Tides of Tyranny: Bad Apple Proverb: There's One in Every Bunch

Tides of Tyranny: Bad Apple Proverb: There's One in Every Bunch: Are you of the same opinion as I that coaches have a responsibility to ensure their teams maintain a semblance of appropriate demeano...

Bad Apple Proverb: There's One in Every Bunch

Are you of the same opinion as I that coaches have a responsibility to ensure their teams maintain a semblance of appropriate demeanor and decorum when representing an organization, a team, especially their nation? There are reasons why I ask this prosaic, better yet pedestrian question. In recent days, I, like many sports fans have expressed revulsion at some of the unpatriotic and dare I say, subversive behavior displayed by a few members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. I am betwixt as to where the majority of fault lies. Is it with the players, their progenitors, the coaches or a combination thereof?

Co-Captain Megan Rapinoe made headlines by taking a knee during the national anthem in solidarity with disgraced football player Colin Kaepernick; A game later, Rapinoe protested by refusing to sing or place her hand over her heart; furthermore, during the same World Cup play, Rapinoe addressed a gathering of reporters, fans and bystanders about President Trump in a profanity laced tirade. To make matters worse, moments after their championship game, one of Rapinoe’s classless teammates deposited the American flag on the field of play. This flagrant act demeans those men and women who served and the thousands who died serving this nation and were laid to rest in a flag draped coffin. There is little doubt Rapinoe is only one of a few halfwit knuckleheads who took it on themselves to show their asses and true character for all the world to see. Do I assume most players on the women’s soccer team are reflective of the inappropriate behavior displayed by Rapinoe and her minions? By no means do I think that. As circumstance would have it, one bad apple did not spoil the bunch. Team member Kelley O’Hara’s quick reactions saved the flag from further desecration. Thus, earning her merited praise on social media and a big thank you from all of us who love America, her flag and all it represents. Is not Kelley O’Hara’s response to further defilement of our flag proof enough that decorum and patriotism still exists, despite the Rapinoe’s within the sports world?

Why Rapinoe and some of her teammates chose to use the Women's World Soccer Cup venue as a platform to make a political statement deserves condemnation. One can only assume Rapinoe and a few others of her strain are infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome and issues of expression and association. If I may, allow me to use the analogy of maintaining a healthy fruit bearing apple tree to that of sustaining appropriate propriety on a sports team. Agriculturists tell us we are to avoid removing too many leaves and we should not prune away more than 25 percent of the leaf-bearing crown of the apple tree. Likewise, if a sports team, in this case, the USA’s Women’s World Cup Soccer Team have more than a few Social Justice Warriors who use the venue for political, feminine or LBGTQ rights as an excuse to be rude, condescending, and with hints of vehemence for the purpose of relieving their frustrations or validating their sense of unwarranted moral superiority, a tree trimming to remove the blight may be the order of the day. This being the case, why did the coach not prune his rooster of the bad apples? Could it be that sometimes, it is hard to tell whether an apple is just bruised or whether the apple is rotten and needs to be thrown away? As for me, it is time to prune the tree of its rotting fruit. The pruning process should begin with Rapinoe and her coach. Rapinoe's behavior and her coach's indifference and lack of oversight had a negative influence on some of her teammates, thereby influencing them to engage in unfortunate, ill-advised and regrettable anti-patriotic behavior.

Tides of Tyranny: Rejection of Religious and Moral Ideals is Cancero...

Tides of Tyranny: Rejection of Religious and Moral Ideals is Cancero...: A suggestion espoused by some within America’s body of Christians today is that the United States of America was once occupied for the m...

Rejection of Religious and Moral Ideals is Cancerous to Individual Liberty Part 1of 2

A suggestion espoused by some within America’s body of Christians today is that the United States of America was once occupied for the most part by a population having an emotional reaction or feeling of reverent joy towards Jehovah-God. True enough many did but inferring ‘most of a population’ may be taking it a step too far. There has been and always will be a great deal of worldly people who act worldly in the USA, as there is throughout the globe. With respect to history, the presence of a significant population of, agnostics, anti-theists, polytheists...is a significant symbol that a social order is, to an extent, free. Conversely, absolute uniformity of any kind is typically only accompanied by a despotic government. In that sense alone, the lack of religious belief in the United States today can be viewed, even by Christians, as somewhat positive. But an equally fair analysis of our present state also reveals that our acute moral decomposition is destroying entire communities and creating a great deal of distress.

From the amount of reliable data available and blessed with reasonable cognitive capacities; I am led to believe that being born into a household with both a married father and mother reduces the likelihood of a child growing up in poverty. If one desires their progenies to stay out of poverty and penal institutions, the formula is very simple: Short of having an abortion, don’t have children until you’re married, a “position so proscribed in our current society that those who voice such a claim are often deemed to be racists.” If assertion of such an opinion makes one a racist, then label me such. What’s particularly troubling about America’s struggles isn’t that people are choosing to ignore their religious leaders, it’s that most Americans have completely rejected the need for any religion or even some secular objective moral standard by which we all must be held accountable. This has created a society in which virtually anything goes, until, that is, most people decide that a behavior should not be tolerated.

The dread of a largely irrational oppression of the majority is now more fact than theory; it’s supported by undeniable evidence. Consider, society’s current fixation with sexual harassment. When was the last time one could turn on local or national news or visit a social news media website without seeing personal allegations and accounts of a recognizable celebrity or public figure who has been or will be charged with sexually harassing someone? I’m sure we can all agree that people shouldn’t be sexually plagued.  While at the same time, why cannot we agree that our children should not listen to music in which singers lyrically exalt sexually harassing, objectifying, simply put; treating women as mere objects of sexual desire? Or conversely, treating men as mere objects of sexual desire?

Tides of Tyranny: God’s Transcendence and Man's Cynicism Part 3 of ...

Tides of Tyranny: God’s Transcendence and Man's Cynicism Part 3 of ...: Fast forward from yesterday to today. Is God sovereign? Yes! Do we have choices in the course of human events? Yes! Are we held responsibl...

God’s Transcendence and Man's Cynicism Part 3 of 3

Fast forward from yesterday to today. Is God sovereign? Yes! Do we have choices in the course of human events? Yes! Are we held responsible for the choices we make? Yes! Does God’s sovereignty give us license to make poor decisions? No! As is expected, being knowledgeably aware of how God’s divine intervention and His consent relate brings with it a degree of tension, and in that tension our faith can proliferate and in so doing bear fruit.

What each one of us does in our lives, every vote that we cast, every leader that ascends, all of it happens under the providence of God. However, God’s sovereignty does not grant us license for godless or iniquitous choices.

So as election 2016 is now history past and 2020 general election proceeds forward, take comfort in knowing that God stands in control amidst all this chaos. But remember, we are called not merely to rest in His control, but to actively display His character in the choices we make. Leaders may rise under His providence, but if we choose them, we will be held accountable for both the good and the bad.

Final comment: Has not God called every believer to be a cultivating force in the beliefs, pursuits, and practices of society? Is there not a biblical case for Christian activism? Yes! Where and when does it begin? It commences here and now. Our immediate disputants are but not limited to those antagonists who are advocates of secularism, humanism, liberalism, antisemitism, classism, ageism, sexism, Islamism, Marxism, socialism, totalitarianism…One World Government (NWO).

God’s Transcendence and Man's Cynicism Part 2 of 3

Just because something transpires under God’s providence does not mean that He consents to it or determines that it occurs. Does not Scripture tell us that we are all sinners? And do we not know that God neither approves of our sin, nor does He desire for us to persist with our errant ways?

Finally, does not the Word of God tell us that He provides grace for our transgressions, and the greater the misdeeds, the greater God’s grace?God reigns over human affairs and, in His divine intervention, leaders rise and fall. But we absolutely should not assume that all human affairs meet God’s approval. 

Undeniably, insight into the difference between God’s providence and His assent creates tension.The primary illustration of this tension is Jesus’ crucifixion. Did not Pilate, in a rare egalitarian move, places Jesus before the people? Was not the authority Pilate’s? Yet, did he not give the choice to the people and did not the people shout out “crucify Him!”? Christ, the creator, was crucified on the very sapling He brought into existence and was put to death under the authority which He granted to Pilate. 

At no point was Jesus Christ in an indeterminate state. At no point in time did God call that event good. Was the crucifixion a malevolent act? Yes! Was it ordained by God before the foundation of the world? Yes! Was it perpetrated by ignoble men, who stood culpable with blood on their hands? Yes! Did God redeem that atrocious act of malice, so that the very blood on their hands had the power to save them? The answer is in the affirmative. The redemptive power was in the blood which was shed for them and mankind.