Just say NO to WAR PROFITEERING

This just in. Our Vice President, Dick Cheney, wants to start yet another war.

Imagine that?

In what ultra-conservative periodical The New American describes as "allegedly in charge of a neoconservative media effort to ramp up public support for a war with Iran" (The New American, October 29, 2007, p. 27), Dick Cheney is at it again. More American blood all so that the rich, elite, Republican war-hawks can further pad their pockets at the cost of the limbs, lives and blood of our American women and men!

This is an utter outrage!

Back in WW II, the United States of America (back then a Christian Nation!) did everything possible to avoid war and only entered WW II after the Japanese first attacked us. WW II was a just war according to historic Christian just war teaching as taught by the Doctors of the Catholic Church, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas (and as interpreted by then Pope John Paul II). But, here we go again, a disgruntled neo-conservative party that has abandoned its Judeo-Christian moorings on vital moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality now wants to spread the worst of American society across the globe in furthering the blood-letting in the Middle East.

Will someone VOTE for a CHRISTIAN PRESIDENT and Vice President who will avoid war, expand (rather than reduce!) our national prosperity?

I am someone who is utterly fed up with the lies, the cover-up, the war mongering of this administration.

Enough is enough!!!

PAX CHRISTI,

Rob J. King, JUST WARRIOR, not blood-letter for Jesus Christ, for PEACE!

The Heavenly Man

In 2004 I bought a book written by a Chinese house church leader, Brother Yun. The title is The Heavenly Man, and it chronicles how brutal the Chinese communist government was in "cracking down" on non-state-sanctioned Christianity. Apparently, since the first Christian missionaries to China were evicted by the Chinese government with the collapse into marxist ideological despotism, the persecution of native Chinese Christians by their own government had reached horrific proportions.

Brother Yun was imprisoned three times, sent to a labor camp, told that he was crazy, told that he was insubordinate and cruelly tortured by the government. In all of Brother Yun's excruciating tribulation, however, he never lost hope in Jesus Christ. Whether it was the prison warden or his fellow prisoners, Brother Yun told ALL PEOPLE about Jesus Christ, and invited them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

In reading this book (actually just picked it up again this past weekend), I am both disturbed, yet also awe-struck. How could fellow human beings be so cruel? How could neighbors and fellow countrymen literally torture someone? How could the United States of America ever potentially fall into such chaos also? This is not be overly critical of the U.S.A., but when even Republican Governors such as Arnold Swartzeneggar introduce legislation that mandates heterosexuality be made subservient to the homosexual agenda (even outlawing using the name "father" or "mother" in public schools!) then American despotism is ironically alive and well.

But, as followers (TRUE followers) of Jesus Christ, we serve a DIFFERENT GOD! Jesus Christ as GOD INCARNATE, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is NOT to be censored.

Whether it is Arnold Swartzeneggar or the A.C.L.U., Jesus Christ may allow persecution to happen, but it is through such persecution that Christianity literally conquers the Globe! Brother Yun, a living martyr for Jesus Christ was tortured, ridiculed, imprisoned and each attempt to silence or punish him only resulted in MORE people being converted to Jesus Christ!

Won't you now pray with me this prayer.

LORD JESUS CHRIST, I am a sinner and I need you in my life as my personal LORD and Savior. I confess to you ALL of my sins. Please LORD Jesus forgive me. I ask all of this in your most holy name, LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, free Christian living in a free society wanting the U.S. to stay FREE!

Travel, OPUS DEI, rosaries and why the Catholic Church must reform . . .

This past weekend I travelled to Columbus, Ohio for the Coming Home Conference, a yearly event put on by a Catholic Church Ministry (http://www.chnetwork.org/) for those from other Christian churches who desire full communion with Catholicism.

While travelling, really as a sort of modern pilgrimage, I, of course, prayed for safety, protection, and for the trip to go smoothly.

No delays, safe take-off and landing of all four aircraft, and a truly restorative weekend of Christian commitment centered on the Eucharist.

The fact that so many former Protestant clergy are joining the Catholic Church is in many ways a hidden blessing as the Catholic Church will now be flooded with M.Div. degrees, Th.M.'s and even a few Ph.D. converts.

All of this is good, but my hope and prayer is that Opus Dei, the real, institutional Opus Dei prelature of the Pontiff in Rome, will increase their activity among this group called the Coming Home Network. Without such gentle pastoral guidance on the part of truly Orthodox Catholicism the end result would have been a continuing of the problems of institutional Catholicism. Problems such as pro-choice Catholics (abortion and euthanasia), dissent from Vatican teaching by the Pope, and that strange hodge-podge of psycho-therapeutic heretical catholic culture that is the Western portions of Catholicism. To be sure, Catholicism is a step ahead of mainline Protestantism, but whenever I hear prayers of petition for the 'mentally ill' it makes me wince due to how corrupt parts of the Church have become. In previous generations it was SIN that we battled. Now, Catholic priests, Christian "counselors," et al have tried to replace THE COUNSELOR, the Holy Spirit with this pseudo-Freudian Nazi Catholicism. Parents are told to 'medicate' their kids to achieve emotional 'balance.' Friends are always looking over their shoulders to see if anyone might call them 'mentally ill' (believing in things like purgatory after all does come across as a bit 'nuts'! :-), and at worst parents even turn over their own children to be institutionalized for supposed 'psychiatric problems.' Whether it was Nazi Germany or Fascist Chile such corruption on the part of institutional Catholicism (especially as influenced by the Jesuits, that heretical, pedophile 'order' of priests) will now come back to hurt all of us who bear the name Catholic CHRISTIAN. Long live the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, Opus Dei, Cursillo, the Charismatic movement and ALL who are LOYAL to historic CATHOLIC TEACHING and have not fallen prey to the various snares and temptations of a false rapprochement and irenicism with modernity. May the Jesuits again be excluded from the ranks of truly Catholic Christians as their fallen order of priests have done tremendous damage to our beloved Church with their dissent, their abuse of Cardinal Ratzinger, now our Pontiff, and of course, the Jesuit epistemological and heretical fusing of Christianity with a modern worldview. Come Holy Spirit, Counselor and heal the wounds afflicting our beloved CHURCH . . .

Love in JESUS CHRIST in the power and fidelity of the HOLY SPIRIT,
Rob J. King, concerned Catholic

Maybe it is time for the Jesuit order itself to undergo some much-needed 'counseling' sessions.

HONORING OUR PARENTS

Friends, we live in uncertain times . . .

Gone are the days of ten children (my father was #10). Gone are the days of not working on Sundays and coming home after church for a nice home-cooked family meal.

Instead, in 2007, we are left with the fragments of our once Christian land. Sunday is a day to shop or watch NFL football at a bar. Church is still in existence, but sadly, something just squeezed in as we go about our usually overly hedonistic lifestyles . . . Finally, family life is utterly in ruins. Divorce is over 50% of marriages. Children are enslaved by social workers. Parents fight it out over who gets custody, and all the time the lawyers, the counselors and the social workers pad their pockets with our money. Domestic mercenaries are family lawyers, social workers and family therapy counselors.

Such are the Dark Ages of 2007 U.S.A.

But, in the midst of such cultural fragmentation, Jesus Christ, and His church offer a better way. Family life in the United States of America will never be normal again, but within such shards of formerly western culture, our communal lives somehow struggle to move on.

Children (for example Elian Gonzales a few years ago) ARE re-united eventually with their fathers. Home-cooked meals may end up being little more than two divorced men getting together to share pork-chops and watch the Tampa Bay Rays baseball.

Life does move on and in the midst of the Dark Ages of secular hedonism, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, Orthodox, Hispanic, African American and Anglo are struggling to nit together a new Christian society.

Can you see it?

Can you see the springs bursting forth through the Florida soil? The Indiana soil? The Portland, Oregon soil?

The Kingdom of God comes silently, but powerfully.

Men who have been brutalized by 30 years of feminist ideology are suddenly back in power, but not being brutal the way their feminist counter-parts once were. We men, like Jesus Christ, have learned to "turn the other cheek."

Similarly, children, although at one time and still in many places torn to shreds by divorce courts and social worker societal anarchists are now being cared for primarily by biological family members and not paper-pushing state bureaucrats. Law-suits have been filed against these corrupt social workers and still more lawsuits and indeed jail time will now insue for such state officials interfering with functioning, healthy, normal American families. In fact, the state of Florida recently severely censured one such social worker czaress.

So, as we move ahead as a Christian people living in the aftermath that our forefathers of the twentieth century left us (abortion as birth control, men ostracized, social worker anarchy, and elderly shoved into medicaid-run nursing homes), let us obey the Ten Commandments. Have NO OTHER GOD than the LORD GOD, revealed exclusively in Jesus Christ. Obey and HONOR your parents and please, for heaven's sake, do not just shove the elderly in nursing homes. These are our parents, and it is the DIVINE LAW to honor our fathers and our mothers.

This legacy of Judeo-Christian Teaching has survived the onslaught of secular humanists. Let us now pick up the shards of our society that are still functioning and forge together a NEW PEOPLE, one Nation, under JESUS CHRIST, for liberty and justice for all . . .

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, supporter of elderly rights

Food, war, famine and why the U.S. needs a STRONG and a CHRISTIAN MILITARY

Friends, having been to Guatemala three times (two mission trips, along with a month-long intensive language study), having been to Mexico twice, and having been to South Africa twice as well, I have seen the absolute worst of the potential for human poverty.

Whether it was Mexicans displaced from all other societal connections who were forced to dig for trash in the Monterrey city dump OR whether it was little black boys & girls playing in the dirt around their corrugated iron shelters (shanty towns) just north of Johannesburg, South Africa OR whether it was homeless men & women lying on the sidewalk of Antigua, Guatemala, I have seen what a decaying infrastructure can do to providing employment, food and shelter to the earth's human beings.

Truly horrific living conditions exist throughout MUCH of our world.

This is why the United States of America MUST clean up its act NOW, before it is too late.

We in the U.S. have been blessed with affordable housing, clean, safe water, food in abundance both in amount and variety and an Armed Forces to protect these resources from evil people like Islamic terrorists who would literally starve us to death if given the chance (e.g. the minority Christian population in the Sudan starved by their Islamic conquerors).

This is why the United States of America needs a STRONG MILITARY. Through our military, rather than fighting useless wars for oil when other options are available, perhaps we should focus our efforts in safe-guarding food, shelter, and clean water throughout Africa. With a multi-national peace-keeping force, we should re-build Africa that has been brutalized from within by corruption and brutalized from without by European bankers who have sucked the blood out of Africa through the sin of usury.

The United States of America also needs a CHRISTIAN MILITARY. Without a Christian military, we are left with primarily two political ideological options, both of which are utterly HORRIFIC to even contemplate. Namely, outside of Jesus Christ, the twentieth century has seen post-Christian societies EITHER degenerate into fascism (Nazi Germany) OR degenerate into communism (former Christian Russia). We need to stand and FIGHT within the military for the Constitutional RIGHT to pray in Jesus Christ's NAME. Like nazi Germany which started out claiming Christianity only to develop a state cult of personality, so also has our military actively persecuted Christian chaplains who dared to stand in front of ALL soldiers, seamen or airmen and say, "I pray this in Jesus' Name." The country founded on the freedom of religious expression (to include Quakers, Catholics, Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, etc.) has now taken on the LORD Jesus Christ directly. Since Jesus Christ IS LORD of the universe, if one is ever censored for being a follower of Jesus Christ, know that the hand of the LORD of the universe is now turned against you. You may persecute the followers of Yeshua (Jewish name for Jesus), but know that your time of illegitimate rule is now over. Jesus Christ, working through both the Democrats (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama) and the Republicans (Mike Huckabee, George W. Bush) has maintained Christian Rule in these beloved fifty states.

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Military

Military abuse, fraud, waste, etc.

I am both a product of and constant critic of the United States Military. My father was a career military man, and as such, I learned many valuable life lessons from him, sometimes lessons of Virtue, other times just pragmatic lessons of how to work hard. Sadly, I also learned "from the inside" how the U.S. Military could be quite fallen.

Sadly, such a realist appraisal of the U.S. Military is often difficult to uphold.

Many are so overly uncritical about the U.S. Military that they fail to see the many abuses and cover-up that such an institution has always done and still does. I have known an Officer forced to undergo intense psychiatric testing just because this branch of the service needed to "down-size" their personnel. I have known Officers forced out of the military. I have known Officers who were almost forced out and now left with a bitter taste in their mouth. Rank without honor nor justice is a recipe for tyranny!

I have also known how thousands and thousands of dollars have been utterly wasted in Iraq. Finally, with the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, it is now legal for someone to be forcibly detained solely on hearsay evidence and immune from any external court even knowing about it!!! (i.e. the normal legal procedure known as habeas corpus in which an external judge can demand that a particular court turn over its evidence to another authority for review and possible repeal of verdict in case the other court had been mistaken or potentially skewed). Truly, with the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, like Senators John McCain and Patrick Leahy, I am also extremely concerned about this descent into fascism. By the way, Senator McCain actually lived in a P.O.W. camp for five and a half years in Vietnam and Patrick Leahy is the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Protector of Constitutional DUE PROCESS

Opus Dei, Knights of Columbus, and the New Catholicism

Today I was invited to join the Knights of Columbus. I refrained. What made me refrain, to be frank, was a concern that the group may have elements in their ritual that may not be fully Christian. I would need to explore more in order to make an informed decision.

What the invitation from the K of C does elicit in me, however, is a sober recognition that Catholicism is moving in new directions.

Gone are the days when the mass was in Latin, although Pope Benedict XVI did recently allow for the Latin mass to be spoken in each diocese.

Gone also are the days when the priesthood was nearly synonymous with Catholic leadership as now in 2007 lay groups such as the Knights of Columbus, the Coming Home Network (of which I am a member) and Opus Dei are all good representations.

To be Catholic means many things. First, to be Catholic means to be fully committed to the central beliefs of the "deposit of faith," such as belief in Jesus Christ's actual physical death on a cross, actual ascent into heaven, bodily Resurrection, the filling of the Holy Spirit in each Christian, the Nicene creed, the teaching authority of the Magisterium, and of course viewing the bishop at Rome as the head of the Church as he is the direct descendant from Peter. Second, to be Catholic means to believe in transubstantiation, that is the actual mysterious yet real transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Third, to be Catholic is to believe in the intercessory prayers of the saints, veneration of their relics, and prayers for the lost souls in purgatory.

Sadly, and one of my life's greatest frustrations is that most "nominal" Catholics, perhaps even a statistical majority of Catholics world-wide simply do not believe in these essentials of the Catholic Faith listed above. Perhaps a majority of world-wide Catholics do believe these essentials, but in the United States of America, if one were to actually openly discuss praying to saints, and praying for one's friends who might be in purgatory, sadly most "Catholic" Americans I know would likely refer you to a mental health specialist! For American Catholicism, outside of pockets of Catholic Orthodoxy, Freud, the man who labelled ALL religion as 'delusional' is the final arbiter of truth above Scripture, the Magisterium or even basic Catholic teaching. I often pray to various saints for their intercession (e.g. St. Francis, St. Anthony de Padua, St. Padre Pio, et al). I also have prayed to Jesus Christ for the quick release of many souls in purgatory.

I guess if you allow "Freudian modern psychology" to trump one's Catholic belief then such acts would be called 'delusional . . .'

So, the choice for the United States of America will be does one label faithful Catholics as 'delusional' (e.g. I have a Catholic friend who also prays regularly for saintly intercession from the likes of St. Therese of Lisieux http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105) OR does one show respect for someone's religious beliefs, especially as they are Constitutionally protected in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion?

As for me and my house, to quote Joshua, the successor of Moses, we will serve the LORD.

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Catholic for American religious Constitutional Freedoms

Queen Elizabeth, Religious Toleration and why I read Cyril of Jerusalem's "Catechetical Lectures" . . .

Yesterday I treated myself to the matinee viewing of Elizabeth the Golden Age, the story of Queen Elizabeth of England http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizaquotes.htm. The story of Elizabeth is one of Royal power that sought after peace, and ironically religious toleration.

To be sure, Elizabeth continued down the path of a Church officially separated from Rome, but nonetheless, Elizabeth was a God-fearing woman whose crown was nothing other than a Divine Right monarchy.

But, as I watched the movie, I could not take a "side." I am half Spanish and half English/Irish. I was raised Catholic, but spent ten years as a Methodist, that lay monastic movement originally founded by later Church of England priest, John Wesley. I am, as you were, 'caught in the middle' between any ethnic conflict of Anglo VS. Spaniard.

So, as I watch the movie, all I could do was affirm what was true in each side and then move on. Yes, the Spanish are correct in insisting on the UNITY of the CHURCH that is separate from NATION STATE LOYALTY. Yes, again, however, the English are correct that ROYAL POWER is not arbitrary, but rather instituted by GOD HIMSELF.

So, in conclusion, in not taking sides, rather than being somehow 'moderate' (a political term that generally means "COMPROMISED"!!!) instead is simply standing up for TRUTH. This is why, rather than the Church at Rome or the Church at Canterbury, I instead look to the original Church, the Church at JERUSALEM. In Revelation, the "New Jerusalem" descends from heaven, NOT the "New Rome" nor the "New Canterbury." It is for this reason that true Christianity can only be BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY, and as such, the Early Church Father whom I have always admired the most is St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a 4th century ecclesiastical descendent of the original CHURCH of the APOSTLES.

Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Resident Alien of this fallen world, awaiting the coming of the NEW JERUSALEM

POWER, what is it, how Christian can it ever be

POWER is something I do not like to wield.

Like my Father, a career military man, I do not like to ever 'crack down' on anyone (Rudy Giuliani-style!). Stay in authority. Speak the TRUTH in love. Then you simply do not have to resort to violent options.

Along these lines, two of my greatest political heroes are Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ironically, although technically 'Hindu' Gandhi was deeply indebted to the teachings of Jesus Christ on non-violence. Similarly as a well-educated African American pastor, Dr. King used Jesus' teaching on non-violence to change the evil disenfranchising southern political 'good ole boys' club that was excluding African Americans from voting.

This, really, is the ONLY POWER that Christians can wield. Whoever lives by the sword dies by the sword. In the present case of Iraq, if one joins the military in order to pay off student loans, make higher wages, etc. then one is simply living as a mercenary and one will eventually die with blood on one's hands.

This is not to say that Christian Kings cannot exist. According to the LORD Jesus Christ's Providence Christians have ruled for centuries, some even as saints. In Paul's Letter to the Romans, Chapter 13, provision is even made for the JUSTICE of GOD to be wielded THROUGH the "magistrate" in order to punish the evil doer.

But, just because Christian Kingship can exist (in the U.S. as either the President, the Senate, Congress or the Judicial branch) does not mean that whatever is in the supposed 'national interest' (i.e. oil, expansion, threatening our enemies with shows of force . . .) is necessarily a Christian endeavor. Christians must be very reluctant to ever wield the sword, and ONLY do so as a dispassionate execution of Kingly authority.

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Barack Obama fan because the man loves Jesus (just not ready to be Prez yet . . .)

When Cows Fly: The Jesus-lovin' Democrats VS. the racist, xenophobic, unitarian republikans

This just in . . . The Democrats are the "New RELIGIOUS RIGHT!"

Go figure . . .

In Time magazine (October 22, 2007 issue), apparently Democrat candidate Barack Obama, a good, albeit too inexperienced politician (first term senator who is shaky on the military side of Presidential Power) nonetheless told a Christian congregation about how he "accepted Jesus Christ in my life."

Now, this part is even more shocking . . . Hillary Clinton's director of faith-based operations is a former Southern Baptist Missionary!

In stark contrast to the NEW JESUS-LOVIN' Democrats stand the almost neo-nazi-like Republikaaner Party. Yes, that's right, from supporting the evil apartheid government in South Africa during the 1980's the Party of Abraham Lincoln has now continued in its xenophobic trajectory. This time, of course, it is okay to be "black and Republican," but if you are a Mexican immigrant, then LOOK OUT, the Republikans are coming after you.

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, for a TRINITARIAN CHRISTIAN WESTERN HEMISPHERE under the LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST, KING of Kings, and LORD of Lords . . .

Psychotherapeutic State Civil Religion

The founding of the entire discipline of modern psychology was the beginning of the new imperial western state as a 'new religion.' Gone were the days of state churches such as Anglicanism, but when Sigmund Freud first began his 'theories' about the modern mind, so the west entered the period that I like to term 'the dark ages.'

Case example: In a hot off of the presses internet article, apparently a "Dr. of Psychology" has determined that it is somehow "healthy" for women to have secret fantasties about men to whom they are not married while still being married http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21256467/?GT1=10450.

I kid you not. Adulterous thoughts are now not only acceptable, but are determined by modern psychology to be 'healthy.'

The growth of modern psychology, sadly, has also been accompanied by the growth of the modern nation state as the primary form of human governance. In steps psychology. Instead of a state church such as Anglicanism being in charge of what constitutes a 'healthy psyche' through things like the examination of conscience and other spiritual disciplines, now the modern psychotherapist assumes the role of "high priest" or "high priestess" of the modern West. To be frank, as an Army Reserve Chaplain I even had to endure about one half of my training in this garbage. Instead of being able to you know, be a Christian Theologian, instead I and my colleagues (including the Jewish rabbis) had to endure training in how to be a "jr. shrink." Oy vey!

So, there you have it. State civil religion in which we all had to learn how to be 'shrinks.'

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, for a healthy mental illness awareness network of scholars, politicians and military friends

Body of Jesus Christ POLITICS

I am a Christian. I am a Spirit-Filled Christian. I am loyal to Vatican Teaching (unlike most U.S. Catholics, to include most theology professors I know! :-)

As a Spirit-Filled Christian in the Catholic Tradition (I cannot say institutionally "Catholic" for many clerical orders have been overrun with homosexual pedophiles, many Professors of Theology are nothing but 'world religions' professors and many ordinary church goers believe in things like reincarnation, universal salvation, and whatever else People magazine says is appropriate). Nonetheless, I am a Spirit-Filled Christian loyal to Vatican Teaching.

As a Catholic charismatic, I am obviously political. To be Christian is not to be 'gnostic,' that Christian heresy that saw salvation as some esoteric type of knowledge. No, to be Christian is to be fully immersed in the sweat, blood and tears of this world we call Planet Earth. Surely, as Jesus Christ told us, we are to be "in" the world, but not "of" the world. We are to be "salt and light" bringing Jesus Christ's Bodily Presence (through the Eucharistic elements miraculously transformed on the altar into Jesus' Body and Blood) into wherever Jesus sends us, be it the Middle East, be it homosexual-drug pushing hedonistic secular Florida, be it godless Washington, D.C. in which politicians sell their souls for a nice meal bought by some PAC.

In being Jesus' Body in the world, we are left with two options. Martyrdom or rulership. Either we are killed bodily (eventually, say for example Dietrich Bonhoeffer who resisted state-supported Nazi religion) OR we end up ruling. Death or victory, there are no other choices for the Christian believer.

This Jesus Christ politics is Pro-Life, Pro-Family, and anti-corporate corruption. We are to never murder our own children (abortion!), we are never to get a divorce (unless adultery has occurred), and we are to work diligently to insure good food for ALL of God's children living under our reign, even if those children are Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Native American religiously, etc. Never kill a baby. Never get divorced (unless adultery has occurred). Oppose hoarding of resources so that ALL People in the United States of America and throughout the world can eat. Why is it that the Republican Party has abandoned its Pro-Life, Pro-Family stand? Why is that the Republican Party has seemingly always favored "Big Business" that hoards money, supports usury all while people in Africa starve to death?

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Christian ONLY, but if America wants a way out of this mess, contact me and we'll chat . . . kuriosiesuschristos@abidinglifephoenix.com

Domestic Violence, Perjury and the true victims of American Financial Apartheid . . .

As I sit here at the computer I often think of how blessed I am to enjoy many of the privileges of being an American. In Third World countries such computer access is usually not available (at all!) OR confined to "pay as you go" Internet cafes.

But, here in the United States of America, we have a heritage of public philanthropy. In most states that I have travelled through all I have to do is show my driver's license and I can log onto any public library computer.

But, in spite of such benevolent regard for public property, our nation is slipping further and further into a type of 'caste' system similar to India. If you have money, you can hire attorneys and make the judicial system do what you want it to do.

In steps the issue of domestic violence.

Domestic violence, sadly, is on the rise in the United States. Men hitting their wives and wives sometimes even murdering their husbands.

But in the effort to counter domestic violence, sadly those who have claimed violence where none has occurred have done a great injustice to all Americans. For any man or woman who has perjured in court (to get even, to gain custody) all society has suffered.

This problem is so pervasive that sheriffs are looking the other way and simply trying to contain the mess that our society has become. I recently was speaking with a plain clothes police officer who shared how a major brawl happened between two rival gangs, and after the gang-related mayhem was over, no one was arrested because everyone refused to press charges.

So, there we have it. Women beaten senseless by their husbands while perjury is causing the judicial system to look the other way. Sadly, the problem is not with either 'women' or 'men' but with lying to gain what one wants, harboring ill will, and then using the courts to try to gain money, children, etc.

Love in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Father

Islam, The Non-Politically Correct Version . . .

Friends, I love people who come from Islamic backgrounds. I know of two Bosnian families who fled their homeland with literally nothing in order to escape war against them simply because they were Islamic. This is wrong in any land . . .

But, in spite of knowing and even being friends with people from an Islamic background, sadly, the media is distorting how violent and religiously persecuting many Islamic nations in fact are.

For example, in the Sudan, Christians are a minority in the nation. These fellow Sudanese (black African on black African) have been driven to the point of near starvation.

Yet, our Nation still perpetrates this idea that 'Islam is a religion of peace.'

Just this past Saturday night I went to see the movie The Kingdom, the story about a real-life type terrorist attack against Americans just for being American. Sadly, the final scene of the movie was of Islam on one side and America on the other side with an Islamic boy hearing in his ear, "Kill them all" and with an African American fictitious F.B.I. agent saying "Kill them all."

Friends, "killing them all" is not the answer, nor is a politically correct version of the war between Islam and the West.

The most recent example of this myth is the recent visit of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch to Pinellas Park, FL (interestingly, the little suburb of St. Petersburg where I lived from 3rd grade through high school graduation!). The Patriarch of the Armenian Orthodox Church was seeking to lift up world attention to the fact that Islamic Turks had attempted genocide against them nearly a century earlier. Part of the U.S. Federal Government joined the Orthodox Patriarch in denouncing this attempted genocide, but sadly, our President George W. Bush (I guess falling into the politically correct newsmedia 'spin' on Islam) said that such a denunciation was not diplomatically prudent.

Friends, this is like saying that denouncing the Nazis who murdered 10 million Jews, Poles, gypsies, et al is not "diplomatically prudent."

Friends, this is like saying that denouncing the former racist white South African government for its brutal war against native Africans is not "diplomatically prudent."

Friends, it is time that we take up the yoke of peace, and with fellow peace activists such as Jimmy Carter, Bono of U2, and Amnesty International, highlight wherever genocide has happened and may be attempted. Stand up for your rights. If we do not expose the terror of Islam as it is persecuting Christians world-wide, then the next land to be put to the sword will be our own.

Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, for Peace, for human rights including religious freedom

Poles, Jews, Rob J. King and other enemies of fascist thought ;-)

I am a HUGE Duke Blue Devils basketball fan! Coach K, Coach Johnny Dawkins and of course Coach Wojo have continued the Duke basketball tradition of excellence from their 1980's and 1990's playing days (Dawkins and Wojo) to now form a formidable coaching trio that will solidify Duke as the College Basketball Program of ALL TIME (I am a bit biased having been a "Cameron Crazy" for 3 years!).

Part of what makes Duke basketball so powerful is its staunch Polish Catholic heritage. To be Polish has historically meant to also be a strong Catholic. Coach K was even invited to speak at the Duke University Divinity School a couple of years ago in order to give a presentation on Christian Leadership!

Jews are also integral to Duke University's institutional identity. The Jewish student population has historically been very active, usually religious and all in order to further human rights across the globe.

Now there is me. I am a "double Dukie" having completed two master's degrees at Duke, having served as a Resident Advisor and then Area Coordinator for Residence Life, having served on a Dean selection committee, worked as youth pastor to the Duke Chapel kids (like the former Duke President's son! ;-) and I am about as 'Duke blue' as you will find. I even guarded former Duke basketball swingman Ricky Price in pick-up basketball one time. 6'5" Ricky Price against 5'11 and 1/2" Rob King (6' officially according to the Army ;-)

Sadly, in spite of the goodness of America, goodness politically (like my tree-hugging Seattle liberal environmentalist friend Chad Lupkes :-], goodness militarily (like my close Shorecrest Prep and Davidson College fellow football player, Major Curtis Burns), and goodness religiously (like my super-nun friend, Sr. Jacinta Krecek, a Franciscan who can play Praise Music with the best of any Evangelical Protestant . . . ;-), in spite of such goodness in America, we are also a nation that has many elements of fascism cropping up.

For example, I have personally witnessed fellow Officers in the Army ridiculed for only being women or possibly even subtle anti-African American racism.

I have also seen politics utterly corrupted, say for example how my friend Dr. Mark Klein, a retired Jewish psychiatrist suddenly had his Iowa Straw Poll vote vandalized in 2006 (he was in the lead, and if such sabotage hadn't happened, Mark Klein might have been in the Mitt Romney front-runner position by now!)

I have also seen religion become utterly corrupt, whether it is Liberal Mainline Protestantism that no longer believes in anything Christian (for example, Bishop Sprague of the United Methodist Church who didn't even believe in Jesus' Resurrection) OR corrupt Judaism that has forsaken her covenant with YHWH and instead become a bunch of secular humanists addicted to prescription pharmaceuticals to alleviate their supposed 'mental illnesses.' Give me TRUE JUDAISM like my good friend Mark Klein, a Moses-like Father and keep your secular humanist commies to yourselves in Brooklyn.

Anyways, will you not join me in opposing FASCISM in all its forms! Like the Poles, the Jews and myself, yes it will be a battle to fight American FASCISM, but like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we shall prevail!

IN JESUS' NAME, FOR FREEDOM, FOR FAMILY, FOR PRO-LIFE, FOR MILITARY FAMILIES,
Rob J. King

Military Abuse, Cover-Up and Why Private Guards ARE Necessary

I was reading the other day about the private security firm Blackwater (http://www.blackwaterusa.com/securityconsulting/) based in rural North Carolina. This private security firm has been assigned to guard key U.S. government personnel, say the State Department, while travelling in Iraq. These guards are professional. Many of these guards come from the elite echelons of the U.S. military (former Navy SEALS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_SEAL), and to be frank, are generally much more adept at providing safety to our Governmental Leadership.

Sadly, in contrast to the highly professional and lethally effective Blackwater is much of the 'regular military.' In article after article that I read, from Congress to Army personnel, the highly effective Blackwater (again mostly former elite U.S. military personnel) is actually being attacked by those of lesser caliber.

They are being called 'overly lethal' and that they 'drive recklessly' in Iraq. Yet in spite of such covetous critique by lesser skilled military leaders, Blackwater, whether the military likes it or not, is a more effective solution to our National Defense needs.

This is not to be anti-military in any way, but just rather to state the obvious. If you are in War (for example Iraq or Afghanistan), the entire point is to lessen casualties, both through having such a superior fighting technology and such a more highly effective person using such technology that War is not even an option.

So, rather than continuing to critique the best and the brightest, U.S.A., how about the least effective be shown the door! If a Colonel or a General is ineffective, then politely show him or her the door to retirement and hire some young Green Beret or Navy Seal to run the show. Enough Army Reserve Public School Teachers trying to lead convoys past road-side bombs in Iraq!

Hire Blackwater OR gut the military of useless personnel such as JAG officers with too much time on their hands, band members who play the tuba at West Point football games and radar operators when Blackwater is using far superior technology.

Love in Jesus,
Rob J. King, for a safer, more secure United States of America

The Right Use of Practical Reason: Greek Philosophy & the Physical Body

I was just reading in Michel Foucault's Use of Pleasure: History of Sexuality Volume II how the Greek philosophical tradition placed an extreme importance on physical conditioning as part of 'training' for public political leadership. In the tradition of Socrates, according to Foucault (and as I learned at the University of Notre Dame in a doctoral seminar in "Christian Asceticism"), the budding politician would learn how to best lead not only through reading the classics, but also through concrete physical conditioning that trained the body in the very Virtue of leadership that one needed to rule with.

As I read this section of Foucault, I could not help but reflect upon my own 'ascetic training' regimen that has prepared me to lead in various walks of life. Whether it was physical training for playing College Football (I-AA Davidson College) OR later in the military during army endurance courses, the way that our bodies were trained was also intended to make us 'fit to command.'

Granted, intellectual gifts are also needed to serve as an excellent political leader (otherwise, we would just let our Olympic gold medalists run the entire country! :-), and so such athletic training can only be a training in Virtue in order to more effectively lead.

Does one learn how to "hold one's position" either as a defensive end allowing the linebacker to make the tackle OR as a State Senator allowing the President to pass vitally important funding, say for Relief efforts to Africa?

Does one learn to "work as a team" such as a unified Offensive Line in order to protect the quarterback (e.g. the U.S.F. Bulls, the new 'Cinderella story' of college football) OR as a unified campaign to get someone elected as President?

Does one learn to "lean on another's expertise" such as a quarterback trusting his Offensive Center's blocking technique to manhandle the 300 pound nose guard OR as the Candidate leaning on the research skills of his staff in order to demolish an opposing candidate in a public debate?

ALL of these skills are to be learned both mentally and physically according to the Ancient Greek Socratic tradition that emphasized a type of asceticism in order to lead.

Love in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Christian Ascetic for Jesus Christ's Kingdom Rule

Trying to 'de-throne' the elite

I read the other day where the Duke University lacrosse players who had been falsely accused were seeking a civil action suit against the City of Durham, N.C., its police department and district attorney Mike Nifong for the witch-hunt that had tried to incriminate the members of the lacrosse team.

Sadly, although justice is finally being done, this whole scenario demonstrates how our society is a truly corrupt society.

In so many so-called civil action suits, the rich are targetted simply because they are rich. Similarly, the well-educated are the target of abuse simply because they have worked hard at obtaining an excellent education.

In many ways, what has happened in our society is no different than what has always happened in democracies. For example, the nobleman Cleisthenes, who founded the original democracy at Athens was, at the end of his life, ousted from that very same democracy. Tyranny of the majority as they say.

At a world level, I know of one prominent Catholic priest who shared how when he has spoken to the United Nations on behalf of the Pope (he is a Law Professor), he was literally 'shouted down' by rabid feminist ideologues who are opposed to all things Catholic.

It is somewhat cruelly ironic that very often the 'elite' of the world's leadership are devoted to doing good, yet are attacked, libelled, and often the target of severe lawsuits. Bill Gates tries to help children in Third World countries, yet the Europian Union cries out against his supposed 'monopolistic practices' as head of Microsoft. Similarly, Duke University is one of the top schools in the land, yet a lesser-credentialled district attorney such as Mike Nifong, smelling blood and his opportunity at 'fame,' tried to ruin the lives of several young men forever.

Folks, I have seen such abuse of power against the elites of our society, and sadly this type of covetousness ('Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's goods or wife') is tearing our society limb from limb. Whether it was a young American soldier being denied top secret security clearance 'just because' he was an elite Green Beret type physical specimen OR the Duke University lacrosse case, sadly, rather than elevating our 'best & brightest,' those who have clung to power in our fallen society have ended up destroying the very society that we love.

Well, friends, all I have to say is 3.6 GPA from a top 10 liberal arts college, 3.6 GPA MDiv, 3.9 GPA ThM, and 3.74 GPA PhD studies. The MDiv and ThM are from Duke by the way . . .

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, PRO-LIFE, PRO-FAMILY, PRO-MILITARY

Philanthropy, Philosophy, and Why we Need BOTH!

The other day I handed $2 to a young man who was hungry and looked like a legitimate need. Many times, I will refuse to give if it seems like the person is just looking for a hand-out, but several times in my life, I have indeed given money to people on the street (usually I point in the direction of local charities to include the Roman Catholic Church).

Philanthropy is the practice of basic human love. Love of neighbor is what Jesus would call it.

Philosophy is the practice of basic human wisdom. Love of wisdom is what the Ancient Greeks meant by it.

In today's America, we need both philanthrophy and philosophy desperately. Philanthropy is needed because we are all creatures created by God. Just as the birds and the bears are creatures and need to eat, so also does every human being.

Philosophy is needed also because many times we can support the wrong sorts of programs while the truly needy go without. Out of a philanthropic spirit, the United States adopted various forms of 'child support' laws in order to insure that children ravaged by divorce would be provided for. Sadly, what started out as a philanthropic impulse soon (through feminism) became a weapon to use by disgruntled wives who want to leave their husbands. Scream 'my husband's abusing me,' file for a divorce and then sit back on the couch and collect your weekly child support payment. This is not philanthropy.

No, philanthropy (love of mankind) is the practice by which all of God's creatures named 'the humans,' are shown love.

Philantropy, of course, also needs philosophy. Love of wisdom teaches us to seek out good social programs (public library services, equal rights in divorce cases, pro-life ethics) and then does not spend money on projects that destroy the family, the baby in the womb, and all of society.

Abortion should not be supported either as a supposed legal 'right' to kill your baby OR by tax payer funding. Divorce, similarly, should not receive state funding for this destroys the family which is the building block of society.

So, support your local charity, tithe 10% to your church or ministry, but use wisdom in how you support such philanthropy.

Love in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Military

The Few, the Proud, the U.S. Marine Corps!

Friends, we live in truly perilous times. Government surveillance (of our internet usage, cell-phones, etc.) is blatantly un-Constitutional yet is still pernicious. If we cross the wrong person who is a politician, then suddenly we could have certain 'files' formed on us (e.g. claiming that we are terrorists or something else insinuating in order to frame us). I have even had a Georgia congressional candidate threaten to call Dick Cheney on me! (he was drunk and this was at the Leadership Institute run by the mentor of Karl Rove . . . I kid you not!).

But in spite of such surveillance (a nightmare of the modern Western Post-Enlightenment world as described by post-modern philosopher Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish), good people are nonetheless looking out for us!

One such group, for the most part, are the U.S. Marine Corps.

My accountability partner is a former U.S. Marine and recently I was 'tipped off' by another Marine about a type of surveillance that I was under (private, not governmental). Pretty funny actually how this person wanted to 'spy' on me outside of normal evaluation procedures, and he was CAUGHT red-handed because the very person whom he was eliciting information from just happened to be a former marine!

Hoo-ahh! A U.S. Marine looking out for a fellow military man.

Well, in spite of such good men (also my father, a 20 year vet) who try to safeguard freedom and protect the Constitution, sadly, even within our military, the Constitution itself is under attack.

Here, I speak neither as a military man, nor as an official politician (although I do have these aspirations obviously), but instead as a citizen of the United States of America! If Habeas Corpus is needing to be 'restored' by Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy (a fine fellow Catholic man), then something has run aground with the Military's own law. UCMJ (the Uniform Code of Military Justice) should never supercede the Constitution, nor be an 'exception to the Constitution,' but instead must be grounded completely IN the Constitution, its freedoms, and our own unique American form of democracy as a United Republic. Similarly, "One Nation Under God, with Liberty and Justice for All" does not equal immunity from prosecution by higher ranking federal government officials, so in other words, someone like Dick Cheney MUST open his office for Congressional review!

Blessings in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, citizen of the Republic of the United States of America and inheritor of the Natural Right Freedoms that this Republic was founded upon!

The Real Hidden Dangers of Socialism

As much as I am an advocate for Canadian-style Health-Care in the United States (as a Religious Conservative as informed by Roman Catholic Social Teaching), there are, however, serious hidden dangers involved.

First, whenever the 'state' is the primary source of hope, the human soul (psyche in Greek) withers, and is in a state of depression.

Second, socialism, although at times necessary for maintaining basic infrastructure, to include, at times, even housing, the bus system, power companies and public libraries, still results in a dampening of the human spirit.

Third, from a religious perspective socialism is not anti-thetical to Christianity, and in fact, is largely the secularized version of the original Christian emphasis upon the communal sharing of resources as found in the ideal early Christian community as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

Finally, although acceptable in some measure (Canada, parts of Western Europe), socialistic thinking always runs the danger of slipping into a form of communism. Socialistic thinking mixed with a political coup is all that it would take to turn a Great Britain into a Soviet Union or China. Pretty scary actually . . .

But, having stated these hidden dangers of socialism (dangers to the soul, dangers of becoming a form of state-enforced communism as opposed to a Mennonite or Amish-style communitarianism!), some forms of governmental socialism are acceptable, and within the context of the U.S., socialized medicine may, in fact, be one of these acceptable forms.

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Health Care advocate :-)

As Catholic as you wanna be PART TWO

Friends, being "Catholic" is essential for no other reason than this, it insures that people will actually pray for you when (or if) your soul goes to purgatory. I cannot remember who, but some great nun of the Catholic Church (I believe it was Sr. Ann Catherine Emmerich who inspired Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ) made the startling reflection that Protestants, although they do indeed eventually get to heaven, have a tougher time making it through purgatory because there are fewer people in communion within them to pray for the souls.

I'll never forget my good friend, a Vietnamese Catholic friend from my gradeschool days as a Catholic schoolboy in St. Petersburg, FL, who asked me quite seriously, to pray for her brother who had passed away so that his soul might leave purgatory more quickly.

I prayed in all seriousness, and although I eventually became a Methodist turned Pentecostal, I never really gave up this belief in the existence of purgatory and have been in the process of returning to the Catholic Church since 2003.

Dante the author of the Divine Comedy apparently solidified in the West's consciousness the idea that yes heaven, purgatory and hell are all stark realities and that yes, even some bishops of the Roman Catholic Church end up in hell. Corpus per mixtum is the Augustinian Latin term for the Body of Jesus Christ here on earth containing both the future saint in heaven and also the future sinner whose unrepentance sentences them to hell. Jesus Christ Himself refers to such a dynamic by the parable of the "wheat and the tares" in which the good wheat (the TRUE Body of Jesus Christ!) grows up alongside of the fallen tares (the future damned).

This basic message of salvation, however, is increasingly becoming difficult to preach in the West, be it Western Europe or North America. When one speaks of heaven and hell in a realistic way (or purgatory!), then one is called 'delusional,' a Bible-thumper, a bigot, or whatever vile description that good Christian sharers of the Gospel message are called. Sadly, it is often very close friends, family members, priests, professors of theology, who are so opposed to the TRUTH of the Christian Gospel (i.e. YES, there really is a heaven, hell and purgatory) that they will easily destroy good Christian men and women by libel, slander, and even direct persecution.

Groups such as Opus Dei come under attack as much from within the institutional Catholic Church as they do from without. Similarly, if you are a Holy Spirit-Filled Christian (Benny Hinn), then you are labelled a huckster, charlatan, and people think that you are taking people's money. Finally, if you are a faithful Christian in the military you are sequestered off from sharing the Gospel with fellow soldiers, airmen, etc.

Truly, what started as a Christian Nation is certainly no longer the case, and sadly, in some instances, even anti-Christian!

But, the truth of the Gospel message (from a Catholic perspective) is that when you are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit at baptism you are incorporated into Christ's Body on earth, the Church. From this point, as you accept Jesus on your own as LORD and Savior through reception of the sacraments, participation in the Mass and accepting Jesus' forgiveness of your sins, then you are increasingly made holy. By being forgiven (ONLY through Jesus' Name as is said by Peter in Acts of the Apostles 4:12) can we then enter sanctifying Grace, first in this life, and then if necessary in purgatory.

So, if you wanna be "Catholic" join me this October (a few weeks from now) at the Coming Home Network. Details are listed on the following web-page http://www.chnetwork.org/

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Catholic as you wanna be ;-)

Help for Africa OR Sustainable Living Wages?

Today in my mailbox arrived my most recent edition of the Duke University Divinity School alumni journal. Unlike some top-notch schools that solely seek to 'make a name for themselves,' Duke University is one of those rare places in the Upper Echelons of society in which one can be an orthodox Jew or Christian, live a life of activism and not 'sell one's soul' to the prevailing Corporate-Governmental world financial system.

One poignant photo was of a 2007 Duke grad working with little children in Africa. The article mentioned how through generous scholarship support, this student could stave off student loan debt for long enough to do vitally needed work in Africa. Debt-enslaved Africa being helped by debt-enslaved America once again.

So, in the philanthropic spirit of Bono of U2, Bill Gates and my alma mater Duke University, I urge EACH of you my friends, colleagues and supporters to catch the spirit . . .

Whether it is the vibrant Pentecostal movement spreading throughout Africa OR whether it is staunch Roman Catholicism in places like Nigeria and Kenya, Jesus Christ is MOVING mightily among the people of Africa.

Amen and Praise the LORD!

And within this world vision of evangelistic support mixed with iron-clad economic support, I encourage you to support business in Africa. Whether it is buying African coffee at Starbuck's, joining up for the peace corps, or simply doing activist work here in the United States, stand up and fight non-violently in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love in Jesus,
Rob J. King, for America, for Africa, against evil

Calvin's Geneva, Usury and why the West is in decline

I just read an excellent short biography of John Calvin written by top-notch Evangelical historical theologian Alister McGrath. As a Religion major at top-notch Davidson College (historically Calvinist), I learned all about the Reformed Theological Tradition, its obvious superiority to everything except for Roman Catholicism for some reason ;-) and basically learned to "think like a Calvinist" (reading Calvin's Institutes and Karl Barth does that to a man! :-)

So, when I encountered something new about John Calvin (I am a 'know-it-all book worm' you know! :-) I thought, 'my gosh, the Copernican Revolution' of the 21st century in Human Thought can now happen due to my upcoming Wednesday "Calvin-usury" blog!

Well, no I am not that full of bombast to make such a claim (only when watching F.S.U. football do I become such a proud peacock! ;-).

No, stated humbly, what I learned from Alister McGrath's treatment of Calvin's biography was that John Calvin, in spite of birthing the proverbial 'Protestant Work Ethic' that fueled Geneva, Switzerland and then Calvinist Scotland and finally Calvinist New England and the birthing of the U.S.A., also, sadly enough, birthed usury as an acceptable practice.

No, it was not Martin Luther in Germany. Luther was much too concerned with conversion to Jesus Christ within the semi-feudal rural German lands to rid himself of the Church's antipathy towards charging interest. No, on the Protestant side, apparently we can attribute John Calvin to birthing the sin of usury as acceptable practice.

So, there you have it. Usury, the charging of interest was jettisoned by Calvin.

So, now that we have been living in the supposedly 'prosperous' West that has been built on the sin of usury (that is charging interest on loans to fellow Christians), what have been the 'net results?' Well, when capital was hoarded in Europe it eventually led to revolt. Karl Marx first formulated an alternative to usury purely on secular grounds, and nation state after nation state fell to communism.

Now, in other parts of the world, the battles have been fought, not on religious grounds as secular humanistic liberals want us to believe. No, it has been the capitalistic West in battle first against communism, whether it was the Korean War, the Cold War or the Vietnam War OR the capitalistic West battling the new foe of the day ISLAM with its rich oil reserves that essentially make capital and money supply meaningless in the twenty first century's economy. Who needs capital when a Middle Eastern country can charge its own citizens 20 cents per gallon of gasoline and then we in America pay several dollars for the same gasoline.

No, we in the West who have lived off of the sin of usury (or have been victimized by it) are in steep decline. Islam does not charge interest. Muslims therefore are less likely to impoverish each other. But, we here in the West try to sell each other's children off. Student loans, mortgages, etc. All of this usury going on with fewer and fewer capitalists at the 'top' of the 'pyramid' and the rest of the West sweating it out, never able to amass anything but more debt.

But, contra the West and contra Islam and contra communism is the transnational community known as Christianity. No, I am not speaking of the institutional Church (for the most part), but instead I am talking about the living, breathing Body of Jesus Christ united by the Eucharistic bread and wine and pledged to support each other. Whether it is me receiving a free plane ticket to attend a Catholic renewal conference OR me similarly sending some of my hard-earned cash to help out a Franciscan ministry that helps problem teenagers right here in Florida, the Body of Jesus Christ, at its best, resists, rather than embraces such greed and corruption as the sin of usury promotes.

So, no, Marxism is definitely NOT the answer. Similarly, capitalism is not the answer especially since this goes against Christian teaching (sorry John Calvin, you birthed greed, not a holy people!), but instead, the TRUE Body of Jesus Christ must RISE UP and throw off the shackles of world slavery that ironically enough all started in Switzerland, the place where Nazis stored their stolen Jewish money during the holocaust. I guess the Swiss are not so 'neutral' after all. Forsake Christ and embrace usury is what eventually happened to Calvin's Geneva. This was not the fault of Calvin, but sadly, the 'net result' was the birthing of a slavery-producing world financial system that has crippled Africa, enslaved its own children and now wants to dismantle the United States of America. Several trillion dollars of debt we apparently are in as a Federal Government.

All thanks to a little man from Geneva . . .

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Swiss Chocolate eater and a Free Man in Christ Jesus

50%/50% OR secular male back-lash!

This just in . . . Britney Spears that former Mousekeeter turned sex-pot turned drunken, drug abusing mommy just lost custody of her kids (http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=277813&GT1=7702&silentchk=1&). Spears, I actually feel quite sorry for. I also feel extreme sympathy for her children, Sean and Jayden.

But, if mommy is breaking the law through drug use, then yes, she should not be the person in control of her children's future, the father should be.

Under normal circumstances, I favor the 50%/50% shared custody (shared legal and shared physical custody) of children in divorce cases, along with some sort of 'waiting period' (one year of legal separation?) to even file for a divorce!

But, if there is something like hard-core drug use going on, then yes, that 50%/50% ideal should be altered.

Unfortunately, I do think that since feminist ideology has for so long dominated our legal system (granting custody to the mother automatically and then enslaving the poor father in child support payments), there is a likely back-lash that will happen on the part of secular men who for too long have been beat up by the judicial system. Sorry, but men are fed up and will likely begin striking back hard in court.

For me, as a Christian, however, I hold the egalitarian principle of "all are one in Jesus Christ" to inform and guide my Thought and Practice. As much as I too have been a victim of feminist ideology, I still hold that EQUAL RIGHTS are what should happen, not 'special rights.' This of course will not happen as women will continue to abuse the system only to have judge after judge (many female judges also!) seeing through the smoke and then awarding sole legal and physical custody to the father. What do you expect Britney? You kiss Madonna on the lips during the Mtv music awards, you do drugs and you shave your head neo-nazi style and expect to keep the kids?

Well, as for me, I will continue to seek the Ideal of Justice. 50%/50%. Equal Rights, not 'special rights.'

Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King, Father who lost custody to feminist ideology

McCain, Obama and why the U.S. is now 'liberal' . . .

Should the United States of America stay in Iraq? Should condoms be distributed in college dormitories that are supported by tax payer money? Should universal health insurance be given to a majority of our American citizens, especially women and children?

All of these questions arise from the supposed 'left' side of the political spectrum, but the fact that they are so mainstream currently demonstrates that a true shift in U.S. politics has occurred in the last year or so . . .

Christian conservatives, irate at the pro-abortion stand of a top G.O.P. candidate (Giuliani) are now considering a 'third party' run.

Conservatism has come to mean xenophobia, War-on-demand, tax cuts for the wealthy while the working class gets pink slips, and an increase in overall social anarchy as laissez-faire economics grinds household after household into a second world country.

Great job Republican Party! You have forsaken Jesus Christ. You have abandoned Orthodox Christendom. You have turned your nose up at hard-working Spanish-speaking Catholic immigrants, and now there will literally be hell to pay in 2008 as your fallen political allegiances are stripped from you and you lose all federal authority.

Again, GREAT JOB Republican Party! (sarcasm much intended).

Men such as the King Household (Missionary Baptists from Georgia) have been sending off our boys to fight to protect freedom throughout the twentieth century, yet, you try to take our Christian fidelity and Patriotism as license to promote your own interests rather than the interests of all American citizens. You listen to the wealthy banker, yet you ignore the middle class retired military (Christian!) serviceman. You listen to whomever can grease your palms, even if these 'Republicans' are in favor of murdering innocent babies or are practicing homosexuals. You are now going to lose the King Family Vote.

Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Concerned American for a Better U.S. Foreign and Domestic Policy

Why 'Politics' are necessary for the Church

Many Christians quite wrongly believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be 'non-political.' The supposed 'true' Gospel (according to this mistaken view) is that Jesus spoke of a purely 'spiritual' Kingdom that is so spiritual that we just wait around on Planet Earth for Jesus to Return (Hal Bopp comet-cult style! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale-Bopp) and divorce ourselves from the political arena.

But Jesus spoke constantly of 'the Kingdom.' Basileia (please see a good word study found at http://www.preteristarchive.com/PartialPreterism/walker-don_pp_03.html) is the Greek New Testament word for "kingdom" and this word occurs over and over again throughout the Gospels. Yes, Jesus was not a 'revolutionary' in some marxist-sense (although some Catholic Liberation Theologians try to make Him fit this model, contrary to the warnings of Pope Benedict XVI). But just because Jesus was not a 'revolutionary' trying to overthrow the Romans and set up a utopian kingdom on earth does not mean that Jesus' reference to the Kingdom meant anything other than a real politic. From the Amish-Mennonite 'communitarian' vision of late ethicist John Howard Yoder (former Professor of Ethics, University of Notre Dame) to the strange sort of 'real cultural politique' of Professor Stanley Hauerwas (Ethics Professor at Duke University) to the various inner workings of Opus Dei, the Church's calling is to embody and CONQUER in the Name Christ Jesus! Constantine the Great, the former military general became Emperor literally because he painted the Christian symbol designating Jesus Christ on the shields of his Roman Legions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I). Similarly, although Mennonites and Amish (and some Hauerwasian Methodists/Catholics/et al) do not advocate such Constantinian Imperia, their vision is, nonetheless, still political, and although non-violent, still militant! John Howard Yoder (author of The Politics of Jesus and numerous other works) did not espouse governmental overthrow, yet through his uniquely Anabaptist Vision, could still advocate the forward Advancement of Jesus' Reign here on earth. No "Hal-Bopp comet-watching" for Yoder and his Mennonite kin! Rather through embodying the sorts of community-sustaining practices that Jesus taught his first disciples (as found in the New Testament canon), Yoder (and by extension Hauerwas) invite the fallen pagan world to join up and enlist in the non-violent, eschatologically-consummating JESUS KINGDOM!

So, are you ready to sign up?

Jesus is watching and calling you personally by name. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me . . . dear beloved sinner, come home.

My prayer is that the former Christendom of Swiss, German, French and English neo-pagans will sign up today for the Jesus-Army!

Love in Christ Jesus,
Rob J. King, non-Mennonite CONQUERING CHRISTIAN in Jesus' Most Holy Name!