Who Am I?

With great thanks to Mark Hall and Casting Crowns.

This year I will celebrate my thirtieth anniversary as a Christian. On May 5, 1994, God powerfully opened my eyes, and I haven’t been the same since. This is not to say that the old me doesn’t force his way to the surface occasionally, but I am a different person than I was back then. I plan to tell the story as May 5^th comes closer and may give that testimony in church around that time, so this is a story for another time.

Five years later I first heard the song, “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns, the song made me fall to my knees praising God for what He has done.

I was in the shower this morning, praying and reflecting on His Word (God likes multitaskers, doesn’t He?) and the same thing kept rising past the prayers; how will I vote next November?

What?!?!

I should preface this with this; I am not, nor have I ever been a fan of former President Donald J. Trump. I believe he has an inflated view of his self-worth. Which brought the Casting Crowns song to mind:

Not because of who I am.

But because of what You’ve done

Not because of what I’ve done

But because of Who You are!

I sometimes feel that President Trump would believe that he deserves heaven on his accolades alone. That he is greater than anyone else. I could be wrong, but I’ll have more on this in a few paragraphs.

I’m still gonna vote for him.

Before God changed my heart, I was a far left, progressive, liberal. To me, in those days, killing babies in the womb was a perfectly acceptable form of birth control. A friend once told me that she was pregnant. Her boyfriend didn’t want anything to do with any baby, so I told my friend, “You don’t need that in your life, you should just have an abortion.”

Thankfully she didn’t and, three years and forty-nine days before God changed my heart, one of the greatest blessings of my life was born. I love her like my own daughter. God was working on me then. Through her, He showed me that abortion takes a life. On the first day that I held her and looked into her eyes, I realized that I had advocated for her death, I will forever feel shame for my words to her mom. The Bible is explicit that we are people when in the womb, Psalm 138.

From that time on I began to realize that the worldview I had adopted was corrupt. Any politician who supported abortion rights was either too naïve for public office or they were evil and therefore should be disqualified from public office.

How can I say the above? If they don’t believe that a child is killed by an abortion that means that they believe the lies of the abortion industry, anyone that easily deceived shouldn’t be elected. Even Planned Parenthood knows it is a child. Until recently one page of their website said that abortion is no more than the removal of a growth, like having a wart removed. On a different page they call it the “most difficult decision a woman can make.” Why is removing a wart a difficult decision?

The only other choice is that they are evil. Many Congressional districts and states lean left and supporting life in the womb would ruin a candidate’s chances of election. If they choose to support abortion rights because it is politically expedient, they are evil. Whether evil or easily deceived they should not be eligible for public office.

I haven’t voted for anyone who is pro-abortion since.

Fascism is as Fascism Does

I believe that fascists have been moving into as many roles in government as possible. That is always the way fascism has gotten a foothold. They start small, they have no choice, to them we are like a frog in a kettle, as they slowly work on placing people in positions of power. Then the mobs come and denounce anything that opposes their “orthodoxy.” Anybody out there been “Cancelled?” They become the Thought Police.

Slowly they do everything they can to silence any dissent. They use, or misuse, language to their advantage, changing the meaning of words. Until they come to the point where they have placed enough people in the alphabets, FBI, CIA, DOJ. At that point they can have a different level of justice which depends on the position an offender has taken regarding their orthodoxy. If you are on the “right” side, you get away with things. If not, well, read on.

Which brings me back to Former President Trump. No, I am not declaring him a fascist. The progressive left, misusing language, call him an insurrectionist, their followers run with it and use the label freely. The problem I have is that he has not been convicted of insurrection; assuming my recollection of civics classes is correct, people are innocent until proven guilty. He hasn’t even been charged with insurrection. I say, “If you want to call someone an insurrectionist, then charge and convict him, otherwise he is not an insurrectionist.” But fascism is as fascism does.

Recently Mr. Trump was in court in New York. He was accused of fraud because he inflated the value of property that he used as collateral for loans. The bankers testified that they did their own appraisals, that the loans were repaid on time, and that they made money on the deals. New York Attorney General Leticia James filed suit against Donald Trump for fraud. Judge Anthony Engoron fined Mr. Trump more than $350 million, plus interest, it could go over $500 million by the time he comes up with the money to place the bond that would be necessary for him to appeal the judgement. Mr. Engoron even smirked for the cameras afterwards.

Mr. Engoron and Ms. James have effectively become the thought police. As I said above, I believe Mr. Trump has an inflated view of his self-worth. That would naturally extend to anything he owned, after all he wouldn’t have purchased anything that wasn’t worthy of him. It is entirely probably that he believed that those properties were as valuable as he said. His actions over the last thirty years make my assumption very likely, even probable. Yet, Mr. Engoron and Ms. James somehow know that he intentionally inflated the values of those properties – thought police.

A few days after the judgement, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made a statement that businesspeople in New York need not worry that the same will happen to them, because – reasons. Of course, businesspeople in New York should be worried, this judgement set a legal precedent. To translate Ms. Hochul, “as long as you are on the right side of orthodoxy, you have nothing to fear.”

I would hope that we would all pray for our government, that they should all come to a belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ. There is corruption on both sides of Congress and unless God’s people pray for those in power, things probably won’t be improving any time soon.

1 Timothy 2:1–2 (ESV)

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,

2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.