Laura Ingraham - Do Morals Really Matter

On the "New York Times" Web page, Tom Edsall, who has spent most of the last 30 years covering politics for the "The Washington Post" and "The New Republic", has some advice for the GOP. He draws upon some recent polling data to argue that, quote, "The Republican Party can afford to marginalize Christian right leaders because Evangelical/social conservatives are not going to vote Democratic.

Thus, Republicans can, as he puts it, concede defeat in the culture war in the hopes of picking up some more socially liberal voters. Mr. Edsall might want to check with Governor Mike Huckabee who knows a thing or two about evangelical voters. Huckabee suggested that evangelicals will, quote, "Take a walk from the GOP if the party ends up supporting gay marriage."

But of course, the question of what sort of culture our children are going to inherit is a lot more important than the results of any one election. The social issues aren't merely a political football to be used by grasping politicians seeking to win power. They really do establish the framework for many aspects of American life from our schools to our churches and of course, to our families. These are very serious matters. They should be taken seriously.

So instead of worrying so much about political tactics, Republicans might want to consider focusing on what they truly believe in. And what type of country they want to have.

The time has come for a serious debate within the GOP over all of the social issues with all sides making the best case for what they think is right. Only then can the GOP reach a new consensus and then maybe move forward in a united effort to reach the rest of America.

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Prager University - What Matters Most

What's the most important thing you can have? Is it money? Is it love? Is it happiness? Or is it something else? Best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio host Dennis Prager has the answer. It may change the way you look at and, ultimately, lead your life.

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Douglas Hagmann - Turning a Political Decision into Your Spiritual Mandate

It is unlikely that the majority of Americans are familiar with the name Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I had forgotten the account of Mr. Bonhoeffer until a valued listener of our nightly radio program sent me Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, a gripping book written by Eric Metaxas.

I devoured the 592 page book in three days, reading the final page only yesterday. I find it anything but coincidental that I completed this gripping account on the very day that the 2012 U.S. presidential election was decided in favor of Barack Hussein Obama.

While reading the account of Mr. Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, theologian and spy who was involved in the plot to kill Hitler, I became awestruck by the obvious and stunning parallels between 1930’s Germany and present day America, specifically in terms of the Christian church. Yesterday, for the second time in four years, the majority of Americans decided in favor of Obama despite the vocal and visible moral objections made by many Christians of all denominations. I have no doubt that many people who profess to be Christians cast their vote to reelect Barack Hussein Obama, somehow justifying their vote over any moral or ethical concerns residing in their spirit. How is this possible?

It is here that I cite the foreword written by Timothy J. Keller, friend of the author and author of the New York Times bestselling book The Reason for God. Keller writes:

“It is impossible to understand Bonhoeffer’s Nachfolge without becoming acquainted with the shocking capitulation of the German Church to Hitler in the 1930s. How could the ‘church of Luther,’ the great teacher of the gospel, have ever come to such a place? The answer is that the true gospel, summed up by Bonhoeffer as costly grace, had been lost. On one hand, the church had become marked by formalism. That meant going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn’t really matter much how you live. Bonhoeffer called this cheap grace. On the other hand, there was legalism, or salvation by law and good works. Legalism meant that God loves you because you have pulled yourself together and are trying to live a good, disciplined life. Both of these impulses made it possible for Hitler to come to power.”

Does that sound, or ‘feel” familiar? Thanks to the laborious research by author Eric Metaxas that is articulately detailed in his book, which also corrects over a half-century of the hijacked legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by the Progressive left, Christians in America should now fully understand exactly what is taking place within our country. We have allowed the word of God to be diluted, perverted and turned into a convoluted platform for social justice by elected leaders whose tyranny has extended into and ripped into our spiritual fabric.

Many Christians have collectively embraced cheap grace and legalism promoted by leaders across the political spectrum as spiritual equivalents to the true gospel, thereby reconciling their faith with the perversity that exists in America today. After all, it is both politically correct and socially acceptable to tolerate perversity in all forms, rather than risk being labeled as intolerant, bigoted, Islamophobic, homophobic or the mother of all derisive brandings, racist. It is precisely here, however, that tolerance of evil becomes evil itself.

This is the exact moment in time for all Christians in America to live in the spirit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by uniting and practicing “costly grace.” As a Christian, I believe we were born for this exact moment in time, and have been selected to engage in this spiritual battle for not only our salvation, but the salvation of others. Like it or not, we have been selected as being warriors on the front lines of an epic spiritual battle.

Some might look at the reelection of Barack Hussein Obama and other leaders with similar agendas as a death knell for the Judeo-Christian spirit in America. I chose to view it as a real-world test of my Christian faith personally and our Christian faith collectively. It is clear that the spiritual battle lines have been distinctly drawn. We are now called to emulate the spiritual strength of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so that we may change the course of Christianity in America. Unified in the spirit of costly grace, we can do it.

We must engage the battle and not abandon the fight at this historic moment in time. Traditional marriage between a man and a woman as defined by the Holy Bible must be reinforced, not redefined. The wholesale slaughter of our nation’s unborn under the demonic perversity of women’s rights must not be accepted or further tolerated. We must not submit to a system that requires us to forsake our beliefs under the color of law. Acting in the spirit of costly grace, we must summon the spiritual courage of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to change the course of our nation.

As my friend Steve Quayle has often said, there are no political solutions to our spiritual problems. Never in the course of American history has this proven to be so true. Therefore, it is up to us, the “Bible holding bitter clingers,” to rise to the level of true Christians and engage the forces of evil that have overtaken our great nation.

Make no mistake - this is obviously not a call for violence, but a call for leadership to every Christian living in the United States. We have been given a most important task, which is to be leaders among men. Believers of the true gospel can no longer be silent. Together, we can make a difference. Our souls depend on it.

Douglas Hagmann

Visit the Northeast Intelligence Network Website by clicking HERE

Douglas J. Hagmann is the founder and director of the Northeast Intelligence Network and CEO of a multi-state licensed private investigative agency serving many Fortune 500 clients. A 23 year veteran of conducting investigations in the private sector, he has logged over 40,000 hours of covert surveillance in his career and is the author of Tactical Surveillance. He is a member of the International Counter- Terrorism Officers Association and possesses many law enforcement related training certifications. He has been used as an operational asset by federal law enforcement and various police departments, and has performed over 5,000 civil and criminal investigations throughout the United States. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Hagmann began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness by establishing the Northeast Intelligence Network.

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Austin Hill - When Will the Economy Become a Moral Issue

“I only care about the moral issues.”

If I’ve heard that phrase once, then I’ve probably heard it a few hundred times in recent years. It’s a common response I hear when I’m among socially conservative faith-based groups and individuals, and questions about our economy arise.

As a writer and talk show host I covered the last presidential election cycle in detail. Hosting daily talk radio in Washington, DC back in 2008, it would become apparent when I was speaking with a faith-based or socially conservative caller to my show because such callers would frequently express concerns over some specific issues with the candidates. “I don’t think McCain is really pro-life” was a common concern. And “Obama says he opposes gay marriage, but I don’t believe him” was another.

To these types of statements about abortion and the definition of marriage, I would often respond with questions about economics, just to see where the discussion would go. “But what do you think of Senator Obama’s plan to raise taxes on rich people and to cut taxes for others – is that fair?” I might ask. Or “Do you think John McCain is right about the stock market crash when he says that it’s all because of ‘greed on Wall Street?’”

Generally speaking, my economic questions would bring these brief talk show conversations to an abrupt end. “I only care about the moral issues” was the response I’d usually hear – as though economic issues are morally neutral or of no moral significance at all – and then the caller would say goodbye.

That was in 2008. And today, as we close-out the year 2011 and prepare to elect a President again next year, I’m wondering if socially conservative faith-based America is now ready to regard economic matters as “moral issues.”

Given what has happened over the course of the Obama presidency thus far, it should be apparent that America is now in the midst of an economic policy revolution. Faith-based individuals and groups can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines and pretend that economics is not a moral issue, nor can they assume that the various economic policies that get implemented at the federal, state, and local levels of government are all morally equivalent with one another.

Considering the severe mismanagement of private sector financial markets that helped lead to President Obama’s election in 2008, and the selfish and wasteful handling of tax-payer assets in Washington during these first three years of his presidency, the need for sound, moral understanding of the economy is as great as it ever has been.

One of the most important things that socially conservative faith-based Americans should be doing right now is thinking seriously, and critically, about people’s concerns and rejections of American capitalism. For example, one of the main reasons Americans cite for their dislike of capitalism is that they believe it is an idea based entirely on “greed.”

Just as Republican presidential candidate John McCain claimed back in 2008, there are many people today who still believe that our economic malaise was brought about simply by “greed on Wall Street,” and the solution to this all this greed is to simply empower politicians and government bureaucrats to place more governmental controls over bankers and “rich people.”

Faith-based Americans can respond to this by noting, first and foremost, that greed is a problem that impacts human individuals, and not specific institutions or economic systems. It is a “people problem,” and not a systemic problem.

From there, we can deduce that simply handing-over more control of economic resources to politicians and other government employees is not the solution to greed, because government employees are human beings and subject to being greedy as well (note the government entanglements with General Motors, Chrysler, Solyndra, and other for-profit corporate entities, and how in each of these cases public money is spent to advance the personal political interests of the politicians involved, the President’s included). Indeed, when employees of our government have the ability to control increasing portions of our wealth, along with the force of law on their side, their own greed flourishes, and we’re all worse-off for it.

Instead, faith-based Americans should be thinking more in terms of how we preserve our free market economic system, while at the same time exercising our freedom within that system more responsibly. “Greed” can be curtailed in the midst of our economic activities when businesses truly have to compete with one-another for clientele (and are thereby incentivized to treat their customers respectfully), and when each of us is truly free to both economically succeed AND to fail.

When people are allowed to experience the consequences of poor economic choices – they lose customers, homes, and so forth – rather than having their government “bail them out,” then they have an incentive to behave more wisely. And that makes for a better culture, and economy.

This is only one of many concerns that Americans face regarding our economy, and our economic system. Is the faith-based community prepared to begin addressing them?

Austin Hill

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Austin Hill is an emerging American voice, addressing culture-defining questions through books, talk radio, web, speaking, and interviews. His recent books "White House Confidential" and his new title "The Virtues Of Capitalism" show his range from whit-infused writer to thought-provoking expert on the intersection of philosophy, religion, politics & culture. Hill helps to make the complex seem simple when exploring capitalism, socialism, and other "Isms".

He is an editorial contributor to national publications such as U.S. News & World Report, a columnist with TownHall.com, and is a popular expert-host on radio from leading stations in Washington DC, Chicago, Phoenix and Los Angeles, and nationally with networks such as Fox NewsTalk Radio.  He hosts the "Austin Hill Show" weekday mornings at Fresno, California's Talk Radio 105-9 KMJ-FM,  and weekday afternoons at Boise, Idaho's Newstalk 580 K I D O radio.

Hill holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, and a Master's Degree in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University in California.

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