The Unknown Sponsors of Terrorism

Ever heard the saying the best place to hide something is in plain sight? It has come to my attention that there is an unknown and invisible sponsor of terrorism yet to be sanctioned. You do know that the U.S. and it’s allies are cracking down on known terrorist organizations? How would you stop terrorism? Cut off the flow of money maybe? That’s what the U.S. and many of it’s allies are doing.

I have found a hole though. First off, let’s qualify what makes a terrorist organization. How would you define it? An organization that supports the murder and killing of civilians not at war? An organization that does not adhere to the rules of engagement? Perhaps an organization that attacks at will for no reason? How about a financial support of such a group?

These are all intelligent questions to be answered. You should be proud of yourself for being able to answer and define terrorists and their supporters.

Now the bad news. Did you know the Obama administration is writing a $900 million check to the support of the Palestinians? Where do you think that money is going to go? Ever heard of Hamas? It’s a name on the list of recognized terrorist organizations, did you know that? Did you know that Hamas is the “political” group elected to lead Gaza?

So, let me ask you this…

Shouldn’t the fact that the U.S. and Great Britain are financially supporting known terrorists put them on the list of known sponsors of terrorism? Wouldn’t that also make the U.S. a hypocrite? This is the tough one for me… by being a tax payer, we are all sponsors of terror. Isn’t it illegal to do that? Shouldn’t our leaders be locked up and tried for treason for sponsoring the same terrorist organizations other administrations have pointed to as terrorists?

Why They Hate Us

Your total submission to liberal theology and doctrine is not only demanded, but any disbelief will be met with any sort of punishment they deem necessary. Witness a restaurant owner who has a fervent belief that homosexual marriage is wrong, spent money on the Prop. 8 campaign, and is going to lose her business because of it. (link)

I am going to educate my homosexual readers and homosexual sympathizers on LDS theology. The article I linked to above does not make me happy because it totally mischaracterizes, or at least demonstrates the misunderstanding, of our most basic theology.

Fundamental to all LDS members is the belief that God is alive, all-powerful, all-compassionate, and perfectly just. Because of his perfect sense of justice, he cannot permit the tiniest of uncleanliness into his kingdom. We don’t make the rules. He does. He is the rule. And he demands perfect obedience and perfect subjection of heart, might, mind and soul. Not because he is cruel, but because he is right, and righteous, and there simply is no other way to be happy but his way.

Imagine you are lost and need to get out of the woods to where you want to go. God is there, has the map, he knows the woods, he can read the map and he knows exactly where you are. And he tells you exactly how to get out of the woods. He doesn’t hate you, he isn’t judging you, he is in fact trying to help you. We are lost in the woods, and only God can see the way out. We would do well to listen, even when what he has to say isn’t pretty.

But we don’t. We wander around in our own little ways, rejecting God and his counsel because we are free to do so, and frankly, because it is simply in our nature. We’re all born to do evil. Whether we go about murdering people or telling white lies, we are all equally barred the kingdom of God, equally kept in a state where we can never get out of the woods. There is a broad spectrum of sin, but there is only one righteousness, and we are not it.

Enter Jesus. Jesus reaches down, down, down from his divine throne, and descends below all things and then ascends above all things. Why? Because he and only he can bear the price to be paid to correct our mistakes and make us even with God. Not only that, but he bought us with his blood and only he can claim that he owns us. His perfect life isn’t the only example for us, but his words also, and his words are quite clear: “I am the way”. There is no other way. If anyone says there is another way, they are a liar and are just as lost as everyone else. See if they have any true happiness or peace or righteousness to offer. They do not.

Enter Joseph Smith and all the holy prophets such as Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, or Peter and Paul. These men who are quite mortal and quite prone to error are called upon, personally, by Jesus, to act as his shepherds and bring us back to Christ. And so these men speak, quite literally, the words Jesus wants them to speak. We can’t argue with these people because there is no argument. Go ahead and try, try to show any of the prophets as false prophets. You’ll come to realize, if you are honest, that there is no way they could’ve done what they did unless they were truly inspired by a much, much higher power.

But more importantly, ask God. “Is such-and-such a true prophet?” If you are sincere, that is, willing to follow through, then the promise is that God will tell you, personally. Why would he do anything less?

We have a choice. We can admit that we are lost, see how much trouble we are in, and turn to these prophets, swallow our pride and follow the prophets until we find Jesus, then follow Jesus until we find God. Or we can keep wandering about the woods and stay lost forever.

It’s our choice. Notice that we had no choice until the prophets show up. And notice what the choice is: follow the prophets and follow Jesus, or do something else. There is only one right choice that can get you out of the woods.

Now, let me be perfectly clear to those people out there who are lost. First, you are lost. Understand that the reason why you are sad all the time, the reason why the world looks so evil, the reason why you think God hates you is because you are living in sin. This doesn’t apply to just homosexuals, it applies to everyone. You can be a stand-up guy, a righteous example in 99% of what you do, but it’s that 1% that drags you down and keeps you from being really, really happy. Or you can be only 2% good and 98% evil in what you do. It doesn’t matter. You are both miserable compared to what you would be if you could somehow obtain 100% righteousness.

I am not the reason you are sad. The prophet who tells you what you are doing wrong is not the reason you are sad. Jesus doesn’t make you sad. Religion doesn’t make you sad. God doesn’t make you sad. You make you sad. See, you have the power to choose to do what’s right or wrong, and you, and ultimately, only you suffer the consequences of your own choices.

When someone out there humbles themselves, bows themselves down to the earth, admits to God that they were wrong all along and that they never want to be wrong again so they are literally giving their wills over to God, when someone does this and receives their personal revelation that it’s going to be alright and when they realize just how precious they are to God and Jesus, and just how light the burden is and they soul fills with everlasting light and they don’t ever thirst again and are filled with the love of God, when this happens, it is something wonderful.

And when you fight against these people, these strangers in a strange land, these folks who have had enough of the world and are looking with divine hope for something better, and they promise themselves to be that force for good in the world not because they want it but God wants it, when you fight against these people you are fighting against God. You are doing the work of Satan. You are evil. I am not making you evil by labelling you for what you are. You are making yourself evil because you would rather listen to that spirit who would have us fight with each other and murder each other and abuse each other all to mock God. That’s evil.

And that’s LDS theology in a nutshell. That’s why we tell people, “Don’t smoke. Don’t drink. Don’t have sex before marriage. Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t experiment with pornography or homosexuality or anything unpure. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t be mean to each other. Don’t shop on Sunday.” We’re not saying that because we want to hurt you. No, we’re posting signs on the highway, “Hey, the road’s curvy here, slow down. Hey, there’s a drop-off on the shoulder, don’t pull over. Hey, there’s an accident up ahead, slow down.”

And then we tell you about Jesus and God and how much love they have for you and how all you have to do is simply give up. That’s right, give up. Admit you can’t beat the world. Admit you can’t keep all the commandments, the big ones or the little ones. Admit that you are lost in the woods and you nor anyone you know can see the way out. Admit that unless Jesus steps in and takes over and pilots your soul, you will be lost forever. That’s the message.

See, the law is our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. Literally. When we take the law seriously, God’s law, we quickly realize how bad we are at that sort of thing. And thus as we try to obey the law we become more and more cognizant of our own impurity and imperfection. We seek a remedy, but the remedy isn’t in the law. You can’t go back in time and change what you did. The remedy is Christ.

I freely admit to anyone who asks that I am not righteous. I am not good. I am a very bad man because I don’t listen to God all the time and I do things I wish I didn’t. But I know who is righteous, and who does listen to God all the time, and I am doing my very best to do what he wants because he wants it not me. And I feel liberated at that. I feel happy. I want to shout it out from the rooftops, to tell the world, “Hey! Life sucks, but that’s okay because the gospel doesn’t!”

I went and served two years speaking Korean to people who could barely understand anything I said. (I was in South Korea, of course. Even then they couldn’t understand my accent.) I wanted nothing more than for people to find the same happiness I grew up with, the same community where we share and love and live together and cry together and build each other up out of sincere caring. I want the entire world to embrace Christ’s message of love and hope and peace and happiness because I know that there’s nothing, nothing, in this world that can make us happy. Everywhere is evil, everything is evil. The world’s going to hell, and you can’t change that, no one can. All we can do is get everything and everyone out of the world and into God’s kingdom, where we can live in peace and happiness.

Those of you who hear that Christians are full of hate are being blind to the true message of Christianity and confusing Christians with Christ. As a Christian, I freely admit that Christians kind of suck. They suck because everyone sucks. Sure, Christians might suck a little less, but you’ll find Christians doing dumb things just like other people do dumb things.

We don’t pray to other Christians, we don’t try to emulate other Christians, and we don’t pay too much attention to what other Christians say. Christians are focused on Christ and nothing else, or at least they should be. Because when we’re not, we’re no longer being Christian, are we? We’re being that “something else” that isn’t the way, the truth, the life, etc…

Christ wasn’t about bending the rules or making exceptions. He was about absolute obedience to that God who is only good, a perfect godly nature permeating everything we are and can be. And he didn’t lower the bar, he raised it. But he told us at the same time that if we simply followed him, he could make up the difference. He told us to be perfect, and that to achieve perfection, we needed him.

I can see why you hate that message. It’s not who you want us to be. You want us to be evil so you can justify your intense dislike for us and our message. You want to turn us into dragons so you can feel like St. George in slaying us. But you can try as hard as you want, you cannot change who we really are and who you really are. And that fact is that we really do love you and want you to simply submit to Christ. That’s it.

“Rulers” in America

There are very few things that make me genuinely angry, I mean angry to the point where I want to lead a crowd of angry men painted blue in kilts to battle angry.

At the top of the list are people who think they can “rule” the people of the United States.

President-Elect Obama had a slip of the tongue where he confused being president for being a ruler. Sorry, Obama, real presidents understand the fundamental difference between the two. If you want to act like a ruler, you are going to have a very, very rocky ride. Judging on what you are expecting to accomplish in the first few months, I think you are well on your way to a Jimmy Carter administration.

Governor Schwarzenegger of California wants to overturn proposition 8, a constitutional amendment to the state constitution that passed by a majority vote. Governor S., and all you others, if you over turn prop 8 with the courts, you will be facing down hundreds of blue kilted angry men. See, when you believe you have the right to rule over Americans, we get a bit upset. More than a bit upset. We start killing people and breaking things type upset.

Reading about the history of the United States, Americans soon learned that there is really only one thing that keeps leaders from becoming rulers. That is the threat of physical violence. It bothers me that the President of the United States has to hide behind Secret Service agents. It bothers me that the State Patrol has to protect the governor. Honestly, if they were doing their job, the people would rush to their defense if their lives were threatened.

Hiring bodyguards and having a standing army is the first step towards ruling a people. Once you have enough troops to beat them in an armed rebellion, and once you are safe inside your castle walls, you can do pretty much anything you want.

The kings of England even understood this. They tried their damnedest to get on the good side of the people. They tried to set up a quid-pro-quo. You, the people, will pay taxes and fight my wars. I, the king, will ensure that we win those wars and you can live in comfortable wealth and speak your native tongue and not French. As long as the king served the interests of the people, the people gladly taxed themselves and served in the army and followed his laws.

And so Americans, even before the Revolutionary War, went to great lengths to impress upon their officers, appointed or elected, that they were servants of the people and not the other way around. Judges who made unpopular decisions feared for their very lives. If they had to make an unpopular decision, they felt obligated to explain it in a way that regular people could understand. Governors who enforced unpopular laws faced armed insurrection, and so they too did their best to convince the people that the law was in their best interest. Legislators who didn’t represent their districts would have to retire to distant parts of their territories. Those who lost elections were happy to lose at the ballot box, since that was a good estimation of what kind of opposition they would face if they tried to rule without permission of the people.

Fortunately, very, very few of our armed forces and police believe they serve the president. No, they well understand that they serve the constitution, which is the vehicle by which the people formed the government, the thing that makes the officials official. Should the president or any other officer exceed his constitutional authority, he won’t find the troops there to support him. And should the constitution be shredded, why, there is no reason why the people should support the government, anymore than you would support a disobedient and unruly child.

If Obama intends to completely disregard the Constitution of the United States, the United States will dissolve and he won’t have any presidency to rule from. If the governor of California and the courts reverse proposition 8, I can’t see that ending pretty for anyone.

When our leaders confuse themselves with rulers, I only hope they feel compelled to hire a few more bodyguards or sleep a little further from the window. That’s the only kind of government I am comfortable with. Heaven forbid we ever live in a time when someone can think themselves our ruler and roam our streets freely!

I am not advocating shooting anyone! God knows how bad a Civil War is, and I pray that our leaders will be wise in preventing the necessity for one. I am simply explaining the facts of life and American sentiments, sentiments we’ve held since before any American set foot on this continent, sentiments which we still hold today but temper with our faith that one way or the other our will will be met without violence.

I am advocating that public servants, our elected officials and appointed and hired officers, dare not think themselves one step above the least of the citizens of this country. They are serving us, on our time, with our money, and they serve only with our collective individual consent.

But since Obama has shown some of the signs of a dictator, and since his followers are likewise demonstrating those signs, now is as good a time as any to get your concealed carry permit and stock up on ammo. After all, it is a well-armed society that prevents tyranny since the threat of force, no matter how quiet, is enough to turn a lion into a lamb. Let us always be the most highly armed people in the world.

To those who call Wickedness Righteousness

To Dale Carpenter at Volock Conspiracy:

[W]hen you enter the political fray, you are not exempt from public criticism and protest just because you are a religion or have religious reasons for your advocacy. It’s not anti-religious bigotry to call attention, loudly and angrily, to what you have done.

It is bigotry to hate a man. If you hate me for my political persuasions, you are just as close-minded as you accuse me to be, if not moreso. I do not hate my enemies. I feel sorry that they have made such a huge mistake in their lives and I hope I can reach out and change their heart in some small way.

But you’re absolutely right. It’s politics baby. Bring it on.

Here’s my advice to righteously furious gay-marriage supporters:

It’s not righteousness that is driving the homosexual-marriage supporters crazy. If you get a chance, you should read the Book of Mormon to see how members of the LDS church believe Satan operates, and how he is operating through the homosexual movement. Their intense hatred and anger is a clear sign of his manipulation of your movement.

Public protest against a constitutional ban on marriage for gay families is entirely justified. More than a mere vote, protests communicate intensity of feelings. They’re valuable in a democracy.

I disagree, fundamentally. Forming mobs and marches is a tool of democracy, but they are not justified and they certainly are pointless in a representative republic like the United States and California. Remind yourself, again, that the Founding Fathers viewed democracy as we see communism and socialism today. Democracy is not a kind word to call a government.

Something incredibly precious was lost on Tuesday. Those who lost it should not be expected to go back quietly to producing great art and show tunes for everybody’s amusement.

You never had the right to marry as homosexuals. The courts STOLE from the people their rights to govern the government. You don’t seem to get that, do you? Governments are ruled by the people in the United States, not the other way around.

As a mormon, I invite those who want to change marriage into something it is not and never can be to attack our church. Go ahead and demonstrate in whatever way you want, get yourself thrown in jail, but please, please, please persecute the church while you do it.

Criticize us for our fundamental belief in an all-powerful, all-merciful, and all-just God. Criticize our belief that revelation has not ceased and will never cease as long as people believe in that God and act appropriately. Criticize us for our belief that all men are created equal and government should be a creation of the people and government should be ruled by and not rule the people.

Criticize our belief that certain behaviors, among them murder, thievery, dishonesty, and yes, lewd and adulterous behavior, should not be tolerated by a just society, that these actions hurt far more than just the victim or the victim’s family, but the perpetrators and society at large, and that government should be used to suppress such actions with the threat and punishment of legal force, indeed that is the sole reason for government in our Founding Father’s eyes, which is keeping the wicked constrained and the wolves from the flock of sheep.

Criticize our belief that we should adhere to a standard that no mortal can achieve in this life, not even our mormon propehts and presidents, that we should keep our eyes focused on God and nothing else, that peace and happiness are only possible by following, humbly and sincerely, the council of an Almighty Father who speaks directly to the hearts of his children, whether they are willing to listen or not.

I trust that people who agree with me are more numerous than you think. And although certain Christians try to characterize us as a faith outside the mainstream, I actually believe that our beliefs are closer to the naive yet sincere and true beliefs held by the vast majority of our fellow country-men. Regardless, on the basic tenets we are all in agreement, at least the vast majority of us, and in the political realm, that is more than enough to make us the closest of allies.

I will proudly stand with those who stand with true righteousness and justice. I will gladly fight with those who stand for wickedness and evil. I will humbly wear their persecution as a crown. I will celebrate that I am treated the same way the ancient prophets, apostles, and even the Lord himself were treated.

(And frankly, your effort to label the homosexual marriage movement as righteousness is offensive, as if saying murder of innocent people was the preservation of life. Righteousness is not wickedness.)

In every age in our country’s history, true righteousness has always conquered false righteousness. It may take a while, but this American people is a unique and special people because they still worship their God and nothing else, and ultimately freedom, liberty, justice and mercy prevail.

What Sore Losers Look Like

I am pretty upset that the republicans couldn’t manage this year. But at least I am not thinking about hurting anyone over this. I understand that there is always another election, and that no matter how despotic Obama may be, the constitution and the people of the United States will not tolerate it beyond a certain point.

Apparently the Prop. 8 opponents in California are not as calm about losing a political battle. There are threats of murder, burning of churches, and one especially colorful commentator who wants someone to burn the mormon temples. Another listed the addresses of LDS property in California and tacitly endorses firebombing the buildings there. Yet another suggests that religions they disagree with should be banned outright. (link)

As a member of the LDS church who is well aware of the history of religious tolerance in this country, this is frightening. It is frightening because these threats were muttered 170-some-odd years ago and innocent men, women, and children were slaughtered in cold blood. Property was burned. Families were driven out of their homes into the freezing winter. When the members of the church petitioned the government to step in and make good on its promise of religious liberty, that petition fell on deaf ears. In a trail of tears of sorts, members of my church sacrificed their lives, liberty, property, and dignity and literally were chased out of the United States at the point of a gun in the cold of a brutal winter to find the most uninhabitable spot on the face of the earth to build a civilization where no one would dare disturb them.

I would hope that this would be ancient history, that today’s society wouldn’t tolerate such abuses of basic human rights. But the very political faction who supposedly stands for open-mindedness, tolerance, and equality for all is advocating violence and suppression of my religion. How can you profess to believe in one political philosophy yet advocate actions that contradict that?

I don’t need to recount how the LDS repaid the “kindness” that the United States showed towards them. Suffice it to say that at great sacrifice the Mormon Battalion was mustered to fight in the Mexican War. At great sacrifice the members of my faith bowed beneath the federal government and gave in to all sorts of dehumanizing demands so that they could be accepted as an equal state. (I know of no other state who had to endure such humiliation as Utah to get its state status. Look it up.) We as a church suffered the seizure of all of our assets for a crime committed before there was a law, in clear violation of ex post facto provisions within the constitution itself. But we harbor no bitterness towards the most vile of our historical enemies. In fact, we have welcomed any who would accept our welcome with open arms. We are ready, and have always been ready, to forgive and to move on in brotherhood.

Those of you who are religious, who put your faith in God above science and reason and all else, those of you who have chosen to worship God and none else, you must realize that these attacks against the LDS faith isn’t the last of the attacks against any faith. Already, the Catholics and others have suffered just as greatly in the political sphere. That’s why we need to work together as brothers to ensure that religious liberty is indeed guaranteed to all. I proudly declare that I will do all I can to protect your religious freedom if you will do all you can to protect mine.

Hopefully, the State of California will address these rabble-rousers and punish them according to whatever crimes they have committed. If it turns out they are committing hate crimes according to their laws, may they be punished with the very law they wrote. Let them fall in the pits they have dug.

I merely ask that I be granted the same freedoms others are granted, that my exercise of my freedoms be left to my conscience, as I leave you to yours. If we disagree, let us debate vigorously and endlessly, or at the very least agree to disagree, but let us never turn to violence. That is what makes the United States a peaceful country despite our internal conflicts. We are all brothers who have sworn an oath to fight each other with words and not with swords, and to decide all conflicts with laws and contracts and votes.

There is No Mandate

Democrats over the next few years will be talking about the mandate of the ’08 election. There is no mandate. Obama barely won, along with his democrat buddies in congress. There was no sweep as in ’80 or ’84. The people are truly divided over him.

If someone says that they have a mandate, it is ok to laugh at them. They don’t have 60 seats in the senate. They barely have a majority in the house. Obama might’ve run on change and hope, but he is going to have a tought time changing even his bedsheets without the senate 60% on his side.

America is still divided, and we haven’t united under Obama. When people ask me why I won’t unite under Obama, I’ll respond that they did little to unite under Bush, so asking me to do what they did not is a wee bit hypocritical.

Where To From Here?

Lessons learned from ’08:

• I guess socialism isn’t understood by the vast majority of Americans. We are going to learn in the next four years unless Obama truly intends to abandon his socialist tendencies, which I strongly doubt. Life can be a terrible schoolmaster, but it is always effective.
• Running the most liberal republican against the most liberal democrat leads to a democratic victory. History shows that conservative republicans who run as conservative (Presidents Reagan in ’80, ’84, Bush I in ’88, and Bush II in ’00 and ’04) always seem to work, whether the democrat is running as a conservative or a liberal. (Strange, isn’t it, that come national election time, all the democrats suddenly claim conservative credentials on the economy and social issues?)
• You can’t win an election unless your base is behind you. In McCain’s case, he had no base. Moderation isn’t a virtue in politics during a campaign.
• If you consistently flip the bird to your base (McCain), they aren’t going to help you win. On the other hand, if you are loyal to your base, to a fault (Obama), they are going to do whatever it takes to see you win.
• The Beltway Republicans are the bane of our party.

Where to from here?

• The Republican Party needs to rediscover its true roots: liberty and justice for all. If the Republican Party shows with its actions that it will fight tooth and nail for liberty and justice, and win, then perhaps the base will once again get engaged.
• We need a Newt Gingrinch, someone who can verbalize our positions and take the fight to our political opponents. Someone who is going to stand up and take on the world and not worry about whether the pundits agree with him.
• The Republican Party doesn’t need to reach out right now. It needs to reach in. It needs to find everyone who agrees with the basic principles of economic liberty through low taxes and minimal government, social justice through government disengagement, and social moral issues such as life and traditional marriage and make them a player in the party.

I believe that all the blue states are not truly blue. That is, here in Washington State, if we could attract all the people who believe in a fair tax system that isn’t punitive to income earners, minimal government, and social morality, and convince them that the Republican Party is worthy of their financial and physical support, then we would win every single state-wide race. It’s because of republicans who believe that they can be republican but act like a conservative democrat that our party isn’t getting the support it needs. Democrats aren’t going to work to make the republican party strong!

I believe that until we see a major shift in leadership in our party, we aren’t going to see the necessary changes. There are too many republicans in a leadership position who believe that moderation is the road to success, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. It is our duty to try and replace them with people who believe in motivating the base first, or to convince them to move more towards that direction.

Again, the way to make the Republican Party strong is not to bring democrats in. Democrats aren’t going to work to make republicans strong! The key is to excite and motivate people who naturally should align themselves with the republican party.

I Guess It’s Official

We’re going to have 4-8 years of Clinton++.

It’s not so bad. In 2 years the American people will wake up and throw out the bums in congress. And congress is where the real power is at in the federal government. The republicans that win in 2 years will hopefully be a lot like the republican that won in ’94—full of vim and vigor and dedicated to freedom as a priority. These are the republicans who got the Reaganites to vote for them, people who stood on principle and real hope and real change towards more liberty and equality.

The people who elected Obama are expecting reconciliation between the two parties and peace in Washington DC. They are expecting the world to suddenly like us. They are expecting the economy to get better for themselves personally.

They are going to wake up in 2 years and realize that hope and change isn’t how you make a living and isn’t how you get peace. They will realize the Obama administration for the partisan and socialist hacks they are. They are going to see things far worse than Ruby Ridge and Waco. They will wonder how anyone could’ve kid themselves that Bush was a Nazi when Obama’s thugs are running the show.

And they will be wondering why there is so much animosity towards a handful of powerless republicans. Wasn’t it the republicans who drove the division in Washington?

And the economy? I see a lot of capital fleeing the US for greener pastures, especially as the rest of the free world is embracing the same ideals we are running from. Having the highest corporate income tax is not how you build a foundation for growth. The problem is that the poorer Americans are expecting free government cheese in the form or housing subsidies and gas credits. That isn’t going to happen because there simply isn’t enough money in the world for it.

Obama’s a bad dream, a dream, unfortunately, that the US has to keep reliving every 20 or so years.

Blacks Like Obama Less than Kerry?

I wondered why people though that having Barack Obama run for president would suddenly inspire the black community to vote in droves for him. After all, can he possibly convince any more of the black community to vote democrat in the elections, or to turn out even more than they already do? Yes, there is genuine excitement, but excitement beyond a certain threshold doesn’t create more votes.

It’s like if Mitt Romney were running and he got the LDS vote up in a frenzy of support—what, would the LDS suddenly vote even more republican or turn out even more than they already do?

Apparently, some surveys are showing that the numbers are looking sour for Barack Obama among this key constituency. (link)

I remember that President Bush II did extraordinarly well for a republican among the hispanic and black communities in 2000. This led to his victory despite all odds, especially in key states. Is McCain going to get the same kind of treatment?

Will we wake up on Wednesday morning to a President McCain because Barack couldn’t muster the same support that John Kerry could among the black community? Is he taking them even more for granted than democrats usually do?

Religious Bigotry

The No on Prop. 8 campaign in California couldn’t stick to the issues. Instead, they have to attack, ad hominem, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(hat tip: Article VI Blog)

The old saw that moral relativists use is that somehow it’s the religions of the world that impose their value systems on the people. As if President Monsen of the LDS Church sits in a secret control room conceiving new ways to torture the church and those outside the church with useless and painful moral edicts, backed by the stamp of approval of the so-called True and Living God.

You don’t have to imagine very hard how this is used to distort all religions, even those that consider the LDS faith akin to Satanism. Those who use this argument should be roundly condemned and pointed out as the fools they are.

The foolishness of this argument is that that’s not the role that churches and religions play. It’s a strawman argument, setting up something that isn’t true and attacking it viciously.

Churches are there as hospitals for the morally sick, to find the strength, understanding, comfort, associations, and peace needed to overcome their own shortcomings. While churches do preach right and wrong, they do so the same way a loving parent would, trying to show people a better way, a way of greater peace and happiness and joy. Churches do not use force and coercion, or at least should not, but only persuasion through love and kindness. Churches are also a place where people can find ways to serve those around them, both those within and without the church.

The reality is that there are those who wish to simply be left alone, to have their children taught in the ways that they see fit, to have their society run in the ways that society sees fit, not to have a group of black-robed judges impose their minority and unpopular moral views on the people, without their input or voice.

Homosexual marriage isn’t a right. It never has been. It doesn’t even exist. It’s a gross perversion of an existing and traditional and morally sanctioned thing, morally sanctioned by the vast majority of all human beings alive, at any time in the history of the world or today. No society believes that marriage, as defined, permits two people of the same sex to marry. A few societies believe that the definition of marriage allows multiple wives and concubines, indeed, even underage children, and we rightly consider these societies as barbaric and crude. But none, historically, have ever imagined that matrimony allowed two people of the same sex to be joined together as one.

And in California, you have a few rogue administrators, a few rogue judges, who read in their constitution something that doesn’t exist, indeed, could never exist, and seek to impose it on the people despite the people almost universally opposing it. They seek to change the people by force and coercion, not reason and persuasion. They seek to change society with the sword and the whip. This is not government, at least not American government. Government should serve society, be beneath it, allowing society to dictate every aspect of its operation.

It’s odd that they think the LDS church is somehow trying to push its moral values into government. It’s not just the LDS church behind this proposition. It’s the majority of the people of the state of California. And behind them are vastly more in other states who see the full faith and credit clause and realize that what contracts are made in California are just as valid in Washington State. But they attack one tiny faction of thise movement, as if it is representative and indeed the controlling interest when it is hardly so.

If the vast majority of the people felt it imperative to rewrite their laws and constitutions to create homosexual marriage, I would be powerless to stop them. That’s the way our government works. My only satisfaction is that those who choose to follow their own light rather than God’s will soon suffer from the penalties of their pride. Perhaps this will humble them, perhaps not, but those decisions are out of my hands.

But as the vast majority of the people feel that there is no such thing as homosexual marriage, that marriage is between a man and a woman and has always been so and forever so it should be, those who feel differently should accept that as the law of the land and focus their efforst to shift the mood of the country, and allow their opponents to do the same.