I pledge allegiance

Much has been said, and we will say much more, about Major Malik Nadal Hasan's allegiance to Islam and how it conflicted with his allegiance to his uniform and to his nation (that's us).  It has opened a discussion that about which I have heard little.  What do we do when our relationship with God runs counter to what our government asks of us?

Houston, we have a problem.

More and more we find this clash amongst those who hold a strict Koranic view of Islam within non-Islamic societies.  Hence, Brits have kowtowed to Muslim immigrants and permitted Sharia within certain burroughs.  Hence, Muslim cabbies in Minneapolis needn't pick up passengers with seeing-eye dogs.  Hence, Muslim cashiers needn't check out patrons purchasing pork or Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Now we have soldiers who want to join the military but who want to take a sabbatical when they're fighting Muslims.

This God and country dilemma not only conflicts the hard-core Muslim, but it troubles (or should trouble) the Christian, too.

During the days of the Revolution, many Christian patriots loved England, but hated what the king was doing.  During the Civil War, many families were split north and south, with the north unable to abide slavery and the south unable to abide the erosion of state sovereignty.  During the World Wars, immigrants of most every Christian creed turned around to battle against their former homeland for the cause of freedom.

In the past, for those Christians who held to God as their highest allegiance, because of the Judeo-Christian bedrock upon which our nation was founded, they faced no conflict between God and country.  Serving one's country did not mean that one had to compromise in their service to God because the nation and its military stemmed from that firm foundation.  For those that examined the word of God, they did not find his principles nor his precepts violated as they took up arms against those America opposed even if they were Christians.  National conflict is a very different thing than personal conflict within the pages of the Bible.

But erosion has taken its toll.  Post-modern America has rejected its biblical underpinnings opting for a more secular function of government, culture, and international interactions.  As such, many Christians and many who serve in the military have begun to find themselves at odds with national policies.  Many find it repellent that we would allow our women to face the heat of combat.  Many grieve that the military is fast approaching the normalization of that which but a few decades ago was seen as deviance and contrary to good order and discipline.  Many wonder why we would kiss the ring of misogynist kings but would shun the only nation in the Middle East with a remotely free government.  Many cannot abide the legal killing of a child not yet born.

So like Major Hasan, many Christians find themselves at odds with God or country.

But there's a diametrical difference.  Christians do not turn their arms treacherously against their own.  They may have had to refuse their assigned duties.  They may have had to claim conscientious objector status.  Many face punitive action for not carrying out commands and orders, but to turn their weapons against their own is a repugnant and unbiblical idea.

As often as Islam is lauded as a religion of peace, there is much within a plain contextual reading of the Koran that would lead one not only to a position of conflict with one's nation but also to take up arms against that nation (slides 33, 34, 43, and 44 in Maj Hasan's PowerPoint presentation here exemplify this militant response).  You'll not find such militancy commanded of the Christian believer within a contextual reading of the Bible.

As our nation races faster and faster toward banishing any vestige of God from the public sector, the Christian will find himself more and more in conflict with the nation they have loved.  When those times come, the Christian would do well to follow the examples of Daniel's friends (Daniel 3, esp. vv. 16-18) and Peter and John (Acts 4:1-20, 5:29) by obeying God and submitting themselves to whatever consequence comes at the hand of the appointed governor (Romans 13:1-7). 

It has been in the persecution of the saints and the blood of the martyrs that the Church has flourished and God has been honored, not in the butchering of innocents or in the murder of comrades in arms.

You are no longer welcome

The dam has burst.

Western civilization thrived because of Christ. When man subjected himself under the mighty hand of God, denying and restraining his sinful nature through the power of the Holy Spirit and loving his neighbor by seeking his good and holding accountable his sin, civilization as we know it took root.

Dinesh D'Souza spoke on this very point at a leadership conference in Colorado Springs for Hillsdale College (adapted here). Man tended his plot, helped his neighbor tend his plot, and restrained those without law from harming either one.

Our nation is so very richly blessed because the high watermark for this thinking occurred in the middle of the 18th century during the formulation of our nation. Law, founded upon God's law and natural law (also God's), erected a high and secure dam against the tide of man's depravity.

Throughout the 19th century, the dam held, but the centrality of man in Enlightment thinking began to wear. Man as evolved and man apart from God began to take hold in the universities of Europe and infected the theologies of American seminaries. As man loosed himself from God, he loosed himself from God's laws and the dam began to leak like John McCain's press corps.

The 20th century infused relative law into American jurisprudence. Jurors began to dismiss the original intent of our Founders regarding Law, and incorporated social whim. Right and wrong begin to dissolve amidst the incessant dripping of sociological silliness. No, the devil didn't make me do it, but Burger King might have. Or Folgers. Or Jack Daniels. Or Hugh Hefner. But it is most certainly not my fault.

Despite that, I had hoped that the dam would hold. It was such a work of art. It reflected the truth of the Creator like Hubble's mirrors. But the dam is down.

Overreacting, you say? Consider current events in light of California's Proposition 8. If unfamiliar, with Prop 8 Californians affirmed the obvious, that marriage is between a man and a woman. You'd think this would affirm the dam's integrity. Every state that has voted on marriage has recognized affirmed God-ordained marriage. Notice what has happened since the election.

• Churches violated. Homosexuals have invaded churches that boldly and rightly spoke out in favor of Prop 8, interrupting worship services, tossing crude fliers, shouting crude epithets and behaving crudely. Little was done to the disrupters.
  
• Mormon's targeted. While I believe Mormonism to be heretical in light of biblical Christianity, their stance against sexual sin exhibits greater courage toward their documents than most Christians show toward theirs. Because of this stance, they have had unleashed upon them the full wrath of the homosexual community with Books of Mormon burned on the doorsteps of their church. What have you heard about the search for those who have threatened the LDS?
  
• Hollywood. Did you like Nacho Libre? Swell. Jack Black and others have created a musical with Mr. Black portraying Christ that rips the integrity of the Bible mocking fundamental doctrines and mocking the Son of God all to discredit those who supported traditional marriage. Hue? Cry? Nope. Just the sound of silence.
  
• Newsweek (linked here). The cover story: The Religious Case for Gay Marriage. The precis is equally charming:

  Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.

If you're a Bible-believing Christian, you understand the absurdity of such an assertion (if you'd like some biblical guidance through the Newsweek article go here). During Christmas and Easter, you can count on Time and Newsweek unleashing some of the most unbiblical treatments of biblical topics in all journalism. Prop 8 simply provided the fodder.

But it's not just Proposition 8 where Christians and God are being dismissed. Kathleen Parker, conservative journalist (in name only), has called upon the Republican Party to heal itself by distancing itself from the Religious Right. Only by jettisoning this obsession with abortion and homosexuality can conservatives regain their political voice, asserts Ms. Parker.

Hollywood, the homosexual community, liberal journalists and now centrist journalists state that those who hold to the Bible, biblical Christians, have no voice in the public arena. God and His word may not be used as a point of argument in the public nor the political realm. That is what is being asserted within all of these events.

Where is the public outcry against such censorship and against such bigotry? Where are the voices of elected officials denouncing such affronts against civility, against civilization, and against God?

The dam is decimated and the torrent crashes down the valley. The enmity and loathing toward those who name Christ will only increase. The silence from those who support Christ but don't want to get swept away will grow more haunting.

Life has been easy in a tranquil and protected valley. No longer. The time to retreat in cowardice is at hand. Run, if you fear. Run!

Or stand upon the rock of Jesus Christ.

- There is no other argument that matters in a world racing toward hell. Christ.
- No argument surpasses Christ when it comes to defending the unborn.
- No argument overrules Christ when it comes to indicting our sin.

Will we be overwhelmed by the flood of American decadence for the glory of God? May He give us the courage to stand for His name. May we stand with grace and dignity toward our enemies.

And may God divert the tide and reestablish the levee in our time.

China: A post-Olympic hangover

China's been mighty quiet since Beijing closed down their games. Beyond pouring money into our tottering economy, buying up our banks and government bonds, they've been as quiet as Buddhist temple mice.

I read an article today slapped me out of my Sino-complacency.

You've probably heard about their one-child policy, the one that's created a veritable boom in their abortion industry and in orphanages for infant girls (and little boys born with deformities). The fact the implementation occurred a generation ago has led to all those baby boys growing in marrying age men only to find that there are 40 million more of them than there are potential brides. Self-inflicted societal catastrophe.

That's not what the article was about. No, I'd heard plenty about the former issue. This one had me thinking back to the Holocaust museums I'd visited (can you use so tame a verb about such a place?) in Jerusalem and in Washington D.C. It appears that what they do to their political prisoners makes Gitmo seem like the Ritz-Carlton with room service.

To keep up with the growing need for human organs for transplant, they turned to the logical place a totalitarian state would turn - its political prisons. The Falun Gong, the religious thorn in the Chinese posterior, have been on the giving end of this assembly line. Organs. And lives. Seems to satisfy the Chinese state on both counts.

Read the disturbing article here...and then wonder why you haven't heard about it before now.