Reformed Thoughts and Gary’s Desk

How long will the Christian community continue to be complicit in electing big sending, Constitutionally ignorant, One Worlders to lead this country? We are a pack of dupes, believing all the lies the media dishes out, believing our elected officials would never sell us out deliberately. WAKE UP! It’s already happening and will only get worse if we don’t heed the warnings of men like Pastor Baldwin. If we continue to believe the lies that men, like Ron Paul, can not be elected, then we deserve to lose our liberty to freedom sucking leeches sold out to international governance. Ron Paul can win, but first Christians must get their heads out of their self righteous behinds,

Gary

WHY ARE RON PAUL’S SUPPORTERS SO ANGRY?

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin
January 29, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
When Glenn Beck interviewed Congressman Ron Paul a few weeks ago, he said that he had received death threats from people purporting to be Ron Paul supporters. I have heard other journalists make similar accusations against Congressman Paul’s supporters. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether any of this is true or not. And neither does anyone else.

My own experience has been that Congressman Paul’s supporters have always demonstrated grace, patience, and courtesy. I have met and worked alongside Ron Paul supporters in at least four states, and I have never personally witnessed any of the anger and bitterness of which they are accused.

Not that Ron Paul’s supporters do not have reason to be angry. They most certainly do. In fact, all of us should be angry.

Ron Paul’s supporters have been subjected to the most overt and outlandish brand of humiliation and censorship ever seen in modern politics. The cable news Republican Presidential debates have been jokes. For every one question (and usually a stupid, irrelevant question at that) asked of Dr. Paul, the other participants will get three or four. Maybe more. Even though Ron Paul has received more money, more votes, and more delegates than Rudy Giuliani, the press continues to ignore Mr. Paul while showering Giuliani with coverage.

In addition, Ron Paul’s own party continues to treat him and his supporters as second-class citizens–or perhaps even as aliens from a different planet. They are subjected to insults of every type. Not to mention enduring every conceivable method to censure or remove Dr. Paul from the political process. He has been denied access to platforms, excluded from debates, removed from GOP Presidential lists, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

I say again: if anyone has a right to be angry, it is Ron Paul supporters. But perhaps the greater question is, Why are not all of us angry? No, I do not mean in a cruel or unkind way, but where is our outrage for what the ruling elite are doing to our country?

We should all be angry at the way politicians lie to us, deceive us, and manipulate us. We should all be angry at the way both major parties have completely ignored and trampled constitutional government.

Are we so gullible that we cannot see when a politician says one thing to one group of people and a totally opposite thing to another group of people? Are we so naïve that we cannot tell when a politician changes his beliefs simply in order to garner votes?

Come on folks, let’s get real: do you really expect John McCain to abandon his efforts to grant amnesty to illegal aliens? Do you really expect Mitt Romney to be a champion for the unborn? Do you really expect Mike Huckabee to suddenly be the champion for limited government spending? Do you really expect Rudy Giuliani to keep his pants zipped?

Have the American people become so numbed to truth and reality that we cannot distinguish the genuine from the phony–even when it stands right in front of us? Perhaps so. However, if the American people had any of the character and resolve of our forebears, we would be steaming mad about what our political and business leaders have done to our country.

Yes, we should be angry at the way our government has repeatedly lied to us about the economy, about sending our jobs and manufacturing industries overseas, about Iraq, and about EVERYTHING! Yes, dear friends, they lie to us about everything. It has gotten to the point that, frankly, I believe NOTHING the government tells us. They have proven themselves to be totally disingenuous and downright duplicitous. And, frankly, I’m angry about it.

In addition, I can even understand whatever anger and exasperation Ron Paul’s supporters feel regarding my fellow evangelical believers. Today’s Christians–and especially our pastors–have become little more than toadies for the establishment elite. They apparently have never read our U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, or Bill of Rights. They are seemingly oblivious to our great American history and heritage. They seem to lack the most elementary understanding of even the most basic American principles.

For example, it makes absolutely no sense that Christian pastors would embrace the sudden pro-life candidacy of Mitt Romney and reject the proven, twenty-year pro-life record of Ron Paul. It makes no sense that evangelical Christians would embrace the pro-illegal amnesty, pro-McCain/Feingold, pro-No-Child-Left-Behind, pro-gun control John McCain and reject the proven, twenty-year no-amnesty, pro-freedom, anti-No-Child-Left-Behind, pro-Second Amendment record of Ron Paul. It makes absolutely no sense that Christians would fall for Mr. Big Government himself, Mike Huckabee, and reject the champion of limited government, Ron Paul.

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Beyond that, how is it that pastors and evangelicals cannot see through the GOP’s complicity in helping to establish a Luciferian New World Order? How can they be so blind and dumb regarding the global machinations of the Council on Foreign Relations? How can they not understand and reject the philosophy emanating from the Trilateral Commission and Bilderburgers?

Ask the average pastor and Christian about the CFR, the Trilateralists, or the Bilderburgers and they just stare into space. They are absolutely clueless. Ask them about the burgeoning NAFTA superhighway, North American Union, or Amero and they look stupefied. Again, they are absolutely clueless. And, yes, I am angry about it. I am saddened and angered at the lack of knowledge, perception, and discernment demonstrated by my Christian brethren.

I believe with all my heart that if the pastors and Christian people of America would come off their high horse and start supporting the principles of liberty, the U.S. Constitution, and limited government, not only would there be a rebirth of freedom in America, there would be a spiritual revival as well.

As it is, freedom-loving people cannot see past the ignorance, elitism, and partisan phoniness of modern Christians in order that they might see Christ. The Scripture plainly says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (II Corinthians 3:17)

When America’s Colonial preachers and Christian people fought for liberty and independence, God gave us two Great Awakenings. I believe another Great Revival would come to America, if our Christians and pastors would stand on their hind legs and once again fight for liberty and independence. And, yes, I am also angry that they will not do that either.

*If you enjoyed this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, please send your check or Money Order to:

Chuck Baldwin Live
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© 2008 Chuck Baldwin - All Rights Reserved

Deacon chairMan Kathy Madeia said in a statement. “Our members have diverse opinions about many things, but what we have in common is our love for God, the church and each oher” . Balderdash! This is the kind of antinomianism that is destroying the witness of the church to the unsaved. If we do not call sin, in this case homosexuality, sin why in the world does anyone need a Saviour. Why would anyone look to Christ who shed His blood so that those who are DEAD in their sin might call on His name and be saved. God so hates homosexuality that He calls for the death penalty on those who practice it in Leviticus 20:13. And in the New Testament church, according to Paul in Romans 1:27, it is still an abomination, ” And likewise also men, leaving the NATURAL use of the woman, burned in their LUST one toward another; men with men working that which is UNSEEMLY, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet”.

This congregation neither loves the God of the Bible nor the church if they do not condemn the homosexual and call him to repent of his sin and embrace the only Savior the world has, the Lord Jesus Christ, who stated about the Law Of God in Matthew 5, that not one jot or title had passed away. Christ came to confirm it. Nor is this congregation showing love toward one another if they do not call their homosexual members to repent and turn to Jesus, for they will be condemning them to an eternity in hell. The least of their worries is whether they should include homosexual couples in their directory.

Gary

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–Members of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, voted Dec. 2 to delay a decision on whether to include homosexual members as couples in a church pictorial directory.
Baptist Press broke the story of the church contention on Nov. 6. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram said the church’s deacons would recommend a solution to the issue by Feb. 4.
“We do not want to rush to make a decision, but rather to continue to listen to each other and for God’s leading to our church,” deacon chairman Kathy Madeja said in a statement. “Our members have diverse opinions about many things, but what we have in common is our love for God, the church and each oher” …Please Read On

Are we Christians as dedicated to reconstructing the Kingdom Of God, of course minus the violence?

By Art Moore
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Logo of D.C. imam’s movement
A Washington, D.C., imam states explicitly on the website for his organization that he is part of a movement working toward replacement of the U.S. government with “the Islamic State of North America” by 2050.

With branches in Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Philadelphia, the group As-Sabiqun – or the Vanguard – is under the leadership of Abdul Alim Musa in the nation’s capital. Please read the rest of the story

I sincerely hope you take the time to read this entire article. Alan Stang has articulated exactly what is wrong in America today. We have mere men masquerading as gods, thinking they can fix everything. And as long as the church continues to support these little tin dictators who rule in the civil realm and the church America will continue to rot.

Gary

IMPERIAL RELIGION HATES JESUS

by Alan Stang
November 5, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

I was recently dismayed by the sudden realization that there could be pockets of population, however small, whom I have not yet managed to offend. Herewith I hasten to apologize for that discrepancy and to assuage my embarrassment, by explaining the madness that for a century and a half has been dismantling our civilization, camouflaging itself as true Christianity.

The “Abolitionist” movement that provoked Lincoln’s Communist War to Destroy the Union is a good place to start. At this distance it is easy to see that the “Abolitionists” extruded a species of madness, a fanatic mania personified by lunatics like John Brown, who fastened onto Negro slavery as a vehicle to express it.

Had there never been Negro slavery in our country, their madness would have fastened onto something else, and in fact it has, as we shall see. For a taste of what I am talking about, see Otto J. Scott, The Secret Six: John Brown and the Abolitionist Movement (New York, NYT Times Books, 1979), a brilliant exposition of the problem.

The messianic mania these monsters fomented eventually led to the destruction of the federal union the nation’s Founders had bequeathed them. It effectively centralized governmental power and has inspired one horror after another. Today it is close to finishing our system off completely. I said above that it camouflages itself as true Christianity. What is the difference? If it isn’t Christianity, what is it?

You can see an expression of the difference at Manassas. The Yankees literally rode out from Washington to picnic, with refreshments in baskets the ladies had prepared. It would be an afternoon’s entertainment. They would teach the Southerners a lesson and end the rebellious charade. They didn’t know that, at Manassas, Jackson – the Immortal – would stand like a stone wall. They didn’t know the Southerners would send them fleeing in disorder.

The Yankees call it a “Civil” War. Of course, it was not. Had it been a civil war – a war for control of the “general government” – Jackson would have and easily could have pursued the fleeing rabble back to town, seized it, restored the Union and thrown our first Communist President into jail, where he belonged. Our next President, Robert E. Lee, would have arranged his trial.

But they did not. Instead, Jackson, a true Christian, turned aside. A true Christian is modest; he believes in minding his own business, in live and let live. My speculation is that after Manassas the Southerners hoped and believed that the newly chastened Yankees would share their belief and leave them alone to enjoy their own lives in their own country. Later, after it was too late, when Lee – another Immortal – realized what he had been fighting, he said that, had he known, he would have fought to the last man.

So, what is the difference? It lies in the satanic belief that one can improve upon God, that man can do a better job than Jesus. Scripture tells us Jesus did it “all,” a little word with a big meaning. “All” means everything. It means there is nothing else beside it. You can walk all around all, but you will find nothing hanging out, no loose ends. If Jesus really did it “all,” as scripture says, no one can do any more. If the job requires nailing in the only six nails you have, and someone else has nailed them all in, nothing more can be done.

What did and does Jesus do? He saves. He saved us from our sin by becoming sin Himself. Nothing more need be done or can be done. He gives the blessing of eternal life to those the Father gave Him before the foundation of the world. It’s done before you ever show up. You don’t need to accept. You don’t need to decide. Jesus says He won’t lose even one He has been given. What could you decide? If Jesus says you’re His, you are His. Could you overrule Him? Remember, God is doing all this – created you, me and the universe – for His own pleasure. It’s not about us; it’s about God and His glory.

Yes, you can ruin your life completely in the world. You can never go to church. You can be stupid. You can ruin your health. You can even become a nasty drunk and beat your kids. You probably won’t though, because if God chose you before the foundation of the world, by your fruit will we know you.

Speaking for myself, I was much too stupid to arrange my own salvation, much too stupid to “accept” or “decide.” The thought that I could have done it on my own is preposterous and, frankly, scares the Hell out of me. Had the Lord not done it for me, I would still be doing things “My Way,” still dead in stupidity, and God would not have brought me the Love Priestess. Where do I get all this? I read it in the Book.

But some folks don’t like it. Before he was caught with the wrong sporting woman (not a man, thank God), one celebrity preacher used to call it a “hellish doctrine,” fearing that somebody who loves the Lord may not be chosen, which would be unjust. But remember that without Jesus, you are dead in sin. You can’t choose Him; He chooses you. The fact that you love the Lord proves He put that love there, proves you are one of His. If you want it, you already have it. Look at the ravening atheists presently trying to destroy Christianity. They boast they want no part of it and the Lord takes them at their word. There is no “injustice.”

If you believe this, you know that God gave us the Gospel not to “save souls,” but rather to guide and comfort the children He has chosen, the children He has already saved, and that He chooses preachers to pass the word along. They can save no one. Yes, that means someone who has never cracked the Bible and has never heard of Jesus Christ could still be one of His, if that is His pleasure.

But a celebrity preacher with a national television show once told me proudly, “I save 30,000 souls a month!” Man, that’s a thousand souls a day! If a mere man can save that many souls a day, do we really need Jesus? Needless to say, a man who can save that many souls in just one day is a celebrity, whose name could adorn a ministry, even a meeting hall. On the contrary, a preacher who knows he saves no one, and that the Lord simply called him from the congregation to spread His word is not.

From the ranks of such celebrity preachers – who, however much they pretend otherwise, believe Jesus did not do it all – come men like the “Abolitionists,” with a mission to “improve” upon God. They “improve” upon God in eternity, and they “improve” upon God here, in the Kingdom God gave us while we still inhabit these corruptible, unresurrected bodies.

So it is that the maniacal “Abolitionist” spirit, having washed its hands like Pilate of happily departed Negro slavery, at the cost of more casualties than in any other of our wars, now plunges into every corner of your private life; indeed, into every corner of the world, however remote, to “improve” it. This in part is the origin of the liberaloid frenzy that is presently pulling the nation apart. It is an attempt to “improve” upon God, motivated by the same rebellion that inspires Satan.

And since today’s “Abolitionists” are motivated by Satan and are not God – many have tried, like Tiberius, to be God, but only God can handle it – their “improvements” of the Kingdom turn out to be satanic horrors. Look at their fruit. They have killed many more babies than all our casualties in all our wars. By killing all these babies, they are “improving” the lot of women.

They are incapable of minding their own business. Everywhere you look, they are minding yours or someone else’s. They invade other nations for their own good to impose a form of government the natives don’t want, however many of our own men they kill and maim in the process. They utterly pervert the Christianity in which they claim to believe. They want to know everything you do and control it.

They are as fanatical as the jihadists they oppose. They illegally insert women into combat. They already are desperately short of experienced military personnel. When they hit Iran, they will certainly resurrect the military draft, including women, which will be the next installment in their campaign to destroy the family and collapse our civilization on the way to world government, their version of the Kingdom.

It is an intriguing historical fact that many of the new-fangled denominations founded to “improve” the original Bible message were started for that purpose around the middle of the Nineteenth Century, which also saw the beginning of the Communist horror that also claims to do a better job in the Kingdom than God. The Federal, National and World Councils of Churches were also in bed with the Reds.

Remember that God used to rule directly, through His judges. The children rebelled and offended Him, demanding an earthly King, so they could be like everyone else. God warned them what earthly government would do, but they insisted, so God graciously stepped aside and gave them Saul. Government was their punishment for rebelling against God. And Guess what? It all worked out as God had said. Amazing! How could God know?

Liberaloids in the church are still in rebellion. Their names adorn their ministries where they compete to “save souls,” and they love big government, the bigger the better, because government is the weapon they employ to “improve” the Kingdom, to “improve” upon God. That is why they applaud as government graduates illiterate drug zombies from the nation’s Communist schools and destroys our privacy. They worship el presidente Jorge W. Boosh, because Jorge – they think – is the king God appointed.

Completely ignoring scripture from beginning to end, they teach that Romans 13 says we must obey government no matter what it does; no matter how much government itself disobeys the mandate assigned it by God, no matter what He did to Jezebel. In Nazi Germany, they even wore black Nazi uniforms and heiled Hitler at big church meetings. Today they say in effect that God is a Nazi, or that He is maybe George Bush.

“All” is not lost. More and more Christian parents are joining an Exodus from the Communist government schools. I suggest that celebrity Christian leaders either find other work or return to the church, start worshipping Jesus and defend our inalienable right to mind our own business.

© 2007 - Alan Stang -

I stated in my sermon this Sunday, 10/14/07, that “we can expect a further inflating of our currency and the destruction of our economy as long as we continue to rely on the fallacious ideas of pagan men…. And why will all this continue, because we have unplugged our source of power, the Creator and Sustainer of ALL things, Almighty God, Yaweh, The Great I Am…. There is only one thing that can turn the tide to this looming doom. America will collapse if we do not recognize Jesus Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords in EVERY sphere of our lives. We must do whatever we do to the glory of God. and it must start with us as individuals. How can we possibly expect our country to be once again invigorated by the power of the Holy Spirit when we have collectively turned our backs on God? Even the church has been complicit in this with its antinomian presuppositions and its constant voting for the lesser of two evils.” The entire sermon can be found at http://reformedheritage.org. The following article confirms my remarks and basically suggests that our legislators are criminals. I most wholeheartedly concur.

Gary

Few Americans understand the Faustian dilemma awaiting their children with the federal deficit now at $8.7 trillion. Mr. Bush raised the federal debt level to nearly $10 trillion. On an individual level, if you earned $50,000.00 a year, but ran up your credit card debt to $500,000.00 a year, how would you pay for your financial liability? Answer: you couldn’t. Bankruptcy becomes your only option. However, what happens when an entire country bankrupts?

The dollar’s value falls world wide. Our annual trade deficit exceeds $700 billion. Our manufacturing base vanishes with millions of U.S. jobs outsourcing overseas. Our government must borrow $2 billion daily to keep our economy afloat. Unbeknownst to most Americans, their tax dollars pay in excess of $400 million daily to pay the interest on the federal debt.

Governor Lamm said, “I have participated in the greatest embezzlement in all of history. In my seventy plus years, I have never seen such a perfect crime.

“Like most other master criminals, I am heady with success and feel a need to brag. I kid you not - never before has one group appropriated as much money that belonged to another group in the history of crime.

“The victims, while they are increasingly suspicious, still do not know they have been had. It was literally and figuratively as easy as taking candy out of the mouths of babies. Please read on

Take heed Brethren here in America.

Gary

Islam expert: Europe well on the way to ‘Islamization’

Chad Groening OneNewsNow.comSeptember 17, 2007
A best-selling author and leading expert on Islam says that religion is well on its way to taking control of Europe — and he’s afraid that widespread violence may break out as a result.

In his new book, Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t, Robert Spencer, who is director of Jihad Watch, says that the war on terror is in fact a struggle against an Islamic jihad that would conquer and subjugate Western non-Muslims. He also asserts that Islam is well on its way to taking over Europe because the population has been silent for too long.

“It looks as if the problem as advanced far beyond the point of any kind of peaceful or easy resolution,” he explains. “Europe is either going to acquiesce in its Islamization and in the imposition of Islamic Sharia law, or its going to degenerate into large-scale conflict between non-Muslims who do not want to be quietly Islamized and the Muslim communities in Europe.”

Spencer says the longer Islam is allowed to expand in Europe, the more difficult it will be for non-Muslims to prevent

Several years ago I was considered a kook for even suggesting such an idea. Today it is a reality.
Please read the rest of this article and view the videos.
Gary

September 10, 2007

Implantable Microchips: NOT a Conspiracy Theory Anymore
It’s getting more difficult these days to sustain the preterist view of eschatology (preterism contends that the virtually all of the “last days” events took place no later than A.D. 70) when companies are pushing to place implantable microchips within the actual bodies of people. End-time prophecy teachers have long stated that microchipping may be the fulfillment of Revelation 13:16-17:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man may buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
My intent is not to wrestle with the eschatological debate, but to highlight AGAIN the growing draconian measures being pushed on all of us. Years ago, skeptics dismissed people as “wacko conspiracy theorists” for warning about the coming implantable microchip. They also warned about a National ID card, which will become a reality in May of 2008.

In 2005, the FDA approved implanting microchips in humans. To date, some 2,000 people around the world have RFID chips implanted in their skin. The company VeriChip Corp. has a goal of implanting 45 million Americans with medical monitoring chips. A person’s entire medical history can be stored on the chip.

Critics claim that the next step–after National ID cards–is to to microchip the entire population with all their personal information such as banking info, driver’s info, medical info, etc. You’ve probably seen the Visa credit card commercials when a person stops the flow of business by using cash or writing a check. Everyone else just glides their credit card across the scanner and they’re done. It’s easy to see after cash and cards, a single implanted chip is the ultimate technological solution. Visa’s tagline is “Life takes faster money. Life takes Visa.”

VeriChip had enlisted Tommy Thompson to its board in hopes of promoting the program. Thompson was going to run for president in 2008, but has since dropped out. Listen to this monster argue with a smile for the microchip–this is staggering:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLixwNkur8

Do you honestly believe that VeriChip is going to limit this technology to medical and child safety? Isn’t financial support next? Listen to Ron Paul and a few “other” experts talk about this development: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOMhNb6jtrg

HOW IS THIS FREEDOM??? HOW CAN WE PERMIT OUR POLITICIANS TO CONTINUE TO LIE TO US IN SAYING THAT THE WAR ON TERROR IS A WAR FOR FREEDOM? OUR FREEDOMS ARE VANISHING QUICKLY AND THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT STILL SAYS NOTHING!! EVEN SOME OF OUR OWN COLLEAGUES ARE ABSOLUTELY SILENT ON THESE ISSUES. THEY’RE ARGUING OVER FEDERAL VISION NONSENSE, POSTMODERNISM, CULTURAL RELEVANCE, THE RELIGIOUS INTENT OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS, AND RALLYING SUPPORT FOR UNJUST WAR!

There, I said it.
posted by Chris Ortiz at 12:11 PM

Praise God for men like Mayor Naugle of Fort Lauderdale, Florida for taking such a bold stand against homosexuality and its perversions. If only America had more men who had such strong Biblical convictions and was willing to wear them on his sleeve, no matter the cost.

Gary

Allie Martin and Jody Brown OneNewsNow.comSeptember 4, 2007
The mayor of Fort Lauderdale has been removed from the local tourism board because local officials feel his comments regarding homosexual activity in the area threaten the tourism industry and the billions of dollars it brings to Broward County.

Earlier this summer, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle apologized to parents for not realizing the extent of homosexual sex in public restrooms. He also said a pro-homosexual library should not be housed in a city building because it included pornography. (See related article)

Those comments have now cost the mayor his seat on the Tourism Development Council, a group that markets Broward County to tourists and conventions. Members of the county commission had accused the mayor of jeopardizing the area’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry.

But Naugle argues that many locals want public lewdness laws to be enforced. He says his city has become known as a popular spot for homosexuals who cruise for sex in public locations — and he wants to see that change.

“There’s been kind of an open attitude here that anything goes,” he says, “and it’s something we’re going to put a stop to. People are welcome to come to Fort Lauderdale, but they need to be respectful of our laws,” Naugle cautions.

According to the Fort Lauderdale mayor, one in five homosexual and bisexual men in the city are HIV positive and the city leads the nation in AIDS cases among homosexual men. “That’s what happens when you have too much political correctness and too much of this notion of tolerance that we have to accept everything,” he states. “It can be deadly.”

WSVN-TV in Fort Lauderdale reports that prior to the county commissioners’ unanimous decision to remove Mayor Naugle, he stated that removing him from the Tourism Development Council would not silence him. “My faith says that homosexuality is a sin,” Naugle said. “One of the things my father taught me is it’s not always about the money; it’s about doing what’s right.”

I had to read this article twice to be sure it was in reference to American Military personal. It sounds more like something you would find behind the bamboo curtain. Prasie God though that these men were willing to speak out about their faith.

Gary

Top Pentagon Officers Face Discipline for Endorsing Christianity
By
Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Sun, Aug. 26 2007 08:46 AM ET

Seven high-ranking officers, including four generals, could face discipline for what the Pentagon considers their promotion of Christianity.
Maj. Gen. Jack Catton of the U.S. Air Force offers a testimonial in a promotional video for the Christian Embassy, a Washington-based Christian group.
The Pentagon inspector general found the seven officers to be engaged in misconduct when they appeared in a promotional fundraiser video for the evangelical group Christian Embassy three years ago, according to OneNewsNow.

Christian Embassy was founded by the late Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ and ministers to diplomats, government leaders and military officers. The ministry holds prayer meetings each Wednesday morning at the Pentagon.

The officers were said to be in uniform at the Pentagon when they expressed military approval and support of the evangelical ministry in the video, according to The Associated Press.

The report said none of the officers asked for or received approval from superiors and recommended “appropriate corrective action” to be considered against them, according to AP.

A retired Army officer who had also attended the Christian Embassy Wednesday prayer meeting believes it’s hypocritical for the Pentagon to consider disciplinary action against the officers.

“There have been others in very senior positions, both in and out of uniform, who have gone to some of these Islamic centers and have bent over backwards to accommodate Islamists,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis to OneNewsNow Friday.

He pointed to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England who in early June joined the dedication of a new Islamic prayer center at the Quantico Marine Corps Base.

“[A]s far as I’m concerned, [he was] giving tacit endorsement of Islam just by his presence and making a formal visit,” said Maginnis. “And if he can’t tolerate a few generals and admirals stating, because they’re Christians, they think it’s a good idea that you promote Bible studies and Christian speakers into the Pentagon, I find that hypocritical and certainly an unfortunate circumstance.”

Maginnis thinks that the group Military Religious Freedom Foundation might be behind the pressure to investigate the officers.

“This is an ACLU-type hit on the Pentagon insisting that the inspector general conduct an investigation to get to the bottom of whether or not generals improperly used their influence with regard to a particular ministry,” he said.

The officers currently still face potential discipline for violating ethics rules by helping Christian Embassy.

My son was laughed out of one of his Sunday school classes 10 years ago because he dared to mention the possibility of the federal government being able to watch our every move in our homes. After all what purpose would our “benevolent” government have to look in on our home life? Well the future is here and my son is the one laughing underneath his concern for our loss of more freedom. We must throw out everyone of our elected officials. I hear nothing coming out of Washington in protest. Hopefully we have not waited too long. When we trust men more than God, this is what we get.

Gary

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 16, 2007; Page A01

The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers.

A program approved by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security will allow broader domestic use of secret overhead imagery beginning as early as this fall, with the expectation that state and local law enforcement officials will eventually be able to tap into technology once largely restricted to foreign surveillance.

Administration officials say the program will give domestic security and emergency preparedness agencies new capabilities in dealing with a range of threats, from illegal immigration and terrorism to hurricanes and forest fires. But the program, described yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, quickly provoked opposition from civil liberties advocates, who said the government is crossing a well-established line against the use of military assets in domestic law enforcement.

Although the federal government has long permitted the use of spy-satellite imagery for certain scientific functions — such as creating topographic maps or monitoring volcanic activity — the administration’s decision would provide domestic authorities with unprecedented access to high-resolution, real-time satellite photos.

They could also have access to much more. A statement issued yesterday by the Department of Homeland Security said that officials envision “more robust access” not only to imagery but also to “the collection, analysis and production skills and capabilities of the intelligence community.”

The beneficiaries may include “federal, state, local and tribal elements” involved in emergency preparedness and response or “enforcement of criminal and civil laws.” The “tribal” reference was to Native Americans who conduct semiautonomous law enforcement operations on reservations.

“These systems are already used to help us respond to crises,” Charles Allen, the chief intelligence officer for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a telephone interview. “We anticipate that we can also use it to protect Americans by preventing the entry of dangerous people and goods into the country, and by helping us examine critical infrastructure for vulnerabilities.”

Domestic security officials already have access to commercial satellite imagery, including the high-definition photographs available from Google and other private vendors. But spy satellites offer much greater resolution and provide images in real time, said Jeffrey T. Richelson, an expert on space-based surveillance and a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington.

“You also can get more coverage more often,” Richelson said. “These satellites will cover during the course of their orbits the entire United States. They will be operating 24 hours a day and using infrared cameras at night.”

Other nonvisual capabilities can be provided by aircraft-based sensors, which include ground-penetrating radar and highly sensitive detectors that can sense electromagnetic activity, radioactivity or traces of chemicals, military experts said. Such radar can be used to find objects hidden in buildings or bunkers.

One possible use of the technology would be to spot staging areas along smuggling routes used to transport narcotics or illegal immigrants, officials said. In a handful of cases, security officials have requested — and obtained — similar help, but only on a case-by-case basis.

Allen said the agreement with the DNI grew out of the general impetus for wider intelligence-sharing in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when administration and intelligence officials began examining the possibility of increasing officials’ access to secret data as a means of strengthening the nation’s defenses.

The program was formally authorized in May in a memo by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The two officials have been coordinating for months, as recommended in a 2005 study headed by Keith Hall, then the director of the National Reconnaissance Office.

Hall’s group cited an “urgent need” for expanding sharing of remote sensing data to domestic groups other than scientific researchers. “Opportunities to better protect the nation are being missed,” the report said.

Under the new program, the DHS will create a subordinate agency to be known as the National Applications Office. The new office, which has gained the backing of congressional intelligence and appropriations committees, is responsible for coordinating requests for access to intelligence by civilian agencies. Previously, an agency known as the Civilian Applications Committee facilitated access to satellite imagery for geologic study.

Oversight of the department’s use of the overhead imagery data would come from officials in the Department of Homeland Security and from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and would consist of reviews by agency inspectors general, lawyers and privacy officers. “We can give total assurance” that Americans’ civil liberties will be protected, Allen said. “Americans shouldn’t have any concerns about it.”

But civil liberties groups quickly condemned the move, which Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a nonprofit activist group, likened to “Big Brother in the sky.” “They want to turn these enormous spy capabilities, built to be used against overseas enemies, onto Americans,” Martin said. “They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state.”

Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, said that the data could be useful but that oversight for the program was woefully inadequate. Enhanced access “shouldn’t be adopted at all costs because it comes with risk to privacy and to the integrity of our political institutions,” he said.