Old Gadfly: Gentlemen, may I wish you a Merry Christmas?
IM (an American citizen with
an inquiring mind): Yes, thank you! I don’t mind because I’m Christian. In fact, I welcome Christmas, because it
reminds me of hope for salvation and change in the hearts of men.
AM (an American combat
aviator with an inquiring mind): I don’t
mind either, but it makes me a little nervous if other people are nearby
because it might offend some of them. IM,
your idea of hope and change are not the same as that promised by the
progressive’s Messiah—Barack Obama. His hope
is for all Americans to benefit from the redistribution of wealth managed by a
central government. Their form of change
involves changing the institutions of individual liberty into institutions of
collective liberty.
IM: It’s sad that so many in America are not so free
to openly believe in the hope and change promised by Jesus Christ—who actually
died for our redemption.
Old Gadfly: What I find immoral
about this is that progressives are using public education to program our
children as to what they are allowed or expected to think. Just yesterday, my daughter and her husband
explained to me that they were specifically directed not to use words such as
Jesus, Christ, Christmas, nativity scene, or any other Christian-related
expression in their classrooms. It is
alright however to express other religious terms and concepts. My daughter was seriously emotionally and
spiritually wounded by this mandate. She
and her family recently returned from a seven-year stay in China where religion
is mostly practiced in secret. Now she
has returned to her country to find that it is becoming like China. She sympathized with the person explaining
these policies because schools are becoming targets for lawsuits. While many in these schools believe they would
more likely win suits in the courts, they can’t afford the cost of litigation.
IM: So, obviously there is a deliberate effort to
deny Americans the freedom to proclaim their belief in Jesus Christ and the
traditional national holiday of Christmas.
Yet, what if I told you that anyone who does not believe that global
warming is human caused is a denier or Neanderthal?
AM: Then based on that belief I am a Neanderthal. While Jonathan Gruber, the Obamacare
architect, is an opportunist now wealthy (from taxpayer funded payments via
federal and state governments) from his scheming, he may be right about Americans
being stupid. I recently watched an interview
of Al Gore at the Aspen Institute. He is
very passionate about his global warming crusade. As co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, and a senior
partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Gore is amassing a fortune in
green energy projects. Most of the money
comes from the government (that is taxpayer revenue). This is definitely redistribution of the
wealth, but it is not for those who might need it. It is one of the benefits of crony
capitalism.
Old Gadfly: This year, the European
Union realized that green energy initiatives were unaffordable. They discovered that idealism must be reconciled
with realism. How many Americas who
recite the green energy mantra know this?
What I find very concerning is that President Obama wants to “educate”
our children to make sure they believe the right thing about global warming (or
climate change). He is doing this
through the new “Climate
Education and Literacy Initiative” through the White House’s Office of
Science and Technology Policy. According
to the U.S. News & World Report, “The administration wants students and teachers to toe the line on climate change,” and that the
Administration “will distribute science-based information—in line with the administration’s position on the issue—to
students, teachers and the broader public.”
IM: Progressives are threatened by
Christianity—this is why they try to achieve a moral high road with their
notion (and quite frankly, folklore) of science. Christian values are not consistent with
progressive values. Thomas Woods, a Harvard
and Columbia-trained historian, converted from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism,
and has written an informative book: How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.
Here is the opening paragraph:
Philip Jenkins, a distinguished professor of history and religious studies at
Pennsylvania State University, has called anti-Catholicism the one remaining
acceptable prejudice in America. His
assessment is difficult to dispute. In
our media and popular culture, little is off-limits when it comes to ridiculing
or parodying the Church. My own
students, to the extent that they know anything at all about the Church, are
typically familiar with alleged Church “corruption,” of which they heard
ceaseless tales of varying credibility from their high school teachers. The story of Catholicism, as far as they
know, is one of ignorance, repression, and stagnation. That Western civilization stands indebted to
the Church for the university system, charitable work, international law, the
sciences, important legal principles, and much else besides has not exactly
been impressed upon them with terrific zeal.
Western civilization owes far more to the Catholic Church than most
people, Catholics included—often realize.
The Church, in fact, built Western civilization.[1]
Old Gadfly: So far, progressives are “hopeful” that Pope
Francis will “change” Catholic doctrine to be more compatible with progressive
values. Pope Francis recently punished
an American Cardinal for his more conservative views. The pressure being placed on Pope Francis is really
no different from the temptations of Christ in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11 and
Luke 4:1-13). Progressives want to
celebrate the victory of secularism over Christianity. The real test is that Pope Francis is a
Jesuit. Jesuits have a controversial history
with the Vatican. Jesuits openly
collaborated with Marxist efforts in South and Central America. By the way, California Governor Jerry Brown
was a Jesuit in training—so this may explain his Marxist approach to public
policy. We may soon see whether Pope
Francis is a progressive Catholic or a Catholic progressive. If he chooses to go against traditional doctrine
of the Church, then he may demonstrate that he is a progressive Catholic, where
his political views determine his religious positions.
IM: It seems that this time of the year might be
an opportunity to truly reflect on what really matters in this mortal life,
especially for those of us who believe in accountability after death.
Old Gadfly: Perhaps those who feel compelled to buy the “Happy
Holidays” expression are the true Mother Nature deniers.
[1] Thomas
E. Woods, Jr., How the Catholic Church
Built Western Civilization, (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc.,
2005), p. 1.
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