The War For Our Minds

Thought Police

“Tolerance is not, in itself, a virtue. On the contrary, tolerating what is vicious and wicked can be a sign of moral amnesia brought on by making a god of tolerance” – R.R. Reno, First Things.

Tolerance is necessary for a people to live at peace in a pluralistic society.  But tolerance must be defined by limitations.  Enforced tolerance doesn’t reveal the true heart.  It simply reveals the heart of those powerful enough to force others to accept it.  The deception is the belief that society is a better place due to the ‘virtuous’ tolerance legislated by the “Gods of the Marketplace” (Rudyard Kipling).  It’s like telling your child to take his cough medicine, he may take it, even without complaint, but you know he hasn’t given his heart to it.

Tom Trinko tells of an old woman of the Baltic States who had lived under the horrible oppression of both the Nazi and Communists governments.  When asked which was worse, Nazism or communism, she stated that communism was worse.  “If you did what the Nazis wanted, they left you alone, but the Communists demanded that you think what they thought.  Essentially the Nazis merely wished to enslave or possibly kill you, but the Communists wanted to steal your soul.” (American Thinker, Tom Trinko)

Men lose their minds when overtaken by the lust for power.  The greed for power can cause men to participate in outrageous acts of insanity.  “Power corrupts the few, but weakness corrupts the many.” (Macbeth, Shakespeare)  There are only a few, drunk on their own power, who will try to determine how the many are to think their thoughts.  In the name of the virtue of the times, tolerance, we are being told what we are permitted to think about abortion, pornography, sex, homosexuality and a variety of other issues that have polarized conservatives and liberals.  True Christians will not get direction on these issues from society, but from the Word of the Living God.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law…abridging freedom of speech.”  Our courts have struggled over the years to define just what is and is not free speech.  The recent fuss over Rush Limbaugh saying derogatory things about a left-leaning law student and liberal activist, Sandra Fluke, is a perfect example of how difficult it is to draw parameters around what can or cannot be said.  Limbaugh apologized but his apology was rejected because it was not sincere enough.  I know, you are having thoughts of small children throwing sand at each other in a sand box.

Just when you think things are beginning to calm down, another character rushes on stage.  Gloria Allred, a celebrity ambulance chaser if there ever was one, spouts her doctrine of politically correct speech by uttering her shrill cry that Rush Limbaugh ought to be arrested.  I know, you are now looking for some men with white coats to enter the stage of this comedy.  Gloria Allred is insane in her desire to be a part of the discussion.  She knows that her best team of lawyers would lose to a rank amateur law student fresh out of law school on these outrageous charges.  The government couldn’t prosecute Rush or anyone else for practicing their freedom to speak.

The irony of it is that those who insist that conservatives Christians bow to society’s golden idols of homosexuality and abortion will whip them with the cords of intolerance if they do not bow.  In so doing they expose their own hypocrisy by violating their own doctrine.  Instead of recognizing and respecting the opinion of their opponents, they call for them to be cast into the fiery furnace.

Americans are getting a much clearer understanding of what it might be like to live under Sharia Law where people are severely punished, perhaps killed if they don’t become a Muslim.  Ms. Fluke and Ms. Allred represent a cadre of liberals determined to impose penalties on those who refuse to bow to their gods of liberalism.  This is selective tolerance.  While flailing Rush Limbaugh for his name calling, these same accusers declare the young woman who wants to dedicate her life to being a great mother and a loving wife to be a Neanderthal idiot.  Gentlemanly males who have been taught to treat women with respect by opening doors for them and using their greater physical strength, not to harm them, but to protect them are targeted as chauvinist pigs.  Those who refuse to enthusiastically embrace homosexuality are declared homophobes.  Christians have been run out of the adoption business if they refuse to accept homosexual adoption. 

The agenda of the liberal left has nothing to do with tolerance.  It has everything to do with a lust for power. It is an unbridled desire to control others.  “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can control the whole animal.”  (James 3:3)  Saul Alinsky would be proud of the progress of the liberal faction in our society.  The progressives, just like the communists, are attempting to control the masses by determining what they can and cannot say. 

Jesus said, “The things that come out of the mouth come out of the heart.” (Matt. 15:18) The attempt of the thought police to decide what we can or cannot think reveals an outrageous attempt to supplant God.  They have decided they are their own source of morality.  They get to choose what is the right or wrong thing to say or think.  They have written their own set of commandments.  They are vigilant and totally devoted to their cause because they truly believe they are creating heaven on earth (utopia).

Christians must not “defile themselves with a portion of the king’s meat” (Daniel 1:8) by blindly accepting a tolerance and political correctness that is defined by those who discard the Word of God and replace it with their own moral compass.  Christians declare themselves children of the Almighty and they cannot be stolen away by those who would choose thoughts for them. 

As Christians, we resent others telling us what to think and say.  We look to Christ to guide us and correct us in that area of our lives.  “With our tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing, my brothers, this should not be.”  (James 3:9-10)  Our speech and thoughts must be governed by the truth found in God’s word and the very words of Christ himself.  True Christians have a great desire to say the right things and speak the right words although we often fail.  We don’t take this lightly because “the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart.” (Matthew 15:18)

To those who would like to govern our thoughts and speech, thanks, but no thanks, we already have a God.

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

The Truth They Could Not know

There was a point in Christ’s ministry when the Jews came to him demanding a sign.  He told them that if they would “destroy this temple he would raise it again in three days.”  (John 2:18-23)  The Jews perceived this statement to be foolish. They mocked his claim that he could single handedly rebuild in three days what took 46 years to complete using a very large workforce of laborers.  Of course, they missed the point because they were not spiritually minded.  A mind totally focused and consumed with earthly things cannot comprehend spiritual things. 

There is a foundational principle in Christianity that non-Christians fail to comprehend.  You cannot know who God is except you know his Son.  Jesus proclaimed this when he said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)  We can’t really know God except we first know Christ in his saving grace.  It is the truth that leads men to Christ.  The truth is that we are all born in sin and “if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from unrighteousness.” – (1 John 1:9)

When men turn away from scripture in their search for bad things happen.  The Bible is the source of the truth that reveals to us Christ who leads us to the Father.  No man can know Christ apart from the Bible.  So, there is a train of logical steps that lead us into a relationship with the Almighty.  First, it is the truth that sets us free and the source of that truth is the Bible.  Second, the Bible introduces us to Christ, the very Son of God.  Confession of our sin and belief in the power of the shed blood of Christ as a sacrifice and an offering for our own sin brings us into relationship with Jesus.  Thirdly, to know Christ is to know the Father. When Jesus was asked, "Where is your father?",  He replied, "If you knew me, you would know my Father also."  (John 8:19)

The attempt to discover spiritual truth in any other source leads men away from rather than toward Christ.  Many claim to know Christ or they attempt to know him through other means.  Regardless of what Oprah Winfrey says, there is only one way to God, Jesus.  He said, “I am the way, the truth the life” and there is no other way but by me.  (John 14:6) 

Some seek him through their own intellect.  History has shown us that the most destruction despots and dictators of the past have been those who were exposed to the truth but willfully alienated themselves from that truth and dedicated their lives to lies and falsehoods.  Karl Marx’s verse in The Pale Rider is chilling:

“Thus heaven I’ve forfeited

I know it full well.

My soul, once true to God,

Is chosen for hell.”

Some have attempted to bring about reform or salvation to the hearts of men by transforming society.  In a sense, they lift their fist toward God and declare,  ‘We can save ourselves.  We don’t believe in your heaven or your hell’ and then they set about trying to prove themselves to be gods sufficient for the needs of mankind.  They attempt to redistribute wealth, level the playing field for the social classes and create a utopia on earth.  Karl Marx dream for society was to see the State fade away and all people join hands in harmonious bliss, sharing everything with hearts cleansed of greed simply by embracing his idea.

Karl’s  father was very concerned about the direction his young son had chosen.  He wrote in a letter:  “Only if your heart remains pure and beats humanly and if no demon is able to alienate your heart from better feelings, only then will I be happy.”  But his son resisted all authority figures including his father.  Karl’s youthful rebellion and hatred for God was revealed in a poem he wrote called “The Player”:

“The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain,

Till I go mad and my heart is utterly changed.

See this sword?  The prince of darkness sold it to me.

For me he beats the time and gives the signs.

Ever more boldly I play the dance of death.”

Saul Alinsky was a Jewish-American community organizer from Chicago who strongly influenced Barack Obama. Alinsky feared greatly that his parents would insist he become a Jewish Rabbi.  Instead, he ran in the other direction.  He is famous for his book, Rules for Radicals, an instructional guide to the rebellious generation of the 60’s instructing them how to organize a revolution whose ultimate goal would be to teach the poor working class how to take away from the wealthier upper class.  His book contains an outlandish dedication to Lucifer:

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical:  from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins –or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”

Though Alinsky might have some sort of warped admiration for Lucifer, Christ sets the record straight regarding the ‘first radical’ and those who admire him:  “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

One observer of the life of Karl Marx seemed to hit the nail on the head:  “Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto that his aim was the abolition not only of all religions, but also of all morals, which would make everything permissible.”  Isn’t this the real foundation of all rebellion against God?  We want to be able to do what we want to.  We don’t want to have to answer to anyone.  We want to call our own shots.  A final truth from God’s word: “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

Occupy Wall Street…Connecting the Dots

It’s hard to discover just what these protesters want. Interviews of the tent dwelling squatters seem fruitless. Most cannot articulate why they are there. They seem to be frustrated and angry but they are not sure why they are directing their anger toward Wall Street. They are much like a high school student who sees a crowd rushing toward the school courtyard. He doesn’t know why the mass is bolting but he joins them, fearful of missing something big. He gets taken in by the emotion that is driving the mob but he doesn’t have the slightest idea what is going on.
The occupiers of Wall Street make some valid points. They seem to oppose the Federal Reserve. This organization is neither federal nor is it reserving anything. It is private and secretive and stirs great suspicion among American citizens.
Other occupiers are like puppets on a string. They carry a list of talking points but seem to have only a surface understanding of what they are saying. They rage against capitalism failing to understand that though this system is imperfect, it has worked far better than socialism. They rail against the government like spoiled children insisting they be pampered by Big Brother. If they are unemployed the government should give them a job. If they can’t afford a house the government should make a home affordable to them. They insist that the government pay for their education.
What they seem to be calling for is Cooperate Fascism, a merger of government and business. They don’t seem to grasp what happened with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Government was interfering with the system of free enterprise by developing policies for an economic organization to provide loans for those who could not afford them. Politically it looked appealing. It satisfied the desire of politicians to placate their constituents by putting “a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.”
Let’s call a spade a spade. The occupiers are protesting against capitalism and calling for socialism. The only way to bring about the promised “hope and change” is to rebuild the system. You can’t rebuild a standing structure unless you tear it down first. Perhaps, inspired by the Arab Spring movement, the protesters are hoping to start a revolution that will result in radical change.
It may appear that these people just showed up on Wall Street randomly one day. This is not so. It is an organized movement. The cattle are trusting and they follow faithfully though often in ignorance. But the men driving the herd know exactly what they are doing. Many of those interviewed indicated that their trip to New York was financed by their union. Thousands of these people have been bussed in from hundreds of miles away. Have community organizers used the unions in an attempt to spark a revolution that would bring about societal change? Lenin taught that infiltrating unions was necessary to deconstruct society before it could be reconstructed. (1)

Are the occupiers true Marxists or are they “useful idiots”? In Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, 1971, he wrote that “A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into the new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage—the political paradise of communism.” (p.10) Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were both greatly influenced by Saul Alinsky. Hillary turned down an offer to come work for him. She titled her senior paper at Wellesley College "There Is Only the Fight . . . ": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.
Richard Cloward and Frances Piven were a husband and wife team influenced by Alinsky. They were sociologists and political activists in the 1960’s. They called for an overload of the U.S. public welfare system in order to precipitate a crisis that would lead to replacing the national welfare system with a system that would guarantee an “annual income and thus an end to poverty.” (2)
It is necessary to collapse the system before reforming it. Considering so many of our leading politicians were trained by radical socialists one must ask if the collapse of our banks, our industries and Fannie and Freddie were intentional in order to destroy the old capitalist system in order to replace it with socialism?
Yuri Bezmenov, a Russian born KGB defector was a KGB trained subverter outlines the four stages the Soviets use to bring transformation to a society. First, the nation must be demoralized, then destabilized. Chaos is necessary to make the people weary enough to accept a new plan that will bring relief from the chaos. The final stage is normalization. A life with less liberties and freedoms becomes the new norm.
Is it so hard to believe that the “occupy movement” might be a manipulation of a well organized group with a grandiose scheme to bring radical change resulting in a strong lean toward socialism?
Works Cited:
1. “Left Wing” Communism, Lenin
2. The Nation, “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty”, Cloward and Piven