LET'S TRY THIRD PARTY AGAIN, PART 2

Continuing about the aberrant dynamics of the current 2016 presidential contest, I believe that :
1) the Citizens United decision of the US Supreme Court was ruinous because of allowing mega rich people to make decisions that never should be theirs to make, and that we need to not let that truth fade out- that the Citizens United decision is evil- by continued public speaking against it and by legislation to correct.
and
2) the primary system of the Republican party, at least needs drastic change.

Election season! LET'S TRY THIRD PARTY AGAIN!

Well, our country seems seriously in the grip of two parties, both of which are hostage to abortion division and traditional moral standards division and corporate and big money.

I want to express here my idea for breaking the unhealthy lack of options in the political realm.

Since the constitution has  established ELECTORAL COLLEGE as inextricable part of the election of u.s. president, causing all the dynamics we've seen thru the years, I propose a third party that has as a part of its platform the stated decision that that party will NOT field a presidential or vice presidential candidate until the party has succeeded in having elected from same party one third (or some solid specific portion) of Representatives in Congress.

The reasons for this aspect of my proposal :

1.  There need to be in Congress, representatives and senators who are not bound by the powers of the two major parties and who can loosen up the grip of big money or jingoism and open up the middle ground in government negotiations.

2. Even if candidates from this proposed third party are not successful in being elected, the voters of this country need options other than the two current main parties.  I personally -as a Christian - cannot in good conscience vote for a Democrat. However, the Republican party, thru recent years (since 1973?), has become decreasingly representative of what I would want my nation's govt to be and do.

3. Recent "loyal opposition" candidacies for pres and v.p. such as Nader's and Paul's, while being launched with the truest hopes of changing the u.s. govt for the good, only muddled the outcome of those specific elections. One could conclude that the money and immense effort put into those campaigns was wasted. Money could be better spent to influence govt decisions by electing a small (but hopefully increasing) number of minority party legislators to speak for those who vote them in ( and possibly be a bridge bringing the major parties together?)

4. By focusing its (our) efforts on electing national legislature candidates to represent the wishes of those who vote them in, such a third party could perhaps change the mindset of the national psyche away from focus on the president as superstar, celebrity, savior, lightning rod.

JULY 4,2015

july 4, 2015 just passed. whenever this holiday comes around, I feel I should try to get my unique message out: the message that we Christian Americans need to rethink the 1776 decision of our native country forefathers to rebel against the government over them-to think about how that lines up with the teachings of Jesus. This particular time includes some new events that are connected with the ideas contained in this blog. 1) The Supreme Court of the u.s. decided that the constitution compels the government to recognize homosexual marriage as marriage. 2) the deaths of 9 African americans at the hands of a racist white (young) man have caused thought leaders in this country to express that now it is time to deglorify the civil war and rename buildings and things named after famous participants in the confederacy that fought the government of the u.s. in the civil war. what I would like to add to this discussion is:  1) that our nation's idolizing of the Constitution and freedom have inevitably led to our citizens believing that freedom to engage in variant moral behavior and seeking legitimize that behavior is valid and "good"; 2) that the war that freed the slaves had to be fought because the forefathers a century earlier could not bring themselves to do the right thing at THAT time, all the while (hypocritically) speaking as noble freedom fighters. I plead with my fellow American (Christians) to reconcile the divergent parts of our history and heritage.

IMPERFECT

this morn, i was deciding what to wear and felt God's spirit telling me to go with the beautiful red t-shirt onto which i had put a quilt of squares of pretty red fabrics from my past. this was in keeping with valentine's day coming tomorrow. (i ask God's advice on these things sometimes. thankfully He doesn't mind me asking such things even i so often disobey in more important things. Thankyou, Lord.) so i went forward with the red and quilted t-shirt. i was hesitant 'cuz the shirt had imperfectly finished edges on the quilted area. i need to finish it. so i was really responding (in faith) to what i felt God was leading with by wearing it. when i put it on and looked in the mirror, i said wow! to myself 'cuz the colors and patterns WERE so vibrant and beautiful. it made me happy. and i'm glad i can share these colors with others. ...... why am i writing this? also this morn, i listened to Andrew Wommack speaking about when Elijah got his mind and eyes off of God, and consequently got distracted doing what God had not asked him to do and did not complete what God had specifically asked him to do. .......... i'm getting ahead of myself putting in the part about Elijah. i was just going to talk about imperfection in general here. and my collection of "waba" words. there is a word in Japanese that means the conscious inclusion of an imperfection in a work of art in order to (i don't know their reason for it. but i personally like the idea- to acknowledge and celebrate that we are imperfect creatures and that God IS perfect and knows our imperfection and made us this way and he is able and He can deal with our imperfections, etc....................... there is a word in Japanese that is the name of that very hot condiment made of pureed horseradish. .................. there is a word in Arabic that names a very orthodox sect of Islam.......... that's all for now.

PERISH

this post is to express publicly my view as a christian about the eternal destiny of those who put their trust in God in the way that He requires, and about those who refuse to put their trust in God in the way that He requires.------------------------ i believe differently than what is commonly expressed is the standard christian understanding of the destinies of the believers and unbelievers.--------------------------------- i believe that believers will have a future with God that is good and holy and beautiful and fulfilling and eternal. i believe that those who refuse to do things God's way- refuse to relate to Him in the way He requires- will cease to exist when their bodies on this physical plane cease to live.-------------------------- i believe that when the Bible says "eternal fires" God is saying that the death of those that die is irrevocable- that they cannot subsequently be brought back to life. the two words the Bible uses for hell, gehenna and sheol, mean respectively, "the garbage dump in the valley of Gehenna outside of jerusalem" and "the grave" (and the garbage was traditionally burned, i believe. you need to check that out.)------------------------- i believe that the reason that "fiery" was used in descriptions of the destiny of the (too proud) unbelievers was that there were many instances in the Bible where people were resurrected- came back from death. this fire was to indicate that the state of those that "died outside of God" was irreversible. (of course, where does that leave the 3 strong believers in persia who were thrown into the fiery furnace by the king who didn't tolerate their putting God first. Jesus saved them. i'm going to say that that episode was of physical death and the miracle that Jesus made there was in the physical world. therefore that fiery episode does not relate to the destiny of too-proud unbelievers.)---------------------------the reason that i find it important to express myself on this now is that (i believe) people -both unbelievers and believers- cannot accept that a loving God would eternally torture anyone with fire or anything. it doesn't make sense. God is love. even if He rejects someone for rejecting Him, i just don't see Him as torturing that person. i feel that this belief is so contradictory that is makes people think that christianity is not valid.-------------------------the most recent thing that reinforced my belief about this was talking to a jewish man who is responsible for making sure that the kosher (and pareve, etc.) foods were prepared and maintained in the correct manner. he said that the kosher procedure for killing animals was the least painful and traumatic death that could be given to an animal that was killed by a person. that made me think "if God is that concerned about reducing the pain that an animal had to endure to the least possible, wouldn't He do the same for people- even if they were people who had rejected Him?"----------------------------i have more to say on this; but it will have to wait. in the meantime, you can look of the writings of mr.sherman noble who was or is member of Theologica.ning.com and wrote about his beliefs on this there and other places. ------------------------------i don't agree with mr. nobles on everything, but he has researched arguments about this question.

SEEN VS. UNSEEN

thinking of "seen vs. unseen". 1st thought of it concerning teeth and why (God made it) that we can do damage to our teeth, specifically by (on a regular basis) not brushing after eating sugar foods. it initially seemed to me that it would make more sense for God to create us so that we would know immediately that we were doing something wrong such as not taking care of our teeth correctly. the conventional wisdom on this, i think, is that God did not make us to eat concentrated sugar food often. that was a later invention of mankind. that is true. but then the other day i heard a preacher talking about "seedtime and harvest", and that sometimes (often)people choose to disobey what they know that God has intended, and see no immediate bad results even after some years. this makes people think that there are no bad consequences to their actions- that God did not see. But that preacher noted that seedtime is BEFORE harvest- they are not the same time. (other places in the Bible refer to sowing to the spirit or sowing to the flesh.) so, in a sense, the results of bad tooth care are unseen or invisible- they are hid by time. so the question is: why did God make things that way? so one possible answer is that God wanted us to develop our ability to envision the unseen and act upon its reality. it is so much easier to act on what we can see and otherwise perceive. it is a real stretch to motivate ourselves to follow the correct path that we have to envision instead of see. i'll try to think and write more on this later. (f.y.i. -i was thinking of my own 57-year-old teeth that i've not kept with the best care; and trying to motivate myself to "do the right thing"-go brush them that night.)

WHAT DID WASHINGTON THINK?

a tragedy was reported in today's houston chronicle that prompts me to write. a young man who had served in iraq killed himself recently. he was back here, and seemed to be coping with his life well. but, he killed himself. that reminded me of my thoughts about george washington and his purported ritual of spending one hour in personal devotions each night. -now, before i go further, i read the wikipedia article outlining washington's "religion" ;and the description there was much less definite. however i will continue with my thoughts: maybe, if george was spending that much time in prayer, he was trying to learn from God if the revolutionary war WAS God's will. maybe president washington had his doubts about the decision that he had made earlier.