They will control you...

Most of you probably have not been spending a lot of time this week watching the slickly produced three-ring circus complete with side shows - more commonly known as the Democratic National Convention.  I understand the vast majority of you had lives to live, work to do, and family activities to attend to.  Being one of the rare breed who actually enjoys observing the political arena, I have bravely tried to watch some of it every night this week, but even I could only get through about 15 or 20 minutes before I couldn’t take it any more…

If you had taken the time to watch, however, you would have heard a lot of griping and complaining about our country, traditional values, the free enterprise system, law enforcement, the 2^nd amendment, and noticed an over-arching disdain for the concept of limited government.  You would have heard a lot of noise about our “democracy” and not very much about our “representative republic”.  You would have witnessed scores of heart-wrenching stories - each with the same proposed solution; that being, more government intervention.  You would have heard an unending litany of causes the government should take up and an unlimited number of things it should spend more money on.  You would have heard a lot of blaming and bad-mouthing of conservatives and Republicans, and noticed a lot of swipes against traditional values and basic Christian principles.  And in general, you would have heard a whole lot of misrepresentations and outright lies from a whole lot of people.  Persons who, if they were Pinocchio, would have had noses reaching out to 3 or 4 feet long by the conclusion of their speeches.

They talked much about caring and compassion – but without carefully defining what they mean by those terms.  They promised that if they were returned to power for 4 more years, they would provide many noble and good and wonderful sounding things, without ever a mention of the cost to do so.  Of course, we know that in doing so, there comes a cost – a very high cost – not just monetarily, but in terms of opportunity, freedom, and individual liberty.  And of course, to provide all these allegedly wonderful and compassionate and desperately needed things, will require a big government – no – an ABSOLUTELY HUGE government replete with lots and lots of unelected, unaccountable, uncaring, but highly-compensated bureaucrats running it all and making decisions for you all out here in the heartland from their coveys, cubicles, and offices in Washington, as well as from your state capital, and from your city or township hall.  All of it a far cry from the vision of our founders.

In short, they will decide what is best for you and your family.  As a means to those ends, they will control your life…

They will start by controlling how much or little of your paycheck you may keep.  But that’s not all.

They will control who works and who does not.  They will determine if and where you work, when you work, how many hours you can work, where you must be when you do that work, how old you must be to work, how much you are paid, what benefits you will receive, and whether you belong to a labor union - and how much that union will be allowed to extort from your check in union dues.

They will control who you employ, how much you pay them, what paperwork you must fill out, what benefits you must offer, and how many employees you may have in doing so.  They will control how much you charge for your products or services.  They will control where you do business and dictate who you must do business with.  If you farm, they will control what, where, and when you plant.

They will control where you live, who your neighbors are, and the size of your lot.  If you want to build, they will decide if you can get a loan and what interest rate and terms you will be offered.  They will decide if, where, and what you build, who is allowed to do the constructing, what size studs you use, what insulation you need, the pitch of your roof, what kind of and how many trees you have, when you can water your lawn, how much water your toilet uses, what refrigerant you use, and ultimately - if you can afford to keep and live in your home because of the taxes they will levy upon it.

They will control what you eat.  They will control where your food comes from, how it is grown, how it is manufactured and how it is labeled.  They will control what your children eat, too.

Then they will not only try to control how many children you have, but they will also dictate that you pay for the expenses of other people’s children as well.

They will control your life.

They will control what you can do on your own property, where you can dig, where you can fill, where you can till, and where, when, and what you can burn.  If this government decides it wants your land for itself or on the behalf of a wealthy and politically connected elite, they will also determine how much they will give you for that property when they seize it from you.

They will control the cost of the electricity you use in your home, the energy source to be used to generate it, how many outlets you have and where they are placed, and the kind of lightbulbs you can purchase.

They will control the cost of fuel to heat your home, what country it originates from, how it was extracted, and how it was transported to you.

They will control what vehicle you drive, how much it costs, which safety devices you must purchase, the type of fuel, the gas mileage it gets, the size of the vehicle, how much the gas you put in it costs, and ultimately how much you can drive.

They will control your life.

That’s sounds like a lot of control, but that’s just a start.  It is not nearly enough control to have over the masses for them to achieve all their stated (and unstated) objectives.

They will also control your kid’s school, who their classmates are, and how far they must be transported to attend the school.  They will control how much it costs, how many days it is in session, how much it’s employees are paid, what benefits they receive that you must pay for.  They will control who teaches your children.  They will control the content of the curriculum and what your children are taught.  If you dislike the school they provide you as your default option, they will still make you pay the full price to operate it, thus, they will control how many schools you must pay for, as well.

They will control what college your kids get admitted to, what field(s) they may study, and how much it will cost.  They will arbitrarily decide who gets admitted and who does not and then control who pays for that education.  They will also determine the minutiae of their curriculum, the credentials of their teachers, and the dorms they live in.

They will control what information you receive, where you get your information, and who provides that information.  They will regulate the bandwidth and content of that information and control what you know and when you know it.

They will control who owns firearms.  They will control how many guns you can own.  They will also control where, how many, and what kinds of guns you can purchase.  They will control when and where you can discharge them.  They will control where you can carry them, too.  Then they will control how much ammunition you own, how much it will cost, and when and where you can use it.

They will control and manipulate your healthcare – all the while obfuscating the difference between healthcare and health insurance.  They will control whether or not you purchase health insurance, how much it will cost you, and who will provide it to you.  They will control and who and how many persons can go to medical school and what they study when they get there.  They will control who your doctor is, how much he or she is paid, and how much you will pay for his or her services.  They will control when you see a doctor and how long you wait to do so (be prepared that it will be a very, very long wait).  And in doing so, they will ultimately control who lives and who dies.

Make no mistake about it, they will control your life.

They will control how much money you earn, how much money you can keep, and how many assets  you can accumulate.  They will control how much money you can give away.  And when you die, they will control how much of your accumulated assets you pass on to your heirs and how much they will confiscate from your estate.

They will control which laws are passed.  But they will also decide which laws are enforced, when said laws are enforced, and against whom those laws are enforced against.  Then they will decide who is subject to the laws and who is above the law.

They will control the appointment of prosecutors.  Those unelected prosecutors will determine which citizens are prosecuted and which citizens are persecuted.

They will also control the appointment of judges.  Those unaccountable judges will decide which parts of the law are relevant and which are irrelevant, who is sane and who is insane, who pays and who does not, who goes to jail and who gets a pass.  The top judges will be especially untouchable and will control which parts of the Constitution are followed and which parts are to be ignored.  They will also attempt to rewrite the Constitution via novel and contorted interpretations.

They will control how much money the government prints, how much it collects – and from whom - and how much it spends – or wastes.   They will dictate what all that money is spent on when it is dispersed.  They will determine who the recipients of government largesse are.   They will pick winners and losers.

There is perhaps only one single thing they will not control.  But before you take heart in that fact, however, keep in mind that the one thing they will make no attempt to control is the ever-increasing size and scope of the power of government.  It will control your life.

Small thoughts about a big problem

This was going to be a March blog post, then my belated April blog post, and now it is the first day of July.  Essentially, this post has now been in the works - subject to writer's block - since late-March.

Many of you know by now that I spent two weeks in Greece a couple months ago, working with the hordes of refugees and immigrants flooding into Europe through Turkey.  I won't flatter myself by assuming that many of you have been waiting to read a post about my experience, nonetheless, it was always my intention to do so.  I think the problem was, I kept waiting for a grand solution to this immense problem, that exceptionally profound thought to come to me, or at least something deemed worthy of my friends who read my occasional musings.

Since I am still waiting for such profundity to strike me some three months later, I thought I'd just better go ahead and post something anyway.

In late February and early March, I went on a mission trip sponsored by the Mountain Lake Christian and Missionary Alliance church - the church the Niessen family has been attending since the early 80's.  Mom and Dad went there and my brother and I attended until we moved off on our own - so it is what I consider my 'home' church. Our group went out through Greater Europe Missions (GEM) and under the auspices of the Greek Evangelical organization EuroRelief to assist with the ongoing humanitarian work on the Greek island of Lesvos.

For those of you who are interested in a brief update on what led up to the humanitarian crisis, here's a short synopsis.  With the ongoing Syrian civil war enjoined by upwards of a dozen different groups and factions fighting each other, Syrian refugees began to flee war-torn areas and to make their way to Europe.  When Russia joined the effort on behalf of the Syrian government, it only added to the tumult.  The mass migration of refugees snowballed as they were soon joined by Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Africans, a few Asians (and strangely, even some Cubans) etc. - people who for the most part simply seeking a better life for themselves in Europe. Many of these people made their way to Turkey, following the path of least resistance into Europe by a dangerous, but short, crossing of the narrower parts (2 - 4 miles) of the Mytiline straits - that body of water that separates the Turkish mainland from the Greek island - and arrived en masse to the island of Lesvos.

The problem was, that however kind and generous the Greek people were, a relatively small island such as Lesvos, with a population of around 80,000, simply could not keep up with and provide support for the estimated 500,000 refugees and immigrants (2015 estimate) flooding onto their shores annually.  And it wasn't that much easier for mainland Greece as thousands of people poured into the port of Piraeus in Athens via ferries hoping to make their way north through the countryside toward the Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian borders.  You must understand that the overwhelming majority of these people did not wish to remain in economically depressed Greece.  Rather,they preferred the job opportunities - and the promise of generous social welfare benefits - offered by the more economically prosperous countries of the E.U. in northern Europe.

To compound the issue, as the flow of mostly Muslim asylum seekers continued to increase, the countries neighboring the Greek mainland understandably began to shut down their shared borders to maintain some semblance of sanity and sovereignty for their own homelands.  This left Greece to absorb the brunt of the economic impact and to sort out the dealing with the hundreds of thousands of potential asylum seekers and economic immigrants.

At this point, I can safely say that I still don't and probably never will have any of the big geo-political answers I assumed I would when I returned home with firsthand knowledge of the situation.  Some suggest the humane thing is to simply open up the borders and let them in without limits.  Then, I believe it was Ben Carson who suggested the answer is maintaining militarily enforced "safe zones" within Syria - but as long as Russia remains an active participant at the behest of the Bashar al-Assad, such a solution involves grave risks of military confrontation between superpowers.  Still others say simply "send them back to Turkey!" - but that solution presupposes unprecedented cooperation between traditional enemies Greece and Turkey  In addition, from a Christian point of view, that keeps the refugees fleeing the Muslim world largely locked up and outside the reach of Christian Evangelism.  And as to those who say the U.S. and our European allies should open up the gates to any and all... well, we see how well the lack of proper immigration enforcement, sane screening processes, and the lack of cultural assimilation processes has done to Belgium, the U.K, and our own southern border.

So having said all that, since the brightest minds in the world have yet to agree on a solution, I probably needn't feel too bad about not having one either.  I have no false illusions now that there are any easy answers.  Ultimately, war has caused human suffering throughout human history and continues to do so in the 21st century.  The Bible informs us that that will continue until Christ's reign.

Did we make a profound impact toward solving the global crisis?  Certainly not.  But we did help a few people who crossed our paths by meeting their immediate physical needs  And each of us in our own way were able to point some toward Christ - and that is no small thing.  Personally, it was a great to be privileged to serve in Christ's name for those two weeks.  Thank you to all of you who supported me through your prayers and financial support.