Greedy Governement or Socialist Stepping Stones

As a rash of new taxes are eyed by our government in light of the faltering economy, I can’t help but wonder why no one seems to understand what a budget cut is. Now Oregon wants to tax there constituents on there mileage. To make the this worse, they have no plans to get rid of the current gas tax and the new plan would take a paltry $20 million to implement.

Yup, lets spend an additional $20 million to implement a new tax as opposed to simply cutting superfluous programs. After reading about this new tax, I decided to check out the state agencies for the wonderfully innovative state of Oregon.   According to there State site there are 155 different state agencies. Now I’m sure that there are vital agencies on that page that help the state to run with optimal efficiency. However, are you seriously going to tell me that there is no possible way to cut spending in any of those agencies?

Look, here is my issue with all of the new taxes that our “big brother” seems to think are a good idea.

1.) There is no end in site to the taxes they can levy. If we can tax soda because it’s unhealthy then we can tax anything else that can be shown to be unhealthy. ANYTHING.

2.) There is no limit to what the government can say about the way we live. This is no longer about the good of the population. You can say all you want that it will save money and create a healthier populace, but the bottom is line is juts that…the Bottom Line. This is about the government making money to cover their inability to control spending.

3.) These taxes are not going to change anything. They never have and they never will. The government adjusts it’s spending to match it’s income. Well, that isn’t entirely true. The government actually manages to outspend it’s revenue on a consistent basis. Then it uses that unbalanced budget to rationalize new taxes. Until the government can learn how to control it’s spending and stop creating new and useless agencies, nothing will change because of these new taxes. People will not become “green” because of the tax, the environment will not become clean and stable because of the tax. The populace will not become healthy or skinny because of the new taxes. So why are they being passed?

The only answer that makes sense is money, at least that is the one that scares me the least.

New Government Taxes???

After reading about the barrage of new taxes that the Gov. of NY wants to impose, I can no longer stay quiet. The economy is faltering, no one would deny that, but what is actually being done to fix things?

Let me be clear, I am not an expert on the economy. I am an average American citizen. I am also irate with our government.  Can someone please tell me the last time the Government was able to efficiently handle the money the generate through taxes? Has there been a time in the last 50 years where they raised taxes and were able to use the increased income to erase the budget deficit?

Maybe they should start reevaluating where they spend their money. I mean, isn’t that what you do when you realize you are spending more than you make.  You sit down and you say, “OK, where am I spending money that I shouldn’t be?” then you adjust you spending habits and see where that leaves you. Once you have chopped all of you “extra” spending if you still come up short you start looking to increase your income.

Not our Government.  They realize they spent too much and they say, “Looks like we went over budget. Lets raise taxes to make more money.” There is no attempt to adjust the spending, their is no attempt to limit the “extra” expenses, their is no attempt. They simple raise taxes, and the sad thing is we pay. We the people, sit by idly and pay.

There are so many things we can do. There are 300 million people in this country. We could start boycotting the new taxed items. We could start petition and protest the absurd tax hikes. Most importantly, we need to start to vote out these politicians that keep raising taxes. The most effective way for our voice to be heard is at the voting booth.

It’s time that we told the politicians that we will not tolerate their antics anymore. We will not put up with their empty promises. We will not believe their lies. Most importantly, we will not give them our vote, we will not allow them the keep the power they have abused for far too long.

Christianity and Politics?

I just finished watching a video clip of a sermon that Jason Upton gave. In it he said something very powerful that really resonated in my spirit. He said; “I am offended (as a Christian) that they (society) have placed me as a subculture under Republicans. I am not a Republican. I am a Christian. I follow Jesus.”

Why did this resonate with me you ask? It resonated with me because for far to long I have been pigeon-holed, as a Christian, as being a Republican. My views have been decided by a political party that in all actuality has no clue as to what I believe as a Christian. The reality is that as an evangelical Christian every decision I make, every vote I cast, every thing that I do should be done with this one thought in mind. I follow Jesus. I don’t ascribe to a political ideology; my world view is not wrapped up in Republican doctrine and practices. My world view is defined by Jesus Christ and no one else. I ascribe to Him.

We as a church, and as individuals, need to be bold enough, brave enough, to step beyond the label society has given us and begin to be the voice of morality in a society that has none. We as Christian need to step beyond they political realm, I’m not saying Christian can’t be involved in politics (I feel quite the opposite actually) but we must be able to let Jesus dictate our policies and not our political parties dogma. We must begin to allow the Truth to be proclaimed from our lips.

Morality has begun to fade from our society and we can no longer stand by. If we are to see a true change in this country it won’t come from Obama and it won’t come from McCain. It will only come when Jesus is returned to the center of or country. He is the standard to which all our policies must be held up to.

So I challenge you today to evaluate you stances on the issues. Does it line up with Jesus or does it simply line up with you political parties ideology. If it lines up with Jesus then stand fast and let nothing shake you. If it doesn’t then change you stance, run to Jesus adn stand with Him because He is the only one that can turn a nation.

Corporate American Invades the Church

A glimpse at what Corporate America will do to the Church worship music….enjoy

from www.godtube.com posted with vodpod

We have created an atmosphere of darkness and called it light…

I heard a story about a girl who was a victim of child pornography. The perpetrator of the crime was a pastor at the girl church. As I heard this story I felt a righteous anger rise up within me. Various other stories of pastor and church leaders that have committed terrible atrocities against those in the flock began to come to mind and I was furious. I wasn’t angry at them however, I was angry at myself. I was angry at the church as a whole.

How far have we fallen to allow such things to happen? Where is the righteous anger that should rise up within in the christian to say, that’s not right and we need to fix it? I add the last part because it is the real issue that angers me. There are more than enough ‘christians” who will stand up and say that something or someone is wrong. Where are the christians who will actually attempt to change the root of the issue. Where are those who will confront the cause of the sin and remove it so that the flock can prosper. It seems we are simply content to call those who stumble hypocrites and then continue on with our walk.

There is a much deeper issue here than a man struggle with pornography. There are much deeper issues than people having affairs or being addicted to drugs. Don’t get me wrong, these are all serious problems but the real issue is why did they still struggle with those things. Why didn’t someone know about the issue? Why has the church, the one place we should all feel accepted and welcome, become a place where we feel the need to hide the most?

It seems strange but if you want to find the people who are the most honest about who they are don’t bother looking at a church. Instead try a bar, or a crack house. Why is it you ask? It’s simple, the church is no longer a place of refuge it is a place of judgement and condemnation. We have presented the image of perfection to the world. “Come here and join us and all you problems will go away.” What you end up with is a large group of people who feel like they are second rate because they have problems even after joining. Instead of talking about it they hide it so that they don’t get ridiculed.

What would have happened if the man who struggled with child pornography had been open about his struggle? I fear in most cases he would have been judged harshly and cast aside as one who was not walking the right way. What should have happened to him though? He should have been embraced as a brother who was struggling. There should have been those who came alongside him and helped him to bear the burden, helped him to finally be free from the sin that had ensnared him. The man wanted to be fee but he didn’t know he could be. Even if he knew he could be free, he didn’t know how to be and had no one there to help him.

I write this not to throw stones but to confront the truth that we have, as a church culture, created an atmosphere of darkness and called it light. If we don’t begin to remove the darkness and start walking in openness and transparency the sins that have invaded the church will consume the church. It is only in the light that we are able to become truly free.

Cloverfield…

 

 

 

 

 

Director Producer J.J. Abrams wanted to create an iconic monster that would rival the famed Godzilla and be more fierce and intense than the popular King Kong. After watching Cloverfield, I am not so sure that he has succeeded. The movie was solid but not exceptional and though the monster is terrifying I don’t think it’s the kind that will stick with me the way that Godzilla and King Kong have.

Cloverfield is told from the perspective of a small group of friends. While throwing a going away party for one of the group in NYC, there is a small earthquake and the power goes out. After rushing to the roof to see better what had happened, the group realizes that the city is under attack. They then rush out onto the streets to try to escape.

Once on the streets, the movie begins to draw on the tragedy of 9/11 to provoke sympathy from the audience. A building collapses sending a billowing cloud of dust and debris down the street, drowning the scene in darkness. Once the dust clears there are people wandering around covered with dust and some people are sitting on the curbs looking bewildered. While the scene is effective, it seems a bit to opportunistic with the 9/11 imagery.

What follows from here is the small group of friends trying to escape the city and then trying to save a friend who has been trapped. To save from spoiling the movie for those who have not seen it I will not include too many more details. I will say however, that the movie was well done and succeeded in holding my attention quite well in a genre that can become a bit boring to me at times.

The acting was almost unnoticeable, in a good way. The choice to film the movie with hand held cameras was the right one. You didn’t feel like you were watching a movie as much as you were a documentary, and that may be the best part of the movie. It felt like they were real people you were seeing experience the most horrific of tragedies and not actors and actresses following a script. The shaking camera, although at times gave me a headache, added realism to the movie that would otherwise been hard to achieve.

In the end, the monster seemed secondary and unimportant. I found myself only hoping that the friends would be able to escape and live their lives. The movie was intense and full of frightful scenes. It had its funny moments and its terrifying moments. As a movie I think that J.J. Abrams did a phenomenal job. However, at creating an iconic monster that would forever be ingrained in the minds of those who have encountered it, I think he failed.

What happened to Excellence?

What has happened to the quality of work in our culture?

A friend of mine wrote a post about the decline in sound quality that you should all check out. However, I think that the truth is that our “fast paced, hedonistic culture” has led to degradation in far more than just sound quality. I think that it has led to a lack of excellence in all aspects of culture today.

Excellence has been replaced by convenience and as a result we have more material (movies, books, song etc.) than ever before but the vast majority of it has no real discernible value. Most of, if not all of the works of today, could not hold a candle to the classics of yesterday.

God placed inside of us these incredible gifts of creativity to express and to communicate but due to our lack of stewardship of His gifts, due to our lack of hard work, we have far to often produced to a standard lower than we are capable. Even worse is that most people will never even realize that what they are reading, watching and listening to is not as good as it was meant to be.

That we would as a generation stop pursuing convenience and start pursuing excellence. It will be harder and it will require more commitment on our part but it will be worth it when we begin to create art that is able to stand the test of time, that is able to truly affect culture, because lets face it, what we have been creating up to now hasn’t gotten the job done.

My voyage into the blogosphere….

After much prompting from a few close friends I have decided to embark on a dangerous voyage into the world of blogging. I have been told numerous times that I should be blogging. That I should be writing. It didn’t matter what I wrote just as long as I was writing. After putting it off for far longer than I should have, here I am.

“What’s the big deal?” you ask. “Why is it a dangerous voyage?” you question.

At first glance you would be right to question such statements. How could anyone be afraid to blog? It is simply writing your thoughts down on the internet. I fear it is much more than that however. It is allowing a part of me to be put out for the entire world, or at least the few who manage to read, to see. There is a fear that I have that what I write may be laughed at scorned or rejected by the reader. The comments may never appear, the site visits may dwindle to nothing and I will be left with a voice that only I can hear. That was a risk that I was unwilling to take until today.

I realize today that to avoid the risk would be far worse than failure. To never step out into the blogoshpere would be a tragic mistake that I would regret far the rest of my life. Failure lasts only as long as it takes to learn from the mistakes made. Fear of making a mistake however will last a lifetime. So today I risk failure…