“That I am not a member of any Christian Church, is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any denomination of Christians in particular.” ~Abraham Lincoln

This blog is my full unedited response to a local conservative commentator named Lynn Vakay who lives in Acton, California and is a Santa Clarita Valley school teacher and a member of the 38th Assembly District’s Republican Central Committee. Her Commentatary titled “Lynn Vakay: To whom should Americans be giving thanks?” which was written in my local newspaper the signal. http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/21079/

Enjoy

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Hey Norman, You Forgot to Paint Jesus!

Isn’t it refreshing that Mrs. Vakay saw it fit to use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to push her political and religious propagandas while simultaneously launching a preemptive strike against the Obama White house? She does not know what President Obama is going to say, but she has already determined she does not like it. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone. Bravo. It takes a lot of practice to type 753 words and not say much of anything.

Mrs. Vakay starts off by repeating the outrages seen on conservative news outlets, about President Obama’s comment on how, America is not being just a Christian nation only. She neglects to ask herself why the President would make such a comment? Could it be that he is aware the Muslim world as well as the Christian world view the two occupations as Holy Wars? Don’t believe me? Just look at the comments Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin said June 2008 while addressing a local graduating class: “Our national leaders are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God.” Former President Bush also stated in June 2003: “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,’ and I did.”[*] Add Donald Rumsfeld putting Bible verses on Presidential War Briefings[*] and the 700,000+ Arab Civilians who have perished as a direct result of our military operations[*] and it is no wonder the Muslim world is a little annoyed at us. Mrs. Vakay’s beloved conservatives do not even attempt to hide their real motivations. They act as if Al Queda does not know how to read the newspaper. Muslims of the world read the above quotes and get their “jihad juices” flowing. Obama has the wisdom enough to try and temper these notions and make it clear that he is not waging war against any religion.

Mrs. Vakay goes on to support her belief that America is a Christian Nation by citing a poll from Pew Research Center, which I was unable to find or verify. Either way, I am not sure what it really proves, especially since a recent University of Minnesota study put Atheists as the most hated and distrusted minority in the country, even hated more than the dreaded Muslims & Homosexuals. [*] A Gallup poll done in 2008 showed that only 40 percent of people surveyed said, “Yes” when asked “Would you describe yourself as a “born-again” or evangelical Christian?” [*] Not quite the 79% that Mrs. Vakay claims, although 92% believe in at least a vague form of God or a Universal Being, which really doesn’t hold much significance as far as religious commitment goes. In fact, Evangelical Christianity has been on the decline for the past 20 years, falling nearly half a percent every year since 1989. [*] Mrs. Vakay is trying to label and put people in the same category that would say “Well, my family is Catholic”, but I have not been to mass since Reagan was President and those hardcore evangelical people that never miss a church service, then gather together to rally against gay marriage at their local intersection.

Republican continually force feed Americans a believe that we were founded on christian principles. They forget Thomas Jefferson, who had such disdain for Christianity that he said in 1782, “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.” Ben Franklin said “I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies.” & “Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” John Adams said “Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?” and “God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.” I can go on forever!

The point is President Obama, like most Presidents and politicians of the past including the founding fathers who would pay homage to a vague concept of God and religion, just to satisfy the religious zealots of the land, give the impression they are trust worthy. This does not mean any of them were overtly religious men. Even if it were true that most of the founding fathers were religious men, what does that really matter? They also believed bleeding people with yellow fever would help cure them.[*] They were wrong. It is amazing what a little education and science can do.

So Mrs. Vakay made a premature assumption that President Obama would not uphold the foundational belief that, “All men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” I make the assertion that President Obama’s statement, which Mrs. Vakay is so upset about, actually holds more to the meaning of the constitution than what she is asserting. President Obama’s statement when taken in context essentially said America is a melting pot of religions, all of which are Created Equal in the eyes of the constitution. Mrs. Vakay’s entire argument, that somehow Christianity should get some kind of preferential treatment in our country, is completely opposite of the constitution core concept she is claiming to love so much. She has quite the cognitive dissonance on her hands.

The end of Mrs. Vakay’s attack of Obama was reserved for more Republican Talking points, where she claims that freedoms are being stripped of Americans. She might have more creditability in her charge, if she wasn’t a supporter of the Bush administration that stripped more liberties away from American then any period of time in HISTORY. Just look at their so-called Patriot ACT! Here is a list of freedoms that were striped from Americans with little to no resistance!

1. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigations.
2. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records questions.
3. FREEDOM OF SPEECH: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.
4. RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
5. FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: Government may search and seize Americans’ papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.
6. RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.
7. RIGHT TO LIBERTY: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

Published in Signal - December 3rd

But remember you were either for us and a patriot OR against us and an enemy of the state. Amazing how quickly these Tea-baggers handed over their freedoms and started pounding the drums of war!

Mrs. Vacay goes on to say, ‘Remember, Man can take away your rights; God has graciously given them to you as a birthright.” I found this especially entertaining coming from a talking head of a political faction that had no problem eliminating same-sex couples of their right to marry. It didn’t even send up a red flag to this liberty loving Republican when she read the official title, “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry”? That means they had the FREEDOM and their personal Freedom was voted away! Since when do AMERICANS vote on citizen’s civil rights? If Lincoln held a vote to free the slaves, it wouldn’t have happened! I can’t help but laugh every time I hear Republicans claiming a public OPTION is an attack on their freedom. How dare the Government give their people more choices! But it is ok to take choices away from Americans we view a “ICKY”

I think Mrs. Vakay needs to take a long hard look at what she really believes and start coming up with solutions to America’s problems rather than making an already difficult job for President Obama that much harder.

Liberal Bias Bible

I knew it!  All that Love your neighbor, sell you property and follow me and Money being the root of all evil talk, almost gave the impression that God wasn’t a Gun Toting, Free Market, Capitalist Republican!  Well the boys at Conservapedia can’t let the Liberal Bias of the King James Version as well as other Bible Versions, corrupt America any longer!  They have started the Conservative Bible Project to combat the “liberal Bias that has become the single biggest distortion in modern bible translations”.

First thing I noticed about this  supposed Conservative Bible Translation project is the lack of information and qualifications of the translators?  Do these guys know Greek, Latin & Hebrew?  From I gather they are going to just re-word the King James Version instead of Translate from the Original Greek and Hebrew text, I.E. The Textus Receptus.

I know a little bit about bible translations, as I spent 3 years at West Coast Baptist College in Lancaster California and worked for about a year as a Youth Pastor at a small Baptist Church in Palmdale California.  I am not a Theologian, but I know more then the average christian.

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias

Notice this isn’t a literal translation, but a “thought for thought” translation.  They are giving you their SPIN of what they want the Bible to say rather then the what it literally says.

4. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level

10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”

Love this! We will not dumb down the bible like the dreaded NIV, but we won’t use too many words either like those blasted liberals!

7.  Express Free Market Parables - explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

Probably want to take out Mark 10:26 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” & Matthew 19:21 –  ”Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”  While you are at it they might want to take out Revelation 22:18-9 which states: ”For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.”

8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story

This explains the Mark Sanford situation!  Liberals went back in time and added this story to trip the poor Governor up!

I think Rob Dreher [*] hit the nail on the head when he said  ”These jokers don’t worship God. They worship ideology.”

Well Written blogs on the subject

Mark Shea Blog
Rob Dreher