Changing directions through elections

Probably more than ever before the American people are standing at a crossroads that can either take them off the map as a world influencer and world power or reinforce their status as world leaders in almost every area of life.

 

Their elections in November are crucial for them as a nation, but I believe even more so it is crucial for the world. The American people have led the world in almost every area of life, from technology, entertainment, sport, political policies, world aid and morality. However, since the arrival of George W. Bush as American president and the war in Iraq, many people have been shouting for the removal of this man from the presidency.

 

It is perfectly fine for all these people to shout for his removal, but who should replace him? There are only two candidates for the presidency in the USA and they are George W. Bush and John Kerry.

 

If the Americans vote to bring Kerry in as president, what will they get?

 

First of all, America will become a nation weak in military strategy and resolve. Kerry will be cowed into capitulation by Islam. From where I sit, it seems that he is already scared of upsetting the Muslim world and is ready to withdraw the American troops from Iraq.

 

Secondly, the people aiming at having their first amendment speech rights strengthened will get him to fall before the giants of pornography and smut. With a man that is reckoned to the left of Ted Kennedy politically, he and his Democratic party will be strongly lobbied to open the flood gates into the lives of American families. "Free speech" is very high on their agenda as it is for the Democrats, unless of course you are a Christian!

 

Next, he will allow almost all kinds of marriages to exist. Already, the Democratic judges in America, led by their vile liberal worldviews have started rewriting law books in America. Some of these rogue judges have started proclaiming from the bench that same-sex marriage (yuk!) should be allowed under the American constitution. Instead of simply interpreting the constitution and other laws based on their original intent, they have felt worthy of telling the American people how they should live and what they should find acceptable. It pains me to think what the original drafters of the American constitution would say if they could be with us today. I am sure they would have written the constitution and laws very carefully with very well chosen words to ensure that America would not simply turn into a den of harlots and vile human beings bent on destroying the very fiber of the American public!

 

Fourthly, he will allow abortion to go on unabated. He has already voted against striking down partial-birth abortion (PBA). PBA is one of the most gruesome, violent crimes against humanity under the ruse of reproductive rights. Funny enough, no human rights council will stand up against this most hideous violation of human rights..., the blatant murder of human beings! Further in this line, Kerry supports embryonic stem-cell research. This is the artificial creation of ebryos for the express purpose to be killed and to be experimented upon. On this front Kerry would make sure that he has the courts on his side, since he would only appoint pro-abortion judges. The man claims that life begins at conception; however, he is willing to have such life destroyed anyway!

 

Lastly, Kerry will allow laws to be passed to shut Christians up. He will make moral claims by Christians about American society to be written into the laws of America as hate speech. Kerry, and his party--the Democratic Party--have been dominated by the thoughts and worldviews of the UCLA, an ultra liberal lobbying group, whose prime reason for existence is making sure that God is removed from American society.

 

On the other hand, if Bush is voted back as president, all these things that Kerry stands for will be fought and resisted from coming to fruition or remaining as part of the American people.

 

Bush is strong on fighting those who have no regard for the American people. Currently, America, with Bush at the helm, is the only country that can and is willing to ensure that tyrants like Saddam Hussein do not continue destroying the very people they are supposed to serve. So what if no stockpiles of WMDs were found. Hussein and his cronies still had to be removed from power. The fact that several mass graves with people shot in the head or murdered in other ways have been found, have escapeed the world news because people are not concerned about justice, simply that they were right. They were right that Hussein had no stockpiles of WMDs. Yet, they turn a blind eye to the fact that this man has been killing anybody that would not toe the line according to Saddam Hussein! This man and his military simply had to be removed! If America is removed from the landscape of this world as a force to be reckoned with, this world will be ruled by thugs. It will be the proverbial mouse coming out to play.

 

Bush also stands for traditional families and traditional marriage. He supported an amendment to the constitution to define marriage as one man and one woman only.

 

Bush has been consistenly pro-life. This can be seen in his stance on abortion and stem-cell research. He believes that time and energy should be spent in researching adult stem cells for medical solutions. He is also anti-abortion.

 

Finally, Bush is strong on finding faith-based solutions for societal ills. These are ministries like Teen Challenge and Prison Fellowship Ministries. This shows that he has a true respect for what has been accomplished by Christians and so will not let Christians be side-lined in American society!

 

If one looks at the two scenarios above, it really becomes important who the American people vote for as their president.

 

Since the US has been a leader in this world, and in many ways a trend setter, it is not just important for America who is the next president, but also for the world.

 

If Kerry becomes the next president, the fallout of his policies regarding homosexuality, abortion, war against terrorism, hate speech legislation, etc will become unbearable for this world. The world simply cannot maintain its downward moral spiral. With Kerry helping that spiral to speed up, I can only foresee great problems.

 

So, what should the American people do? Should Bush remain, or should Kerry be the next president?

 

Voting should be done on the real issues, not the skewed, hyped issues created by men like Dan Rather and CBS  and the media frenzy.

 

America, help the rest of us sleep easier come November 2004!

 

Just thinking...

Greatness...

What determines who is great?

Just recently the South African Broadcating Corporation's channel 3 (SABC3) started showing a list of men and women that South Africans voted for as their 100 greatest South Africans. While I was perusing this list, I was wondering what the South Africans who voted were thinking (or perhaps drinking) when they voted for some of these people.

The list of SA's 100 greatest, reads like a very badly written Tom Clancy novel where the plot is non-existent and the characters are hardly inspiring. That the 100 greatest list is made up of sportsmen and women, convicted criminals, murderers and people who stand for the legal murder of babies is not all that surprising!  This, chosen by a nation of people whom have become totally devoid of any morality. This list of SA's 100 greatest can be viewed at SABC3's website http://greatsouthafricans.sabc3.co.za/home.asp?pid=362. The people who voted obviously had no clue that they were voting for the greatest and not the most popular people of South Africa. Many of those voted for, did absolutely nothing themselves and certainly do not deserve to be on the list. Certainly not a list of SA's 100 greatest...

What, for instance, did the infamous Mrs Ples (who turns out to be Mr Ples) do to deserve to be on this list? For those who do not know, 'scientists' claim that (s)he is 2 to 2.5 million years old. How could we ever know if (s)he did or did not do anything to deserve greatness? How could Hector Peterson be voted onto this list of SAs 100 greatest? What did he do to deserve to be on this list? Sure, he was shot to death by policemen in the 1976 riots here in South Africa. But, what did he do? If he can be on this list, then so should the 360,000 babies be who have been mercilessly murdered 'legally' through the act of abortion here in SA.

It sometimes becomes necessary for us to think with our heads and not with our emotions. Many of those who have made it to the top 100 list certainly cannot be reckoned as great. They were voted onto the list as great, through emotion and not proper thinking. That is why this list is purely a vote for the most popular and not for the greatest.

What makes a person great? I am sure that there are many who will come up with a variety of answers to that question!  Many on this list had a lot to do with the breakdown of apartheid in SA. Yet, on the other hand they did kill and blow up many innocent people in the process. Of course, many of those who were instrumental in enforcing apartheid in SA also made it to the list: H.F. Verwoerd, D.F. Malan, P.W. Botha, J.B.M. Hertzog. What made these men great? That they successfully oppressed millions of non-white South Africans for over 40 years? If that makes one great then Hitler must be absolutely phenomenal? We all know that is plainly ridiculous. Simply because someone is involved in a struggle for freedom or oppression does not make one great! The fact is that oppression leads to more oppression. If we look at the history of mankind, we will find that almost all those who have been oppressed and later won their freedom eventually became the oppressors. We find this with Israel. They were oppressed for most of their existence. Today they are the oppressors of the Palestinian people. The same goes for those who felt that they were oppressed under the rule of the Tzars of Russia. They eventually became the most oppressive force on this planet in the form of Communism! The Afrikaners were oppressed by the British. This led to the Afrikaners becoming the oppressors of non-whites after their emancipation from British rule. Now that the black man has freedom and rule in South Africa, they are starting to oppress white men especially through so-called affirmative action laws. Simply a smokescreen for more apartheid and oppression. Black people in Africa have been oppressed by the whites for so many years. All we now see in Africa is one black tribe trying to rule over another. Oppression leads to more oppression!

So, how will we define greatness? Is it tied up with something someone did? To whom and how many? How can this thing be quantified? Should it be quantified,; or should it rather be based on quality?

Sure, we must look at what a person accomplished in his life, but we must also look at who that person is! I do not mean that we must find out the person's name and information about him, but rather we must look at the person's character, the attributes of his personality. We also need to look at his worldview. Doing good things in themselves may mean nothing if those good things are merely a means to an end! This is where a person's character and worldview comes in. Is such a person even handed? Does he make sure that he can do good to all that he comes in contact with? Or, is he partial to a certain group of people?

Let's look at Nelson Mandela. Madiba is revered by people across the world. He is hailed as the messiah of the black people who struggled for their freedom. He certainly has done a lot of things for South Africa and indeed for many other peoples too. He established the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund that helps with poor and orphaned children. He helped establish some kind of peace in this country. Surely, at his command the black populace could have stood up and taken South Africa by force, but he chose to do it the 'democratic' way through an election. Surely, this makes for a great man! However, it was while he was at the helm of this nation that pornography was legalized. It was under his presidency that abortion was also legalized. In the first 6 years since it became legal, 360,000 babies have been murdered by sanction of the 'law.' Thousands of violent criminals have been released under his command, because it was his birthday, some of whom committed violent crimes within days of release. It was under his rule that murders rose from somewhere in the 7000s per year to over 20,000 per year with a high of 25,000 per year around 1996. Does this, now, look like greatness? You will have to decide!

To me, the great ones are those who day after day work hard for their money just to return home to ensure that their children are well fed, safe, educated and love God. Those that are concerned of their children's eternal future are the great ones. We will all die one day, but what then? Those that are great are those that do good things for their fellow man and do not expect anything in return for those good deeds.

There are many others whom we should acknowledge as great; yet, perhaps when we meet them face to face we may realize that they are not that great. I think that we too many times look for greatness in others when we should be out there doing great things for others.

How will we become great? This can only happen when we take up the challenge by Jesus Christ: "Love your neighbour as yourself!" However, His greatest challenge for us is: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." With this comes greatness!

Just thinking...

 

Tax and God's demand

I had this whole thing typed out, submitted it to BlogSpot and at that very moment I experienced a network problem that prevented its submission. Unfortunately I was submitting it via the web nd lost it all. So, I have to start again. Oh... the wonders of technology. Can't live with it, can't live WITH it!

 

The other day, while driving on my way to work, I noticed a newspaper poster with the headline that higher taxes could be expected in 2005. With taxes as high as they are already, and with a government that is exposed almost daily with corruption and waste of money, it does not amaze me that they want more money.

 

When God, in the Old testament, set the amount that the Israelites had to pay, He set it to 10%. This certainly makes God the one who is more efficient with His resources. This 10% that God demanded was to be given by all income groups. There definitely was no staggered "tithe" system in God's economy. On the other hand, the government has a staggered tax system where the more you earn the more you pay to the government. This means that if you pay the higher bracket of tax then you end up working half the year earning income for the government and the other half for yourself. Certainly, this cannot be good for the working man's view of being a citizen when being a citizen means nothing to the ruling party or government. In this country, where the taxes are sky high, you would imagine that when the people give their opinion the government would listen and take heed. However, this is not the case! Way back in 1996 the government had to make a decision to either open up pornography to the masses or keeping it illegal. They did the decent thing and asked for briefs to be presented to them by the public and interest groups. The amazing thing is that after these briefs and the study period of these briefs by the government they went ahead and legalized pornography; and that after 97% of all briefs presented to them gave reasons why pornography should remain illegal! They went squarely against the wishes of the people they claim they are representing! This certainly is not a democracy in the true sense of the word! Democracy should provide a government that is FOR the people BY the people.

 

When God set up His 10% tithe for the Israelites He knew that they would understand that the harder they work the more they will have for themselves after that 10%! This creates the understanding that we do work for ourselves and that hard work pays off! When the government keeps on expanding the tax brackets and making tax payments higher percentage wise as you earn more, why should the people feel that they need to work harder to get more money to give away to a government that does not govern for the people at all, but rather to heap more and more gravy on themselves from the governmental gravy train?

 

Who is the greater one, God or the government? If your answer is not "God" then I will pray for you. Who does the government think they are to demand more of people than God demands?

 

When Jesus said: "Give to Ceasar what is Ceasar's," did He mean give to Ceasar what Ceasar demands or give to him what is his?

 

Just thinking...