WRITE OF CENTER
World travel and the opportunity to live in other countries has given me insights and appreciation for our own way of life in the USA. I’ve always sought to know what surrounds us nearby, and what comes to our understanding from afar. For example, my parents told me I was speaking Tagalog before English when we lived in the Philippines. My Filipino babysitters set in motion for me a very special appreciation for other cultures. Especially interesting are the variety of cultures and the people who make up and live by different values.
But engaging in the world has its risks, including many false ideas and half-truths that seek to distract and deceive us. There are places I’ve been, especially in the Middle East and Washington, D.C. when I’ve taken the apostle Paul’s advice, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8.
If we see or hear a false teaching or something that goes against what our Christian ethic tells us, we need to stop it in its tracks, so it doesn’t enter our hearts and minds. That’s not to say when my Muslim associates and other acquaintances in Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia professed their beliefs to me, as did my friends and liberal colleagues in DC, that I tried to stop them. No, I showed respect to them for their beliefs, as they did me. But I would not allow what I believed to be false teachings to sway me away from what I believed is the truth, i.e., in the case of religion, ethics, law, or culture.
So, puzzle me this – why, in this republic founded on Christian ethic are we seeing an egregious growth of deceitful practices by our nation’s leaders; practices that have found their way to the grass roots of our republic. Is the question unfair or pejorative? Is it simply naïve that I wonder about it. Truly,
I want to believe in good intentions by most people. Unfortunately, I’m often disappointed. Now that I see every day at every turn the sophism and outright lies spewing from so-called political leaders, their representatives, and other centers of influence, it makes me want to revolt, to stop it in its tracks.
You certainly have other examples, but here are some snapshots of what I’ve been seeing and hearing in our world, outright leanings to Marxism especially in our own nation: Big Tech power and influence. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are colluding to build a “censorship industrial complex” by using their massive amounts of data collected on all of us to move toward a Chinese communist style “social credit system.”
In my graduate study days, it was called psychographics, i.e., that stuff beyond straight up demographics. It refined the targeting of marketing and advertising firms. Now it’s a ranking system that allows the tech regime to monitor and control the behavior of its population.
This form of target marketing isn’t just about refining approaches to selling us stuff. Under this system, you and I are assigned a score based on our behavior and social standing. What’s the likely outcome? You criticize a government policy, you don’t get a loan to buy a car or a home, or get placed on a watch list, or denied a promotion.
Our so-called national leaders have walls around their own homes in gated communities, but they open our borders and flood our communities with illegal aliens, fentanyl, and crime.
Liberal leaders and centers of influence declare that concerned parents are “domestic terrorists” while they call Antifa “peaceful protesters.”
The same people who pretend to tell us the truth (their truth) have weaponized law enforcement to punish political enemies and silence their critics.
Decency and tradition have been trampled for anyone who stands in a woke liberal’s way. A glowing example is what continues to be done to our former President Trump. If we let the Marxist thought mongers of the liberal left get away with that, what and who are next – you and me.
What’s the answer? Certainly, one answer is real, effective oversight and accountability. We can thank organizations such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Heritage Foundation for using the justice system to file lawsuits to gain the information needed for conservative congressional leadership in their investigations to expose the truth and follow up with appropriate actions to stop the deceitful practices and policies that are ripping out nation at its foundations.
I believe we are beholden to our nation’s founding fathers and to God to protect our republic’s values. This includes the rights of every legal citizen, regardless of circumstances, to embrace the blessing of liberty and the opportunity which it affords. To that end, we must uphold the rule of law, parental rights, secure borders, and freedom of speech and religion. We embrace strong families, energy independence, equality, and personal accountability. This is the power of “we the people” not “the few and empowered”. As always and fundamentally, if you want the truth about anything, God’s word is the mightiest sword of all.
By Art Humphries Member of the State and County GOP
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