I have to admit, this started out to be a very different blog than it ended up. Like many, I was discouraged at the results of the election. Yes, I know that God is in control and uses even government for His purposes but sometimes those purposes are to punish His people or the nations in which His people dwell and they suffer as well. To be perfectly honest I am not a big fan of suffering.

I know that politics is messy business and corruption abounds in the hallowed halls of Congress and the White House. Special interest groups are working hard to persuade the Federal Government to use the club of legislation to beat down the opposition. But that is how government works in a Democratic Republic. We vote for candidates that most closely align with our worldview and values and trust they will at the very least protect us from those who have a different view. Continue reading …

In the heat of election season the conventions of each major party reveals what they stand for in their “planks.” The Republicans have vowed fiscal conservatism and although they tend to be pro-life and in favor of traditional marriage they are also saying they are not addressing moral but economic issues in this election. The Democrat Party on the other hand have moral issues as a part of their platform. Abortion on demand, abortifacients included in all insurance plans, normalizing same sex marriage and a variety of other issues of moral significance. Quite a flap was raised when it was realized that all mentions of God were removed from the Democrat platform. U.S. Democratic Party removes reference to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital from official platform made quite the headline. Continue reading …

I know, some will gasp in abject horror and even cry out while tearing their clothes, “Why do you hate the poor?” This is an emotionally charged issue to be sure but MCOI has never really shied away from controversy. Although I am not suggesting we forsake the poor I am suggesting we follow the arguments used for abandoning the war on drugs to answer whether we should continue the War on Poverty. Consistency in political social policy is as important as consistency in an individual’s life. The parameters are fairly simple and I think Sting did as good of a job as any in his March 2010 piece, Let’s End the War on Drugs. He argues that is has been, “…the most unsuccessful, unjust yet untouchable issue in politics…” While it may not be the “most” unsuccessful” it has been pretty unsuccessful and it is for the most part “untouchable,” politically at least. What are the criteria Sting used to demonstrate his point? Continue reading …

Well, it was only a matter of time that the Occupy Wall Street crowd would drag Jesus into there amorphous angst. I found this picture on one of my friend’s “wall” on Facebook. Of course I had to get involved. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know about Occupy Wall Street. What you know about their demands may be very little. Though a list of demands has been voted on and posted, this statement seems accurate:

There are no Official Demands of the Occupy Movement. that being said, multiple factions of the movement have been assembling to discuss and vote on the output and message for the movement. Below is a LIST OF PROPOSED “DEMANDS FOR CONGRESS” proposed by the website (occupywallstreet.org) which does not entirely represent the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly.

Fair enough. When you look the demands of the coalition of the outraged Continue reading …

Would Jesus be involved in politics? What would Jesus say about the TEA Party? That is one of the questions we have been kicking around here as we are talking about the politically incorrect Jesus. Many groups have differing views on this and of course reasoning that to them makes sense. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach non-involvement. They point out that Jesus and his immediate disciples were not involved in politics and therefore, we should not be either. Some Christians and Christian groups hold a similar view. Political office is often seen as compromising with a corrupt system and includes the sorts of compromises they don’t believe Christians can make. Some, such as Islam, are of the view that their religion should take over the government and subject citizens to Sharia Law. They would argue that Jesus would support such a thing because he was a prophet who was a Muslim. They assert that Jesus is important in their religion and even agree that he is sinless. But then they also teach that all prophets are sinless. Of course, they also teach he is not God, was not crucified and therefore not resurrected. There are some Christian groups which hold to a similar view that it is our task to create a Theocracy which subjects society to the Old Testament Laws and regulations. Some, such as Barack Obama’s home church for 20 years, hold to views rooted in Black Liberation Theology as we pointed out in Barack and the Borg. Black Liberation Theology is essentially Marxism using Christian terminology and promotes Continue reading …

“… so Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.” (2 Samuel 15:6b)

The current mid-term elections have taken over much of the media, and one can hardly go anywhere without being confronted by the claims of the perspective candidates or their supporters. Mudslinging abounds and in many cases replaces any actual debate of the relevant issues. Will conservatives capture the House or the Senate or both or will liberals retain the majority? The battles we see going on today are not new and remind me a bit of King David and his son Absalom.

King David was a good leader, certainly not perfect. He sometimes allowed Continue reading …

California: where those who do not pay what things actually cost mooch off those who pay more than what things are actually worth.

Take the U. of C. at Berkeley, for example. That’s the school that shows off its coolness on its web site’s home page with a photo of students doing high-level math on a blackboard while wearing t-shirts (at least that’s what it displayed when I visited it). But it seems that a facility for higher math doesn’t automatically lead to an appreciation for how numbers work in the real world.

Continue reading …