Monday, May 2, 2011

New Terror Alert

It only took about 45 minutes to bring Osama bin Laden’s two decade long reign of terror to an end. It won’t take near that long for a new terror to assume authority. In fact, I’m seeing it happen already.

There’s a joke about people in the south who think that the moon landing was staged but that pro wrestling is real. I never got the joke. I was more likely to respond with an “Amen!” than laughter. For most of my childhood and early adulthood I questioned everything. Nothing was as it seemed.

The moon landing never really happened. It was filmed in a Hollywood studio and passed off as the real thing to stir up some extra patriotism and more support for NASA.

Monica Lewinsky was a French spy.

If you don’t keep an eye on your kids during your next trip to Disney World, the workers will snatch them away and keep them in some cellar that sits underneath the park. Where do you think Brittany Spears and Justin Bieber came from?

The Notorious BIG and Tupac both faked their deaths in order to sell more albums and are living it up on some island drinking Courvoisier.

Pro wrestling, on the other hand, is completely legitimate and should be taken at face value.

Many laugh at such ridiculous claims while at the same time falling prey to them. Maybe you’re the type who hated everything about George W. Bush and used tragic events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as opportunities to chip away at him or perhaps you’re more likely to curse Obama under your breath every time you throw down $80 to fill up your gas tank. If you fall in or around either of those two extremes, take this as a word of warning from someone who is all too familiar with this threat.

1. Politicizing everything will harden your heart.

“Obama never supported Bush when he was president and now that he’s president he gets all the glory for Bush’s work.”

“Nice job reading the teleprompter, Mr. Obama.”

I did not vote for Obama. I haven’t done extensive research on every US president but I’m sure that I would disagree with Obama more strongly than any other man who has led our country. I hate the way he has dealt with abortion, I think his treatment of our budget deficit is very dangerous and I have serious concerns about the immediate future of our country.

But I also think that President Obama handled this situation with bin Laden very well. I thought his speech was appropriate and his decision-making was on point. Simply bombing the compound would have put innocent civilians at risk while leaving too much room for uncertainty in regards to the fate of bin Laden. Obama chose to use a small group of highly trained men to do the job and it worked. Expect a movie starring Vin Diesel in coming months.

Many on the right act as though grading Obama with an A on this event automatically makes them 1985 Volvo station wagon driving hippies that hate America. Constant jabs at the president may work for the pundits but it will kill your heart. I know because mine carries the scars of my foolishness.

2. You’ve got the wrong conspiracy.

“So, why didn’t they save his body? Buried at sea seems a little too convenient for me.”

“The pictures of the compound are clearly staged.”

“And what about that birth certificate?”

It’s amazing how many on the right laughed off conspiratorial claims about George Bush only to make up their own about Obama. Some who would classify themselves as beyond any political classification are up for a good conspiracy theory on anyone or anything. The Super Bowl was fixed! The good news for them is that they are right, there is a massive conspiracy going on. The bad news is that they’ve got the wrong one.

An old farmer told me a story about chicken bandits setting fires in people’s front yards. When the people would go out to take care of the fire in the front yard, the chickens would be stolen from the back yard. This is exactly what our enemy (Satan, not bin Laden) is doing to many of us. If he can get us all worked up about a group of 12 men ruling the world from some basement in Norway perhaps he can make us look past his more dangerous rule and influence in this world (2 Corinthians 4:4).

You wont find the source of the real conspiracy against us by trolling some website at 2 am. The real answer is found in the Genesis 3 story about a garden with a snake and a foolish man and woman. Unlike the conspiracies about black helicopters and torture camps this one is actually coming to an end one day.

Questioning your government is essential to liberty. Allowing this to consume you diverts your attention from the real enemy. Take it from one who’s been fooled many times before. This will steal your joy and destroy your heart.

3. You may be a hypocrite.

If you are a Christian and you are not praying for President Obama, you are rebelling against God. Get mad at Paul, not me (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Many Christians on the right are quick to go out and buy their American flag polo shirts and sing Toby Keith songs in church only to turn into Che Guevara when a non-conservative takes office.

The Bible never said to just pray for the leaders you like but to pray for all of them.

God doesn’t command you to honor George W. Bush but tell you it’s okay to forward e-mails comparing the Obama’s to Fred Sanford and Aunt Esther.

And just on a side note, God Bless the USA is not God’s favorite song.

Tonight, my family will pray for President Obama. I will pray the same prayer I pray for all of my other leaders as well as myself. I will ask God to help him to lead in the light of the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Before I pray, my four-year-old son will pray for President Obama too and say the same thing he always says. “Dear Jesus, thanks for President Obama and please help him to do what you want him to do.”

Now that does my heart good.

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