Christian Conservatives Confuse Me

One of the strangest alliances I have found is that between Religious Conservatives and the Republican Party. Historically the Republican Party has accented individual freedoms over society issues. They reflect the rugged frontiersmen who want to do things on their own without outside (government) interference. Nobody, in their estimation should be about messing with individual freedoms.

And yet we see the Christian right wantsing to enforce their principles upon the country whether they like it or not. They want to make anti-abortion the law of the land as they define it. Is that not an invasion of private freedom? They want to outlaw gay marriages and again is that not a private freedom? These and issues like them stand in direct opposition to conservative principles and yet the Republicans embrace them because it is expedient politics. Or, they are in bed with the devil (unbelievers), so to speak. It is also a sign of our times that we live in a time of moral expediency versus moral values based upon principles and overall integrity.

We see it in business all the time where the bottom line overshadows all other issues. Businesses, ethically, are to create goods and services for a public and needs these. But business ethics have gone by the way of the dinosaur and seem irrelevant to the majority of business models.

With that said, the major issue I have is with the religious right and their practice of Christian morality. I had a young woman ask me at one time how can anyone be a Republican and a Christian. I told her they are believers is Jesus as Lord, therefore Christians, but I think they do badly in applying the teachings of Jesus. They have a marked propensity for negative versus positive images and actions of God as expressed in the Trinity. I especially quarrel with the interpretations of the teachings of Jesus.

For instance over the years conservative Christians have believed: 1. Jesus disapproved of playing cards, drinking any and alcoholic beverages, dancing, singing, wearing bathing suits, watching movies; 2. Jesus didn’t want pianos and organs in churches; 3. Jesus disapproved of ice cream treats on Sundays (so we call the Sundaes); 4. Jesus disapproved of masturbation and homosexuality; 5. Jesus disapproved of family planning (birth control) and abortion; while they believed in slavery and segregation. And, of course, they could always find scriptures to back up their views.

This is so twisted I cannot get my head around it in views of the teachings of Jesus to love God and each other unconditionally. I do believe and see in scripture Jesus getting very angry at narrow minded legalistic practitioners of his religion, i.e. the Pharisees and Sadducees who believed and acted much the way modern conservative Christians do. I do not find Jesus advocating rugged individualism but emphasizing the common good for all people, caring for them in all ways. In other words Jesus seems to a liberal to me then and now. Admitted the cultures then and now are much different and Jesus did not deal with every issue we have to deal with today. But he did lay down solid good outlines in his commandment to love each other as we love ourselves and in the teachings of the beatitudes.

I believe that Romney and Ryan and most Republicans are Christians by their professions. But I have a lot of difficulty with their practice of those Christian principles which seem to ebb and flow with the polls. I also have a lot of the same problems with Democrats, but at least historically they seem more aligned with the Christian principles I know and believe in.

Hedrick Smith: Who Stole the American Dream

BB-Idaho in his comments of my article written Oct 6 of this year “Does anybody really have a clue how to stimulate the economy and get the country productive again?” referred to 1973 as when the economy began to skew in a top down direction. He mentions Hedrick Smith’s book in the title of today’s piece. I hope all of your read his links as they are very informative.

I did a bit of looking on the internet and found Hedrick Smith’s timeline for all of this here. The timeline runs from January 1914 to the present. It is copyrighted or I would just copy and paste the entire piece here but I strongly encourage you to go to his website and read the article/timeline; it is most informative and gives you a thumbnail description of how our country has gotten to the condition it is now end with a controlling corporate influence and a decrease in the economics and power of the middle class.

Please read and if so moved, buy his book.

Again the link is http://hedricksmith.com/timeline-who-stole-the-american-dream/

 I did take this from his blog which is a bio and gives his credentials.

ABOUT HEDRICK SMITH

Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and editor and Emmy award-winning producer/correspondent, has established himself over the past 50 years of his career as one of America’s most distinguished journalists.

In 26 years with The New York Times, Mr. Smith covered Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights struggle, the Vietnam War in Saigon, the Middle East conflict from Cairo, the Cold War from both Moscow and Washington, and six American presidents and their administrations. In 1971, as chief diplomatic correspondent, he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that produced the Pentagon Papersseries. In 1974, he won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting from Russia and Eastern Europe.

His book The Russians, based on his years as New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief from 1971-74, was a No. 1 American best-seller. It has been translated into 16 languages and has been widely used in university and college courses.  His next book, The Power Game: How Washington Works, was also a major best-seller. It became a bible for newly elected members of Congress and their staffs and was bedside reading for President Clinton. His newest book, Who Stole the American Dream? published by Random House in September 2012 , has been hailed by critics for brilliant analsysis of political and economic trends and changes in the U.S. over the past 30-40 years.

For PBS since 1989, Hedrick Smith has created 26 prime-time specials and mini-series on such varied topics as terrorism, Wall Street, Soviet perestroika,Wal-Mart, Enron, tax evasion, educational reform, health care, the environment, jazz greats Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck, and Washington’s power game.

Mr. Smith’s documentary work has won many of televisions major awards. Two of his Frontline programs, The Wall Street Fix and Can You Afford to Retire?  won Emmies and two others, Critical Condition and Tax Me If You Can were nominated. Twice he has won or shared the Columbia-Dupont Gold Baton, or grand prize, for the year’s best public affairs program on U.S. television – for Inside Gorbachev’s USSR in 1990, and for Inside the Terror Network in 2002, an investigation of the Al Qaeda pilots who carried out the 9/11 attack and how the U.S. missed chances to stop them. Along with the George Polk, George Peabody and Sidney Hillman awards for reportorial excellence, his programs have won two national public service awards.

One distinctive feature of Hedrick Smith’s television productions is his focus not just on examining systemic problems in modern America but on seeking solutions, which was the title of his mini-series on teen violence and hate crime, used by the Justice Department and members of Congress. His PBS reports have probed the costs and causes of poor health care, failures in education, the collapse of traditional pensions and the flaws of 401k plans, and the modern burdens of working couples juggling work and family. He couples that analysis with vivd grass roots success stories, giving audiences concrete examples of how others have confronted and overcome obstacles.

Mr. Smith’s career began in print journalism in the 1950s, with summer jobs as a cub reporter for The Greenville (S.C.) News. After graduating from Williams College, doing graduate work as a Fulbright Scholar at Oxford University, and serving three years in the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Smith joined United Press International in Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta, 1959-62. He moved to The New York Times, 1962-88.  He was chosen for a prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard in 1969-70.

Mr. Smith began creating documentaries for PBS in 1989 with an adaptation from his best-selling book, The Power Game. His second documentary series, Inside Gorbachev’s USSR, broadcast on PBS in 1990, built on his experience as Moscow Bureau Chief for The Times in the 1970s, on his best selling book, The Russians, and on his subsequent coverage of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika. 

As a documentarian, Mr. Smith has ranged widely. Before the 2000 election, PBS devoted an entire prime-time evening to his three-hour pre-election special on the quality of U.S. health care, Critical Condition With Hedrick Smith. He has produced two four-hour mini-series on the impact of the global economy on the American middle class, Challenge to America and Surviving the Bottom Line. For Black History month in 2000, he gave PBS viewers Duke Ellington’s Washington. A year later, he created Rediscovering Dave Brubeck, an intimate portrait of the legendary jazz pianist.

In September 1999, after deadly violence at several U.S. public schools, Hedrick Smith Productions created a three-hour prime-time special, Seeking Solutions, that broke new ground by showing effective grass roots responses in six American communities to teen violence, gangs, street crime and hate crime.. This program won a national public service award from Sigma Delta Chi, the jouralistic honorar society.

He subsequently led Frontline investigative reports – Bigger Than Enron, The Wall Street Fix, Tax Me If You Can, Is Wal-Mart Good for America?  Spying on the Home Front, and Can You Afford to Retire? These programs probed accounting scandals, conflicts on Wall Street, corporate fraud and tax evasion, the collapsing private pension system, and data mining and domestic eavesdropping by the NSA and FBI.

Making Schools Work, Mr. Smith’s two-hour special on education in October 2005, won a second national public service award from Sigma Delta Chi. In two previous series, Challenge to America in 1994 and Surviving the Bottom Line in 1998, Hedrick Smith Productions compared the performance of American schools with such other countries as Germany, Japan and China.

Over 25 years, PBS viewers saw Hedrick Smith as a principal panelist on Washington Week in Review and as a special correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Mr. Smith has received seven honorary doctorate degrees. He is well known as an effective speaker to college commencements, civic groups, business conventions, and lecture series nationwide, admired for cogent analysis and compelling story-telling.
(August 2012)

Key Issues for Voting for Obama or Romney

TAXES

Obama wants to increase taxes on the wealthy (3 to 4%; to 36% & 29.6%) and extend the Bush-era tax cuts making under $200,000 a person or $250,000 a couple. He also wants to raise rates on capital gains and dividends for the wealthy.

Romney wants to keep the Bush-era tax cuts for everyone and further drop taxes 20% across the board; the top rate going down to 28% and the lowest to 8%. He also would curtail deductions, credits and exemptions for the wealthiest. He would eliminate capital gains gax for families making below $200,000. He would cut corporate taxes from 35% to 25%. He does not specify which tax break or programs he would stop or reduce to cover these costs.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Obama does not have a long term plan to address S.S. long term issues. In 2011 he proposed and reduction of annual increases in SS benefits.

Romney says he would protect the status quo for now for folk 55 and over, but raise retirement ages 1 or 2 years and reduce inflation benefits for wealthier recipients.

HEALTH CARE

Obama is now well know for instituting “Obamacare” and universal coverage system, which bans denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, tax credit subsidize premiums, small businesses get help for offering insurance and he will expand Midicaid.

Romany says he will repeal Obamacare and then recreate it on a state level. He would also create medical savings accounts to be used to pay for insurance and health costs.

GAY RIGHTS

Obama supports legal recognition of same-sex marriages as decided by states. He extended the civil rights, and repealed the military ban on openly gay members.

Romney opposes recognition of same sex-marriages and believe they should be banned by a constitutional amendment, not left to states.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

Obama instituted a ban on deep-water drinking after the BP spill but has pushed for more oil and gas drilling overall. He achieved historic increases in fuel economy standards; gas prices lower car prices higher. He established the first regulations on heat-trapping gasses blamed for global warming and on toxic mercury pollution from power plants. He failed in an attempt to persuade congress limits on carbon emissions.

Romany supports drilling on Atlantic and Pacific out continental shelves and Western lands, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore Alaska. He would reduce limits on coal, natural gas and nuclear energy development and up drilling permits. He believes green power is not yet viable and climate changes uncertain.

EDUCATION

Obama pretty much done away with the Bush-era No child left behind law. Instead he has pushed “Race to the Top” a competition that rewards stations pursuing educational ideas Obama likes.

Romney supported the Fed. Standards of the No child left behind law. He also like charter-school incentives and the standards of Obama’s Race to the Top, but wants less federal involvement.

ECONOMY

High unemployed has plagued his administration resulting from a deep recession he inherited. He backed the $800 billion stimulus plan and the bailouts begun under the Bush administration. He is for tax breaks for U.S. manufacturing that emphasizes domestic work or bringing jobs home from overseas and tax penalties for companies outsourcing jobs.

Roman wants lower taxes, less regulation, a balanced budget, and trade deals to stimulate growth.

DEBT

Obama has faced 4 years of trillion dollar deficits. He got approval raise the debt limit to avoid default. To reduce debt he want to have spending cuts and revenue increases. Central to his plan is ending Bush era tax cuts to those making over $250,000.

Romney saw the 2008 bailout as necessary but opposed the auto bailout. He would cap federal spending at 20% of Gross Domestic Product with unspecified cuts. He favors a balanced budget amendment.

FOREIGN POLICY

Obama does not want a military strike on Iran but holds the option open if it is the only way to keep them from getting nuclear weapons. He has chastised Israel for building on land borders created after 1967 but expanded military and civilian cooperation with Israel. He sought penalties against China for unfair trade.

Romney is more hawkish toward Iran and favors covert action against Iran if it makes a nuclear weapon. He is more aligned with the hardline approach of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pledges more military assistance to them

GUNS

Obama has not pushed for stricter gun control laws. He previously backed stronger gun control laws.

Romney is against stricter gun control laws and as governor in Mass. Signed a ban on assault weapons.

IMMIGRATION

Obama issued a directive that immigrants brought illegality inot the US as children be exempted from deportation and given work permits if they apply, after failing a major immigrant overhaul.

Romney favors a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico and opposed education benefits to immigrants or offering legal status to immigrants after they attend college, but would for those who served in the military. He wants a immigration status verification system for employers and punishments for hiring illegals.

TERRORISM

Obama approved the raid the found and killed Osama bin Laden; set a policy that the U.S. would no longer used harsh interrogation techniques that were used in the Bush administration. He has basically carried forward Bush anti-terrorism policies and expanded the use of unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen.

Romney would not rule out waterboarding in interrogating terrorists suspects which he does not believe is torture.

WAR

Obama ended the Iraq was and increased U.S. troops in Afghanistan with a plan to remove them by the end of 2014. He approved U.S. air power strikes in a NATO led campaign to topple the Libyan government. Has worked with Republican congressmen to cut $487 billion in military spending over a decade.

Romney endorsed the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, subject to conditions. He would increase military troops, warships and spending by about $100 billion to the pentagon in 2016 budget.

ABORTION AND BIRTH CONTROL

Obama support abortion rights.

Romney opposes abortion rights (previously supporting them) saying it should be up to the state and believes Roe vs. Wade should be reversed by a future Supreme Court. He would end support to Planned Parenthood.

* * * * *

This information basically comes from sacbee.com which I found to be basically neutral in laying out the candidate’s positions. I find it consistent with other factchecking in nonbiased web sites: http://2012.candidate-comparison.org/?compare=Romney&vs=Obama a bit exuberant; http://www.diffen.com/difference/Barack_Obama_vs_Mitt_Romney  extensive; http://2012-presidential-candidates.findthedata.org/compare/1-5/Barack-Obama-vs-Mitt-Romney also extensive; http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2012/0829/Obama-vs.-Romney-101-5-ways-they-differ-on-jobs/Government-s-role and many more.

COMMENTARY

I wrote this blog article to give a quick, concise way for folk to analyze the candidate’s positions and make it easier in making their own choices.

With that said I will make a short statement on my leanings which will come as no surprise to anyone who had read my blog.

I am obviously for Obama although I am disappointed in many parts of his leadership in his first term. Strangely a moral strength has created a political liability for him; trying to get along with other politicians. I feel he has given too much and not pushed hard enough. Of course, he faced likely the most entrenched freshman class of GOP congressmen and many of their seniors that any president has ever had to face. Gridlock has gripped Washington for a long time; now it has practically stopped it in its tracks.

I think it was a mistake to get into Afghanistan basically for fiscal reasons. We cannot afford to be the world’s policemen and our debt is the result of this delusion.

I think the stimulus bill was way too small to really jolt the economy back on line, though our expectations of what he could do were also out of line. I believe the power of FDR type practices were they way to go, but it is problematic that the voters would agree, and the congressional leadership has become so dependent upon corporate America it can no longer work for the people at large.

To vote for Romney I believe takes us back to the days of Reagan and Bush who spent like crazy and deregulated everything in sight so that the nation’s wealth was redistributed to the top at the expense of the middle class.

I don’t think we will have decent leadership in Washington until we make massive changes in our electoral funding process.

I don’t think Obama will get us there, but I believe he is much more in tune with Middle America and will cause far less damage than his opponent which I believe would widen the economic gaps in the country even further.

Does anybody really have a clue how to stimulate the economyand Get the Country Productive Again?

Obviously supply side economics doesn’t as it was what caused our modern debacle despite folk like Romney and Ryan still promoting it. Didn’t work under Reagan, Didn’t work under Bush, just doesn’t work.

Obama wants to tax the rich, which is not a bad think as they have stolen the wealth of the country during the supply side economics of the past 30 years. But that just scares folk to death, small business (real small business not those parading around as them.) So, all the fear mongering on both sides of the issue, just keep the economy stagnant.

If we as a country had the guts of the folk in FDRs day and put together a real stimulus plan, ( ours did work just not enough), we could be on our way and the infrastructure and we would benefit.

Economics is about psychology as well as sound economic thinking. Keynesian economics worked because it was a sound policy and folk believed in it. The government does play and tremendously important role in keeping the economy even but now we just have a bunch of government haters on both side of the aisle because it is easier to condemn that to do something.

A key to economic growth includes restoring confidence in the government and reaching out to solve problems rather than just trying to defeat each other. It means get special interests and the millions of dollars out of the electoral process so the people can be heard. It means folk need to be educated in basic economic and civics. It means learning how to develop trust and cooperation among people.

The America people seem to have become totally schizophrenic. We are a wonderful people who are capable of wonderful things. And, we are total self-centered ignorant butt-heads who deserve the leadership we have. I love my country and hate what it is doing. The hairs stand up on my back of my head when the national anthem is play and I am embarrassed by national and local political conversations. I think than Romney, Ryan, Obama, and Biden and good and honorable men who sincerely believe they can help the country the best. Romney and Ryan scare the hell out of me because I think they could literally destroy the country beyond repair. Obama disappoints me because he just can’t get the job done and misses golden opportunities; perhaps it can’t be done. Both sides are far too friendly with the money/power brokers who have too much control over all branches of government.

Can I fix it? No, but I’ll keep writing blogs and hoping and civil conversation will develop and we can get back on track and live the dreams and visions of our countries creators as well as the dreams and visions of broad based thinkers today.

“Yo Church So Dumb” Tweets.

It don’t tweet, but here are some that have been found about the church under the rubric, “Yo Church So Dumb.” My apologies for sending them along.

Yo church who white, the call Judas “Traitor Joe.”

Yo church so poor, the alter call is collect.

You church so dumb, it thinks harmartology is the study of pig paintings.

Yo church so fat, the feeding of the 5,000 was only enough for 50.

Yo church so dumb, it think collation is something the copier does.

Yo church so small, the church bus is a Mni Cooper.

Yo church so poor, even its bible don’t have prophets.

Yo church so Catholic, you only go to the Latin Grammys!

Yo church so dumb, it thinks the Heavenly Host is Ryan Seacrest!

Yo church so dumb, it think Pope Benedict comes with Hollandaise!

Yo church so old, the bulletin tells you who DIDN’T die this week!

Yo church so dumb, it think the baptismal font is sans-serif!

Yo church so small, it only has prayers of the person.

Yo church so dumb, it thinks predestination is where you’re at BEFORE church.

Yo church so dumb, it thinks Martin Buber is Justin’s brother.

Yo church so dumb, it think a proverb is something a pronoun does.

Yo church so dumb, it thinks the Apostles Creed was a villain from Rocky.

Evangelicals Belief that Life Begins and Conception, Right!???

In Christian Century Fred Clark says in 1979 McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal. About the same time evangelicals decided the Bible taught that life begins at conception, where it is said is unclear but that what they said. But that was not always the case.

Many years ago Christianity Today Harold Lindsell and strong supporter of biblical inerrancy wrote an article opposing the Roman Catholic belief that abortion was unbiblical. Writing in Billy Grahams magazine Lindsell wrote, “God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed. The Law plainly exacts: ‘If a man kills any human life he will be put to death’ (Lev. 24.17). But according to Exodus 21.22-24, the destruction of the fetus is not a capital offense…Clearly, then, in contrast to the mother, the fetus is not reckoned as a soul.”

Somewhere between 1968 and 2012 the bible changed its mind, at least according to the evangelicals.

How Many Jobs Did Mitt Romney Create When Was at Bain Capital?

The answer is zero, nada, zip, not a one.

Now we know the claims that he created over 100,000 jobs while at Bain. But job creation is not what Bain Capital is or was about. The language in one prospectus seeking Bain Capital investors was very clear: “The objective of the Fund is to achieve an annual rate of return on invested capital in excess of the returns generated” by other investments. Job creation was merely a product of their venture which was to make money for folk with money to invest. Romney worked to make money not jobs. He says it’s all about jobs, but his experience says it’s all about the money.

True, they made good investments such as Staples which in turn hired a lot of people. But one also has to wonder at how many small businesses went out of business because of this mega business. Do the super stores create more jobs and enhance small businesses? Go look at small towns or bigger towns for that matter, and all the closed up stores that used to be filled with small businesses serving their communities and hiring local folk.

In my world it sounds like the evangelical preachers who brag about how many Christians they saved. The answer is the same they did not save on single solitary person. Jesus the Christ saves people, not egotistical preachers.