2. I am not for this "system" because I don't understand Scripture to be for it. I understand Scripture to teach that the family takes care of the family. Where there is no able family, then the church steps in, as in the care of widows who have no children (1 Ti 5:3-10). And when I say the family takes care of the family, I mean that fathers are responsible to God for the provision, education, and spiritual progress of those under their care, including their aged parents.
3. The public education system, and our dependence on it, is the abdication of parental duty concerning education. I went through the public school system and I would not put my children in it. The education philosophy of the system is not conducive to actual learning and understanding, but a regurgitation of information, much of which is not even true. In addition, the public education system is dominated by women who expect young boys and men to behave as young girls and women. Within the system, in which a student will spend an average of 35 hours per week, the males have almost no model. Their models are mostly women who think like women, reason like women, feel like women, work like women, behave like women, etc, because they are women and consequently do not have the natural understanding of how young boys and men learn. The boys and men, therefore, are expected to be girl-like, and when they are not they are punished.
4. I place no saving hope in any political party or elected official. That would be idolatry no matter the party or official. But when the officials are too desperate and weak to answer a "yes" or "no" question with a "yes" or "no", well then to put any hope in them would simply be foolish. God give us men and women that say what they mean and do what they say. This is called integrity.
5. I am no one's judge, not in the sense that I know their hearts or can say whether someone is a Christian or not. What I am allowed to do, and must do, is make deductions rooted in their words and deeds. I am not permitted to state their motives with any full certainty unless they have expressed them. What I am permitted to do is examine the fruit of their choices -- what does this person produce? What is the outcome of their ways? These are the questions with which we must wrestle.
6. During a campaign interview with pastor Rick Warren, Mr Obama was asked questions in regard to faith and practice. But the one question that would have given us the most insight into his heart and life and ways and loves, was not asked. Pastor Rick did not ask Mr Obama, or Mr McCain, what role the Bible plays in their lives. This is the question. Far too many people who say they are Christians couldn't explain John 3:16 if you gave them 6 months and a Bible dictionary. They simply live in ignorance, and with apathy, toward the Word of God. So for our president to say he is a Christian really means close to nothing, unless he defines Christian according to the actual Christian documents. Christianity according to its own founding documents is the only kind of real Christianity there is.
7. I'm against the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan, not because I don't believe in just war but because we, as a nation, cannot afford it, just or not. If you have to borrow money to wage war, you probably shouldn't wage it. The idea of America as the world police should be re-examined.
8. Related to #7, who are we to assume that every nation should be a democratic nation? Democracy is not how God established Israel. Nor did He move them toward it. When Israel rejected God as their good and rightful king and cried for a human one, God gave them a human one -- a monarchy, not a democracy. The issue of government is not primarily one of form, but substance. What is central is that whomever governs does so in righteousness. So in a democracy, if the elected officials are godly, then national life goes well for the people. But this is equally true in a monarchy, or dictatorship, or oligarchy. As long as the rulers are pursuing righteousness, the nation is blessed. We as Americans do not know this. We have basically equated democracy with righteousness. Arrogant.
9. Brent, what do you think governments should be busy with? Well, in my opinion, very very little; things like establishing an efficient and useful military, maintaining a just court system, printing money for which it has valuables to make what it prints valuable, collect just taxes. I currently can't think of anything else. What the government should not do is create thousands of programs and projects that are burdens to their people. It is not the work of government to educate people, to created jobs for people, to save money for people (social security), to provide medical care (medicare, medicaid), to regulate the economy, or a thousand other duties we're happy to depend upon them for. The more we allow them to do for us, the more dependent upon them we become. The more responsibility we forfeit to government, the more power they have over us. It seems to me this is precisely what our government wants.
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