The wise man Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” We suspect Burke was a reader of the Scriptures, for this is recorded for our benefit in Proverbs 24: 10-12, “If you are slack in the day of distress, Your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, ‘See, we did not know this’, Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?” The writer Jesse Campbell, on January 9, 2017, put it this way, “It’s always easier to do nothing in a difficult time, but it’s not what we were created for. God looks for people who will take the initiative, speak truth in hard places, say the last painful 2% that needs to be said, and cut off tragedy at the pass.” (explorethebible.lifeway.com.)
If you are not aware of KRISTALLNACHT (German, meaning “Crystal Night), or as we have come to regard it as “The Night of Broken Glass”, then let us simply state it was the beginning of the killing of around six million Jews, or over 60% of all Jews (jewishvirtuallibrary.org). The event itself began “On November 9-10, 1938, [when] Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms [organized massacre] against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories.” (encyclopedia.ushmm.org.) Why was this allowed to occur? “Fire fighters and police stood by, instructed only to intervene if neighboring ‘Aryan’ property were endangered.”“Large numbers of ordinary people, including women, were involved in looting and plundering, picking up goods thrown out onto the street and benefiting from the expropriation of Jewish property. Both young and old turned out to humiliate Jews with whole classes of schoolchildren brought by their teachers to see sites of smoldering synagogues and join the jeering crowds. While some were egged on by peer group pressure, many young people believed the Nazi view that the ‘Jews are our misfortune’ and that it was ‘time to put them in their place’.” Another reason for so few standing up to protest this atrocity was “. . . the obvious point about state-ordained terror and fear. If violence is initiated from above, in a state where active political opposition has been crushed, it is extremely difficult to engage in effective resistance.” “After years of repression, most dissenters were cowed into sullen silence.” “But there is also a more complex point to be made, about longer-term compliance with a prevailing climate of hostility toward those officially disparaged as the ‘other’.”“Others compromised less willingly, performing new roles in public and muttering disagreements privately, but fearful of being denounced if they stepped too far out of line.” “This creeping compliance in effect amounted to complicity.” “Put simply: the Nazi leadership had introduced a hostile environment and initiated practical measures, whether through legislation or violence, to establish an ethnically defined ‘people’s community.’ By being largely compliant, for whatever reasons, those who were not excluded had helped to create an even more hostile environment – one in which it was possible to carry out terror in broad daylight without significant unrest or intervention on behalf of the persecuted.” (time.com; November 9, 2018; Mary Fulbrook.) Does any of this sound familiar? If you are a conservative, believing the unchanging founding principles of our Nation, then this is currently a part of your lived experience.
The amount of anti-Israel protests world-wide, and the hostility expressed in these protests, truly baffle us. How much of this is being promulgated by social media, especially the questionable TikTok, with its connections to the CCP. Do those current government leaders in control of our political arena have the right, and do we allow them the power, to determine what limits can be dictated to our FREEDOM and LIBERTY? Be aware of the dangers of the current government’s push to establish the new “Digital Discrimination” rule which was part of the recent $1.2 Billion dollar “Infrastructure Bill.” The government has no right to legislate social outcomes. Are our schools and leaning institutions teaching accurate history in the hopes of not repeating the errs of past generations, or are they leaning in to teaching divisive, ideological propaganda?
How much is your FREEDOM and LIBERTY worth to you? How about to your family? How about to those who follow you in life, like your kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and those beyond them? If you knew for certain that your FREEDOM and LIBERTY were on the verge of being vastly reduced, or even eventually eliminated, would you respond to our questions differently today? Protect the defenseless. Uphold the righteous. Hold fast to God-given morality. Stand firm in the truth. And boldly proclaim the Will of our Creator.
“SECULARISM”: “. . . is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion.” “Secularism is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere.” (wikipedia.org.)
“DISSOLUTION”: “(b1) Decay, Disintegration”; “(b2) Death”; “(c) Termination or destruction by breaking down, disrupting, or dispersing.”; “(d) The dissolving of an assembly or organization.” (merriam-webster.com.)
“CHRISTENDOM”: “The term ‘Christendom’ largely refers to the worldwide adherents of the Christian faith, with religious practices and beliefs drawn from the teachings of the Bible, primarily the New Testament.” (christianity.com.)
“THE OVERTON WINDOW”: As described in the picture above, it represents the range of acceptable ideas. This can include the acceptable beliefs not only in the broad range of politics, but in the more specific areas of finance, gun rights, abortion, global warming, wars and conflicts, homelessness, immigration, drugs and addiction, and yes, even in religion and matters of spirituality.
We are assured that no two people agree 100% on everything, even in mature relationships, for we are all individuals with our own brains, experiences, environments, and traditions that form our belief structures. We are different, one from another. So goes the saying, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” “THE OVERTON WINDOW” of what is commonly accepted as “normal” and acceptable, is influenced by a wide variety of forces. Some forces are overt and easily seen, and some are covert, hidden from view and recognition. Over time, these forces can, and often do, move “THE OVERTON WINDOW”. The purpose of our blog today is to show how SECULARISM is leading to the DISSOLUTION OF CHRISTENDOM. More specifically how the rise of SECULARISM is eating away at the heart of CHRISTENDOM, reducing its influence upon our society and the world at large. THE OVERTON WINDOW is shifting away from CHRISTENDOM and moving to the more “normal”, acceptable SECULARISM. Like it or not, those who have claimed to be in the column of CHRISTENDOM have assisted in the shifting of THE OVERTON WINDOW toward SECULARISM. How is this possible?
A few facts need to be shown. Church attendance is down. Attendance at religious services hit its peak in the early 1950’s with nearly 50% of all Americans attending some form of religious services. “In the four years before the pandemic, 2016 through 2019, an average of 34% of U.S. adults said they had attended church, synagogue, mosque or temple in the past seven days. From 2020 to the present, the average has been 30%, including a 31% reading in a May 1-24 survey. The recent church attendance levels are about 10 percentage points lower than what Gallup measured in 2012 and most prior years.” (news.gallup.com; June 26, 2023; Jeffrey M. Jones.) We contend that if synagogue, mosque or temple attendees were to be excluded from this survey (we don’t have the crosstabs), the percentages for church attendance by Christians would be lower. However, we will claim that there is beginning a resurgence within the Christian faith due in part to the unprecedented lockdowns during the pandemic, and the attack on the Christian faith from the current government and its controlling institutions, in the areas of FREEDOM of speech, and LIBERTY in the right to protest. In the first century Christian churches, their influence spread under persecution. We must trust and hope the same is true now and pray that this resurgence is not too late.
So, what have Christians done, or not done, in assisting the rise in SECULARISM. For too long Christians have bought hook, line, and sinker, the belief that our Constitution states that there is to be a “separation of church and state.” However, a close reading of the First Amendment to our Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment OF religion . . .”, not “FROM religion” (“OF” is capitalized by us for emphasis). One had better not post the Ten Commandments, or any Bible verse for that matter, in a school today or you will likely be sued. We doubt many public schools today say the pledge of allegiance at the start of classes, because it has within its prose, “. . . one Nation under GOD . . .”, speaking about a deity that is contrary to the ever-evolving national narrative, the apparent moving of THE OVERTON WINDOW. President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law the phrase “under God” to our National pledge on June 14, 1954. The addition was seen as a way to show moral superiority of U.S. capitalism over atheistic Soviet Communism. However, it was even within our Nation’s own religious community where objections to even a National pledge first surfaced. The Jehovah’s Witness won a Supreme Court case in the early 1940’s stating that forcing them to say the pledge was a violation of their First Amendment rights. (history.com; June 22, 2022; Becky Little). Christians have allowed lawfare, legal challenges brought by atheistic individuals, organizations, or even Christian groups, in courts sympathetic to their ideology, to chip away at the founding principles of our Nation. Too often Christians have believed the false narrative of this “separation of church and state” and have failed to stand firm in these founding principles of our Nation and have been content to stand on the sidelines and watch the erosion of what our Founding Fathers, and generations after them, sacrificed and fought for. Christians too often have been divided among themselves, believing another Christian sect was worse than unbelievers, when in fact, they should have joined arms and fought against those forces and powers, often unseen, that are the real enemy to faith and ultimately salvation, not just individually, but also collectively as a Nation, or to world-wide nations more broadly. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12.)
Christians have shown timidity and weakness in showing pride that western culture and virtue is based upon Christianity. CHRISTENDOM has allowed moves away from God, the Gospel and family, have become casual in procedure and function, and have allowed drift to occur away from theological bedrocks. Where will Christians draw the “red line”? Evolution of Christian theology has watered down Scriptural foundational principles. As society becomes more “tolerant” of aberrant philosophies, so has CHRISTENDOM. Modernity has moved “THE OVERTON WINDOW”. “Modernity, the self-definition of a generation about its own technological innovation, governance, and socioeconomics. To participate in modernity was to conceive of one’s society as engaging in organizational and knowledge advances that make one’s immediate predecessors appear antiquated or, at least, surpassed.” (britannica.com; Updated October 25, 2023; Sharon L. Snyder.)
Where is your “red line”? Last week we witnessed our current government leaders welcoming to our shores an adversarial nation, the Chinese Communist Party, who in May of 2019 declared a “People’s War” against our Nation (presentdangerchina.org; August 17, 2022). Did it bother you that the California governor thought it more important to clean up the streets of San Fransico days before China’s visit, shunning the filth and crime residents there had to endure for years without assistance? Were you concerned there were hundreds of Chinese flags dwarfing the few U.S. flags along the route taken by the Chinese motorcade? Are you concerned that the current government administration and President did not confront China about the bioweapon, COVID-19, that China released upon our Nation and the world, killing millions, destroying our burgeoning economy, and bloating our national debt? Were you troubled to learn that the Chinese spy balloon, allowed to fly unimpeded over our Nation for days, was not addressed by our leaders? Were you stunned to learn that our current government leaders did not address the reckless Chinese military maneuvers that threatened the safety of our aircraft and ships in international airspaces and waters? Are you surprised to learn that our current government leaders did not address the Chinese bringing online an average of two new coal-fired energy plants every week, while all of our plants are being forced to close for “global warming”? (abc.net.au/news; March 2, 2023.) Are you concerned that our current government leaders failed to address China’s provocative encircling of Taiwan, often invading their territorial boundaries? Are you worried that the CCP provides the vast majority of our drugs and their ingredients, not to mention poisoning and killing our citizens with their fentanyl? Is our current government concerned about being so reliant upon batteries and their materials from China, and where do old batteries go to die? Is our current government concerned that old wind turbine blades are sent to landfills, both processes not being so “green” after all? But never fear, there is talk that the Chinese may “loan” us a couple more Panda Bears to replace the ones they recalled. We should feel embarrassed! China is treating the United States of America like a spoiled little child, believing a stuffed animal will mute our whimpering and crying. How pathetic is our current government. We are allowing the CCP to invade our institutions, stealing our Intellectual Property, and watching our current government leaders and President, influenced by bribes requiring their inaction, to Kowtow to the greatest threat our Nation faces, the CCP. THE OVERTON WINDOW is being moved subjugating our National and personal FREEDOM and LIBERTY as our current government shows weakness and fear. The atheistic nation of China is cleaning our proverbial clock, while we sit back and watch the destruction of our Nation and its people. We are losing the war for our Nation’s morality and virtue as THE OVERTON WINDOW shifts to what some may feel to be more “normal” or acceptable, but in reality, it is shifting to our damnation.
Yesterday, November 11, 2023, was a day our Nation has set aside every year to honor those who have served our Nation in our Armed Forces, both living and dead. “In 2022, 16,200,322 adults in the US were veterans.” The number retired from service is down by nearly 10 million since 1990 (usafacts.org/topics/veterans). Armed Forces Day honors those currently serving in the U. S. military. “The share of the U.S. population with military experience has declined, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1980, about 18% of U.S. adults were veterans but that share fell to 6% in 2022.” (pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023; November 8, 2023; Katherine Schaeffer). “Only 1 percent of our population today will ever wear the uniform of this nation . . .” (defense.gov; June 29, 2018; Lisa Ferdinando). HOW DO YOU SERVE YOUR NATION?
News flash. Going to work for the average American is NOT serving our Nation. You are serving your employer in his pursuit of wealth and power. Working in the Peace Corps serves other nations, not our Nation. Working in Habitat For Humanity only helps serve those who will live in those homes. Working as a police officer or fireman only serves the community in which they are employed. Working in a care facility or driving for Meals on Wheels only serves those with whom they come in contact. Being a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist only serves those who are sick or injured. Being a Congress member only serves those in your state. Even having been President of the United States does not make that person a veteran, for even as Commander in Chief, he does not wear the uniform of a military member. Do you see the difference as to what it takes to truly serve our Nation? You must serve the entirety of our Nation, all citizens equally, in order to be truly serving our Nation. HOW DO YOU SERVE YOUR NATION?
News bulletin. Protesting a particular issue, either locally or nationally, is not serving your Nation. Going on strike does not serve your Nation. Going on a vacation, staying in bed, or even writing a blog or posting a podcast does not serve your Nation. All of these things are self-serving. Certain parts of our Nation may be impacted by these actions, but they will not serve all citizens of our Nation equally. There is only one way to serve the entirety of our Nation’s citizens. Serving in the Armed Forces is the only way to serve all of our Nation’s citizens equally. In doing so, you protect each citizen from harm from forces outside our border. Soon, those serving our Nation in the Armed Forces may have to do so even within our Nation’s borders, necessitated by the influx of illegal aliens across our southern border, most of whom our current government leaders have no idea who they are, or where they are, or what their intentions may be.
It’s truly sad that the vast majority of our Nation’s citizens have little connection to what it takes to actually serve all of our citizens equally in our Nation. Those who do serve in this capacity do not become rich, for the pay is too often far below the value of service they provide. Their training is rigorous and extensive using the latest equipment and technology. They learn teamwork, self-sacrifice, honor and duty. They often eschew family and friend connections in order to accomplish their assigned tasks, often under duress. They learn to respect authority, to properly exercise initiative and respect traditions. They are willing to sacrifice themselves for each other and for the citizens of our Nation to insure the continuation of our personal and National FREEDOM and LIBERTY.
Veteran’s Day is not just another holiday for government workers, although, as it was this year, a day off for them is given even if the 11th doesn’t fall on a weekday. The observance has become more of another opportunity to sell products by retailers, spend time at personal pursuits, and sleep in . . . while those in the Armed Forces stand watch over your safety and security. Oh, sure, maybe we pay homage to them in some gatherings, but that ends with polite applause, and the whole thing is done within a single minute. That’s not much recognition for months and years of tireless service to protect you and your loved ones, and for our Nation as a whole. Why is this? It’s because so few in our Nation truly understand and appreciate those who make sacrifices for our welfare. It is because so few of them have ever truly served the citizens of our Nation equally. In our schools and colleges, we often gloss over the wars and conflicts that have shaped the FREEDOM and LIBERTY in our Nation, and in doing so, we have missed the opportunity, the responsibility, to help students understand how fortunate they are to have been served by so few individuals. Can we not be more respectful of their sacrifices? Can we not spend more than a minute in recognition of their service? No wonder why our Nation is so divided, and confusion runs amok in our universities where national loyalty is swept under the rug of political correctness. We should all be ashamed.
The road to reclaim our pride in service will be a long one, taking more than a generation or two. Speak to your children and grandchildren about veterans. Teach the stories of sacrifice. Our National FREEDOM and LIBEERTY is dependent upon you.
We’ve probably all heard the expression, “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”. Usually, we have heard it when someone parties hard into the wee hours of the morning, then has to get up to go to work early that same morning. It is certainly one swift way to deplete one’s energy and mental acuity. Lately we fear, there are those within our great Nation who are pressed into a position, not of their choosing but by necessity, to work at more than one job to make ends meet. Even many of those who have retired from a life of work, have found themselves having to go back into the marketplace in order to have enough money to buy the basics of life. For a majority of our Nation’s citizens, the rising costs of food, energy, and housing, along with everything else that pulls at our purse strings, makes it necessary for multiple members of the same family to work, or for a single individual to seek multiple sources of income, or for a retired person to reenter the marketplace. Inflation, out-pacing investment returns or wage increases, has eaten away at the core of our Nation’s citizens ability to make ends meet. This festering rot of financial pressure will eventually bankrupt many or our Nation’s most vulnerable.
The phrase, “BURING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, originated as an idiom translated from French in 1611. “It can be found in Randal Cotgrave’s Dictionary.Initially, the idiom meant that one was dissipating one’s wealth.This means that you were causing your money to disappear. This is because candles were expensive and burning them cost money. If you were burning the candle at both ends, you were being wasteful. You would also have to hold the candle horizontally, which leads to the wax dripping off and being wasted.” (theidioms.com; June 15, 2022.) It is along this line, of wasting one’s money, that we focus our blog today. More specifically, we will center our discussion around not what you as an individual may do by “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, but rather how that may be done to you by another entity.
Let us first recognize that even though 40% of our Nation’s citizens may not have to pay any taxes to the IRS by the middle of April, all of us, regardless of our income, pay taxes, we just simply often do not recognize when we do. When you buy gas for your car, you are paying a tax. When you by food, part of the cost of your item helps to cover the tax cost the business you frequent is required to pay. When you pay your rent or mortgage, part of what you fork over is used to pay the landlord’s or mortgagee’s taxes. There is no free ride for the average American. So, let us for a brief moment consider how our Nation’s government is using our tax dollars. Have you ever considered that our current government is “BURING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”? Let us explain how that happens.
Do you remember our Nation’s embarrassing retreat from Afghanistan in 2021? Do you remember all the war equipment we left behind? Refer back to our blog on September 5, 2021, titled, “Billions Bungled Badly”. We listed nearly everything that was left behind, and what it cost us, money are tax dollars were spent to make those weapons of war. What do you suppose happened to all those weapons and equipment of war? Would you believe some of it has been used against our Nation since then? If you think that is impossible, then you are delusional. We already know most if not all of it made its way into the hands of terrorists, because the Taliban took control of all of it, and in doing so, was able to sell some of it to other terrorist organizations to fund their ideology (foreignpolicy.com; July 5, 2023; Lynne O’Donnell). The writer of the article goes on to state, “U.S. assault weapons have reportedly been used in recent attacks by non-state groups in Kashmir, bitterly divided between India and Pakistan, and in Israel’s Gaza Strip.” We are sure most of you are very aware of Israel’s current war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Here is where our Nation is “BURNING THE CANDLE ON BOTH ENDS”. Our tax dollars help to fund Israel’s defense. Concurrently, our tax dollars are now being used against the Israelis because of our BUNGLED retreat from Afghanistan. Our weapons of war are fighting on both sides, against each other, over a border that does not belong to our Nation! How asinine is this? Our tax dollars at work, funding both sides of this war! Who makes out in such a convoluted scheme as this? Our Nation’s own military complex, those corporations and business who manufacture our weapons of war. While a majority of our Nation’s citizens are “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, just trying to make ends meet, those who profit off of making weapons of war are becoming richer and richer.
The truly sad part of this scenario is that while the CANDLE is BURNING AT BOTH ENDS, the “wax” in the middle is being depleted. In this analogy, do you know what the “wax” of the candle actually represents? It represents your tax dollars! We have in effect provided both sides of a war with our weapons. Likewise, at our southern border, our current government has encouraged, and funded, illegal aliens crossing into our Nation. Mark our words, soon our Nation will be spending our tax dollars to counter the terrorism our Nation invited in. “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, our tax dollars working against each other once again. Our Nation is over 33 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt! Soon, our Nation will be spending more money to simply pay the interest on this growing debt than upon what our Nation pays for its own defense! How stupid we are! When we say our FREEDOM and LIBERTY are at risk, we are not “whistling dixie”. If you relish watching the destruction of our Nation, morally and financially, then continue voting for those who currently have the levers of power within the halls of our Congress, and in our White House. If you want our Nation to stop “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, then get out and vote for those who want to see morality and fiscal responsibility return to our Nation’s Capital. Volunteer to work at election departments, run for the school board, run for city or county offices, call your House Representatives and Senators, support those who share your values and a desire to bring common sense and rational thinking back into proper focus. Don’t be a couch potato, thinking that you are safe from the cataclysmic trajectory we are on . . . . because you are not!
