Pray and Vote
Possibly the most important election of our lifetime will take place three weeks from today. I will be on a long plane flight across the Pacific as the day dawns on America soil–but I will arrive back from Asia in time to watch the returns.
Despite jet lag and fatigue, I will be glued to the set.
I’ve already received the various voter pamphlets that spell out the issues and candidates in this year’s mid-term elections. In one week, our all-mail-in state will send out the ballots that need to be marked. In other states, there will be a combination of absentee ballots and actual polling stations that people will utilize on or before November 2.
The future of America hangs in the balance this first Tuesday of November.
I am boldly asking you to use the influence you possess to get people to pray and vote wisely.
One man clearly trumpeting the need to pray and vote is Mathew Staver. In 1989, Matt became the founder of Liberty Counsel and currently serves as Chairman of the Board. Liberty Counsel is a litigation, education and policy organization with offices in Orlando, Florida, Lynchburg, Virginia, and hundreds of affiliate attorneys in all fifty states. Liberty Counsel was one of the first religious liberty litigation organizations in the country. In the early 1990s, Matt was one of the first to pioneer a new legal strategy and theory in litigating religious liberty cases, using the First Amendment Free Speech Clause.
I can’t say any better what Matt shares below. There are many movements in America this year that are calling believers to action. However, Liberty Counsel’s thrust really understands the enemy we’re fighting and the need to engage him with both spiritual and natural weapons.
Please pray and vote for godly change in America.
RB
From Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel
Dear Friend,
America’s socialists are uniting – more than most of us realize.
The October 2 “One Nation” rally in Washington, DC, was billed as a major event and was attended by representatives from virtually every leftist organization operating in America. Groups like the People’s Organization for Progress, Progressive Democrats of America, Planned Parenthood, and People for the American Way were there. Many radical union members were PAID to attend.
Although the rally turnout was lower than expected, here is what shocked me: Members of the Communist Party USA openly carried signs boldly announcing their propaganda.
Even more shocking was the way in which the Communists were embraced and welcomed by the “Progressives” (a nice name for liberal extremists) – while many in the so-called mainstream media conveniently chose not to show their viewers footage of the Communist presence.
The socialization of America is well under way.
The Obama scheme of “Change,” as embraced by his radical socialist cohorts and rammed down the collective throats of grassroots Americans, is designed to do one thing–to reshape America into a socialist nation.
On one day, one vote can change America’s destiny.
Our nation’s future is riding on November’s midterm elections. Many are calling it the single most important election in decades. Concerned Christian and values voters MUST turn out in record numbers for this election! We simply must reverse the momentum of the radical socialists.
That’s why, today, I am announcing the election countdown phase of our “Pray & Vote 2010” campaign that will help restore our nation. Pray & Vote 2010’s goal is to reach FOUR MILLION pro-faith,pro-family, and pro-liberty citizens and fully engage them in this historic election. We believe that four million committed conservative voters could change the course of the election – and our nation.
Why the Socialists Despise This Effort.
The media and intellectual elites despise it when any mention of God or faith is made in association with an election.They demand a “secular” society and a “secular” debate. So as we boldly announce a “Pray & Vote” campaign that will reach four million citizens, imagine the response we will get from the radical Left.
That’s why I am personally asking you to take a stand with us right now and say, “I Will Pray and I Will Vote!” It takes just moments to take a stand that could literally change the course of our nation.
Pray & Vote 2010 is a multi-media campaign that will use the resources of the Internet as well as television and radio to get the word out from coast to coast. Once you sign up, I’ll need your help to engage your friends, co-workers, and those in your church or community group to join us as well.
Reaching four million people is an attainable goal when thousands of committed citizens utilize their personal spheres of influence, the Internet, and mass media to spread the message.
Here’s how YOU can help:
- ENROLL: By signing your commitment to Pray & Vote, you will be among many, many thousands
of others who are committed to changing the course of America through prayer and exercising
their right to vote. - ENCOURAGE: Ask your peers, family members, and fellow church or civic organization members to
pray for our nation and for God’s direction for our nation – and to become an informed voter who will cast their ballot on November 2. Encourage them to sign Liberty Counsel’s Pray & Vote commitment. - ENGAGE: Call your incumbents’ offices – and those challenging them to become a representative of the people. Learn where candidates stand on issues important to you! Then, we all must get out and VOTE.
Click here to sign your “Pray & Vote” commitment.
Liberty Counsel has important resources for you. Once you take a stand to “Pray & Vote,” our team will connect you with exclusive resources to equip you as Election Day draws near. For example, you’ll have immediate access to my special message, “What Pastors and Churches May Do.”It is a definitive review of the law governing Christian participation in political activities that has been seen by hundreds of thousands of Americans.
There are also links to access contact information for your senators and representative.
Let’s support leaders who will honor religious freedom, protect families, and venerate life! Make no mistake: Our national character will be greatly impacted by the 2010 midterm elections. With so much at stake, Liberty Counsel is calling on members and friends to help re-kindle the spiritual fire in our nation through this powerful Pray & Vote initiative.
In the eyes of the elites who rule the media, education and much of our government, your bold declaration that you will Pray & Vote is radical and unacceptable. But to our Founding Fathers, combining prayer with political participation was a sacred duty.
Thank you in advance for your participation in this vital campaign.
God bless you,
Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
The Most Hated Tax
The Founding Fathers of the United States were skeptical of government’s ability to tax. They understood that “the power to tax is the power to destroy” (Chief Justice John Marshall).
They themselves had been overtaxed by their British sovereigns and resisted strongly through the first “Tea Party” which dumped crates full of English tea into Boston Harbor.
There was one tax they hated the most.
The income tax.
Before we go there, let’s discuss the brief history of American taxation.
For the first fifty years of America’s history, the government operated through excise taxes, tariffs, and customs duties. Our wise leaders were loathe to add taxes to the backs of those working hard to make a living. They certainly didn’t believe in re-distribution–taking from the productive to give to others.
Thomas Jefferson spoke for a generation:
“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his father has acquired too much, in order to spare to others who (or whose fathers) have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, “to guarantee to everyone a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”
Our Founding Fathers believed in freedom, not socialism.
The increased costs of the Revolutionary War (remember- fought against unfair and high taxes) brought a spate of sin taxes on tobacco, liquor, etc. In the 1790s some direct taxes on homes, land, slaves and estates were added–but were later repealed by Jefferson.
The Civil War brought the first income tax–3% on those making more than $800 per year. In 1894 Congress made the first attempt at a graduated income tax, but it was ruled unconstituational in 1895. It was not until 1913 that 36 States ratified the 16th Amendment giving the Federal Government the ability to fully tax income.
There has been a dizzying ascent of American taxation since that time. In 1900, the Federal Government received only 1.3 percent of national GDP. Today the tax take is nearing 20 percent of GDP–and Americans work nearly four months of the years to satisfy the voracious appetites of all levels of government.
The Founding Fathers would have hated the income tax the most because it discourages the productive, stifles entrepreneurship, and wastes resources on bloated bureaucracies. It has also become a primary tool of class warfare in our society.
And now, some individuals want to bring a state income tax to the Evergreen State. Maybe our rulers want an “ever green supply of money” for state coffers.
The Wall Street Journal recently did a fantastic article on the foolishness of the income tax. We share it below, and encourage all Washingtonians to say an emphatic NO to Initiative 1098 on November 2.
August 14, 2010 – Wall Street Journal
The Gates of Confiscation
The battle between taxpayers and government unions will define the fiscal future of the 50 states, and the newest battlefield is Washington state. That’s where a few rich taxpayers led by Bill Gates Sr. and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are bankrolling a November ballot measure to create the state’s first income tax.
And not just a toe-in-the-water tax. They’re diving into the deep end with a proposal that would immediately impose a 5% tax rate on income above $200,000, or $400,000 for married couples. The rate would climb to 9% on single filers making $500,000, or $1 million for couples.
No state has introduced an income tax since Connecticut nearly 20 years ago, and that state’s experience has not been happy. The top rate in Hartford began at 4.5% but has since climbed to 6.5%. Washington wants to leap over that and achieve California and New Jersey heights in one giant step. Washington would move overnight from one of the nine states with no income tax to having the eighth highest rate in the country.
Mr. Gates, a wealthy lawyer whose son is among the richest men on the planet, is pitching the proposal as a chance for 97% of the voters to pay the state’s bills by socking it to the richest 3%. What he doesn’t say is that Washington’s lack of an income tax is among its main comparative advantages in luring those top 3%, along with their businesses and jobs, into the state.
In addition to Washington, the states without an income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Combined they had an average 18.2% growth rate in jobs over the past decade, more than twice the 8.4% job growth of the nine states with the highest income tax rates, according to a new report based on Commerce Department data by the American Legislative Exchange Council.
The liberal Seattle Times accurately describes the state’s zero income tax as “a selling point. An asset. And more than that: It’s a bonus for living here.” Even liberal Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire begins her sales pitch to prospective business investors with the reminder: “No income tax.”
That’s an especially powerful attraction on the West Coast, where California and Oregon impose a top tax rate of 10.55% and 11%, respectively. Proponents say Oregon raised its income tax last year, so Washington should get in the game. But Oregon at least has no state sales tax. Washington has close to the highest sales tax burden in the nation, varying by area but reaching as high as 10% in Seattle depending on what you buy.
To win votes, the ballot measure resorts to all sorts of trickery. Unions describe the initiative as tax “relief” because it includes a mandatory cut in the hated property tax (only by 4%) and it eliminates various unpopular fees and taxes on business. Still, the overall impact of the measure is a $1.5 billion tax increase in 2012 and $2.5 billion a year by 2016. Small business taxes are cut, but they are also hit with a whopper of a new tax: a personal income tax paid out of their profits. Over half of the tax will be paid by Washington businesses.
The biggest deception is the description of the new income tax as “an excise tax on income.” This language is cleverly designed to dodge the state’s constitutional prohibition against an income tax and the requirement that any tax be “uniform upon the same property.” Obviously a tax that hits only 3% of taxpayers and applies graduated rates is anything but uniform. Proponents claim that because the tax is withheld from worker paychecks, the money was never the property of the person who earned it. That’s like saying if someone steals your paycheck, it’s not your property.
We hope Washington voters aren’t duped by the claim that only the rich will pay this tax. After two years, the law allows the legislature by simple majority to extend the tax to nearly everyone. The revenue from the tax will finance new spending, which will soar and lead to even higher deficits in the next downturn, which will create political pressure to expand the tax to the middle class.
Income taxes are always sold as a one-time way to reduce deficits, but they always become engines of greater spending, and eventually deficits. Just ask Californians. If Mr. Gates wants the rich to finance more Washington spending to create more SEIU dues-paying jobs, he and his son can do so by donating their own fortunes.
The Meaning of Uncertainty
Def: uncertainty – n. 1. The quality or state of being uncertain, 2. Doubt, 3. Stresses lack of faith in the truth, reality, fairness, or reliability of something or someone.
Many have been saying it, including Democratic party leader and fund-raiser Terry McAuliffe, who recently announced on Hannity that “U.S. corporations are sitting on three trillion dollars that could be used to rev up the American economy, but they are holding it back because of uncertainty in the nation.”
Uncertainty.
I’ve heard that word dozens of times in the past few months. Banks are uncertain. Lending institutions are uncertain. Businesses are uncertain.
Uncertain of what?
Even the people that control the money supply, the Federal Reserve, are concerned about uncertainty. The following article is from Marketwatch on September 1, 2010: (I will bold the dreaded word for impact.)
“Political uncertainty about taxes and the costs of hiring workers is holding back the U.S. economy, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.”
“‘What is restraining the economy is not a shortage of current liquidity; rather, it is uncertainty, high household debt burdens and a lack of confidence in future income growth,’ said Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, during speech in Houston. A copy of his remarks was made available in Washington.”
“Fisher repeated a theme he’s hit before: Businesses are reluctant to hire and to expand because they aren’t sure about tax and regulatory rules. Politicians are acting ‘in a capricious manner that makes long-term planning, including expanding payrolls, difficult, if not impossible,’ Fisher said.”
“Some business owners have said that they aren’t hiring because of uncertainty about what will happen with taxes as well as about health insurance, credit availability and the cost of energy.”
“As long as political uncertainty is the main obstacle to growth, Fisher said the Fed shouldn’t create more money to stimulate the economy. ‘Further accommodation might be pushing on a string,’ he said — and in the worst case, it could ignite inflation,’ he added.”
Obviously “uncertainty” is a big problem.
When I think of the word “uncertainty” I usually think of things that are completely out of my control–like the weather. I’m uncertain whether we’re going to have rain or sunshine today. Or I’m uncertain about who will win the football game on Sunday. Used this way, it’s normal to talk about “uncertainty” because nobody is ultimately responsible.
Uncertainty usually mans we don’t have any control over what is about to happen.
But is that what we’re talking about when we use the word “uncertainty” to describe the American current economic climate? I don’t think so.
Here’s the meaning of uncertainty in 2010:
Will socialism succeed in America?
Or worded another way, will the Obama Administration succeed in fundamentally changing the American nation from a free, self-governing people into a bloated and bankrupt European style social democracy? The entire world is waiting for an answer to that question. It may just determine the direction of history in the coming years.
All of the uncertainty relates to changing America’s freedom-oriented economy to a controlled one. Vast amounts of government spending and stimulus, the threat of increasing taxes to fund the welfare state, and the increased costs of health care via a government managed system will fundamentally alter the United States of America.
Entrepreneurs and businesses are looking at these changes and holding their breath–and money. If these trends are not reversed, they may not survive and cannot expand. They also can’t create jobs because they will not be affordable. If socialism succeeds in America, then the entire game changes.
Let’s state an obvious truth after twenty months of observation. Barack Obama is a socialist–plain and simple. He believes the Federal Government should “manage” the economy of the United States and “redistribute” vast amounts of money from the wealthier parts of society to various interest groups.
Twenty months of taking over banks, financial institutions, car companies, and the health system of America (Obamacare) , plus appointing “czars” over every area of America life clearly reveal the goal of the present administration.
They don’t like “America”– the land of the free. They want to radically change it from a faith-and-freedom based nation to a secular-based socialistic state.
“Yes We Can” means the triumph of social democracy. Barack Obama and his appointees do not believe in freedom. They believe in controlling your life.
Yes, there have been other presidents with controlling, socialistic tendencies. Woodrow Wilson was cut from the same cloth and desired a “League of Nations” that would control the world. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal policies created the devouring federal monster we face today.
But President Obama is different from Wilson and Roosevelt in a number of ways.
First, he does not love and respect the heritage and exceptional principles that created the United States of America. As Dinesh D’Souza points out in his hard hitting new book The Roots of Obama’s Rage, Barack Obama’s roots (via his father) in Islam and Marxism give him a very jaded, colonial view of the nation that he leads. He does not believe in our past and wants to change our future.
D’Souza summarizes the Obama worldview this way:
“We are today living out the script for America and the world that was dreamt up not by Obama but by Obama’s father. How do I know this? Because Obama says so himself. Reflect for a moment on the title of his book: it’s not Dream of My Father, but rather, Dreams from My Father. In other words, Obama is not writing a book about his father’s dreams; he is writing a book about the dreams that he got from his father.”
“Think about what this means. The most powerful country in the world is being governed according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950’s—a polygamist who abandoned his wives, drank himself into stupors, and bounced around on two iron legs (after his real legs had to be amputated because of a car crash caused by his drunk driving). This philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anti-colonial ambitions, is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams into his son. The son is the one who is making it happen, but the son is, as he candidly admits, only living out his father’s dream. The invisible father provides the inspiration, and the son dutifully gets the job done. America today is being governed by a ghost.”
Secondly, our current president does not appear to understand nor appreciate our unique Christian foundations which made America a light to the world for over two centuries. Barack Obama says he is a Christian, but his “conversion” came through an Afro-centric, America-bashing pastor–Rev. Jeremiah Wright–who was the founder of a quasi-Christian cult. Obama’s “faith” seems to be more of a political calculation than a heart-felt conviction.
Exhibit A is that Barack Obama is far more comfortable with secularism and Islam than he is with the claims of Christ. That’s why the vast majority of his policies on abortion, sexuality, marriage, economics, and foreign policy are largely pro-secular, pro-Muslim, and anti-Christian. He even canceled the National Day of Prayer activities at the White House and while welcoming Muslim gatherings and prayer sessions.
And finally, Barack Obama does not share a deep and abiding faith in human liberty and freedom. He believes that political elites know best how to control and guide the economies and social structures of nations. This can only be accomplished through massive government spending, redistribution of wealth, higher taxes and increased regulations.
He is doing everything is his power to establish socialism in America as he sees it practiced in Europe.
That political fact has created uncertainty in 2010.
Will socialism succeed in America?
Good question.
The Heritage Foundation looks at it this way:
“The stakes couldn’t be higher for our nation at this moment. In the coming months, Americans will help choose which direction our nation’s future will take. Will the federal government continue to spend more, tax more, control more, and defend our liberties less? Or will we choose a new and bolder direction that returns power to the people? All indications are that we are approaching one of those pivotal moments in our political history, a tipping point. It will be a test of our national character. “
I agree.
Maybe the November 2 elections–and much prayer beforehand–will help us answer that vexing question of uncertainty.