Don’t Believe the Spin: It’s Seven Giants versus One Dwarf in 2012
I began publishing Revive America Blogs in the fall of 2008 when the United States was in the throes of a presidential campaign. Some of the first articles received quite a bit of criticism.
But I shared what I believed was true–and time has, unfortunately, confirmed those fears. The American electorate chose poorly in 2008–and three years later:
- Unemployment stands at 9.1 percent and is rising, not declining.
- Big Government is regulating the life out of the job-creating private sector.
- A mountain of debt is threatening our future, and the Party in power seems oblivious.
- The secular onslaught on our society continues–encouraged by those in leadership.
- There is increasing fear and uncertainty about what the future holds for America.
And now the 2012 presidential campaign is underway. The liberal media has already tipped its hand on how it will try to keep its man in power. They can’t point to his record, so they will resort to smearing or diminishing his opponents. The current strategy is something like this:
The Republican field is mediocre with many flawed candidates.
Don’t believe the spin.
It’s seven giants versus one dwarf in 2012.
Here’s why.
First of all, let me explain what I mean that the current seven Republican presidential candidates are “giants” and the current US president, Barack Obama, is a “dwarf.” I use these terms figuratively as to what makes a national leader effective and trustworthy.
All eight of these men and women–seven declared Republicans and one Democratic president–are fallen human beings with flaws, quirks, and sins. Standing before the Cross of Jesus Christ, they are all on equal ground–in need of redemption and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. All of them identify themselves as followers of Christ. I will not judge that aspect. Only God knows the heart.
Their giant or dwarf status does not lie in this realm. It pertains to two other categories.
First, a political-leader giant has broad, executive, real-world leadership experience. Being the president of the United States is, in essence, being the CEO of the world’s largest corporation. To do well in that role, our political chief must understand how freedom works, how jobs are created, how free markets operate, how compassion works, how to build strong families, and why nations are respected in the world.
In other words, to be a good president, one needs to have a track record of proven success. Novices do not make good presidents of nations.
Secondly, in keeping with America’s history, a United States president needs to have a set of guiding principles that are anchored to the pillars of biblical liberty. He or she must be the leading cheerleader and policy implementor of limited government, hard work, free enterprise, fair courts, strong defense, public morality, and in a word–freedom. The President of the United States must know how to create jobs and strengthen culture. He/she must be clear in the principles that allow God to bring His blessings to a nation.
To be a political giant you need to be anchored to GIANT PRINCIPLES–common sense truths–that work in the lives of individuals and nations. Worldview is a vital quality of good leaders. You ultimately do not lead through personality or style. You lead by your principles. Knowledge is power (Proverbs 24:5).
This distinction makes dwarfness obvious: A political dwarf is inexperienced and operates by a bad set of ideals.
It is on these two points that the Republican candidates for president of the United States and the current Democratic incumbent are miles apart. In the 2012 election, the seven Republican challengers are all giants. Our current president is the only dwarf.
Let’s look at each individually, beginning with the seven most likely Republican presidential candidates (declared or undeclared), and a few others that might be in the mix. First there are three former governors.
Mitt Romney– he is the current front-runner and former governor of Massachusetts. Romney is a giant on both accounts. He is a very successful businessman who guided (rescued) the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He also has strong political executive leadership experience as a successful governor of a blue state. In worldview and policies, Mitt Romney understands job creation, free markets, the importance of family and morality, and the necessity of strong defense. His so-called Romneycare weakness is defensible along the lines of federalism. He has promised that his first act as president will be to give all fifty states a waiver on Obamacare. He wants it repealed. For whatever weaknesses he has, Romney is still a giant in experience and principles.
2. Tim Pawlenty– Pawlenty is the former governor of another blue state–Minnesota. He is recognized as one of the most effective governors of the past decade who helped turn the business climate around in his state. Prior to that, Pawlenty was a successful lawyer and vice president of a software company. Pawlenty has experience in the real world. Tim Pawlenty is an evangelical Christian who also shares the biblical view of limited government, personal responsibility, pro-life, strong marriages, and strong defense. He is also willing to take on the reform of entitlement programs that are swelling the American deficit. Pawlenty is a leadership and policy giant.
3. Sarah Palin– She is not a declared candidate, and may sit out the 2012 election, but she is a potent force in American politics despite the constant bludgeoning by the political left. When she joined the Republican ticket in 2008, she was the most admired governor in America with an 80% approval rating. She has strong experience in both small business–with her husband Todd–but also in executive leadership as mayor of a town and governor as a state. She is hated by the drive-by media because she is the antithesis of their idea of a modern woman–she’s loves God, family, the military, and has a Judeo-Christian philosophy of life. She will have giant-like influence on the 2012 election regardless of whether she runs or not.
There are three from the United States Congress that are also giants in experience and ideals.
Newt Gingrich– Former Congressman, and Speaker of the House helped produce balanced budgets during the latter part of the Clinton years. Newt has a very clear understanding of American history and exceptionalism and is probably the most innovative “idea-guy” among all the contenders. He understands how to create jobs, has run many successful organizations, and seems to be deepening in his faith the older he gets. Newt is an intellectual giant in the areas that matter in American society.
5. Michelle Bachmann –She’s a current rising star in the Republican Party who just recently hired Ed Rollins to run her soon-to-be-announced candidacy. Rollins was the guiding mind behind the Reagan re-election of 1984. Bachmann has great personal leadership experience as a lawyer, business owner, and mother of over forty foster children. She now serves as a US Congresswoman from Minnesota–a blue state.. Her understanding of the biblical perspective on government is top of the list. She also has an urgency about the current state of our nation that is both prophetic and realistic. Michelle Bachmann’s giant status on the national stage is growing daily.
Rick Santorum– The most recently declared presidential candidate is Rick Santorum, former three-term senator from Pennsylvania–a swing state. I remember meeting Rick years ago in his office while working on legislation that would benefit families in America. He was sharp, compassionate, and seemed to understand the principles that made America great. Santorum is a lawyer who is a strong economic and social conservative. His eighteen years in the US Senate and clear set of freedom principles make him a giant who is once again flexing his muscles in the political realm.
Herman Cainis the seventh declared candidate, an African-American who would be fun to watch debating Barack Obama. Cain was a very successful business leader who is credited with turning around Godfather’s Pizzaand who currently is a radio-talk show host. Cain is a clear thinker on the issues of the day–and very articulate. He is also a giant compared to the alternative.
Then there is our current president, Barack Obama. I believe he means well and is a great speaker with a teleprompter. But we’ve learned over the past three years what some of us already knew: He is an extremely inexperienced man who is way in over his head. He came to the position of POTUS with no real-world experience; He’d never run a business of created a job; And his main apprenticeship was as a community organizer. COs don’t create jobs–they look for government monies to dole out to people. He’s continued that practice in the Oval Office to the detriment of the nation.
As far as principles go, Barack Obama’s track record shows that he is, at the least, a quasi-socialist. At the worst, he is a radical that wants to alter the American way of life. His principles are essentially anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-business, and anti-freedom. He is pro-bureaucracy, pro-Big Government, pro-wealth re-distribution and weak on foreign affairs.
Most of what he has done for the economy over the past three years has failed.
Barack Obama’s resume and principles make him a dwarf. He’s very similar to the other Democratic one-term president of our lifetime–Jimmy Carter. But Obama’s leadership failure comes at a more sobering time.
A Christian leader I trust believes that the next US president will determine world history, for evil or for good, for the next one hundred years.
Gulp.
I reluctantly agree. That makes the election of 2012 desperately important.
Don’t believe the media spin. Let’s watch and pray for a “giant” in experience and principles to rise to challenge the current occupant of the White House.
Then let’s pray that he or she will prevail at the polls–and will wisely point America back to God and greatness.
The Joplin Tornado: Is God to Blame for Natural Disasters?
I first visited Joplin, Missouri in February, 1998. At the time it was a pretty Midwestern town of 40,000. For weeks I participated in Revive America seminars which saw scores of pastors unite, pray, confess their sins and seek God for renewal. One Sunday many churches closed their doors to worship together in a new found display of unity. At the end of the service we all signed a covenant together to seek God’s face for spiritual awakening in America.
In my journal, I recorded these words on February 19, 1998: “Joplin was a real highlight city–one of the best we’ve done in the past four years. God is really moving there–and I’ll never forget my time. May God’s vast awakening continue, to His glory alone.”
Today, thirteen years later, much of Joplin, Missouri lies in ruin–decimated by the most deadly tornado in America since 1950. The tornado’s 200 mile-an-hour winds caused hundreds of deaths, wiped out over 2,000 homes, and left more than 900 people injured.
I ache for my friends in Joplin–and other communities that have experienced these recent calamities.
And I have a question: Is God to blame for these natural disasters?
Is it just me, or does it seem like the upheaval in nature has increased over the past few years? Maybe it’s just the 24/7 news coverage and pictures that make it seem so. First we saw photos of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Next was the Japanese earthquake and tsunami which caused a huge nuclear energy scare and greatly impacted the world’s second largest economy.
Then came the recent tornado season in the Midwest with over 1333 reported tornado through May 27–definitely above the average and causing destruction to thousands of homes and businesses.
And most recently many people have been washed out by the flooding of the Mississippi River and its impact on thousands of homes and millions of acres of land.
What in the world is going on?
Well, if you’re a secularist, you simply believe that it is all Mother Nature–a streak of bad luck in an overpopulated world–that probably has something to do with climate change or global warning.
But if you are a Christian who understands there is a God, there is a devil, there are accidents, and we live on a planet corrupted by man’s original sin, then the question goes much deeper. How do these four things play into the confluence of bad weather and the destruction that it brings?
I don’t profess to have a final answer. But I do believe we need to humbly pray and start asking some deeper questions about the apparent weather chaos. We can begin by admitting that weather is not just the random occurrence of natural forces. The most reliable book in the world–the Bible–makes it quite clear that there are a number of possible factors in weather patterns on earth.
First of all, the Bible is clear that the God of the Universe uses weather and physical events on earth to reveal truth and draw people to change their lives. In the 8th century B.C., God brought a vision through the prophet Amos “two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1) during the reign of King Uzziah that spoke of the land being shaken by God (8:8), houses being smashed (6:11), altars being cracked (3:14) and even the Temple at Bethel being struck and collapsing (9:1).
As Stephen Austin writes, “The prophet’s repeated contemporary references to the earthquake is why it bears his name. ‘Amos’ Earthquake’ impacted Hebrew literature immensely. After the gigantic earthquake, no Hebrew prophet could predict a divine visitation in judgment without alluding to an earthquake. Zechariah says “Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah” (Zechariah 14:5). The panic caused by Amos’ earthquake must have been the topic of legend in Jerusalem because Zechariah asked his readers to recall that terrifying event 230 years later.”
The prophets said for centuries that God used famines, earthquakes, invading armies, and pestilence to bring people to repentance. This is why even insurance companies categorize natural disasters as “acts of God.” This is a valid, historical view.
As C.S. Lewis famously stated: “Judgment is a severe form of mercy.” When we don’t listen to God in our hearts, he uses environmental means to get our attention. The goal is always repentance i.e. a changed life and hope for the future.
Secondly. the Bible states quite clearly that the devil, Lucifer or Satan, has some delegated powers to bring physical calamities upon people. This was the case of the trials of Job whom God allowed Satan to sift to prove and strengthen his faith (Job 1:12-19). In this particular story, fire, invading tribes, and violent winds were used by the enemy to test and impoverish Job. In the end, God used Satan’s physical testings to bring Job to repentance and actually expand his prosperity (42:5-10).
Third, there we also know that we live in a world where accidents, both of man and nature happen to people in every culture. The world is no longer a Paradise, but one where “the whole creation groans and travails in childbirth” until it is set free from its fallenness (Romans 8:18-30). Thus many of the physical disasters and calamities we face might not be the direct hand of God or Satan, but simply the fruits of a fallen and imperfect world that are allowed by the Creator.
For example, no one knows what forms a tornado, but scientists agree on a few general points. The most common tornadoes come from rotating thunderstorms, called supercells. In a supercell, the updraft of warm air rotates counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, reaching speeds of up to 175 mph and forcing cool air to descend. The updraft can pull cool moist air — which would ordinarily fall from clouds — back up into the sky. The saturated air then condenses to form a rotating wall of clouds, typically toward the back of a cloud in rain-free zones.
With enough strength, the spinning effect creates a funnel, hits the ground and creates a tornado that can last several seconds to more than an hour. Damage can range from superficial, such as roof damage from a falling tree, to completely sweeping away a structure, leaving only the foundation.
Tornadoes are measured on the Fujita scale, created in 1971 by Dr. T. Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago. It rates the twisters by intensity and area, grading them from weakest to strongest: F0 (Gale), F1 (Weak), F2 (Strong), F3 (Severe), F4 (Devastating), and F5 (Incredible).
The damage caused by tornadoes grows exponentially. An F1 storm can cause moderate damage, peeling tiles from roofs and pushing parked cars; an F3 storm will tear walls from houses and uproot trees. An F5 storm, the most dangerous and deadly, will carry cars through the air and damage even concrete buildings.
The deadliest storm in the U.S. was called the Tri-State Tornado; it swept through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing 695 in March 1925. The biggest outbreak of tornadoes happened in April of 1974, when 148 tornadoes ravaged 13 states. In the end, 310 people lost their lives.
Joplin’s tornado was also an F5.
Nature can be beautiful, but it also be brutal.
A final possibility for human suffering is the curse of human sin. Notice the graphic word picture in Isaiah 24:1-6: “Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. See how he is scattering the people over the face of the earth. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors–none will be spared…The earth dries up, the crops wither, the sky refuses to rain. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted the instructions of God, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its people. And those who live in it are guilty.”
This possiblity involves God but stresses man’s part in the curse of creation. None of this scenario is God’s fault. It’s the direct result of man’s sin.
So why was there a devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri on May 22?
We don’t know for sure, but it clearly could have been an act of God, or influenced by Satan, or simply involved fallen creation, and/or was a direct result of a curse because of people’s sins.
The people of Joplin–many of whom I know and love–need to be asking these questions. Humbly. Repentantly. Looking to God for clarity in a world where we see through a glass darkly.
If God is speaking, we had better listen to his correction. If Satan is on the loose, we need to bind him and cast him out. If we simply need to recognize our vulnerability in a fallen and cursed world, then we must humbly do so and move forward with his grace and help.
In all cases, we must rise up with compassion and help those who are suffering. Even when God disciplines, he also heals and restores through acts of compassion by his people.
In this world, we will probably never know the exact answer to these questions. But from our ponderings and prayers, we would be wise to give the same answer that Jesus gave when he was asked why a tower fell killing eighteen people.
He replied, “Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you unless you repent you will also perish” ((Luke 13:4-5).
Humility.
Repentance.
If we don’t start there, in the future, we might just lose much more than a home or business. We could lose our soul.
America and the world: We need to pray, repent, and seek God about what is happening. That proper response just might lead to both personal and corporate revival.
Why U. S. and Israel are the Great and Little Satans in Today’s World?
Two weeks ago I took an associate through the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. For those who haven’t been there, it’s an amazing four-story multi-media display of how Nazi Germany managed to murder six million Jews during World War II.
The tour begins on the top floor where you watch films and see memorabilia related to the rise of Nazism. By the time you’ve worked your way down the four flights, you’ve walked through replicas of the gas chambers where millions were exterminated.
Most people are silent during the tour. It’s eerie and very thought-provoking. Why were the Jews the object of this type of hatred–not just during World War II, but at other times in history?
Good question.
Then last week I listened to the president of the United States give his “Arab Spring” speech in which he stunned many observers by stating that Israel needed to return to its 1967 borders.
Why did he do that?
Let’s look at the speech, but especially look behind the curtain. There’s another being standing there.
President Obama’s new policy was a stunning change of US position because for decades, the United States has been Israel’s greatest friend in an extremely hostile world. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the United States of America has stood by Israel as the only real democracy in the Middle East.
But that is changing with this Administration–and the consequences are sobering. No wonder the denunciation of his words were swift and powerful.
Senator Orin Hatch, R-Utah, said of the President’s position, “This is not only ridiculous but dangerous” and promised to sponsor a resolution this week disapproving of the President’s position.
Senator James Imhofe, R- Okla., said, “The President’s position was a slap in the face of our friend and democracy’s only ally in the Middle East: Israel.” He said, “The land belongs to Israel. Period.”
Rabbi Aryeh Sero said, “It’s ironic that the President of the United States, who speaks in humanitarian tones regarding the Palestinians, doesn’t have any humanitarian concerns toward 500,000 Jewish people and families that will be uprooted and deported from their homes…The President of the United States is asking for ethnic cleansing.”
The next day, Israel’s president Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House and rebuffed our American president with these words: “Israel believes that for peace to endure between Israelis and Palestinians, the viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of the viability of the one and only Jewish state… the 1967 lines are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines.”
Exactly true.
It would be suicidal in 2011 for Israel’s borders to be changed to only nine miles in width. It would probably lead to another type of holocaust.
In “The Perils of the Pre-1967 Proposal” a Redstate.com gives an important perspective on why Israel’s borders shouldn’t be changed.
“There seems to be some confusion over why the Israelis should be so hostile to President Obama’s suggestion that the two-state solution be achieved by returning the Jewish state to its 1967 borders. The President’s supporters argue that since these borders were previously acceptable to Israel, they should be acceptable now. After all, pre-1967 Israel fought to defend those borders and they were on the table in the 2000 peace talks. Can 45 years make that much of a difference?”
“It is true that 45 years is not so very long in terms of the territorial integrity of the United States. We might even prefer to return to the 1967 context in which our borders were much less challenging than they are today. But what Mr. Obama seems to fail to understand is that 45 years is a very long time for Israel. While the history of the Israeli people stretches back millennia, lsrael itself has only existed for 63 years. What the President is asking is that more than 70% of that history be erased, beginning with the reasons it was deemed necessary to annex the territories in 1967, and continuing on through the failed diplomatic initiatives, UN humiliations and relentless, deadly terrorist attacks of the past decades.”
“While some have considered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s terse response to this proposal disrespectful of the President, Mr. Netanyahu might have some very real concerns that once three-quarters of Israel’s past has been eradicated, would it be all that outlandish to go all the way to pre-1948? Especially under the leadership of an American president who is asking the Israelis to make this concession on the dubious grounds that hope will overcome hate?”
President Obama’s proposal stands in direct opposition to the positive and protective role that the United States of America has maintained with the nation of Israel for six decades.
It should be rejected as folly.
At the least, it’s incredibly naive.
Previous to the Obama announcement, the United States and Israel shared a close friendship and a unique role in history that the media tries to downplay or overlook. And by diminishing those truths, they also reject the main reason the US and Israel have been labeled the “satans” of this world.
So what is unique both about Israel and the United States? And why are they called by many the “Great and Little Satans?”
Let’s talk about Israel first. Three things are completely unique to the nation we call “Israel.”
First, they are a nation whose existence and identity are nothing less than a miracle from God. Israel came into being thousands of years ago when God spoke to an Aramean named Abraham and gave him possession of the land they now inhabit–two millennia later. This happened to no other nation in history. Hundreds of large and small nations have joined the dustbin of history during that same period of time.
But Israel remains at the center of world attention. It’s a tiny piece of real estate with a small population. Most of the that population has forgotten about God, but he has not forgotten them.
Today’s world hates Israel because it is exhibit number one that God exists.
If there wasn’t a God, there would be no Israel.
Secondly, Israel was specially given the commands of God and built their culture upon the principles of His direct revelation (Romans 3:2). They established the world’s first human society on wise, God-given principles. Because of this, they were blessed as a nation for centuries–until they turned away from those principles and lost their nation and sovereignty for a period of time.
But God’s general blessing on the Jews still remains. They are leaders in commerce and business in many nations of the world. Let’s call it an “afterglow” of the presence and principles of God.
A third unique aspect about Israel is that God has great plans for them at the end of the age. One of the final demonstrations of God’s reality and power will be a massive turning of the Jewish people back to God and faith in Jesus the Messiah.
The Apostle Paul explains it this way: “Some of the Jews have hard hearts, but this will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to Christ. And so all Israel will be saved.Do you remember what the prophets said about this? ‘A Deliverer wil come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel from all ungodliness. And then I will keep my covenant with them and take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27).
We don’t how God will use to accomplish this, but we know that one day, near the close of history (which didn’t happen on May 21), millions of Jews will trust their Messiah Jesus.
So Israel has a unique birth, foundation in law, and will experience a future revival.
Now let’s look at the United States. There are some similarities.
First of all, the U.S. was founded by God-fearing people and through spiritual revivals that brought great freedom and blessing to this nation. Our birth was also unique–a revolution in Christian thinking that launched a patch-work society into greatness and became the envy of the world.
We also built our nation on the principles of God’s Word–just like the nation of Israel. Our pioneers knew that “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12). Their adherence to biblical principles in family life, business, and human governments made us an “exceptional” nation. Throughout the 20th century and to this day, American is the leading nation in world evangelization.
America also had a unique beginning, biblical foundations, and important role in Christians missions.
So why are the United States and Israel at the center of world attention–and hated by other nations?
Here’s the truth that needs to be heard on network news every night: There is a real Satan who hates God, his special nation Israel, and God’s missionary nation America. Because he hates the image of God in both countries, he is trying to destroy America from within and Israel from without.
Because of this hatred, and his influence in other nations of the world, he has successfully promulgated the lie that America is the Great Satan and Israel the little one. He’s convinced other nations that white is black and black is white.
He’s even given away his own name! That’s quite a powerful deception.
So now you know why America and Israel are blamed for all the bad things in the world. They are strategic targets of the Evil One who wants to destroy millions or billions of people before God wraps up history with a Great End-time Revival.
Pray that President Obama will not be a pawn in his hand.
Pray that the media will tell the real truth: There is a Satan.
But he is not America or the nation of Israel. They are simply unique focal points of his rage against God.