Red State Uprising: How to Take Back America
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By Faith: I Am Proud of Franklin Graham
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.— Hebrews 11:13-16 (NIV)
Much has been made this week of Franklin Graham’s comments both about the Ground Zero Mosque and Barack Obama’s religion. It has been more than hilarious to watch all the news networks, newspapers, and pundits try to explain Graham’s comments.
All of those who have been talking about his comments have talked about them from a political point of view.
Franklin Graham could care less. I could care less. What Franklin Graham said is dead on.
Specifically, this week Graham noted that Barack Obama was born a muslim.
“I think the president’s problem is that he was born a Muslim, his father was a Muslim. The seed of Islam is passed through the father like the seed of Judaism is passed through the mother. He was born a Muslim, his father gave him an Islamic name,” Graham told CNN’s John King in a televised interview that aired Thursday night.
Likewise, Graham said if the State Department paid him or another Christian to do outreach, there’d be all sorts of outcry. But, due to double standards, there was no outcry over the State Department putting the Ground Zero mosque imam on the payroll.
Lastly, his words about Islam from last year have come back into focus due to his opposition to the Ground Zero mosque. Last year, he said, in part about Islam, “I speak out for people who live under Islam, who are enslaved under Islam, and I want them to know they can be free by Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.”
First, about Barack Obama’s faith — it is clear when he was enrolled in school in Indonesia his parents listed his faith as Islam. The New York Times, in 2008, buttressed that. One is not born into Islam (Rev. Graham got that point technically wrong), but as Streiff has pointed out, at one time his parents listed his religion as “Islam.”
Barack Obama says he converted to Christianity. Just like Hillary Clinton, we will take him at his word. If he claims he converted and has taken advantage of the gifts of the spirit without a true conversion, that is between him and God. I pity him if his conversion is insincere. “For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (Heb. 2:2-3a)
I await calls from the birthers for the baptismal certificate.
In any event, it is beside the point. Franklin Graham does not speak as a man of the political world, but a man of faith. His view, and mine, is a reliance, by faith, on the Hope of ages past and yet to come — that is Christ against the world.
We live by faith as pilgrims in an alien world headed home to eternity. There are too many people in this world who, when confronted with questions of faith, opt for the polite answer instead of the real answer.
By faith and history, Franklin Graham understands that there is only one way, one Truth, and one life. No one goes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. No one.
That is what our faith teaches us. Shame on the media for dwelling more on Franklin Graham’s words than on the imam of the Ground Zero Mosque. But there is a reason for that too.
The political elites in this world view Islam as, frankly, primitive. “Well of course those crazy guys would believe in something like Sharia,” think the secular political elites. After all, they are several hundred years behind Christianity. Christians have evolved — go to any Episcopalian church and you’ll see a gay priest, a female priest, or what have you.
Christians like Graham, and me, are viewed with the same suspicion as muslim clerics who defend their faith, but Graham and you and me will be questioned because, after all, Christianity is supposed to be more evolved. Therefore, for us to hold true to our faith means there must be something wrong with us individually, not with the religion. (This, of course, is at a superficial level. Theologically, and I’m not going to explore the depths of this here, it is because the world persecutes Christians because the world is against Christ.)
The problem, of course, is the Truth does not change. Our convictions remain. Christ remains.
By faith we believe, we persevere, and we know that there will be a last day and a final judgment. On that day we who persevere win because Christ wins against this world. It is that simple. It is that offensive. It is precisely that which our secular media and political elites do not understand and cannot grasp. That is why they dwell on Franklin Graham and the political impact of his words. These people live for the now.
Franklin Graham and all those who follow Christ live for eternity.
It is that time
I have an announcement to make. Set your clocks for 7pm ET this Friday.
In my ongoing quest to become competent enough to maybe one day sit behind a certain golden microphone, I’ve kept guest hosting here in Macon.
On Friday, however, I’ll be headed up to Atlanta to sit in for Herman Cain on his radio show. WSB, the station, which also happens to presently be the most listened to talk radio station in the country, is now not just giving me 50,000 watts to abuse, but an FM station as well.
That’s right — the show is simulcast, i.e. causing liberals to cry out even more about those awful conservative talk radio guys taking over.
Consider this an open thread.
The Elite Become Fringe. We Will Remember Come November
I’ve written about this before. Let me pretty much repeat myself because it is vitally relevant here.
I cannot tell you the number of reporters at major networks and newspapers who will, in private moments, admit there is a real bias in the media. That bias largely comes up from the elite power brokers, trend setters, news reporters, and politicos who live in the New York to Washington corridor.
In most cases it is not an intentional bias. It is a product of being highly educated, liberally inclined (”centrist” if you ask them, which is typically code for standing for nothing and everything at the same time), white urbanites who live on the Upper West Side, have drivers whisk them off to their studio or out of Adams-Morgan into downtown DC where they hang out with other fashionable liberals who, unlike me, think Jimmy Choo is a shoe manufacturer and not, as I thought, a Chinese restaurant.
They talk about what’s in the New York Times Magazine and on its front page. They gossip about who isn’t fooling around with Maureen Dowd anymore. They go to wine country in France, tie the latest J. Crew sweater around their neck because Michelle does, and otherwise live in an insular world of group think.
The preconceived notions they develop in this insular world of their likeminded friends colors what becomes the conventional wisdom, what gets reported and what doesn’t.
Please keep reading below the fold . . .
links for 2010-05-25
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Your must read of the day.
While You Were Sleeping
Jim DeMint Surges
From Pennsylvania and Pat Toomey to Florida and Marco Rubio, the GOP is coming home to Jim DeMint. There are still days to go in Indiana for the GOP to go to Marlin Stutzman too. A poll came out with an odd sample spread over a week in which Jim DeMint endorsed Stutzman, Mike Huckabee endorsed Stutzman, etc. And the polling didn’t pick any of that up. Everyone knows this is Dan Coats’s race to lose. We should help him lose it.
What’s sad is that the grassroots have beaten the NRSC in Pennsylvania and Florida and looks on the way to giving the NRSC a run for its money in Indiana, Colorado, California, and elsewhere. Why sad? We should be working together, not against each other. But the NRSC has decided to shun the base and dictate from Washington out of touch with the people affected by the dictates.
By the way, where is Sarah Palin on Indiana? Her silence is curious given the aggressiveness in which she has endorsed against the establishment. Her voice or silence could be key. Governor, there is still time to be bold and Go Marlin.
Rubio Wins
The story everyone is missing is simple: Marco Rubio won the Republican Primary in Florida. He now becomes the biggest threat to the Democrats in the nation. Why? Rubio is Cuban/Hispanic/Latino (whatever the media kids are saying these days) and Democrats believe they have a monopoly on non-white politicians at that level. They will unload everything on him while Charlie Crist is trying to find an orange man group to belong to (how many people just thought of John Boehner too?).
The GOP and Diversity
The media narrative has for so long been that the Republican Party is the party of white guys. And among the establishment it is true. The NRSC lined up behind Charlie Crist, shunning the Latino. In Texas, the establishment compelled Kay Bailout Hutchison to stay in the Senate instead of taking a chance on Michael Williams, a black man.
So the . . . wait for it . . . moderates in the GOP are shutting out other candidates, but conservatives are lining up behind people like Ted Cruz and Michael Williams in Texas, Nikki Haley in South Carolina, and Marco Rubio in Florida.
While the media is playing up divisions among Republicans, it is the GOP that saw everyone rally to elect a pro-choice senator in Massachusetts and will now rally to elect a Latino in Florida. When’s the last time the Democrats rallied to a pro-lifer? But let’s not spoil the narrative and talk about Democrat divisions.
Immigration
The Democrats are out with their “framework” for immigration. The media is trying its best to treat the Democrats seriously. Don’t.
The Democrats are masters of the race card — it’s like three card monty with Latinos, blacks, and women in the deck. They just keep shuffling them up and trying to obfuscate what’s going on. Don’t believe me? The President intentionally left out white people from his “We’re Doomed” speech. The Democrats think if they fire up on immigration they can head into November without all but the most liberal of white voters who are perfectly fine with socialism.
In this case, the Dems have no interest in actually pushing immigration legislation. They’ve just had a few bad weeks at the polls and need to get their election game face on. So they’ll pull out a few race cards and throw them on the table to have the media turn them into trump cards. Two days ago Senator Bob Menendez said Arizona was going to be the “show us your papers” state. Yesterday the Democrats’ immigration plan contained a provision to require everyone to show papers to get a job. This morning the Democrats are trying to get “Springtime for Hitler” adopted as Arizona’s state anthem. They’ve demagogued on race for so long, Democrats don’t know how to have an honest discussion about it.
The first few pages of their plan (yeah, I have a copy) make it look like a massive new government jobs program (funding, agents, administrative staff, new ports of entry, equipment, blah, blah)…
It doesn’t require the border to be secure or set a benchmark for verifying reduced illegal entry before amnesty takes effect, just that money be spent and government agents be hired. And oh yes, there is amnesty.
The Spin
The media buys the Democrats’ spin that we’re not going to round up all the illegals and throw them out. We’ve entered a perverse realm where people act shocked that being illegal is . . . illegal.
So since we can’t round up all the illegals and deport them, we are going to surrender the war on terror. That’s the ultimate outcome of the logic. I mean, heck, they tell us we’ll never stop having people wanting to kill us. So we’re all going to commit suicide — at least culturally.
Hey, you people getting your knickers in a wad, I’m just playing along with the logic that says we must give up because the goal is impossible.
And the Quick Hits
(A) Priorities
National Journal Group is going through a reorganization. They are ditching columnist Stuart Taylor, but they’ll be keeping on Andrew Sullivan so he can keep investigating Trig Palin.
Isn’ it pathetic by the way that the media would much rather focus on birthers than on a prominent media group’s start blogger obsessing about Trig Palin’s parentage? But no, there is no bias.
(B) Goldman Interferes with SEC’s Porn Watching
The SEC is sending the Goldman Sachs investigation to the Justice Department. In addition to the investigation distracting the SEC from its porn habit, the Obama Administration wants to play tough guy to its friends it claims it didn’t get all that money from.
By the way, Goldman et al stand to make billions off of the Financial Deform bill that is allegedly designed to crack down on Wall Street.
(C) White House’s Oil
The White House is playing a greater role in the Gulf of Mexico oil slick. You’d expect Obama to reconsider his alleged off-shore drilling proposal except he won’t because that proposal really didn’t do anything anyway.
(D) Something Wicked This Way Comes
Our media doesn’t understand the European Financial Crisis as it should, but in a nutshell our prices are about to start going up as the financial crisis spreads. This is not going to end well and the spill over will be painful.
Paging Conservative Activists
I’m helping put on Post Party Summits | Organizing for a Free America.
This weekend, there will be a summit in Jacksonville, FL. The cost is only $40.00. You can get the details here. There will also be one in Denver, CO.
Next weekend there will be one in Charlotte. You can get the details for Charlotte here. The cost for Charlotte is $50.00.
The events are designed to teach local tea party activists and conservatives how to get involved in the political process as a candidate, activist, or general rabble rouser for freedom.
They are quite well done.
I’ll be at the one in Denver this weekend and then I’ll be at the one in Charlotte next weekend, then I’ll be in Indianapolis the following week. I really think they are worthwhile. The training is first class and they are keeping the fees down so people can attend with minimal costs outside travel and room.
If you really want to find out how to put down protest signs and pick up campaign signs, you need to attend one of these post-party summits.
links for 2010-04-27
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This is a terrific profile of Nick Ayers, the Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association. Before Nick, the RGA spent 100% of its budget every cycle. Not any more. And the thing I like is that I know Nick and I know Nick is a conservative — not just conservative, but *a* conservative. He's in it to win, but he's got principles backing him up.
links for 2010-04-15
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Excellent editorial.
links for 2010-04-08
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Glenn Reynolds and Byron York. What more could you ask for? Yeah, didn't think there was anything. Go watch.