Democrats state they want to provide a path for illegal immigrants to get citizenship. Democrats feel immigrants should not be hindered from crossing the border. The influx hurts border States the most since immigrants disperse in the area close to the border once they get into the U.S. Many coming into the country illegally escape capture and are not being screened. Many are criminals seeking to prey on Americans. Many also pay their way by bringing in drugs and weapons for the cartels. Without screening, we don’t know who is coming in. The wall would force them to come through immigration where they could be screened. Democrats hindered President Trump’s attempt to complete the border wall and President Biden has refused to protect our borders and has repeatedly ignored the cries for help from border States inundated with illegal immigrants. Texas and Arizona finally got the attention of liberals by busing a portion of the illegal immigrants to New York City and Washington D.C. Now the problem has ended up on Washington’s doorstep and they are finally having to deal with it. President Biden has finally consented to start work on the wall, though he has reassured his supporters that he won’t build any new wall, he will only reinforce existing wall, which means he will spend a lot of money but do nothing to fix the problem. People complain about how much the wall will cost but have no idea how much the influx of illegal immigrants is already costing them. We need to know the number convicted of crimes, and how many taxpayer funded programs are used by illegal immigrants. In addition, President Obama forced many communities to accept immigrants who were captured, in spite of opposition by residents. We need to return power to the States so communities can decide. Immigrants should not be forced on communities.
Eighth Sunday of Pentecost-July 16
Summer kid’s lunches-Kids from poor families can get free lunches at school and some schools even offer breakfast, however, there is no school in summer. Some parents don’t have sufficient funds for meals, though food stamps are usually readily available. Some parents might not want to apply or are not eligible for some reason. More often the reason is do to the parent not being able to plan good meals or is just lazy. The parent may work and children are left alone to fend for themselves and do not know how to prepare adequate meals, or do not want to bother. As a result, the children suffer. School meals provide their only truly nutritious meals. When school is out, they do not get adequate nutrition. The government has money for meal programs in the summer but needs someone to handle the program since the schools are closed. Community organizations can contract for the funds and provide the meals. Church can and often do contract to provide the meals but cannot include religious training during the meal because it uses government funds. However, there is nothing to stop the church from having the meal at noon and having a Children’s Bible Club at 1 PM and inviting the kids to stay, though they cannot be required to stay. Some churches have Children’s Bible Clubs on Wednesday evenings and provide a meal so parents aren’t rushed getting home and preparing a meal for the kids before the Bible Club.
Voting-I-AQ
Liberals are again facing embarrassment for their rhetoric. They made a big deal of the Georgia voting law passed just before the 2022 election requiring Voter ID claiming it was racist and would prevent many Blacks from voting. The media picked up the cry and openly broadcast their statements. Large corporations even pulled programs from Georgia hurting the State financially to force them to repeal it. Yet Georgia experienced a record number of voters in the 2022 election including more Blacks than before. While post-election surveys revealed no one who was hindered in voting, liberals have continued similar attacks on voter laws passed by other States after the election. Experience is showing an increase in voting, especially by Blacks, who express more confidence that their vote will count, yet neither liberals nor the media have apologized or admitted they were wrong. Many people I talk to still believe that conservatives that push election protection laws are trying to prevent people from voting so they can win. The only ones they are preventing from voting are those who are voting illegally. Voters must stand up and demand their legislators enact voter protection laws to prevent the many cases of election fraud which have occurred since liberal attemptsto break down safeguards to election safety.
Economics-Government-E-E
While Democrats continue to claim the rich have to pay a bigger share, they ignore the basic problem. The problem is their inability to get along with what they have. While federal law requires a balanced budget, they add additional spending after approving the budget so it doesn’t show up in the budget. They spend freely running up the national debt and then raise the debt limit to accommodate it. They claim they will not raise taxes but quietly add new taxes or tax increases into other bills. The increased taxes are mostly directed at businesses, so they will be invisible to the average taxpayer. They feel that since those taxpayers are voters, they need to be kept in the dark. They say the businesses are getting rich and can afford it but those taxes are then passed on to the consumer. In addition, increased taxes decreases profit and discourage expansion and results in businesses cutting back on their labor force and on production of less profitable goods, resulting in the taxes bringing in less than expected. They also need to cut taxes. History has shown that cutting taxes encourages business expansion and usually more than makes up for the tax rate cuts in added sales and additional employees hired.
Courts-C-C
The liberals are continuing to push to subvert justice by stacking the Supreme Court. They had to back off on the addition of several justices due to the tremendous negative backlash. People were horrified that they would deliberately stack the court to get their way. However, they have not stopped their efforts to regain control of the Supreme Court. They have seen a number of their pet issues overturned and can’t wait for the conservative justices to retire. They want to regain control of the Court before the Court shoots down any more of their pet issues. They have made frivolous accusations against several conservative judges in order to discredit them and hopefully gain sympathy. While they call for the judges to be impeached, it is doubtful they could gain the support necessary. They are also calling for term limits for the judges. That would eliminate several of the conservative judges and open the way for them to appoint additional justices. Term limits would violate the Constitutional provision that the justices serve for life and would require a Constitutional amendment. The Constitution made provision for them to serve for life so Presidents would not stack the Court to approve their pet issues. Term limits would result in more rapid turnover and allow Presidents to stack the courts. The one thing the founding Fathers feared most. A Constitutional Convention would require 2/3 approval of both houses of Congress and they can’t even get a simple majority. In addition it would require approval of 3/4th of the States and they only control a few States. The States are heavily populated States so they control a lot of votes but they are concentrated in just a few States. That is why they want to do away with the Electoral College. The Electoral College guarantees that the President has broad support across the country and not just in a few States. Our country was founded on the principle that justice is blind and should apply equally to all but liberals have ignored the Constitution and State and federal laws when they prevent them from getting what they want. They have also used the FBI and Dept of Justice as well as the IRS to harass and intimidate conservatives, while turning a blind eye to crimes committed by liberals. It is time to elect representatives who will respect the law and restore justice in America.
Seventh Sunday of Pentecost-June 9
Rural Churches Can-A small town United Methodist Church I once served was complaining they could not compete with churches in nearby cities and felt they had no future. It was started in 1816 but its first history wasn’t written until 1911 so much of its early history was lost. I began contacting churches around the church to get their histories because many of the churches shared a circuit at one time. I counted about 16 churches started by that church back when northern Ohio was a virtual wilderness. It wasn’t the pastor, because they shared their pastor with up to twenty other churches. Once they built a building to worship in, there was no record they established any new churches. Somewhere along the way they lost the vision. I surveyed some of the local people and found that one out of ten people in that town were of Methodist background but did not attend any church. Since I was in seminary full-time nine months of the year, I had little time to do more than preach, however I spent my summers visiting members of the church and community. Both churches experienced noticeable growth for the first time in years from my work alone. Pastors need to train their members to become fishers of men. Though many rural churches are failing, some are still succeeding. A couple local churches have proved there is still a future for rural churches. One church recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. It started from a couple families meeting in a house basement because they did not like the way the theology of their church was going. It has grown to over 250 members in only 25 yrs. by reaching out and ministering to those around them. Another local church started as a house church 20 years ago, now averages 200 in its main church and has a satellite church. While some mega-churches today are growing by watering down the Gospel to draw anyone they can, such churches are growing by ministering to those around them like the New Testament church did. I discuss it further in my book “Rebuilding the Kingdom”.
Economics-Government-A-O
A sticking point that Democrats are talking about behind closed doors is to tax churches. Such a move would create a real rebellion because there are so many churches. As a result, no one is talking about it openly. Churches were exempt from taxation by the separation of church and State clause. The power to tax is the power to control and churches have always been tax exempt to prevent government control. However Democrats see it as a lucrative tax source because of the millions of dollars that flow through churches weekly. While open taxation is currently not an option, the IRS has been quietly extending its claws into churches by increasingly regulating how giving is done. Those rules are giving them more ways to control churches. They have been using their power to grant non-profit status to churches to threaten churches and religious organizations who speak out on social issues like abortion and Gay privileges. The IRS under President Obama held up applications for Christian organizations seeking to get non-profit status prior to the 2016 elections in order to threaten them into being silent on social issues. In some instances they have tried to silence churches by threatening to revoke their non-profit status. Sometimes, they tried to force pastors to submit copies of their sermons to show that they are not preaching against abortion and Gay privileges. That is illegal because churches are legally able to speak out on issues. In fact, the founding fathers felt that democracy could not survive if it was not directed by people seeking God’s guidance. How can people know God’s guidance on issues if the church can not teach them God’s principles. Churches do not lose their freedom of speech just because they are Christian. In fact, abortion and Gay privileges are religious matters and involve belief in the value of life and of marriage. To force them to support abortion or marry Gay couples would violate their religious beliefs and would be interfering with their religious practices in open violation of the Constitution. In some instances, they have tried to force churches and other religious organizations to turn over lists of their contributors in order to discourage people from giving to them out of fear that the IRS might audit them. Some cities are denying churches permits to build or expand in the city limits in order to force them out of the city. Since churches don’t pay taxes, they want to replace them with businesses that will bring in tax revenue.
Economics-government-D-F
While some say that is not fair because the rich pay more, they are better able to afford it. There are certain drawbacks to the graduated tax. It does create an incentive to reduce taxable income to stay in a lower tax bracket. If someone earns too much, it will put him in a higher tax bracket at a higher tax rate. How much of that is done is hard to estimate. The problem comes with the deductions. There is no problem with the standard deduction because poor people can’t afford taxes on what little they get though setting the amount of deduction is tricky. Too much and a lot of people can get out of paying taxes, too little and it makes it hard on the working poor who don’t make enough to live on. The real problem comes with deductions. Our system has become so complex many people need professional tax preparers to fill them out and that is costly. While there is no problem with deductions for necessary expenses, it can be abused by throwing in all kinds of non-related expenses. Having a party with friends would not qualify if it is not related to the business. There are also incentives to encourage things like charitable giving. Incentives encourage people to put money in certain purchases or activities. A certain amount of giving is assumed though that may not actually take place. Certain types of income are also exempt from taxes. The rich have money to do so while the poor do not. Smart people with money can put money in tax shelters and may pay less than lower income people who can’t afford shelters. Exemptions and deductions seek to balance the tax burden but may make it worse if not properly set up. While some call for a straight tax, I don’t think they would get much support. .
Economics-Government-D-E
Democrats say they support a progressive tax which is good. We already have a progressive tax at the federal level, however, many State and city taxes are straight taxes. A straight tax is where everyone is taxed equally. For instance everyone is taxed at 10 %. That seems fair but it puts a heavier burden on the poor. A millionaire can afford ten percent but someone earning just enough to live on can’t afford ten percent, so we have a progressive tax where the higher your income, the higher percentage of tax you pay. That way the rich carry a heavier part of the burden. That may seem unfair but it puts the burden on those who can best afford it. However, the problems are in the details. Those earning less than needed for a basic living still suffer. As a result, we have a standard deduction for the taxpayer and any dependents to allow a minimum basic income before the taxes begin to exempt those earning below a living wage. That helps them to put all their income into surviving. We have a system where the tax is taken out as it is earned. That is good because there is no allocated tax burden waiting for you at the end of the year, if you lose your job. There are also deductions for work-related expenses for those who are self-employed. An employee gets paid for his work and gets to use all that for what he needs to live on, however someone who is self-employed does not get to keep all he earns. If he buys books for $5.00 each and sells them for $10.00, he can’t keep all that. He must use $5.00 from each book to buy more books to sell. As a result, our tax system allows him to exempt the cost of the books he purchases and other expenses like rent, utilities, and other expenses that are needed to sell the books. That is far since he is only taxed on what he gets to keep.
Sixth Sunday of Pentecost-July 2
Neighborhood Center Ministry-Poor areas have many problems caused by poverty. Lack of transportation makes it difficult to get assistance from agencies and there are many needs that agencies can’t help. The Salvation Army has developed the greatest network of neighborhood centers of any church. Each church is usually in a poverty area and provides not only a religious center but social services and community programs. People coming to get social services become aware of religious services and other services. Formerly, churches were centers for community activities since they had the only facilities for community gatherings other than schools. Many churches today close their facilities to non-members. Any church today, especially those in poverty areas and rural areas, should be a community center ministering to social needs around them, as well as their spiritual needs. Ministering to the community often leads non-church people to ask why they do it opening the doors to tell them about the Love of God.