November 3rd 2020 San Bernardino County Christian Conservative Voter’s Guide

The election is right around the corner!  We have quite a stream of readers of our blog from Southern California and I thought it would be helpful to post this.

We have quite a stream of readers of our blog from Southern California and I thought it would be helpful to post this.

This is courtesy of Craig Huey of Election Forum (HT).

Christians must definitely be informed in how they vote where they vote not against their principles but as much as for it.  You might not think there’s much reason to vote concerning presidential candidates but there’s still other candidates for other offices where your vote counts even more.

Here’s the voter’s guide for San Bernardino County:

Ratings: Every candidate is considered after thorough research; we also have a questionnaire for candidates to complete. Here is our rating system:

•  : The best candidate. Our strongest endorsement.
• : Very good.
• : Acceptable.
• : Vote only to prevent worse candidate(s) from winning.
• : Terrible. Do Not Vote. All your other votes will count.

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Book Review: How to Be a Perfect Christian by Babylon Bee

Babylon Bee.  How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, May 1^st, 2018. 208 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

If you are a Christian and have been on various social media for any length of time you probably are familiar with the Babylon Bee, a Christian satire website comparable to The Onion.  In fact I think they are better than The Onion.  Apparently they have put out this book titled How to Be a Perfect Christian with the subtitle “Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living.”  Like their website the book itself is straight satire against unbiblical Christianity and also the quirky side of American cultural Christianity.

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The tension of two Huffington Post’s Religion Articles

On the one hand one of the leading articles is titled “How Christian America Elected The President No Other Religion Could Get Behind.”

On the other hand there’s also an article on the side bar titled “Why Donald Trump Is Winning Over Many American Hindus.”

Obviously there are American Hindus who are electing Trump so…

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Meditate on 1 Timothy 2:1-2 before and after the 2016 Election

1 Timothy 2:1-2 states

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, ² for kings and all who are in ^[a]authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and ^[b]dignity

I think there’s room for discussion about the election among Christians.  I know there’s disagreements for this election.  But believers can unite in one thing: praying for those who are in authority and also who will be in authority.  1 Timothy 2 also reveal precisely why we pray for those in authority has to do with our walks with God (v.2).  It is so that we live a life in all godliness.  But that presupposes we are striving towards godliness and dignity.  Brothers and sisters are you?

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November 8th 2016 San Bernardino County Christian Conservative Voter’s Guide

The election is right around the corner!

We have quite a stream of readers of our blog from Southern California and I thought it would be helpful to post this.

This is courtesy of Craig Huey of Election Forum (HT).

Christians must definitely be informed in how they vote where they vote not against their principles but as much as for it.  You might not think there’s much reason to vote concerning presidential candidates but there’s still other candidates for other offices where your vote counts even more.

Here’s the voter’s guide for San Diego County:

Ratings:

We have changed our ratings system from the Thumbs Up to a Five State system.

Every candidate is considered after thorough research; we also have a questionnaire for candidates to complete.

Here is our new rating system:

•  : The best candidate. Our strongest endorsement.
• : Very good.
• : Acceptable.
• Vote only to prevent worse candidate(s) from winning.
• : Terrible. Do Not Vote. All your other votes will count.

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November 8th 2016 California Christian Conservative Voter’s Guide: Orange County

We have quite a stream of readers of our blog from Southern California and I thought it would be helpful to post this.

This is courtesy of Craig Huey of Election Forum (HT).

Christians must definitely be informed in how they vote where they vote not against their principles but as much as for it.  You might not think there’s much reason to vote concerning presidential candidates but there’s still other candidates for other offices where your vote counts even more.

(For the record I can’t bring myself to vote neither of the two party’s candidate for president)

Here’s the voter’s guide for Orange County:

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Urgent since rights of Christian are at stake: Say No to SB1146

Note: This is an urgent guest post by one of our readers we are sharing this immediately given that this is threatening tolerance of Christian beliefs of the Bible.

http://www.opposesb1146.com/images/sb1146-square.png

By B Dub

Freedom of religion is a central feature of our liberties as Americans.  It is a right affirmed in the First Amendment.  Once a society starts stripping its citizens of their essential freedoms, including religious liberty, it cannot long survive as a free society.  There is a bill in the California assembly numbered SB1146.  It could potentially be very bad for California Christian Colleges and Universities.

As of the Time of this writing it has passed the California Senate and is making its way through the California Assembly and is being review in committees.  As it is written now, it could cause real problems for religious institutions in California.  Once it makes it to Jerry Brown’s desk, he is likely to sign it.

The advocates of the bill claim it as a non-discrimination policy, but it disallows religious institutions to uphold their beliefs.   In this way it is in fact discriminatory. It says that religious requirements must be approved by the state. It could be a problem for a college enforcing their moral beliefs stemming from the religion.  For example they wouldn’t be able to talk against homosexual marriage or abortion.   This section in particular is biggest issue:

Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code, including the perception that the person has any of those characteristics or that the person is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to have, any of those characteristics.

As you can see, by the wording it claims to not be discriminatory.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.   By not allowing religious institutions’ freedom of conscious, it discriminates against their ability to enforce principles in accordance with their beliefs.

The whole text and history of the bill can be found here for reference and context.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1146#content_anchor

Here is what several religious institutions in California are saying and how it affects them:

Concordia University Irvine: http://www.cui.edu/aboutcui/sb1146

Biola: http://now.biola.edu/news/article/2016/jun/08/preserve-faith-based-higher-education/

Western Baptist University: http://www.opposesb1146.com/

As well as another blogger talking about it.

 

What can be done?

Those of you in California contact your representatives.  Even if you are not you can still contact them.  Urge them to vote no.

If you don’t know who your representative is, you can find out here.
http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Tell your friends about this.  Let the word get out about this and why this bill is bad news.

Also, prayer is always encouraged.

Here is a site with more suggestions on what to do.

https://wcbc.edu/oppose-sb-1146

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Donald Trump’s KKK support but what about Satanists’ and the Klan’s support of Planned Parenthood?

Let me say right up front this is not a post supporting Donald Trump.  I personally prefer another candidate and I have a hard time with some of the things Trump has to say.  Again this post is not so much about Trump as it is about the consistency of those who have complained about Donald Trump, his endorsement by David Duke (former grandwizard from the KKK) and Trump’s response.

 

 

The Liberal Media have been having a field day.  Even NPR headline states “Trump Fails To Condemn KKK On Television, Turns To Twitter To Clarify.”  The subject has been trending on Social Media.  Some wanted to see if Trump would repudiate David Duke and the KKK.  Some even zoomed in closer of Trump’s handling of the manner.  The discussion doesn’t necessarily help Trump’s public image as some find this affair as a reason to dismiss support for Trump.

But using the same logic behind the criticism of Trump, how would the same people respond to the relationship and support Planned Parenthood has received from the Klan and Satanists?

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The Goal of Christians isn’t to be extreme nor even moderate per se

Some word on Christian and politics.  Most Christians have the intuition that when it comes to political views we shouldn’t choose a position or support someone that’s extreme for extremists sake but I think we also should not be moderate for moderate sake alone either; sometimes moderates mean those who continually compromise on good principles so as to look middle of the road.  More harmful policies has been caused by so called “moderate policies.”  Picking a position merely because it’s in the middle of everything isn’t wise in other instances of life as the pictures demonstrate above so why do we do it when it comes to politics?  We must also not forget that there is a leftward drift in our society and really things that are “moderate” today was what was liberal yesterday.  Again I’m not advocating to be an extremists for the sake of being extreme:  I think we should look for those who have sound economic, national and foreign policies and debate the merit of those policies rather than irrelevant attacks and personal attacks that occur too much today for cheap media sound bites.  Ultimately for the Christian we must ask the question of what is Biblical.

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November 3, 2015 Los Angeles County Christian Conservative Voter’s Guide

I’m addressing Los Angeles County Christians in this post.  2015 is not necessarily a big election year like next year (President, Congress, various Senators, etc).  Still it’s important if a Christian vote, they vote according to what aligns to Christian principles.  The following is an election guide from Election Forum for Southern California.  You should check out their website.

Remember also to pray for our leaders and their policies.

Candidate Ratings:

Every candidate is considered after thorough research; we also have a questionnaire for candidates to complete.

• : Strongest endorsement for values voters
• : Above average
• : Better than opponent. Some races are between candidates that you will disagree with. You may not want to vote for any of them, but at least a 1 thumbs up makes one candidate as better than the other. It’s the lesser of the two evils. 1 thumbs up is not really an endorsement.
• No Endorsement: We either oppose the candidates or have found no reason to support a candidate. If you don’t vote for a candidate or issue, all your other votes you make for other offices still count.

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God’s Loves for the Life of Babies Part 3: God’s love for the lives of Babies is seen in Pharaoh’s Overt Genocide

Part 2

God’s love for the lives of Babies is seen in Pharaoh’s Overt Genocide (Exodus 1:22-2:10)

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Third Round of Good Memes Refuting Defense of Planned Parenthood (8/22/15)

Like the previous round up of Good Memes Refuting the Defense of Planned Parenthood, I’ve included links to the original post so that you can share them on social media.

Source: Facebook

"My Body My Choice" – Then whose body parts is #PlannedParenthhood selling? #ProtestPP pic.twitter.com/eOqpScZZxu

— Erin Brownback (@ebrownback) August 22, 2015

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Satire of the Perpetually Offended PC Culture

This is pretty funny.

We live in a culture that is on a perpetual outrage and easily offended with the littlest things that disagree with us.

I’m reminded of this quote from John MacArthur that’s quite relevant:

“If the truth offends, then let it offend. People have been living their whole lives in offense to God; let them be offended for a while.”
–John MacArthur

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Planned Parenthood President claim they provide “high-quality, nonjudgmental, compassionate care”

In a Washington Post opinion piece yesterday (July 29th) Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards gave a defense of her organization after being exposed for selling aborted babies body parts.  I hope to respond to the whole article in another post later today but for now I want to look at one of her claims about her organization.

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Review: Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons

 

David Kinnaman.  Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, October 1st, 2007. 255 pp.

When I first picked up this book I wasn’t sure what the direction of the book would be.  Was this going to be another book from a Millennial who was going to compromise the Christian faith while it talks about statistics that demonstrate that Christianity has a PR problem today?  Was this going to be written from the perspective of being man-centerd in which the author was going to address problems with some kind of pragmatic gimmick instead of a solution that was biblically driven?  I must say that I was glad to see that the author lived up to being an Evangelical and even said in the book that one cannot compromise clear biblical conviction.  I would also say that at times the solutions he proposes is very good and something I resonate strongly with especially his discussion about the need to genuinely love the non-Christian and homosexuals and also for Christians to start living like Christians in light of God’s grace.  Even at times when I disagree with him as to what is the main problem I do think his exhortation is edifying.

What the author has found in his studies and surveys is disturbing and some of it cannot be brushed aside.  What stood out strongly for me was his analysis of surveys from Christians themselves and how it reveal that Christians can be just like the World and at times be hypocritical.  I expect non-Christians to get Christians and Christianity wrong.  But to see some of the sad state of affairs from studies directly surveying Christians really made things sobering.

I want to re-iterate again that this book stood out to me as being different than some of the literatures out there (book and non-book forms) which would use such data to call for Christians to forsake biblical truths, with the familiar theological liberal mantra “the Church must change from it’s biblical ways, or die from being no longer relevant.”  I think even if you disagree with the book there is lots to learn from it and I don’t want to take away from this even as I share some of my disagreements with the book in this review.

The author argues that part of the Christian public perceptions problem is that Christians today are too political, anti-homosexual and judgmental.  Often these three complaints come together as a package when it comes to Christians being conservative on social issues.  It’s not that the book argues these aren’t important but the book expressed that Christians have become too focused upon these issues.  The author believes that this bad public perception of Christianity would end up hurting Evangelicalism in the long run and ultimately turn people away from Christianity.  However is this the case?  While the book was published in 2007 there have been other studies and newer studies since that puts some holes to the authors’ thesis.

First off studies have revealed that Conservative Christians are not concerned with only single issues or merely political social issues.  Christians actually give more money and time for other causes more than they do to the social issues that are politically divisive.  Arthur C. Brooks argues that studies have revealed how the factor of being more conservative, religious, and less reliant on the government result in higher rates of giving time and money to both religious and secular cause in his book “Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism.”  In fact, in a May 2015 commentary titled “On conservative religious activism, the numbers speak for themselves” Rob Schwarzwalder and Pat Fagan presents presuasive evidence that Evangelical Conservative Christians has done more for the poor and the needy in proportion to social conservative issues.  The good works of Biblical Christians in the areas that non-Christians can agree with is still a strong testimony in light of these findings!

Secondly studies reveal the opposite direction of trajectory than the ones the author predicted concerning Conservative Evangelicals.  According to the book one shouldn’t expect Conservative Evangelicals to make any gains while the more liberal mainline denominations would in light of their stance on social issues.  We see instead the opposite according to a much publicize Pew Forum report in May 2015.  To quote the study directly, “The evangelical Protestant tradition is the only major Christian group in the survey that has gained more members than it has lost through religious switching.”

While the book is not without it’s problem I do think it is still helpful to critically read it.

Purchase: Amazon

 

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