Is America Under God’s Judgment?
by Rayola Kelley
Q: Do you think that in light of the recent happenings of Hurricane Ike, fires in California and the financial meltdown that God is judging this country?
A: The answer to your question is yes, no or maybe. We know that God is in control of the elements. Interestingly, many of the hurricanes that have touched down in America often correlate with the United States’ attempt to get Israel to concede with their enemies in some way. For example, if my facts serve me right, when Katrina hit the states, Jewish settlers were being forced to leave their homes on the West Bank, thanks to this nation’s political interference and pressure. When it came to Ike, information came out that the United States was trying to get Israel to concede to divide Jerusalem. Other than being a faithful military support against her enemies, the United States needs to keep her nose out of the affairs of the domestic struggles Israel has with those who are trying to destroy these people from within. Israel still represents God’s land and people, and Jerusalem is His city. As far as California is concerned, I have occasionally noticed that fires have coincided with the immoral or corrupt laws or practices that are being touted and honored by some of the leaders in this bankrupt state. Coincidences or reaping consequences? You decide.
Whether God is judging, shaking or warning this nation, I think we, as Americans, need to realize just how fragile we are. We can call ourselves powerful and great, but storms and fires reveal how vulnerable humanity really is.
When it comes to the financial meltdown, it is man caused. Although man loves to blame God for such failures, it is quite clear that man created this crisis, and those who turned their heads and ignored it while receiving financial benefits, need to take the responsibility for betraying the American people, and pay back any bribe money or benefits that they accepted for their silence and cover up. However, it is important that we understand what happened so we can take note and learn from it.
As a young girl I grew up politically aware that there were two main distinct parties. These two parties were neither good nor bad. They both basically respected the principles that made this country great. What brought distinction to them was that they had different approaches to ensuring the healthy function of this nation. Their approaches were based on their emphasis. One party emphasized the need to encourage an environment in which business could thrive, thereby, ensuring jobs and a healthy economy. The other one emphasized the need to protect the little guy through regulations from being improperly abused and overlooked by powerful companies. In a way these two approaches ensured balance.
Due to the influence of humanistic, socialistic education in our colleges and universities, as well as in radical High School programs for the last three or four decades, many people have unknowingly been indoctrinated with a socialistic view that is far from the principles that Americans once agree upon. As a result, we now have a country divided by two opposing ideologies: Capitalism and Socialism.
Capitalism is what has allowed Americans to realize the American dream. It affords those who are willing to work hard, display integrity in their practices, and responsibility towards their obligations, of establishing a more excellent life. Granted, some had to make their own opportunities and others had to fight for them, but people still could change the quality of their lives. As a result, people from all kinds of backgrounds and from all nationalities have been able to excel in various ways in this nation.
Socialism believes in distributing the wealth. In other words, it advocates equality for all. This may sound noble, but in order to bring about this equality, government must not only decide how to distribute the wealth, but it must be in control of all institutions to carry it out. Although we can all agree that man is created equal, not all people are equal. This lack of equality has nothing to do with backgrounds, financial status or opportunities; rather it has to do with attitude or mentality. There are some people who possess a welfare mentality. In other words, they want to be taken care of; therefore, they have no initiative to pursue any other type of life. You can offer these people opportunities, but they will somehow whine that it is not the type of opportunity they are looking for. You can offer them money, but their purse proves to be full of holes, and they will be quickly separated from any financial benefits by their foolish ways. Unless these people are forced into a situation that requires them to step outside of their unproductive way of thinking, they will remain leaches who continue to suck on the system.
When we talk about socialism making all people equal in status, it does not mean bringing these individuals up to a higher quality of life, rather it means bringing everyone down to the status of welfare. In fact, pure socialism is nothing more than Communism. As recent history has proven, some of the European countries can testify as to what the ideology of Communism does to any great nation. It will make it into a third-world country where there are only two classes: those in the government and those who serve it as slaves.
This brings me to the financial meltdown. There are Democrats in Congress that clearly hold to the socialistic worldview. They decided that every American should be given the opportunity to own their own homes. In order to bring this about, they had to convince, or put pressure on, the lending institutions to throw out common sense procedures by overlooking their criteria of demanding the proper collateral (down payments), ensuring that the person had the income to pay loans back, and the credit history that showed they are responsible to meet their obligations.
The problem with throwing out these protective procedures and measures is that you open a door to greed, abuse and irrational, unethical practices that will present a false picture of what is really going on. People were presented with a successful picture that revealed assets (mortgages) booming to an all-time high, but in truth the presentation was nothing more than a house of cards that cleverly hid the harsh reality that nothing but paper backed the high risk loans.
People begin to speculate and invest on the basis that, not only was there an incredible appearance of prosperity occurring in the housing market, but apparently there was also some type of government guarantee since it was associated with Fanny Mae and Freddie Mack. As the excitement and speculation grew, the wave of inflation escalated to the size of a tsunami. Like all waves, it must eventually crash against the shoreline of reality, leaving a wake of devastation behind it.
Irresponsible procedures can only sow and reap irresponsible actions. Many of these people that were given an opportunity to own their home did not have the means to pay their mortgages. The health of the free market depends on money flowing into money institutions and from them into the hands of people for further investments. Foreclosures began to occur, and many people simply walked away from their homes that were now being greatly devalued below the purchase price. After all, they had no real personal investment to lose, but the domino affects began to dry up the cash flow, revealing that what remained was nothing but worthless paper.
It is important for the American people to learn from this experience. The best way you can summarize this lesson is with Jesus’ parable of the cloth and wineskin found in Matthew 9:16-17. You cannot take the growing ideology of socialism and force its ways upon the proven, stable practices of capitalism without destroying the integrity and effectiveness of the free market. As a divisive means socialists would have each of us think this meltdown was the fault of capitalism, to try to prove it does not work. However, capitalism works and has the ability to correct itself as long as there is no interference. Clearly, it was the ideology of socialism that defiled capitalism, revealing that it clearly fails to realistically benefit a society as a whole.
You might be asking me how I know socialism is a failure. It is easy to prove. The wealth of this country was distributed so that people, who could not meet the necessary criteria to purchase a home, had their equal opportunity to do so. And, guess who initially paid for this equal opportunity? If not recouped, it cost the people of Main Street their hard-earned pension funds and investments. I rest my case.
A final thought. Even though it appears that voting has been compromised by an organization that has its own self-serving agenda, we still can voice our vision for this nation. However, I want to challenge people to realize that they are not simply voting for some particular party, or promises that will best suit them; rather, they are voting for an agenda that is motivated by a particular ideology that will clearly affect the future environment of this nation. Although he dishonestly tries to deny it, the change that is being advocated by one of the presidential candidates to spread other people’s wealth to the poor is socialism. We need to wisely consider where the politicians with their agendas will ultimately take our nation in the end. It is from this premise of honest evaluation that we will be able to wisely and responsibly cast our vote.