Today’s volume of Short Bursts starts with the continuation of a point mentioned in yesterday’s volume. This version comes from a different angle. (NOTE: Unless specified otherwise, my Bible references always come from the New King James Version; copyright Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

Christian Resistance

There’s a reason that I’m writing more about Christian resistance. It is a topic that is woefully under-discussed. And, the saddest fact is that it is considered somewhat “impolite” to discuss it in many modern churches. Such congregations seem to be infected with “Rodney King syndrome”. They turn away from the facts of encroaching persecution of Christians, pat each other on the back at various “festivals” and “gatherings” where everyone is dressed nicely, and wistfully focus on the mantra: “Can’t we all just get along?”

No! We can’t all just get along. Jesus told us that almost two thousand years ago, and history has proven Him right ever since. "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” (John 15:18) That was the very reason that Jesus came into the world. An archangel named Lucifer (meaning “bearer of light”) sparked a rebellion against God. One-third of the angels joined him. He and his followers were cast out of Heaven, and he was renamed Satan (meaning “accuser”). He so envied God that he set out to destroy the beauty of creation — especially the crown of creation: mankind, made in the image of God. Because he is a spiritual being, Satan is single-minded in his hatred, and never stops working to find ways to separate people from God. One of his chief tools is to get people to follow false gods (who are really just cast-down angelic followers of Satan) and their teachings. When people do that, they persecute the followers of the One True God. Jesus warned His followers, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.” (John 16:1-3, emphasis added) So, no, we can’t all just get along.

What, then, should the Christian do? We should resist the ways of “the world”. (Pastor and author Dr. Chuck Swindoll says that it should be better translated “this world system”.) There are many ways to resist; and, we do so with the knowledge that we won’t always be able to see our successes. But, resistance is not merely an option — it is our duty. I choose to resist by shining a light upon the darkness of “official lies” and political corruption. That is what I do publicly. There are other ways to resist, as well. One of them is prayer, and another is private worship. (See the end of my article, “The Hijacking of Christmas” for one little example.) But, resist we must.

That leads us to the meat of this Short Burst item. I’d like readers to consider the examples of Father Zakaria Boutrus, and Mister “Ramsey Abdullah” (he uses a pseudonym for security). Father Zakaria is a Coptic priest from Egypt, now living in America. He regularly appears on the Christian Al-Hayat (“Life” in Arabic) satellite TV channel, hosting a show called Questions About Faith. One of his guests is “Ramsey Abdullah”, a former Muslim that became a Christian in 1980. After his conversion, he was cut off from the family fortune and lost his business. He has recovered, and calls fellow Christians his new family. But, he also has security concerns about Muslim reprisals.

Questions About Faith is causing quite a stir among Muslims in the Middle East, and quite an encouragement to Arab and African Christians. If you didn’t know that there are Arab Christians, then you need to read the Book of Acts and the Pauline Epistles. Christianity thrived on the Arabian Peninsula for 600 years before Mohammed founded Islam. It still stands today, in various forms, despite heavy persecution. There are also many Arab Christians in America.

Despite hostile call-ins, economic loss, and death threats, “Ramsey Abdullah” continues to proclaim the truth of Christ to people living in an Islamist-dominated society. And, because he is a former Muslim, he is able to compare the two faiths in ways that most modern “scholars” cannot approach. (As I’ve written before, I’ve met “Christian” university “professors” who teach students that God and Allah are the same! No wonder our churches are infected with Rodney King Syndrome.) The mere fact that “Ramsey Abdullah” gets so much negative publicity shows that his message is having an influence. And, what Islamists truly cannot stand is any influence other than their own. That is why their governments are so totalitarian. (More about that later in this article.)

Please remember to pray for Father Zakaria and “Ramsey Abdullah”, that God would give them wisdom and courage, and will provide for them and their families.

So, if you want to know how to become a better “soldier for Christ”, the answer is to get to know enough about your faith that you can stand up on TV and tell the world. Then, you can become a one-person resistance movement. (You get the crown later….)

Political Ethics

All of America has had an opportunity to laugh at our state government here in Tennessee, thanks to the likes of former (thank God!) State Senator John Ford and the FBI’s sting: Operation Tennessee Waltz. On the day that John Ford resigned, people working on Capitol Hill in Nashville breathed a huge sigh of relief. Many of them said something like, “Now we can speak the truth about him, without fear of losing our jobs.”

As much as I loathe political corruption, I also believe in the American rule of law. So, it is with deep regret that I must hold my nose and say something that might aid in the defense of someone linked to the above political scandal. Being right may not be popular; but, it is still right.

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, a Federal judge hearing a motion to dismiss the indictment against State Sen. Ward Crutchfield (D-Chattanooga) ruled against the senator. Part of the motion argued that the indictment was brought in the wrong district. (Memphis and Chattanooga are at opposite ends of the state. Crutchfield’s attorney argued that the senator should be charged in his home area, because that is where the crimes are alleged to have taken place.) In the published report, U.S. Dist. Judge J. Daniel Breen is quoted as having written, “Criminal defendants have no constitutional right to have a trial in their home districts.”

Oh, really?! Has this judge not heard of a thing called “venue”? That is what gives a court jurisdiction to hear a case in the first place. Venue is what keeps a judge in New York (which requires two license plates on a car) from convicting me of a traffic violation in Tennessee (which requires only one license plate). Admittedly, that is a poor example, because Senator Crutchfield’s case does not involve a difference in laws. But, there is a more germane point, which is the right to a “trial by a jury of one’s peers”.

Senator Crutchfield’s peers are in Chattanooga, not Memphis. Granted, it could be true that the senator and his attorney feel confident that he might be less likely to get convicted by a Chattanooga jury. The concept being that, if people there liked him enough to elect him, then they might like him enough to also acquit him. That is a potential problem; a hidden flaw in our American judicial system. But, to me, it appears that there is something else beneath the surface.

Tennessee is a big state. It takes about 12 hours to drive at highway speed from Bristol to Memphis. The regional FBI Field Office is in Memphis (the most populous city), not Nashville (the state capital). Thus, the Federal government has already invested a lot of money in Operation Tennessee Waltz. (The FBI does have an office in Nashville, but Operation Tennessee Waltz was supervised out of Memphis.) Could it be that the Federal judge is simply trying to help his employer save money? I’d like to think not; but, I’ve seen the government do far worse.

So, although I’d like to see a vigorous prosecution of any political corruption, I’d also like to see it done according to the principles of the American rule of law. Comments?

Hate Radio

This doesn’t quite qualify as a news item, but it is worthy of notice. Nidra Poller has written an opinion piece called “Voice of Anti-America” . In it, she describes the open and blatant anti-American bias of various, government-controlled, French radio stations. She cites numerous examples of linguistic twists. Of particular note is the presentation of casualty figures from the war in Iraq.

The tone of the French commentators reminds me of a call-in story that I heard on the G. Gordon Liddy Show. A high-ranking American naval officer was attending a conference of naval counterparts from various countries. An officer from France began complaining over dinner about the fact that the annual conferences, regardless of location, were always conducted in the English language. The caller related that he had leaned over his dinner and reminded the French officer, “That’s because the United States, Great Britain, and Canada all got together and arranged it so that … you wouldn’t have to speak German!”

Communist Terrorists

I’ve written this before, but it bears repeating. At the heart of their political motivations, Islamist terrorists are really Communists. They don’t want to admit it. But, as I pointed out in “Louder Than Words”, their actions and rhetoric reveal it.

Map of Eurabia

It’s funny now. But, Islam and Communism both seek world domination.

(Image from Zombie.com, via Freedom Now News)

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes recently eluded a telling response from Islamist spokesman Azzam Tamimi. The event is recorded in a transcript of an MSNBC-TV interview with Monica Crowley. The main topic of the interview was the question of whether Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are true allies of the United States in the War Against Terrorism. But, in the middle of his verbal barrage against Pakistan’s president, Parvez Musharraf, there is a “golden nugget” of the true motives of Islamists such as Azzam Tamimi. “Between the lines” below is the actual quote. Analysis follows.

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Well, he is accused in his own country of being a lackey of America. He is actually perceived as doing too much. The problem is that he is only cracking down on people suspected of corrections with al Qaeda. This is not the way you deal with this phenomenon. There has to be a lot of other work that nobody is recognizing. For instance, how can you not expect people to sympathize with Bin Laden when Musharraf, who came to power who came to power through a coup d'état, is not a democrat, does not respect human rights does not deal with the core issues that matter to the people in terms of equal distribution of resources in terms of improving the conditions of people, and in terms of making them realize or feel that they are a dignified nation. And the same thing applies to every single other Muslim countries that is considered to be a loyal friend of the United States of America.

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Please note Mr. Tamimi’s comments that President Musharraf, “…does not deal with the core issues that matter to the people in terms of equal distribution of resources in terms of improving the conditions of people .…” As any student of government knows, “redistribution of wealth” is a key tenet of Communism. By contrast, can you describe an Islamist country that works toward “equal distribution of resources”? Of course not, because it is not in the nature of their governments or their societies. (Yet, they claim it as a goal. Why? Read on.) Granted, some of those countries have higher standards of living than others. But, none of them have “equal distribution of resources”.

The title of the book says it all

(General Trotsky commanded the Bolshevik Army)

Not even Communist nations actually have “equal distribution of resources”, even though they claim that as a goal. Communist governments keep the vast majority of their citizens on a tight economic and social leash. They hand-pick a few citizens to enjoy extra privileges, which inspire other citizens to want to become like those few. Thus, the majority always feel “disadvantaged”, which keeps them looking to the government for more “programs” to help them become “equal”. (If you see parallels with American society, that is because some of our American officials have been promoting Communism under our very noses.) Class envy is the lifeblood of Communism. Class envy leads to class warfare. Now, add a religious element, and you can understand why Islamist terrorists want to destroy everything good in the Judeo-Christian West. (Just as Satan wants to destroy everything good that God created, because Goodness and Truth will not bow down to him.) The phony “equal distribution of resources” under Communism in any form (including Islamist) is merely a weak attempt toward “Christianity without Christ”. (The real Jesus Christ said, “For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.” [Matthew 26:11]) But, Islamo-Communists are blinded to the folly of their effort by their own hatred of the One True God and His followers.

Little Suicide Bomber: encouraged by members of “religion of peace”

(photo from: brotherhoodofthelamb.com)

So, while the rank-and-file “average poorboy” suicide bomber might actually believe that it is possible to someday live in a Utopian-Islamist economy — in a world ruled under Shari’a — the leaders of the Islamo-terrorist movements have other plans. (Keep in mind three things: 1) Socialism = Communism, 2) the “war” between the Nazis and the Bolsheviks was a sham [Hitler and Stalin had the same goals for their countries and the world], and 3) the Islam-Socialist connection goes back farther than you might realize.) Terrorist leaders simply want to get their mitts on more wealth and power, just like their Bolshevik uncles. Once they have it, things will not change for the lackeys under their control. Stalin proved this parallel point with brutal efficiency by taking his “useful idiots” to remote rural locations — which he dubbed “strawberry fields” (hence, the hidden Communist message in the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever”) — and executed them by the hundreds. Communists in modern America have their own useful idiots. Islamo-Communist leaders don’t have to worry about creating “strawberry fields”, because they have convinced their useful idiots to blast themselves to pieces.

Middle Eastern version of “strawberry field”

Cultural pride, or “useful idiot”?

(photos from: Jewish Task Force)

How do we put all of this historical-political-theological analysis into an easily digestible Short Burst? Repeat this simple mantra: Terrorists are Communists, and Communists are terrorists.

Traitors : Communist members of US Congress!

The Progressive Caucus actively works to weaken America, to help Communist Cuba, to reduce support for the War Against Terrorism, and to subvert the facts.

(Image from FreeRepublic.com)

Tom Kovach