Category: What’s Up!

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On September 8, 2011, the President announced to the American people through a Joint Session of Congress, his plan for putting America back to work.  Before he submitted the entire bill a week later, many in the Republican Party including Republican Presidential candidates began to tear it apart.  One of the strong attributes that the Republican members of Congress have is that they all stick to the same Talking Points regardless of how ridiculous, misleading or accurate the information is.  Not so with some congressional members of the Democratic Party.  Although the Republican Party is known for their obstructionism since Obama was elected, would you believe that there are whiners in the Democratic Party?  I believe that the whining started when the Democrats held majorities in the Senate and House during the Health Care Bill debate especially on the inclusion of a “public option” in the Bill.  Several Democrats opposed the Health Care legislation because they were up for reelection in districts that apparently were not supportive of the new Health Care Law. Some who opposed the Bill were not reelected in 2010 anyway so it really didn’t matter.

The whining continued during the Debt Limit debate this past August.  In fact, all eleven (11) Ohio House Democrats voted against the Debt Limit Bill using excuses like:”This is a job killing bill that puts our nation’s economy at risk. I can’t in good faith tell my constituents that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are safe under this plan because we don’t know what will happen;” “It will not create jobs and in fact will be a further downdraft on recovery;” “We could have avoided this hostage-taking if the President chose to apply his expertise in Constitutional law to invoke the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to raise the debt ceiling. Instead, we are taking America from the New Deal of 1932 to the Raw Deal of 2011.” The whining goes continued.

“Terrible,” Democratic Senator Jim Webb told POLITICO when he was asked about the president’s ideas on how to pay for the $450 billion price tag. “We shouldn’t increase taxes on ordinary income. There are other ways to get there.”

Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu said, “[T]hat offset is not going to fly, and he should know that” referring to Obama’s proposed elimination of oil and gas subsidies.  Landrieu wants to continue the subsidies for oil and gas companies in her state.  Remember, Landrieu also voted to oppose the President’s Health Care legislation.  I guess she gets lots of political contributions from the oil and gas industries in Louisiana during her reelection campaigns.

Another Whiner is Delaware Senator Tom Carper.  I think the best jobs bill that can be passed is a comprehensive long-term deficit-reduction plan,” said Carper, discussing proposals to slash the debt by $4 trillion by overhauling entitlement programs and raising revenue through tax reforms. “That’s better than everything else the president is talking about — combined.”

Of course, one of the biggest whiners is West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin who says there’s “good, bad and ugly” in the jobs bill proposed by President Obama, and he sees mostly ugly.  “I listened respectfully to the president give his speech on the jobs proposal,” Manchin said. “I think we all can agree we need to do something about jobs in this country, but I have some serious reservations about his proposals that night in his speech.” Manchin is someone that I would classify as a “pretend” Democratic based on his overall non-support for the Party’s policies since he was elected.  He also doesn’t believe that the rich should pay their fair share in taxes.  Manchin said, “Taxes are now lower than ever if not non-existent for everybody, and no one want to use an increase in revenue to solve our deficit issue.”

His most appalling statements for me were his comments on the extension of unemployment benefits under the President’s plan.  Manchin questioned the $50 billion to extend unemployment benefits under the plan, and wonders if government funds wouldn’t be better spent training the workforce for jobs.  During a recent interview Manchin said, “I know right now we could hire in West Virginia – for good mining jobs – about 700 people,” he said. “I talked to another person with a repair shop – he said he could hire 25. “ “So for all those people who have expended all their extensions for unemployment – if we’re going to continue an unemployment compensation – it should be done in the most compassionate way to make sure we are training for the jobs in West Virginia. If we don’t do that, then we haven’t done any good for anybody.”  Since the unemployment rate in West Virginia is only 8.1%, a full percentage point below the National average, I guess Manchin can afford to whine about the extension of unemployment benefits.  Unfortunately there are more than 14 million unemployed Americans who would benefit from the President’ plan.

Former President Bill Clinton praised Obama’s American Jobs Act during a recent appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, arguing that Republican opposition to letting the plan add to the federal deficit is hypocritical, given the unchecked war spending of the last decade. If Republicans don’t want to raise taxes on the rich to pay for the payroll tax cut Obama proposed, Clinton said, then Congress should declare the current economic climate an “emergency” and cut the payroll tax without paying for it.

As President Obama stated during his address Americans Job Bill, this legislation should not be controversial since everything has received bipartisan support in the past.  Remember, both parties have said that job creation is their first priority and yet many Republicans and even some Democrats are bulking at the President’s plan that would accomplish that goal.  While I can understand the Republicans’ resistance to the proposal because their stated number one priority is not to create jobs but to defeat Obama’s reelection, whining Democrats have joined in the fray.  If Democrats expect to regain control of the House, maintain their Senate majority and reelect Obama, they must present a consistent unified front.  But, that’s just my take.

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When President Obama proposed the $787 billion stimulus package that included major investments in state aid, infrastructure projects, health care and education reforms as well as a large group of tax breaks, Bachmann led the conservative movement in denouncing the program.  “During the last 100 days we have seen an orgy [of spending],” she said of the stimulus and auto industry bailout during a conference on May 4, 2009. “It would make any local smorgasbord embarrassed.”  Less than three weeks later, she went looking for her piece of the pie.

On May 20, 2009, Bachmann asked Secretary Vilsack to look into an application for aid that the city of Big Lake, Minnesota, had made to “develop and finance the Big Lake Rail Park,” which she described as “an ambitious commercial and industrial complex which will enhance economic development and job opportunities in this rural Minnesota community.” At the end of the letter, she added: “We must work together to ensure job creators have access to the vital credit they need to make projects like this a success.”

On May 22, 2009, she wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking for support for the St. Cloud, Minn., Metropolitan Transit Commission’s application for federal funds to “replace twenty-three 35-foot transit buses with compressed natural gas (CNG) powered buses.”

On June 4, 2009, Bachmann wrote to LaHood again seeking grant funding to extend the Northstar Corridor commuter service from Big Lake to St. Cloud.

On June 19, 2009, she made an “urgent” request to LaHood to reverse a decision by the Federal Highway Administration that undermined a project in Waite Park, Minn. The project, she noted, had already received $2.578 million in federal funding through the stimulus package and was “only awaiting the final determination” from the FHWA.

On July 2, 2009, she wrote LaHood again, pleading for money for road improvements in Waite Park. She added that she was “pleased to learn” that Minnesota’s Department of Transportation was not going to “pull the nearly $2.8 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding set aside for the project.”

On Sept. 15, 2009, Bachmann wrote six separate letters to LaHood asking for help funding six projects (the Northstar line among them) through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program.

On Oct. 5, 2009, she wrote Vilsack again, praising him for putting money into the nation’s beleaguered pork industry and encouraging him to help “stabilize prices through direct government purchasing.”

Five days later, she was chastising the concept of government spending in public, saying that the president’s efforts to stem the fallout of the recession amounted to a charade. “We hear about fantasy football games. This is fantasy economics,” Bachmann said.

That the Department of Transportation was the primary target of Bachmann’s quest for federal funds isn’t surprising. The congresswoman has a record of trying to protect infrastructure projects from her party’s budget cutters, arguing that transportation projects should be exempt from the ban on earmarks that the House of Representatives instituted in November 2010. She was also not the only conservative who attempted to get her hands on some of the $12 billion in funds that Department Of Transportation received under the stimulus.

“Some members refuse to take stimulus and won’t have anything to do with getting government transit money flowing into their states. Others will say that they are against the idea of the stimulus or federal money flowing into the economy but if the money is there, they are going to try and get that money flowing into their district,” said Brian Darling, a senior fellow in government studies at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

During the Bush Presidency in February 2007, Bachmann co-signed a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, and organization that she wants to abolish, urging its officials to help fund technical assistance programs and rural water initiatives “in small communities across Minnesota.” The authors of the letter, which included nearly the entire Minnesota congressional delegation at the time, noted that FY 2006 funding for the National Rural Water Association had been set at $11 million.  “We need to continue these efforts in 2007,” they wrote.

In a Feb. 2, 2010, letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Bachmann asked the agency to support a $270,806 grant application (filed with the EPA’s Clean Diesel Grant Program) that would help a St. Cloud bus company replace two older motor coach vehicles.  “Voigt’s Bus Service, with Community Transportation, Incorporated, is committed to bringing long-term benefits to the environment and the economy and they wish to accomplish this through the Clean Diesel Grant Program,” she wrote.

I have only identified very few of a significant number of Republicans who voted “no” on the stimulus Bill but have claimed its success in creating jobs within their districts.  In fact, some are even pictured holding giant stimulus checks.  Hypocrisy at its finest.

“It’s not illegal to talk out of both sides of your mouth, but it does seem to be a level of dishonesty troubling to the American public,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.   I agree with Melanie except that blatant hypocrisy should not have a place in Government leadership especially among Presidential Candidates.  If it’s their mantra during the campaign, it could well spill over to their office if elected.  But, that’s just my take.

Tomorrow, my take on “Whining Democrats.”

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Last Sunday, we laid a foundation for the continuation of this subject – Women in Ministry. Genesis 1:27 – “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created be them.” So we have established the fact that God created both male and female.

Genesis 5:2 – “Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam (emphasis added) in the day when they were created.” Isn’t it interesting to note that God called both male and female, “Adam” in the day there were created? Adam means “man.”  Adam and Eve were created with God-ordained differences from each other, but together they made a full “man,” or a complete picture of God himself.  There was perfection in their union.  Their differences were not a source of discord or inequality, but a beautiful compliment to each other.  Together, God gave them the task of overseeing and ruling His creation.

Genesis 1:28 – “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue [control] it and have dominion [power] over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living things that moveth upon the earth.  Notice that God gave this commission to them both.  There is no hint that there was anything but equal authority between man and woman as they existed in a sinless state.  But God also gave separate commandments to the man.

Genesis 2:15-17 – “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. So God commanded the man to (1) dress the garden; (2) keep or maintain it; and (3) don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  What changed things?

Genesis 3:1-6 – “Now the serpent (Satan) was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.  Perhaps you may be thinking, could the serpent talk before the encounter with Eve? Did Eve know about Satan?

The Scripture is silent on this.  The appearance of a crafty snake prompting Eve to sin is a mystery.  The text is interested neither in the origin of evil in the serpent nor the nature of the serpent.  It primarily is concerned with what the serpent said.  Everything else is a mystery.  We know from other passages in the Bible that the serpent was simply a tool being used by Satan as a means of disguise.  The fact that Eve was not bothered by the serpent’s presence could suggest that it was a kind of a garden pet.  We know that it evidently walked rather than slithered.  His slithering was a product of the curse or judgment of God, but I would seriously question its ability to talk and communicate as do humans before it became an instrument of Satan.  Talking and reasoning in language is part of the original created differences between man and animals.  Animals were created from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:18), but with man, God not only created him from the dust of the ground in His own image, but personally breathed into him the breath of life—then man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).  This special work of God in man’s creation is surely designed to stress the great differences between man and animals that would include the ability to reason and communicate with words rather than just sounds.

Another question that comes to mind is, did Eve commit the first sin?  The Genesis text emphasizes the woman leading in the sin, but the consequences for sin are only revealed after Adam ate as well (Genesis 3:6-7).  The Bible says that she gave some to Adam, who was with her.  Paul lays the blame on both of them.  Romans 6:12 says, “therefore, just as  sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”

According to Genesis 2:22-23, “Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to man.  The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.”  Based on this verse and the actions God takes, we can conclude that Adam and Eve were considered “one.”

We now find that sin entered the heart of Adam and Eve.  The result was a temporary curse placed upon both man and woman, which would affect the whole earth.  Remember, in Genesis 1:28, Adam and Eve were blessed; now because of their disobedience, they are cursed.  In addition, the sin leader, the serpent, is also cursed.  Sin carries a penalty.

Genesis 3:14-19: “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.  Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  And unto Adam He said, because thou has hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and has eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

According to Genesis 1:28, Adam and Eve were given equal authority, and now, according to Genesis 3:14-19, God withdrew that authority from Eve.  If we live according to God’s will, there will be blessings, but if not, there will be consequences, or in the Old Testament time, curses.  I believe this curse has affected all aspects of creation, from the ground itself (infested with weeds and thorns) to human relationships.

When Eve ate the forbidden fruit and enticed Adam to sin with her, one of the consequences for women was the loss of equality with men, as men were to rule over women instead of men and women ruling together.  Eve would be “ruled by her husband.”  However, when Jesus came as sinless Man and died as the Messiah on the cross for us, all things were restored positionally.  In actuality, the restoration of mankind began to take place at that very moment.  Though the complete cleaning of the curse has not yet been manifested on the earth, the day is coming when it will be so.  Or to put it another way, all those who receive Jesus as Savior receive restoration as Sons of God, but not all of us walk in that restoration—yet.  Through Jesus, as we will see later, the curse upon women has been lifted.  Women are no longer interior to man with him ruling over her.  Women can now be restored to their original place and plan that God had for all of His “sons.”  Although we do not see all things restored at this time “legally,” spiritually, they already have been.

Adam was the head of the first race of mankind; and Jesus is the head of the last race, the adopted children of God.  God only sees two races—the Adamic race (all natural-born mankind) and His children through Jesus (all those born of the spirit).  Let me prove it scripturally:

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 – “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”  Once we are born into the kingdom of God, we become new creatures in Christ.

Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”  In the Spirit, we find there is “neither male nor female,” just as there are neither race distinctions nor class separations.  God looks on the hearts of His new creatures and therefore does not discriminate when He offers His love and privileges.  Women are not excluded from any of God’s promises nor callings merely because of their sex.  Thus, as previously noted, the command to have dominion over and subdue the earth was given to both Adam and Eve.  They were both to rule and reign over God’s creation.

Within God’s own nature we find these same qualities.  Both men and women are to become like Him as we are conformed to His image.  Since this is true, there are times that under the unction of the Holy Spirit a woman should assert herself boldly.   (This assertion, however, should not necessarily be towards others, but toward the enemy, Satan.)  For men and women to become overcomers they must have this boldness and authority over Satan.  God still desires that His people rule and reign with Him.  His intention is to qualify us for that position, whether we are male or female.

Revelation 1:6 – “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”  Even though “kings” is a masculine term, this is the ultimate destination He desires for all of His people.  God often uses both male and female terms to refer to both sexes.  Scripture tells us that both men and women in the church are referred to as “the bride of Christ.”  God has both masculine and feminine nature.  The mother heart of Jesus was evident as he prayed over Jerusalem as noted in Matthew 23:37 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stones them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

Submission is considered to be a feminine trait.  However, Jesus submitted to the cross under the direction of the Father.  If we walk in the Spirit, we too will possess both the masculine aggressiveness and feminine submissiveness of God.

Both submissiveness and aggressiveness are God-given strengths.  Yet, both can be perverted, so that we become submissive and aggressive in the wrong ways, with the wrong attitudes.  Because these qualities are so misused and misunderstood by the world, they have become distasteful and despised.  If aggression is frowned upon, submission is viewed in an even more negative light in western culture.

We equate submission with weakness and lack of spirit.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  There was never a human being more submitted to God than Jesus Christ—yet never was there one as completely resistant to the system of the world.  For the Christian, whether we are male or female, He is our model.

How does all of this lead up to Women Ministers?  Perhaps you are thinking that although we have laid a biblical foundation for “neither male nor female” in Christ, certain verses in the New Testament still seem to ban women from ministry positions in the church.

We will examine those verses in Part III Next Sunday.

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