Mr. Obama has insinuated there would be a problem, even if all America were Christian, with whose version of Christianity we would teach in the schools–Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?  And how would the Defense Department adapt to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?

Obama fails to mention the Sermon on the Mount was directed towards Christians, not states.  Christians are to forgive, the state is to punish and deter the wicked.  Christianity can flavor government (we treat enemy wounded and often go the second mile in negotiating with the North Koreas of the world).  To childe government for not following the teachings of Christ makes as much sense as chiding the British for not driving on the same side of road as we do.

But Obama has a point.  Whose Christianity would we teach?  I would not want my children to be taught Al Sharpton’s version of the Bible, nor would I want Dobson’s Baptist teachings foisted upon my children.  That’s why we have our own churches, instruct our own children in our own Sunday Schools, Catechism classes and even (in some congregations) in our own private church shools.  We came from a country (Prussia) where, not only was everyone Christian, but everyone was (ostensibly) Lutheran!  We got kicked out because the state church would not allow Lutherans of conscience to organize and run their own churches upholding the value and efficacy of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We would prefer to have no one’s brand of Christianity taught in the public schools.  Dobson has other views of that (and I would imagine Sharpton might, too).

–Don Pieper

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In an online survey (always a dicey method), 504 young Brits revealed that 16% of them were binge drinkers.  Over half of them ran in social circles which contained mostly binge drinkers.  Among the non-binge drinkers, only 15% revealed that they ran in circles where the majority of their friends were binge drinkers.

Yes, the British pubs have extended their hours and, yes, the price of alcohol has dropped a bit in jolly old England, but “fashion is sufficient to explain the spread of binge drinking,” the researcher confided.

Maybe Mom’s refusal to let her teenage son attend a sleepover at Jimmy’s (whose parents were spending the weekend in California) does not look so capricious.  Parents who are involved with their children’s lives will want to know who their kids are running with.

The Bible said it best.  “Bad company corrupts good character.”

 –Don Pieper

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That’s what some would have us believe.  Americans are cutting back on oil consumption!  Mass transit reports surging ridership.  Our joy is unbounded!

Imagine how delighted we will be when traffic related fatalities drop to nearly zero once we are all riding ox carts or pulling rickshaws!

Yet, it’s all for the best, some say.

Are these the same Pollyannas who, after examining a life wrecked by drugs, divorce and other unfortunate choices too numerous to mention, would exclaim it was all for the best, for it got them where they are now?  Maybe they are even clergymen who extol the virtues of hard times to push people into the pews.  “Nothing like war to bring people to their knees in prayer!”

Four dollar a gallon gas is not for the best.  Families will lose homes because they can’t afford to get to work.  Kids can kiss summer jobs goodbye because everybody is cutting down on eating out so they can pump more petrodollars into their tank.  Lives are being wrecked by the hour.

Jesus did not say it was all for the best.   “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him not to have been born.”  Sin (ours and others) eliminates the best.  We are left with options ranging from poor to terrible.  But he does promise that whatever happens to his believers in this life, he will turn it for their good.

 Maybe a determined trust that he will still see us through this is all we can take way from our mugging at the pump.

–Don Pieper

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Christianity says there has to be a check on human beings.  Not because we are so smart or powerful, but because we are so evil.  That’s the sinful human nature at work, the Old Adam.

Our founding fathers thought the Old Adam was alive and well in the heart of each of them.  So they devised a government of checks and balances.  Everybody had somebody looking over their shoulder, ready to stop them.  Pretty good system–has lasted well over 200 years.

How could anyone think the capitalist business model needs no (or little) regulation?  Are the oil speculators doing anything more than the UC whiz kids were doing, only this time with real money?  Will slaughterhouses and tomato growers (especially foreign ones) consistently listen to their sweeter angel and forego some profit to ensure what we eat is safe?

If it is simply (as our secular humanist friends would have it) a matter of education, then those at the top, say, Tannin and Cioffi, brokers at Bears Stearn, should be the most law-abiding mortgage traders in the world.

From the ICE oil futures market in London to the irritable second-grader whose mother asks to see his homework after he has told her he is done, the Bible says we need governmental regulation, fair, thorough and effective.  That, too, is part of God’s plan, to have a servant for the punishment of the evil-doer.

–Don Pieper

To read more, go to www.gvelc.com