Protecting America's Youth from Tim Tebow

Okay, I have to follow up here. I'm getting fire from the left over my Tebow post. I have a question for those who find Tim's behavior unacceptable.

Is it that you find public Christian prayer offensive? Are you afraid the impressionable youth of America might look up from their game of Halo II or III or whatever it is and break out in a bad case of Christianity.

Again, I ask, "So what if Tebow takes a knee?"

A lot of more conservative folk find the public spectacle of two Navy women locking lips on a pier disturbing. The same critics who find Tebow's prayer disturbing, ask us to not only overlook this sort of public display of belief without comment, but to indure the interminable accolades of the press for the "bravery" these women have shown.

I myself have never said a critical word about what the two lesbian Navy gals did.  It's a free country. They can smooch if they want to.

But, whether we agree or disagree with a person's public actions, it is fair to say we cannot go inside a person's head and divine a motive other than one expressed openly by the actor. Perhaps the Navy girls were merely demonstrating their love for one another. Perhaps they were flaunting their sexuality to piss off people who think their behavior deviant. It is not for me or you to attach any meaning to their behavior other than the meaning they themselves express verbally. They did state they that they knew this act was making a statement about being gay. Mystery solved. We now know what they intended. Evidently some shipmates bought extra raffle tickets to help stack the deck so their lesbian shipmate would be awarded the traditional "first kiss". A crowd of gay rights supporters were at the pier to cheer on the couple. They have every right to make whatever public statement they want to make.

Same with Tebow. So what if you think his religion absurd. He has the right to express it so long as it hurts no one or threatens their physical safety.

Critics claim Jesus condemned public prayer of this sort "somewhere in the Bible"  Well, yes, Jesus did condemn the words of one public prayer. The words of the prayer were spoken aloud by a Pharisee. "Thank God I am not like that wicked tax collector over there." Christ condemned the Pharisee's condemnation without knowledge of his fellow believer who's prayer was, "God be merciful to me a sinner." That second prayer was also a public one and was not condemned by Jesus. It's is not that the prayer is public, it is the purpose of the prayer that is important.

The prophet Daniel's life was threatened by a law which forbade anyone to pray to any God other than the King. It was Daniel's custom to pray at the window daily. He did not change that custom simply because an immoral law had been passed. He went to the lion's den for his faith, though it would have been simpler to shut all his windows and pray in private.

Tim Tebow has physical gifts few people have. People with ordinary physical talents don't become NFL players. He also has some mental gifts because few NFL players become starting quarterbacks (1 in 45?). Tebow receives public accolades for those gifts because he uses them in a public venue.

Tim has much to be thankful for. His mother had difficulty with the pregnancy and docs advised her he would be either stillborn or badly damaged. They recommended an abortion to save her life. Mrs. Tebow refused and carried Tim to term. He was skinny and had difficulty eating when he was born. Needless to say he outgrew it.

To me that's reason enough to "take a knee" in gratitude, I don't care who finds it "an absurdity". And unless you guys are mind-readers, you cannot say with any certainty what his true motives are.

His critics have a right to comment. I'm just not sure why they think it's important to do so.

Are they protecting America's youth from corruption by Christians?

Okay, I can see that. You wouldn't want that going around. People might start treating others the way they want to be treated. Once that sort of thing gets started, God knows where it will end.

Tom King
(c) 2011

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Tim Tebow

Poor old Tim Tebow has been the topic du' jour among fans and critics alike lately. Apparently he prays before games and stuff.

His critics say he's "shoving religion down people's throats. To prove there's something wrong with praying on the sidelines, the sports and political press have really been working hard to find some sin or other they can pin on him so they can call him a hypocrite - without much luck, yet.


I don't get it.

If Tebow were to don feathers and do a little dance to the "Great Spirit" or bowed toward Mecca or burned some incense to a little golden Buddha he kept on the sidelines for spiritual comfort, the media would be all over the story.  Tim would be bravely practicing his faith in the face of great persecution. There would be feature articles and interviews aplent.  But because Tim's a Christian he's supposed to be "shoving his religion down people's throats". 

This is, of course, preposterous. The fact Tebow's critics can raise their voices to ridicule and mock Tebow's expression of personal faith merely proves that their throats are entirely free of any residue of Tebow's Christianity. 


C'mon guys. Check it out. Freedom of religious expression is one of the cornerstones of our way of life here in the United States. If Tebow was a Buddhist or Muslim or Native American shaman, you'd not hear one word of criticism from me. I am allowed to kneel and pray wherever I want to, so I respect the right of others to practice their own religion so long as it does not interfere with my right to not participate. I am allowed to practice my faith despite the fact that I'm in the majority religiously speaking.


If someone held a gun on the fans at Bronco games and made them recite the Lord's Prayer, I'd see what they were complaining about. But they're not. Tebow's periodic take-a-knee thank-you's to God force no one to change their beliefs, their behavior or their religious practices. They threaten no one's safety. They have no influence on the outcome of the game (though if you believe in magic or that God cares about how football games come out, I suppose you could argue that Tebow's prayers do impact whether or not Denver scores or not.  In that case, though, all you'd need to do is pray for the other team to neutralize it.

Unless, of course, you think Tebow's more holy than you and therefore a more powerful prayer. In which case you should apply to the NFL commissioner (whoever that is these days) to have the practice outlawed on the grounds that God is cheating for the Denver Broncos.  

I'd love to see the commish make a ruling on that one!

And, by the way. Christianity is not contagious. It's a choice and no easy choice at that. You can't become a Christian just by touching one or being near one that is praying. Tebow shouldn't be treated like a leper for being openly Christian any more than you should treat gay people like dirt for being openly gay.

Sometimes I think Tebow's critics have seen one too many Exorcist movies. Perhaps they fear that he's going to start exorcising demons from the NFL next. If he does, expect to see the Detroit Lions burst into flames any day now.


Relax, guys. Tebow's just praying. He's not reporting you to the Sunday School teacher with the boney finger that once told you that you were going to hell for whatever it was you were doing or touching that you weren't supposed to be doing or touching.

I'm just saying,

Tom

(c) 2011 by Tom King

There Ain't Enough Youtube Videos in the World...

(c) 2011 by Tom King



What?  Me worry?

 Why is it that Ron Paul people think that if you just watch enough Youtube videos you'll finally recognize the genius of Ron Paul and join their cult?
I'm sorry if that offends some of you. I have some friends who are rabid Paulistas and I do realize they have come to support Congressman Paul as a result of many hours of viewing Youtube videos and studying conspiracy theories. I know this because they keep sending me the same cut and paste Ron Paul talking points and keep repeating the same things over and over and over without variation. They send me link after link to videos that will "absolutely convince me".  If I present any argument whatever, they inevitably ignore it completely and accuse me of "not watching the videos I sent you".

Let me repeat this one more time.  I've read Ron Paul's writings. I've seen the videos about "blowback", about what really happened with 9/11, about how the Jewish bankers are destroying our economy, about how Israel doesn't need our support and we're only making it worse, about how our mere presence in the middle east is why Muslims hate us, about how the Japanese wouldn't have attacked us at Pearl Harbor if we hadn't provoked them by not selling them oil and war materials for them to use in their slaughter of Chinese, Koreans and Southeast Asians (the latest new Paulista talking point).

Every video I view, every Ron Paul speech or debate appearance I see, every cut and paste, 20 page e-mail I've read has only served to convince me even more that Ron Paul is not someone I'd vote for.

Period!

End of discussion.
I'm almost voting against Ron Paul's supporters.  Congressman Paul, I actually kind of like, even though he's way off base on Foreign Policy (and yes I've seen that video too).
Here we are at the end of the world and I'm watching the devil slice up the last remaining humans who have any sense, setting them against each other and confusing them with lies, conspiracy theories, racism, drugs and arrogance.  It's live and in color and ends with the Second Coming.

Those of us who manage to avoid being anal-probed will be heading for the mountains to hide soon. They'll be coming after us because of our unbelief in whichever "messiah" ascends the throne next, whether it's Obama or Ron Paul. Either one of them - their followers give me the willies. I promise you, if it's Ron Paul vs. Obama, I plan to fake my own death and disappear into the forest. Thank goodness I'm carrying enough weight on me to last a few months after the food runs out.

Just one man's opinion though. Feel free to pay no attention at all.

Tom

How We Could Have Prevented Pearl Harbor

But would it have been a good idea?

(c) 2011 by Tom King

I came across this puzzling statement today on a Facebook post about Pearl Harbor. "Japs wouldn't have even bombed us if we gave them the oil we promised for helping us in WWI."

Disregarding the racist slur that came along with the poster's apparent compassion for those who bombed us, I had to ask, "What is it with people thinking that it's our own fault every time some foreign nation bombs us, knocks down a skyscraper or blows up an embassy?"

Ron Paul during the Republican Forum on Fox the other day, blamed American policy in the Middle-East for 9/11 as though somehow we could and should be able to control the behavior of fanatical Muslim terrorists through smarter foreign policy.

This whole idea that we're somehow smart enough to figure out how to control the world's behavior is exactly what got us into all this in the first place.

We thought we could control Japan which was busily trying to create an Asia-Pacific empire at the time. We cut off selling them oil and steel because they were murdering innocent civilians in China by the millions. We thought it would make them stop murdering Chinese. Instead the Japanese got mad because we got in their way by refusing to sell them the tools that would allow them to keep murdering people.  So they attacked us. Chamberlain thought that if he gave the Germans the Sudentenland (which wasn't actually his to give away in the first place), then Hitler would leave the British alone. Next thing he knew the British were up to their eyes in German bombers.

I suppose technically this Facebook goober is correct. If we had just sold them the oil and steel they wanted, the Japanese probably wouldn't have attacked us on December 7, 1942.

If we'd have given them the oil they would have instead gone on to take China, to brutalize hundreds more cities as they did Nanking. Then, when they'd built a huge Asian empire, they'd still have bombed Pearl Harbor (just not till they'd conquered the northern resource areas (Manchuria/Siberia) and didn't need our oil and steel anymore.  It just wouldn't have been on December 7, 1942.  They they'd have attacked San Diego Harbor, San Francisco Harbor, New York Harbor, the ports of Houston, Charleston, Seattle, Miami, Mobile and on and on and on.

And we'd have been surprised because a whole lot of us don't really believe in evil. We think, like the B.F. Skinner behaviorists, that behavior is a result of external conditioning. Lots of us don't really believe in free will. We think everyone can be good if we just give them the right cookies at the right time.

But it doesn't work. You might get your kids to behave for a while, but once they are out of your control, they will do what they want to do - what they choose to do. 

On the international level, if we gave every cent we had to everybody that thought they had a grievance against us, we'd not only be broke, but they would all hate us even more because we were out of money. They'd have come to rely on it.  And, even if we did have unlimited money and gave it to them as fast as they could grab handfuls of it, they'd still hate us just like very spoiled rich kids hate their parents.

You cannot buy peace. Evil is evil. The lust for power exists and those who are evil and who lust for power need no excuse for committing acts of treachery. Oh, they will inevitably make up some sort of excuse, but that's more for you than for them. They will excuse their own behavior because of some sort of perceived slight on the part of their victims and then do or take whatever they want. They'll do it time and again until their conscience will no longer function and they have no sense of guilt anymore. When they stop making excuses you're in real trouble.

And that's pretty much when evil people self-destruct - when they don't care anymore.

The wages of sin, we are told, is death.*

Anyone who raises his hand against another, to take what does not belong to him whether it's money, land or power, commits a sin. The United States is one of the few powerful nations in Earth's history that ever chose to renounce taking the fruits of conquest. The Soviet Union planned an empire. China has never given up the idea. Even Britain still has an empire. In the last century, however, every territory won in battle by US forces has been given back to its people. In some cases, island nations, offered their independence chose to remain US territories. Others chose to be independent. Some chose poorly. Nations which attacked us unprovoked were conquered and not only freed, but we helped rebuild them.

Yet, but it seems, if you listens to the apologists, we are supposed to be the bad guys somehow.  Well, I don't think so. Yes, we've meddled in the Middle East. We helped them build oil fields and become wealthy - at least in nations where the people did not tolerate tyrants and dictators. We did not set up the nation of Israel. That was the British. All we've done is protect its existence. In return Israel has been a friend and ally in the region. We've had friendly relations with many largley Muslim nations, but remember. All Arabs are not Muslim and many are businessmen before they are religionists. We are not responsible if the religious authorities don't like us having a military base in Saudi Arabia. Nations deal with nations, not with churches.

Suppose the Christian church in the US were to demand that all mosques in the US be destroyed or that any Christian who becomes a Muslim should be killed. Would that be right?  Should other nations of the world base their relationship with the US on what the Christian church says or what the US government says.

There is a kind of political schizophrenia that progressive socialists and Ron Paul libertarians get into when talking about the Middle-East. On the one hand, they demand that the Christian church (the majority religion in the US) has no right to participate in, much less dictate US foreign policy. But with the Middle East they tell us that the demands of poorly organized religious authorities (especially the fanatical ones) should be considered above that of the duly constituted political authorities or the citizens of the nations of the Middle East.

With libertarians, the belief is that if we leave everyone else alone, their natural goodness will cause them to reciprocate and treat us well in return. Never mind that it doesn't work with evil people. The proponents of this policy believe that not "meddling" is an effective way to control the behavior of others.

With progressive socialists, it's all part of this same deluded idea that some of us are smart enough to figure out how to make everyone happy, peaceful and cooperative. They've been watching too many episodes of Star Trek in which the peaceful humans have figured out in some non-specific way how to make communism work on Earth. What they miss is the point that it's the power hungry evil planets out there that make the episodes interesting. Even the utopians realize in the end that there is plenty of evil to go around.

We Americans are raised to feel bad about accusing anyone of being bad. We were all raised to be polite. We'd rather so, "Oh, excuse me. My bad." than to have to confront bullies, thugs and evil-doers -even the petty ones. That's why you can watch on Youtube as two girls beat up another in a McDonald's and nobody steps in -- except one elderly lady whose sense of justice was rightly offended. The rest of the bystanders hauled out their cell phones to video tape the fight. Shame on them!

I'm one of those Americans who, though I don't like calling anyone evil, have come to realize that if you don't say or do anything about evil when it presents itself, you are condoning it. I can no longer say, "Excuse me," to some thug that's beating up someone half his size because I'm in his way.  And I don't think our country has any business saying, "My Bad!" when a bunch of nasty evil little minions of Satan fly an airplane full of perfectly good people into a skyscraper full of more perfectly good people.

May those of us who still believe in right and wrong find the courage to stand for what's right. It's no good thinking we can somehow manipulate other nations into doing right. It's a conceit with deadly consequences. It's the difference between the idea that might is right and that might should be used for right only. I distrust those who think their ideology is is powerful enough to manipulate the behavior of whole nations.

We're coming down to a point in history where it may be left to those who stand in the breach to do what is right to to turn the tide of totalitarianism, if it can be turned at all.

Remember the Spartans. Remember the Alamo. Remember Pearl Harbor.

Stand tall and God bless America!

Tom King

*Romand 8:28

It's Ron Paul's Fault I Put a Bullet Through My Flat Screen

Watched the Republican forum tonight. I was impressed with Perry and Gingrich. Both answered well. Romney avoided saying much of anything showing off his skill as a "politician".  Santorum and Bachmann sounded pretty good too.

But if I have to listen to Ron Paul tell Americans one more time that we need to understand what we've done to make the terrorists mad enough to attack us on 9/11.........I'm going to assault my television set.   Then I'm going to send Congressman Paul a bill for replacing my TV set along with a list of reasons why it's his fault that I put a ballpeen hammer through the screen.