We elected him, but must we do it again...
Wise classicist Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote a short piece titled "Obama in Never-Never Land" which begins:
The chief tenet of postmodernism is that truth and facts are arbitrary constructs, set up by the privileged to manipulate others less fortunate. In the case of our first postmodernist president, Barack Obama, there cannot be facts, past or present, only a set of shifting assertions that gain credence to the degree that they prove transitorily useful for progressive causes. A sympathetic biographer, David Maraniss, noted that almost all the touchstone events in Barack Obama’s mythographic memoir were fabricated. Of course, Obama would object to such a value-laden term and instead call them composites, impressions stitched together and presented as truth to serve the higher moral narrative: a young biracial idealist searching for his identity in a mostly racist and oppressive America. To the degree that Dreams from My Father enhanced that narrative, then all of what was in it was “true” — even the literary agent’s bio attesting that the exotic author was born in faraway Kenya.
For the fabulist Obama, the past is a vague mess with shifting narratives that can serve noble contemporary causes.
Absolutely right. I'm appalled at how credulous Christians have been toward this unaccomplished professional campaigner rising from the bowels of the south side of Chicago hoisted by the buoyancy of his own hot air. Their credulity was obvious from the beginning of his first presidential campaign. His facile tongue on a light-skinned face was perfect pitch to rich white Evangelicals with a bad conscience who wanted to repent of racism rather than fornication, greed, and pride...
Lies, and lies upon lies--this is what we've become. Nothing nowhere is any part true. The depth of our being goes no deeper than our latest update on Facebook and how pathetic is that? Who has time to read the Word of God any more, let alone Calvin or Knox or Luther or Augustine or Watson or Baxter?
"Oh yeah, didn't someone tweet something about preachers dying last week? I think the quote was from a guy named Baxter. Death and preaching--there's a pair. Deep! I love tweets. They remind me how good reading is. They make me think. When I read stuff like that, I'm like--wow!"
We chose the perfect Facebook president. President Obama is a glib updater who has condescended to take upon himself the mantle of Supreme Civil Servant so we, his charges, may be changed into all we're meant to be. Our President, Our Selves.
Dear brothers and sisters, don't use updates or tweets to tell anyone who you aren't. Lying is wrong and FB and Twitter are nothing but lies. They're People and Us magazine for all the little guys who'll never be a movie star or Olympic athlete. If you need fellowship (and every Christian does), go over to someone's house and eat with them. Let them see your face and hear your intonation and smell your breath. Watch their children and see if they're obedient and speak respectfully to their mother without interrupting her conversation.
Get it? Stop wasting time copping a false posture on your FB page. Be real. Be here now. Let your yea be yea and your nay nay.
If you want to trade cute anecdotes about your children, FB is perfect.
But if you want to know others and be known, to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn, get up off your lazy you-know-what and do something bodily--which is to say, do something real and true.
And the election this November?
I'd really like to have someone in the White House with something to commend him beyond his mulatto skin, glib tongue, and Harvard degree. How 'bout a smooth-talking, handsome, hectomillionaire Mormon who got along famously with Teddy Kennedy?
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Comments
"Dear brothers and sisters, don't use updates or tweets to tell anyone who you aren't. Lying is wrong and FB and Twitter are nothing but lies. They're People and Us magazine for all the little guys who'll never be a movie star or Olympic athlete.....
Get it? Stop wasting time copping a false posture on your FB page. Be real. Be here now. Let your yea be yea and your nay nay."
Yes! Pastor Joseph preached a sermon about this not too long ago. It had a good effect. I am sick of facebook! I wasted so much time on it. I still have to fight against wasting time other ways, but I am so glad to have one less obnoxiously addicting way to be idle. (I know that not everyone who uses facebook is idle while doing so like I was).
"If you need fellowship (and every Christian does), go over to someone's house and eat with them. Let them see your face and hear your intonation and smell your breath. Watch their children and see if they're obedient and speak respectfully to their mother without interrupting her conversation."
One tip: brush your teeth first. ;)
This is a comment on the craziness that is this blog. Wow. Get over yourself. There is not such thing as god. Get over it. I'll do everything I can to remove you from the IU campus. Yes, I'm one of the crazy left-wing nuts that hates religion and wants you removed from this country. No, we were not based on biblical principals. Just take a look at David Barton, a nut like you. When you speak like you do you sound no different than the supposed Islamic nuts that you hate.
Hugh, your celebration of diversity and tolerance is simply overwhelming! What a privilege that Bloomington and IU are so open and welcoming to people of all persuasions, views and backgrounds! Isn't it great that the intellectual community can pursue lux et veritas unencumbered by political and ideological baggage? And that it can critically appraise diverse and divergent worldviews without endorsing or demeaning any of them? What a privilege to associate with such discerning, neutral, open-minded people!
Dear Hugh,
Even if you wiped Christians off the face of the earth, you still have to face Almighty God when you die. It is appointed unto man once to die, then comes the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27) So, repent of your hatred of Christians and, much more importantly, of the God Who created you and to Whom you will one day give an account for every idle word you speak and write. Look at the Apostle Paul. He imprisoned Christians and approved of their execution. Then, he met Jesus Christ and repented of his sin. Hugh, repent of your sin. Do so today while it's still day. You have much work to do building God's kingdom and exalting His Son Jesus Christ. Tomorrow join us at Clearnote Church Bloomington to worship the One True God.
Love,
Brian Bailey
Nations get the Governments, and leaders, they deserve.
(From an anonymous commenter) Morality, verity, and reality have nothing to with this Administration. I wanted to add "consistency" but then thought better of it. Power and hatred for life and the rule of law are the truly consistent standards of the Obama era. Morality, verity, and reality have to be ignored, covered up, mocked, or altered to suit the convenience of his acquiring and maintaining power. There's another aspect to the consistency. All these moves tend to satisfy the one that Jesus calls the ruler of this world. Unborn children who've committed the crime of being inconvenient are subject to the death penalty, which President Obama so vociferously and ferociously supports. Administration of this death penalty through nationalized health care is a cost economically, not to mention morally, borne by our entire nation. But those children who survive the womb will soon be cast into public schools where the last vestiges of discipline and order are being thoroughly undermined and destroyed. (See this article for the details of another enlightened public policy initiative: http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_3_school-discipline.html) Whatever remains of discipline and order must go the way of the McGuffey Reader so that President Obama can champion "civil rights" and so that race hucksters and lawyers and diversity mongers can practice their parasitical arts making a living off the productive economy.
There's a reason the Psalms repeatedly condemn the man of bloodshed AND deceit AND oppression. (Psalm 5:6; Psalm 10:7; Psalm 43:1; Psalm 55:11, 23)
"His facile tongue on a light-skinned face was perfect pitch to rich white Evangelicals with a bad conscience who wanted to repent of racism rather than fornication, greed, and pride..."
I worked one summer at a camp for handicapped people years ago after my freshman year at a state university. I was puzzled by all the college age students who would work for low wages. Yes, I realized it would likely help on future resumes. In the evenings I was shocked at the immorality which I knew went on after the campers were in bed.
I finally came to the conclusion, that BECAUSE these college students worked for low wages with handicapped people, they thought that gave them a free pass on how they behaved the rest of time. I guess it still all boils down to a works mentality, rather than repentance and trust in God.
It was a difficult summer for me. You see my brother had attended the camp the previous summer because half of his body was paralyzed at that time. He had a great time at camp, but of course was not aware of the immorality of many of the staff. It was also a good summer because I had a Bible study leader from college who corresponded weekly (before e-mail, Facebook etc) with me on my time in the Word. She was a great encouragement to me and the accountability helped me to rely on God.
Perhaps Obama was the judgement of God on the USA for its racism? I don't know, so would value comment/criticism of this view.
Our rector preached on Ephesians 4:25-5:2 this morning, the Epistle reading appointed for today for churches using the Revised Common Lectionary, using the NRSV translation. He used it to define it several marks of Christian maturity, one of which is described in v. 29.
He went on to say that evil talk could mean a "potty mouth", but more importantly it referred to things like expressing a bad attitude, gossip, and slander.
Then he went on to say that if you wanted to see possible examples of slander, just turn on your TV and watch the political commercials. You will find commercials for Obama slandering Romney and vice-versa. Judge each candidate's message against the truth before jumping to conclusions regardless of which party you favor and that neither candidate has all the answers. He said there were non-partisan websites that checked out the facts in political ads and commercials and that he would e-mail their URLs to anyone who wanted them.
Note that he never told us who to vote for. As our spiritual leader, I think what he told us was very appropriate and I commend him for it.
--Sue
P.S. Just to let you know, this part of his homily was <20% of the whole thing. It was not a political sermon.
Dear Hugh,
I'd like to take a slightly different tack than Abram and Hugh have. However, I realize what they have they have written to you is out of concern for you and they would like to introduce you to our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know how exactly they would do that (other than Brian's invitation to his church), but I'm sure they know what they'd do.
I know many people have been turned off to organized religion and thus to God, sometimes with good reason. My mother-in-law is one of these people. She is a self-described atheist, although she has been a good wife, mother, and now grandmother. She is a sinner, but so am I when I lose my temper for no good reason, want to pad my resume (I'm looking for a job), harbor resentment or bitterness toward someone who wronged me a long time ago, am tempted not to return something from a store that gave me 50% off an expensive sale item instead of the 25% off I should have received...you get the picture. As I understand the Bible, sin is defined as "missing the mark", like an archer missing the bulls-eye. There are many terms used to describe how God feels when we miss the mark, including grieved or angry, but he always is willing to forgive us if we sincerely mean it.
My church periodically offers the Alpha Course, a 10-week course where God, Jesus, the Bible, and religion are examined in a small group setting where there are no wrong questions. Everyone is welcome, including agnostics, atheists and seekers. No one tries to convert anyone. although class members have the opportunity to develop or grow in the Christian faith. There is a group dinner, followed by a discussion of the weekly topic.
I can't invite you to attend our next class, since I live 200+ miles from Bloomington, IN. However, I recommend that you check out this website:
www.alphausa.org. The site will give you more information about Alpha, allow you to search for a class near you, and even talk to someone about Alpha.
Hugh, blessings to you on your search for the One who loves you more than you can ever imagine. He wants to fill the void in everyone's heart who seeks after Him.
--Sue
P.S. Hugh, I assume you are an American, or at least someone who honors the American value of free speech. If so, please reconsider your desire to remove Christian witness from the IU campus. the metro area where I live has a Big Ten university. All types of religious and non-religious groups have chapters. One campus ministry that our church supports has one guy who has had such lively and amicable debates with the Atheist Society that the atheists have added him to their Speaker's Bureau. He is willing to speak to any atheist, agnostic or free-thinker group on or off-campus that they send him to. It would be wonderful to have that spirit of mutual respect in spite of sharp differences of opinion prevail at IU.
Hi Sue, completely O/T, but this is something I have helped with in a couple of churches, and really liked.
In the first line of this post, I meant to say, "Abram and Brian", not "Abram and Hugh".
These past few days I've been reading the title of this post as "We elected him, but we must do it again". Which I found very confusing. Now I see that it actually says "...but must we do it again". Much better.
Hi Tim,
It was my understanding that abortion was not covered under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (its actual name, as you know) in its current form). However, all forms of birth control, many of them abortifacient, like the morning-after pill or the IUD, would be covered for free.
Is that what you meant when you wrote:
Or am I mistaken or is abortion actually covered?
Thanks,
Sue
P.S. There are many things I would like to change in this health care reform act, but I'd rather "mend, not end, it". I'm far from a (former) health economist, like Ross, but what I learned in earning my recent degree and certificate make me believe that we can do better for our fellow Americans than our current system.
Dear brothers and sisters, a couple of you wrote pointing out that the man or woman identifying himself or herself as "Hugh" was unlikely to be using a real name. I'm sorry I've been busy and didn't take care of this earlier. Almost without exception, when people write here in a scoffing manner, they lie about their identity. Sometimes I delete their comments, but in this case there were sincere comments seeking the repentance of this scoffer and so I let it go. However I have changed liar "Hugh's" last name, and I ought to have done that much earlier--I was slow on the uptake.
Love,
Seeing Mr. Blasphemer named reminds me of The Pilgrim's Progress, which my family has just started reading. So far (in addition to Christian and Evangelist) we've met Mr. Obstinate and Mr. Pliable. It helps you learn to discern good from evil, to know that some plausible-sounding argument is coming from "Mr. Obstinate".
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