God's Blueprints for Political Victories

Forum (Articles)

Offer

Partners

Rules

Tips

FAQ

Begin!

Donate

     This article was started by Dave Leach R-IA Bible Lover-musician-grandpa (talk) 01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC) To help finish it:

---

(1) click "edit" in the left sidebar to see the codes used in this article. (2) type four dashes (to create a horizontal line) after the point with which you will interact. Hit "enter" to start a new line. (3) Type four tildes to "sign" your name. (4) Comment, criticize, clarify, amplify, like, rate, argue, write a poem, etc. To vote, change your previous coment, add a section with a heading that appears in the Table of Contents, start a new article, use colors, write in Greek, post a picture, etc. find suggestions and codes at Begin! (5) Use "enter" to double space between paragraphs. When finished, type another four dashes on the next line down, then scroll down and click "show preview", and if that looks good, "save changes".

---

INTRODUCTION

This vision of God's blueprints for political success was inspired by a letter from Richard A. Viguerie, owner of American Target Avertising Inc., which boasts "4.7 billion postal letters mailed * $7.6 billion dollars raised * 86 million donations acquired". Wow! But the bigger "wow" is what Viguerie asked for in his letter. Not money! He didn't ask for a dime! But he asked for wisdom. Ideas. Solutions.

My answer took me two weeks. I sent copies to a few other leading political consultants. I urge you, also, to consider the solution I explore in the Pages of God.

I make no pretense that this is "the" political solution from God. But it has to be closer than strategies which censor God, treating His comments about our positions as "irrelevant" and fatal to the "credibility" of anyone foolish enough to talk about them in those forums where voters decide whether to pattern our laws after the principles of Heaven or of Hell.

Can it be that God doesn't care about government? All the "examples of faith" listed in Hebrews 11 were either political leaders themselves or got in the Bible through their interaction with political leaders. Won't you please join me in consulting God's Word as we review our political experience, for clues about how we can best help heal America?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

What you (Viguerie) have just done is how to save America

To Richard Viguerie: God's blessings!

Thank you for your invitation for ideas! I don't believe I am the only reader who is responding with more than a page. My response explains a system for processing lots more brainpower than will fit in a page, and submitted by more than one person, and why that system will save America, having been outlined by God.

Below are some ideas. Attached is what is below, with the addition of a proposal published today by Dr's Mercola and Malone, and 5 appendices.

What you have just done, if done by more and more nonprofits, consultants, activists, and churches, will save America. Thank you; I pray you will have started a movement.

You didn’t ask for money – not that asking money is wrong, per se.

You asked for wisdom. ‟Your thoughts, advice, and recommendations are not only appreciated and welcomed, but helpful and needed. Please email them to _____@americantarget.com.”

Before I comment on the difference between that and other direct mail, including those with surveys, and on what else would naturally flow from such a movement, I must decline any credit for the idea that many others doing that will save America. (Also our Freedoms, and our churches.) God has earned the credit.

Just one of many Scriptures I have written about, from one of my multiple choice surveys:

“Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.”

This means: (which one do you think is correct?)

a. A lot of lawyers make us succeed.

b. A lot of therapists are God’s key to success. Therapy is what will save America.

c. A forum where many people can submit their opinions/advice/counsel is basically what America is, through our elections, our Freedom of Speech to tell lawmakers what we think in safety, and our legislatures whose members can all contribute wisdom to the body. Such forums were reconstructed from Bible study by the Pilgrims 400 years ago: their “Sabbath Afternoon Prophesying Services” not only fulfilled the pattern and purposes of 1 Corinthians 14 but became laboratories of relationship skills that developed the Biblical goals of Freedom of Speech and Religion and a Vote for All. Partial implementation of this Biblical principle explains America’s success. The gradual decline of openness to wisdom from all members explains the decline of America’s churches.

OOPS! I didn’t mean to say that! I was going to wait until I could think of how to discuss God’s rules for answered prayer in a way that doesn’t offend Christians, and I haven’t thought of it yet. I am SO sorry.

And now I suppose there is no point in writing farther, since who will forgive me after that? I mean, of course it is common to preach about the errors of “The Church”, understood to mean every other church but this one, but “openness to wisdom from all members” isn’t on the list of acceptable things to accuse other churches of. Especially since everyone knows the Bible verses that say the primary meetings of Christians should be a “worship service” featuring a sermon with which no one may verbally interact, either to criticize, question, clarify, or amplify – except in a few radical churches people are permitted an occasional “amen”. SO sorry. Pentecostal churches let you even say “Amen, brother!”

SO sorry.

But I guess I will continue anyway: I know at least my wife will still read it. She might grumble, but she will read.

How your invitation to wisdom is different

Several other direct mail pieces solicit a grain of wisdom in the form of surveys with multiple choice questions. Questions like “Should crooks run government?” and answers like “a. Yes, but they should have term limits. b. No; crooks should be in jail, and jails shouldn’t have term limits. c. Not sure. What are ‛term limits’?”

When I get one of those surveys that say how much they need my input, I think “Oh goody! I finally get to tell someone how to fix things!”

But it is impossible to submit new ideas/solutions by checking answers that the surveyor already understands. The theory that money is the only thing the surveyors will look at is encouraged by the fact that contact information that will reach a human is seldom given, original thinking is never asked, and the following appeal for money is robust.

I suppose another reason for this approach is to cull the mailing list which will be used for future appeals for money.

"Surveys" with answers heavily slanted, making the “correct” choice obvious, are a poor vehicle for submitting new ideas although a passable way to sway the “undecideds”.

President Trump put out the first surveys I’ve noticed that added a blank space labeled “other” with his surveys, encouraging the hope that he actually wanted ideas, and that he had arranged for real humans to actually read them, process them, and forward to Trump those which seemed to have merit. That hope faded as I toiled over those blank spaces with advice I believe he needed to hear, only to never hear back from anybody. I began to doubt that humans ever see them. Was it indeed just a more effective way of implying that he really cared what people thought, in order to get them to empty their wallets a little wider?

But you didn’t ask for money! Not a word about money! And you asked for wisdom, not after a letter about how you have all the answers so all you really need is money to fix everything, but after a letter full of unanswered questions and unsolved problems. Not just rhetorical questions, either, but real questions to which we all need answers.

What your invitation implies that you will do

Trump’s “other” blanks, along with your invitation for wisdom, imply that a real human will see responses and digest/process/vet them. Your invitation much more strongly implies it. I still don’t know if anyone looked at Trump’s survey responses. Maybe if a lot of short answers were similar they were noticed. Your invitation more clearly implies, but still implies, that a human will process your responses, and that he/they will weigh not just short 1-10 word issue headings but actual original solutions.

Because you know any real solution has to be longer than a page. Even when a paragraph is enough to outline a solution, it still has to respond somehow to the millions of pages of objections to it. And you know any real solution will have attracted millions of pages of objections, because lovers of Darkness are very alert to any threat to their true love, and they own many printing presses.

John 3:19 ...The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

But do you have in place a team prepared to process a flood of information? I presume that even before your current invitation, more people have submitted ideas/solutions to you than you felt you had the time to process, and a few of them were many, many pages long. Lawmakers tell me to boil my proposal down to a single page – that’s all the reading time they have. (Unless you are a lobbyist who contributes to their campaigns. Then they will pass several pages of your legislation without having to read them.)

The Bible has blueprints for such a team. I have a couple of proposals designed to sidestep the resistance.

In Defense of God’s Blueprints

Now as soon as I write that the Bible understands the problem and designs a solution, I fear I will lose you, if you have read this far. Because political consultants have unanimously told me over the years that I need to be very careful about publicly mentioning the name of Jesus, and certainly should not quote Him, if I want any “credibility” as a candidate.

Over the decades I have been alert to acknowledgment of God in the speeches of people who were successfully elected. I should have written down the references, but I didn’t. Just going from general memory, my impression is that at an event where several speak, one of them will dare to mention the name of God. President Bush closed with “God Bless You”, which at the time seemed a startling new exciting whisper of Revival. Some of those mentions will quote a Bible verse. Less commonly the audience will be told that it is a Bible verse, and a reference will be given. Never, yet, in my memory, have I heard anyone who managed to get elected explain the verses that are the basis for his political positions. In fact, I fear again that just stating that last sentence will cause you to delete this message in disgust, because it implies my judgment that censoring what God says about our issues is a huge mistake that is rhe reason Republicans aren’t doing better. That fear is supported by all my experience with political leaders, and consultants, and by the absence of any mention of God, Jesus, or the Bible in your letter inviting solutions to America’s political mess.

Nevertheless, in the hope that you or someone you designate is still reading this, who is in a “Berean” mood, Acts 17:11, I will defend God’s relevance to Republican success in a way which should be self evident to a “Berean” not blinded by rage at a challenge to what “everyone knows will never work”.

Where did Republican positions come from? Where did Republicans get the idea that “all men are created equal”, even old people? Poor people? Black people? Unborn babies? Who therefore should be equally protected by law? “Law”, as defined by “Lex Rex”, as restrictions equally binding on all, and as enacted by the consent of the governed, an idea that grew out of Pilgrim Bible studies?

Does pure logic force the conclusion that there is no “master race” which will lift mankind higher than the Tower of Babble once “inferior races” are exterminated? Does logic alone reject the theory that dictators can better manage us than we can ourselves?

Does raw logic require that all should have Freedom to Speech to state what they sincerely believe is true, and should never be censored but correction should be made through reasoning?

Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, a vote for all. Staples of the Bible. Not found in any competing religion or philosophy. Most Republicans believe Republican positions because they believe the Bible.

Not because Christians understand everything the Bible says. But because where we don’t understand, we trust. We aren’t prolife because we can comprehend the full humanity of a single cell, but we push ourselves to grasp that reality because many of us heard God talk about it.

If we trust God to tell us what principles best guide us, how can we not merely doubt, but outright reject, the way God says we can heal our land with these principles? There are very clear things God tells us to do to succeed, which Christians and activists won’t do today because they will lose their credibility” and will “never get elected”.

Remember what the Disciples said when they were told to stop talking about Jesus? Acts 5:29. How did they ever succeed?

The Bible gave us our positions. Logic didn’t. It is Bible belief that makes the Republican party possible. How can we believe the Bible’s positions are the most beneficial for us and our nation, and be afraid to believe the Bible’s strategies for giving us the power to succeed?

Republican supporters, versus Democrat supporters, are openly Christian, versus ready to sue to suppress Christian speech, because Christians assume Republican principles are consistent with the Bible if not inspired directly by the Bible.

Without the Bible, to whom would it occur that people are made in the image of God, with any “rights” at all? What other religion claims such a thing? What logic demands such a conclusion? “Equal protection of the laws”, 14th Amendment; “all men are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness....” Certainly Islam recognizes no rights for “all men”, and don’t even talk about wo-men! Hindu’s B’hagavad Gita says we should have no preference of truth over lies, success over failure, comfort over pain, etc.

Christian conservatives care about their political principles because they assume their principles are consistent with the Bible, if not inspired directly by the Bible. Without the Bible, to whom would it occur that even an unborn baby is a real person? Or that there can be anything wrong with sodomy?

Freedom of speech and religion, and a vote for all, was developed by the Pilgrims 400 years ago as they followed their Bible studies. Their catechism tells us the very Scriptures that inspired them. See my study, http://ipatriot.com/verses-launched-freedom/. Also see my documentary at www.1620.us. To this day nations which most suppress the Bible experience the least freedom. The relationship is very direct.

Yet Noninvolvement Theologies that keep Christians from being politically informed and active are overwhelming.

My articles about God’s blueprints would fill books. But here is a 120 word summary:

It's not that hard to find important, powerful Christian leaders presenting powerful evidence that these Noninvolvement theologies are not Biblical. I list those who have inspired me in the Appendix at xxx.

CONTENTS BELOW 1. Comments about your analysis 2. The more fundamental problems I see – with which I think you will agree, but which are opposed by so much mental inertia that most are afraid to talk about them in public

1. Comments about your analysis Your interesting financial stats say liberal nonprofits raised $21+ billion, seven times more than the $3-4 billion raised by conservative nonprofits, from seven times more donors, counting donors of $1,000 average ; baby killers have raised 10 times more than prolifers and have 10 times more donors. Your solution on page 4: “some of the things conservatives need to do...20 million grassroots donors...dozens of mega donors investing billions of dollars into the conservative movement.” You don’t say how to get there from here, which is a clue to the sincerity of your request for wisdom. Just for fun, at the end of this letter I have some more fence-shaking stats about the problem, showing how much more people spend on their pets than on politics, and even than they donate to missions. Also how much more is spent on Christmas than on Christ. Your description of Republican consultants as “content-free” is fascinating. You don’t define the term and I have never heard it, but I will guess you might include expensive literature containing no more information than you can grasp in 10 seconds since people estimate that the life span of political literature averages 10 seconds before it is recycled. (That’s what I was told years ago in a “campaign school”.) Maybe you are also thinking of 10 second TV ads and longer ads that have whatever terrible thing you can say about your opponent in 10 words. The apathy of viewers that makes consultants afraid to say more than 10 words is one of those “fundamental problems” I mentioned. Voters aren’t equipped to vote intelligently by 10-second messages, but I well know the resistance, much of it theological, to voting intelligently! In all the pleas I have heard to vote in my 77 years, I don’t recall anyone daring to append the adverb “intelligently”. Message: you characterize the marketing gizmo of Democrats as a “tune to whistle”. Interesting. You compare “Democracy is on the ballot” and “God made babies to be murdered” with “Inflation/crime/high gas prices” and find the latter less whistelable. It is hard to grasp how much dumber I would have to become to believe a vote for election fraud is a vote for “democracy”. I wonder why you didn’t mention voter fraud? Just lack of space, or don’t you think there was any? I know there are a lot of Republicans who join in chanting “election deniers”, but millions of us have seen the videos of barriers being put up so vote counting couldn’t be observed, along with the testimonies of poll watchers. Senator Grassley (Iowa) said he didn’t block certification 4 years ago because none of the court filings alleged the fraud was sufficient to reverse the result, (that earned Grassley a primary challenger, who dropped back when Trump endorsed Grassley anyway), but how can there be doubt that there was enough mischief to likely have reversed the result? Enough doubt to support Trump-supported secretaries of state and to watch carefully in the future? I disagree that the Democrat message was more persuasive, at least to people smart enough to find their voting location. (OK, I know, Democrats don’t use their voting locations.) 10-20 times more liberal nonprofits than conservative. Fascinating. Fortunately there is not a direct relationship between money spent and ballot results! Despite being outspent and outorganized 10-1, Republicans scored important progress November 8. This fact raises the question how sure we can be that political success is a matter of more money or more nonprofits. Could it be that ten times more mail, TV ads, and robo calls is counter-productive? Regarding more nonprofits, it seems to me that what matters is the reach of nonprofits, not their number. And regarding money, what is it spent on? On bombarding the apathetic in order to overcome their willful ignorance so they will vote. Not intelligently, judging from the simplistic content of most campaign literature and ads, but fortunately it doesn’t take a ton of intelligence to pick “R” over “D”. What would it be like to have voters so well informed that they educate their candidates en masse? What would it be like if a statehouse candidate held an event once a week and had as many people show up as show up for a football game? It wouldn’t take much money to run a campaign if Americans cared as much about Freedom as they care about football. Candidates used to stand on the back of a train and crowds gathered. They didn’t have to even leave the train. All it cost to hold a huge event was a train ticket. I know that because I saw it in a movie. Now, it takes more money than intelligence. A LOT more money. Then, it took more intelligence than money. Candidates were scrutinized by well informed people who cared about Freedom.

2. The more fundamental problems I see – with which I think you will agree, but which are opposed by so much mental inertia that most are afraid to talk about them in public Surely you share my frustration with such apathy among voters that it takes billions of dollars to overcome it enough that free government can kind of function. But how do you talk about that publicly? People don’t like to be labeled “apathetic” or “irresponsible” or “selfish lovers of their own pleasures too busy to lift a finger to save babies from being slaughtered, children from being sexually mutilated, or Christians from being tortured by tyrants sustained by U.S. trade”. Christian conservatives care about their political principles because they assume their principles are consistent with the Bible, if not inspired directly by the Bible. Without the Bible, to whom would it occur that even an unborn baby is a real person? Or that there can be anything wrong with sodomy? Freedom of speech and religion, and a vote for all, was developed by the Pilgrims 400 years ago as they followed their Bible studies. Their catechism tells us the very Scriptures that inspired them. See my study, http://ipatriot.com/verses-launched-freedom/. Also see my documentary at www.1620.us. To this day nations which most suppress the Bible experience the least freedom. The relationship is very direct. Yet Noninvolvement Theologies that keep Christians from being politically informed and active are overwhelming. These theologies strangle help not only from churches but from Christian activists. You may not like what I say about activists, so I will put that off and pick on churches first. Church Resistance to Permitting their Light to go into the Darkness. THE PROBLEM. I think anyone with modest political experience understands the irony that the natural constituency of Republican conservatives is Christians, since conservative positions are assumed to be based on the Bible, and Christians gather in huge numbers in churches, where they hear occasional sermons identifying from Scripture what God calls ‟abominations”, and yet when congregants hear those sermons and want to ‟put feet to them”, sharing with other congregants ways to get that Matthew 5 ‟Light” out into that ‟Darkness”, they are censored from sharing any of that information on church premises. Because most of that Darkness is fed by government, which makes it ‟politics” to shine Light into it, and ‟Jesus never got involved in politics” etc etc. I think anyone with modest political experience can appreciate how much potential for healing the Darkness there would be, but for that censorship, but most Christian political activists don’t dare let themselves even think of it, because the censorship is sustained by Noninvolvement Theologies so intractible that any challenge to them will guarantee the church version of instant ‟deplatforming”, rendering a candidate politically useless. I take it for obvious to anyone with just a little political experience that were churches to allow politically aware members to meet, discuss, and strategize with each other and to make brief reports upon which they agree to the rest of the congregation through church communications (website, bulletin board, pulpit announcements) that:

• Christians in large numbers would become well informed and ready and willing to vote intelligently, without the infusion of more activist money
• where discussion is respectful and does not exclude anyone willing to listen and reason, conservatism would win over communism
• the information flow, thanks to a few well informed members, could potentially neutralize media lies and bypass big tech censorship
• were churches to allow a free flow of Light Into Darkness information, that information flow, reaching interested members of several churches, could support news reporters who could displace liberal God-defying local newspapers. I actually set up The Partnership Machine, Inc. in 1986 with that vision. Under it, I published the Prayer & Action News for 25 years, but I did not anticipate the depth of the resistance. It wasn’t just churches, or pastors, or church members. The Noninvolvement Theologies run deeper than that.
• The readers of a news source targeting Christians, and open to contributions from Christians, would be relatively honest and action-focused, producing not so much “click bait” surviving on personal attacks to entertain us with accusations of “the other guy”, but information with enough depth for action – for shining Light in Darkness – for healing evil and rescuing its innocent victims.

We all know the Noninvolvement Theologies which stand like mountains of evil between Darkness and the Light we long to shine. We do not dare publicly challenge those theologies, because that would infuriate many pastors, along with many church members, who would then make it their mission to “deplatform” us so far as they are able.

Caveats: there are a few churches which let their pastors talk about political things. What is rare enough that I have not found it in Des Moines is that kind of freedom for others besides the pastor to share ‟political” information with fellow worshipers through church communication channels and/or on church premises. Sure, there are ‟Sunday Schools” where digressions from the established topic are tolerated for a minute or two; what is lacking is opportunity for serious brainstorming, group research, strategizing, and action. Churches are places of talk, not action, Contrary to Titus 3:8-9, and the talk is dominated, in ‟worship services”, by the thinking of a single person who gives his uninterruptible sermon and preapproves anyone else’s contributions, contrary to 1 Corinthians 14 in which ‟all” are called to contribute verbally in Christian meetings. EXAMPLES: When Pat Robertson ran for president in 1987 and came in second in Iowa, he did well because Steve Scheffler got Christians to give him copies of church membership directories to create a database. Robertson needed to connect with Christians, because his positions were Christian, making Christians his natural constituency. How tragic that churches would not give him that information, so he had to get it from Christians who did not fully grasp their church’s opposition to any of their Light escaping into the Darkness. When Scheffler leafleted cars in the First Assembly parking lot because it was legal to do that while the church would allow no information inside, a pastor saw that, and came out to personally remove the literature. How does that square with Matthew 5:13-16? Later that same pastor ran for school board, but I don’t think he ever caught on that information about how to get Light out into the Darkness belongs in church. A few churches allow their pastors to occasionally preach about Bible-identified abominations which are tangled up with government, so that talking about them is labeled “politics”. More often, “dirty politics”. What I have not found in Des Moines is a church where information isn’t limited to just what the pastor knows, but where anyone can contribute information. My impressions are formed from the responses to four mailings I did to every Iowa church, and two mailings to every Des Moines church, 30 recorded hour-long interviews with pastors in a State Representative district where I was running, and conversations with hundreds of pastors and laymen over the years who came into our music store. Exceptions: I found a church once which allowed me to put up a bulletin board, but that didn’t generate any responses. Another church allowed me to talk to a Sunday School for about two minutes about meetings to be held off church premises at another time during the week. Three people came only once – I was unable to persuade them that the Scriptures I cite outline a solution worthy of their time. Another pastor allowed me to make a 10 minute presentation to the board from the Scriptures, but the board voted against allowing the plan I saw in Scripture, so the pastor accepted their vote as final. There was a Korean church that let me even give a 15 minute presentation from the pulpit. That led to a series of meetings where half a dozen people joined me in a weeknight to discuss issues on camera, aired later on cable TV. At that time I was following the 1 Corinthians 14 vision of a forum open to all and open to subjects proposed by participants, so we had discussion for its own sake; I had not yet noticed Scriptures calling for discussion to be focused on action such as Titus 3:8-9. That lasted two or three months. After that the pastor told me that such discussion was actually the model followed in the seminary that he supported on the Chinese border to train North Koreans, but that the people here in Des Moines wouldn’t allow him to do that here. He literally cried that I was asking his support for what he thought impossible. In disbelief that a pastor would accommodate the people rather than stick to Scripture, I left his church, and shortly after he left the ministry and the building was sold. I now regret leaving him.

Activist Resistance to Turning On their Light while in Darkness The resistance is not just from churches, pastors, and/or church members. Christian activists, driven from their churches to “put feet to” their pastors’ occasional abomination-identifying sermons, leave their “swords” back in their pews. Churches often report what God says about Darkness but won't let congregants strategize together how to get that Light out into the Darkness. Christian activists strategize how to get out into the Darkness and do some good, but once there, won't proclaim what God says about Darkness. Christian activists censor God. Your letter never mentioned God. Scripture is the only reason there is a Republican party; almost all our issues were inspired by pastors’ sermons. Yet we won’t tell the public the Scriptures that are the real reason we care so much about our issues.

America’s threats come from erosion of that Foundation, from hearing these sayings of Jesus and not doing them, that Rock of Matthew 7 which saves from storms every life built on it. Jesus tells us to shine Light in Darkness, but we tolerate censorship in Christian meetings of strategizing how to get out into the Darkness (outside our safe comfortable “bushel”) what God says about the Darkness.

Example of lost power won’t say http://savetheworld.saltshaker.us/wiki/Scriptures_SCOTUS_must_address_before_saying_Christianity_supports_abortion

3. Principles in Scripture which, if followed, would, according to all political experience, heal America

How ironic, tragic, and stupid for a party whose agenda springs from Scripture to publicly hide those Scriptures, which not only provide the wisdom to create an agenda that is practical, but also the power to overcome resistance. The power to stop mouths. People who hate God scream. So what? They never stop screaming anyway. Let them scream. But let’s stop letting them succeed. Our culture has sunk so far from God that we are no longer sure that freedom of speech is a good thing. Let’s remind people of God’s favor upon those who tell the truth even when truth is persecuted. Let’s show from the Bible that truth even exists – that view is not available in other religions uninfluenced by the Bible. Easy to show the noninvolbement theologies are wrong; but we have to say that they are. We have to know it, and say it. Lovers of tradition will scream, but they can’t refute it.

4. Brainstorming ways to sidestep, if not overcome, the resistance of Christians and Republicans to God’s solutions

Listed in xxx Appendix practical

THE SOLUTION:

Forum must be open. No one censored. Not even God. Especially not God.

I want America to be spared from the natural consequences to which our cultural rejection of God is propelling us. I see God’s clear solution, which makes so much sense the more I meditate on just how God says to do it, compared with my political and church experience. The solution is simple, but change is hated. “Long experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer wrong, than to right those wrongs to which they have become accustomed.”

The order I will try out, this time, for presenting this information: The irony and travesty of censoring the very foundation of our platform.

Kids never saw inside of a church. Parents’ fault. Scripture, falling away, itching ears. Churches, people don’t go. Money money money in culture. Prosperity gospel. (There are Scriptures prophesying darkness, but let’s not bypass the Scriptures of hope and power

Self sufficiency culture. Seminaries falling away. Devil the reason. (But the Bible doesn’t challenge us to interact with the devil, but with people, authorities, etc) To want to acknowledge God we need to know God James 2 devils acknowledge People who don’t know God will refuse to acknowledge. But people need to hear about God or they can’t turn to God. So pastors don’t want politics because they want to tell how to get people saved Scripture: how will they hear without a preacher? Does NOT mean just a preacher in church, could mean a conversation in the street. Main purpose of church is to tell people about God, get them saved. Church is open for ANYBODY to come in. If everyone can talk, where will talk go if a devil worshiper comes in? Someone giving a political speech, an opponent comes in, is hauled out of the room. It’s not just churches that don’t allow others to talk. Politics is even worse. In politics there isn’t even a secondary meeting where people can veer even a minute from the approved topic. That is, to disagree/ask consideration of a competing view. To question the “approved narrative”. In SS you expect at least some would be grateful to have the opportunity to reason with a sodomite, for example, but in a political meeting, to for example favor more immigration in a Republican meeting, expect angry shutting of you down. In SS you start with some Scripture. Inspires questions. Leads to other things. Interrelated. Don’t believe whole new subjects should be allowed. Notwithstanding 1 Cor 14:30. God must only be allowed to reveal things that are related to the topic preselected by a human. SS topic, Ukraine, sometimes to note prophecy, sometimes to solicit prayer. Then, let’s get back to Daniel or whatever. Nazarene: well we don’t need to talk about that. Pastor Pharez. More talk about prophecy? He hem hawed, to say no. Interviewing new pastor, Dort asked are you willing to speak about prophecy and relate to today? Good answer except the part where he said he would never do it. Itching ears. Tell what people want to hear. Worship creation. Big churches, don’t teach Scriptures. People grow, Don’t want to preach what will offend anybody. Not true in Prairie City. Pastor said church IS growing, just not in numbers. But spiritually. Growing in depth. People closer to the Lord. When Dort stood up to testify how the sermon moved her, that helped him realize the church is “growing”. Nearly always someones says the message was right for them, telling the pastor God guides his selection. Some in class have never heard of this stuff. Yet they have been in this church a long time, and the pastor grew u in it. I think doctrines are very very very very important. I want to know what I am getting into. Don’t want to join something I don’t believe in. CS Lewis “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.” Yes, where there is little interaction, little opportunity to correct spiritual stupidity. A group with zero limits to nonsense in either its mission statement or in its opportunity for members to correct nonsense will be a spiritual and intellectual zoo. But the only way to correct a heresy is to first articulate it so you know what you are refuting. I get my rules from the Bible, not from logic. I bend my logic to fit Scripture. I shape my common sense to Scripture. My mind cannot rest until I fully understand how the Scripture makes sense and is sound, practical, effective advise. In Scripture there is no such thing as a “doctrine” as the word is defined today. Then, the Greek word simply meant “teaching”, and not just one single teaching but all that one teaches. The idea of boiling down the whole Bible into half a dozen bullet points everyone has to agree with to join a group, or get a job with the organization, with which no one may argue from Scripture, is not in the Bible and is quite the opposite of the wide forum where even unbelievers are welcome, where God’s promise is that if we will do that, we will see what I would recognize as revival, where unbelievers will fall on their face and acknowledge that God is in us of a truth. One person is received into fellowship because he says “Yeah, OK, I guess” to the quarter page of “doctrinal statements” of a denomination, who has never read the whole Bible and never intends to. Another person is rejected from fellowship because he has read the Bible through 20 times and quibbles over the phrasing of one of the statements, offering to defend his quibble from Scripture which he dares not deny, but the authorities refuse to hear his reasoning from Scripture, as the Bereans did with Paul, God calling them “noble”. Doctrinal statements, nowhere authorized by God, a human invention, welcome, not in all cases but in many, the apathetic and lightly informed while excluding saints who long to share their “pearls” with all who care about “pearls”. But there are people who trample spiritual pearls and turn on those offering them, tearing them to pieces. Scripture: give not your pearls to the swine. God’s Forum is a place where pearls can be shared and not trampled.

The Bible contains a blueprint for saving America, Freedom, and churches.

Your invitation implies that if I send substantial proposals, for example that exceed a page, some human will actually read them, consider them, and perhaps even respond back to me so we can discuss them, scrutinize them together, develop the helpful and discard the useless.

I pray what you imply, you will do, because this is precisely what is so lacking in America today, and what Scripture tells us is the key to saving our land, our freedoms, and our churches.

I have written enough Bible study, with comparisons to my political experience, to fill several books, but I can’t decide on a title. Here are my top choices: The Bible verses that gave us America can heal America God’s Partnership Machine in Daniel 2, Matthew 10:41-45, 16:18 They mixed Politics and Religion the way the Bible does, and gave us America What if obeying God would disrupt your whole worship routine, and juggle your list of friends? Would you still obey God?

They got freedom of speech and religion, and a vote for all, from the Bible Our votes (and refusal to vote) serve either Heaven or Hell. Let’s care which, or stop calling ourselves “Christians”. Can we vote for Hell and be welcome in Heaven? God’s Rules for Relationships The Verses that Launched Freedom (Sorry. I couldn’t decide on just one title.)

Dream with me. I have a dream...that we are not as limited and helpless as we are told by our school teachers, culture, entertainers, politicians, pastors and our own families, not to mention our own logic and experience. I have a dream...that God means it. That He wasn’t even exaggerating. It’s really true. Nothing really is impossible. I have a dream...that people who love God will see if God has any Rules for Success that most of us are overlooking, given that God’s promises seem a bit more dramatic than most of us notice being fulfilled in most churches. I have a dream...that this will interest you in joining me and others as we study God’s rules.

The Key to Freedom: the Cross How can we provoke “My people, who are called by My name” (2 Chronicles 7:14) to “turn from their wicked” resistance to shining the Light of what God says about Darkness into the Darkness? We who identify as Christians (“who are called by My name”) allow the Darkness of Hell to swirl around us, opposed only by our own power and words, safe from being confronted by the Power and Words of God out in public. We let Hell into our hearts and the hearts of our families. We patronize colleges, public schools, psychiatrists, newspapers, and social media which teach the ways of Hell and attack Hell’s opponents, rather than develop Scripture-bathed information sources. We fuel the deception of ourselves and our families. Our churches strangle development of such information by censoring any sharing of “controversial” information on their premises, citing their Noninvolvement Theologies which deny that shining Light into government-entangled Darkness is a legitimate mission of “church”. Christian activists, driven from their churches to oppose Darkness, leave their Light back in “church”. They don’t build their political agendas on public Bible study, just as Scripture-quoting churches don’t apply their “light” against the government-supported darkness poisoning their families. The repentance of 2 Chronicles 7:14 may require many things, but since “healing of the land” is the promised reward, adamant church opposition to even consider “healing the land” a mission of church has to top the list. The adamant political activist opposition to publicly basing their agendas on the healing Words of God has to be a close second.

01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)Dave Leach R-IA Bible Lover-musician-grandpa (talk) 01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

What if God intends the “hard work” of shining “Light” outside the “bushel” to be done by many, committed to working together, reasoning together as a “multitude of counsellors”, Proverbs 15:22,

Proverbs 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established. 

exhorting, inspiring, and comforting one another in our work together, 1 Corinthians 14:3, which, done by “all”, will guarantee revival, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25?

1 Corinthians 14:3  But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. ...24  But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25  And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. 

What if there is no precedent in the Bible for a “church” that limits topics, ideas, and discussion to the choices of one or two people, whose attention is limited to talking inside a church building with no costly group action focused outside? What if the Bible chapter with the most detail about a Christian meeting, 1 Corinthians 14, invites “all” into the forum, not just in one verse but in seven? (The Bible word for the verbal contributions God wants from everyone in church is defined in verse 3 as to correct, inspire [build up], and comfort – describing the full range of Christian communication. The KJV translates it “prophesy”. Other translations call it “bring a message from God”.)

    1. 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather [Greek: more, to a greater degree]  that ye  [as many as should love, and desire gifts] may prophesy.
  2. 14:5 I would that ye ALL spake with tongues, but rather that ye [all] prophesied:...
  3. 14:12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye [all] may excel to the edifying of the church. [Edifying/build up: part of the definition in verse 3 of “prophesy”.] 
   4. 14:24 But if ALL prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. [Revival is promised “if ALL prophesy”.]
    5. 14:26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, EVERY ONE of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine [Greek: “teaching”], hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let ALL things be done unto edifying. [“Edifying” is part of “prophecy”, verse 3. “Teachings” and “revelations” are kinds of prophesying. “When ye come together” applies these rules to “church”. These five ways “every one of you” are urged to verbally contribute rules out a narrow limit to what participants can say or how they can say it.]

6. 14:31 For ye may ALL prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. 7. 14:39 Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy...

01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)01:49, 11 December 2022 (UTC)

Am I wrong? Is what I have seen and experienced really the full manifestation of the Fellowship God offers us, and this vision I read about in Scripture is actually something less? I really need your help testing what I read. If you believe I am wrong, please show me, because meanwhile, the fellowship I read about in the Bible leaves me profoundly unsatisfied with the experiences I find in my city and state, and with the slide towards Hell of my nation. If I am right, I especially need your help figuring out how to put this vision all the way into practice. Love. Hearing from God: Answered Prayer. Have you noticed that prayers for just ourselves are not answered, James 4:3? And that it is to the extent we bless others, that we are blessed, Luke 6:38? And forgive others, that we are forgiven, Matthew 6:14-15? Have you considered that church prayers for our own health, safe travels, and finances, especially in the absence of prayer and action for those outside our circle, may be on God’s no-no list? Have you noticed that in Job 35:9-11 God calls us to stop whining about our own difficulties and instead to seek God amidst our storms, who “gives songs in the night”, and who gives us wisdom? Have you noticed in Matthew 25:31-46 that Jesus expects us to serve others – even those least able to repay us, and makes that a condition of Heaven? Did you notice that 1 Timothy 2:2 is a description of what we would call political freedom, especially freedom of speech and religion, and that verse 1 makes that a goal not just for ourselves, but for “all men”? Did you notice that this will make it easier for “all men to be saved” according to verse 4, which is God’s will according to verse 3? Taking Action. Have you noticed that Titus 3:8-9 says the discussions when Christians meet should focus on what action members can take together, not on talk which leads only to more talk? Have you noticed James 2:14-16 mocks what acts like a prayer for another, without action? Have you considered the contrast between that and today’s practice where group action is rare and is even prohibited on church premises if it helps victims of cruel laws because that is “politics” which is “controversial”? Politics. Have you noticed that 1 Timothy 2:1-2 has the goal of getting government off Christian backs, and although verse 1 has been traditionally interpreted to describe four ways to pray to God, 3 of those 4 words just as often describe communication with men, (which in this context would mean political leaders), while James 2:14-16 mocks the idea of expecting God to take care of problems without our involvement which God has given us some power to solve? Have you noticed the emphasis on politics throughout the Bible? Have you noticed that Hebrews 11, about the “Heroes of Faith”, lists people who were either political leaders themselves or got in the Bible by confronting political leaders? Have you noticed that the Pharisees which consumed at least half of Jesus’ reported attention were political leaders with police, laws, and powers to arrest and execute by stoning? Do you remember how excited Paul was to be witnessing to everyone in Caesar’s palace, Philippians 1:12-14? Have you noticed that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 was about world political tyrannies and the system God would set up to displace it? Have you noticed where Jesus explained this same contrast between tyranny and what he was setting up, in which he said serving others would become our new measure of greatness? Luke 22:25-27. Have you considered the gradual growth since Jesus’ time of what we call “Western Civilization”, in which political leaders are called “public servants”, and where businessmen are honored not for how rich they become at the expense of others, but for the “services” that they provide? Have you noticed that Revelation’s greatest horrors are of political systems? Have you noticed that there is only one sin in the whole Bible which will send everyone who does it to Hell – taking the “Mark of the Beast” – the “Beast” representing a political power? Revelation 14:11. Have you considered Jesus’ call to take our Light out from under our church “bushel” and get it out into the Darkness, Matthew 5:13-16, describes the opposite of modern American church practice, if we consider the Light to include telling people what God says about the Darkness, and if we recognize the darkest Darkness as those abominations with which government is entangled – like murdering our own babies, boys pretending to be girls, censoring Truth, etc? Have you considered that getting that kind of Light out into that kind of Darkness would automatically heal our land, while church censorship of members organizing to act together (because that would be “politics” which is “controversial”) logically explains the sickness of our land? As long as America’s churches strangle God’s Light before it can get outside and heal our land, what other groups can we expect to shine that Light into that Darkness? Is Jesus’ calling only for individuals to shine, and not for whole churches? Help! Half of America's Christians vote Democrat, doing things to America like killing babies and letting men into girls’ bathrooms which send souls to Hell. The other half votes to keep “the stranger” (immigrants) unwelcome, which Matthew 25:41, 46 warns is another road to Hell! Especially since the tool considered most promising for driving out “the stranger” is Mark-of-the-Beast tracking technology (Real ID, already updated into E-Verify, which “a number of governments” are working to combine with “digital certificates to prove our immunity” such as “a dissolvable microneedle array patch” that creates “flourescent microdot tags...creating an invisible “tattoo” that can be then read with a modified smartphone” - p. 43, “The Truth about Covid-19” by Dr. Joseph Mercola and Ronnie Cummins) which is the surest road to Hell! (Revelation 13-14) The response of “church”? Don't allow members to pass out voting information, in “church”, that might be “controversial”! Can you help me find a CHURCH where it isn't “controversial” for members to shine where it is darkest? If you can't, will you help me start one? Let’s Shine together! Democracy. Have you noticed that Deuteronomy 1:13 clearly states that the judges instituted by Moses at his father-in-law’s suggestion were elected by the people? Have you noticed that God did not deliver His Ten Commandments until right after the first of three elections where the people chose God to be their God? Exodus 19:5, 24:3, 7, Deuteronomy 5:27-28, Joshua 24:22. Have you noticed that in 1 Samuel 8, where Israel demanded that God take away their freedom and give them a dictator (king) instead, that in verse 7 God said “they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them”, thus equating elections of political leaders with voting for God? Have you noticed that nations which most honor the Bible have developed into versions of our Democratic Republic, while nations dominated by communism, Islam, or paganism have cruel dictators? Have you noticed that in U.S. culture, which we classify as “Western Civilization”, people most successfully enrich themselves by serving others, in business, medicine, education, arts, etc. while in anti-God cultures people advance themselves by monitoring, accusing, and torturing others? Have you thought about how much less intelligence and talent it requires to shoot a bullet, than for a team of doctors to remove it? Our system admires doctors. Their system kills doctors, and admires torturers. It takes so much less intelligence to break a window, than to replace it. To steal a car, than to earn one. To ransack a business, than to build it. To lie, than to defend the truth. To became a slave, than to become free. To not care, than to help. To hate, than to love. To take, than to serve. To surrender to pleasure and self than to take up our Cross and follow Jesus. Not that our service-based civilization is the full manifestation of what Daniel prophesied and Jesus founded. But it is clearly a step in the direction Jesus described, and we should say so because civilized people honor freedom, so it glorifies God to give Him credit for it. Have you thought about how Luke 6:38 comes to life through these examples? Have you noticed in Matthew 25:31-46 that Jesus expects us to serve others – even those least able to repay us, and makes that a condition of Heaven? Have you noticed how many of the examples Jesus gave can only be thoroughly addressed through political involvement? Have you noticed that the similar lists in Isaiah through Ezekiel of oppressed groups – widows, orphans, immigrants, children sacrificed to Baal – are given as examples of people we must help if we don’t want our land to fall to brutal invaders? Have you considered that addressing such needs requires some political involvement? Have you thought about how important these virtues are to God? Have you thought about what a “platitude war” a pastor is waging, who dismisses support for our democratic republic as “politics”, which is “of the world”, which must not be allowed to displace the mission of Church to “preach (what’s left of) the Gospel” and “give people Jesus”? Have you considered how such platitudes are deliberately employed to keep our Light under our Bushel in direct violation of Jesus’ plea?

“Establishment of Religion”. Christian hearts break for the victims of the Religions from Hell imposed by communist, socialist, and sharia-driven Moslem nations. We send missionaries, Bibles, and other support to relieve them; our help is prosecuted there as “illegal” and “subversive”. In past centuries nearly all governments were dictatorships whose dictators called themselves “god”, who cruelly tortured “unbelievers”. In other words, most of the world was like North Korea today. The spread of Christianity made monarchs steadily subject to a power and principles higher than themselves, and Christianity was seldom a religion that physically persecuted “unbelievers”. There were lapses whose cruelties are etched in human memory deeper than the centuries of tolerance. But it was under the strongest Christian influence on any nation in history that “Establishment of Religion” was prohibited by our Constitution. Meaning, police won’t take you to church, or make you tithe to any church. But is God’s solution really to censor Him from national discussion as much as Christians and churches go along with today? Will our freedoms fall apart if Christians suddenly start quoting what God says about our national issues, in those public forums where voters decide whether to pattern our laws after the principles of Heaven or of Hell? Must we forfeit our Freedom of Speech, to save our Freedom of Religion? Must we shield liars from the “offensive” darts of Truth, to keep church leaders from turning into cruel torturers? That’s not what I read in the Bible.

Intro #3: Shining in the Deepest Darkness Not much Light reaches America’s forums where voters decide whether to pattern our laws after the principles of Heaven or of Hell. Churches won’t take out, beyond their safe walls, the Light of what God says about government-supported abominations, because they say that is “politics”, which is “controversial” and “dirty”. Christian political activists at least go there, to “put feet to” occasional sermons which identify God’s positions on a couple of “issues”, but once there, they won’t publicly quote the verses which are the real reasons for their positions! Even Christian politicians will marginalize and undermine a candidate who tries! With these facts, it is a miracle that America has not fallen any lower than it has! America owes its goodness and greatness to the influence of Bible verses. It owes its danger to neglect of verses – not by unbelievers, but by Christians according to 2 Chronicles 7:14. This book is about a few marginalized verses. This book isn’t about doctrines or rituals that split churches without affecting what we do. This is about verses that violate centuries of mainstream Christian traditions common to every recognizable denomination. For example, the verses that say: * we are the “Light of the World”, and the purpose of Light is to shine in the Darkness, even though Darkness hates Light. John 3. * most of the examples of Darkness in the Bible, that were listed as reasons for judgment against nations, were entangled with government, so that most Bible heros were either government leaders themselves or got into the Bible through their interaction with government. Hebrews 11. * reasoning is the path to unity, through the development of relationship skills modeled throughout the Bible. Churches today call reasoning (meaning, with those who disagree) “a bunch of arguing”, which is “controversial”, which is “divisive”. Churches today excommunicate people for doing these things that Jesus and Paul did. Reason was Paul’s “manner”, Acts 17:2, Jesus’ “example”, 1 Peter 2:21, the approach of prophets to political leaders, and God’s plea to man. Isaiah 1:18. The relationship skills we acquire through reasoning with God’s people by God’s rules enable us to not only reason with politicians, but lead unbelievers to God, neutralize censors, operate our business, raise our children, and heal our marriages. * the goal of our discussion should be doing “good works” together, not just talk that doesn’t result in doing anything. Titus 3:8-9. * unity is not a Biblical prerequisite to joining the discussion, like a “doctrinal statement” you have to sign to be a church member or employee, but is the goal of the discussion. * inspiring, building up, comforting, exhorting, correcting, reasoning with, and provoking one another to love and good works, are the meat of Christian meetings. 1 Corinthians 14:3, Hebrews 10:24. Nowhere does the Bible approve of an uninterruptible sermon, or of discussions limited to preselected topics in which there is little if any freedom to share what God has “revealed” to someone. 1 Corinthians 14:30. There may be nothing wrong with meetings organized by popular human standards in addition to Biblical meetings, but completely displacing “worship” as God offers it, with “worship” as man has reinvented it, logically invites the judgment warned of in verses about the traditions of men displacing the commandments of God. Deuteronomy 4:2.

Intro #4: Our Resistance to God God’s way is liberating. The Cross Jesus calls us to take up and follow Him, is liberating. What is burdensome is the persecution inflicted by all who resist threats to their familiar routines. Including you and me. America’s Declaration of Independence wisely explains, “Long experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer wrong, while wrongs are sufferable, than to right those wrongs to which they have become accustomed.” It is not easy to believe what your eyes tell you God says, which you have never seen in practice, while “everyone” else says your eyes are unqualified to even look. It is hard to replace what you know how to do with what you have no idea how to do. It is hard to shed familiar routines for no better reason than (1) they aren’t in the Bible, (2) they displace what is in the Bible which every church (that I know about) says is heretical, and (3) obedience to these verses would save America. It is even harder for those whose careers and reputations are tied to these traditions. Most denominations make you sign a “statement of faith” to work there, which lays out the doctrines that distinguish them from other Christians. If you disagree on any point, they don’t want to hear your Bible study. They don’t want to reason with you. They want your resignation. They want you gone. Can you see the impact it would have on America’s spiritual health, to stop censoring “controversy”? Because censoring “controversy” censors discussion of anything important enough that the discovery of disagreement might disturb somebody, because that is a good definition of “controversial”. Disagreement about trivia isn’t controversial because it doesn’t matter. If we despair of reasoning even with other Christians when we disagree about very important things we should be doing something about together, how will we find the courage to go outside our Matthew 5 “bushel” and share the Good News with God’s enemies? Yet “go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel” was Jesus’ last great exciting commission before He ascended. Jesus obviously thinks we can do it! He set up Christian meetings as a place where we can, among other things, practice reasoning with each other, to develop the relationship skills we need to heal all our relationships, from our government to our families.

Intro #5: More Detail about Verses v. Tradition Churches welcome the worst of unbelievers, as they should, to attend and listen to one person talk. But not, as they also should, to join a forum willing to address reasonable criticisms respectfully presented. We should be concerned about verses which say the opposite of centuries of tradition. For example: All are welcome: Unity is not a prerequisite. When Christians meet, all should be welcome who will follow Bible rules about Christian interaction, which mostly target divisiveness. It is not sincerely held differences of theology that are divisive, but things like gossip, deceit, hypocrisy, false accusations. Rich, poor; Republican, Democrat; citizens, “illegals”; Protestants, Catholics; Christians, unbelievers; smart, dumb. All are listed on God’s welcome mat. Colossians 3:11, Galatians 3:28, Romans 1:14. “Reasoning” was Paul’s “manner”, and Jesus’ example. The Christian meeting format in 1 Corinthians 14 features a lot of it. “Reason” normally means with those who disagree. But reasoning about important matters is not traditionally allowed in church because discussion of anything important enough that the discovery of disagreement might disturb somebody is a good definition of “controversial”, and “controversy” is called “divisive”, as if there aren’t enough verses about love and respect to turn reasoning into an exciting intellectual adventure that bonds people together. Reasoning is therefore labeled “arguing” and is censored. That is, reasoning about anything important. Disagreement about trivia isn't controversial because it doesn’t matter to anyone. It won’t disturb anyone. Controversy is only slightly more welcome in meetings of Christian political activists. It is mostly relegated to Platform (the party’s positions on issues) debates, which are limited to * a few meetings every two years * in which fewer than one in one thousand get to speak * in a rushed, often hostile setting where speeches and tempers are short, and emotions run far afield of Biblical parameters * where what is true is often of less interest than what voters are judged willing to hear * where persuading is of less interest than outvoting, * where position statements, after all that heightened attention, are limited to somewhere around 50 words, and * where God is censored – where Bible quotes relevant to “issues” are as rare as vegan sharks. Outside Platform debate, some settings allow audience questions after speeches, and individuals sometimes reason with each other a little bit, but the 1 Corinthians 14 focus on interaction between those in a group instead of on a famous speaker is absent. Expensive famous speakers are brought in so people will want to come to a meeting; the Bible idea of people flocking to where they can just reason with each other doesn’t make sense to Christian activists today.

Intro #6: My Testimony: Joy of Blaming Others It is entertaining to blame others for America’s problems. “Those Democrats invite God’s judgment on America for the blood of 60 million slain babies.” Or “Those Republicans drive God out of America by driving away immigrants of whom Jesus will say to the Saints, to explain why they are welcomed into Heaven, ‘I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.’” (Matthew 25:35) But look again at a verse often quoted by us Christians about what we have to do to save our nation. It says saving our nation isn’t waiting on unbelievers.

2 Chronicles 7:14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 

So if America’s slide down is a failure of Christians, it must be of other Christians – right? Google “the church”, judgment, America, and read hundreds of sermon titles where “the church” means “other churches – the majority of churches – not ours”. “The Church is polluted with smooth talking false prophets...” “(The evangelist) gave a strong warning to The Church....” “Is The Church complicit in the judgment on America? Yes, The Church is complicit because....” “If only other churches were as pure as ours, America would have Revival. But there just aren’t enough of us true saints” didn’t produce any returns, but it captures the lament. I confess: that was my lament. But I notice the number of Christians who share my lament is huge. Why aren’t we “enough”? What opportunities are we missing? “What are we not doing? What am I not doing?” I prayed, wept, searched Scripture. I marked up my Bibles with the kinds of abominations that Scripture names as drawing God’s wrath to whole nations. I listened to what preachers accuse “The Church” of not doing. I looked for connections between that list, and what it would take to remove those abominations from American culture.

I noticed the overlap between that list and what we call “political issues”. I entered politics to address those judgment-drawing abominations. Bingo. Eureka. I am now 76. I first noticed when I was a teen, reading through the Bible, verses that didn’t match between what Christians do when they meet today, and what the Bible calls Christians to do when they meet. Each time I read through the Bible, I came to those places, and became more concerned that the discrepancy I saw was not just my theological ineptitude, but was really there. And my political experience made it clear that were these things done by Christians when they meet, America would be healed, and as the verse says, that obedience would “heal the land.”