnant Political Whores

Today is the Anniversary of the Worst School Massacre in United States History.

Posted: 18 May 2012 03:13 AM PDT

“America's bloodiest crime against students wasn't committed by white teenagers in black trench coats, tired of being bullied. Nor was it carried out by an angry Chinese graduate student disappointed that a rival claimed an academic honor he was hoping for. It wasn't a gangster, a preppie, a nerd or a geek.

No. It was none of these. It was 55-year old school board member and building maintenance man, Andrew Kehoe of Bath, Michigan. Sometime, perhaps a day or two before May 18, 1927, Kehoe bludgeoned to death his weak and chronically ill wife. Then on the morning of the 18th he set his whole farm on fire, tying up his animals so even they couldn't escape the flames of his rage. While the fire trucks from town headed towards his farm, an elaborate time bomb he had concocted and concealed in the floors at the elementary school exploded, killing dozens of children and teachers. Not yet finished, he then drove to the school and blew up three more victims and himself, apparently firing a shot gun into the back of his dynamite and shrapnel-filled car. All told, 45 souls were murdered by Kehoe. (That is almost as many as the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings combined.)

The only thing Kehoe left behind was a homemade sign attached to a fence near his burned-down home that read "CRIMINALS ARE MADE, NOT BORN", showing that Kehoe, about to become one of the most blood-thirsty murderers in U.S. history, believed it was not his fault. Evidently he was so angered that his own taxes had been raised to fund the building of the new school, he destroyed it. And like all unrepentant sinners, he blamed others for his sins: from the superintendent who supported the school bond issue, to the children who gained from his loss, to the teachers who taught them. He killed them all. Or at least he tried. Half of the explosive devices he secreted into the school during his year-long plot didn't ignite or the body count would have been much higher.” (Adapted from With Christ in the Voting Booth by David J Shedlock)

Today is the 85th Anniversary of Kehoe’s bloody crusade against his school system. It would be easy to paint this guy as your typical anti-tax Republican, but that would miss the mark. That would be to join Kehoe in blaming everyone else for his own troubles and his own evil reactions. We might also be tempted to join the chorus of others who when “these things happen” say he just snapped. The problem with that theory is that it took the guy over a year to plan this carnage. There is only one way to explain this. Evil and Sin exist.

It is the primary purpose of government to restrain wicked acts of this sort. But when fear of hell disappears from the churchgoers, or others think that by perpetrating these things they get to have many wives in the next life., nothing can stop this. Changes in government won’t make much difference. Nothing, except the gospel can stop a country from falling into anarchy.And that gospel first has to be restored to a church which is distracted with softball leagues, food conferences and monument worship. It is time to pray for the people of God and her pastors.

The need for compromise when we won’t.

Posted: 17 May 2012 07:32 PM PDT

Compromise can be a great asset in discussions of pertinent ideas such as religion or politics. The history of the US has shown our people having a great ability to compromise in order to maintain order and proceed forward in an orderly manner. One can look at the politics of this nation and see where it has happened, but compromise is predicated on the ability and willingness of the two parties to reach a common middle ground. When that ceases to be possible confrontation can ensue. Such confrontation arose in 1860 over States Rights and Slavery and led to the American Civil War, and cost the US 620,000 dead.

We seem to be reaching a point where we are losing the ability to compromise between Left and Right, Democrat and Republican in the US. Now I am not proposing another Civil War could be in the making. I don’t know. I do see a disturbing tendency in society for both sides to talk at each other, but not talk to each other. There is no communication, only rhetoric, and the rhetoric has become more violent in its nature and disturbing. It has been more hideous with comments by liberal pundits Ed Shulz and Bill Maher, but even conservative Rush Limbaugh has made the mistakes of sinking to the level of the liberals.

We have lost the ability to find commonalities between our positions and work towards solutions. For example, in the late 1980′s when I was a college student I had friends who were liberals of the day. They were pro-choice and I was pro-life, but we could both agree that unwanted pregnancies needed to be reduced. We could agree that abortions were the worst possible form of birth-control, and that better methods should be desired. My friends who were pro-choice still wanted abortions available if desired and I did not, but I could also see that if unwanted pregnancies were reduced that the numbers of abortions would be dramatically reduced….the fewer abortions, the less outrage over the numbers of unborn babies killed, and the less of a tragedy there would be. If both sides worked together and we compromised perhaps in theory abortion would be on the books and used ocassionally, but the problem of 1.5 million abortions per year would also disappear. I don’t see discussions like my friends and I formerly having happening anymore.

This leads to the question of who is blame? In most human relationships both sides tend to be at fault to some degree. Perhaps in today’s world the conservatives are also at fault, but I don’t see it.

Essentially the modern Republican party and conservative movement have either stayed where they were or moved somewhat to the left. They haven’t become reactionary trying to eliminate all social spending. They haven’t tried to move the voting age back to twenty-one. They have actually supported more social spending and more health care “reform.” Many conservatives have supported measures to combat violence against homosexuals or homosexual unions, but marriage? The liberals, on the other hand, have moved towards a more and more Marxist position. The election of Barack Obama and his Marxist war on the upper class have driven the left beyond being left to being socialist. The modern democrats are no longer for democracy, but for statism or a form of facism. This is making compromise harder. It is harder to compromise when the other side keeps shifting further away and when they harden their rhetoric. It is harder to compromise when the sides lose the ability to respect and work with each other. It is harder to work together when the one side demands compromise from the other, but refuses to compromise themselves. This is what has happened between left and right in the US.

Where do we go? Who knows? Race wars? Civil Wars? Civil unrest?

Who knows…..

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Posted: 17 May 2012 03:58 PM PDT

"The Law of unintended consequences holds that almost all human actions have at least one unintended consequence. Unintended consequences are a common phenomenon, due to the complexity of the world and human over-confidence." – Author Unknown

The Law of Unintended Consequences, as defined above, is not a divine mandate, but more in line with proverbial wisdom, and is typically applied in sociology or economics. Inflation is an unintended consequence of economic prosperity, for instance. We will save discussions about the economy for another day. I actually want to talk about theology. Specifically, I want to talk about anthropology – the doctrine of man, and a very common unintended consequence of our moral behavior.

The Bible is clear in Lev 19, 20, and 21 (several verses), which Peter quotes in 1 Peter 1:15 – 16, that we are to be holy because our God is holy. As Christians, we all know this, and we all desire it. It's what God desires of us and for us. Unfortunately, regardless of our high opinion of ourselves, none of us is very good at it. That's not an excuse. It's simply the truth. If we look at God's standard for holiness, sinless perfection, we all fall miserably short; not occasionally, but constantly. So what is a Christian to do?

What most devout Christians do, is set out on a spiritual self-improvement project. We think, "I gotta get holy. I had better pray more, read more, get into an accountability group, get internet filters on my computer, and commit myself to greater self-control." To quote the great theologian, Dr. Phil (obvious sarcasm), "How's that working for you?" Sure, all of those Christian disciplines should be part of a healthy growing disciple's life, and some of those practical safeguards can be very helpful. But, in and of themselves, they will not make us holy. This is where the unintended consequences come in.

If we look to external sources to modify our behavior, even spiritual ones, then we are setting ourselves up for failure. As we "try our best" to perform, as we strive to do all the right things, and yet we still fall flat on our faces in our attempts be holy; at some point we lose heart. We give up. And finally, we rebel. The very thing that we thought would save us will eventually crush us (Rom 7:10). This is an inevitable and life-altering unintended consequence of trying to be holy through religious effort.

Now there are some that are deeply steeped in legalism and moralism that are not crushed by their effects; actually, quite the opposite. They are puffed up by them. These are those that don't realize they are falling flat on their faces. They have come to believe that either God grades on a curve and because they are better than most (in their mind), they are accepted by Him; or they believe that they are actually meeting God's holy standard of perfection most of the time – and they need a little grace to close the gap when they slip up (misinterpretation of 1Jn 1:9). That means they they need to ask forgiveness for those minor shortcomings and get back to their holy high performance. That's not Christian doctrine, that's Mormonism.

When we have an honest appraisal of our performance, and realize how miserably short we fall of holy perfection, we are prone to despair. We think, "We are called to be holy, and we aren't very holy at all. Self-help and intense religious effort has only left me disappointed and even, at times, in rebellion." We know that it is not only impossible to be that holy, but even claiming to be is an insult to the Cross. "OK. So now what?"

I'm glad you asked. What we need is a righteousness that comes from outside of us. Our holiness is a gift from God not a result of even our most valiant spiritual efforts. The love and acceptance we enjoy, from our holy God, is based purely and eternally on the finished work of Christ alone – once and for all – yesterday, today, and forever (Titus 3:5).

When we learn to embrace this gracious truth, it leads to an unintended consequence of its own (a good one); we actually begin to live in a holy manner (not perfect, but God honoring). Our love for the One who loved us first actually motivates us to live the life He called us to: not because we have to, not because we need to, not because God won't accept us if we fail, but because we can; because we want to! Our hearts swoon for the One who loves us unconditionally. The Holy Spirit, the helper, then goes about His ministry to glorify Jesus; in the world and in us. As we then, set out to love God and live for His glory because we know that we are the objects of His perfect gracious love, an unintended consequence occurs – we actually start living holy lives.

Huckabee, Obama and Morally Repugnant Political Whores

Posted: 17 May 2012 06:11 AM PDT

I cringed when I wrote the word "whores" in the title of this post, but hey if it's good enough for the English Standard Version of the Bible, it's good enough for me. I don't know how I missed this fundraising letter, but apparently a fundraising letter was sent out with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's signature by Citizens United that said President Obama surrounds himself "with morally repugnant political whores."

Here's the letter below:

Huckabee

Mike Huckabee issued a statement in response:

This was a complete surprise to me. I most certainly did not approve such language and would never have used that kind of repulsive rhetoric. I repudiate that language, find it offensive to me, and have ordered that it be pulled immediately.

He didn't need to issue a statement for me to know that this language didn't come from him or was approved by him. It is so completely out of character. Citizens United's spokesperson, Jeff Marschner said that David Bosse, President of Citizens United, didn't approve the language either. So it looks like Citizens United has a "rogue operative" on their hands. I just want to know what in the world was going through the mind of the person who wrote this that they though this was ok for any type of official (or unofficial for that matter) communication?

Predictably liberals jumped all over this in order to impugn Huckabee's character. Oh brother.

HT: Memeorandum

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vineri, 18 mai 2012

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