Evangelical Reformation

Some take comfort in the rationale that we can thank Jimmy Carter’s disastrous presidency for giving us Ronald Reagan. From that fact of history they extrapolate that the election of Barack Obama might lead to another Ronald Reagan.

This logic fails because if we had another Ronald Reagan we would be winning this election.

But an even greater flaw in this rationale resides in the reality that Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was well-intentioned but inept. Barack Obama is neither well-intentioned nor inept. Therefore, while Jimmy Carter opened the door for the election of Ronald Reagan, if elected Barak Obama will nail the door shut on elections of conservatives in the future.

How so?
First, he will seriously curtail free speech. Michael Barone documents this inclination of Barak Obama and today’s Democratic party in his article entitled “The Coming Liberal Thugocracy.”  I would urge you to read this entire article.

Barone’s observations drive home the reality that the new Democratic left is militant in its beliefs and tactics. If Barack is elected and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid remain in control of the Congress, we can expect to find the same political correctness currently existing on college campuses to be imposed on society as a whole.

The academic world uses their degree-granting power to force its will on our young people. Under a Barak presidency we can expect legislation that will empower our legal and judicial system to deal with those who do not adhere to the party line.

Banks have already experienced coercion of this nature in the imposition of Congressional social engineering on their loan policies, which has produced our present financial crisis. If Obama is elected we can expect such tactics to strike closer to the doors of our homes.

One such move already in the mill resides in the reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine.” This will effectively silence the voice of talk radio. That news outlet can be credited with conservative political success in recent years. Without it, conservative success at the polls will be very difficult.

Yet another initiative we can expect from a President Obama and an empowered Democratic Congress consist of extending free reign and added financial support to ACORN and similar organizations that have the objective of loading the ballot box toward the left.

Imagine an organization that receives millions from the federal government, which has the sole mission of registering Democrats, especially those with radical left leanings. That requires no imagination at all because this is what we have now. However, with greater freedom and support, the playing field will be tilted even more steeply against conservatives.

Make no mistake about it, even the current efforts of ACORN are bringing in many thousands of voters to the left side of the political spectrum, numbers sufficient to change election outcomes.

The combination of silencing talk radio and other aspects of free speech along with stuffing the ballot box will make it practically impossible for conservatives to win elections. These efforts will be aided and abetted by the mainstream media, making it almost impossible for the truth to be known and objections to be raised. This would mean that the left would become more entrenched and more empowered and more radical.

In other words, Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter. Carter brought us Reagan. Obama, if elected, will take us down a one-way dead-end street from which there will be no return. Pray fervently that God will spare us from that fate.

Truth is a scarce commodity in our society. This dark reality reveals itself graphically in our current financial crisis. One can listen to television, the major source of “truth” in our society, 24/7 and learn practically nothing about the realities of our financial crisis. Though we hear a lot about Wall Street greed, this accusation seems to be aimed at taking the attention off of the culpability of Congress. One thing is for sure. You won’t get to the bottom of it watching television.

Why has truth fallen? Several forces in our society work hard to knock it down and prevent it from getting back up. One is communication by sound-bite. Whether a newscast or presidential debate, you only get at most a two minute treatment of any subject. In the Bill O’Reilly type format, you might get four minutes comprised of two people yelling over each other. We get no thoughtful, factual development of a topic. The Vice Presidential “debate” last night consisted largely of accusations being made and denied and countercharges being leveled. Just by listening you could learn practically nothing, and to make matters worse you would probably come away believing errors.

For this reason such an event has deteriorated into a “gotcha” game, the highest hope being to hurl a one-liner that will zap the opponent such as the memorable, “and you’re no John F. Kennedy.” Substance comprises a small part of the exercise. We all remember the downfall of Richard Nixon in one of the early television debates. His makeup was not done well. Then there is the issue of style over substance. I recall hearing an announcement at church indicating that the speaker for an upcoming men’s retreat was “one of the great communicators of our day.” It struck me at the time that the concern was not over his content by how well he could communicate it.

This preference for delivery over data hits at the heart of our current election. Barack Obama communicates well. The facts related to his background, platform, and tactics mean little to a majority of the American public. We would rather hear lies said well than truths said poorly. At the heart of the problem resides the difficulty in discovering truth. Truth does not come easy, especially in a world in which people profit from distorting and hiding it. Even in studying the Bible, a book containing pure truth, we have to work hard to grasp the truth. Many have drawn erroneous conclusions from Scripture.

Therefore, in a culture that implements strategies that serve to muddy the waters rather than expose the truth, we have little hope of finding it. Our culture reflects that of Isaiah’s day. “Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” (Isaiah 59:14) Note the bitter byproducts that accompany the fall of truth.  The recovery of our society from its economic, political, moral, and other woes must begin with a thirst for truth that will lead us to adopt methodologies that will reveal it.