Was SCORES a Warning from God not to Build a Casino in Springfield?
As a pastor with a mission to re-Christianize Springfield it seems pretty obvious to me that God is trying to get our attention here. In recent months we’ve had an earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flooding, and a freak blizzard that broke half the branches off our trees. Massive damage, over and over again. But instead of waking up to these alarms and repenting from our individual and corporate sins, we just keep pushing the snooze button.
Now we’ve suffered a natural gas explosion so powerful and so unusual that made headlines all over the world. What did it destroy? The SCORES strip club, a place whose sole purpose was to make money by encouraging men and women to sin.
I was mocked by the Springfield media for suggesting that the destruction of SCORES may have been the hand of God, but surely I am not the only person in this city to draw this conclusion.
If the obliteration of SCORES actually was by God (even Mayor Sarno acknowledged that it was a “miracle” that there were no deaths or serious injuries), then what is the message God is trying to send? Could it be a warning to Springfield NOT to build a casino here?
Lets look at the big picture. We’re a city that almost went bankrupt due to massive political corruption not so long ago. We have an enormous drug problem with drug dealing gang bangers killing each other on the street over turf and hundreds of hard-core addicts wandering the streets looking for things to steal. We‘ve got widespread prostitution. We’re a city whose “revitalization plan” centers on an “entertainment district” that is missing only the red lights to identify it by its proper name. (And by the way, who had the bright idea to allow these strip clubs to open next to a day care center?) Now we’re being sold the notion that the key to our financial future is a gambling casino.
Hmmm, political corruption, drugs, murders, prostitution, strip clubs and gambling casinos. Am I the only one who feels like we’re in a bad remake of The Godfather here? Is this city being run by the MOB???
If God did want to send Springfield a message, could He have done it any more blatantly than to literally pulverize the very center of the “entertainment district” during the period of public comment about the plan to bring in casinos?
Several weeks ago I led a delegation of local residents to speak against the casinos at the city council. We also delivered a 500-signature petition asking the city to put our national motto, In God We Trust on the front of City Hall. In my view these are opposite and contradictory goals.
Who will be the Savior of Springfield? Jesus Christ? Or Vito Corleone? As the Scripture warns, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
Unfortunately, the city is pressing forward with its choice of gambling instead of God.
I could be wrong, but I think God just cast His vote over on Worthington Street.
Is Your Faith Suffering From “Low T“?
Are you reluctant to share the truth of Christ with the people around you even though you know they will end up in hell without Him?
Do you stand by passively when others mock Christianity or blaspheme your Lord and Savior?
Are you afraid to defend the Bible on issues like abortion and homosexuality for fear of being called a bigot or hater?
Do you feel embarrassed or ashamed when a Christian leader suggests publicly that natural disasters or other calamities could be the judgment of God?
Then you may have a condition called Low Spiritual Testosterone, or “Low T.”
As Christian societies age they pass through stages. They start out like the Church of Philadelphia (Rev 3:7-13), growing in the blessings of security and prosperity that come from worshipping and praising God. But over time they become complacent, self-serving and ungrateful like the Church of Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22), having “a form of Godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5) .
This corrosive environment can rob individual Christian believers of their spiritual testosterone, leaving them feeling weak and powerless; easy prey for bad doctrine or moral compromise (Ephesians 4:11-14).
In extreme cases believers with “Low T” can contract spiritual diseases such as NicerThanJesusitis or the cancerous Emergent Churchanoma. Increasingly we’re even seeing a susceptibility to the hard-to-treat Gay Theologica Psychosis in which sufferers begin to insist that God wants people to reject the Bible and embrace sexual sin (Isaiah 5:20)
If you suffer from any of these symptoms there is still hope for you.
The remedy is found in the pages of the Bible.
As Jesus told the Laodiceans, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.”
Just take these simple steps to restore your spiritual testosterone.
1. Be Prepared. “Put on the full armor of God…” Ephesians 6:10-17
2. Be Purposeful. “Go ye into all the world and make disciples…” Matthew 28:18-20
3. Be Bold. “Let your light shine before men…” Matthew 5:14-16
4. Be Aggressive against evil. “The weapons of our warfare are mighty for pulling down strongholds…” II Corinthians 10:3-6.
5. Be Uncompromising with sin. “Break down their altars…” Deuteronomy 7:5 (spiritually, not physically, per II Cor 10)
6. Be Courageous. Fear God, not man. Matthew 10:26-28.
7. Be Resolute. Remain faithful through tribulation to earn your reward. Revelation 2:9-11.
Taking these steps daily in conjunction with a Healthy Diet of Scripture reading, and Regular Exercise of your faith through evangelism, good works and community activism is absolutely guaranteed to raise your spiritual testosterone levels.
Don’t let “Low T” rob you of your power and authority in Christ. Get back to the Bible!
Disclaimer: There is NO Permanent Cure for “Low T.” Failure to faithfully observe the regime prescribed in Scripture will result in relapse, backsliding, and in some cases spiritual death. Warning! Beware of counterfeit remedies marketed under such labels as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc or various generic-label Christian cults. Severe Warning is given against receiving any marks, patches or implants in the forehead or right hand marketed under the brand names “Beast” or “Image of the Beast.” These treatments are irreversibly fatal and produce lasting agonizing pain.
Time for a New Coalition in the GOP
The RINOs (Republicans in name only) are up to their usual post-election tricks trying to blame social conservatives for losses they caused themselves. I suggest that instead of playing defense again, or making yet another run at reviving Christian values within the existing framework, lets just stop playing by the “establishment” rulebook and rethink the whole thing.
First of all lets strip down the GOP to its core principles: biblical values. This is where it started as an alternative to the pro-slavery Whig and Democrat Parties, and what has defined the appeal of its best leaders, the last of whom was, of course, Ronald Reagan.
Now let’s start selectively adding issues and constituencies back in based on their compatibility with our values.
Of course we want to keep the pro-life and pro-family wing, which thankfully constitutes the overwhelming majority of the GOP grass roots activists.
We also want to keep the constitutional and limited government factions, and the Tea Parties, since their philosophies are rooted in the Constitution, which is in turn rooted in the Bible (even if some of these allies have forgotten this fact) One such faction we want to retain is the 2nd Amendment conservatives, though many of these are secularists who need reeducation as to the true nature of liberty as understood by the founders (to overcome revisionist, anti-Christian teachings they learned in public schools).
We’re of course going to continue being strongly supportive of small business, since this has always been the engine of our economy, and, at its best, exemplifies the biblical values of personal responsibility, hard work and local investment for the common good. There is work to do with this constituency in reinforcing those virtues and reducing the influence of the amoral corporate giants but there’s a natural alliance here, grounded in a mutual interest in family-centered community.
This alliance doesn’t necessarily exist with “big” business, meaning especially the large multi-national corporations (though we would welcome business people of all stripes who share our morality). The culture of that part of the business world is largely antithetical to Christianity, openly embracing “greed” as a positive value, and emphasizing profit over both principles and people. Indeed, as America has shifted slowly from a Christian to a humanistic consensus, the business practices of the corporate realm have grown increasing corrupt. Who really trusts “Big Pharma” these days? Agri-business? Banks? And look how easily the majority of them now accommodate and often generously fund the abortion and homosexual agendas.
Yet isn’t this the constituency that actually pulls the strings of the GOP “establishment?”
I personally found it very disturbing that the Romney campaign was heavily funded by billionaire casino owners. These are men whose vast wealth was (and is) gained by the selfish and callous exploitation of the weaknesses of others. And their only apparent concern about Obama was the amount of money he would extract from their bloated bank vaults. Why again are we protecting these social parasites from paying more taxes? (Other than to keep it out of the hands of profligate-spending politicians? — but that’s a separate problem).
This leads me to a constituency I think we don’t have but should add: ethnic minorities and the working poor. Now I’m no socialist, and I recognize that the entitlement system in its current state is one of the most shameful results of Marxist ideology in the Democratic Party, but there is a certain amount of truth in the arguments of the “social justice” crowd. I live in the inner city as a missionary and I see it first hand.
I say we should start working to rescue the “social justice” movement from the Marxists and rebuild it on a Christian foundation. We should use our vastly superior skills at managing money, and our philosophy of “teaching how to fish “ (instead of “giving away the fish”) to systematically turn the dependent class into self-sufficient citizens (to the fullest extent possible). At the same time reducing the costs of the programs and lowering taxes accordingly. A Christian society has a duty to help the poor, and we can meet that duty much better and cheaper than the Marxists can.
Why will ethnic minorities join us in the first place, before we’ve been able to prove ourselves champions of true social justice? We will make a simple appeal to the thing we most share in common. “Our Bond Is Family!” There’s our pitch and strategy in bumper-sticker simplicity. The typical African American or Hispanic person is generally more Christian and pro-family than the average American (as are the Russian, Eastern European, East Indian, African and Asian immigrants). RINO Republicans could never build a bridge to these minorities because they don’t share these values. But we can and should.
The illegal immigration issue has unfortunately distracted both conservatives and Hispanics from the interests we hold in common, but from my experience I think most Hispanics who are legal citizens would gravitate naturally to the Republican Party and not the Democrats if our agenda were centered on family rather than fiscal matters (especially if we had our own social justice platform). Frankly, I’d happily trade any number of pro-abortion, hate-America White liberal suburbanites for the equivalent number of pro-life, pro-family working class Hispanic citizens. We’d be a much stronger country for it.
We should also invite into our new coalition the majority of Libertarians who hold to a Bible-based libertarianism in the mold of the Founding Fathers. I call these “Biblitarians” and count myself among them. Biblitarians embrace the same core values of personal liberty, minimal government regulation and local control as their secular counterparts but are more trustworthy on the fundamental social issues. As much as I respect Congressman Ron Paul, one of the most principled men in government, his secularized form of libertarianism allowed him to endorse open sodomy in our military, a grave philosophical flaw. We should work to recruit even these secularists and to educate them on the Christian roots of their ideology.
We should reach out to moderate and conservative-leaning environmentalists as well. Environmentalism is another movement we should rescue from the Marxists and rebuild on a Christian foundation. Our responsibility to be good stewards of the earth is a central tenet of Christianity, and we are certainly much more capable of fulfilling this duty in a balanced manner than the Marxists are. (Not to mention that we would do the world a great service to steer at least some portion of this powerful movement away from power-grabbing globalist goals such as Agenda 21 and “global warming” and toward authentic environmental needs.)
One key point in this arena that deserves immediate, urgent advocacy is opposition to genetically-modified foods. RINOs would never take this position for fear of alienating agri-business and mega-corporations like Monsanto, but we conservatives should.
Environmentalists might at first seem to be an impossible constituency to recruit, but Christians share an important common ground with them: an embrace of the natural and rejection of the unnatural. The most important concepts in environmentalism — bio-diversity, eco-systems, and the inter-dependence of species — rest on the clear “natural law” presupposition (central to Christianity as well) that there is an existing order in nature that should be protected by human beings. We also share a distrust of the corporate giants whose myopic pursuit of ever greater profits represents the greatest threat to the environment.
If we craft an appeal based on our common preference for the “natural” over the “artificial,” and frame this as a logical basis for deciding social policy in every area, we suddenly have a powerful unifying theme for our entire slate that could win every intellectually honest environmentalist to our side: the natural value of life vs the unnatural termination of unborn babies, natural marriage vs. un-natural homosexual unions, God-given liberty vs. man-made Statism, commerce among real persons vs. that with artificial corporate “persons,” natural foods vs. genetic experiments, a return to family farms and rejection of agri-business, a return to natural remedies and rejection of Big Pharma, etc..
While we’re plundering the “Progressive” base, lets not forget the labor unions. There’s nothing inherently evil or unbiblical about labor unions. The evil comes from the Marxist ideologues and organized crime elements who control them. Union members were the heart and soul of the so-called “Reagan Democrats” who crossed party lines in droves for Reagan because he sincerely espoused Christian values. This is a natural constituency for a newly Bible-centered GOP. The only reason we don’t have them now in any significant numbers is that the corporate giants don’t like them (for obvious reasons) and continually foster hostility against them among the Republican rank and file.
Public employees unions on the other hand pose a separate and larger problem rooted in the inherently corrupt system of allowing public employees to control both sides of the collective bargaining process. That problem could be solved by establishing an independent taxpayer approval process for all substantive contracts, but my guess is that these union members would be the least likely to accept our invitation (at least until after we had enacted our solution in law). Yet there are many Christians even among this group who might join our new coalition.
Perhaps the biggest change for the GOP with the adoption of this model would be a shift from “money driven” campaigning to a far greater emphasis on the grassroots. That would have been a big problem for the old GOP, but this new model seeks to unify the grassroots base of both the Republican and Democrat parties under a re-configured GOP “big tent.”
Surely there would be other issues and constituencies that would align with this approach. But importantly, adopting this biblically-grounded model for a reorganized GOP would establish a new coalition of partners who would stand on righteous principles and deny the amoral RINOs and their corrupt big-money backers control of the party once and for all.
Scott Lively is an attorney and pastor based in Springfield Massachusetts who has recently formed a committee to explore the possibility of a run for the governorship of that state.
Major Breaking News on Uganda
World Net Daily has just published a major story on Uganda, where President Museveni has publicly repented for the sins of the nation in the model of 2 Chron 7:14 on the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence. It also breaks the news that the Ugandan Parliament has dropped the death penalty provision of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which is now expected to pass into law with overwhelming public support. I am heavily quoted in the article.
Breaking Update. The story has been picked up by Drudge!! and is running in the top spot in the left column.
Here is the article on WND. http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/ugandan-president-repents-of-personal-national-sins/
This is a huge blessing for Uganda and for me personally after having been vilified globally (and falsely) for two years by the leftist media as the accused mastermind of the death penalty provision. Please give this story your best push for maximum exposure. Blessings, Pastor Scott Lively
SCORES and the Power of Imprecatory Prayer
For about two years I have been including imprecatory prayers in our church services and Bible studies at Holy Grounds Coffee House. Imprecatory prayers are Old Testament prayers for the defeat and destruction of the enemies of God and his people. A New Testament variation on these prayers is to ask God to save the people but destroy the institutions. Our prayers, part of our seven year campaign to re-Christianize the City of Springfield, have included an appeal to God to destroy the works of Satan in this city. We have specifically included the strip clubs in these prayers.
Yesterday the three story Scores strip club on Worthington Street was completely obliterated in a gas explosion, right down to the ground. See http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/11/24/springfield-explosion-injures-least-levels-strip-club/SX7MmBHvdfePUBkpyCgG6L/story.html
I believe this was the hand of God at work in answer to our prayers. We are giving Him all the glory and praise for this occurrence, since it is only by His power that any of our prayers can have any effect. We also thank God that no one was seriously injured in this blast, though it was enormous.
I am sending this email to ask you to join me in the following prayer for the further cleansing of Springfield.
Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus we beseech you to claim our city for your own, to be Lord of Springfield in the hearts and minds of its people, and to establish goodness and morality among us. We pray that you would motivate every local believer to awaken to their duty to live and preach the Gospel of Christ in both word and action, in meekness and humility. We pray that you would bring every community leader, at every level in government, business, media and education, under grateful submission to your will and values. We pray that your presence would shine in this city so profoundly that it would illuminate the entire region. Finally Lord, we pray that you would destroy the works of Satan in this city and ask you demolish them in such a way that it is clearly by your hand alone and not the works of men, saving the people but destroying the institutions that have set themselves against your truth. We pray this with full awareness that we ourselves are just sinners saved by grace, asking you to cleanse us from sin as well, and to increase our faith that you are still the God of miracles. In Jesus name. Amen.
I urge you to add this or something similar to your daily prayers, and to forward this to your Christian friends.
In Him,
Pastor Scott Lively
I May Run for MA Governor
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release, November 14, 2012
Contact: Pastor Scott Lively, 413-250-0984
sdllaw@gmail.com
Springfield Pastor Forms Committee to Explore Run For Governor
Pastor Scott Lively of Springfield today announced the formation of a committee to explore the possibility of a run for the governorship of Massachusetts. A fifth generation Bay Stater, born and raised in the Village of Shelburne Falls, Pastor Lively was for many years a Christian missionary and social activist in various parts of the world, based primarily in Oregon and California. In 2008, following a year-long speaking tour through eight countries of the former Soviet Union, he and his wife Anne moved back to Massachusetts to start a mission to the poor and disadvantaged in inner-city Springfield. They bought a home in the heart of the troubled McNight neighborhood and opened a church and ministry center called Holy Grounds Coffee House, strategically located on State Street between the Downtown and Mason Square areas, to serve the homeless and street populations of the city.
Pastor Lively has successfully organized a large network of Christians from a variety of local churches who now regularly cooperate together to carry on inner-city outreach and evangelism through annual events such as the March For Jesus and Family Day and through a full schedule of daily and weekly activities based at Holy Grounds Coffee House. The mission’s most visible impact on the city has been its TRUST JESUS Campaign, which encourages all the Christians of the area to unify around that simple Gospel message and display it publicly. Through these efforts many lives in inner-city Springfield have been changed for the better and a return to biblical values is being recognized by an increasing number of residents as the only real solution to Springfield’s problems.
On September 30th of this year Pastor Lively turned over the day-to-day management of the mission to Pastor C.S. Cooley, senior pastor at United Temple Church of God in Christ and a highly respected leader in the community. Pastor Lively remains the pastor of the Coffee House Church, which holds services at Holy Grounds on Sunday afternoons, and will continue to serve as a member of the board of Redemption Gate Mission Society, the umbrella organization over the various ministries at the mission.
On October 1st, Pastor Lively launched a new effort called the King Josiah Project to begin challenging movements and ideologies in Massachusetts which he perceives as being most responsible for the moral and economic degeneration of Springfield and the state. These include in order of destructiveness: The abortion industry, the homosexual movement, the public education system, corrupt elements in state government, and a broken social welfare system that breeds dependency instead of rebuilding lives. The King Josiah Project is being conducted under the auspices of Abiding Truth Ministries, a 501(c)(3) religious non-profit organization founded by Pastor Lively in 1997 to promote and defend biblical values in society. As he has done in other states and nations for more than 20 years, Pastor Lively will engage in social activism in Springfield and around the state to rally Christians and other social conservatives to oppose these social ills and to attempt to cure them through a return to biblical values.
If, in the course of these efforts, his exploratory committee determines that a run for governor would complement the larger purpose of turning Massachusetts back to God, Pastor Lively will enter the race to win the governorship.
Pastor Lively (54) is fully qualified to serve as governor were he to be elected. An attorney as well as a pastor, he graduated magna cum laude from Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, California, and was managing partner of his own successful law firm in Southern California, with a flawless personal record before the state bar.
While running the for-profit firm he also founded the Pro-Family Law Center, a public interest law firm specializing in constitutional law, taking his most significant case, Good News Employee Association v. Hicks all the way to the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he argued the First Amendment before a three judge panel held in special session at Stanford University.
Pastor Lively holds a Certificaté in International Human Rights from the Institute of International Human Rights in Strasburg, France, and is the author of the Riga Declaration on Religious Freedom, Family Values and Human Rights (2006). http://www.defendthefamily.com/intl/
Pastor Lively is an internationally recognized authority on biblical values in public policy, serving as an educator, trainer and consultant to church, community and government leaders in more than 30 countries, and as a media figure in more than 700 radio and television interviews here at home. He is known as the “Father of the Ugandan Pro-Family Movement” for his work in that country, and his efforts in Russia, Eastern Europe and the Baltics have strengthened both the Christian church and social resistance to the homosexualization of those regions.
Pastor Lively holds a Doctor of Theology degree from the School of Bible Theology of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God, studying directly with PAGA founder Dr. Richard Anderson, who went home to be with the Lord October 11, 2012 after 79 years of active ministry. He was 92. In 2009, Pastor Lively’s doctoral thesis was revised and published in book form under the title Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the “Gay” Agenda, which may be downloaded in PDF form at http://www.defendthefamily.com/rtr/.
Pastor Lively is the author of four other books, including The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party which is in its fourth edition and has been translated into five languages. A fifth edition is in progress, a sample of which may be viewed at
http://www.scottlively.net/tps/tps1.pdf. He is the author of countless articles, editorials and essays, many of which are published online at defendthefamily.com and/or www.ScottLively.net.
Pastor Lively, the oldest of six children in a Roman Catholic family, achieved all of these accomplishments despite tremendous hardship and tumult in his early life: becoming homeless and on his own at the age of sixteen after his father’s steadily deteriorating mental health left the family destitute; falling into alcoholism and drug addiction from the age of twelve; and finally drifting around the United States as a transient in his late teens and early twenties, sleeping under bridges and begging spare change to survive. He accepted Jesus Christ as Savior in prayer in 1986 and was instantaneously completely healed. With this background, Pastor Lively has a unique perspective, not just on social justice and the needs of the disadvantaged and mentally ill, but also the amazing transformative power of Christianity.
Asked why he is considering a run for governor, Lively replied “I am greatly dismayed at the breakdown of family and morality here in Massachusetts over the past few decades. This state desperately needs a return to God and that means the people of God must begin boldly speaking out about His power to solve our many problems. We also need to speak against the social and moral evils that have come to dominate our culture in the absence of God. I can’t think of any better platform to advocate this view than as governor of the state. I don’t know of anyone else willing to take the abuse for daring to say these things in the political arena, so I have formed a committee to explore the possibility of entering that race myself.”
RINO Season Begins Today
For conservatives, it’s time to let some hard truths push aside conventional wisdom in the political realm.
First, we need to admit and accept that RINOs are worse enemies to our cause than Democrats. Every time we accept a RINO instead of a true conservative for any position we guarantee a continuing progressive loss for conservative values. Why? Once RINOs are in office it is nearly impossible to replace them with a true conservative (absent a major scandal or such like) because the moderates (whose votes we need to defeat liberals) will never join with the conservatives to oust them in favor of a conservative. This virtually assures a continuous cyclical succession of power from moderate to liberal office holders (until conservatives refuse to play ball).
Once this cycle begins the RINOs grow continuously stronger with each revolution as the “lesser of two evils“, “half a loaf is better than no loaf at all” philosophy become the common wisdom among conservatives. And the longer this continues, the more conservatives are converted to moderates because RINOism is in fact a form of liberal “progressivism” and always moves to the left. That in a nutshell explains the transformation of America we conservatives continually lament.
Second, the only way, therefore, to break the RINO to liberal to RINO to liberal cycle — and this is tough to swallow — is to let the liberals beat the RINOs by withholding our support.
This is what I believe happened to Romney, and if so, it might just turn out for the best — IF…
Third, conservatives seize the opportunity of a season of unchecked liberalism to rebuild our movement by launching a campaign of unapologetic advocacy of conservative values to moderates, who in turn will be increasingly alienated by experiencing liberalism in its true nature. And IF…
Fourth, conservatives act quickly to purge the RINOs from our movement and take back control of the levers of power from them.
Very simply, conservatives only win when there is a clear choice between our values and those of the liberals (e.g. Reagan/Carter). RINOism obscures the distinctions, which guarantees a continuous leftward shift. These coming four years will provide the best opportunity we have ever had in the history of our nation to showcase this contrast of values. The end result can be a true shift of power from liberal to conservative if we resist the lure of compromise and “take the nation to school” on what we really stand for and why.
Fifth, and most importantly, conservatives must acknowledge our roots in the Bible just as openly and proudly as the Founders did. This is, of course, what ultimately divides true conservatives from RINOs in the first place. Because the “social issues” they so fear and loathe are really just Biblical values, and they fear them because they don’t share them with us, and thus cannot defend them in the political arena.
So, in conclusion, our real problem is not Barack Obama and the Democrats. They’re just liberals being liberals. Our real problem, whether or not we are Republicans ourselves, is the “Republican Establishment,” RINO Central. We need to run these phonies out of our movement, ASAP, and ensure that the next batch of candidates we put forward against the libs are men and women of principle.
Happy RINO hunting!
In Close Race, Evil Beats Stupid
By Pastor Scott Lively
It’s official, the 2012 presidential election is over and we Americans decided not to downshift into Republican. Instead its now full speed ahead toward the progressive’s Godless Utopian fantasy (aka “the cliff”) with Mr. Obama and the Evil Party.
The good news is that we can all stop pretending that Mitt Romney is a conservative.
The bad news is that the Stupid Party will, of course, interpret their loss as a sign they were too conservative and move further to the left.
The better or worse news (depending on your theology) is that the age of apostasy is more clearly upon us, which means that the return of Christ is drawing near.
These next few months and years will be an exciting time for students of prophesy, and an exceedingly challenging time for all believers as the stand for biblical truth becomes more and more costly.
There will be intense and increasing pressure from all sides, especially in the political realm, to abandon the Bible and embrace an emerging redefinition of Christianity more in line with secular realities. It won’t be long before the chasm between Christ and this world is simply too wide to straddle, and we each will be forced to choose sides.
As the chilling implications of this election begin to sink in among the believers, now is the time to remember Joshua’s famous exhortation:
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15.)
How can we serve the Lord in these coming days? I believe this is the time for the remnant to go on the offensive. Let us drop all the clever strategies and tactics of campaign consultants and media pundits. All the polling and pandering. All of the calculations and posturing. Let us reject those things just as David rejected Saul’s armor, and simply march against Goliath in faith and courage, proclaiming the Truth of God without apology or compromise.
Fear the Lord, not man. It is the beginning of wisdom, and the antidote to both Evil and Stupid.
My Favorite 12th-Century Homophobe
Hildegard of Bingen, We Need You!
By Dr. Scott Lively
As LGBT History Month draws to a close it is ironic that one of the fiercest “homophobes” of all time is being honored this week with the post-humus publication of some of her musical compositions in an album predicted by industry experts to top the charts. The woman is Hildegard of Bingen, a twelfth century Benedictine abbess who was canonized earlier this month by Pope Benedict. WND linked to the story here: http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/medieval-nuns-800-year-old-chants-top-charts/?cat_orig=faith. What these music industry experts (and the producer whose best known work is for Madonna and Brittney Spears) probably don’t realize is that Hildegard devoted a substantial portion of her life in the1100’s to vigorously opposing homosexuality.
By coincidence I happen to be working on revisions and additions to Chapter Two of my book The Pink Swastika as my co-author Kevin Abrams and I prepare the 5th edition for publication. New in the 5th edition is a section featuring Hildegard’s efforts to stop a homosexual gnostic cult called Manichaeism from infiltrating the Catholic Church.
Allow me to simply excerpt the relevant text from Chapter Two, titled “Homo-Occultism:”
“Arthur Evans’ Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture provides some illumination here. Mani, for whom Manichaeism is named, was a third century Prince of Babylon who devised his own form of Gnosticism. Gnostics blended pagan sex rituals and Mother Goddess worship with elements of New Testament Christianity and “rejected Jehovah God as an evil demon.”[i]
“Manichaeism imposed on Gnosticism a caste system of leaders (elect) and followers (hearers). A Manichaean sect called the Bogomils (later called the Cathars) arose in Bulgaria and spread across Europe. Homosexuality became so closely associated with these Bulgarian heretics that the practice became known as “buggery.” Indeed, “the word for Cathar in most European languages came to be the word for homosexual: in German, Ketzer, in Italian, Gazarro, and in French, Herite….Heresy and homosexuality became so interchangeable that those accused of heresy attempted to prove their innocence by claiming heterosexuality” (Evans:51ff).
“Just what did the Cathari believe and preach? Historian Thomas Merton describes their theology:
The very core of the Catharist’s spiritual life was a morbid horror of sex and of the flesh….Since the flesh was evil, and bodily life was an almost irreparable disaster, the Cathari naturally concluded that marriage was a device of the devil…[for] encouraging the procreation of children and the imprisonment of more souls in the flesh. Therefore they taught that no man who persisted in matrimony until death could be saved. The effects produced by this teaching…[was] an almost total disregard for sexual morality and in the complete disruption of family life…[T]here was no such thing as responsibility for the sins of the flesh: such “sins” were simply the work of the devil. The flesh was entirely under his power…Man was not free to resist. Finally [and very significant in light of Adolf Hitler‘s choice to be a “vegan”]…came the asceticism of the so-called “perfect.” They would not eat meat or eggs or drink milk on the grounds that these things were defiled by animal generation (Merton: p.37-38).[ii] [Hitler was strongly influenced by Manichaeism.]
“In The Nazis and the Occult, author Dusty Sklar reports that Cathari Gnosticism was also a primary root of Nazi anti-Semitism, fostered in Germany by the founder of Theosophy, Helena Blavatsky Sklar writes:
A famous medieval Gnostic sect, the Cathars, came to identify the Old Testament god Jehovah, with the demiurge [an inferior deity], the creator of the material world, and therefore the equivalent of Satan. Within Gnosticism, then, exited the idea that the Jewish god was really the devil, responsible for all the evil in the world. Without intending to arouse hatred against the Jews, H.P.B. repeated the Gnostic thinking in her book The Secret Doctrine” (p.12).[iii]
“Sklar adds that the formation of Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society is considered by many the beginning of modern occultism (ibid: p.11). But as King Solomon wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
“A witness to this from the twelfth century is the legendary German philosopher, writer and composer Hildegard of Bingen, considered a saint by the Catholic church. Much of her work as a Christian reformer centered on exposing and opposing the influence of the Cathars on the medieval church, which, in addition to converting otherwise normal men into Sodomites, fostered widespread cultural misogyny (hatred and distrust of women) as was also true of occultists in Nazi and pre-Nazi Germany.
“In a commentary applying the teachings of the Book of Revelation to her own time Hildegard wrote:
[D]iabolical seduction [by the Cathars] gives rise to criminals and seducers, the hate and the crime of the devil, brigands and thieves; but it is in homosexuality that the sin is most impure, the root of all vices. When these sins have accumulated among the nations [she adds prophetically], the constitution of God’s law will be torn, and the Church, like a widow, will be stricken (Pernoud: p.107).[iv] (Emphasis ours.)
“Sounding just like a modern Judeo-Christian social activist, Schipperges writes that “Hildegard felt that she had to make public appearances and to take an open stand” to “preach against the Cathar sect” and restore the biblical perspective of sexuality that men and women are created to be “one flesh in loving union” (pp.59, 78).[v] “
While the modern homosexual movement differs in many ways from its twelfth century Cathari ancestor, the similarities are striking, as is the simple fact that homosexual activists then and now seem determined to infiltrate and corrupt the Christian church.
Oh Hildegard, we could certainly use your boldness in our century! But somehow I don’t think you’d be lauded by our music industry if you were here.
[i] Evans, Arthur. Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture. Fag Rag Books, Boston 1978.
[ii] Merton, Thomas. What Are These Wounds?: The Life of a Cistercian Mystic Saint Lutgarde of Aywieres. The Bruce Publishing Company, date?.
[iii] Sklar, Dusty. The Nazis and the Occult. New York, Dorset Press, 1989.
[iv] Pernoud, Regine, Hildegard of Bingen: Inspired Conscience of the Twelfth Century. Marlowe and Company, 1998.
[v] Schipperges, Heinrich. The World of Hildegard of Bingen: Her Life, Times, and Visions. Burns and Oates, 1998.
The Kool Aid Has Always Been “Gay”
In commemoration of October, better known as “Gay Pride Month,” (not to be confused with “Gay Pride” month, which is still also sometimes called June), I wrote an editorial entitled “Kids to Drink Gay Kool Aid in October” (which was published at WorldNetDaily) offering a few interesting facts about the history of the “gay” movement that might not be included in the many public school celebrations of this important holiday season.
After publication it occurred to me that some people might not understand the reference to Kool Aid in my title, so as a public service, and in honor to the many “gays” and “lesbians,” such as Harvey Milk, whose contributions to society are being remembered this month, I’d like to offer this short follow-up letter.
According to Wikipedia: “Drinking the Kool-Aid” is a metaphor commonly used in the United States and Canada that refers to a person or group’s unquestioning belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination…. The basis of the term is a reference to the November 1978 Rev. Jim Jones Jonestown Massacre, where members of the Peoples Temple were said to have committed suicide by drinking…Kool-Aid…laced with cyanide.”
Thus the reference to Kool Aid in my editorial regarding what some call “gay propaganda” now being served to children in America’s public schools. Far be it from me to suggest that the homosexual teachers and leftist allies of the Gay Lesbian Straight Teachers Network (GLSEN) would manipulate the minds and emotions of the vulnerable children for their own selfish advantage, but there are a few regressive “homophobic” types who do still make such claims.
My purpose, however, is to serve the cause of academic integrity by filling in a few of the historical facts that have been left out (no doubt inadvertently) by homosexual teachers and school officials. One important fact is about Harvey Milk, considered by many to the “Martin Luther King” of the “gay“ movement. Except, where King was concerned with the “content” of a man’s “character,” Milk was more interested in the contents of his gym shorts, including, very probably those of the Rev. Jim Jones.
We probably shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but in speaking of the dead at all we’re back to the Kool Aid metaphor since it only become an icon in American pop culture slang because Jim Jones used it to facilitate the mass suicide/slaughter of 909 of his blindly loyal followers one fateful November day in 1978 in Guyana.
And, interestingly, back home in San Francisco his very good friend Harvey Milk was murdered just a few days later. Indeed, Jones and Milk were so personally and politically close-knit that it was assumed these incidents were connected. Gay historian Michael Bellefountaine writes:
“Because Milk and Moscone were murdered so soon after the Jonestown tragedy, there was immediate speculation that Peoples Temple was somehow involved. Ann Kronenberg, Milk’s hand- picked successor, told Milk biographer Randy Shilts, that when she first heard Milk was murdered, she thought Jim Jones was responsible. Rumors began to circulate (and some persist today) of obscure connections between Jim Jones and Milk’s murderer, Dan White. Vague rumors of a falling out between Milk and Jones also surfaced. …upon closer inspection, it is clear that Harvey Milk was a strong advocate for Peoples Temple and Jim Jones during his political career, including the tumultuous year leading up to the Jonestown tragedy. Milk spoke at the Temple often, wrote personal letters to Jim Jones, contacted other elected officials on the Temple’s behalf, and used space in his weekly column to support the works of the Temple, even after the negative New West article went to press. Milk appeared in the pages of the Peoples Forum, the Temple newspaper, and received over fifty letters of sympathy from the residents of Jonestown when his lover, Jack Lira, killed himself in September 1978. (See: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Articles/bellefountaine.htm).
As for Jim Jones and the sexual orientation he shared with Harvey Milk, lets allow one of his former clergy, David Parker Wise, to give us the inside story:
“Not long after the formation of the L.A. church, Jim ran into a serious legal problem. He was arrested in the restroom of a late night movie theater where a lot of gay men hung out. Apparently, he approached an undercover agent with an erect penis in a provocative way. This incident threatened to bring down Peoples Temple, and those who knew about it teamed up to prepare for the possible backlash. While the lawyers worked to get the arrest sealed, Jim became more and more threatened and paranoid, convinced that he would still be exposed. To reduce the fallout, we were told to invite people from a local ‘homosexual church‘, but members of the church did not return after their first visit. Jim still needed some homosexuals. He was determined to make Peoples Temple a more openly homosexual church to stop insiders and outsiders from turning against him in case his own homosexual arrest became public” (See:http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PersonalReflections/reflwise.htm — Warning: Graphic Content).
So there we are. Another good reason to celebrate Gay Pride Month. Let us indeed honor these two “gay” men whose lives and legacies, so closely intertwined in life and death, have profoundly influenced American society. And let us never forget, whenever we use this now ubiquitous metaphor, that the Kool Aid has always been “gay.”
