There's A Little Black Band On My Wrist Today"

Today's blog is going to take some twists and turns. Bear with me. 

The picture above says one thing. "HOPE". How could that  moment, that photo happen in communities and villiages that teach them to hate and kill?

I don't comment on my personal faith thoughts to much .  But I had a discussion after a racquetball match yesterday with two other long time men of deep faith. Both are from different denominations. The conversation was about grace, hyper grace and who is embracing it, and how they are spinning it or using it for their own needs.  Grace or Law.  To be sure, different faiths embrace it differently with different outcomes.

One friend took time to forward me an article of one writers thoughts on the J.Prince Christian ministry and his books on grace.  With pages of opinions based upon his view of scripture, he sliced and diced "gracefully" ;) upon what he saw as the errors of J. Prince’s movement and a book by this teacher.

In the end he ended his long dissertation with  : Last line:  If radical grace is taught in the context of the message of the kingdom of God to give it balance, it can be a great teaching that lifts up Jesus and transforms individual lives who can transform nations.

OK, I'm laughing. Why didn’t he write just that and  have saved us all a half hour of reading and most likely hours for him to write it ?

In the end, it affirmed one thing in my little brain.  All the denominations and factions of Christianity remind me of how intelligence “can” divide more than unite. 

If you presuppose an ending and then backtrack through the entire scriptures to find any and all scripture that might fit into your ending, and hence forth build a case for "whatever" to defend your new position, you are in danger of just plain being "out of balance". From that place many things can happen; that although not incorrect, create divisions and more divisions.  Start with M. Luther and go forward to the formation of all the modern religions under the banner of Christianity.   Smart “MEN",  just plain thinking they know something others don’t, begin to believe they know better and must enlighten and divide by those mere thoughts and teaching.. And they will teach their minions "who" is correct and who is in "error".  Thankfully within the faith of Christianity we don't kill each other for not aligning with a specific view of our faith.

Thankfully because of the Cross, because of free will, we have choice.  Yes there is much blood in the Old Testament and reasons why under that age and time things played out that way.  But the Bible, as a combination of Old AND New testaments together, create a beautiful living, breathing, complex Last Will and Testament for us to read and live by. Thankfully it does not speak of killing those who would not convert. And that makes me think then of other teachings and religions as the world spirals into more local sectarianism's within religions.   And here the blog takes the next turn today.  

I love taking and  posting photos with my blogs. Today from here on out. No photos. Just my thoughts as I type.   

And as a side bar, a special thank you to all of you who have taken time to tell me you read this blog over the years. Outside of friends and family, i do appreciate the comments and notes of thanks. 

And that makes me think of the current state of Islam. There are so many people under one global faith who have latched onto or jumped onto a specific teaching within their faith to the detriment of being balanced and or effective for a God of love.

  If you believe in the 4 levels of Islam that are taught, then you have to ask yourself some serious questions. I'm trying, and I'm in the middle of that conundrum. 

If I relate it to my faith (which we all do)  then I say, I want to be more like Jesus. The more I can be like Him the holier and more effective my life will be. The more of the Word I read and apply, the holier and more effective my life will be. For I love the Word because it was at the foundations of it all, long before it became written and preached.

So I apply that thought to the Koran and a few billion people who read it and follow it in many different sects and manners.   And I see that there are very radical statements in the Koran that if followed, will create no choice, no free will and will create a world for me that is absolutely NOT the GOD I know. 

Perhaps I love living in America because of the Bibles influence on our democracy of free will and choice and liberty as opposed to Dictatorships, Caliphates and those who would eliminate choice and freedoms to uphold whatever they deem “acceptable, righteous behavior” worthy of life, or death if you disagree.

Where do you go with that? Even dialing back from the highest level of a righteous Muslim, where a caliphate or mandatory strict sharia has to be for all, what is acceptable for everyone to live with who does not believe this, but wants everyone to have the rights to seek and follow God. 

When push comes to shove, if a moderate Muslim wants to be a better and better Muslim, do they have to embrace Sharia and fight for it? And in America, in a democracy, is a Sharia acceptable?, Should religions be allowed to try to grow and force another way of life on the rest of the nation? France, England, and yes Michigan have areas and neighborhoods that have purchased land, homes businesses and decided they should be Sharia, and are, and will be defended as such.

Should this be acceptable in America or under any democracy?

Big Question:  SHOULD EVERY POTENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE HAVE TO EXPLAIN THEIR BELIEFS ON SHARIA IN AMERICA AND A DEMOCRACY? WOULD'N'T THAT BE PRUDENT? (and how would Taquyyah play in that...)

Now if you say yes Sharia should be allowed in America, then I’m lost. How can religion be allowed to take over Govt. and secular services under a holy law, in a system that was built to allow freedom for all.  They just don’t and cant coexist in my brain. Tell me how this can happen,  unless the whole point is to subvert and change the entire system like communism has said they would like to do to democracies for ever.  

For me, I desire all peoples to have the choice to believe what they want to believe. But not to the detriment of all others if they don’t believe. I truly believe this is the heartbeat of America and Americans.  Israel has been fighting this problem “forever”. Leave them alone in their little sliver of land mass. But radical Islam just can not. They want them dead and gone as much as they want the end to America and anyone who chooses Freedom of choice.

What is the “free” world gonna do. What can we do to join together to say no to Any one group who are hijacked in a belief system that they believe tells them its’  “believe our way, live under our rules or die”? 

We have to, as the worlds people, say NO.  This is not acceptable. We will not let you subjugate the world under your knives and guns. To try to fear the world into submission with threats of your death by whatever means is the worst. 

America has become a very selfish and narcissistic nation of people looking out for themselves.  Nothing has made the nation unite to fight for our rights. We take them for granted and expect our sons and daughters to stand with arms to protect those rights and keep us safe so we can focus on ourselves and our castles and retirements. 

This will change if we do nothing.

I can tell you that I love all peoples. I want to live in peace as a Christian with all faiths and those with no faith.  Most people of “faith” or even atheists believe in freedom of choice. When you take choice away you take away life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness unless it’s under your laws or death.

Not gonna happen. Free people will fight against dictators (if given tools), or even without by laying in front of tanks or firing squads.  How far does radical peoples in the name of God have to go before the world stands up and says, enough? 

In Christianity I would say it lays at the feet of teachers, preachers and pastors. 

If they teach radical thoughts with sectarianism's that end with, “believe in Christ as we do, or die”. These teachers must be somehow stopped from teaching creeds and beliefs that promote subjugation or death. How can we in a civil society do this where we say we want free choice and free will?

And then there is Taqiyyah. Where it was ok’d centuries ago for any Muslim to be able to lie about anything in order to continue to wage war against the infidels, or anyone who appears to not be willing to bow to God as their Allah as they believe they should. So you could convert Christ, any social system, any anything in order to infiltrate the enemy so in the end you could overtake your enemies and create your domination over the world.  Really… ?   

How do you feel about that if you’re an average person trying to get along with everyone?

Fear? Yup. That’s the tool.  If you’re afraid of me and what I’ll do to you, then you’ll obey me. 

But i have to gain enough power over time to be able to make you fear me. Until then I’ll just subversively gain power in your systems as a pacifist or whatever to gain it.

Again I ask, can and does Sharia belong in a democratic society? If not, the world better begin to make that clear “REALLY” fast, because it is being implemented all over the world in smaller communities everywhere.  And in that it begins to administer holy laws that are fear or pain or beatings or mutilations or death based.  These “holy leaders” may say “well if you do not obey the laws you must be punished”. And then the above sentences are laid out and fear is used to subjugate all peoples into obeying god as they see it.

How far are you willing to go in a free world with freedom of choice to protect that right. 

Are you willing to wait until your house is surrounded and you are personally affected?

I’m sure everyone would either say, “it’s not close enough to me, or don’t tread on me”.

But how do we unite and let our nations know that we stand together against such crazy monsters?  Do we take Israel’s stance? Do we just amass our borders and only fire and fight when fired upon?  Do we just have secret police looking for these enemies of our free nations and quietly taking them out without out knowledge?  Do we set a bar that says, you’re with us or you’re leaving, and how does that even work with Taqiyyah available?

Friends, I’m asking questions.  A lot of them, and I hope you are to. 

Like Israel, we are not against Islam and peace loving people or any other faith or non faith.

We just want to live free and have choice. If you want to take that away, and that means at any cost, then you leave us “the world” no choice but to begin to take other measures to stop you. 

Put down your words of convert or die. See them in your teachings as ancient and not relevant. Look for love not law in your teachings. Look for grace and mercy in your teachings not hate and judgement, for if God is who we think He is, He doesn’t need our help to judge us all on this earth…

Me, I’ve found a little black band on the Internet.  One I can wear that calls for solidarity of the world to peacefully stand against any radicals who say  ‘believe like us or die’. I  look forward to 10’s of millions of people of all faiths and not faith, standing globally with arms raised with these bands of peace on their wrists saying, “Enough, "we stand united”, not on our earth.

If you follow Islam and are a peace loving Muslim, you should love the freedoms democracies have allowed you and I,  and you should stand up with the rest of the world  and fight against the teachers and monsters who are subverting generation upon generation of young people to religious death machines. God is choice, and He and He alone will judge us on our choices. And if you don't believe in God then choice is what you believe in, and you should fight harder than the rest of us while you're breathing.

More to come. Pray for peace. God is good, Life is great.