General

Two members of our extended family committed suicide, and I have been close to a number of other suicidal tragedies.

A businessman friend of mine, who was well known as a Christian layman, committed suicide a decade ago. At his funeral, his pastor told the grieving audience, “If Harry (not his real name) was here today I am sure he would ask your forgiveness for the rash emotional choice he made to end his life.”

I agreed. His death made no sense when compared to the life that he lived.

Nations and civilizations also commit suicide. They make wrong choices over time, maybe against their overall heritage, that plunge them into ruin. Why do nations commit suicide? What can be done to prevent it?

One of the hardest things for me to watch during this latter stage of my life, is the apparent suicide of  America–and really, all of Western civilization. This downward death spiral began in Europe, which has vastly moved away from God and biblical values. The USA is now boarding the same train which is heading to disaster.

It’s agonizing and heart-wrenching to watch the looming death spiral. It reminds me of one biblical figure –the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah lived through a powerful season of revival in the nation of Israel during his early years. He was a contemporary of the young, godly king Josiah whom the Bible calls the greatest king in the lineage of Jesus (2 Kings 23:25). Over a ten year time period, the southern kingdom of Judah went through a significant national reformation (you can read the amazing story in 2 Chronicles 34) that impacted a generation and lasted twenty years.

But after Josiah died, the nation began to self-destruct,  and Jeremiah, in his later years, watched the horrifying fall while trying to turn the nation back to its godly heritage.

But it wasn’t to be. The people were unwilling to change their ways.

In 586 BC, God used  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to rightly bring justice to the backslidden nation. Jeremiah warned and warned the people, lived through the national collapse, and ended up dying as a refugee in Egypt.

Jeremiah’s life started well–he experienced a national spiritual awakening–but it ended with his beloved nation falling from grace.

I see an eerie parallel in my own life. I came into God’s kingdom during a wonderful season of American renewal called the Jesus Revolution. In the 1980s, I was privileged to be a small part of the Reagan years which, at the least, retarded the acceleration of American decline. That political period was known as “Morning in America” and brought about a moral and economic renewal that lasted for nearly three decades.

But many of those gains are now being lost. It appears that our godly nation, once the land of great revivals, faith, morality, freedom, and economic prosperity, is careening down a path that could lead to national suicide.

Are we experiencing the birth pangs of “Sunset in America” and possibly all of Western Civilization?

Something inside of me doesn’t want to believe it. But honesty and reality tell a different tale that makes me wonder whether the pattern of Jeremiah’s life may be mirrored in our own time.

The best word I can find to describe what is taking place in Europe and America today is the concept of suicide. We seem to be willingly and foolishly voting for people and living for things that will kill us as a nation.

Let’s begin with the dictionary definition of SUICIDE:

b : ruin of one’s own interests.

The definition assumes that in the past, the suicidal person lived responsibly, with sound thoughts and lifestyle actions. But at a point in time, this individual abandoned their sane and wise course and began down a pathway that led to consciously killing themselves–destroying their own interests and true happiness.

This scenario is at work in America today, in at least five different forms.

Religious Suicide

This is always the root cause of personal or corporate suicide–a collapse of faith in God. When the Creator of the universe is honored, loved, and his principles followed, this tends to bring joy, peace, justice and prosperity to human existence.

The “American experiment in liberty” was once anchored in the idea of “In God We Trust,”–that respecting Him and following his ways were the keys to earthly success. Thus, early Americans prayed around their kitchen tables, built churches in their cities and towns, started schools teaching biblical character qualities and taking dominion in God’s world, and more than any nation in history, placed God as the center of national life.

There were plenty of exceptions to this rule, and even wars that were fought over our sins. But the United States of America rose to global greatness because of its faith and dedication to Almighty God which was rekindled numerous times through national awakenings and revivals.

But not today. Atheists have doubled in numbers in recent years, biblical truths have been taken out of the schools, and secularism, (a new name for being man-centered and anti-God), has now become the up-and-coming religion in the land.

It is for this reason that the Rev. Billy Graham, at the age of 95, will preach his “final sermon” the week of November 4-9. He knows that we are committing religious suicide and wants to do his part to call us back to faith in God and Jesus Christ.

I encourage you to participate in My Hope America with Billy Graham.

Family Suicide

The breakdown of the American family has been breath-taking in the past two generations. The nuclear family, a husband and wife and their children, were once the backbone of this country. How far we have disintegrated in such a short period of time!

When I was a young boy, divorce was rare and ninety percent of households built their lives around the love, nurture and protection of the family unit. Today, divorce and broken families are as common as cars on the road. In the black community, the single parent ratio has reached an astounding 72 percent. Absent dads, working moms, and kids who’d rather be in gangs than in church have become a norm in many neighborhoods.

It happened quickly–since the 1960s. Now, counterfeit forms of marriage and family are on the horizon which will only weaken the real deal. The family is committing suicide in numerous and alarming ways.

Moral Suicide

The decline of morality has also been stunning in the past fifty years. Sex outside of marriage used to be rare; Adults preying on kids was once viewed as hideous and evil; Men having sex with men and women with women was viewed as an abomination and crooked; Babies were cherished and protected, not slaughtered in abortion mills.

Our moral suicide can be time-lined by the songs of past decades. The early Beatles reeked of innocence when they first crooned “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The Rolling Stones descended into outright lust when they proposed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (a very lewd and foreign idea to single Americans in Judeo-Christian America just fifty years ago).

More recently, the young generation just shrugs (or maybe twerks) when rapper Cee Lo Green parades onstage and bellows out profanities, such as the song F**K You.

It’s a long way from shyly holding hands to tossing F-bombs to minors. It’s the mark of a death spiral that has numbed and destroyed the morals of a once godly people.

Fiscal Suicide

In the past four years, Amnerica’s fiscal insanity has ballooned to the forefront. Cheating in morals usually leads to cheating with money. If you can get away with fornication, then you can certainly bend the rules of debt–to your own demise. Many Americans are lost under a mountain of personal debt, and the politicians we’ve elected have followed our lead in running up a 17 trillion dollar national time bomb.

In Washington, D.C., they don’t even do budgets anymore, and it’s not uncommon to have yearly deficits of 500 billion to one trillion dollars. In 2013, the stock market is being manipulated to phony highs by quantitative easing, we linger in a painful and debilitating recession, 151 million people are receiving government checks of one sort (100 million of them on welfare), and only 125 million people earn their own way (paychecks). Yet, we keep electing politicians who are spending the nation into a disaster.

This insanity of national fiscal suicide may be the most sudden and painful of all–when it hits.

Health Suicide

Closest to home at the moment, through the foolishness of the misnamed “Affordable Health Care Act” (commonly called Obamacare), we are driving some nails into our national coffin via the destruction of the best health care system the world has ever known.

People are losing their doctors and personal plans; Premiums and deductibles are going up for millions of Americans; There will be a doctor and health care shortage in the coming years; There will be death panels for some of the elderly.

We’ve even spent a billion dollars on this government intrusion into our personal health– and the federal website doesn’t even work! Plus, you will be penalized (taxed) for non-compliance.

America’s healthiest days are behind her if we do not cast off this governmental health monstrosity. It is unaffordable, is not about health (it’s about control), does not really care for the good of the nation, and is an act we can do without. Still, probably half of the nation doesn’t even realize that we’ve stuck a hypodermic needle filled with poison into our national body politic.

Maybe that will be the ultimate suicidal act of a civilization gone mad.

So why do nations commit suicide? There are a number of factors to remember:

First, the Bible says that “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). This certainly applies to the knowledge of God, right and wrong, godly perspective, and the wisdom to pursue true liberty. Nations die when they forget–lose the knowledge–of what made them great to begin with.

Second, nations commit suicide when they fail to grasp the power of human depravity–that we are fallen human beings who, if left to ourselves, will always descend into lust, greed, carnality and death. The human tendency to sin is the most tragic form of entropy (“gradual decline into disorder”).

That is why we need God to enlighten, forgive, redeem and empower us to neutralize the destructive tendencies. We CANNOT do it without Him.

And finally, both individuals and nations commit suicide when they make emotional decisions to go against their good character or history in the pursuit of personal pleasure. That’s what happened to my friend Harry. It is happening to the United States before our very eyes.

I am reminded of a scene from the sci-fi movie  Independence Day when a group of emotional, unthinking, city residents went up on the top of a tower to party and “welcome” the aliens to planet Earth.

They were incinerated in a moment.

We are not there yet, but we are getting close. We might be Jeremiah in our latter years, or we could be God’s chosen instruments of the next great spiritual awakening. Be awake to the former, but give your life for the latter.

God does not want us to commit national suicide. He wants us to live, not die.

 

 

I am currently in Northern Idaho visiting some of our workers who serve among Native Peoples.  One of the fruits of the destruction of American Indian culture–much of it ill-advised and unjust–was native populations living in isolation on various reservations.

That has not worked out well for them or the United States. This cultural isolation has increased poverty, alcoholism, and produced many other destructive forces.

I recently came across an article on Islam that took the perils of isolation–especially genetic isolation and inbreeding–to a much higher level.

The lesson is clear: When we do not follow God’s instructions for life, marriage, and social relationships, the consequences can be staggering (just as it will be for the acceptance of homosexual marriage).

Ponder below what fourteen centuries of “incest” may have have done to Muslim peoples.

1,400 YEARS OF IN-BREEDING

By Aaron Cantor, United States Air Force (ret) 

“During the pilot transition program with the KV-107 and C-130 with Lockheed, we found that most Saudi pilot trainees had very limited night vision, even on the brightest of moon-lit nights. Their training retention rate was minimal including maintenance personnel.”

“Some had dim memories and had to be constantly reminded of things that were told to them the day before. Needless to say, an American, British or any other western instructor gets burned out pretty quick. It actually took Muslim C-130 pilots years before they could fly in the dark safely and then would be reluctant to leave the lights of a city. “

“Islam is not only a religion, it’s a way of life all the way around. Here is another set of revealing facts about Muslim beliefs and traditions and ways of life.”

“1400 years of inbreeding.” 

“I found this to be interesting. Didn’t know whether to believe it or not. To research I went to Wikipedia, “Cousin Marriage”, and far down in the article “Genetics”, it seems there is a lot of truth here.”

“A huge Muslim problem: Inbreeding.”

“Nikolai Sennels is a Danish psychologist who has done extensive research into a little-known problem in the Muslim world: the disastrous results of Muslim inbreeding brought about by the marriage of first-cousins.”

“This practice, which has been prohibited in the Judeo-Christian tradition since the days of Moses, was sanctioned by Muhammad and has been going on now for 50 generations (1,400 years) in the Muslim world.”

“This practice of inbreeding will never go away in the Muslim world, since Muhammad is the ultimate example and authority on all matters, including marriage. The massive inbreeding in Muslim culture may well have done virtually irreversible damage to the Muslim gene pool, including extensive damage to its intelligence, sanity, and health.”

“According to Sennels, close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred. In Pakistan, the numbers approach 70%. Even in England, more than half of Pakistani immigrants are married to their first cousins, and in Denmark the number of inbred Pakistani immigrants is around 40%.The numbers are equally devastating in other important Muslim countries: 67% in Saudi Arabia, 64% in Jordan, and Kuwait, 63% in Sudan, 60% in Iraq, and 54% in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.”

“According to the BBC, this Pakistani, Muslim-inspired inbreeding is thought to explain the probability that a British Pakistani family is more than 13 times as likely to have children with recessive genetic disorders. While Pakistanis are responsible for three percent of the births in the UK, they account for 33% of children with genetic birth defects.”

“The risks of what are called autosomal recessive disorders such as cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular atrophy is 18 times higher and the risk of death due to malformations is 10 times higher.”

“Other negative consequences of inbreeding include a 100 percent increase in the risk of still births and a 50% increase in the possibility that a child will die during labor.”

“Lowered intellectual capacity is another devastating consequence of Muslim marriage patterns. According to Sennels, research shows that children of consanguineous marriages lose 10-16 points off their IQ and that social abilities develop much slower in inbred babies.”

“The risk of having an IQ lower than 70, the official demarcation for being classified as ‘retarded,’ increases by an astonishing 400 percent among children of cousin marriages. (Similar effects were seen in the Pharaonic dynasties in ancient Egypt and in the British royal family, where inbreeding was the norm for a significant period of time.)”

“In Denmark, non-Western immigrants are more than 300 percent more likely to fail the intelligence test required for entrance into the Danish army.”

“Sennels says that ‘the ability to enjoy and produce knowledge and abstract thinking is simply lower in the Islamic world.’ He points out that the Arab world translates just 330 books every year, about 20% of what Greece alone does. In the last 1,200 years of Islam, just 100,000 books have been translated into Arabic, about what Spain does in a single year. Seven out of 10 Turks have never even read a book.”

“Sennels points out the difficulties this creates for Muslims seeking to succeed in the West. ‘A lower IQ, together with a religion that denounces critical thinking, surely makes it harder for many Muslims to have success in our high-tech knowledge societies.'”

“Only nine Muslims have ever won the Nobel Prize, and five of those were for the ‘Peace Prize.’ According to Nature magazine, Muslim countries produce just 10 percent of the world average when it comes to scientific research measured by articles per million inhabitants.”

“In Denmark, Sennels’ native country, Muslim children are grossly over represented among children with special needs. One-third of the budget for Danish schools is consumed by special education, and anywhere from 51% to 70% of retarded children with physical handicaps in Copenhagen have an immigrant background.”

“Learning ability is severely affected as well. Studies indicated that 64% of school children with Arabic parents are still illiterate after 10 years in the Danish school system. The immigrant drop-out rate in Danish high schools is twice that of the native-born.”

“Mental illness is also a product. The closer the blood relative, the higher the risk of schizophrenic illness. The increased risk of insanity may explain why more than 40% of patients in Denmark’s biggest ward for clinically insane criminals have an immigrant background.”

“The U.S. is not immune. According to Sennels, ‘One study based on 300,000 Americans shows that the majority of Muslims in the USA have a lower income, are less educated, and have worse jobs than the population as a whole.'”

“Sennels concludes: ‘There is no doubt that the wide spread tradition of first cousin marriages among Muslims has harmed the gene pool among Muslims. Because Muslims’ religious beliefs prohibit marrying non-Muslims and thus prevents them from adding fresh genetic material to their population, the genetic damage done to their gene pool since their prophet allowed first cousin marriages 1,400 years ago are most likely massive. This has produced overwhelming direct and indirect human and societal consequences.'”

“Bottom line: Islam is not simply a benign and morally equivalent alternative to the Judeo-Christian tradition. As Sennels points out, the first and biggest victims of Islam are Muslims. Simple Judeo-Christian compassion for Muslims and a common-sense desire to protect Western civilization from the ravages of Islam dictate a vigorous opposition to the spread of this dark and dangerous religion. These stark realities must be taken into account when we establish public polices dealing with immigration from Muslim countries and the building of mosques in the U.S.”

“Let’s hope the civilized West and the North Americans wake up before a blind naiveté about the reality of Islam destroys what remains of our Judeo-Christian culture and our domestic tranquility.”

Sobering words to ponder.

On one level, human governments of the world need to fight the unreasonable tenets of Islamo-Fascism or the jihadist movement.

But on another level, we need to compassionately help Muslim people escape the devastating errors of Mohammed and the Koran, and find life, health, and eternal hope through God’s truth.

The United States remains stuck in political gridlock. As I mentioned last week, this is actually better than just sailing off a fiscal cliff without the possibility of changing course. Why?

Because the essence of courage and patriotism is resisting wrong in all its forms.

However, we are stuck in this painful and embarrassing situation because President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid keep telling us they won’t negotiate with the other side.

But all good leaders negotiate. So why the tough stance?

It all boils down to the truth about lies.

It would be helpful to remind ourselves that there is a vast difference between the God of the Universe who is the epitome of truth (Psalm 108:4, John 14:6), and the god of this world–Satan–who “was a liar from the beginning and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

This is why most epic stories or films are built around the concept of good and evil, truth and falsehood. And most of us cheer and feel good when truth wins out. We were created with a desire to love and affirm truth and resist and reject error.

A society is the most civil, free, and prosperous when it embraces and lives out the truth about God, human beings, and their God-given rights and responsibilities. The genius of “America” is not found in our geography or natural resources, but in our personal, social and political commitment to “In God We Trust.”

This is another way of saying that we believe in truth–and we find that truth in God and His Word. No wonder, one of our national songs is the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” which exalts the fact that “His truth is marching on.”

We Americans believe in the goodness of truth-telling.

But there is a devil and he is very good at lying. The entire human race is fallen because he told our First Parents a lie, they believed it, and everything changed (you find that dramatic story in Genesis 3).

Thus, much of human history is the tug of war between God’s truth (redemptive) and Satan’s lies (destructive). The destiny of nations can hinge upon whether they believe the lies or seek to live out the truth.

Which brings us to the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and the current struggle between Congress and the Administration. What is becoming painfully clear is that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), once touted to bring freedom and blessing to America, is based on a number of lies.

Here are my Top Ten.

1. The Affordable Care Act will make health care “affordable” to all.  But as people like me get on the exchanges and try to find policies, we are realizing that ACA makes health insurance more expensive for the majority of Americans. This is a major reason why so few are signing up and the government is actually embarrassed to report the dearth of sign-ups to date.

2. You can keep our own doctor. That was a falsehood from the beginning. Millions are set to lose their own personal care–and that includes our family– which was booted from our former coverage and doctor because of the demands of ACA.

3. You can keep your present insurance if we like. Again, countless families and individuals are finding this untrue as the regulations of ACA put some insurance companies out of business, cause employers to drop employees, and force others out of their present plans.

4. ACA will save the average family $2500 a year. On the contrary, a recent Congressional Budget Office Report (CBO – non-partisan) clarified that ACA will raise the average family’s insurance premiums  nearly $7500–which makes this a $10,000 fib.

5. Government-led health care will cover all the uninsured. This number is usually estimated at 30 million. But, now the same CBO tells us that even with ACA, probably 30 million people will still be uninsured. So why are we giving the government control over one-sixth of the American economy for no change in coverage?

6. ACA will improve health services and options. The data so far indicates exactly the opposite–that the ACA will lead to a doctor shortage (due to controls and regulations on private practice), to health care rationizing (just like in other countires with government-entrenched health care), and even the “death panels” of Sarah Palin lore. The inefficiency of government and the restraints on private medicine will lead to people die needlessly.

7. The new health care law will cost 900 billion dollars. Do government programs EVER cost what they say in the beginning? The most recent estimate is that ACA will cost three times that much–at least. And why is that so? Because when the government runs or controls commerce, then competition and personal incentives which keep costs down, are lost.

8. “You can’t change the ACA because it’s the law of the land.” This is one of the current excuses of  proponents. But it’s wrong. Human laws change all the time. They come, they go. They’re implemented, they’re altered. Prohibition was a bad law. It was chucked. Slavery was evil. It was banished. And by the way–you can’t have it both ways. The other current law of the land is the debt ceiling–a long established law that goes back to 1917. The president now wants to “change it” (increase the debt). Out of one side of his mouth he says you can’t change ACA, but out of the other side he demands it. And here’s another inconsistency: the president has already changed seventeen different implemental aspects of ACA himself. And now he bellows that Congress CAN’T change others–like delaying the individual mandate for a year?

9. “It was approved by the Supreme Court.” Yes, but the Supremes make bad decisions just like all human beings. Think Dred Scott and slavery (Dred Scott vs. Sandford – 1857) and abortion on demand (Roe v. Wade – 1973). Dred Scott was repealed because it was a terrible verdict. Roe v. Wade will also be rescinded one day due to its evil nature and convoluted reasoning. The ACA decision–thanks to John Roberts–has been soundly castigated by other members of the Court and various legal scholars.

 10. ACA is not a tax. That’s how this onerous bill was sold to the Congress and nation. Unthinking people believed it. Then John Roberts said it really was a tax. Well, that’s debatable. But here’s something that’s not: ACA subverts the Commerce Clause by forcing Americans to buy a product they don’t want. And it penalizes them for not doing so (IRS-style).

This is a small listing of the lies involved in the ACA.  Should a wise society base a major change in their health care delivery on such widespread deception?

I say no–and believe we should fight with all our might.

Here’s another truthful word from Neil Cavuto. In a TV commentary on September 19, after President Obama publicly blamed Fox News for the unpopularity of his law, Cavuto responded:

“Mr. President, Fox News isn’t what’s making Americans sick about your healthcare law. Your healthcare law is.  And excuse this departure from form. It’s time we set some things straight.”

“Mr. President, we at Fox News are not the problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. You are. Your words are. Your promises are. We didn’t sell this healthcare law. Sir, you did.

“Remember this, President Barack Obama?: ‘If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.'”

“Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who’ve been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Fox News didn’t break that news to them, Mr. President. Their companies did.”

“Fox News didn’t push more of those firms to hire part-time workers. Your healthcare law did. Fox News didn’t incentivize fast food restaurants to scale back their benefits. Your healthcare law did. Fox News didn’t make doctors want to opt out. Your healthcare law did. Fox News didn’t make insurance premiums sky rocket. Your healthcare law did. Just like Fox News didn’t grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that needed them. You did. And Fox News didn’t delay one key provision after another, including online enrollment for those small business exchanges. You did.”

“Just like it wasn’t Fox News that said we had to pass this to see what was in this. You did. Or was that Nancy Pelosi? Sometimes I’m confused. But of this I am not. Fox News didn’t re-do basic math. Sir, you did. Fox News didn’t say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a hit in premiums. You did. Fox News didn’t say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions and not have to pay for it. You did. Fox News didn’t all but say you could get something for nothing. You did. Fox News didn’t come back years later and say, oh yea, we did raise some taxes. You did.”

“Here’s where you are right about Fox News, however, Mr. President. We can do math. And did. You cannot. And did not. We said it, and proved it. You didn’t. And we’re all suffering for it. Take it from the numbers guy at Fox. Numbers don’t lie. The number of Americans working part-time are nervous. The number of retirees days away from being dumped on exchanges are anxious. The number of company bosses with any news to pass along on those exchanges, but still clueless. The number of doctors who want out. The number of congressmen now opting out. No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie.”

“But with all due respect sir, I can only conclude you do know; I know, I know you hate us at Fox. But please take a look in a mirror, and fast. You think we’re the skunk at your picnic. But that doesn’t mean we’re the ones that stink. Because that smell isn’t coming from the folks reporting on your law. Mr. President, that smell is your law.”

Very well said–and completely true.

So why won’t progressives negotiate a repealing, defunding or delaying or modifying of the Affordable Care Act? Don’t they see the problems and dangers? Do they really want what’s best for America?

Maybe some do. Only God knows. But even if motives are sincere, the truth is that this government takeover of the American health care system is bad public policy. It’s about power not compassion and will lead to economic ruin.

It’s also a house of cards. Lies always are. And once you admit it, the house collapses.

That’s why the president does not want to negotiate.