Tag Archives: Christianity

Bill Lockwood: Identity Politics, Mind Pathogens, and Ketanji Brown Jackson 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

President Biden televised his phone call to Judge Ketanji Brown in which he informed her that she was nominated by him to the Supreme Court. In this short call Biden made clear the criterion by which he chose her. Diversity. As a black woman, she would help the Supreme Court to “look like much of America.”

Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) observed “Not a single justice has been a black woman. You, Judge Jackson, can be the first.”

He went on to say “It’s not easy being the first. Often, you have to be the best. In some ways, the bravest. Many are not prepared to face that kind of heat, that kind of scrutiny, that ordeal and glare of the national spotlight.” Then Durbin added, “We can be confident that the court, its role, and its decisions will be more understandable to the American public.”

Sen. Dick Blumenthal (D-Conn.) gushed, “The appointment of the first black woman to the Supreme Court—let’s be honest—should have happened years ago.” Her nomination “is a giant leap int the present for our country. Your service will make the court look more like America.”

What About This?

This is unabashed irrational identity politics. Appointing an individual to a legal position primarily because she is a black woman, regardless of her qualifications—whatever they may or may not be. She must “look like America” in order for her “decisions” to be “understandable” or acceptable to the American people.

First, this is the opposite of what Dick Durbin stated. He implies that opposition to her will be based upon the fact that she is a black woman, showing a glimpse into the race card that Democrats will use if Republicans oppose her. She doesn’t have to “be the best,” Dick—she will rely primarily upon her race for her selection. What bravery is there in that?

Second, this is a tacit admission by Democrats that Constitutional and case law will be interpreted with bias. This is what liberals prefer. Forget Lady Justice being blind-folded. This destructive mindset demands Lady Justice take off the blindfold and “interpret” law and make decisions based upon the color of one’s skin and one’s gender.

But legal interpretation is supposed to be a “rational process by which we understand” a text– “scrutinizing” the text of the Constitution. Instead, Democrats are endorsing a biased, colored view.

Author and professor Gad Saad, in his The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense, shows that this is the result of a culture that promotes “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” above excellence and merit. To see how this mental orientation is a “collective malady” that destroys one’s ability and capacity to think rationally—which Saad calls “idea pathogens,” consider the following example.

In April 2017, the inaugural March for Science rally was held across hundreds of cities around the world to reaffirm the “importance of science.” The key website for this event in 2017 read this way.

At the March for Science, we are committed to centralizing, highlighting, standing in solidarity with, and acting as accomplices with black, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander, indigenous, non-Christian, women, people with disabilities, poor, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, trans, non-binary, agender, and intersex scientists and science advocates. We must work to make science available to everyone and encouraging individuals of all backgrounds to pursue science careers, especially in advanced degrees and positions. A diverse group of scientists produces increasingly diverse research, which broadens, strengthens, and enriches scientific inquiry, and therefore, our understanding of the world.

As Saad comments, this is “anti-science gibberish.” “By definition, science is, or should be, an apolitical process. Scientific truths and natural laws exist independent of researchers’ identities.”

Satirically, he adds, “the distribution of prime numbers does not change as a function of whether the mathematician is a white heterosexual Christian man or a transgendered, Muslim, differently sized (obese) individual.” Neither does the “periodic table of elements” depend on “whether or not the chemist is a Latinx queer or a cis-normative Hasidic Jew.”

These foolish notions promoted by the March for Science highlight that in the ecosystem of university campuses “mind pathogens” spread like wildfire. It is a pathogen because “… the manner by which scientific information is codified within the pantheon of human knowledge is not culture-specific.”

“Science does not care about the privileged position of ‘ancestral wisdom,’ ‘tribal knowledge,’ and ‘the ways of the elders.’’ There are no revealed truths in science. There is no Lebanese-Jewish way of knowing any more than there is an indigenous way of knowing.”

The same holds true of law and legal interpretation. Although one may argue that there are various theories of legal interpretation, a fair evaluation of these shows that without ‘original intent’ there might as well not be a legal text at all, in the Constitution or statutory law. Application of law is color-blind and is not culture-specific. There is not a “variety” of “equally valid forms of discovery” and interpretation.

What Democrats are confessing is that we are laying aside rational and logical thinking in favor of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Since this is the case, we might as well not have a Constitution.

Bill Lockwood: Preparing for the Revolution 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

What exactly is occurring to America? We have erased our borders. Since Comrades Biden and Harris took the reins they have purposefully and illegally poured 2 million of the world’s poor Hispanics into our nation. Many more are on their way. Is this simply the result of “policies gone awry?” Is this all simply about importing more Democratic voters? Or, does diluting the population with millions of more welfare minorities from third world countries have a more sinister angle?

Consider the fact that, since the time of Barack Obama, the black communities in America have been mobilized for violent action, beginning at Ferguson, Missouri, where the Obama team inserted itself and maliciously fomented violent riots. Black Lives Matter, a communist organization, was born during his period. With the assistance of Antifa, another communist group, mobs rioted, looted, killed and burned their way across America in the summer of 2019—with the sponsorship of those today in power.

Wonder if this could happen again? Anger and violence continues to grow in America. Before looking at the end goal, let’s note the root.

Revolution and the Fundamental Transformation of America

Increasing anger and hate is traceable to the anger of Karl Marx, whose specter walks the halls of universities and colleges and whose philosophies are being ingrained in millions of collegiate “useful idiots”—as Vladimir Lenin called them. In his blockbuster new volume, The Devil and Karl Marx, author and professor Paul Kengor thoroughly documents how Marx’s demonic anger flowed through his economic theory and called for action—for violent revolution.

Recall that Barack Obama called for a fundamental transformation of American society, which merely echoed his real tutors, Marx and Engels through figures such as Frank Marshall Davis and Bill Ayers. Marx explained that in order to achieve “communist consciousness, and for the success of the cause, it is necessary that man himself should suffer a massive change.”

This change could only come about through “a revolution”, a process of “overthrowing” the old “filthy yoke and founding a new society only in a revolution.”

Liu Shao-Chi was the Chairman of the Peoples’ Republic of China and head of state from 1959-1968. In his 1965 book, How to be a Good Communist, he sums up the fact that Marxism-Leninism is the “science of revolution.”

Marxism-Leninism is the science of proletarian revolution, the science by which the working class builds socialism and communism … The science of Marxism-Leninism is of little value or no use to anyone who is not a genuine revolutionary, who is not a proletarian revolutionary to the core, who does not want to bring about socialism and communism throughout the world and emancipate mankind, to anyone who does not want revolution or is unwilling to carry it through to the end and wants to stop half-way.

Reading Marx and other socialists such as Shao-Chi is a good antidote against the childish notion that Marx was only about “theory” and that the real teeth was later put into the movement by Vladimir Lenin. “’Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.’ But Marxism emphasizes the importance of theory precisely and only because it can guide action.” Action. Marx was all about action. The proletariat (working class) against the bourgeois (property-owners).

Enter the Critical Race Theory

This revolution is already underway in America. It has come to us in the modern form of Critical Race Theory, an offshoot of Marxism. In pop culture it is called Woke Ideology, which, like its father Karl Marx, is atheistic in nature, and provides a seed-bed for revolution.

A fabulous read by one who lays it all out in a nutshell is the book Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology, by Noelle Mering. Ms. Mering explains what is Woke Ideology.

The term woke refers to the state of being alert and attuned to the layers of pervasive oppression in society. While it originated specifically with regard to racism, it has since broadened to include all areas of social oppression commonly considered to be along the lines of gender, race, and sexuality. Specific acts of injustice are used to serve the larger goal of furthering the ideology that sees all of human interaction as a power contest.

The CRT simply substitutes gender, race and sexuality for Marx’s bourgeois and proletariat. The game has not changed. Stir the underclass with dissatisfaction. Stoke resentment of the “peasants” into fierce rage.

Sweeping through present day America is the fire and rage of long simmering cultural revolution that has boiled over into months of violence and rage in the streets. Bystanders are accosted by angry mobs demanding they raise a fist in their air in support of Black Lives Matter. Crowds descend on residential neighborhoods in the middle of the night with bullhorns chanting profanity-laced screeds for residents to literally and figuratively ‘Wake Up.’ … Like the revolutionaries in Maoist China, their goalposts move swiftly from justice to vengeance to abolition—of the police and ultimately of authority itself.

In the end, the entire movement is destructive in nature and revolutionary in orientation. This is what is occurring in America with rapid speed. This is why Joe Biden flagrantly violates not only the immigration laws in our nation but is openly practicing human trafficking as he transports illegals into various cities in the middle of the night. This amounts to a standing army.

How is this going to work, you might ask? Good question. Imagine for a moment that an anti-Establishment Republican such as Donald J. Trump were to be elected into the presidential office again. Imagine further that his agenda includes turning back the ungodly and unconstitutional Roe v. Wade abortion decision. Or, just suppose that there might stand up enough solid Republicans with him to reverse the Obergefell decision that allowed for homosexual marriage in our nation.

I ask you: what are the streets going to look like when this occurs? Exactly. Now you know what the Left is up to.

Bill Lockwood: The Black Community & The Disintegration of America 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

That love of order and obedience to the laws, which so remarkably characterize the citizens of the United States, are sure pledges of internal tranquility—Thomas Jefferson.

The disintegration of America is happening before us in slow motion. We are witnessing the complete erosion or our society by violence and mayhem, deliberately brought about by leftist policies that are completely hamstringing not only law-enforcement, but the entire adjudication process as well. In this wake, smash-and-grab gangs of mostly black thugs are now smashing store windows in major cities and robbing merchants blind.

One area where this is particularly harmful is found in dealing with criminal behavior among the black-communities of America. Running from the slur “racism,” the majority-culture has allowed soft-on-crime policies to go unchecked when it comes to minorities. From the school-house to the court-house, to the open-border sponsored by the Biden Administration, a consistent enforcement of rules is a thing of past.

Heather Mac Donald

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. She is also a best-selling author of many books on cultural issues as well as contributing editor of City Journal. She appeared as a guest on the Tucker Carlson show (guest-hosted by Brian Kilmeade) a few days ago and offered what I consider to be the best “in-a-nutshell” analysis of what is going on in America. Below is the transcription I made.

They were discussing specifically the ending of “cash-bail” for minorities, particularly in light of the Christmas parade homicides committed by Darrell Brooks, Jr. in Waukesha, WI on Nov. 23. Heather Mac Donald speaks first about the growing lawlessness in our society.

She mentions “disparate impact.” This is the concept that policies and procedures and rules appear to have a “disproportionate” impact on minority groups. The assumption is that more blacks are incarcerated, or ticketed, for example, because whites are racist in application of the law. Mac Donald shows that this is nonsense.

Heather: “Brian, we are witnessing the disintegration of civilization right before our eyes. When massive numbers of individuals know that they can rampage through stores, plundering and looting, confidant of their immunity from the law, there is nothing left of the civilized order. The protection of property is the cornerstone of a stable, prosperous society. Merchants have to know they can put their goods in the stream of commerce without being robbed blind.

“Now, the common thread in the shameful looting, in the Waukesha Christmas parade murders, and rising gun violence, is the concept of disparate impact. And unless that concept is explicitly refuted and rejected there’s no way we are going to get a handle on this rising crime.

“The reason that felony theft laws are not being enforced, and the reason Darrell Brooks was put back onto the streets despite an active warrant and a 50-page rap sheet is because enforcing theft laws, … requiring bail, has a disparate impact on blacks.”

Continuing, she adds, “But law enforcement has a disparate impact on blacks, not because its racist, but because the black crime-rate is so high.

“But when you stop enforcing the law in order to avoid disparate impact its blacks who are hurt the most.”

Brian: “Look at the stats; raw numbers. More Blacks are committing crimes than other minority groups, than whites.” “That’s why the arrests are greater and that’s why they are more in jail. Is that what you are saying?”

Heather: “Absolutely. Law enforcement is a function of criminality. It is not driven by racism. The blacks die from homicide at 13 times the rate of whites, that’s because they are committing homicides at 13 times the rate of whites. In NYC, … blacks commit about 75% of all shootings, … even though they are only 23% of the population.” “Whites commit less than 2% of all shootings though they are 34% of the population.”

“So, the solution here is not to stop enforcing the law. That means more mayhem, more deaths. The solution is to tackle – despite what Chesa Boudin (San Francisco DA) thinks is the root cause of crime … he would say poverty and racism—the root cause of inner-city crime is family breakdown.” “As long as that problem goes unaddressed our only solution is to enforce the law in a color-blind just fashion.”

John Kachelman, Jr.: The Reality and Requisite of a National Thanksgiving 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by John Kachelman, Jr.

The fourth Thursday in November is my favorite day of the year. It is “Thanksgiving Day.” Ironically my favorite day of the year follows my least favorite day (Halloween). Thanksgiving Day celebrates the heartfelt and happy acknowledgment that the Almighty God has providentially blessed us. Halloween celebrates all that is evil, selfish and ungodly. These two calendar events frame the constant battle in civilization’s history. I prefer the celebration of good rather than the celebration of evil.

One has well asked, “Why is it that mankind chooses to celebrate thanksgiving to the Almighty only on one day, and focus on gripes, grumbles, and complaints the remaining 364 days?” The answer to this query is an indictment of society—mankind is more concerned with Self than with the Almighty God.

A celebration of Thanksgiving is a high-valued target in today’s ungodly society. Any action, celebration, moral compass, lifestyle choices, etc, that places the Judeo-Christian ethos as the governing parameters, is instantly damned in brutal verbiage. To acknowledge Thanksgiving is to acknowledge the Almighty God. In today’s culture God is not acknowledged—He is erased.

The practical consequence of erasing God is an embracing of socialism. Socialism advocates that the communal thought is the source of all power; the State is the ultimate arbitrator in even the most personal choices. One is thankful to the Sate because God is erased. Such an ungodly position ultimately leads to blind submission: “The State knows better how to spend the private citizen’s money than the private citizens.” Or, “The State knows better what your children need to learn.” Or, “The State knows better how to raise your children—it takes a village to raise a child because parents cannot raise their own children!” This is a power struggle—the power of evil seeks to erase the power of good.

However, there is a major problem in the socialistic erasure of the Almighty God. The prophet summarizes this issue as he describes the socio-religious conditions of his day, “There is oath-taking, denial, murder, stealing, and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore, the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes along with the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, and even the fish of the sea disappear.” And what is the cause of this catastrophic environment. “For there is no faithfulness, nor loyalty, nor knowledge of God in the land” (Hosea 4:1-3).

Please do not miss the obvious truth! The failure to be thankful to the Almighty God impacts every aspect of man’s civilization and environment. Even the “ecosystem” is destroyed by the unthankful attitude toward the Almighty God! Do you want to cure the ecosystem’s disintegration (climate change or global warming or whatever it is termed today)? Then foster a thankful attitude toward the Almighty God. Do you want to cure the criminal cancers destroying civility? Then cultivate a knowledge that will cause you to be thankful to the Almighty God. Then cultivate a knowledge that leads to a thankful attitude. It is a simple fix. But this simple fix is fought “tooth-and-nail” by the unthankful heart.

The conscience and strength of our nation is being dismantled brick by brick. The deconstruction of our nation has already removed much of our heritage that made us a world power. The heroes have been painted as the villains and the personalities that have fueled hate and instigated anger are memorialized as “saints” and recently even as the Christ!

Reliance on God’s providence was a hallmark of the early colonists but is a never taught historical fact in our schools. God’s providence is a blasphemous belief according to our politically correct speech. God’s providence is a faded memory in the minds of older Americans. The Judeo-Christian foundation of our morality, governing, and freedoms are being attacked and removed piece by piece. We have lost so much of our national conscience that Hosea’s characterization of his society reads like today’s news briefs.

Our nation has long been in an ideological war. Many dismissed the surrender of freedoms and the encroaching governmental “mandates” as inconsequential. But, ideas have consequences. When ungodly, uncivil ideas are permitted unrestricted advocacy, they become a cancer that metastases and brings ruin to every part of society.

Our national day of “Thanksgiving” brings an uncomfortable focus to this war. Two striking points are considered as illustrative of those intent on dismantling our great Republic who attack Thanksgiving Day.
First there is an effort to rewrite history so the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving becomes a myth. Illustrating this are a number of articles from those claiming to have “discovered the truth” regarding the Thanksgiving Holiday celebrated in the USA.

Our educational centers are teaching the “inventing” of Thanksgiving. The holiday is purported to be founded upon a legend. Here is one of many such propaganda pieces deconstructing our national heritage, revising our history and contorting truth. All is an effort to erase the Almighty God and encourage the State’s surrender to socialism.

“The legend of the American Thanksgiving holiday is said to have been based on a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost 400 years ago. The tale as it is told in grade schools is a legend, a mythologized version that downplays some of the bleaker history of how Thanksgiving became an American national holiday…The holiday continued…not with a feast and family, but rather with rowdy drunken men who went door to door begging for treats. That’s how many of the original American holidays were celebrated: Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Day, Washington’s birthday, the 4th of July…By the mid-18th century, the rowdy behavior had become a carnivalesque misrule that was closer to what we think of as Halloween or Mardi Gras today. An established mummer’s parade made up of cross-dressing men, known as the Fantasticals, began by the 1780s: it was considered a more acceptable behavior than the drunken rowdiness. It could be said that these two institutions are still part of Thanksgiving Day celebrations: rowdy men (Thanksgiving Day football games, established in 1876), and elaborate mummer parades (Macy’s Parade, established in 1924).”

In stark contrast to the idiocy of the revisionist’s attempts to rewrite facts regarding documented facts, we note this historical account: “In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies…In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith…Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from a member of the Abenaki tribe who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe…Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which would endure for more than 50 years…In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving.”

Much of what we know about what happened at the first Thanksgiving comes from Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow, who wrote: “Our harvest being gotten in…we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors…many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted…And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want.”

The second point focuses upon how the real Thanksgiving Day celebration demolishes the socialistic onslaught of our free entrepreneurial economy. This point is often eclipsed by the feast shared between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, but it should be strongly emphasized today.

The first Thanksgiving exposes socialism as bereft of any value culturally, morally, civically, economically, and religiously! Any way one looks at socialism it is worthless—except to the elite who become richer and more aloof!

Let me suggest that you read several articles published in Forbes Magazine by Jerry Bowyer. Bowyer’s discussion on the real significance of Thanksgiving is rarely heard. His opening sentences read: “It’s wrong to say that American was founded by capitalists. In fact, America was founded by socialists who had the humility to learn from their initial mistakes and embrace freedom.”

Bowyer, in another article, exposes the emptiness of socialism’s promises. Socialism never produces abundance, energy, expansion, and improvements. As Bowyer notes, “I explained that the first Thanksgiving was a celebration of abundance after a period of socialism and starvation…Their Thanksgiving celebrated the triumph of the individual, private property, and incentive, over collectivism…For them, God, not Plato, knew best. Accepting the principles of private property and self-interest was God’s way of harnessing self-interest to the greater good. We know all of this because an elder and Governor of the Plymouth plantation, William Bradford, kept a journal and it survives today.”

I appreciate such insight!

Thanksgiving Day is exceptional in many ways but these two points add emphasis to the reality of such a day celebrated in history and its requisite to a national ideology that succeeds by a bold individualism and a contained and controlled central governing!

The Bible says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12). Perhaps we should add the thought “and whose citizenry remains thankful for the divine blessings.” The Bible says in Deuteronomy 28 that if we honor and obey God, we will enjoy blessings. If a nation dishonors and disobeys Him, it will reap curses (as Hosea observed).

I well remember the truisms once stressed by our political leaders: “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” And, “Once a nation removes God from its conscience, it becomes a god-less nation.”

This is the reality and requisite of our Thanksgiving Day!

John Kachelman, Jr. is a Christian patriot, preacher, and missionary for Jesus Christ to foreign countries. He lives in Montgomery, AL.

Bill Lockwood: New Ways of Hearing the Holy Spirit? 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

Fox News ran an article recently by Christen Limbaugh Bloom about being “open to hearing from the Holy Spirit in new ways” (10-4-21). She speaks of “joining a church” that “prioritized being led by the Holy Spirit.” That new church had a woman “pastor” who declared that the Holy Spirit gave her a “vision” as a “message of encouragement to me.”

Bloom marveled that the “pastor” had not only received an “amazing spiritual gift” but had the “discernment to know it was actually an image from God and not just her own imagination.” Eager to learn more, Bloom asked the “pastor” days later how she too, could receive “this type of revelation from the Holy Spirit.”

The answer given was that her “desire to fully understand this type of experience was coming from a good place,” and that these “desires were born of the Holy Spirit.” The “pastor” related that her first instinct also had been to “question the images.” She did not know if they were from God or not. Maybe the “images” and “dreams” were her own creativity? She did not know until an older “pastor” assured her that she was on the right track.

At the end of the day, Bloom writes, faith must play a role in our ability to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit. In other words, there is no certainty here, but one has to believe these visions come from God. This is what “being open to hearing the Holy Spirit” means.

What shall we say to these things?

First, if this is the New Testament method of “receiving the Holy Spirit”, Christianity would never have seen the light of the second century. Everything above speaks purely of subjectivism. No knowledge that God is involved at all. The only thing we are left with is: “God gives good things”; these visions are good things; therefore they must be from God. Upon these grounds every religion, no matter how far-fetched, is valid.

The New Testament teaches us that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). By what criterion does Bloom and her leaders know that Satan is not the one giving the “visions?”

Second, to underscore the subjective nature of what Bloom describes, note that these individuals had to ask others if this is from the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, the Spirit endorsed His message by “signs, wonder, and manifold powers, and gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Mark 16:17-20; Heb. 2:4). When Philip preached to the Samaritans, they believed because they saw the signs (miracles) that he did (Acts 8:6). What miraculous signs do these give that the Holy Spirit is actually involved? As good-hearted as Bloom and her mentors may be, they have nothing but their own unguided feelings to give them assurance.

Third, if the Holy Spirit is actually inspiring persons like this today, why the need to ask someone else about it? Is this the nature of inspiration that was given to the apostles? Is this how the New Testament was written? Did Paul need ask Peter if his own epistle was God-given or his “own imagination?” If so, how would Peter have answered? “I’m not sure Paul, but if you write good things they must be of the Holy Spirit.” Does this sound like an apostolic conversation?

If this is how one is to establish the truthfulness of Christianity, we are totally lost and Jesus Christ is ridiculed in the streets. But this is where “pop-Christianity” is today. Blind leading the blind. Little wonder we have need of real Bible teaching on the Holy Spirit.

Bill Lockwood: Retired State Senator in New Battle Against Domestic Communism 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

Richard Hayden Black served 16 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate. He withdrew from office in 2020, but beginning this year began speaking out at local school board meetings in Loudoun County, his home.

His county has become ground zero for the fight against the Critical Race Theory (CRT), a variation of Marxism that interprets society through the lens of racial class struggle and sees inherent racism in the foundations of Western societies.

Black criticized school board members for suppressing freedom of speech and for the indoctrination of students. He moved to condemn the “transgender policies” which allow boys to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. As Black spoke the crowd began to cheer. They grew louder as he continued. Many stood up to express their agreement.

Immediately, the school board members voted to end the public comment period and retreated from the dais. They made Black approximately the 50th and effectively the last speaker out of the total 289 registered to speak.

Black is a Vietnam Vet, having spent 32 years as a Marine, rising to the rank of Lt. Col. and the U.S. Army JAG Corps, the legal arm of the U.S. Army. He holds three Legions of Merit, the Purpose Heart Medal with “V” for Valor, the Combat Action Ribbon, and two presidential Unit Citations. Black has lived face-to-face with communism. Here is what he warns America:

It has reached an incredibly dangerous point at this time, where we honestly risk the fragmentation and disintegration of our culture.

As I have warned my entire adult life, Christians had better get very serious about their religion.

Bill Lockwood: Socialism Has Corrupted the Pulpit 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

The people of Isaiah’s day said to the seers, “’See no more visions! And to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right. Tell us pleasant (smooth) things, prophesy illusions. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” – Isaiah 30:10-11

The Jews of Isaiah’s day (approximately 730 years Before Christ) were God’s chosen people, but they had grown rebellious. The prophets checked them in these pursuits, but they did not wish to hear of God’s commandments and especially His hatred of sin. Remind us not any more of these things!

Instead, they wanted flatteries—things agreeable to their own wishes. Their desire was to be entertained, not instructed and certainly not corrected. Illusions and deceits is what they wished for. As Matthew Henry comments, “But as they despised the word of God, their sins undermined their safety. Their state would be dashed in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Sounds like today’s pulpits, doesn’t it? No spirited edge, only milquetoast and honeyed words. What occurred? Socialism.

Socialism

Max Eastman (1883-1969) was a prominent editor, political activist and “prominent radical” who, like many in Woodrow Wilson’s “progressive” America, became infatuated with Marxism. Eastman traveled to the Soviet Union to learn firsthand how to be a good socialist and became friends with Leon Trotsky. Years later, when Eastman became convinced that socialism is void of validity, he reflected upon his time as a Marxist. “I sadly regret the precious twenty years I spent muddling and messing around with this idea, which with enough mental clarity and moral force I might have seen through when I went to Russia in 1922” (Reflections on the Failure of Socialism).

Eastman commented on socialism this way.

Marxists profess to reject religion in favor of science, but they cherish a belief that the external universe is evolving with reliable, if not divine, necessity in exactly the direction in which they want it to go. They do not conceive themselves as struggling to build the communist society in a world which is of its own nature indifferent to them. They conceive themselves as traveling toward that society in a world which is like a moving-stairway, but walking in the wrong direction. This is not a scientific, but in the most technical sense, a religious conception of the world. (Max Eastman, Marxism—Is It Science?)

Eastman knew whereof he spoke.

Socialism is not normally classified as a religion, but when its doctrines are examined, it more closely resembles a religious concept than anything else. The only difference between socialism and Christianity is that the latter is grounded upon historical fact while socialistic faith is founded upon unproven assumptions. Communism particularly is a philosophy of faith in the dialectic—the zig-zagging of history onward and upward to a more perfect society.

Because socialism is in reality an implicit religion, Spargo & Arner, who virtually wrote the textbook on Socialism, called Elements of Socialism (1912), tell us that not only is a “future life” such as heaven an “invention of man” but that God Himself is a “construct of the human mind.” They present socialism as an “alternative to Christianity” which infuses a passion for perfection “without God” and “without heaven.” Further, it is based upon the general theory of evolution  (p. 63, 75, 111, 206, 222), which itself is a theory designed to replace belief in God.

The Pulpit

This brings us back to the churches of today. Far too many Bible classes, pulpits and church groups have bought into the lie that one needs to keep separated “politics” and “religion.” To frame the issue this way is to make like some preachers are running for political office themselves in sermon material. The real issue is: Do social ideas have any input from the Bible? Should the church and Christians have any interest in social ideas for the community and the family? Do biblical principles have any say on the social issues of the day?

In truth, the social issues plaguing our society today are born of the alternative religion: socialism. Welfare, government housing, government schools, government manipulation of the free market, government intrusion into farming, businesses, health care, family planning, and the list goes on.

Should Christians be interested at all in maintaining a free society by which they may, without reprisal, worship God? Or, shall we capitulate to the social justice warriors such as the Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s who wish to force their godless worldview on a free people? When Marxist BLM declares its intention to rid society of the “nuclear family,” should biblical Christians have something to say?

Is it in the interest of Christians to be able to defend private property and enjoy the fruits of our own toil as biblical principles teach? Does “thou shalt not steal” not imply the concept of private property? Or, shall we endorse government plunder in order to provide medical care, housing, education, food, services and you-name-it for those who do not have these things? Should I not show the difference between freedom to be charitable and government confiscation and squandering? Or, should we ignore these crucial distinctions?

Frederic Bastiat, the 19th-century French economist, made this crucial point: “Socialism … confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to it being done at all….It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”

Shall pulpits insist upon the freedom to teach our children the way of the Lord in homeschooling (Deut. 6:4-9); or must we capitulate to government schools with its full display of hedonistic life-styles in the halls and Marxist propaganda in the classrooms? Is it not within the scope of this topic to remind congregants that there are political operatives that wish to remove this God-given liberty?

Am I, as a preacher, out-of-line to remind churches in sermonic material that some political candidates support the strong arm of government confiscating your own monies to pay for ungodly abortions? For redistributing your earnings to those who refuse to work? For giving your money to those who deal in drugs and wander the streets lawlessly looking for more stores and innocents to loot?

In preaching against homosexuality am I not within my God-given boundaries to remind people that some politicians not only support this wickedness, but use the strong arm of the law to coerce it within your houses of worship and private businesses? Shall preachers not “mark” those in apostate pulpits who endorse this lifestyle? (Rom. 16:17). And does not consistency demand we also “mark and avoid” the devil’s legions in the political ranks who are doing the same?

R.C. Foster, a Christian Church preacher of yesteryear, commented on the anemia that had already begun affecting the pulpits of his day. He commented that things will change in America only “when Christian martyrs, instead of craven cowards or selfish worldlings, stand in the pulpit.” The pulpit remains powerful when the gospel is preached and the church refuses to “substitute theatrical performances, pie suppers, and pool-tables for the preaching of the gospel.” But when “the husks of philosophical and scientific speculation, modernism, and infidelity are substituted for the gospel, God’s people are starved and the kingdom suffers defeat.”

Preaching the gospel includes more than merely speaking the “smooth things” (2 Tim. 4:2-4). Corruption in the pulpits is caused, in part, by the siren-song of socialism which has infatuated the unsuspecting and unlearned and caused multitudes of preachers to preach merely the illusions of the day.

Bill Lockwood: How to Change Society-A Look at Philemon 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

Philemon was a Christian brother who lived in Colossae, Asia Minor (Turkey). The apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome where,  by God’s providence (Phile. 1.1) he met a runaway slave named Onesimus. It so happened that Onesimus was a slave to Philemon, with whom Paul had been closely associated in Christian fellowship. What then occurs is instructive to all.

Paul sent Onesimus back to his owner Philemon with the inspired cover letter in the New Testament by the same name. After introductory matters, the apostle begins in (v. 8) with Accordingly, though I have all boldness in Christ to enjoin [command] you to do that which is proper … Paul is asserting he can be more assertive that he is presently.

An Alternative

But instead, he writes (v. 9), because of love’s sake, I would rather encourage you as Paul the elder. What is the essence of Paul’s encouragement? I beg you for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus (v. 10). The prisoner of the Lord recognizes that Onesimus was “once unprofitable to you [Philemon] (v. 11), but now, because of his conversion to Christ, he is profitable to you and to me.

Now comes the key point. Paul says, I have sent him back to you … (v. 12), but at the same time I would like to have kept him with me that in your behalf he might minister to me in the bonds of the gospel; but without your approval I would do nothing.

The word “approval” in my translation above is from the Greek word (gnome) which is “purpose, intention, mind, mind-set, opinion, opinion, judgment, approval.” In other words, Paul needed Philemon’s agreement to have kept Onesimus on in Rome as his assistant. Note that the apostle considered the slavery of Onesimus still binding.

Slavery

Slavery is an institution at variance with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As one writer puts it, the principles of Christ “cuts up slavery by the roots.” “The principles of the gospel worked into the conscience of a nation destroy slavery.” However, the institution of slavery has imbedded itself in nearly every society and culture in the world. Instead of overturning society by upheavals or riotous behavior, the gospel of Christ works like leaven upon not only the hearts of men, but upon societies and cultures (Matt. 13:33).

Changing a person begins with the heart and works outward in behavior (Matt. 12:33). Changing society is much the same. It is gained one heart at a time, not by taking a wrecking ball to a culture to overturn what is despised.

In 1 Corinthians 7:20 Paul gives us further insight into the question of slavery. Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called. That is, whatever life situation you may find yourself in, so remain in Christ. One does not come to Jesus Christ to be removed from a physical situation. Were you called being a slave? Care not for it; even if you can be free, use it rather! (ASV). Colloquially the text reads: Even if you were called into Christ being a slave—don’t worry about it. Use your slavery – that is, for Christ. The word “use” has often the sense of “undergo” or “endure.” That is, “use your slavery” for Christ.

The central point here is that there are greater questions of import to men’s souls than whether they are slaves or not, or descendants of slaves or not. The chief question is a spiritual relationship with God. Would that America would learn this simple truth from Paul’s letter to Philemon.

Bill Lockwood: Restorative Justice 4 (1)

Posted on by Leave a comment

by Bill Lockwood

“Restorative Justice” is the modern American socialist methodology whereby we refuse to deal with criminal or misbehavior in society. While “social justice” is the government disallowing us to enjoy the fruits of our own labor because of forcible confiscation and redistribution, “restorative justice” is a quasi-legal philosophy that allows perpetrators of criminal behavior to avoid the consequences of that behavior. Social justice spreads the earned benefits of society to the undeserving; restorative justice spreads the resulting misery to law-abiding citizens.

See how it works in Philadelphia for a case-study.

Philadelphia

During the “George Floyd riots” in May and June of 2021, over 900 businesses were damaged or burglarized in the city of brotherly love. Business owners and big corporate chains sustained millions of dollars of damage during the mayhem. Some of the lawless violence included blowing up ATM’s, burglarizing stores with U-Hauls, carrying entire bags of merchandise from stores such as Rite Aid or passing merchandise out of a Walgreens in a “human assembly line.”

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, seven Foot Lockers were absolutely cleared out, the loss estimated at over $800,000. Clothing retailers such as Live in Color, and numerous other stores never re-opened because the loss was so tremendous.

But these criminal looters and rioters who were arrested, numbering more than 500, will not face the consequences of their misdeeds. The new innovative plan is called “Restorative Justice,” which is designed to keep the “poor” blacks out of the justice system, regardless of their criminal activity.

The city’s district attorney’s charging supervisor, Lyandra Retacco, said that the city is offering a new program called “Civil Unrest Restorative Response.” It is designed as a “restorative model” that allows the perpetrators to avoid prosecution. District Attorney Larry Krasner said it was a “creative” response because of the “unique motivation of the crimes”—after all, the damages occurred during “a historic moment of protest against the police killing of George Floyd.”

Instead, these ruthless hordes who ransacked the city of Philadelphia, will be offered “counseling sessions,” referrals to job opportunities and/or education. Troy Wilson, a defense attorney with Up Against the Law, said he was “tired and angry” after years of “watching poor marginalized people get dragged ever deeper into the legal system.”

“Let’s come up with a system that’s never been done before. We can take the cases back in some respect to the community so the community can itself resolve some of these cases through education, mediation, confrontation, reconciliation, and most of all healing.” This socialist philosophy is called Restorative Justice.

Wilson is assisted by the “Rev. Donna Jones of the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia” who runs a “restorative-justice network in Philadelphia called the Restorative Cities Initiative.” She will run the “restorative-education session for all participants. Those who opt in will in will join restorative circles, where defendants, businesspeople, and community members will be able to voice the harm they experienced and what is needed to repair it.”

Jones went on to say that her “restorative-circles” have already been quietly rerouting incidents away from the legal system.”

What About Restorative Justice?

First, restorative justice is not justice at all. This is all about not holding grown people accountable for their criminal activity. And when there is no accountability, crime will grow. This is precisely why crime is exploding across America. Our legal system is fraught with naïve do-gooding socialists who wish to keep lawbreakers out of legal trouble and shift the burden of punishment onto the innocent.

As the article in the Inquirer states: “Philadelphia prosecutors … challenge the basic ideas about how justice is served.”

In other words, we have become so “educated” that we are re-tooling the concept of “justice” to allow criminal activity to flourish without punishment. Meanwhile, the store owners who suffered damage can simply lump it. Some business owners interviewed refused to give their names for fear of retaliation from the same rioters that destroyed their businesses to begin with. The city, however, is more concerned with protecting the offenders.

When the poor black neighborhoods witness the fleeing of businesses the intrusive government will have the solution. Pay potential business owners to open stores there; after all, the American taxpayer can bear the brunt of the those costs as well.

Second, the consequences of lawless activity is forcibly shifted by the city to the business-owners. Just as social justice disallows one to enjoy the fruits of his labor because the long arm of government confiscates and redistributes those fruits, so restorative justice forces the rest of the population to endure the consequences of misbehavior by the few.

Assistant defender for the city, Jonathan Strange said, “a lot of people are really relieved that there is a pathway for them to exit out of the criminal justice system and avoid a conviction.” Loot with impunity. Let other people pay for their crimes.

Those business-owners who were run out of business after losing their entire life-savings and work will just have to understand the “historic nature of George Floyd protests.” They will certainly appreciate that, at least.

What about deterrence from future rioting?  Will not the poor black communities be emboldened to once again to take to the streets to create chaos? Maybe a law-school educated whiz kid will be able to “justify” other “historic moments” of rioting. Foolish Americans.

We thought a DA’s job was to administer the law. No, it is to dream-up possible motivations for crime and sympathize with the criminals. America has left the realm of common sense which teaches that punishment and consequences is what dissuades people from committing illegal activities.

Can “lack of education” the root cause of rioting? Taxpayers have been footing the bill for free education in the inner cities for decades. The social justice warriors just refuse to see that a basic lack of morality will not be resolved with more education.

Instead of looking at the socialistic welfare system that has created these inner city jungles where most black children grow up without a father in the home, our bright lights that manage the cities are conjuring up deeper socialistic schemes called “restorative justice” which neither “restores” property or communities and is no justice at all.

« Older Entries