The New York governor has allocated funds to built up the State police and encouraged the FBI to increase their presence on social media to combat hate speech. That sounds like a worthy goal. However, the truth is in the definition of hate speech. They consider hate speech to be anything that goes against their policies. They ignore their own attacks against parents who peacefully question their school’s policies, while ignoring their school text books that label white people as oppressors and Black people as victims, fueling racial hatred. They arrest peaceful pro-life people who pray for those going to abortion centers and ignore the violent attacks on pro-life churches and pregnancy centers. They praise Hamas for its violent and senseless attack on Israel and condemn Israel for defending itself. They arrest peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators and ignore the pro-Palestinian demonstrators that violently attack them. Yet, the people of New York not only tolerate them but keep reelecting them. Is the media so corrupt that the people are unaware of what is going on or are the elections so corrupt that the elections are meaningless and the New York mob still appoints the people for public office? Is New York a glimpse of what our nation will be like if they prevail on the national level?
Voting=I-AU
Democrats have long pushed for ballot drop boxes and mail-in voting to make it easier for voters to vote. Recent arrests in the use of Ballot Drop Boxes to stuff the ballot box show how vulnerable they are to abuse. The boxes are not attended and no process is available to verify that the ballots were filled out by a registered voter. Video cameras caught two top Democratic party officials making repeated trips to the boxes and depositing ballots in a Democratic primary. Mail-in ballots also cannot be adequately verified. Some States require the voter’s signature on the outside as well as the inside so the signatures can be compared to ensure the ballot wasn’t removed and replaced but that is no guarantee since both signitures could be forged and replacing the envelope as well as the ballot or as in Georgia, removing the ballots from the envelope and throwing them away so the signatures could not be compared. While many people focus on the national elections, the primaries are the place where the party’s candidate for the national election is chosen. Since the primaries are presided over by party officials, they are the easiest to subvert. The party can ensure their preferred candidate is elected in the primary through manipulating ballots in the primary. By manipulating elections in cities and States where Democrats are strong, they can staff the city and State governments with people who will support the party leadership and prevent investigations into election . In swing States, they can use their times in power to manipulate elections to guarantee that the Republicans can no longer win. While the electoral college guarantees that a candidate for President must have support of voters in a vast number of States, Democrat efforts to abolish the electoral college would allow them to win with the support of the voters in only a few highly populous States. Democrats and Republicans both need to support common sense protections for voting to ensure that their vote is safe.
Preparing For Christmas
Children are beginning to think about Christmas as stores are ramping up their Christmas advertising. Yet Christmas is more than getting presents. It is a celebration of when God gave us the greatest gift of all. Advent is a time when we begin to prepare our hearts for celebrating when Christ came to save us and begins on December 3rd this year. I have an Advent booklet available to help parents teach their children about Christmas. It has a short Scripture for each day of Advent which helps to remind us of what Christmas is about and includes pictures that go with the daily Scriptures that the kids can color, cut out, and glue to construction paper. It provides a time the family can get together and learn from God’s Word and hopefully will become a regular family practice all year round. The pictures can be hung on the Christmas tree or on cords strung around the room. It is an electronic file that I would be glad to E-mail to you free and can be printed off. E-mail me at neighborhoodministriesnwoh@gmail.com and use heading “Advent booklet”.
Eleventh Sunday of Kingdomtide-Nov, 12
Dwell in Unity-God wants us to not only love Him, but to love those He created as well As others see the love we have for each other, they will want that love and want to know the God who is the source of that love. Many churches today have a hard time attracting members because unbelievers do not see that love in the church. Many churches are more a collection of strangers than a family of brothers and sisters in Christ. Members can not care for each other if they don’t know each other’s needs. God also calls us to love others in the body of believers, regardless of the church they belong to, so that others might see how good it is to live as God wants us to. The multitude of denominations presents a picture of widespread division and the refusal of churches of different traditions to work together indicates there is little of the love the church claims to possess. The Church claims that Jesus is the way but does not appear to agree on what that way is. How can unbelievers take the church’s message seriously?
Voting-I-AT
The second pillar of the ACE Act will exercise Congress’s constitutional responsibility over Washington, D.C. Voting in elections should be reserved only for U.S. citizens. Currently, a number of cities including Washington, D.C., and New York City allow noncitizens to vote. Washington, D.C.’s law is so ridiculous it will let embassy staff from Russia and China vote after living in the capital for just 30 days. The bill prohibits federal funds from going to places that allow noncitizens to vote and stops noncitizens from voting in Washington, D.C. Reforms will not only prohibit noncitizens from voting, but also implement strong voter photo ID laws, require annual voter list maintenance, and stop the unsolicited mailing of ballots to unmaintained lists. After years of mismanaged elections, our nation’s capital will become a model for states. The final pillar of the bill is focused on protecting political speech. Many people have grown concerned that their First Amendment rights will be suppressed or that their beliefs will be weaponized against them. The ACE Act will permanently prohibit federal agencies, such as the IRS, from asking for nonprofit organizations’ donor lists, creating ad hoc standards, and applying them to ideologically opposed groups. This section of the bill will also bring greater transparency and accountability into the federal campaign finance system. The public deserves confidence in our elections. House Republicans made a “Commitment to America” to restore government by the people and for the people. Congress has the opportunity to pass the most transformative conservative election integrity legislation for the first time in a generation. Contact your representatives and demand they support election integrity laws at the State level as well.
Voting-I-AS
The ACE Act (American Confidence in Elections Act) being pushed to States nationally, has three main pillars: equipping states with election integrity tools, implementing election integrity reforms in Washington, D.C., and protecting political speech and donor privacy. The primary section of the bill is focused on providing states with tools to improve voter confidence. Voter names left on the register after they die or move out of State leave States open to fraud since someone can go through the rolls pulling out names of those who haven’t voted in several years and fill out ballots in their name. It will remove outdated policies that stand in their way and provide access to information held only by federal agencies. For example, state and county election officials should have access to the Social Security death list so they can keep their voter rolls maintained. The best time to remove someone from the active voter list is when they die. Another safeguard states can implement to improve voter confidence is requiring photo ID to ensure the person casting a ballot is who they claim to be. Thirty-five states already require some form of identification at the polls, and we should encourage more to follow.
Voting-I-AR
Democrats claim there is no election fraud, in spite of continual arrests and prosecution of those caught, however, they recently suffered a great embarrassment that will be hard to deny. In a Democratic primary for mayor, one candidate produced video of a remote ballot collection box where two top Democrat officials are seen repeatedly returning to the box and dropping ballots in it. Democrats claim the boxes are necessary because it is difficult for some people to get to the polls, but the boxes are not attended and there is no verification of those who drop in ballots to ensure they are who they claim to be. The judge recognized that the election had clearly been compromised and ordered the results thrown out and a new election held. However, there is no indication how many other elections have been compromised by stuffing the ballot box with bogus ballots. How many Democrat primaries have elected party favorites over voter preference due to compromised primaries and how many Democrat candidates have been elected in States controlled by Democrats due to compromised elections. Democrats continually push remote ballot boxes, mail-in balloting, and ballot harvesting where workers pick up ballots and deliver them to the election office but there is no way to verify the ballots were filled out by those whose names are on them or fake ballots were not substituted for legitimate ballots to change an election. These practices leave elections wide open to corruption.
Tenth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Nov, 5
Establish mentors-While Jesus taught the masses, there are things you can’t explain like how to love someone. That is only learned as you see someone else loving others. As a result, Jesus selected twelve disciples and had them walk with Him and watch how He dealt with problems. He taught them through the example He set before them. As the disciples watched Him, they learned how to deal with those problems in a way that pleased God. New Christians need to be paired with a more mature Christian that can guide them and counsel with them as needed in order to learn how to serve Christ and the Church. That takes a close relationship which is rare today. The Bible says that the older shall teach the younger for good reason. Industry seeks younger workers just out of school who have the latest knowledge and training because technology changes so quickly that what we know is quickly out of date and that is important in keeping companies competitive, however the church has been caught up in the trend and it is creating problems in the church. Many churches are beginning to seek young pastors and board members and ignore older ones, yet man, unlike technology, doesn’t change. Our social climate and how we react to it changes but man does not. Many young pastors are being educated by liberal colleges and seminaries who cater to liberal ideas. As a result, many are leading their churches astray. In addition, the young pastors lack experience and the wisdom gained only through experience. It is like having children teaching classes to teach adults how to live. The church needs to heed the Bible and return to seeking experienced leadership.