Surviving the Liberal Left

Today as America remembers the 7th anniversary of 9/11 I came across an article posted on the Reuters new service "No consensus on who was behind Sept 11 - global poll". Considering Osama Bin Laden's boasting of having coordinated the dastardly deed, his failed 1st attempt at mass murder in 1993 and the thousands of terrorist wannabes dancing in the streets of Jenin; I suspect we know whodunit.

Tragically, since 9/11, the "American" liberal left have increasingly sown doubt and division for the purpose of political gain while putting the lives of thousands of people worldwide in peril. The terrorists are grateful for their allies in the the liberal left as they have lost substantial credibility (the terrorists) since the outing of Pallywood. If you are not familiar with the term, Pallywood is the slang name applied to the staged propaganda "news footage" terrorist give to liberal western media outlets who then report it as fact. Perhaps my favorite is the Palestinian funeral procession of a man "killed" by the Israelis who jumps back on the bier when the pallbearers drop him.

Muslims blame the Jews for 9/11 (as they do for everything from sun spots to bad breath) but it's hard to take Islamic news agencies seriously when they freely peddle fictions like Jews murdering Christians to use their blood to make matzo bread for passover. I expect Muslims to hate America because they are spoon fed hatred for the west from birth but what can you say for "American" liberals? A number of them act like they are in competition with Muslims to put Americans in harms way? Rosie O'Donnell on nationwide TV accused our troops of torturing a forced confession out of Osama Bin Laden's right hand man. And thanks to Michael Moore some now believe that George Bush planned 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq. Even liberal church pastors are buying into the hate America mantra.

Rich Nathan, pastor of the 7000 member, Vineyard Church of Columbus, has joined the liberal left and has repeatedly scolded the evangelical Christian right from the pulpit as being "the most pro-war constituency in America". Mr. Nathan's biased remarks are not only rude and offensive but they are slanderous and inaccurate. I can not say that I know of one evangelical who is "pro war" but I know of many who are aware of the 11,900+ terrorist attacks worldwide in the 7 years since 9/11. We fight against a culture of death, where Muslim mothers praise the virtue of Jihad and send their children off to become human bombs in the name of "The Religion of Peace".

Since it's miraculous rebirth in 1948 the tiny nation of Israel has born the brunt of relentless terrorist attacks on a daily basis. Regarding their many military conflicts with the Arabs, Golda Meir, their 4th Prime Minster said:

We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

We too are faced with with a prolonged war against stateless terrorists but America liberals are encouraging terrorists to keep fighting the good fight while demoralizing our citizens and our troops. In his misguided ambition Mr. Nathan went so far as join 138 "Christian" leaders to "apologize" to Muslims in the name of "the All-Merciful One" for the Crusades and for being proactive in trying to prevent another 9/11:

we want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in excesses of the “war on terror”) many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors. Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.

Referring to God as the "All-Merciful One" sounds like they're afraid to say "Jesus" to Muslims, and leaves the impression that they think Muslims are not smart enough to see through a childish word play. As Muslim clerics have not come forth with a similar "apology" for the 11,900+ terrorist attacks since 9/11 or the abuses of the Ottoman empire, some of us can't get over the feeling that Muslim clerics are having a good laugh at our expense while they sharpen their swords for war.

If that were not enough, Rich Nathan hosted a 3 day "Justice Revival" back in April with Jim Wallis of Sojourners as the featured speaker. You may recall Barack Obama's radical pastor Jeremiah Wright. Jim Wallis defended Jeremiah Wright's radical "God d**n America" rantings referring to them as "prophetic truth telling". Jim Wallis has so distinguished himself in the hate America brigade that he has achieved the dubious honor of a pat on the head by the Aljazeera news website. Aljazeera, the favorite news agency of Islamic terrorists everywhere lavished high praise on Jim Wallis referring to him as an "American wise clergyman" for his denunciation of the "American extremist right". Aljazerra also recently gave Cindy Sheehan face time to bash America, stump for her run for political office (in America) and protest the trial of 40 Muslim Brotherhood terrorist suspects.

Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler lead to a far longer and far more costly WWII and to his enduring shame he bartered away strategic defensive positions of someone else's country (Czechoslovakia) for an empty promise of "peace in our time". No one seems to know who asked Rich Nathan or Jim Wallis to be our spokesmen or to make American evangelicals look like fools. They have given credibility to the lie that Islamic terrorists have valid reasons for wanting to commit mass murder in the name of "the religion of peace". The Arabs do not have peace because they do not want peace. Golda Meir said it so very well:

Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.

These liberal pastors make like to bask in the sunshine of the praise of terrorists but they are putting the lives of thousands of people in danger. Lets hope these liberals figure that out before we see a mushroom cloud over New York.

Sojourning Socialists: an INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY editorial

Election '08: Barack Obama has joined forces with a white socialist he calls a "good friend" — the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of "Sojourners." He too believes in "liberation theology," sans the black nationalism. In fact, Wallis is the white version of Jeremiah Wright, sans the black rage.

In addition to publishing "Sojourners" magazine, Wallis runs Call to Renewal — a network of liberal churches and activist groups "committed to ending poverty and racism."

Wright once joined Wallis at the U.S. Capitol in an anti-poverty "preach-in" sponsored by Call to Renewal.

Jim Wallis is more eloquent than Obama's former mentor, Jeremiah Wright, but preaches the same anti-American message.

Wallis and his Washington-based operation have essentially replaced Wright and his militantly Afrocentric Chicago church, which Obama expediently dumped in the heat of the primary race after videos surfaced of his fire-breathing preacher damning America.

The avuncular, noncombative Wallis offers Obama a voting bloc that Wright could never help deliver: white Christian evangelicals, if in Birkenstocks.

At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Obama tapped Wallis to oversee the drafting of the faith-based plank of the party platform (which, by the way, champions outreach programs for "ex-offenders").

"This is a very faith-friendly convention," Wallis said. "I think Democrats have really gone through an important change." But their newfound faith is not one most mainline Christians would even recognize, let alone embrace.

Like Wright and Obama, Wallis believes that biblical faith compels radical social action. Their political ministry is called the "social gospel," but it's really just socialism dressed up in a cheap tunic. They refuse to separate personal faith from political activism, whether at home or abroad.

In the '80s, for example, Wallis and Wright rallied to the cause of the communist regime in Nicaragua, and protested the U.S. arming of the Contra rebels. Wallis, in fact, marshaled thousands of "Witnesses for Peace" and joined them in Nicaragua, making it known they were willing to take a bullet to stop the anti-communist insurgency.

Wallis is more eloquent than Wright, but he preaches the same anti-American message. According to discoverthenetworks.org, he once called the U.S. "the great power, the great seducer, the great captor and destroyer of human life, the great master of humanity and history in its totalitarian claims and designs."

Like Obama, Wallis got his start in Chicago, where he too was involved in community organizing. He forged ties with black gang leaders, including at least one known cop-killer.

While agitating in Chicago, Wallis published a newspaper called the "Post-American," which was printed by the same radicals who put out the Black Panther paper. Now in D.C., he presides at funerals of gangbangers and runs a commune in the ghetto that romanticizes blight and mocks efforts at urban renewal.

"I don't know which is the worst evil," he said in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Times magazine, "the crackhouse or the gentrified house."

Wallis agrees with Obama that American racism and capitalism are to blame for inner-city poverty, and echoes his oft-repeated call for "economic justice." They share a spread-the-wealth vision, including subsidizing the working poor beyond expanded tax credits and minimum-wage hikes.

"The Bible says prosperity has to be shared," Wallis said in a January 2000 interview with IBD. "It's very simple."

"So far the rising tide is lifting all the yachts, but not the boats the poor inner-city kids are in," he said, adding that the stock market has created a "casino economy."

Wallis likes to think of himself and his sojourners as "progressives." But "they're really just socialists," said David Kelley, director of the Objectivist Center in New York.

Wallis may couch his Bolshevist views today. But in 1979, he was quoted in the journal "Mission Tracks" saying he hoped that "more Christians will come to view the world through Marxist eyes."

Obama is one who's seen the light. While delivering the keynote address for Wallis at his Call to Renewal 2006 conference in Washington, he condemned the "idolatry of the free market" and professed: "I believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change."

Wallis says Obama is the kind of leader he's been searching for, one who's "responsive to social movements." "Barack Obama talks about 'being our brother's keeper' and how he finds a faith that does justice to be compelling to him," he said in a recent interview.

But it's not just "movements" that Wallis has in mind. He recently wrote the foreword to a leftist book titled, "The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Our World."

Wallis is also an anti-military pacifist who fasted for 47 days to protest last decade's popular Gulf War.

Like his fellow traveler Obama, he believes 21st Century America is guilty of "structural injustice and social oppression" aimed at blacks. His Sojourners magazine features radical professor Cornel West as a contributing editor. West, a black Marxist, is working as an adviser to Obama's campaign.

Wallis put another radical professor, James Cone, on his Sojourners editorial board. Cone is Wright's mentor and the father of black liberation theology, a Marxist version of Christianity that worships a white-hating black Jesus.

"Together," Cone said, "black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us a way to build a completely new society."

Wallis, who once regularly attended black liberation churches in his hometown of Detroit, has no problem with that. He says his mission is to "sojourn with others in different faith and traditions" toward a common goal of "social justice."

Now he's hoping to sojourn his way into the White House with Obama, whose favorite scripture happens to be a verse from Chronicles referencing sojourners: "For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers." (He quotes from it in his first memoir; in fact, it sits strangely alone on what should be his dedication page.)

Such foes of capitalism and apologists for communism belong in communes, not national leadership. Better they sojourn their way completely out of American politics.

Vineyard Columbus, Sojourners and paganism

Vineyard Columbus hosted a 3 day "Justice Revival" in April 2008 featuring Jim Wallis of Sojourners as the featured speaker. Some were highly concerned that Vineyard Columbus should allow Jim Wallis, a far left political figure to be the featured speaker at a "revival". Jim Wallis; founder of Sojourners also hosts the controversial and far left "God's Politics" blog site. The far left political nature of Jim Wallis is abundantly clear in his "God's Politics" blogs. Mr Wallis writes love letter blogs for even the most pro-abortion liberals and blistering attacks for conservatives. Mr Wallis continued to stump for liberal politics at the Justice Revival. The politics were slightly more veiled but it was still political stumping.

Competing with the concerns over Jim Wallis's politics were the Sojourners magazines being passed out at the "revival". Many valid Christian organizations have periodicals but no "Christian" magazines I know of carry ads for retreats that teach Buddhism or workshops for pagan idol worship. Additionally, the Sojourners magazine itself is a laundry list of far left political politics including articles like "The Green Gospel" which argued that the essential moral assignment of our time was caring for the environment.

The September 2007 issue of Sojourners Magazine we obtained from the Sojourners table at the revival had a large 1/2 page ad for the "Mandela Center" (www.mandalacenter.org)

The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines "Mandela" as:

a Hindu or Buddhist graphic symbol of the universe; specifically : a circle enclosing a square with a deity on each side that is used chiefly as an aid to meditation

An excerpt from the The Mandala Center's mission statement:

The Mandala Center has an inclusive view on how each person may experience God. There are many pathways, many understandings of God. God is far more expansive than one person can understand, and we are not limited to one interpretation of the Divine.

The ads for a Buddhist retreat and a "Divine Feminine" workshop were among the retreats on the large 1/2 page ad.

• What is Buddhism? An exploration of Buddhist teachings and practice. (Oct 5 - 7); Introduction to Buddhism for those who want to understand this spiritual tradition. Teaching, discussion, instruction and experience in Tibetan Buddhist Meditation. Taught by Don Handrick, Buddhist practitioner and teacher.

• Ancient images/Modern Icons: art making and the Divine Feminine (Oct 10 - 14); Hands on workshop combines interactive pictorial lectures with studio art making as participants develop their understanding of the Sacred Feminine (taught by Mary Saracino).

If you do not know what "the Divine Feminine" is, please review this additional information from the teacher's (Mary Saracino) website:(http://www.marysaracino.com/index.html)

Divine Feminine Workshops

Mary’s been an independent scholar of the Divine Feminine for over 30 years.

In addition to self-study and research, she has participated in two Dark Mother study tours (Sicily in 2001 & Sardegna in 2004) guided by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Ph.D., author of Black Madonnas and Dark Mother.

Mary’s Divine Feminine workshops are an interactive, pictorial adventure. Full of 100s of images of the feminine face of God, the information she presents arises from experiential research, on-site visits to archaeological ruins, museums, and churches as well as her insatiable appetite for reading scholarly works on all aspects of women’s spirituality.

Reclaiming Our Mother:
A three-part workshop on the Feminine Divine

Join Mary in a pictorial exploration of Paleolithic cave art and goddess figurines, Neolithic icons and modern-day Black Madonna images. Trace the multi-millennial memory of the Sacred Feminine and uncover the roots of the primordial “Mother of Us All.”

Humankind’s first deity was dark, female, and African. Who is this Feminine Face of the Divine? And what can contemporary society glean from her values of justice with compassion, mercy, equality and transformation?

To Jim Wallis and Sojourners I must ask: Why is Sojourners, a supposedly Christian ministry, accepting advertising for Buddhism retreats and Divine Feminine workshops featuring "100s of images of the feminine face of God"?

A number of people were very grieved when they discovered that materials including pagan ads had been passed out at the Justice Revival, by Sojourners. Consequently, some (including myself) brought it to the attention of senior Columbus Vineyard pastors. What was very disturbing was how quickly Vineyard pastors dismissed materials they had not even seen. On June 5th I asked Rich Nathan and another senior Vineyard pastor if they had read any of Jim Wallis extremely partisan "God's Politics" blogs and they both said no. I asked them if they would be interested in being given a copy of the Sojourners magazine with the pagan ads but they declined. Rich Nathan brushed aside the pagan ads saying that because it was an ad and not an article that it was not really a problem. Rich Nathan continued to maintain that Jim Wallis was a model Christian and was fully open to bringing him back.

Several people (including 2 or 3 Vineyard pastors) tried to warn Rich Nathan about Jim Wallis before the Justice Revival but he continues to defended the Justice Revival citing the 150 people that came forward as evidence of good fruit. In response, I must point out that an unspecified number of people including kinship leaders and long time members permanently left Vineyard Columbus because they were distressed by the politicization of the church. One kinship leader said that he noticed that attendance was down by several hundred people immediately following the revival. What value should we place on those people who consciences were so wounded as to compel them to leave?

And how do we measure the influence (good or bad) that mixing paganism with Jesus will have? Will the Holy Spirit of God be pleased or offended and what will the consequences be? What value should we place on that? I must ask: Was there no one available to speak who would not open a door to demonic realms with ads for pagan worship? Was there no one available who was not deeply embroiled in partisan politics?

Finally, when Jesus told told the disciples to let down their nets for a catch the results were nothing short of miraculous. When Billy Graham came to speak at Cooper stadium thousands of people came forward. Just last month, a small church just down the road from my house had 300 people come forward during their 3 day outdoor tent revival. While we rejoice with every salvation; 150 people coming forward at a 7000 member mega church does not seem like feasting, it seems more like famine.

Jim Wallis, Sojourners and abortion

One of the Sojourners buzz words is "A consistent ethic of life". This quirky sounding phrase is the latest catch phrase for opposing capital punishment. Knowing that the Bible lists about 30 capital crimes (for crimes such as rape and murder) one wonders why Sojourners (supposedly Christian) would advocate something clearly contrary to Biblical law which we know to be Pure, Holy, Righteous and given by inspiration of God.

Knowing that Jim Wallis is a far left liberal, I was tempted (at first) to take consolation in the thought that he would at least protect the lives of unborn children (part of a "consistent ethic of life") but that hope was short lived.

If you don't want to end abortion, then you don't really think it's murder in the 1st place. Jim Wallis claims to be pro-life but considering his writings and actions, it's hard to put any stock in that claim.

Consider this book excerpt:

If the Democrats could take the opportunity of a political defeat to really reassess their language and style, the way they morally frame public policy issues, and their cultural disconnect with too many Americans including many people of faith, they could transform the political discourse. But it will require a serious re-assessment. And if they are further willing to re-examine their positions on some of the cultural/moral issues the Republicans beat them with in 2004, they could virtually change the political landscape. If the Democrats could be persuaded by both good political sense and sound moral values to moderate some of their positions by becoming anti-abortion without criminalizing an agonizing and desperate choice, and being pro-family without being anti-gay, they would change politics in America by giving permission to millions of voters who would naturally vote for them except for the cultural and moral divide they feel with Democratic language and policies.

"becoming anti-abortion without criminalizing an agonizing and desperate choice". Wallis pro-life "stance" is a gutless, hand wringing, retreat, compared to the rage filled, blistering personal attacks he has launched against various political enemies. Jim Wallis began frothing at the mouth in February when some local Cincinnati DJ kept referring to Barack Obama as Barack "Hussein" Obama. Why could not Jim Wallis save some of that rage in an effort to save millions babies from "an agonizing and desperate choice".

Not to make too fine of a point but Obama is so staunchly pro-abortion that he even voted against the Illinois Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Bill which would have protected babies who managed to survive botched abortions. Live babies were left to die after surviving botched abortions, yet Wallis has continually come out swinging hard and fast against Obama's political opponents. In contrast, even NARLA did not oppose the bill.

Save the serial killers but unborn babies are little more than mud to be scrapped off on the unwelcome mat. I console myself with the thought that the Lord Jesus will carry those little ones to a place so wonderful that the horror of their premeditated murder will be but a memory too faded to remember. As for Jim Wallis, I guess whatever political candy Wallis thinks Obama will be handing out is more valuable than the lives of the 1,000,000 + babies who will die this year in the name of convenience.

Holy Father how did we come to this? Our nation is not fit to live, please either remove this murder of infants from us or in mercy, end our lives that we not continue in this shame and wickedness.

As Ohio Goes, So Goes This Nation

At a "Justice Revival" in April 2008, hosted at the 7000 member mega church Vineyard Columbus, Rich Nathan the senior pastor said not once but twice that the "revival" was not about politics. If that was not strange enough, Rich Nathan insisted that the "revival" would be "pushed into the tired political boxes of right and left". Unable to imagine Billy Graham making such a pronouncement at his revivals, the mere fact that Mr Nathan felt he had to quash criticism with a preemptive strike is a splinter in rational minds. How could a "revival" possibly be confused with politics? It soon became clear that Rich Nathan's comments were meant to quell murmurings about some of the highly controversial speakers, such as Jim Wallis who fiercely advocates political solutions to national and global social problems.

Mr. Wallis is very controversial and is a liberal left political figure as deeply involved in partisan politics as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Mr Wallis hosted "Pentecost 2007", a political rally for liberal democrat presidential candidates; Edwards, Hillary and Obama.  Mr Wallis's blog "God's Politics" came out swinging to defend Barack Obama (who advocates abortion and gay marriage). Wallis even defended Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright's hate speech as "prophetic truth telling".
Minutes after assuring the audience that the revival was not about politics, as though he had not heard himself, Rich Nathan added:

"part of the reason we are doing this Justice revival in Columbus is because you know, as Columbus goes so goes Ohio, and as Ohio goes so goes this nation"

--> This statement (repeated several times during the Justice Revival) makes little sense outside the purely political fact that Ohio is a vital election swing state. Historically which ever candidate wins Ohio wins the presidency. Wikipedia said this regarding "swing states" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state

"Ohio has often been considered a swing state, particularly during the 2004 election, having voted with the winner in every election since 1948 except for 1960. It has often been said that "as Ohio goes, so goes the nation."

1. As Ohio Goes, So Goes the Nation...Again, Kate Snow, ABC World News, November 6, 2007
2. As Ohio Goes, So Goes The Nation. Sometimes., "The Washington Post" March 6, 2008

There was much more about the Justice Revival that smacked of liberal partisan politics than can be mentioned here but the idea that the Justice Revival was not about politics is just plain wrong.  Mr Wallis's "God's Politics" blog site gushes praise for even the far left liberal politicians like Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama while aiming un-christ like blistering criticism of conservative politicians (like President Bush).

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let's not wrap our politics in swaddling clothes and claim that it's a revival.