http://www.amazon.com/Still-Best-Hope-American-Triumph/dp/0061985139/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371505773&sr=8-1&keywords=Still+the+Best+Hope%3A+Why+the+World+Needs+American+Values+to+Triumph

Dennis Prager is a Orthodox Jew who writes a column ,is  a radio host and author. “Still The Best Hope “ speaks to the issues relating to the values  in our our current culture and political frame work in the world .  He splits the main differences into three categories . Europeans Style Socialism , Islamism, and Americanism. He spoke to the morality that each group held .He made clear that their were good and bad on all sides of the issues , but made a strong support for Americanism . The book perhaps can explain why say certain people will be more inclined to support a small government view over a larger government view. Why those on the left will blame  crime on poverty , racism and another group  will blame individual morality . A few distinctions I took from the book are below , Leftism is a term used for the European Style Socialism view , secular in nature . Americanism is a reflection of the Judeo Christian ethic morality. Atheist, Jews , Christians and all groups of people also can share in this morality . Atheist for instance may have no belief in God but still appreciate the freedom and choices that the morality of those with a Judeo Christian Ethic  do extend .

Americanism will  support Liberty , In God We trust, E Pluribus unum their 

 main concern …… Liberty                                                                                 

Leftism   material Equality

Americanism believes Individual character builds strong communities                

Leftism   Get rid of in equality and you will have a better behaved society.

Americanism believes in  Small government  ,

Leftism believes in Big Government

Americanism believes  Wealth should be created                                     

Leftism    redistribute it

Americanism believes values are Universal,taken from the Judeo Christian ethic.

Leftism  Relative to individual and or society

Americanism believes Evil comes from individual                                                    

Leftism socio economic forces causes wrong doing .

Americanism family headed by mom and dad                                                          

leftism  Only Love is needed in families

Religion should be in our society                                            

Leftism believes   Secularism should be only in our society

Americanism believes  America is exceptional.

Leftism believes America exceptionalism is a chauvinistic doctrine

Americanism believes Evil is our biggest threat                                                            

Leftism believes Global warming is our biggest threat.

Americanism believes  Teen age sex should be discouraged by family and society          

Leftism says Teens will do what they want , teach safe sex .

Americanism teaches some cultures are superior then others                                            

Leftism believes No culture is superior

   Americanism believes America is the least racist society                                                  

Leftism believes Racism is all around

Americanism believes Violent crimes caused by individuals                                           

Leftism believes Violent crimes caused by inequality 

 Americanism stands for a strong military Pacifist did not free Jews from death camps                               

Leftism believes War is not the answer

 One  Secularized System Only For Health Care Hurts all of us  !

One of my favorite films is the Bells of St Mary’s . Still gets plenty of play around Christmas time . It seems to capture the Christmas Spirit of Love , forgiveness , and believing in the best part of humanity . Bing Crosby at his best . Would a film today show a Catholic priest , Nuns , a school as a place we would want our children . or even by some to even allow it ?

In deed our culture has changed .

Recently it was revealed of the intentions of Harrison Hospital to merge with the Franciscan Health System . Immediately secular progressive voices sounded the alarm . Abortion , sex changes and the right to kill oneself was among the complaints . The following is from the Hospital concerning the merger.

http://www.harrisonmedical.org/home/news/199

“Franciscan Health System and Harrison Medical Center have signed a letter of intent (LOI), a non-binding agreement to affiliate in order to improve access to high-quality healthcare services for residents of the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas and North Mason County.”

“To increase quality of care ,  access to care, reduced costs,  Harrison will continue to be Harrison , their abortion and assisted suicide policies are consistent with the Catholic beliefs” .

http://www.harrisonmedical.org/home/news/199

But as in other areas , concern and prejudices have been seen and heard.  Perhaps somewhat hard to understand the morality to those of us who see Care for the sick as such a needed and  directed  function to perform by people of faith. .  Especially when a religious organization is helping our community and providing better and  more affordable services .  Not even raising our taxes to do it . But morality is exactly what is being seen here . Not immoral , but different moralities . Leftism has a secularized value system , and their intention is not to hurt. But what I have noticed Leftism has always done t is to promote a  system that believes it has to be totalitarian in nature.

The following link is an interesting NPR article that reports on another Washington State County where a similar merger took place and the negative reaction.

http://www.kplu.org/post/fears-catholic-monopoly-dominate-talk-hospital-mergers

President Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day Speech at Arlington National Cemetery

In honor of those who lost their lives while serving our country, I would like to share with you President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery:

Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.

I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they’ll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that’s good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.

Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and the Admirals Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI’s general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.

Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper’s son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, “I know we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.” Audie Murphy is here, Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, “Wait a minute and I’ll let you speak to them.” [Laughter]

Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn’t wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward—in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They’re only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on “Holmes dissenting in a sordid age.” Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: “At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight.”

All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It’s hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it’s the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen—the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you’ve seen it—three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There’s something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there’s an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don’t really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they’re supporting each other, helping each other on.

I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they’re still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam—boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That’s the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that’s all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.

Helping In Jesus’ Name

The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) gives a clear picture of God’s desire for us to help those in desperate need wherever we find them.

With the changes  to our culture from a Judeo Christian Ethnic to the more secular progressive values , we have seen a new group that is called “Nones” beginning to get much attention .  Where as they tend  to politically left on social  issues such as abortion, Same Sex Marriage , the diversity of who the nones are  is quite abundant.  Rich, poor , race , etc appears to have Nones throughout their numbers.  . Studies in social sciences seem to suggest they are maintaining a set percentage of our population  after growing in numbers for years to a leveling 19 percent of the population . However in years passed youth have traditionally left their religious faiths to later return to it , the Nones do not return . They remain strongly agnostic and atheist in their beliefs , many making their non belief a secular religion itself .

Noticed a strong community connection when I was blogging on the Kitsap Sun , or trying to blog through the Sun perhaps is more accurate  . Due to recent corporate decisions the new business plan is charging to have on line access, seems many of the bloggers who had real issues with religious faith and differences of political views also will not pay to insult and intimidate . So all things do work for good as the scriptures tell us, 

In the more left leaning communities we find its greatest numbers . The following is from a Christianity Today article and the comments are opinions of various Religious leaders on the effects of Nones on our nation . Are we going to loose our youth to a secular progressive philosophy that controls our major institutions and  media ? Have we already lost it ?

A recent Gallup report suggests that the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans, or “nones,” may not be growing as quickly as widely thought. The “nones,” who today represent almost 18 percent of U.S. adults, grew by only 0.3 percent in 2012—the smallest increase Gallup has seen since 2008 (when they numbered 14.6 percent).

“We’re getting bent out of shape over nothing. Institutional affiliation is not a spiritual issue—it’s a generational one. Nearly every membership-based organization is losing members. Most people still come to faith through a relationship—regardless of generation.” Charles Arn, visiting professor, Wesley Seminary

“Pew doesn’t show the same plateau, so I’m taking it with a grain of salt. I definitely think there’s a ceiling, though. The increase is a generational effect rooted in the 1960s and ’70s; there is little reason to think that the United States is on a direct path to secularism.” Laura Olson, professor of political science, Clemson University

“It is not a true sea change from seriously religious to unbelieving. It might actually helpfully clarify where people really stand. Still, behind all of this is a longer-term distancing of some from any association with religious faith and practice, which is significant.” Christian Smith, sociologist, University of Notre Dame

“It’s an important shift, but it’s also important not to jump to conclusions about the meaning of this change. Even over the past five years, when the ‘nones’ have been going up—albeit at a slowing rate—there has been no change in Gallup’s measure of church attendance or importance of religion.” Frank Newport, editor in chief, Gallup

“This is a big story. Usually young people are a little less religiously observant, but this is a pretty substantial departure from the past. It’s not catastrophic, and religious institutions can adapt and think about what it means. But it’s not insignificant.” Clyde Wilcox, professor of government, Georgetown University

“This is a major trend in American religion. Millions of young adults are still devout Christians. But as one of the few areas of ‘growth’ in the realm of religion—most measures are down—we have to pay attention to what it means and why it’s happening.” David Kinnaman, president, Barna Group

NK Community National Day of Prayer Thursday, May 2 7-8:45 pm Gateway Fellowship

Next Thursday marks the 62^nd National Day of Prayer.  People across America will be joining their hearts in prayer as they seek God’s guidance for our beloved country. One looks at the bleak forecast for the future of America and wonders, “What can I do?” The answer is:  We can pray! Humanly speaking, our situation is hopeless.  Man has chosen his own path in direct violation to Scripture and it will end in disaster.  However, God has not forsaken us.  He has provided a way. “If My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray, seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land.”   II Chronicles 7:14 Please take the opportunity to repent for America and humbly seek God’s mercy for a nation gone astray. Members of the North Kitsap Community will be meeting in the Pearson Fellowship Hall at Gateway Fellowship to observe this special day.  Josh Hinman, West Sound director of Youth for Christ, will be speaking about the needs of youth and families.  The US Marine Corps will present the colors; musicians from North Kitsap Baptist Church will lead worship; local pastors will pray for the needs of our community and nation; participants will be invited to form small prayer circles; an offering will be taken for the NK Coffee Oasis ministry.  Everyone is welcome. Hope to see you there! For more information about the National Day of Prayer, go to www.nationaldayofprayer.org