Sunday, October 09, 2011

[1743] RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

This past week we have seen both sides of the aisle try to describe what the Wall Street protestors are all about. The left has tried to ‘adopt’ them as sort of the Liberal answer to the Tea Party.

The right has described them as a bunch of unemployed spoiled brats that have no consistent voice.

There is probably some truth to both sides- yet neither are totally accurate in my view.

The original Tea Party activists [and the actual event they get their name from!] were raging against the machine ‘No taxation without representation’- much like the present protests.

This past week I read Psalms 79-80. Well I read more than that- but I tried to meditate on these 2 chapters for a while.

I was surprised to see how many verses I actually quote in prayer- that come from these passages.

‘Let the sighing of the prisoners come before thee’ ‘pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee- and THE KINGDOMS that have not called upon thy name’- a few more.

The theme of these chapters is God’s people are under attack ‘Lord- the heathen have come in and defiled your people- their bones are scattered all around the city- their blood is poured out like water’.

Psalms 80 says ‘Lord- you took this vine out of Egypt [speaking about the nation of Israel] then why have you let the protective wall around it to fall down’?

Both Isaiah [chapter 5] and Jesus [Matthews’s gospel] use this same language.

God allowed ungodly kingdoms- systems- to bring down the people of God. One of the Old Testament prophets actually has a real hard time with this- he can’t understand why God would do something like this.

God did it because the people ‘left him’. They walked away from truly seeking God- and judgment came.

Can systems become corrupt? It depends on who has the influence. Many of today’s protestors do have a Bone to Pick with Wall Street. Many of the large banks [investors] and corporate Big Wigs did indeed make out like bandits on the tax payers dime [including Warren Buffet!].

Now- not all bankers- or people working at the actual Wall Street location are criminals- but many of the insiders are/were.

We liked to see the perp walk with Bernie Madoff- but what he did- bilking private investors- was nothing on the scale of what the big corporate heads got away with.

Many of the institutions that were culpable in the bail outs- these people knowingly made decisions that they knew were corrupt. Many of the political leaders- especially Barny Frank and Chris Dodd- they pressured banks to lower their loan standards in order to get more minorities in homes.

Whether their intentions were good or not- they were behind some of the bad loans that would later default.

And President Bush at the time was told that the housing market was going to get into deep trouble if they did not do something about it. To his credit- he tried- I saw the hearings on TV.

The Democrats who were backing Fannie Mae [the mortgage lender the govt. backs] accused Bush of being a racist [yeah- they love that card] How?

They said- openly- on record- ‘there is no problem with the mortgage system at all- and those who are drumming up this false fear- they don’t want Blacks to have homes’ Maxine Waters- Frank- the whole crew said this.

A few months later the bubble burst- everything the Bush guy warned about was right [you know- the racist].

And the actual guys who were a big part of the cause of this [Frank, Dodd] they began berating the banks and lending companies for making all these bad loans.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

So what happened here? People who had influence behind the scenes- who had hidden agendas [Franklin Raines- the head of Fannie at the time. A vocal Black supporter of the president- made out like a bandit in the whole debacle]. These people managed to influence the system- to get it to do what they wanted- and the system worked for them- at the expense of the average person.

Yes- systems [kingdoms] can become corrupt- and they last for so long- and then the hammer comes down [pour out thy wrath upon the kingdoms- systems- that don’t call on you].

This past week- there really have been some devastating news stories on the current scandals of the Administration.

You had a top guy at the White House curse out a reporter- Sharyl Atkinson- when she called and asked some questions about the sandals.

She works for CBS- hardly a right leaning news org. - and she has said the documents that they have seen- that these scandals are much worse than people realize.

The stuff released late Friday [called a document dump- you do it on Friday hoping it will die down by Monday] basically show that many insiders- even Democrats- and other legal folk- they warned the White House that they were on the verge of breaking the law [by restructuring the Solyndra loan] and they were told ‘don’t approve this loan change without passing it by the justice dept.’.

Then- in these memos and emails- the White House simply did the loan- even after their own legal people said ‘you might be breaking the law’ [remember- he only changed the loan for this company. He did the change after one of his major campaign donors- who also had millions at stake in Solyndra- visited the White House 4 times in a matter of days. I mean this guy would have lost all his money in the company if the loan was not changed- and this guy’s money also went to Obama- geez- you can’t get much worse than this!]

Yet I heard the president say- over and over again- that all the people who looked at these dealings- they all said it was fine.

You see? There were actually parts of ‘the system’ that were trying to work- to perform the intended function- yet those who had personal agendas- they managed to thwart the system- to get it to work ‘for them’ instead of the overall good of the country.

I do understand that both sides are/have been guilty of this- it just so happens that this year it’s the Democrats turn at bat- and they sure have been hitting it out of the park- time and again.

One more system- and we’ll be thru.

Putting aside all the political arguing- this week I have heard/read very serious warnings about the European banking system- that without a doubt- this system might crash and it will have worldwide effects if this happens.

The debt crisis ‘kingdom’ is in serious trouble- and it just might ‘scatter the bones of your people all around’ the after math could be real bad.

What do we do in times like this? Remember [and pray] the words that Jesus taught us in the Our Father ‘THY kingdom come- thy will be done- on earth as it is in heaven’.

Yes- there are competing kingdoms in this world- not right or left- conservative or liberal- no- that’s not where the real action is.

It’s the Kingdoms of this world- when being influenced by corrupt men- versus the kingdom of God.

At the end of the day- the bible says all the kingdoms/systems of men will fail- And the only mountain left standing will be the one that comes from God- the ‘last mountain’ [kingdom] that the prophet Daniel spoke about.

He saw a vision- a vision of Christ- and in the vision Jesus kingdom withstood all the other kingdoms of the world- and became the most prominent one in the earth.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God- and his righteousness- and all these other things will be added to you [Jesus].

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

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