No Respect for the Man Who Disgraces the Office!

"However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die." --- 2 Samuel 12:14

It happened a long time ago to a man who held a very powerful position – he was king over a nation that had been proving itself to be superior over all other kingdoms at that point in time.

But one night unbridled lust invaded the life of king David of Israel and he committed adultery with the result that the woman, Bathsheba, became pregnant. To make matters even worse, David conspired to have Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, killed in battle.

Things seemed to go alright for a while until one day God sent a prophet to confront the king about what he had done. David confessed that he had sinned and sought God’s mercy and forgiveness, which was graciously granted to him.

But he had disgraced the office of his kingship and was undeserving of respect which was evident by a harsh rebuke from God through the prophet, Nathan. Note again the words, “However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” --- 2 Samuel 12:14.

In this year of 2009 we are saddled with a president who has disgraced the high office of the presidency of the United States in numerous ways. There are those who attempt to defend the president and declare that we must support him and show respect for him.

But how can you respect this man when:

• he has lied repeatedly, not keeping promises which at the time they were made, he adamantly insisted he would make good on them when he became president! God does have a few explicit things to say about lying, does He not?
  
  
• he has led us down the road of uncontrolled spending and plunged our republic into an abyss of indebtedness from which it will never recover. China holds about one trillion dollars of that debt and if that country ever says, “Pay up, right now!”, what do you suppose will happen?
  
  
• he demonstrated the epitome of disgrace on his recent foreign junket when he bowed to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia. In effect the president of the United States was saying by that act that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and the Muslim faith to which the king is an ardent devotee are superior to the United States. This is nothing short of an image of the surrender of our national sovereignty!
  
  
• he has placed a blanket seal of approval (and it’s not the Good Housekeeping one) on the mass destruction of unborn children at all stages of their development from a few weeks (embryonic stem cell research) to full term. Not only is his support given to such mass murder and destruction in our nation, but by his signature we now support the destruction of the unborn in foreign nations as well.
  

However such happenings should come as no real surprise since the blessing of Almighty God is being withdrawn and being replaced with increased chastising actions and calamities in an attempt to awaken the nation to awareness that full repentance must be the top priority on the nation’s agenda. If it does not become that top priority, then we can expect our future to turn out the same as that of ancient cultures whose ruins we can now explore and observe – ancient Babylon being one of the more infamous examples!

And a PS on this -- if you are among the many who say we should respect the president, then you show me how to respect Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong, each of whom was responsible for millions of deaths of innocent victims, then I will apply your logic and start respecting B. Hussein Obama!

"And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me," says the LORD. “Everyone take heed to his neighbor, and do not trust any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanderers. Everyone will deceive his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.” --- Jeremiah 9:3-5

"And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' then you shall say to them, 'Because your fathers have forsaken Me,' says the LORD; 'they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one walks according to the imagination of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.’” --- Jeremiah 16:10-12

Open Letter to Mel White, His "Significant Other," and Soulforce from a United Methodist!

We call on members of the United Methodist Church to support your local congregation if it is (or is rapidly becoming) a Reconciling Congregation. But we call upon you to leave your church if your pastor continues to enforce the words that "...do not condone." At least refuse to pay your tithes and offerings until your church opens their doors to all people as Christ commands. --- part of text of "open letter" to United Methodists from Mel White & Soulforce, May 1, 2008

Dear Mel, your "significant other" (Gary), and Members of Soulforce:

Due to the General Conference of the UMC of 2008 not moving in the direction as far as you wanted, you have responded by making a broad appeal to the membership of the United Methodist Church. It is your desire that the United Methodist Church come to the place where those who practice sodomy and lesbianism be fully involved in the membership and life of the UMC. Further, that those who practice such lifestyles be ordained into the UMC ministry if they feel so "called."

Actually what follows was written some time before the death of Jerry Falwell, who is mentioned in the following epistle. But the appeal at the conclusion of the letter is still quite legitimate as some would fully agree. So here we go.......

You have certainly created a lot of waves around the country the last few years in your campaign to force full acceptance of the sodomite and lesbian lifestyles upon all citizens and institutions within the borders of the United States.

It must be admitted by even your most dedicated foes that much progress has been made by you and other like minded groups in your ultimate goal to have civil and church legislation enacted which will grant sodomites and lesbians the right to:

• legally marry in a church or in a civil ceremony.
  
  
• adopt children and be recognized as legitimate families with all the rights and privileges now possessed by families consisting of a father (male) and a mother (female) who are married and their children.
  
  
• be totally received into the life and ministry of any church, including ordination into the ministry of any church.
  
  
• be employed in any work place with full protection so that although a potential employer strongly objects to sodomy and lesbianism on moral grounds, that employer is forced to hire a sodomite or a lesbian anyway because the law says you cannot discriminate, even on moral grounds!
  
  
• be free to rent any property of choice which is available and even though a Christian who is the property owner has strong moral convictions that sodomy and lesbianism are an abomination, that Christian property owner must rent his property to a couple of sodomites or a couple of lesbians because the law says he cannot refuse the "couple" due to the fact that he would be guilty of "discrimination!"
  

Your efforts to put extreme pressure on various church groups have been highly publicized and it is clear that some are beginning to cave in a bit to your demands here and there -- even some church leaders who used to oppose sodomy and lesbianism have "converted" and now speak of it in favorable terms!

The strategy you are following could not be improved upon in any manner -- every facet of our society has been impacted and you now have growing support from political and church leaders. But of even greater significance is the fact that you now have a majority of those in mass media communications behind you along with an increased number of productions coming from the movie and television industries which present sodomy and lesbianism in a very favorable light -- or in the case of depicting stories of sodomites and lesbians who were victims of so-called "hate crimes" you have gained a great amount of sympathy for your cause and this should benefit you in seeking special protection and prvileges that we in the heterosexual community do not have nor ever shall in the future!

Now then -- having said all that and as you review your successes over recent years, may I make a suggestion to you regarding the expansion of your agenda to a much higher level.

Is it not time for you to enlarge your vision to include those countries that are still considered almost universally opposed to sodomy and lesbianism? You and your lover, Gary Nixon, at one point rented a house across the street from Jerry Falwell's church. And as anticipated, you reaped millions of dollars worth of publicity from this venture, and if you weren't very high profile before, you certainly are now!

OK, here it is -- are you ready for the next level of challenge? You can arrange for others to live in your house, attend Falwell's church and keep the heat on him and his congregation.

So how about you, your lover, and others who are committed to Soulforce and its mission moving to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, or Baghdad in Iraq, or Tehran in Iran?

Just do what you've been doing here in the U.S. as you challenge those Islamic cultures to consider the legitimacy of sodomy and lesbianism. Is it not true that the followers of Allah are much more hung up on sodomy and lesbianism than are the citizens of the U.S. and that those who practice sodomy and lesbianism in an Islamic culture must do so in complete secrecy? To be discovered as a practicing sodomite or lesbian can lead to a trial and execution as was the case on January 1, 2002 when three sodomites were publicly beheaded for practicing sodomy in Saudi Arabia! Surely you would agree, would you not, that these attitudes toward sodomy and lesbianism must be changed. And who would be the best person to confront those societies about this issue than you along with your supporters since you have great expertise in this area!

So, while it may be a bit difficult at first, if you pursue this with the same zeal as you have in the U.S., surely the professed followers of Islam will see it your way even as growing numbers of professing Christians and their leaders in this country are seeing things your way and agree with your contention that sodomy and lesbianism are to be considered every bit as normal as heterosexuality.

I anxiously look forward to a news release which tells of you, your lover, and Soulforce supporters taking up residence in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Iran and that you are zealously pursuing the same agenda there in public fashion as you have been doing in this country. And after you have "converted" the citizens of those countries you can then move on to the many others which are still dominated by Islam!

And by the way, Mel, try to keep your head as you pursue your crusade in those countries where Allah holds sway over the majority!

Still contending at Circuit Rider's Range, blogging at Musings of a Maverick! and warning at Driving the Final Nails!

Clayton D. Harriger
Elder in Full Connection
W. PA Annual Conference
The United Methodist Church

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. --- Jude 1:3, 4