Culture
President Obama and the Spirit of Lawlessness
President Barack’s Obama stunning political pandering for the Hispanic vote this week–granting amnesty to the children of illegal aliens by executive fiat–gives us another window into the soul of the world’s most powerful leader.
The picture is not pretty–and is actually quite scary.
The primary role of any chief executive, the ultimate position being the president of the United States, is to enforce the rule of law. That’s what he or she swears an oath of office to do.
But this president now seems to be making it a habit to choose which laws he desires to enforce. He is acting like a king or dictator, not the servant of law, freedom, and order.
The Bible calls this a “spirit of lawlessness,” and there are grave consequences associated with it.
I’d like to share a lengthy Scripture passage that talks about this spirit in detail. A “spirit” is either a heavenly being such as a demon that possesses a rebellious mind-set toward God, or a human attitude that mirrors the same. Let’s discuss the human side today.
Before we look at the Scripture, I want to make one thing clear: I am not in any way equating our president with the biblical Anti-Christ who is mentioned in this passage. Yes, there will be an anti-Christ global leader one day, but it’s also true that there are many anti-Christ attitudes and people in the world (1 John 2:18). It’s a mind-set–an attitude toward authority.
And all people, including myself, can participate in a lawless mind-set that is at war with the purposes of God. None of us are above it. We can all take on an anti-Christ attitude–if we choose to do so.
In this case, we’re analyzing the mind-set of the president of the United States. Remember that as you reflect on Paul’s words:
“For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed–the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and defy every god there is and tear down every object of adoration and worship. He will position himself in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God. Don’t you remember that I told you this when I was with you? And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes.”
“For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus Christ will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. This evil man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He will use every kind of wicked deception to fool those who are on the way to destruction because they refuse to believe the truth that would save them. So God will send great deception upon them, and they will believe all these lies. Then they will be condemned for not believing the truth and for enjoying the evil they do.”
“As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are thankful that God chose you be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit and by your belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-13 – New Living Translation).
This is a long passage with many insights. Notice a number of pertinent facts:
- Lawlessness grows like a weed when people have rebellious hearts (verse 3).
- There is a pride thing involved in lawlessness where we make ourselves “God” by the arrogant things we do (verse 4).
- Satan himself is behind the spirit of lawlessness (verse 9).
- People who share in the lawless mind-set are deceived because they are rejecting the truth (verses 10, 11).
- Lawlessness and its poison will be directly destroyed by Jesus one day (verse 9).
Now let’s return to our American president for whom all of us are praying.
Over the past three and a half years., President Obama, as an executive leader, has increasingly participated in a spirit of lawlessness related to his responsibilities.
An early instance related to immigration when his Administration sued the state of Arizona over its newly passed immigration law. Arizona wanted its borders protected and defended. The federal government wasn’t doing it, so Governor Jan Brewer and the legislature took matters in their own hands and passed a necessary law. The Obama Administration cried “foul,” and tied up the state in court. At the same time, the president made it known through Attorney General Eric Holder that the feds would not perform their duties. They didn’t like the law–they needed Latino votes–and wouldn’t enforce it.
A spirit of lawlessness.
Next up was the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which protects the five thousand year institution of marriage in all fifty states. In brazen defiance of this law passed by President Clinton, the Obama White House told Congress that it would no longer prosecute violations of DOMA. In the beginning, this refusal was bad enough. But when the president recently came out of the closet endorsing homosexual marriage, it was finally understood that he wanted to change the definition of marriage–and to heck with the laws of the land!
A spirit of lawlessness.
The president also made a priority in his first term to try and pass Cap & Trade–a draconian strangulation of the environment and energy use under the guise of curbing global warming. Congress refused the legislation, so the Obama Administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to do the same thing via a drip-feed method of agency policy. This move was a blatant end-around to circumvent the laws of Congress.
A spirit of lawlessness.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), but I am expecting that either the entire law will be struck down or, at least, the individual mandate which forces them to buy health care against their will. The entire bill was pushed through Congress in a lawless fashion with bribes, back room deals, and deliberate confusion (Nancy Pelosi famously said they’d have to approve the bill so we could then find out what was in it).
The Obama Administration knew from the beginning that it was lawless–against the Constitution of the United States. But they wasted a year of our time–not helping the flagging economy–because the goal of lawlessness is dominating other people’s lives (tyranny). The end was worth the means to an Administration that wanted to grab control of one-sixth of the world’s largest economy.
A spirit of lawlessness.
This week the President of the United States stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced to the nation that children of illegal aliens, sixteen and under, would be granted special rights to work and live in America. Actually, it’s a good policy. I’m a supporter of the DREAM Act which would not have penalized children for the sins of their parents. That’s fair, a no-brainer and very biblical (Deuteronomy 24:16 and Ezekiel 18:20).
But again–the end doesn’t not justify the means. Congress makes the laws in this nation. Not the president. Yes, he can release executive orders in various categories, but not change the standing of American law. His job is to convince Congress of the right direction to go, and their enforce the laws they enact.
Anything less is haughty, rebellious, and dereliction of duty. It is an anti-God spirit that promotes its own will over that or others. It is the opposite of the spirit of the Kingdom of God which includes humility, selflessness, submission, and obedience to loving authority (Romans 14:17).
Family Research Council had it right when they described the president’s spirit of lawlessness:
“When Americans elected Barack Obama, they believed they were voting for a chief executive. What they got is a chief legislator and chief justice. If the administration doesn’t like a law, they call it unconstitutional and ignore it. If they can’t pass a policy democratically, they enact it anyway…The pattern of abuses is so out of hand that even media outlets like Politico are suggesting that the President’s ‘policy strategy’ is ‘ignore laws.”‘
“In the end, today’s debate isn’t about immigration. It’s a debate about the limits of executive authority — a conversation that goes back some 237 years. Our founding fathers shed a lot of blood to avoid what this White House increasingly resembles — a monarchy with absolute power. While the President can try to bypass the law, one thing he cannot bypass is voters. And ultimately, his interpretation of the separation of powers will be subject to the ultimate checks and balances: November 6 ballots.”
There is a lawless spirit operating in the highest echelons of the current White House. The last time this happened in these hallowed quarters was under the tenure of Richard Nixon, a Republican. He also thought he was above the law and could do what he pleased. His presidency crashed and burned. I voted for Nixon in my first swipe as an adult citizen. I regret my naive vote.
Now we have a Democrat who clearly manifests a spirit of lawlessness. Most of his lawless deeds are rooted in narcissism–a quest for personal power and aggrandizement. It is a scary moment for the American Republic. For when a your leader is lawless then the people are unrestrained.
A nation without the rule of law devolves into chaos. Is that the American future? I hope not.
Exercise your own self-control (and wisdom) by voting correctly on November 6.
A Dred Scott Moment in American History
This is an important week in American history–and I want you to feel its significance. I especially want you to pray for nine very important human beings as a result of your understanding.
I’m sure many of you remember the name of “Dred Scott” from the history books–but you may not recall the magnitude, the infamous nature of the name in American history.
The Dred Scott Decision was handed down by the United States Supreme Court on March 6, 1857 by a 7-2 vote stating that people of African descent brought into the United States and held as slaves (or their descendants, whether or not they were slaves) were not protected by the Constitution and were not U.S. citizens.
The decision was tragic–and flat-out wrong. It led to the Civil War and the death of 600,000 precious lives–all because nine US Supreme Court justices didn’t have the clarity to “judge righteously.”
This week we are faced with another Dred Scott moment. The US Supreme Court is hearing three days of arguments over Obamacare. African-American rights aren’t at stake here–but the rights and future of all of our citizens.
We don’t need another Dred Scott. We need nine individuals to do the right thing.
Those individuals, of course, are the current members of the United States Supreme Court. In recent “man in the street” interviews, I’ve notice how few people even know their names, let alone understand the power that they wield. Here the current US Supreme Court justices, in bullet form for emphasis:
- Chief Justice John Roberts, 57. Nominated by George W. Bush and sworn in 2005.
- Antonin Scalia, 76. Nominated by Ronald Reagan and sworn in 1986.
- Anthony Kennedy, 77. Nominated by President Reagan and sworn in 1988.
- Clarence Thomas, 63. Nominated by George H.W. Bush and sworn in 1991.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79. Nominated by Bill Clinton and sworn in 1993.
- Stephen Breyer, 73. Nominated by President Clinton and sworn in 1994.
- Samuel Alito, 61. Nominated by George W. Bush and sworn in 2006.
- Sonia Sotomayor, 57. Nominated by Barack Obama and sworn in 2009.
- Elena Kagan, 51. Nominated by President Obama and sworn in 2010.
Memorize those names: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor, and Kagan. Let’s not be part of the uninformed.
These people are far more important than the following list of nine: Snookie, Gaga, Adele, Tiger, Kobe, Brad, Angelina, Bono, and Bieber.
However, what’s ironic (and a major problem in our culture) is that though I gave you just “one word names” in the second list, most of you probably know all of the people–but we don’t know the first or last names of our US Supreme Court justices who just might determine our national fate for years to come.
It’s true that most of the time, Supreme Court justices are fairly inconspicuous. Normally, the states and national Congress pass laws with little controversy so the judges can stay out of the limelight.
Not now. A liberal president–Senate–and House of 2006-2008–gave us a horrendous boondoggle of a bill that contained 2700 pages, created numerous new bureaucracies, would explode the national debt–and most importantly, takes away a number of our God-given liberties.
We need the Supreme Court on this one–and we don’t need them to give us another dreaded Dred Scott decision.
The justices are hearing arguments this week on the future of Obamacare–the massive progressive takeover of healthcare in this nation–representing one-sixth of the economy. At stake in the ruling are a number of complex and nuanced issues, but the heart of the matter is whether the Federal Government, under the Commerce Clause, has the right to force Americans to buy anything– including insurance.
If the justices get this wrong, it probably won’t start a civil war, but it could be the final straw in the coffin of our economic undoing.
A few days ago, we quietly “celebrated” the two-year anniversary of one of the worst laws in American history– The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act popularly known as Obamacare. No one has done a better job of capturing the essence of that ignominious event than John Hayward, one of my favorite columnists at the National Review.
Here is his astute analysis.
(By-the-way, Human Events puts out an excellent Daily Events e-mail of the best blogs or columns that saves a lot of time and reading. You can sign up for Daily Events here.
ObamaCare’s Lonely Birthday
He’s just a bill, sitting here on Capitol Hill
By John Hayward, March 23, 2012
“This week marks the second birthday of ObamaCare, among the greatest legislative disasters in American history. By even the most conservative estimates, its costs are more than double what we were originally promised.”
“It’s going to strip 20 to 50 million Americans of their health insurance, as overwhelmed employers decide the best course of action is dropping coverage altogether, with the resulting fines increasingly viewed as a wise investment to escape ObamaCare’s clutches. The President’s infamous promise that ‘if you like your plan, you can keep it’ has become a bitter joke, of the variety often traded across the Siberian snow.”
“ObamaCare has been causing health care costs to rise, and it will actually reduce our supply of doctors. It has already destroyed thousands of jobs, and it will soon unleash a fresh avalanche of job-killing taxes on job creators. It has destroyed religion and conscience, forcing Catholic institutions to pay for birth control, and even dropping an abortion surcharge upon everyone enrolled in plans that cover elective abortions.”
“Even as it devours American prosperity, liberty, and health, great festering chunks of spoiled legislation have been dropping from ObamaCare’s flanks. The CLASS Act is gone, as are some of ObamaCare’s most instantly repulsive feeding mechanisms, such as the scheme to force American small businesses to submit millions of 1099 tax forms every year. The House just voted to disable the death panels. Enraged Americans have watched Obama’s Health and Human Services Department issue thousands of ObamaCare waivers to politically connected businesses and labor unions.”
“The Supreme Court is on the verge of striking down the very heart of ObamaCare – the individual mandate that gives Congress limitless power to force Americans to purchase politically approved goods from selected private firms – as the Constitutional outrage it so clearly is.”
“Meanwhile, lopsided majorities of Americans favor the complete repeal of ObamaCare, and have consistently done so for years. It might be the best sustained polling ever seen for a policy preference. The latest Rasmussen poll has Americans favoring repeal 57-39 percent. Strong support for repeal reached an eight-month high in the wake of Obama’s war on the Catholic Church.”
“The Heritage Foundation has launched an online petition demanding ObamaCare repeal. If President Obama could somehow be persuaded to repeal the law, it would become, by a huge margin, the most successful job-creation initiative of his presidency.”
“Of course, that won’t happen… but it’s interesting to note that Obama doesn’t seem very eager to talk about his “signature achievement” any more. It’s swirling down the memory hole, along with those nostalgic sepia-toned photo-ops of the President touting Solyndra as one of the greatest successes of his trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ bill. “
“Give Obama another month, with a few more points shaved off his poll numbers, and he’ll be claiming ObamaCare wasn’t his initiative per se. Actually, he’ll start doing that the moment Mitt Romney secures the Republican nomination. Isn’t it funny that the sole political value of this towering legislative triumph lies in convincing voters that RomneyCare is just as bad?”
“The Republican National Committee does what the Obama Administration refuses to do, and commemorates the second anniversary of this melancholy bill with a video birthday greeting. Raise a glass of your favorite government-approved healthy beverage (soon to become a mandatory purchase, under the next wave of “individual mandates”) and celebrate ‘ObamaCare’s Lonely Birthday.'”
Well said.
Obamacare, from its inception, was an act of tyranny–a liberal dream to control the lives of three hundred million Americans. It doesn’t matter what the motivations were for such a bill–and maybe some were sincere. But the practical truth is that Obamacare will be the back-breaker of the American economy and the coup d’etat of sinking America into a European style social democracy.
If you like the future of Greece, or Italy, or Portugal in their present state–that’s the direction Obamacare takes us. It kills the free spirit of the American experiment in liberty.
There are only two final ways to resist the tyranny of Obamacare.
The first is to pray that the Supreme Court justices will see the light to either strike down the individual mandate in the legislation or the entire legislation. It is likely that Anthony Kennedy will be the deciding vote in a close Court decision. Pray for Justice Kennedy (and all the rest).
If the Court gives us another Dred Scott disaster–and it’s happened before in history–we do not need to pick up arms and go to war, but rather win at the polls in November. This is the final realistic option. We must elect a God-fearing, Constitution-honoring conservative majority in both the the US House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and also a US president committed to abolishing the law.
If Mitt Romney gains the Republican nomination, he is committed to doing so. (So are the other Republican contenders.)
But our first stop this week should be to watch the Supreme Court proceedings, pray for the presenters and the justices, and await their decision–which may come sometime this summer.
This is a Dred Scott moment in our history.
May our leaders choose wisely while we back them up in prayer.
Sobering Lessons from the Firing of Joe Paterno
I must admit that Coach Joe Paterno–a football coaching legend at Penn State for the past forty-six years–has been a hero of mine for decades. When he became PSU’s coach in 1965, I was just entering my junior high school years when sports was very important to me.
Coach Paterno made a deep impression. He seemed to be fair, disciplined, a man of integrity and faith, and he produced a great football program. In 2011 he became the winningest coach in all of Division I football history. In an age of slick and arrogant coaches, Joe Pa seemed to be the “Gold Standard” of steadiness and grace.
So when I heard he’d been fired because of some child abuse charges being leveled at a former assistant coach, I inwardly reacted like many Penn State students did. I thought to myself, “Discipline the offender but spare Coach Joe Pa!”
But I was wrong. Joe Paterno needed to go.
Here’s why–and many other things we can learn from the Penn State fiasco.
There was one primary reason I was wrong about Coach Paterno’s firing. I didn’t have the facts. You will never have good judgment about a person or event if you don’t know the truth.
For a few days I sympathized with Coach Paterno and felt that he should stay. Why should a legendary coach be punished for the sins of an assistant? We’d been told in the beginning that Coach Paterno had done his legal obligation. We were also told that he was not under investigation.
So I thought “Just let him finish out the year and then he can step down gracefully.”
One day later the Penn State board of trustees fired him.
How could that be? Was it fair, or just a knee-jerk reaction to an unpleasant situation?
Then I read the state grand jury report–in its entirety. I found it on-line and it came with a disclaimer that the contents of the report were graphic and needed to be looked at with caution.
They were right to warn us. The report turned my stomach.
But the truth set me straight: Joe Paterno needed to be fired.
If you have any doubts, here is the link to the damning realities that took place at Penn State from 1994 to 2009. Before you go there, let me lay out the basic scenario for you.
On November 5, 2011 former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, a one time heir apparent to Coach Paterno, was arrested and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on forty criminal charges. The grand jury report states that he raped and abused young boys between the age of ten and fourteen from at least 1994 to 2009.
Some of the serial sex abuse of minors took place on the Penn State campus and in its training rooms. At this point there are eight victims that have come forward. There may be many more.
All of Sandusky’s victims were recruited through a charity he had established called The Second Mile for children from foster or dysfunctional homes. Instead of helping these kids, Sandusky abused and used them for his own sexual pleasures.
In 1999, Sandusky retired from his Penn State duties but still held emeritus status at the college and had access to the athletic facilities. In the fall of 2000, a janitor walked in on Sandusky having sexual contact with a young boy called Victim 8. The janitor reported it to other janitors but a police report was never filed.
On March 1, 2002, a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary (who was on the Penn State coaching staff until forced to take a “leave of absence” just a week ago) saw a naked boy of about ten years old called Victim 2 being sexually assaulted by Sandusky in the Penn State shower room. McQueary was distraught and reported the news to Coach Paterno the next day.
On March 3, Joe Paterno called Tim Curley, Penn State’s athletics director to his home and reported a version of what his grad assistant had told him. Later in the month, McQueary was invited to a meeting with Curley and Gary Schultz, senior vice president for finances and business. The grad assistant reported what he had seen and Curley and Shultz said they would look into it.
On March 27, 2002 McQueary was informed that Sandusky’s locker room keys had been taken away and that the incident had been reported to The Second Mile (Sandusky’s charity). McQueary was never questioned by campus police and heard nothing about any follow-up until he was called to testify before the state grand jury in December, 2010.
Sandusky continued to seduce and rape young boys in his College Township home from 2002-2009. Finally, a boy named in the report as Victim 1, who was eleven or twelve when he met Sandusky, told authorities through a counselor that Sandusky inappropriately touched him several times in a four year period.
In September 2010 Sandusky retired from day to day involvement in The Second Mile charity.
Last week he was arrested, Curley, Schultz and Paterno were fired, McQueary was put on administrative leave, and the Penn State nightmare exploded on the national stage.
All because of one pedophile monster–who has ruined the lives of maybe dozens of young children–and because no one was willing to step forward and do what was right.
There are many sobering things we can learn from the Penn State debacle and actions that must be taken for the university to move forward:
1. We all must be willing to speak out and go to the police when we see a crime being committed. Child rape is a crime–one that can devastate a child for life. There were many people in the Penn State orbit who miserably failed to do their duty–including Coach Paterno. They may have reported what they saw to superiors above them, but that wasn’t good enough. They may have been legally right, but failed the moral test. We need to speak up against sin so that others cannot be hurt.
2. In our sex-crazed society, we must realize that pedophilia and many other sexual sins are not okay–they are brutal and traumatic to individuals and our nation as a whole. Especially the sexual exploitation of children–which takes many forms today including child trafficking and prostitution. We must repent of our sexual debauchery and especially work hard to protect the children.
3. We must admit that power and profits and not more important than individual lives. Each year the Penn State football program nets over 50 million dollars for the university. The athletic director and the vice president for finance did not want to get involved because they were afraid of losing money and prestige. Now they will lose scores of millions of dollars in future civil lawsuits. Your greed will find you out.
4. It takes a lifetime to build a good name, but it can be destroyed through one lapse of judgment. Joe Paterno is a great coach. But his legacy has now been tarnished forever. No matter how many games he won or the character he exhibited during a half century of coaching, it is all scarred now by one colossal act of mis-judgment. He should have followed up with his superiors. Kids were being raped! He should have gone to the police. Rather, he did his nominal part and walked away. It will cost him his legacy.
5. Penn State should release its entire football coaching staff and start over with a new group. It also might be a good idea to voluntarily restrict themselves from post-season play for a year or two to re-establish credibility in the eyes of the public. Some are calling for the shutting down of the football program for a period of time. That wouldn’t be fair to the current players. They shouldn’t suffer for the sins of Jerry Sandusky. However, there must be a house-cleaning to restore the PSU name and brand. That will take some wisdom, integrity and time.
I am really saddened by this story of sexual abuse and cover-up in the sports world. However, it does give us all a good opportunity to look in the mirror.
Most of us think we are pretty good people, or that we’ve been redeemed by God’s grace. But maybe some are harboring secret sins and moral miscalculations that God’s “grand jury report” will one day make plain to the world (it’s called Judgement Day).
When the facts are seen–the truth will be clear about our lives as well.
Only through Christ can our “good name” (and future) be restored.
(Click here to read the grand jury report on the case against Penn State.)