Paul's Passing Thoughts

True Christians, according to the Bible, are “ambassadors” here on earth that represent God’s kingdom. As a Christian, I seek to see events unfolding in America through the eyes of being God’s representative. With that said, I am fed up and ready for a fight. I think I am feeling like a lot of Americans: I have no desire at all to be civil with any Democrat. However, I can’t take that position.

Some years ago, after investing every bit of my life into what I perceived as God’s family, the truth came out about the church I was a longtime member of.

The pastors of that church have what we call, “religious authority.” Through the experience, I was taken to school about that issue. I was informed by them that I was one of the few people in church that didn’t get it, and by the way, that didn’t include the person I was married to at the time. I was told to stop asking hard questions, or the pastors at that church, by their authority, would inform the church on how to think about me leading to rejection of “the privileges that come along with being part of God’s family.” That, of course, supposedly includes salvation. I called them on the threat, thinking my longtime friends would laugh at the notion of being under that kind of carte blanche authority. I was dead wrong.

God used the schooling to make me a totally different person. I experienced what it was like to have nothing but myself and God. A few people stood by me, but it wasn’t enough to save my whole life from being burned down by church authority. In the process, I found out that you really only need God and yourself, and everything else is icing on the cake. I became a person builder; I became someone focused on building who I wanted to be under God’s guidance. It’s enough, it works well, It is an incredible feeling of freedom, but God doesn’t see it as ideal.

True Christianity is a body. It is being born into the one body of Christ. That’s the function. The identity is kingdom membership and ambassadorship. Also, the identity is royal priesthood. These identities function as a spiritual and material body according to cooperation, not authority. The only priests are ourselves ministering in our own bodies. Our bodies are the temples of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit which units us with Christ. There are no priests ministering in our own individual temples but us. We offer living sacrifices to God in our temples for purposes of love and devotion to God and others. There is no offering to God outside of our own temples. And these are love offerings; not offerings compelled by law or any authority outside of our temples. God doesn’t want law offerings to mere men, He wants love offerings informed by the law, but not compelled by the law through authority…not even His own. Love is the only thing that will endure eternally. Authority will not. Love doesn’t need authority.

Christianity is a family you are born into. Christ came to establish the new birth and He is the firstborn of God. His death made it possible for you to follow Christ in death regarding the old you, and to follow Him in resurrection regarding the new you. This is obtained by wanting a new life, and asking God for it; the Holy Spirit does the rest. You must be born again. When God’s family meets together, it is like any other family meeting together; it isn’t church and there isn’t any authority. You are a fellow member of Israel’s commonwealth working cooperatively with God’s family to edify His body and the world.

Susan and I have been working to formulate this biblical identity in our home fellowship movement. It is very difficult to convey and demonstrate a body exercising faith through love corporately and cooperatively without authority. Because church is under law and that is what people are accustomed to, it’s hard to operate according to love and not law. Love is to be informed by law, not authority. Freedom of conscience interprets truth, not authority. You may let authority rule you, but authority will not be your attorney when you stand before God.

Hence, Democrats and church are much the same. It is always interesting to watch authority-driven entities trying to get along. It’s truly a hot mess. It’s much like marriage counseling. What is marriage counseling? The concise definition follows: it is two people making a case for one ruling over the other because the other is worthy of more condemnation. That’s marriage counseling in a nutshell.

It is also, at times, co-dependency. Actually, more often than not. An abused spouse will often stay in the abuse situation for financial security and other forms of fear spawned and driven by low self-esteem deserved or not deserved. High self-esteem is earned and based on the truth. In the control-lust game, one must convince the other that they are worthy of condemnation and therefore need to submit to others for their own survival. You see, tyrants always present themselves as saviors for the sinful, but there is only one savior. In these co-dependent relationships, one supplies the other’s need for false security, and the other supplies and fulfils the need to control.

It is often said that America is a Christian nation, but the reason given is false. America is not a Christian nation because of church—church is more like the Democrats. The idea of being able and responsible for yourself is an Enlightenment idea, but in fact, closer to the Bible, much closer, than church which is driven by ideas of inability and the consequential need for man to be ruled for his own good. And again, tyrants always come to help you…to save you…because you supposedly need saving by someone other than Christ.

Donald Trump thinks you are able. He represents about half of the country. The other half do not think mankind is able, and are no different than a co-dependent spouse. Donald Trump is a threat because he might eliminate the ability to have a co-dependent relationship with the government. He must be stopped at any cost.

In all of this, true Christians who get it, stand with Donald Trump for the aforementioned reasons, but for other important reasons as well. Yes, we are mere ambassadors here and citizens of another country, but, God cares very much about justice, fairness, and freedom in the here and now. And, NO country has been a force for those things in the world than the United States.

This boils down to individualism versus collectivism, but I think it is better understood through bad marriages. Half of this country is content to be abused by the government to dissuade the fears of their own self-loathing. And besides, person-building is hard work.

My heart bleeds for Donald Trump. Prayer is not my gift in the body of Christ, but I have found myself on my knees a lot in the past few days. As an ambassador here for God’s kingdom, what is the premise of my prayer?

God loves justice and fairness, and the ability of people to live according to the conscience that he has created in every person. Pray for our president.

paul

“And guess what? If they successfully steal the election, they have made him a martyr. Tyrants often do that, but the Democrats far-exceed the normal incompetency of run-of-the-mill tyrants, they are in the process of making him a living martyr who can write a good sequel.”

There is a time to enjoy freedom and there is a time to fight for it. We are presently in a time where we must fight for it. Susan and I found each other late in life and have used most of our time together to help others through TANC Ministries. Our reward occurs on a personnel level with people and rarely garners any significant fanfare. With all of the recent political turmoil in this country and other ministry frustrations, it is tempting to close shop and invest all of our time in each other. No one would blame us, and I don’t really care if they did. But, we have grandchildren. None of us, in good conscience, can leave our grandchildren a legacy where voter fraud and other Banana Republic schemes are acceptable.

Even Democrats of old like Jimmy Carter railed against mail-in voting. And by the way, there was always a mail-in voting process in place called “absentee ballots.” But, obviously, the Democrats wanted a system where they could merely monitor returns and supply votes where needed. And they did. The system really wasn’t all that bad if bi-partisan observers were allowed into the process, but they weren’t.

Let’s pause to boil all of this down from a biblical perspective. The essence of sin is a desire to control others; elitism is merely a manifestation of that. If a given society has an impressive middleclass, it diminishes the importance of the elitist class. Elitists value themselves according to how many people are lesser than they are. Caste is a direct product of sin’s control-lust. Condemnation through the law, or somebody’s idea of a law or standard, sends this message: “You are unworthy and need to submit to being ruled over by those who are wiser.” Christ came to end the law’s condemnation by enduring its punishment for us. If you are going to submit to someone’s rule over you, it needs to be Christ and not some elitist government official. The Bible is clear: governments are ordained of God to support individual freedom. God will judge us according to what we do with that freedom. But it behooves everyone to end condemnation in their lives by embracing the new birth through Christ.

For whatever reason, Donald Trump is different. He doesn’t value himself based on how many people are lesser than he is, and he raised his children to have the same mentality. They know that the strength of an open society is only as strong as its middleclass.

In regard to Democrats, their entire wellbeing depends on being part of the upper crust, and their elitism is measured by the volume of have-nots. This is their entire problem with Donald Trump: he is a champion of the middleclass.

Don’t forget, the tendency to doubt ourselves is as natural as sin itself. Low self-esteem, and low confidence are natural barriers. Tyrants know they only need to feed that natural tendency through condemnation in order to gain control of people. Invariably, this version of total depravity, a secular version, makes the state god. Hence, individualists threaten the very wellbeing of those who see the state as mommy and daddy. This explains their hostility entirely. This explains why we have had about ten Trump yard signs stolen from the front of our house.

Trump doesn’t like to lose. Not that he has lost just yet, but if he does, he is by no means going away. He lost in real estate once, and it led to a follow-up to his iconic book, “The Art of the Deal.” If the Democrats think they can beat Trump without a sequel coming, they are, well…being Democrats. Like all tyrants full of control-lust, they don’t get it and never will. Furthermore, they are not just dealing with Trump, but his three children.

Look, elitist corruption on both sides of the political fence and in-between was the elephant in the room that wasn’t being dealt with until Trump came along. The middleclass knew that politics was a complete open society pretense and were therefore disengaged. They knew voting was a waste of good time. Trump changed all of that and is seen as a man of the people. Trump has totally exposed the breadth and depth of elitist corruption.

And guess what? If they successfully steal the election, they have made him a martyr. Tyrants often do that, but the Democrats far-exceed the normal incompetency of run-of-the-mill tyrants, they are in the process of making him a living martyr who can write a good sequel. And it gets even worse; Obama is a pretty sharp cookie and he couldn’t destroy America’s open society despite his best efforts, and now a senile crook and a  leftist hussy are going to get the job done? This is going to be fun to watch.

And don’t forget: the Republicans maintained control of the Senate and gained seats in the house. And in addition, we have a mid-term election coming in two years. And in addition to that, there are real reasons to impeach Biden. Look, I know many Americans have a mommy-state mentality and are full of self-loathing and fear, but they didn’t come out in greater numbers for Biden than Obama as the present popular vote statistics suggest; if Obama was still their hero, Trump would not have won a first term. The election is clearly in the process of being stolen away through voter fraud and I seriously doubt the middleclass is going to stand for it.

It is interesting to note that the Democrat political pundits are bemoaning the fact that if Biden wins, it won’t be by a landslide. Along with the win, they know they need a strong mandate statement, in the form of a massive landslide, that might send Trump and his kids packing. They are worried. Trust me, they are very worried. They know this means that Trump is not going away and might be in an even stronger position as a temporary outsider.

Bottom line: if Trump wins, everyone will cheer for the reality that he won despite voter fraud and the fraud itself will not be dealt with because the bullet was dodged. No, it is much better that our free society gratification is delayed for a better result. It took us 40 years to get here, we are not going to get out in eight.

paul

I received some wonderful news while in the process of accepting a hazard contract out of town this week. There is now little or no danger at all to my health as the chances of dying from COVID are now .0000000000001 percent or something like that. So, as an aide, I will be making very generous pay, triple the norm, for very little risk, if any at all. What could be better?

Fact is, in reality, the chances of hospitalization or death would be less at this time because as Dr. Marc Seigel has stated, viruses don’t want to die, and therefore, the goal of the virus is not to kill the host, so the strains adapt and adjust.

I get grief for that also from my conservative friends; that is, for suggesting that a virus has intelligence. Yes, lest I get the wrong idea that a mere glob of protein can have intelligence from the communist propaganda I am learning in physiology classes, I humbly accept their informed rebukes.

I love to write, and I continue to do it regardless of my present time restraints. Hence, my articles could be better stated at times. last week, I wrote an article that was meant to be a script for a video I am trying to make for a school and possibly an agency. I got tired of doing retakes, and decided to put all the information in written form as a guide, and then use that to make the video. In an attempt to demonstrate that COVID should still be taken seriously, I cited the often used statistic of “around” 200,000 deaths in the United States. Really, I used the figure to make a general point and the use of that number was what we call, in a manner of speaking. I think I went ahead and used the figure because those who contest it are not offering any alternative figures.

Oh boy. I am now guilty of being a leftist fear monger. Actually, in light of a lot of conservative mentality of late, I wish I could convert to being a liberal, but there aren’t any left. We now have a choice: radical leftism, or conservative experts who have graduated from Google University.

Due to the fact that leftism is caste, which is responsible for every masse grave presently existing in the world, I will remain a conservative, but my fellow conservatives can expect to be ridiculed and mocked when their arrogance and lack of empathy calls for it. And I am not really concerned with how many people I can annoy, only a few give me the self-actualization that I need. I was a former pastor in the institutional church and am now a pastor in the informal home fellowship movement. This happened because a church I invested 20 years of my life in became a cult. When I walked away, I lost every friend I had and the core of my family.

But it taught me something. Self is your best friend. Invest in yourself, and the life of cake is pretty good. Friends are the icing on the cake, but the cake is still pretty good. You have three perfect friends: God, you, and yourself. You can have four if you marry right. By all means try to get icing on your cake, but never at the expense of your self-dignity. So, if there are only conservatives to choose from, I may soon run out of friends, which is ok, because I still have four always.

With all of that said, this article is not entirely about ridicule, but an attempt to bring a balanced view to the COVID-19 issue. Remember balance? In order to bring balance to the issue, we need to address “statistics.” As my wife Susan stated the other day, statistics can be used to supposedly prove anything you want to prove. That is very true.

But when people cite statistics, or debate you about statistics, listen to their words very carefully; it reveals their heart. Ok, so the 200,000 death rate is grossly exaggerated, and therefore, all COVID ever was…was a bad flu season. In every case, there is no adjusted figure suggested; everything about it is a lie because the death toll has been exaggerated. COVID is “highly infectious with little death.” However, even the contention that COVID is highly infectious is being disputed because 2020 flu statistics are way down. Get it? In essence, the article I wrote last week is deemed little more than hysteria and much to do about nothing. My intentions of preventing my fellow aides from getting the flu was honorable, but my leftist fear-mongering was worthy of severe public rebuke.

I don’t think that is the case, and I will explain why. While COVID may not be as deadly as it was, and that appears to be the case, these pandemics seem to be coming our way every eight years or so. The next time we can be ready. This pandemic, if I may call it that, was not much different from SARS. We should have been ready.

Next, I will say, if I may, that we still must protect our elderly from getting COVID. I don’t see the younger generation running around with the attitude that it is “just the flu” as being conducive to that. And I am glad I am doing the video for fellow aides because we don’t see all of the short-lived COVID halls as “little death.” The fact that a hall is now back to normal because everyone was either sent out to be put on ventilators or dead may be a small statistic in the scheme of things, but not to us. We don’t measure death by the numbers, we measure it by the care relationship we had with those people, and frankly, we rarely know what their politics are.

While, apparently, all of the body bags that were piled up in Long Term Care facilities and hospitals were a mere uptick in traffic accidents, etc., the primary statistic follows, and it is the smallest of all. About 1700 healthcare workers died while working on the COVID frontlines in less than a year. At least 1,350 of those deaths have been documented by The Guardian so far. The figure includes over 200 RNs. LPNs/RNs are my heroes, when I think of them times 200+, it hits hard in my heart. Pray tell, am I the only one who didn’t hear the following? That many healthcare workers die every year caring for people with the flu? I guess I didn’t get the memo. While conservatives are pro military, and pro police, it may be mentioned that this small statistic among caregivers is many more times what total deaths are in the line of duty overseas and on the streets yearly.

So, when conservatives cite statistics to downplay COVID, does that reveal how they really value healthcare professionals? Well, statistically speaking, it’s the only logical conclusion.

For those of you who may want to comment on this post by way of disagreement, it’s only fair to warn you ahead of time…

…the cake is good enough and I am not looking for anymore conservative friends.

Paul Dohse, STNA/MA-C

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