Wednesday, November 07, 2012

A Tipping Point and a New America

I believe that the 2012 election is a symptom of a new America.  Even if there are some minor shifts in ebb and flow, where economic reality smacks enough people in the face that Republicans could in the future eek out victories with a more talented politician than Mitt Romney, the tide has still turned.

What we have today, which is a different country, relates to years of erosion of this society and culture.  I'm saddened about it, but the answer never was in government or a particular political philosophy.  I would like a different government and political philosophy, but that would come only with people who thought the same way as I do.  That change will not occur without conversion.  The problem, as I see it, is that more conversions relate very much to the condition of the soil (Matthew 13---men's hearts), and we don't have the cultural infrastructure for that to improve.  All signs say that's only going to get worse.  People are listening less than ever.

A cross section of the Obama voter will help understand what has happened.  It's not hard to see.  Women voted for Obama by about 10% and men voted for Romney by about 10%.  There are quite a few more women in the country.  Then married women support Romney and single women Obama.  Again, you can see that single women put Obama in office.  The gullible and vulnerable to deceit are now a huge voting bloc in the country.  They are not swayed by substance.  We're talking about people who use "like" every other sentence getting their President.  These are the people swayed by the dog-on-the-car-top kind of arguments.  They are convinced by the picture of the President with his cool jacket walking on the New Jersey shore.  These are the voters with free contraception as a major policy point.

To understand the big picture, let me mention a little picture.  I don't live there, but the city of San Jose voted for a 2 dollar an hour increase in the minimum wage, from 8 to 10 dollars.  A very large number of people will receive a pay raise, and then a smaller but still large number of people will lose their job.  Prices will go up for everyone.  Two things here.  First, the people who voted for this are too shallow and superficial to comprehend that simple reality.  Second, people don't care so much about freedom and private property, as they do what they want only for themselves.  In the long run, more rampant poverty and then shorter lifespans.  Poverty is the greatest determiner of longevity in a country.  Less average annual income, smaller life.

It's easy to see how that a big number of Obama voters chose him with predominately an immoral reason.  Homosexuals want their way---he gives it to them.  Hispanics want little to no prosecution of immigration law---he gives it to them.  Union workers want to keep their job when their company cannot make a profit---he gives it to them.  People who don't want to pay for healthcare until they get really sick, want to get "insurance" after they get really sick---he gives it to them.  Environmentalists want to get paid for making solar panels that cost more to make than they do to buy---he gives it to them.  Men and women want to terminate a pregnancy, because the child is inconvenient---he gives it to them.  College students want their college paid for by someone else---he gives it to them.  Teachers want to keep working even if they can't do the job---he gives it to them.  I'm not saying that all of these people will actually get what they want.  It's not possible.  But with him, they're convinced they have a better shot at it.  So they bet on him.

We have government entitlements.  We have government education.  We have government housing.  We have government food stamps.  We have government jobs.  Now we have government health care. People will become even more dependent on the government and we have seen how that people cannot wean themselves off of this dependence.  When there aren't enough productive tax payers to fund it anymore, and so government service must be cut, you have riots.  That, among other reasons, is why in the next three months, gun and ammunition sales will be higher than at any time in American history.

We believe in the depravity of man, but the depravity has increased and the nation has sunk.  You know that when you hear this President talking that his words mean something different than what they sound like they do.  You can't believe what he says.  When he says he wants to work with you, he means he wants his way and he wants to take advantage of you.  He doesn't see the world like you do.

Churches have failed.  They have tried to get along with the world, and most will take this as a cue to do it even more.  You're hearing it all around.  Belief has diminished.  Pragmatism reigns.  Methods have become more important than God's Word.

Here's how to adjust to it.  Don't consider yourself to be in America anymore.  What you thought was America is not.  Think of yourself as living in a foreign country and you're a missionary.  Missionaries don't think they're going to change the government where they live.  They are working at seeing the people change.  That's our only hope.  Be a missionary in your own country.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is uncanny. In response to this last election, the identical thought occured to me. Have you ever seen those signs posted over the exit of a church? "You are now entering the mission field"? d4v34x's comment in the "We're Going to Get What We Deserve" column got me started. I now think of myself as a dual citizen. I live in the USA, but only for a while. One day I will return to the country of my Father. Right now my job is to be a missionary; an ambassador for Christ.

Thank you for the reminder and exhortation.

C Long

Unknown said...

"Liberty once lost is rarely recovered" - Mark Levin. Let me be like a Liberal/Progressive/Humanist here and tell you how I feel - I feel tore up. The next day, I prayed to God for a word of blessing and I opened my Bible to Exo. 5 (BTW, I am reading through Exodus with Matthew Henry's commentary). In 5:1 Moses and Aaron and told Pharaoh to "let my people go" - the purpose was so they could have a feast unto God in the wilderness. And this is where I drew hope. 1. I am free to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, thus far without Gov. intrusion. 2. I can have a feast in my wilderness unto the LORD, and why shouldn't I when He has saved and sanctify me for His use. 3. What a "wilderness" our country has become. 4. I am so thankful that the GOD has given us a more sure word of prophecy in the Holy Bible. So yes, I am still sulking, but at least I am hoping in God who knows the end from the beginning, and this historic election reminded me that this world is not my home.
I appreciate your thoughts here, Pastor B. We do need to be missionaries no matter where we are! TY.

Lou Martuneac said...

Kent:

Thanks for your insights. As for me and what I told my (disappointed) co-workers on Wednesday morning,

The sun rose in the east, I raised the American flag over my home as I do every morning. The Scriptures assured me that God is on the throne, that He will have His way with me, the country and the world.


LM

Jon Gleason said...

Kent, I've lived in the UK for going on two decades. The governmental decisions the American people are making have many parallels to decisions the British people made in the past.

The Gospel is still powerful in Britain. Christians can still follow Christ. People can still get married and teach their children the things of the Lord. If someone works hard, he can still generally find work and earn a living. God still blesses obedience. The Christian life still has its hard times, temptations, persecutions (albeit minor ones compared to many places), etc.

We live in the midst of "a crooked and perverse nation" -- a society which does not follow the Lord. That's the way it was before the election, that is the way it always has been. Our prime minister says he is "a committed, albeit vaguely practicing, Church of England Christian." He endorses gay marriage, and won't lift a finger to increase abortion restrictions, to save innocent lives. The American people just elected a president who claims to be a Christian and endorses gay marriage. I still read my Bible this morning. God still answers prayer.

The only thing that really changed with the election is that more people are openly endorsing evil which is more blatant. Before, they were more secretive about endorsing evil, and it wasn't quite as blatant. The heart issues are the same.

You may experience more direct persecution than if the election had been different, but all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, wherever they are.

If we love our neighbours, we don't want our nation to experience God's judgment. So we don't want to see these things happen, but it changes little for us. We still love and serve the Lord, and it is much the same.

We'll have less money because the government will take more of it, and because it will do things that hurt the economy. That's too bad, because we could do more for the Lord with more money, but He can handle that side of things. They are stealing from our children by running up debt, but God can either take care of our children or take all the Christians out and let those who are left decide what to do about the debt.

I'm sort of saying, "I've been living what you describe for a while. Welcome to my world." Which is pretty much what you said, too.

Back to work, we've got a King to serve, a job to do.

Lou Martuneac said...

Hello Jon:

You wrote, "We'll have less money because the government will take more of it, and because it will do things that hurt the economy. That's too bad, because we could do more for the Lord with more money, but He can handle that side of things."

What I am about to suggest may not be for everybody and is not a "thus saith the Lord," but fwiw...

One could tithe on the pretax gross pay/salary.


LM

Jon Gleason said...

Hi, Lou. :) Nice disclaimer.

You are right, of course. But if our giving goes beyond tithing, our ability to give is impacted by tax. And taxes on business can be so high that they suppress gross salaries.

Scott said...

Regarding your comments on the single women being a powerful voting block, I agree wholeheartedly. It's interesting that after they get married and have children, they start to change and become more conservative. This supports the truth of the Bible that women become "saved through childbearing." I think these trends also apply to the church, and it is the young single women who are helping "take it down" and the "women and children" overall are becoming the true church leaders. The men tend to bow to their wishes in order to keep the peace. I agree with those few church leaders who believe the future of the church rests with how we raise our daughters.