Was blind, but now, I see...

I feel the need to write this post in rebuke to my own actions, for the credit I have taken throughout my life for the things which I have done... These things which I have taken as my own doing have become sinful, not because the acts themself were sinful, but because they were either done for my own glory, or without giving proper credit to the Inspiration. I rebuke myself because I am the only one whom I may rightly judge. I know my own heart, as does God, and I know that it strays from him. 

Also, when I say things which are condemnatory towards others, although I strive not to and have not done so purposefully, this is amongst the greatest of sins, because it presumes that I know their hearts and their intentions, and also that I am to be the judge of sins. God alone is my judge and the judge of all peoples and nations. If I have ever said to any of you that the only way which we can judge men is by the word of the Scripture, that is true, but with a condition or two. Those conditions are that the person is in the process of repentance and reconizes their own sinful nature, and the second is that we ourselves understand the true nature and definition of sin. It is a thing which I struggle with more than any other problem, because I struggle with sin more than any other crisis in my life. In the end of my dwelling in this worldly body, it is not by the actions and pronunciations of others that I will be judged, I will be judged by my own actions, my own intentions, my own heart, and I will be found wanting, away from God by virtue of my sinful ways, but it matters not. I have a Saviour, bearing the marks of my sin for me, in His perfect sacrifice. All my sins are washed away by His blood, and I am free of the wages of sin, now and forever. Thank you for this gift Lord! We are free!

In this, I rejoice, and say to you all, hallelujah! All praise be to the Lord, for we are free, and we wll dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. To those who have seen oppression by those who claimed to follow God with their mouths even as they slaughtered His people with their hands and trampled them with their feet, I say to you that I am truly sorry. These people whom you have witnessed never knew my God, my God was distant from them as they did this, my God could not even look at those who killed others this way. The Crusades, fought in the name of our Father and the Son, were never meant to be. The Inquisitions were carried out by men who forgot His divine words. It matters not if a man can quote scripture left and right, all hours of the day. Watch his actions, and you will know truly what he believes, those who practice aggression certainly have never seen my God, or have turned away from him. 

In the same vain, those who condemn with their tongues also have never heard my God. My God said do not judge, lest by the same standard you will be judged. To those who stand on the Oval and yell condemnations and damnations at "freaks," "sinners," and "whores," I say to you that when you search your heart, you will find all the same temptations as they have, but what you will hopefully find, recessed in your soul, is the Word which you knew so long ago, which taught you to love unconditionally and with prior agenda or hope of personal reward. If you are so concerned about their sins, live amongst them always, making sure that the Word never leaves their presence. They wll not give up their sinful ways without being shown God's love first. We are the vessels by which God demonstrates his love to others.

I have a friend, who recently said something which disturbed me, that there were evangelists out there who would only preach the "lovey-dovey stuff," the grace, redemption by faith, love for all part of the message of God. I ask, what other message is there? He tells us to turn from our sinful ways, and we try, but we all fail. We have all fallen short of the glory of God, and without Him, we could continue to do so. I see no message of pain or punishment in the Bible, because he gives us a way out of all of that, by which we may all be saved and never fear anything of this world or punishment again. No one who actually understood the Word could ever turn away from God, it is not possible. I say that if you see a man who is struggling with sin, and does not understand it, take pity on him, and help him understand. We would all say that it is right to take pity on a man and help him physically, but if that man was struggling with the spirit and rebelled against God, it is all too tempting to rebuke him and say that he has made his choice, now let him live with it. I am myself extremely guilty of this, and I would like to ask for the same as I am asking for others. If you see me led astray, would you not do as a good shepherd should and stop me if you can? I do not usually resist or protest when others try to help, only when they scorn, which is generally true among men, and those who do resist when helped are in need of most help, for they are most lost, and need the kindest, calmest, most patient devotion which can be mustered.

I would like to leave you tonight with a message about my language. I put no value in the language that I use. If it inspires anyone to follow God, should they consider some of it beautiful, so be it. God has granted me my language and voice, and I give all credit to him. My words may seem outdated at times, too long at others, still other times my language may seem too simple, or too vulgar for the purpose. I speak in the tongue of those around me in everyday conversation, because it helps noone to speak differently and it makes understanding difficult at times to people of different levels of vocabulary. However, when I talk to God and myself, I use the purest language I can find. It is neither more delicate and elegant, nor more straightforward and simple than it is in my head. You can be assured that I do greatly enjoy using such flowery language, it is enjoyable and beautiful for me. I apologize if it comes off in a different way than it is intended to. 

Dear God, be with me. Reveal yourself to me in all of your creation, reveal the beauty of everything in your world to me. Let me follow you always, never straying even for a minute, to look back at the life I once lead amongst the things of this world. Let me never question your purpose in me, but rather never stop looking for things to do which glorify your name. Thank you, dear Lord, for everything you have given me. Thank you for hard-learned lessons, thank you for information which you easily revealed. Thank you for sending your Son, and thank you for your Servants who found me and told me how You had set me free. Thank you for all the blessings which your servants bestowed upon me in your name, and thank you that I may take part in your Great Commission. All praise that I have in this world to give is yours, now and forever. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Controversial Topic!

Sorry to actually disappoint, but this isn't going to be about a particular controversial topic. It will be about the controversial topic! Which is, drum roll please... ... ...

Honesty!

I know that was a little anti-climactic, and it probably is not what you had in mind. I bet you thought I'd say abortion or affirmative action, something juicy from recent news headlines. No, that's not my style. This post aims to uncover the most controversial topic, which is so controversial, even those who claim to support it use it only in moderation. 

When it comes to the media, they have been shown to be friendly to neither side. Recently, the mainstream media has become a bit more friendly to our friend, one Hon. Mr. B.H. Obama. He is, however, an anomaly, the media wants what sells advertising dollars, which in his case, happens to be praise instead of constant smear campaigning. It would hardly be argued by either side that the major news outlets are ubiased in their treatment of the different parties, however. Fox News is conservative, when compared to CNN and NBC. Fox doesn't make an effort to destroy God, the Republican Party, conservatism, and family values, so I would say that makes them easily more conservative than MSNBC, which is well known for attempting to mutilate said values/groups. CNN, however, I find to be only slightly biased to the left-wing, except for certain anchors/hosts, which is fine enough, Fox has some extremely conservative anchors (I'm talking about you, Sean Hannity. Give the other side a chance every now and then, will ya?). I believe both CNN and Fox make a concerted effort to actually report the truth. Maybe not the whole truth. But as close as it gets in the mainstream.

So, that's not what I really meant by the title of the post. I'm talking about politicians. Not one, all. And everyone who's probably ever been involved in politics and won. They are dishonest (Shocker!). I say this because your general voting public has no idea the dealings and behind-the-scenes work which even the most noble, helpful bill to ever pass a legislature went through to get there. It went through lobbyists, which is not a bad thing, they exist to inform legislators about specific issues. A legislator is a generalist, while bureaucrats and lobbyists could be described as specialists, ever if they work with several different specialties. It also went through committee, which is fine, that's a necessary step too. I'm not complaining about the steps that it went through, I'm complaining about what the legislative body thought about it. Can I get this to help my district more than the others? Can I get a net gain from this Bill? Will this help me get reelected? These are all things which the bill is subjected to. What occurs when people consider these is that they lose sight of the respective Constitution which governs their actions, which represents their social contract with the people, and is what should truly be guiding their actions unless they are in the process of changing it. So, while it might gain votes in a Democratic (read: liberal) district, it is still just as unconstitutional to pass gun control (I'm talking to you Barack, you should know better. Harvard Constitutional Law.). The same applies to abortion. Also, in Republican districts, voting against gay marriage, as well as lowering taxes are always a plus, while I consider them to be good in some cases, only with the proper coating of liberty before you pass the law (AKA eliminate state-sanctioned marriage, cut taxes AND SPENDING). The point I make is, if what the people want is not best represented by your views, you might want to sit out on politics. 

I know someone must no tell me, "but Christian, noone exactly agrees with your views! Why would you want to get involved in politics?" Good question. A majority of America is Christian. Some have no idea what that really means, but that's fine, there's still hope for them, and the message is nothing that would turn people off, it is a message of love and peace. Secondly, I do not want to stop people from doing things which do not harm others. I believe this is an extremely reasonable position, and that it is possible that even atheists could take a liking to my style of government. I see the problem with the Republican Party brand today is that it is unwilling to try and sell conservatism to urban populations, racial minorites (which is complete bull, the only reason the Democratic Party has a lock on the minority vote is that they have been told they need affirmative action and welfare, so the Republican Party is not a viable option for support), and civil libertarians. I will go there. There are plenty of people who just want to be left alone, kept free, and taxed very little. I'd say that's a majority of America. I'd also say a lot of Americans didn't vote on November 4th, and the ones that did had no workable option for liberty. Bob Barr had no chance of winning, statistically speaking. Neither did Ron Paul. What the Republican Party needs to do is what they honestly know to be right, which would be to run on staying out of people's lives, like they have always promised, lowering taxes when possible, now is not the time, when we have 11 trillion building up in debt, we have to at least keep taxes at the same level and slash spending, something Congress sucks at. This is the truly courageous position, and I would run on it. You can't cut taxes with all this unnecessary debt. If the party opened itself up to real talk about liberties and took away the ACLU's claim that they are the defenders of civil liberties, this election would be a hard fought battle, but would be totally winnable in every district, everywhere in the United States. This is what I believe, what I work towards. Well, I hope some of that made sense to you, and if not, I'd love to get specific on specific issues, which I will do later on in further blog posts. If you want to know where I am on a specific issue, email me. I promise I'll answer honestly, even if it's inconvenient, or against the Party, or detrimental to my reputation. Bring it on, the truth does not cause damage, lies and deceit do. 

So my final question to the reader is, what do you find offensive about my philosophy, about my writing, anything? I saw I've got a few people who read my posts and disagreed completely. Is freedom so disagreeable? Is God so disagreeable? Is the message of hope spread by Jesus so offensive, or is it my message that we need to help each other willingly as opposed to being forced to do so by the government? I must admit, I'm confused about how any American could disagree completely with my views, but that's the point. So comment, email me, find me and come talk to me, I want to know. Who knows, you might just change my mind, I might become a secular progressive totalitarian socialist if you are convincing enough.

The Red Pill

In the movie, The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo a blue pill and a red pill. The blue pill would make Neo fall asleep, and he would wake up in his bed, and he wouldn't remember any of what he had seen or heard, never to be troubled again. He could live out his life, as it was before he found out that everything he knew was a lie. The red pill would signify he was ready to learn more, and he would remember all of it. Neo chose the red pill. Which would you choose, if I told you that I've figured out that your political philosophy is incompatible with faith in God?

Like most of my ideas, I'm talking to myself in third and first person terms. I mean to say that I do not venture to say that I can judge the philosophies of politics held by others. I can provide my own advice, in what I have come up with, and I can truly say that I have considered these things by the word of God and all my God-given logic. My point here in stating this is that what if our philosophies are wrong by God. Most would agree that German National Socialism is incompatible with any form of Christianity. They killed people by the millions. This is almost uncontested except for by Christian Identity sects and the Aryan Nations, neither of whom are considered Christians in almost any sense. However, if I told you I'm looking into whether or not my philosophy is compatible with living in the United States since it became liberalised during the twentieth century, you would most likely look at me as a wackjob. The point is, our government now uses our money to kill embryos (this position assumes that an embryo is a human being from conception). They use your money to jail people for using/possessing narcotics, drinking alcohol between 18-20 years of age, gambling, among other things. Is this okay? You are now paying for Congress to deliberate on whether or not you have the right to bear arms, or peacably assemble, petition, and all of the other rights you have. They are debating you rights, and have shown that historically they are more than willing to try and take your rights away, for the "general welfare," "public safety," "National security," and, most famously, "war." 

I personally find them disturbing. I wake up every day and wonder why I'm not rebelling against the government... The only thing which keeps me from going out and beginning a revolution is that I do not have any kind of following, and I'm not sure whether or not such a revolution would turn violent. I don't wish to see bloodshed for this, but I also understand the Social Contract well enough to know that this government was never meant to be permanent, or all-powerful, or unchallenged. I do no want to see brother against brother, father against son as it was back in 1861, and I pray that I do not have to see any more war in my lifetime. I do not want to have to do this, I'd prefer to work within the system, but the things that the government is doing are just shy of intolerable. I will just have to ride out a little longer with our government the way it is. The only way I justify this with myself is that the rights of others are better served if I study now, and then once I can best understand the way the system works, perhaps I can change the system of government without bloodshed. It is better that I give up what I know are my rights for now, in the short term, that I might be able to restore them to others later. I hope you, the reader, doesn't consider this as being against my principles, because my only principles are those which are taught by God. I do not feel bad for violating my own political construction for the purpose of helping others, because my involvement in politics has the exclusive goal of making people free, which is, I believe, well served by my actions.. My most basic principle of politics is to not force others to do that which they do not want to do, thus explaining my philosophical anarchism. Well, I believe that's all of my ranting for the day! Will you take the blue pill and ignore what I have said, and not reconsider your own positions, or will you take the red and consider how God would view the things which you have done, through this representative democracy which we all share resposibility for?

Dear Lord, guide me with respect to my actions in politics. If I act untrue to your will, block my way, and stop my actions from negatively affecting others. Help me to understand your will, and do not let my actions be guided by my ego, or my misunderstandings, or my own will. Take my hands, my feet, my lungs and my voice, and use them for what it is that You would have them do. Your will be done, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Logic behind Socialism or Social democracy

It occured to me as I was doing a reading today for my Western Civilization course. I am reading about the rise of the National Socialist Workers' Party (for those of you who didn't know that the Nazis were also socialists, please read Mein Kampf. I've never found a reason to read it through myself, but it will make itself apparent...). The obvious had escaped my notice a while, although it took me to little surprise. I was in the part which explains the ideological background of the NSDAP, which was primitive at best. It was, however, based on a more radical form of Marxism which involved controlling people as well as the means of production. As I read about the other socialist and social democratic movements which sprang up at the time, the main point of this blog post occured to me, so, finally, drum roll please... ... ...

The reason why a person becomes a socialist is that they believe that this physical body that they are living in has importance, is good, and should be sustained for as long as possible!

(In the Nazi party, they believed this about the collective State, not the individuals in it...)

I feel the need to cite my sources before I go on too much further, although the Bible is an easy book to cite, I want to do it before I forget. Actually, let me come back to that, seeing as how I have class in 45 minutes. I shall return for scriptural citation, but God says that we should not fear those who can only kill the body, but to fear those who can kill the spirit and the body. The irony in this is that many a Christian focuses on ways to consistently improve the condition of themselves and others, usually unselfishly, but unfortunately many times this comes in vain. God did say to love, and also that he would take care that those who open their hearts would hear His word, that we should not worry about who converts and who does not, for that is a decision between them and God. I cannot help but feel however, that a life of service to others and unselfish love is betrayed if it is not accompanied by the spread of the Word. Without this, men will surely remain dead, and although their bodies will be comfortable, they will never know the glory of God, which is far worse than a miserable earthly life followed by an Eternity with God!

My point is this, continue to love and to work for your fellow man, but make sure that you give credit where it is due, if you work for the Lord, communicate to those for whom you work in whose name you have done these things. Give credit to he who freed you to do such things, even when it is dangerous or unpopular. Let every child, every village, every nation understand who it is who has the power to truly save their souls, as you have saved their bodies. I also understand that it is ironic that I write this, because I am not a works-focused evangelist. I love to do works but I constantly find myself wrapped up in other things, in preparation for years and works to come. My works are works of voice and of writing, of speech and of debate, of compassion and of ministry. In this way I would like to thank those who continue to work hard to benefit the lives of others, they truly are blessed. Please, do not take these words which I have written as rebuke for those who labor for the love of others, but rather words of warning of what can go wrong when you minister through actions. I simply say this, make sure that your words align with your actions, which I know are righteous before the Lord, because he said that when you give to the least of His people, you also give to Him. I mean only to say that those people need the water which gives life far more than they need the water which sustains the body, because the body will die, with or without water, but the soul will surely perish with His living water. Hand them the bread of His body as you dispense the bread of wheat and flour. And, do all this to glorify his name, that his flock may return to him. 

This is my reason for being against socialism, in that it includes those of other faiths and of no faith being forced to do "good works" which do not glorify God's name. Christians are more than willing to give to help others, but I do not believe that the state should force this. This explains my problems with it. If there are out there Christian socialists who propose a Christian socialist voluntary state, which does not force people to do things, but rather helps them on their way to salvation by keeping their bodies fed and comfortable, all the while praising God's name in the process, that is perfectly legitimate philosophy to me. However, I know, personally, no Christian socialists, just socialists who happen to be Christian, or vice versa. This explains my problem with secular socialism. It is secular socialism with which I have many problems and complaints.

Thank you God for everything that you have given to me, and the oppurtunity to live and love amongst others of Your flock, thank you for the knowledge that I have, and I ask for as much as you wish me to have. If I speak against Your word, rebuke me, if I speak Your word truly, make my lungs hearty, Your voice clear, and Your words powerful. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi, my name's Christian. For those of you who don't know me, I am a servant of God. That's all. I serve him through politics, as I believe that this is where he has led me, through my inclinations, and my philosophy, and my oppurtunities. 

Note (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT): I am EXTREMELY Libertarian. I describe my philosophy as Christian Right-Libertarianism, which is practical Minarchism, but philosophically and principally Christian Anarchism. This Libertarianism is rather right-wing, focusing on individual liberties before all else, and having no sympathy for the collective. The only ways in which I could be described as liberal or left-wing are on some social issues. I support legalisation (or actually deregulation of) narcotics, prostitution, pornography, gambling, smoking, and drinking alcohol. I support these not because I do these things or have vested interest in them, but because the government has no business regulating them. I also hate government-sanctioned "marriage," whether gay or straight. The government has no business defining, recognizing or condoning marriage. They may recognize unions, but I would have them recognize unions of nonsexual, polygamist, homosexual, heterosexual, every kind of union which should have legal status of its own. This would be similar to articles of corporation or partnership. This would be perfectly acceptable to me, moderate gay rights groups, the United States Constitution, and I believe the Lord our God, may He let me know if I am wrong. 

I believe this is right because it is not a Christian's job to enforce morality, but rather to show love, spread the word, help others, and share their wealth WITHOUT BEING FORCED TO DO SO BY LAW. Conservatives and Christians give willingly all the time, in great amounts, and are hampered when they are taxed heavily by a hungry government. By the way, I am an incredibly rich man. I have a mother that loves me very dearly, a God who died on a cross for me, a very beautiful little black doggie, an incredible education, several organizations which support me in my faith and my politics including RealLife, the Campus Crusade for Christ at OSU, Jacob's Porch, and the OSU College Republicans. I haven't had much money, but I have never gone hungry, cold, abused or alone. I have never gone without, even if we barely scraped by, and usually with the help of others. Thank you God for everything and everyone you have given me in my life. That said, I have never been an ivory-tower, penthouse-apartment, trust-fund Republican, because I believe freedom should not be conditional on environment, and this applies to me as well.

Thank you for reading, hope you'll stop by again. This blog is to be about philosophy, politics, religion, and science (science being very limited here, in my philosophy science is not necessarily wrong, just really unncessary). It is about how they work together, but remember, everything here is based on my faith. Without God, none of us would be. To create a political system without God is stupid, to attempt to better society without God is completely insane. I stand by this statement, so the way I treat politics and philosophy will always sound almost completely insane to an atheist. With that, I leave you. If you see something that sparks an interest in you, praise the Lord, I'm doing this for Him. If you see something that troubles you, tell me, because I do not believe God is above rebuking me through other people. Be prepared however, I will expect the highest level of logic, reason, faith, and love in your response, as I expect it from myself. 

                                                                                   

                                                                                                         Your humble servant, and Christ's,

                                                                                                         -Christian LW Malone

                                                                                                         OSU Student, Class of 2012

                                                                                                         Political Science- Theory

                                                                                                         malone.236@buckeyemail.osu.edu