DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

The Required Standards of Character and Integrity

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, an indisputable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the characters and conduct of their rulers.
~ John Adams

Character and Integrity are indeed the pillars of a Constitutional Republic, and when they are disregarded at will, tyrannical, socialist Oligarchies take the place of those attributes laid out in the Declaration of Independence known as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Three places in the Bible God warns of the “falling away” from his dictates: Deuteronomy 8:19-20: And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God. (See also Deuteronomy 31:16-18) …

Jeremiah 11:10-11: They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

In total, there are 68 Bible verses warning the people (ie US) about rejecting God from our daily lives. It would behoove us to heed God’s warnings and to take our country back under the governance of His Triune Godhead, ie GOD the Father; GOD the Son; and GOD the Holy Spirit before it is too late.

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A Catholic Poem of the Infinite God… One of the best I have ever read

And yet more from the well of wisdom…

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. ~ Robert Frost, “The Black Cottage”

It would be the same at the end of the journey, If you came at night like a broken king; If you came by day not knowing what you came for, It would be the same when you leave the rough road, And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for Is only a shell, a husk of meaning From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled; If at all. Either you had no purpose, Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured, And is altered in fulfilment. ~ T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”

Ability is not what makes death significant. At birth this baby had capacities below that of a healthy fetus at ten weeks. Holding his body, living and then dead, proves to me that it doesn’t matter how early the human heart beats, how early it is possible to feel pain, or when the senses develop. No ability or strength confers human status—not being viable or sentient or undamaged or wanted. Being of human descent is enough; you cannot earn or forfeit your humanity. If this baby’s death does not matter, no death matters. ~ Learning From Bodies(1)

Giving life, not death…

Women don’t need to be rescued; they are strong far beyond society’s imagining. They don’t need to be protected from the children conceived within their bodies; they don’t need doctors to violate their wombs in order to “save” them from the “burden” within. Women are not so weak that they can handle the rigors of motherhood only if the conditions are perfect, the correct products purchased, careers neatly arranged, the approval of those in power secured. Women are not so fragile that they can delight in their children only when their own needs and desires are entirely satisfied. ~  Learning From Bodies(2)

We do not need to be afraid of acknowledging and even proclaiming the unity of a mother and her unborn baby. Insisting on the autonomy of the unborn requires a willful blindness to the physical reality and lived experience of pregnancy and birth. But more than that, it capitulates to the idolatry of autonomy, both as the primary criterion of personhood and the elusive prize worth killing for. ~  Learning From Bodies(3)

“Anonymous” cries out: Is hell a place? Isn’t hell just the destruction of souls, the absence of life? Then hell seems horrible, will it be just like modern Earth with all its technologies and etc., etc., people will be making porn and doing abortions in hell, and acting homosexuals, and lesbians, and sodomites? And people changing themselves from men to women, and women to men? And drinking and cheating on their partners in hell?

I don’t think that’s how it works, but yes, it is a “place.” It’s the final place for the souls that have chosen an absence of love. The souls there have destroyed themselves and will remain for all eternity tormented by their vices. What it looks like is anyone’s guess but the Bible has its own description, and we tend to make some assumption based on Dante’s writing. But none there are entertained. The reality of sin is a feeling in which a person decidedly chooses vice and evil over God. That, I think, is what it looks like: people in that selfish moment of disbelief in God who are stuck there forever, the “oops” moment when they realize where they’ve ended up. I don’t think there will be much around, just darkness and fire. But I may be speaking out of line here. Most mainstream doctrines don’t take up the Protestant notion of everyone being in Heaven fully clothed and all, nor do they even believe angels look like people, per se. But as Billy Graham describes it : “Will a loving God send a man to hell? The answer from Jesus and his teachings in the Bible is, clearly, Yes! He does not send man willingly, but man condemns himself to eternal hell because he refuses God’s way of salvation and the hope of eternal life with him.” (From “Facing Death and the Life After, 1987). It stands to reason that Hell is thus a place to be avoided at all costs.

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Electing Someone With Character and Integrity

I believe that Dr. Carson is a good man. I can’t really know for sure, but based on everything I’ve seen, including the fact that he’s been married to the same woman for 40 years, and the fact that he hasn’t flip-flopped on every imaginable issue, and the fact that he’s the only guy in the field who’s literally saved the lives of countless people, especially children, I have arrived at the rather safe theory that Ben Carson is a man of character and integrity.

Dr. Ben Carson…

For some reason, we don’t talk about character and integrity when discussing our presidential picks. Maybe it’s because we just assume they’re all scumbags, but I think it’s more that we, as a culture, have grown quite shallow and childish in recent years. I’m sure this isn’t a new phenomenon, but it’s evident that most Americans vote entirely based on which man or woman repeats their own views back to them the loudest. We call this “voting on the issues,” but we forget that we’re not voting for some abstract, disembodied collection of opinions. We are voting for a human being. And all of those opinions are meaningless if the human being articulating them is, despite his ability to soothe you with the sound of your own ideas, actually a lying, cheating, conniving, degenerate phony.

I think we ought to start considering a person’s character as we contemplate making them the most powerful mortal creature in the known universe. If they have no character, then all of their words are guaranteed to lead to nothing but more tyranny and despair. It would take, at this point, an exceptionally virtuous person to inherit the vast powers of the modern presidency and not be morally destroyed by them. But if the person is already corrupt and comprised going in, we’re screwed. There’s no chance of anything good coming of it.

So, character and integrity. I like Dr. Carson because he has character. I think Ted Cruz is the best choice — he has integrity, the conservative bona fides, a command of the issues, and a great chance at winning —  but I enjoyed having Carson on that stage.

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Then There Are The Disingenuous And Morally Corrupt

Cecile Richards, baby body-parts sales executive…

“I remember one day at Planned Parenthood we were standing around in the POC lab talking about how far along Warren Hern performed abortions (he performs them up until the date of birth in Colorado). I remember my boss laughing and saying, “He aborts them so far along they come out crying and looking for their mama.” Everyone in the room laughed as she made the motion of holding a baby up and spanking it’s bottom. I went to a friend of mine and asked her what she thought of aborting babies so late … I had always been uncomfortable with late term abortion. She said, “Well, it’s better to kill them before they are put in a dumpster.” And that was how I then began to justify late term abortion in my mind …“better than in a dumpster.” Since leaving Planned Parenthood, that conversation has always haunted me … how easily I could justify something so heinous. I have since learned that if you have to justify something, then you probably shouldn’t believe in it.

Thank God for redemption and mercy.” ~ Abby Johnson (via why-bless-your-heart)

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The Conclusion of the Matter

And finally, I must get this off my chest from the “no-debate” the other night, put together for my convenience by C. Edmund Wright in American Thinker…

How low has Fox slipped?

According to the social media outlets dominated by conservatives, that is the consensus question.  Fox’s debate moderation was nothing short of cringe-worthy.  The network’s moderators were obsessed with their own face time and with starting fights on stage between participants. It is clear they are intending to doom Donald Trump, while remaining committed to ignoring Ted Cruz.

Consider a few stunning – and what should be embarrassing – numbers from Thursday’s debate:

40: Ted Cruz was ignored for 40 straight minutes during the debate – with the mods even skipping Cruz on the topics of Iran and yes, Obamacare.  How in the world can you take yourself seriously when you don’t invite Cruz into an Obamacare discussion?  Perhaps it’s because Fox was so arrogantly assuring everyone back during the Cruz Obamacare shutdown filibuster that it was going to cost the Republicans the Senate in 2014.  How did that turn out?

59: It was 59 minutes before a single moderator mentioned any Democrat – and it was a question that involved Hillary Clinton.  It’s as if Barack Obama hasn’t been president for almost 7 years and as if these are just normal times and this is just a normal election.  Maybe that’s what Fox thinks.  It apparently has never crossed their collective minds that what voters want is a plan for defeating the Democrats and then for rolling back the 7 years of devastation that have been wrought by them.  They’re not interested in any of that.

31: Talk about ego.  The three moderators of the prime-time debate spent nearly a third of their time on themselves!  Yes, with 10 candidates needing exposure, 31 percent of the airtime went to the Fox crew.  Not even Donald Trump got close to that kind of exposure – and he got more than any other candidate by far.

1: Bret Baier doggone well knew that one, and only one candidate, would refuse to pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee is, and he started off the entire debate with that insulting and smarmy “by a show of hands” charade.  This is the utmost in subtle pomposity, as it puts the moderator in the position of professor while the candidates are subconsciously relegated to student status.  By the way, over the years, it’s been intellectually vapid as well; almost all of the “show of hands” questions are impossible-to-fully-answer theoreticals.

3 out of 4: Three out of the first four questions asked by Chris Wallace were specifically designed to get two specific candidates on the stage at each other’s throats.  They wanted a catfight – and when they got it with the Rand Paul v. Chris Christie exchange, Megyn Kelly squealed her delight like a schoolgirl.

And so on.  And this is why Fox is being widely criticized on conservative social media and by talk radio hosts.  But not all is lost for Fox, I guess.  The New York Times and CNN gave them rave reviews.  Unabashedly.  And why not?  Fox left Obama and Hillary largely unscathed.  They barely mentioned Planned Parenthood.  Just a few seconds on Obamacare.  No wonder the far left loved Fox last night.

That’s called damning with praise.  I rest my case.

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Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Maranatha .. In Him!!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Sources, h/t’s Gerard Vanderleun and his American Digest; Semper spes est…; C. Edmund Wright at American Thinker; America on the Cusp of God’s Grace; and personal archives…