Le’Andria Johnson Pregnant Again

This is public knowledge, now.

Many are talking about the proper recourse for this gospel singer.  Should she be penalized for being pregnant when she probably is no different that others in her shoes (music artists), or worshippers who fornicate anyway?

Well, the answer isn’t complicated.  We don’t ever sanction an right response to wrong based upon what everyone else who is doing wrong is or is not enduring.  We don’t decide whether a murderer–an extreme example simply to make the point–should be dealt with justly, based upon all the other free murderers who have not been busted and sentenced.

One common response has been, she hasn’t done any wrong that everyone else hasn’t done.  Everybody does something wrong.

Let’s address that, too:

We stand before a Holy God, right now. And, when we have done wrong, we’ve got to be ACCOUNTABLE to God and to one another. So, yes, correction is appropriate. A fornicating pastor found out needs to SIT down and so does a public worshipper who can’t manage to stop fornicating. Period. The church is not refrained from its call to bring correction and maintain the standard that everything goes, cuz we all sin nonsense. Keep reading…we all fall short BUT because of Christ, we didn’t stay there. We have victory and should–at some point–conquer sin. And, if we can’t, put the mike down and work on doing just that. Be the testimony that we want to sing about.

For Le’Andria, she does depict God’s grace.  God’s grace also includes His love and reproof.  The charge for the church to bring correction and present leaders that can live what we preach and sing about must be upheld.  I’ll love Le’Andria no less.  In fact, I hope to love her even more.  However, she needs to sit her behind down and figure out how to get enough of this foot stompin, Holy Ghost movin’ power to keep her legs closed until she is in a covenant relationship with a husband.

Amen?

Amen.

An Open Letter to Creflo Dollar

Thank you, Creflo, for revealing your feelings and suggested guidance for New Birth members who left Bishop Eddie Long and New Birth.  In doing so, you have also revealed a tremendous problem with the “Doc” syndrome and the boys club amongst pastors/preachers.   Please know that the problem has been forewarned to the Body of Christ in the Word of God, so many of us are not alarmed. Some of us are merely disappointed but will continue to be loyal to God, not the loyal to manipulative “game” Docs engage in, as demonstrated in your plea for New Birth members to forgive your friend.

First of all, Mr. Dollar, church loyalty from parishioners should never be based upon who is your friend, or not your friend.  THE BIG ESSENCE OF CREFLO DOLLAR and who you decide is friend-worthy does not credential or validate whether or not sound people with sound minds should pledge their allegiance to a pompous man who has not demonstrated a modicum of humility to the people of whom you expect loyalty. Pay attention Grand Super Doc, Creflo.  Your friend may still be going to heaven and is human just like the rest of us.  But, before he gets to heaven, he’s got some explaining to do to the Body of Christ.  When your super-buffed and wilfully dressed to show it friend cut the fool enough for him to squirmishly admit he wasn’t perfect, he admitted that there is some stuff going on.  We’d rather not have to know it, but since it amounted to lawsuits, Super Grand Doc, and he is supposed to be a Bishop, you know how this is supposed to work.   

Harold Camping: A Different Kind of Doomsday

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Doomsday is here. There have been earthquakes and all kinds of quandary going on. Where, you say? In the hearts of the faithful followers of Harold Camping, and probably in the hearts of many other believers, who now have probable cause to question many things they’ve believed.

When I first learned about the end of the world coming based on Camping’s May 21, 5:59 PM prediction, what immediately came to mind was to pray for the people who emptied their bank accounts and quit their jobs because of it. His followers took to the streets to convince people to subvert the explicit message in the Bible-that no man knows the hour or the time that Jesus will return and that when he comes he will come like a thief in the night-with the implicit message coded in mathematical secrets carefully hidden in the scriptures that supposedly gives us the actual date. The last time I checked, the only thief who announces himself is one who has enough hubris to think he won’t get caught. And where there’s pride, there’s deception. And no offense to Brother Camping. I am sure he was sincere, but the consequences may be too great to bear.

The dilemma in all of this is where does a person go from here? What happens when everything you believed comes crashing to the ground? What happens when you sacrificed your life for something that has become a punchline? If such a massive prediction was wrong, then what else is wrong in the state of Denmark? And this leads me to my next thought, whatever you believe, make sure it is what YOU believe, not someone else’s conviction. One thing we love to do in this country is elevate people and make them infallible. We regard titles over integrity, gifts over character, large congregations of onlookers over small congregations of sincere people, and that leads us into a downward spiral of deception. Why? We may find that we are not gazing upon what is real, but rather fallacies designed to keep us in a state of ineffectiveness and spiritual lethargy. We are so busy looking at the sparkle that we don’t realize we are being blinded by the shine.

The bottom line is if you choose to follow this faith called Christianity, follow IT, not people. We often follow people because we never go back and check to make sure what we are learning really lines up with the Bible, as well as buy into cult of personality. I’m sure when we all examine some catchphrases we use, some doctrines we adhere to, so-called deep happenings, and things we send people to hell for, we may find that they do not hold water. Why? Because someone we highly respect told it to us and we felt too small to fact check. This is not the days of the Orthodox church of old where only one person could read the Bible while the rest were left to have it interpreted for them. And this is not pre-emancipation days where we get in trouble if Massa’ catches us readin’. And I certainly am not encouraging anyone to usurp authority and run rogue. But what I am saying is that we need to learn how to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and not leave our lives in the hands of someone who cannot answer for us when the end finally does come. The purpose of sound leadership is to mature us in the faith so that we don’t have to wake him or her up in the middle of the night to pray for our bum pinky toe.

Sorry for the sass, grit, and mother wit, but I’m mad. I’m mad because there are people right now who probably want to commit suicide because they cannot bear the embarrassment, the weight of the disillusionment, and the fact that they will not be clocking in to work tomorrow because they quit their dream job over some arithmetic. The father who emptied his bank account may now have to explain to his children that they will no longer pray before they eat because there is no food and no God (so he thinks). Worse yet, what about the ones who think maybe they have been left behind? Yikes! It kills me to know that there is something inside of us that could allow other people to be responsible for what we believe to the point of putting us out of God’s house and into the nut house and the po’ house. Something doesn’t add up.

Work out your own salvation and leave the calculatin’ to God. Peace……………

Submitted by guest blogger-Nik

Cherish Nosey Neighbors

And to think, nosey neighbors are usually reviled.

Had it not been for a neighbor who kept binoculars handy, this Wisconsin man might have suffered the cruel fate of death from being buried alive in snow.  The headlines are riddled with all kinds of accidents, rescues and snow storm-related deaths this winter. 

I’ve always maintained that every good neighborhood should have at least one nosey neighbor.   Nosey neighbors observe information that can save lives, particularly when they see strangers coming and going or residents breaking their regular routines.  It takes a certified residential mind-the-neighborhood’s busybody to have the mental rolodex of everything that shouldn’t matter, but may matter, who has too much time on his hands to make it matter, because the inclinations to absorb everyone else’s business is so overwhelming, but may save the day in situations such as these. These types of neighbors are the ones who notice what others overlook. 

My neighborhood busybodies are a couple who live across the street.  They are quite friendly and patrol the entire neighborhood.  Google should actually recruit them for visual oversight of our dead end block.  One time some friends came to pick up a package from my mailbox, and the self-propelled sheriff of good neighboring asked my friends if they could produce identification for going into my mailbox.  They did, called me simultaneously, and I called the neighbor while car-side and told him they were okay.  Mulloverthis explained to my friends if I ever had an intruder, the busybodies would be the ones to crack the case.  I saw the value in them.

So, Mulloverthis commends this neighbor for scouring the neighborhood and the neighbor’s yard across the street during a snow storm to find a flubbering glove on the hand of a flurried neighbor.

God does work in mysterious nosey ways.

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/05/buried-in-snow-for-hours-wisconsin-man-saved-by-neighbors/

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  I hope this time of celebration for the birth and life of Jesus Christ helps you to cherish what is important, and focus on those things, always.

We often focus on what we need, what we’re trying to attain, and what  is missing.  For many, it is difficult to go through the holidays without a missing loved one.  For many who have lost their homes, gotten a divorce or suffered some sort of loss this year, the holidays are a bit harder.  Even in these situations, we still have to endure the holidays.  So, let’s focus on all of the good things that we do have.

For me, I have learned to live without my grandmother and some good friends who have passed away.  Although I think of them often, the holidays seem to trigger their absence so much more.  Yet, I think, “Thank God I’m here.”  I would have loved to be able to see another smile, hear another laugh, or even taste another dish from my grandmother.  Now, I can smile as I look at her pictures and know that she is at rest.

So enjoy your life, relationships and love as much as you can. Cherish what you do have and make decisions and life-choices that reflect your values and character.  You will find that not only is LIFE GOOD, but also that it is still great and worth living.

Mulloverthis.

FAITH OR MANDATORY TREATMENT?

 

A thirteen year old Minnesota boy is allegedly on the run with his mother to avoid chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkins Lymphoma, a highly treatable form of cancer with traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  Mom and son allegedly prefer to treat the cancer naturally on religious grounds, because such treatment would involve violating their beliefs.

Judge Judy addressed the issue in a potluck style interview with Larry King and noted a number of  important factors.  A thirteen year old boy is of considerable age and as a family court judge, she would want to know the young boy’s desire.  Also, the young boy must have his own counsel to protect his own interests, irrespective of his parents and other interested parties. 

Mulloverthis thinks that this case is one in a line of many, that points to government imposition into socialist areas that break the bounds of individual rights.  The government, through the arms of the court, child welfare and social service agencies, should not mandate medical treatments based upon statistics. If I want to lay down and die from a tumor, that is my business.  A family who is otherwise well-balanced and informed should be able to choose what types of medical treatments, or lack thereof, they prefer.  Provided the parents are aware of optional treatments and have reasonable grounds for pursuing alternative treatments, they should be free to do so on any grounds. 

Consider this: the 13 year old boy could take the chemotherapy and die from the cancer. Meanwhile, he would have endured the torture of chemotherapy. If anyone is qualified to roll the dice on his life, it is his parents and those that love him.

Mulloverthis.

UPDATE:

http://news.aol.com/health/article/teen-who-fled-chemo/497263?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Fhealth%2Farticle%2Fteen-who-fled-chemo%2F497263

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE GRASSLEY SIX?

The following record was taken directly from Senator Grassley’s website, from an immediate press release dated March 26, 2009.

 Transcription of Senator Grassley’s Capitol Hill Report

“QUESTION:  Along that line, Senator, have you — have your requests for information, financial information, from televangelists been completely satisfied?  There were one or two holdouts at one time.   

      GRASSLEY:  Those one or two are still holding out, and we haven’t decided yet to take the step of a subpoena.  But it looks to me like that’s what we’ll have to do.  We have had almost — by two others — almost a complete answer to what I would say would be a good judgment of some progress we’re making.  And that is that there’s an evangelical accounting board — and that’s not exactly its title.  

      But it’s kind a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for churches that are members of it to pledge to do certain things to make sure that their money is handled in a secure way as a trustee for the donors’ money.  And we’ve had two of these six have recently submitted themselves to this evangelical accounting board to make sure that they follow the law.

      STAFF:  Thank you, Tom and Rick, for participating in today’s public affairs program.  This has been Senator Chuck Grassley reporting to the people of Iowa.”

 

UPDATE:  To date, there have not been any allegations of inappropriate oversight or IRS non-compliance levied against any of the Grassley Six.  Please review articles on this blog since December 2007 providing coverage.

KUDOS Miss California USA

The question is not whether Christianphobia is on the rise or not. The question is do people who despise Christians, because we hold fast to the Bible and our faith, have the ability to be equitable and just. 

Imagine the melee gay activists, same sex marriage advocates and the so-called “open-minded” (and I use this characterization lightly) people would have if Mrs. California was pro-gay, and a staunch Christian judge began an uproar because of her support for the advancement of gay rights.  Imagine.  It’s not hard to imagine, because Christians can no longer go to our own churches without being challenged by people who want Christians to deface our teachings and comply with modern “thinking” and ways of living.  When gay people are filthy and downright egregious in their tactics to advance their causes, they are activists.  When Christians do the same thing, we are barbaric bigots.

Perez Hilton probably thought he was going to set Miss California up.  Perez admitted Miss California’s answer cost her the “win” in the Miss USA pageant.  To those who believe her position is outdated and inundated with bias, Perez’s “on the spot” question was fair game.  Again, had Perez been James Dobson questioning a hard core lesbian whose avid response supported same sex marriage, and the lesbian suffered the crown because of her viewpoint, no one in America would be able to take a nap.

When folks believe that terrorizing church members by locking them into a sanctuary is not that big of a deal-but the same action against a bunch of preschoolers by a bunch of young black or latino males would have a community in an uproar-that’s when we know the answers to the pertinent questions.  What is equitable and justifiable is what people want while the means-end application of principle is out of the window.

Kudos to Miss California for her forthright boldness and honesty while enduring another episode of heterophobia for believing in traditional family values.  Just as homosexuals have a right to their opinion, so does Miss California and every other Christian who opposes same sex marriage.

Mulloverthis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/how-the-crucifixion-of-mi_b_203069.html

CHRISTIANPHOBIA IS ON THE RISE

Not really.  I don’t believe atheists, agnostics, and people of “spiritual paths” other than Christianity are necessarily fearful of Christians.  But since this “homophobia” inflammatory jargon designed to disengage legitimate opposition to the homosexual/gay agenda is now politically correct, I thought the use of the phobia tactic is apropos solely  for illustrative purposes.

The truth is many homosexuals/gays-and those who are simply perceived to be homosexual–have been beaten, persecuted, marred, murdered and discriminated against simply because they are believed to be  homosexuals.  This denigration of humanity is never acceptable.  We need not discuss the historical and current persecution of Jews, Christians, and African-Americans through mass genocide and the like.  The annals of utter hatred against these classes of people cannot be justifiably encapsulated in one blog post.

Yet, the disdain and intolerance of the homosexual lifestyle and agenda is met with a nifty  “phobia” marking. The connotation is as if the logical one who does not agree suffers from some unreasonable fear of what is otherwise simple or normal.   I think it is safe to say, most people do not have “fear” of homosexuals or homosexuality.  The disapproval, rejection and opposition to a thing are not necessarily synonymous with “fear”.  I can’t stand onion rings.  My personal preference is to never have onion rings.  My failure to order onion rings, or efforts to vote them off of the fast food menu does not mean I fear them.  I have made a valuation and judgment that they are not desirable and are not good, although many people may prefer and love onion rings.  My personal beliefs regarding homosexuality are clear:  it is not a desirable lifestyle.  I’m not scared, nor am I ignorant.  I just don’t agree.

My belief system is firmly rooted in my faith and commitment to Christianity.  Need I be “converted” to another point of reason by one whose belief system is rooted in self by way of intellect, education, philosophical affinity or life achievement?  To another woman’s valuations based upon impulse and present life goals and experiences?  To another person’s values because he is good?  To the current trend of thought because it is increasingly common?  The opinionated Christian—not all of us are this involved—has her right to reason to a final resolve just like the non-Christian. We do not enjoy blanket classifications about how we live and respond to the questions of life any more than anyone else.  Our opinions and right to be involved in the political process is no less weighty because we serve the True and Living God.  We need not cow-tow to those who wake up and go to bed and the world should be as s/he thinks based upon the breadth of knowledge s/he has thusly consumed, or those who heighten the import of the human experience.

There is no civil system of government where the law is not largely composed of moral codes.  However a man identifies his own beliefs and morality, and that system of government employs that man’s belief, it is what it is.  Christians have every right, PARTICULARLY SINCE THE UNITED STATES IS FOUNDED UPON JUDEO-CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES, to stand up for what we believe and what we do not believe.  A crucial tenet of the faith is that God is the Creator and loves all men.  Yet all will not believe what we believe.  We are to share our faith because the relationship with God and benefits of being in fellowship with God are available to everyone.  We are prepared to encounter those who do as we often do to other belief systems:  REJECT the faith. We must simply keep on believing and keep on living.  So then, are we dealing with Christianphobia when some atheists, agnostics, and people of other religions do not accept and conform, form interest groups, create and produce programming released through various media outlets to promote their beliefs, lobby for their beliefs to be encoded as statutory rights, file zillions of frivolous lawsuits, actively discriminate against Christians, endanger the lives of Christians, and fight to thwart the values of Christianity because what they believe should be?

 

MULLOVERTHIS.

Note:  Not all Christians share this view. The emphasis of the Christian message is that we have all been born in sin, shaped in iniquity, and have the grace of a loving, merciful God to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

UH SARAH, YOU PALE IN COMPARISON TO THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS YOU ROASTED

This is an incredible blog about community organizers. 

http://zacca.wordpress.com/2008/09/07/community-organizers/#comment-127

Finito.