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Pride First then Fall

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Pride First – Then the Fall by AChuckAllen

I’m a political junkie. I enjoy the foolishness of the primary season, the debates and the politics of wooing voters with promises and intentions…regardless of the reality attached to them.

But I must admit, this political season is so wonky that I cannot seem to find firm and solid ground from which to park my passion and influence. I am a conservative in my theology, economy and fundemental beliefs regarding the United States Constitution.

Having said that, I cannot help but wonder what our Founding Fathers would think about our modern political process? From Russian intervention to hanging chads, we are a people in search of a crisis, a challenge and a controversy.

Having had three plus years of President Trump’s bravado and bluster and now with the eye buldging socialist retoric of Senator Sanders, I am left with one thought – STOP IT!

I truly believe that if there were to be one candidate that could speak with a voice of reason and speak to the masses with a firm, yet gracious presence, that candidate could carry the day.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled with our economy. I’m thrilled with the faith community being turned loosed to serve more than ever before. I love the judges that are pro-life and pro-family. I am thrilled with a renewed sense of national pride and the strength of our military. As a conservative, I love all of those things and have been enjoying them over the past few years.

But I must wonder if there is anyone left that is both electable and firm, yet gracious in their life and leadership? Maybe not. My guess is that we live in a society that will never again allow any person, of any party, race, color, faith or liniage to lead this great land without attacking every decision they have ever made, second guessing every policy that is put in place, or destroy their family for the sake of political expediancy.

Maybe the problem isn’t so much with the men and women that place themselves in the race, but rather with us? Maybe we have grown so jaded about anybody that is elevated into leadership, that we automatically charge the hill with pitchforks and flamethrowers. Maybe we enjoy the hunt of destroying another person and their life and leadership so much that we cannot stop anymore than we can stop watching a train wreck.

It’s worth considering this mythical place where we might could rally behind a leader and agree to disagree on the minors, while struggling to serve the greater good on the majors. I fear that we have long past the stage of allowing anybody to help settle what are majors and minors. So, in the meantime, we simply scream, shout, bicker, harass and utter hateful things about those that are at least brave enough to enter the arena.

The Scriptures give us a glimpse into all of our futures and the results of how we go about our politics, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) It’s been proven true in my life over six decades and will be true long after I am gone. If we could somehow muster up enough humility to recognize our desperate need for Heaven sent wisdom, we might turn the corner and discover the blessings of the Divine once again. But then, it’s easier to keep screaming at each other. Pride first, and then the fall.

“I’m Chuck Allen and I approved these wandering thoughts.”

Seriously,
AChuck

Saturday Share with AChuckAllen

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I enjoy sharing an article that brought a teaching or encouragement to my life and thought Saturday might be a good day to share them with you. Today’s article is from one of favorite authors, Dr. Jim Denison.

Here you go:

President Trump told the nation yesterday that no Americans were hurt by Iran’s missile attack in response to the death of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. He stated that Iran appears to be “standing down” and indicated that American forces would not respond further.

Unsurprisingly, reaction in America to Soleimani’s death has fallen largely along partisan lines. For example, a Fox News commentator stated that “Soleimani was an unparalleled organizer and a pitiless murderer. His death was richly earned.” A CNN commentator, by contrast, called his killing a “reckless gamble.”

This partisan divide is sadly familiar, of course. But I recently read an explanation for it that was both insightful and relevant to more than our politics.

Four ways to do foreign policy

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat views American foreign policy through a prism developed by scholar Walter Russell Mead, who created this famous typology named for four American presidents:

• Hamiltonian: protection of commerce

• Wilsonian: moral principle

• Jeffersonian: maintenance of a democratic system

• Jacksonian: populist values and military strength.

Douthat describes the Hamiltonians as “business-minded internationalists, cold-eyed and stability-oriented and wary of wars that seem idealistic rather than self-interested.” He describes the Wilsonians as “idealists, whether neoconservative or liberal-humanitarian, who regard the United States military as a force for spreading democracy and protecting human rights.” He claims that most foreign policy leaders in Washington “belong to one of these two groups.”

According to Douthat, however, “far more American voters are either Jacksonians or Jeffersonians.” He describes Jeffersonians as “more common on the left than on the right,” an impulse that “regards global hegemony as a corrupting folly and America’s wars as mostly unwise and unjust.” Their defining attitude is “No blood for oil.”

Douthat locates the “Jacksonian tendency” as “more common on the right than on the left” and describes it a “pugilistic nationalism that’s wary of all international entanglements but ready for war whenever threats arise.” Its essential credo is “More rubble, less trouble.”

According to Douthat, President Trump is a Jacksonian working within the Hamiltonian-Wilsonian strategic framework that dominates Washington’s political leadership. As with much of the president’s agenda and actions, the killing of Maj. Gen. Soleimani doesn’t fit within their ideology, which helps explain the polarization and rancor of our political discourse.

Whether you agree or disagree, it’s important to note the formative power of a leader’s worldview in shaping foreign policy in practical ways. How we see the world goes a long way toward determining how we experience it.

Seeing Iran through spiritual eyes

The same is true for us spiritually. For example, a church worker in Iran told CBN News that, forty years after Iran’s Islamic revolution, there’s another spiritual revolution underway in his country.

He states, “More people have come to faith [in Christ] in Iran in the last forty years than in the previous 1,400 years.” Believers there say that persecution in Iran is not hindering the church. In fact, it is growing it.

One missional leader explains: “When the persecution stops, the growth stops. What we want is the Gospel to spread far and wide and deep in Iran.”

Seeing our souls through spiritual eyes

Henri Nouwen made an extended observation that seems especially relevant to this point in history:

“When we lose a family member or friend through death, when we become jobless, when we fail an examination, when we live through a separation or a divorce, when war breaks out, when an earthquake destroys our home or touches us, the question ‘Why?’ spontaneously emerges. ‘Why me?’ ‘Why now?’ ‘Why here?’ It is so arduous to live without an answer to this ‘Why?’ that we are easily seduced into connecting the events over which we have no control with our conscious or unconscious evaluation.

“When we have cursed ourselves or allowed others to curse us, it is very tempting to explain all the brokenness we experience as an expression or confirmation of this curse. Before we fully realize it, we have already said to ourselves, ‘You see, I always thought I was no good. . . . Now I know for sure. The facts of life prove it.’

“The great spiritual call of the Beloved Children of God is to pull their brokenness away from the shadow of the curse and put it under the light of the blessing. This is not as easy as it sounds. The power of the darkness around us is strong, and our world finds it easier to manipulate self-rejecting people than self-accepting people.

“But when we keep listening attentively to the voice calling us the Beloved, it becomes possible to live our brokenness, not as a confirmation of our fear that we are worthless, but as an opportunity to purify and deepen the blessing that rests upon us. Physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the blessing is experienced in ways radically different from physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the curse.”

How King David approached conflict

King David was no stranger to war with his enemies and with himself. In a time of intense conflict, he made this simple but profound declaration: “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord” (Psalm 4:5).

As we work, God works. As we face conflict in our nation and in our souls, the key is to do what only we can do and trust God to do what only he can do.

What “sacrifice” will you offer him today?

What challenge will you trust to him today?

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Pretty good, right?

Have a Great Day, AChuck

The Fight Inside the Fight

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The Fight Inside the Fight by AChuckAllen

I’ve been keeping up with the ongoing congressional battle regarding the attack that President Trump authorized to eliminate Qasem Soleimani. I’ve heard the ongoing chatter from those that oppose this action and from those that are touting it as a great win. Regardless of your personal thoughts on this military action, I think that we would all agree that we do not know what the military intelligence was, or what all of the details were that spurred the President to authorize this attack. We each base our opinions on one or more of these thoughts; What we think about Donald J. Trump, what we believe about the American intelligence community, what we feel about military action in the Middle East or how we feel about targeting individual terrorist leaders.

As for me, based on what little I know, the world is a far safer place without Qasem Soleimani. I do not have any access to the intel, or the logic included in making this decision…BUT, this country elected President Trump to make those decisions. Given the status of the American political landscape, everything done by one side of the aisle is overly criticized and crtiqued by the other. Think about that last sentence. Even in the effort to eliminate a crazed, murderous psychopath, both sides are so busy battling each other, the elimination of Soleimani is buried beneath the infighting of Washington as the lead story!

To all of that, I say, C’MON MAN! We have become a country being led by a bunch of whiners and tattletails. I’m so weary of the jabs and quips from congressional and political leaders that have no other purpose than to either secure their seats or exit someone else’s seat. Again, C’MON MAN!

I know that we have, as a republic, for decades, had political battles regarding the placement of presidents, congressional leaders, senatorial seats and all of the roles that make up the branches of government, but seriously? Could we please find a voice of reason and a voice that allows for political enemies to adopt President and General Dwight Eiesenhour’s mantra, “Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.”

Could we not find common ground without the bully stump blusters? Especially when it involves an enemy of our great country and when the topics include our brave men and women serving in military hot spots around the globe, or people in poverty in our country and our communities?

If you think that this is written from a position of either conservative or liberal, you’d be wrong. I write this as a pastor, an American and a concerned grandfather. I long for our leaders to lay down their petty verbal attacks on each other and collaboratively work for the common good of our American people and the threats to democracy across the globe.

In regard to what our part, as citizens and as believers, I would like to see we Christians lay down the pitchforks. In spite of our many political and social disagreements, we are causing great divide in our churches, our faith system and the ability to remain a place of safety, acceptance and hope. Let us lose the rancor and foolish banter that doesn’t bring honor to our Creator. I do not think there is any way that the Lord looks upon our bickering and feels honored and loved by His children. This isn’t limited to political battles, but also to the bickering and foolish tirades from spiritual leaders as well. Let us stop the social media rants about how we believe and find the collective greatness of serving and leading more like Jesus, Himself.

What now shall we do? Speak with grace. Speak only what we know to be true, not what pundits offer for us to think. Let us seek truth in prayer. Let us seek wisdom from on high. Let us ask the Lord for understanding. And, let us find a voice that is pleasing to the Divine.

Go in Peace, AChuck

Who Else Can We Impeach?

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I’ve watched the Impeachment vote and the encircling fall-da-rah that comes with it and I’m left with three thoughts that are clearly an indication of my simplistic mind. Nonetheless, I do indeed have three thoughts that seem to remain in this cycle of political antics in Washington DC.

First, I think we could all agree that President Trump doesn’t need to be the spokesperson for a kinder/gentler nation. He makes it hard for guys like me to like him. I desperately wish to snatch his smartphone away from him and end the Twitter battles. It’s just another antic that I liken to NFL players that strut like peacocks after simply doing their job…Come on Man! Having said that, my church is benefitting greatly from the healthiest economy since, well…ever. My house has increased in value, the markets continue to set all time highs and the trade deals that he bantered about in the election have been reset with healthy guidelines and a path to a better and more stable future. So, there’s that. Oh, yeah. Back to the three things. Just because he is a bully, a flame throwing businessman, a rude and crude spokesman and lacks many of the finer graces, that doesn’t make him a criminal. It doesn’t seem to meet high crimes and misdemeanors. I have heard the evidence. To dislike Donald J. Trump is understandable. To impeach him is silly, middle school theatrics.

Second, I have seen men and women argue and bicker straight down party lines. Is it truly possible to have a viable third party in the 21st century? Is it not possible to have electable people that can think with conviction and not political expediency? This system has taken America in a direction that is not healthy and is possibly unrecoverable. And before you chuckle, thinking it’s whatever the “other party” is to you, it’s both party’s fault. I’m disgusted by both tire-slashing, trash-talking selfish party line tirades. It’s past time for a third party, or at least a handful of outliers that will speak with a voice of reason, rather than a voice of rancor.

Third, nobody is really winning at this game of name calling. If you are a Never Trump person, you might think that “we finally got him.” If you are a MAGA hat wearing Republican, you might be thinking, “we will get the House back and we are definitely winning the 2020 election.” The truth is that America is the loser in all of this. Are we to call for impeachment when our local mayor wins, but the city council wanted somebody else to win? Are we to assume that Presidents in years past have never had a call like the one that President Trump had with the President of Ukraine? Stop it! Just stop it!

Every four years, this great country has the privilege of choosing a President to lead the way. I’ve voted in every presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. I’ve seen a few winning elections and a few losers. Either way, we have an opportunity to change horses every 48 months. At this rate, we will be carrying the results of Major League Baseball games to the Supreme Court because half of America hates the team that won game seven in the bottom half of the 9th.

I realize that the chatter is louder these days as a result of social media and the digital age, but we are better than this foolishness, aren’t we? I pray that we are. I’d hate to think that my grandchildren would have to devalue American leaders so much that we couldn’t agree with the old adage, “sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.”

Just three things I thought about while watching Survivor, I mean Congress today.

Peace, AChuck

The Christian and Impeachment

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The Christian and Impeachment by A-Chuck Allen

I realize that the hate mail might flow from both sides of the aisle after reading today’s article, but here goes. Let me start by saying, I am in no possible way endorsing any candidate by writing this article.

This effort to impeach the President seems like another multi-million-dollar burn rate hunt that seems, from all apparent speculation to be poor partisan leadership that’s running wild at best and fool-filled hatred at worst. That’s not a good rock or a hard place to be.

I’ve been vocal on this BLOG to point out what I see as presidential errors and foolishness, but let’s face it…the country elected him, and he is our Commander in Chief. I’ve also praised him for opening more doors for the faith community to serve in areas previously off-limits to churches and faith-based non-profits. As best that I can tell, President Trump may have opened more faith based doors than any president in our history.

But dang it, he makes it so hard to love him and at times, even like him. I do indeed praise him for the efforts that have allowed me (first hand) to play a small role in the Southern Border Crisis and lending resources and aid to The Bahamas. For that I am grateful. For the judges that have been appointed, I’m grateful for that.

Now, after the Mueller Report seemed to be much laborious reading about nothing, we are opening official impeachment hearings. Yep, with tongue entirely in cheek, that’ll surely help the country!

I detest President Trump’s horrific description of women, caught on tape with Billy Bush. I daily want someone to close his Twitter account. I do not like or admire his language, especially when my Lord’s name is taken in vain. But are we really to believe that dragging the country through more hate-filled, hate-speech, petty bickering is going to lift our country to it’s highest decorum in decency and kindness? Not a chance.

You might have read this far and want to firebomb my car, but give it another paragraph before bailing out.

Let the man serve his four years and if you don’t like him as the POTUS, elect somebody else! Stop finding every possible way to derail and sabotage our country by attempting to undermine his administration. There are good people serving in so many offices that spend more time dodging hateful barbs thrown their way than doing their job.

You might be saying, “great Chuck, but as a Follower of Jesus, what should I do?”

  1. Don’t get sucked into the partisan, binary hate-speech and innuendo.
  2. Stop joining the arguments on either side. Start offering to serve in one of the many ways that you could help and make a difference instead of loading up with pundit popularism about the latest “he-said-she-said-they -said” gossip and half-truth. At best, don’t speak at all unless you are better educated than the casual viewer of CNN, MSNBC, FOX News or any other pundit rants.
  3. Stop assuming that someone – anyone on the “other side of the aisle” is wrong in every way. There are great people in both camps and we do them a disservice to lump them all into the same basket.
  4. Please stop the mindless arguments on social media that seem to be more hateful as the days go by.
  5. If you think someone offers a better future economically, in the appointments of faith-friendly judges, and in allowing the faith community go to work beside governmental friends, then defeat Mr. Trump in November 2020.
  6. Please stop expecting the pulpit to become a politically supportive cowbell, calling in all of the chips to make a point about politics and not Jesus. I’ll stick to my guns. If we were to elect God’s person to lead this proud land, it most likely woudn’t be anybody in the running! But if we were to put Jesus in the right priority in our life, the rest is a forgone conclusion.
  7. PRAY without ceasing. Pray for wisdom from on high for the Trump family. Pray for his cabinet. Pray for wisdom on the other side of the aisle and pray for ways that you can impact your community without the argumentative process of offensive, angry pundit talk.
  8. Serve people in need and watch how the Lord will elevate your voice and your potential to make a difference in the lives of real people with real problems. Jesus was Waterford crystal clear on this: “If you want to be great, you must become a servant.”

I’m no longer able to watch the political trash on any network, but I do pray every single day for Mr. Trump, his family, his pastor, Paula White and for the Democratic leaders, especially those running for the highest office in our land. All of Washington needs our prayers and according to God, “The effective prayer of righteous people avail much.” So pray!

Support whoever you wish, but do so because you have a deep conviction in what is right and just and holy. You might have to look really deeply into your soul. If you seek the Lord in all of your ways, He will use you in the effort to serve people in need and vote with conviction…regardless of who you vote for.

As Chuck Colson (a man who knows a few things about impeachment) said,  “Politics is nothing but an expression of culture. It is not enough to win elections, for political power alone cannot change how people live or change their values. It is essential to change hearts and minds as well. And that starts, not in Washington, but with our neighbors.”

Go in Peace,
AChuck

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