Tag Archive for 'government'

God Can Forgive Those Who Vote for Obama or McCain

Published
by
Michael
on November 3, 2008
in Christian, Opinion and Seventh-day Adventist
. 0 Comments

One of the frustrations with this year’s presidential race is the selection of candidates. No matter whom a person votes for, the outcome is bound to be futile or worse. The leading candidates hold to immoral values, and the other candidates stand little to no chance of being elected.

It’s certainly been a rocky election season. Emotions have been running high. Rumors, broad smear attacks, finely crafted speeches, and a media circus have created quite a show.

Who should win and who should lose? According to Eric Gorski of the Associated Press, “the loser in this election is religion.” The one point that seems to be a constant source of put-down, and never esteem, between candidates is their religious views.

As a Christian,  a Seventh-day Adventist, a person of faith—how should I vote? Should I vote for the economy? To end the war? To prevent socialism? To stop gay marriage? To prevent civil war?

A thoughtful article by Candice Watters of Boundless, “What Matters Most in the Ballot Box,” makes a case for being a single-issue voter. And what is the single issue? Not any of the things the media has been frenzied about lately. It’s the decades-old platform position on abortion.

Quoting Tony Woodlief:

Those other issues certainly affect a country’s safety, prosperity, and greatness. But I’ve come to believe that a nation that tolerates destruction of innocents deserves neither safety nor prosperity nor greatness. We’ve descended into barbarism, and it poisons how we treat the elderly, the incapacitated, even ourselves. We shouldn’t be surprised, having made life a utilitarian calculation, that more and more humans become inconvenient.

When you think about it, it makes sense. If someone does not have the moral intelligence and courage to stand up for a single obvious moral principle which can be agreed upon by almost anyone who believes in objective morality, how can that person be trusted on any other moral issue?

Here is an interesting chart from Doug of Vision Forum:

I don’t know anything about Chuck Baldwin, and this is not an endorsement of him. But it should be obvious to most of my fellow Adventist Christians that neither Obama nor McCain are champions of virtue.

Every Christian has an obligation to use their influence on the side of righteousness. If you take the pragmatic position of the lesser of two evils, what will you say to God when He asks whom you voted for? “But, God, he wasn’t as much a child of the devil as the other guy….” What will you tell your children and grandchildren? “Well, yes, mommy voted for someone who supported abortion….”

Of course, at this stage, it seems highly unlikely, to the point of impossible, that any other candidate would win. But that is the result of a larger war we have already lost, or hardly even fought. To cap one failure with a vote of confidence in a man who opposes the sanctity of human life is a monument to depravity.

Life is mysterious and sacred. It is the manifestation of God Himself, the source of all life. —Ellen White, The Faith I Live By, 167

Our laws sustain an evil which is sapping their very foundations. Many deplore the wrongs which they know exist, but consider themselves free from all responsibility in the matter. This cannot be. Every individual exerts an influence in society. In our favored land, every voter has some voice in determining what laws shall control the nation. Should not that influence and that vote be cast on the side of temperance and virtue? —Ellen White, Gospel Workers, 387

Politicians cannot be expected to be theologians, and neither can we hold them to see eye to eye with us on every fine point of moral principle. (We can hardly see eye to eye with one another!) But when a man ignores a moral value that is as plain as the sun in the clear sky, it should be obvious to you and to me that he cannot have our vote.

Many people will vote wrong tomorrow. Even many of those who lose will probably vote wrong. Please don’t be one of them. God can forgive you for playing party to sin, but the damage can never be fully undone.

Troops Deployed on U.S. Soil

Published
by
Michael
on October 24, 2008
in News and Opinion
. 0 Comments

According to an article on the Huffington Post website, “The Battle Plan III: Deployment and Its Dangers“:

On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed a brigade — which means three to four thousand warriors — somewhere in America.”

The article goes on to describe the threats of such a brigade, if used unwisely or unscrupulously, and notes:

The First Brigade is Bush’s force: they are not answerable to Congress or to the Governors of states: they are answerable to the Commander in Chief. In an Alternet posting, I interviewed Air Force Colonel (retired) David Antoon who noted that the troops must obey the president, even if he asks them to arrest Congress or fire on civilians or attack media outlets.

The article then reminds readers of recent trends in domestic “terrorist” accusations, as well as examples of domestic police brutality. These are very important examples demonstrating the dangers of living in an increasingly militarized society.

There is a link in the article to a video of a recent unaggravated mass arrest, which is quite shocking. Seeing so many police offers dressed in riot gear in a U.S. city, closing in on peaceful protesters, was a bit disconcerting.

I’ve been enjoying the audiobook version of John Adams, by David McCullough. One of the statements Adams made, in respect to British troops in the early American colonies, was that military forces stationed in a city will create three riots for every one that they stamp out.

All of this is a great reminder of the blessings of living in the country.

An Economical Number of Stars

Published
by
Michael
on October 10, 2008
in Humor
. 0 Comments

Or, Our Galaxy of Debt

From Justin Kim’s Notes on Facebook:

Quote from Physicist Richard Feynman: “There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.”

Through a wholesale clearance-rate sell-off of the suns in our galaxy, the U.S. Government could gradually pull out of debt.

Express Your Voice on the U.S. Federal Government Bail-Out

Published
by
Michael
on September 25, 2008
in Opinion
. 0 Comments

Personally I oppose this measure. I’ve copied my letter to my congressman below, which contains my reasons.

Regardless of whether you oppose or support, I urge you to let your representative know what you think right now.

* * *

This is just to express my concern against the bail-out. The pros and cons, which I am sure you have already considered, are nicely summarized here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7635420.stm).

In short, I think that the risks for the average American who has been making SOUND financial decisions are too high. The protections offered those who have made POOR financial decisions are too great. The benefits to be gained from the bail-out may not be fully realized, and there are huge risks that seem all too likely.

While the pressures to adopt this measure seem beyond resistance at this point, I hope that you will place your voice on the side of moderation and RESPONSIBILITY, and ensure that our futures are not jeopardized in order to make short work of what has become a big mess. Sometimes those who have created a problem need to deal with it, and face up to the consequences. That’s what I see here.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Michael Prewitt

Tax Time

Published
by
Michael
on April 7, 2008
in Journal
. 0 Comments

Although I always do my own taxes, and it usually is a fairly smooth process, it is also time-consuming and sometimes stressful.

I’m usually quite meticulous about hanging onto even the smallest receipts until I’ve accounted for the spending. I even record the 50¢ or so I pay for snacks that I bring home from work. Of course, sometimes things slip through, and so every so often I compare the cash I have with what I think I should have, and the difference goes to miscellaneous expense and/or my best guess. Because I am so careful, it really bothers me when I have a bill that I cannot account for, or when a discrepancy shows up in a balance. This doesn’t happen too often, but there’s usually one or two snurks in each year’s tax preparation.

Of course, there are also the occasional happy surprises. There have been at least two years when I found, while getting caught up on my bank reconciliations, that I had $500–1000 more than my checkbook balance contained.

And here’s a little FYI for you: Did you know that, according to IRS policy, if you make a loan to someone, and do not charge interest, or charge interest below the “applicable federal rate,” you have to pay tax on the interest you did NOT charge? It’s true! You can read all about it in Publication 525. (It’s way down the page under “Below-market loans.”) Not only that, but the borrower who did not pay the interest that you did not charge, may have to pay tax on what you didn’t charge them, depending on the circumstances. I’m not a tax expert, but my best guess is that this is based on the idea that the federal interest rate represents inflation, and inflation is the only way to rightly estimate the value of money; and if you don’t charge interest, you are effectively losing money, which is effectively the same as giving it away to the person you made the loan to. Naturally you cannot give away something you never had, so the IRS taxes you for receiving the interest (as though you received it and then gave it away). At least this is the impression left by their explanation of how this tax law works.

Also from the same IRS publication: (I hope this doesn’t apply to any of you!) “If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.” Hmmm. What if someone returns something that they stole, but waits until the following tax year? Does it become taxable income for the person who receives it back?