In Response to Donald Miller…
Donald Miller, Christian author most famous for “Blue Like Jazz”, wrote a great piece in support of Barrack Obama. I encourage you to read it here.
I sent the above article to a close friend here in Los Angeles, and he put together this response. I felt like it also made some excellent points.
I encourage you to read both and make sure you get out and vote today.
I agree with some of the things you said, especially about the attitude of the conservative and the presentation of it’s ideas. I also can not listen to Rush and those like him. The spirit in which they come across offends me. However, the far left liberal spirit offends me in the same manner. (I.e. Keith Oberman, Michael Moore, etc). Listening to women demand their rights for abortion is pretty offensive also.
You made some great points. However, I do not agree with some of your conclusions, or as you labeled it, “truth”, that you have found in regard to the policies and their affect on society. In some ways, it seems like you have mimicked the party line and have not entirely looked at the facts that history provide. You stated:
We were told that, if a Democrat lived in the white house, we would become a socialist nation and you would not be able to chose your own profession, drive a car that you wanted or attend a school of your preference. The government would make those decisions for you, we were told. We were taught all sorts of terrible things about the Democrats. We were told if a Democrat ever came to power the government would launch legislation that would mandate ten-percent of all public-school teachers be homosexuals. But when a Democrat came to power, none of that happened. Instead, the average family’s base-earning went up by $7,500 per year and we operated under a balanced budget. And we didn’t go to war against an enemy we couldn’t exactly find and certainly didn’t understand.”
I am 48 years old and I do not remember hearing alot of what you said in the above excerpt, especially in regards to becoming a socialist nation. From what I hear, most of the socialist comments are in relation to economics. I really make an effort to take all my research from the horses mouth. When I hear it from a second or third party, I dig a little deeper and research it to see if it holds water. It is my hope that you would concede that schools have taken a much more authoritarian stance. Many educational philosophies have been developed in the last few decades that are contrary to what a great number of families believe. As it currently stands, the education departments in most states are by and large democratic.
Based on personal experience, I have faced grade deductions for my beliefs. Be it for my personal faith or political perspectives, I can recall this happening at least a dozen times in high school and college. In almost every case, this was from those tolerant democrats who did not want to discuss or debate their ideas. In college, I debated a political science professor on abortion. The class voted 29-2 in my favor, and 27 of them said to have changed their view on abortion. My professor gave me a “D” on the debate assignment. I can only assume it was because he was angry greatly disliked me because of my beliefs.
In my home state of California, there are too many examples to even mention where young kids are being taught controversial and morally unacceptable principles long before they’re ready to process that kind of information. The state is now making every effort to be the primary trainer of values to our kids. I’m not sure if you agree with that stance, but I strongly disagree.
Obama has already stated that, “Americans are going to have to change their driving habits.” I agree with that, but who is the arbiter of those changes? From what I’ve observed, it’s Obama and the Al Gore crowd. Let’s not forget that Al Gore has a yacht and a 22,000 square foot house, yet attempts to excuse it by purchasing carbon credits.
As Christians, we are supposed to steward the environment. Instead of politicizing it, we should be having an honest debate about it. When I was in college in the late 70′s, the scientists of my day said global cooling was being caused by man. They threatened that it we didn’t stop, we would soon be in an Ice Age. Many people will call you a heretic if you want to debate the theory. So many groups of people get grant money and government funding to display global warming and cause fear, as you say, in people who debate or oppose.
90% of climatologists do not believe in man made global warming. However, they are afraid to say anything for fear of losing their jobs. Check out this video of some climatologists that have not subscribed to that fear.
I said all of that to say this: Republicans aren’t alone in breeding fear in voters. Democrats can also be pretty fear mongering and religious.
You stated that, “When democratic President Clinton was in office, he raised the average wage by $7,500 and we operated under a balanced budget.” My suggestion would be to research Economics a little bit more.
Based on economic data, When President Clinton took office we were coming out of a recession from the last quarter of President Bush’s term. If we look at the policies of each President, we can see what really happened here. A typical Democratic policy is one of tax increases. A typical Republican policy is one of tax decreases. To begin, it’s important to note that President Bush Sr. went back on his pledge. He listened to the democratic majority and raised taxes. The recession lingered because of it.
When President Clinton first came into office, he raised taxes. Consequently, he had the same growth rates from 1993-1996 as President Bush Sr. did in 1991-1992. He was left with a deficit and projected deficits far into the future. The Republican Congress continued to barrage him with budgets to cut taxes, and President Clinton responded by cutting the capital gains rate. As soon as he applied these typically Republican Polices (tax decreases) to stir people to invest, a huge amount of capital was invested in new businesses. He can hardly take credit for that.
The longest expansion during the Clinton years began in April 1991, nearly two years before President Clinton took office. The economy grew 3.3 percent in 1992, the same year that Bill Clinton described as “the worst economy in 50 years.” It is absolutely critical to distinguish between President Clinton’s first term, when the economy grew only 3.2 percent a year, and his second term, when the economy accelerated to a 4.2 percent pace.
In 1997, the Republican Congress shoved the top capital-gains tax back down to 20 percent, as supply-side heretics had urged since 1978. The increase in wages was an increase in average wages. Granted, there was a great increase in the number of millionaires during that time. However, it did not start until the capital gains tax was cut and the dot.com growth substantially raised the average wage.
I guess the real economic question has always been this: “How do we help bring more people up?” The answer is, and has always been, education.
If that is true, why would democrats not want to try any methods that work to increase education? A great example is in Chicago, where Obama worked to help schools. The average teachers salary is $82,000 in Chicago, plus benefits. In some districts, teachers will only work until 1:30pm, unless they get a raise. The kids literally have to leave school at 1:30pm, when there teachers leave.
I am a fairly successful businessman and I can tell you that a teachers salary in Chicago is better than 90% of the people that work for my clients, not to mention the benefits. A serious dialog needs to take place about what will help these kids the most. I don’t hear that at all from the democratic party. By all indications, they don’t want anybody bucking the education system that they have been in charge of for all these years. Take a look at cities like Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles. Each of these cities have had democratic leadership, and when it comes to Education, all of them are greatly struggling.
The Church is called to be the main support for the poor and needy. When we do this, the Lord makes himself the provider of the needs of every man if you seek His Kingdom first. Imagine getting to Heaven and the having this conversation with the Lord:
God: What you did to help the least of these?
You: Well Lord, I voted for Obama to fix it all, and to take more money from the haves to give to the have nots.
God: Be blessed and enter into the Kingdom prepared for you.
Probably not very likely. Many Christian conservatives give more than just a tithe to church and other charities that are helping the poor. However, the other side that wants the government to do it all does exist. I strongly believe that we need to remove oppressive systems for the poor. I believe it starts with the failed democratic educational system and high interest rates. Serious money needs to be put into creating safe neighborhoods in the inner-city. This will benefit the lower class and help encourage businesses to grow in those areas. As it currently stands, most businesses stay away from those areas because of the threat of increased violence and theft. During my lifetime, I have been to poor areas all over Asia. It was very different there. While the areas were very obviously poor, they were safe and weren’t overflowing with violence and theft.This is possible.
Lastly, we cannot wink an eye at abortion. If 50 million babies were born in any city and then killed as infants there would be a national uproar. One party is mainly responsible for this. I pray that the Lord does not require the blood that speaks to him from the ground to be paid for by this generation. I pray that God would extend his mercy to our country. It seems that we have lost our conscience. There is no moral equivalent to this blight in America.
Your argument is that there will be less aborted babies than during Bush and Reagan’s days in office. The reality still remains that if there was no Roe v. Wade, there would most likely be almost 50 million human beings created by God living on this earth. It’s ironic that if Obama’s 18-year-old mother lived in today’s society, Obama would probably have never been born. As an atheist, she very easily could have been persuaded to dispose of her inconvenient baby.
Obama said to Planned Parenthood, “We will get this into the constitution as my first priority. I thank you for your work and the men thank you.”” What an incredibly sad statement. I am grieved that so many believers put their faith in a man and not God. In some ways, it seems to me that a person loses their moral will by believing that a man in the Presidential office has all the answers. Like you said, there is no man that is going to save us.
No matter what happens in tonight’s election, the Church needs to come together to honor the next President. We should be praying for him everyday. So many conservative Christians treated President Clinton with dishonor. We cannot respond to the new President in the same way.
[...] In Response to Donald Miller