Preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

I don't like to post the kind of post this one is very often if at all since there are many pro-American persons who might be reading my blog. In the interests of having such persons not overlook the good that my Christian and other posts might do them I refrain from saying things that might be perceived as anti-American.

At the same time it would be incongrous of me as a Christian, precisely because I am a Christian, to not say what needs to be said even if it comes across as anti-American.

For the record I am not anti-American anymore than I am anti-Canada or anti any other country. I am most definitely against policies, wherever they are found, that lead to a loss of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness according to one's own conscience.

Nor am I gung-ho American no matter what. No Christian should be no matter how patriotic they see themselves as being.

A Christian first and foremost is a Christian. Not an American. There is no such thing, biblically speaking, as God and country in the commonly understood sense of that phrase. There is God. Period. Nothing and no one else, in comparison, deserves to be an object of our ultimate allegience and devotion. Patriotism, as seen through American eyes, is a most unChristlike thing. Jesus did not associate Himself with one particular country on this earth.

The country of Israel was indeed singled out by God as the chosen people. In some respects they still are since they are to play a central role in God's plans for this world but the true nation of Israel today, at least with respect to God's chosen people, is comprised of God's elect who are scattered through the world. They are not of one nation but many.

Christians belong to another country. A heavenly one. We are strangers in this world. Passing through.

We are to be good citizens. To be involved in country politics to the extent that we can be and to pray for our political leaders so that we might lead tranquil and quiet lives in all dignity. Not so that we might pursue our selfish interests freely but rather so that we might be able to live in a societal structure and framework that does not interfere with getting the Gospel out and otherwise loving people according to their needs.

So that justice might reign and give us some semblance of what God intended for a society to be in this life. For our common good.

America has been a beacon of hope for the world in times past. A beacon of hope that the world could produce a country where godly values could be upheld. Where justice and equality and dignity and all that is good and noble could be enshrined within a political system that would promote the good.

As much as some of you, perhaps many of you, do not believe that such hope was due to the role that Judeo-Christian values played in the founding of the U.S. the facts say otherwise. It was precisely because of the Christian faith of many of it's founding fathers (I do not claim to say they all were Christians) that the U.S. rose to be what it became.

But no more. The U.S. as a country has turned it's back on God. Today it is a secular country. While it continues to have the form of Christianity enshrined in some of it's institutions. While Sunday churches continue to be attended. While the motto on our money is still "In God We Trust" most all of these things are the left overs of times gone by.

It is my opinion that such things will go by the wayside in time and be removed entirely from the fabric of our society. At least publicly so and in a way that reflects true Christianity.

Even Churches, I refer to most Sunday churches, are themselves but a shadow of what the Lord intended churches to be. We as Christians have fallen into a delusional stupor where we have settled for the good instead of for God's best respecting what the Church should be.

Some of us have perhaps fallen into a false sense of security thinking that things can't be that bad and that those saying the U.S. is done for as the country that it was are just alarmist or a bit whacky.

But what is continues to be what is. And in my mind it is an undeniable fact to anyone that has eyes to see that the U.S. is in trouble. Big trouble. And that it is moving in a direction that is more and more leading to it's ultimate destruction as a country of the free or the brave (if it has not already fallen from that position).

Just this morning I read of Google working on an agreement to work with the NSA to get a better handle on how to protect itself from hackers. Never mind that Google has the money and capability to hire the best security experts imaginable. It feels a need to work with the NSA to better thwart hackers (see Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks).

There is even talk about a police only web interface to company user data in some circles (see Police want backdoor to Web users' private data | Politics and Law - CNET News).

And of course the erosion of privacy is not just a U.S. centric problem. The European Union itself passed a law back in 2006 in response to the Madrid and London terrorist bombings, known as the Data Retention Directive, that has raised privacy concerns (see Justice Minister reluctant to store data - The Local for a news article about Sweden getting into trouble for not applying that directive).

Imagine if you will another terrorist act on U.S. soil. Even a nuclear attack on a U.S. city. Think of the ways in which civil liberties start to fly out the window whenever a would be bomber either tries or succeeds in downing an airplane. Now image a nuclear bomb going off and then imagine what affect such a thing will have on whatever liberty there is left. It will all but disappear.

Folks it's going to happen. I refer to the further erosion of our liberties. I don't mean to say that I am prophet with a crystal ball or something. Or that a nuclear bomb going off is the thing that WILL happen. Only that it doesn't take one being a prophet to realize that we are ripe for a further erosion of our liberties through some further terrorist action (or should I say through another excuse for the government to become more intrusive than ever in order to "protect us?).

On another note...despite President Obama's hope filled rhetoric at the State of the Union address recently, the national deficit continues to increase at an astounding rate. Around the corner we now have the need to rescue Social Security. As one writer put it "Social Security will be $28 billion in the hole this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30." and "It would have been a lot simpler to fix the system years ago...Now it's too late." (see next-in-line-for-a-bailout-social-security: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance).

On and on it goes. My personal hope is to move to South America and get away from the U.S. or the world at large and live the rest of my life in a small country, with a limited government where I can still experience some semblance of freedom while seeking to draw as many people to embrace the Gospel and Jesus Christ through my life as I can.

There is something to be said for living in a place where people can raise chickens in their backyard, where people can put a door in a wall in their house without having to get permission from the government through various permits to do it, and where innocent citizens are not turned into criminals for violating this or that bureaucratic regulation that has nothing to do with right and wrong.

And getting to the core of the reason as to why I posted this...I would encourage anyone but especially any of my brothers and sisters in Christ who might be all pro-American to take off the blinders and wake up. To realize that the U.S. is no longer the country it was and to make whatever plans one can make to help thwart whatever greater loss of freedom lies around the corner for us all.

Prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. For sure. But keep your eyes on the next life. Not this one. It is in heaven that our true life will begin. Not here.

Carlos

UPDATE

As another example of what I am talking about besides the one I quoted in my comments below, here's another one.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...9101snow1.html

Two college students arrested and charged with a felony of "throwing missiles at occupied vehicles" which carries a sentence of one to five years in jail and a maximum of a $2,500 fine. And what was that missile? Well...it was nothing less than that horrible and incredibly dangerous projectile otherwise known as a snow ball!!! That's right. A snowball!

Now don't get me wrong. What those college students did was foolish and wrong. They threw snowballs at a public snow plow and then at an unmarked police car that showed up in response to the snow plow driver calling for...well...I guess backup. But to charge a couple of college students and possibly ruin their lives for throwing snowballs?? Get real! That's not just silly. That's insane in my mind. A totally disproportionate response and punishment to what actually happened.

Never mind the insanely ridiculous costs involved in prosecuting such a "crime" and of any actual jail time served. Yes...they are likely to get off without jail time but what kind of society has the U.S. become where we charge people with felonies for throwing snowballs and then don't follow through on a punishment commensurate with what a felony is?

But that's where the U.S. is these days. All tied up in legalistic nonsense that is out of all proportion to any sense of true right and wrong.

I mean I can see forcing these students to do community service. Maybe shoveling snow off the driveway of seniors for a week or some such. But being charged with felonies for throwing snowballs. Give me a break!!!

I think one might be hard pressed to find another country anywhere in the world engaging in such nonsense with the possible exception of Canada where the State gets equally as silly in it's policies sometimes though much less so (for the record I have lived for long periods of time in both the U.S. and Canada).