Rick Santorum, I Applaud You! - A Response by Mike Naranjo

Mike NaranjoJan 29, 2012 07:57 PM


I could not agree more! If we were to boo or even disagree with Obama the name calling would start. Clearly those who believe in Christ are closed minded and uncaring.



Those who believe in smaller governments and less taxes are considered greedy and accused of not "not paying their fair share". While I am not a huge Mitt Romney fan I do not like some of the things being said about him. Over the the last 2 years he has paid $6 MILLION in taxes and has given away $7 MILLION to church and charity. Obviously he is what is wrong with how the wealthy pay taxes. Because he made, earned or risked $40 MILLION does mean he should have to give another $6 MILLION to political pork projects.



Sorry I got sidetracked- It is a shame Santorum is too far to the right to be electable. Perhaps Gingrich or Romney can be the voice of the right and not the right now. Perhaps when in office they will stop worrying about the 1% and the billions of dollar they contribute but perhaps addressing the trillions that is needlessly spent. Here is a great place to start- save $150 MILLION annually by stop funding Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS. The people who want that stuff should pay for it. Those that are opposed to what they stand for should not have to support it with their tax dollars.



Doug- you are a champion for those who cannot articulate what is happening all around. The erosion of values and character. Everyday our world moves in the wrong direction. That is why when someone like Rick Santorum or Tim Tebow stands up for Christ it strikes fear into the hearts of those who prefer darkness to light!



Thanks for listening

Tim Thomas and Tim Tebow - I Applaud You!

It vexes me to listen on radio to the onslaught of criticism directed at both Tim Thomas and Tim Tebow. The substance of the criticism is that “I just want to watch sports. To do that I shouldn’t have to be subjected to political or religious statements that I find offensive.”




My response to all this is “Welcome to the world of Christians in our culture today!” For example, I was watching a film recently – “The Ides of March” to be specific. I just wanted to watch a movie – not be subjected to political or religious statements that would insult and offend my beliefs.



Yet there it was: a reference to my Lord Jesus Christ with the “F” word being used as His middle name. You can search high and low through American movies, magazines, and media and you’ll never see a reference to “Yahweh” or “Allah” being denigrated in that way. But the name “Jesus” being insulted, disrespected, and mocked is a regular occurrence in our society today.



Is there any outcry against this appalling development in media and movies? Not really… That’s because such a denigration of things Christian is right in line with the anti-Christian bias that media and movies have been imposing upon American society for years now.



Good for you, Tim Thomas and Tim Tebow. I applaud you for standing your ground against the intolerance that surrounds us everywhere in our contemporary culture – intolerance toward Christ and things Christian, toward the Judeo-Christian values upon which this country and its constitution are based.



- Doug M. +

Rick Santorum, I Applaud You!

Rick Santorum, I Applaud You!






Rick Santorum! Awesome! I applaud your courage to boldly declare your moral convictions in a society suffering from a crisis in courage. The jury is still out on whether I want to completely “come on board” with your election bid, but I can say at present that it is so refreshing to experience a Presidential candidate whose authenticity is so palpable. To be frank, I haven’t been this excited about a Presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan, and before that, JFK.



In our sick society so many universities and so many religious and secular “leaders” are “selling out” and sliding down the “slippery slope” of moral decadence. Faced with that, how striking and inspiring it is to see someone standing up and standing out in stark contrast. Your example and your message so far have been a brilliant light, “a city set on a mountain top” (Mt. 5:14), a “lamp burning and shining” in a dark place (Jn. 5:35).



As for the students from all over our country at that college conference in Concord, what were you thinking? When you “booed” what Mr. Santorum said, you mocked and insulted the Judeo-Christian foundations of America and the values which have guided two hundred and thirty five years of United States history. Shame on you.



Such students and the universities which represent them may also want to reflect upon the fact that “booing” is the response of the intellectually weak. Did any student actually have anything intelligent to say by way of response to Mr. Santorum? The only facts reported in the media were that the students “booed”, “shouted”, and tried to talk over the speaker. Such strategies are all the responses of the defeated, the responses of “losers” in the face of wisdom which the stupid can neither gainsay nor refute.



Such students and the universities they represent need a “reality check”. If these schools are teaching that such responses have any place in an academic dialogue, then their educational product is not at all worth the expensive price tag of university matriculation today. It is a product that certainly has no place in a true community of scholars. Whatever “bill of goods” they are selling, it has nothing to do with the substance of a real classical education.



I welcome responses to this blog. I would welcome also your responses to our “Trinity-Cor” website at www.trinitycorministries777.net.



God bless,



Peace,

Doug +

Christians Beware!

Christians beware of the growing intolerance toward us. I applaud the “O’Reilly Factor” for its recent series of reports under the title of “The attack on Christmas”. How increasingly easy it is in our society today to assault the deeds, the traditions, and the customs of Christians - even to “demonize” the people who are followers of Jesus. In fact, that is my greatest fear for celebrities, star athletes, or public figures who openly declare the Lordship of Christ – that on the basis of someone bearing false witness against them, their reputations will be ruined, their dignity trashed, their professionalism ridiculed and discredited.




Our response to all this? Christians stand your ground! In a society that is so blatantly intolerant of things Christian, so insulting, offensive, and even sacrilegious in its references to Jesus, take heart and pray. Pray for the fortitude to openly declare yourselves for Jesus. Rejoice too when you are hated and attacked because of it. It is a sign and validation that you are authentically living for Him! (Mt. 5:11)



As for the sources of intolerance, pray also for them. Pray especially for those in power who use their authority to twist the truth into a lie; who represent Good as Evil, and Evil as Good; who call Light, Darkness, and Darkness, Light - “leaders” who even call Christ, Satan. Pray for them. I really believe that what they have done and continue to do borders on blasphemy and sacrilege.



Pray for such “leaders” among us, both clergy and lay, who are nothing more than phonies - petty politicians parading around with lofty titles or holy suits – “leaders” who are nothing more than plastic persons defined by the politics of power, and pursuing nothing more than praise and the next promotion. Pray that Jesus send us another John Paul, Romero or Bonhoeffer – someone willing to risk all for truth, justice, and the Gospel. (John 18:37; 1 Corinthians 9:16; Isaiah 42:3-4, 6)



I welcome your responses. I would welcome also your responses to our “Trinity-Cor” website at www.trinitycorministries777.net.



Peace in Jesus,

Doug +

The Transforming Power of Love

The winds of Hurricane Irene whistled outside as I read the Psalms and scriptures of morning prayer. Would the Spirit come to me on such a morning? Could there be inspiration in such a storm?



Patti, the love of my life, and my wife of forty years, stood at the window, anxious concern on her face. “The rocks will not hold!” she said.



She was referring to the rocks holding down the tarps on top of the industrial waste bin sitting in our driveway. The industrial container was filled to overflowing with old stuff from garage and basement that now could easily become dangerous debris filling the air – menacing missiles flying around our neighborhood in the winds of a powerful tropical storm.



Patti asked if there were any way we could tie the tarps down. Moments later I was out in the storm rope in hand.



All around me branches were cracking and falling from the trees in the screaming winds. The rain fell from the skies in torrents now driven into horizontal sheets by the raging gales. In moments I was soaked through and through, but I stayed on task though pelted without pause by racing wind and rain. I was doing it for Patti. I was doing it for love. It was love that moved through me, fueled my strength, and overcame my fear.



Even while I was tying down the tarps, I thought back to another moment where I had felt the strength of such love. It was while I was carrying my two year old son Patrick up Mt. Washington. We were at five thousand feet and raging winds had suddenly come upon us. Defying all predictions, the winds of Hurricane Dean had slammed into the state of New Hampshire, and we were without advance notice in the midst of the tempest.



Despite the fierce wind and rain, and the struggle of the steep mountain climb, I reached the summit where shelter and warmth awaited me and my son. I remember the power that came over me when Patrick said, “Da Da, cold, DaDa, cold!” At that time too, it was love that moved through me and fueled my strength. Nothing could have stopped me from saving my son.



The tarp was tied down. I headed back to the warmth and safety of my home. I suddenly thought of the cross of Jesus. It was love that moved through Him and fueled His strength. He endured the terror of the Passion for love of me, of us - all of us. Nothing could have stopped Him from taking us to shelter, home, and heaven in the Father’s House.

9-11 Can It be 10 Years?!

        There’s a powerful message in Fr. Peter’s preface to the September issue of “The Magnificat”. I think he is right in saying that there was a “message from God” for all of us in the meditation of Fr. Ciszek that was the reading in “The Magnificat” for September 11, 2001. Does it really seem like 10 years ago? In any case the lesson of Fr. Ciszek seems even more pressing and important for all of us today. Here's the meditation:

        “How easy it is … for us to become dependent on our routines… Friends and possessions surround us… It is the status quo that… carries us from day to day… We begin to lose sight of the fact that… behind all these things it is God who… sustains us. We go along, taking for granted that tomorrow will be very much like today, comfortable in the world we have created for ourselves… and give little thought to God. Somehow, then, God must contrive to break through those routines… and remind us once again… that we are ultimately dependent only upon him,… that his we are and that we must look to him and turn to him in everything. Then it is, perhaps, that he must allow our whole world to be turned upside down in order to remind us it (this world) is not our permanent abode or final destiny, to bring us to our senses and restore our sense of values, to turn our thoughts once more to him.”

        Incredible that this was the reading for September 11, 2001 in “The Magnificat”!!!

The Wedding Toast

To Andrea and Bernadette, given with all my love:






THE WEDDING TOAST





Many, many years ago I worked on a pig farm. I had told the farmer that I had worked on a farm before, and he hired me on the spot. I think he needed help desperately. If not, why hire me? What I didn’t tell the farmer was that I had worked only a chicken farm beforehand, and never at all on a pig farm. Whether the farmer was testing me or not, I do not know. But my first assigned task would in fact measure how much I actually knew about key procedures to keep in mind when working with pigs.



I was told to move a mother sow and her seven piglets out of a pen in the birthing house, and into a much larger pen adjacent to the barn, and all the way across the barnyard. How does one do that? I didn’t have a clue. But I must show confidence and an air of command and control to my boss, and that is precisely what I did. Saying to farmer McCalla, “No problem sir!”, I went to the birthing house to do my assigned task. Farmer McCalla handed me a large piece of plyboard as I made my way there. I had no idea what that plywood was for. Maybe for protection… Maybe it was a gate for the new and larger pen…



In any case, once in the birthing house, I opened the pen where the mother sow was with the seven piglets. The result was immediate mayhem. With the birthing house door also open, the sow and the piglets began to run all over the barnyard. Some of the piglets even started to run out into the boar’s field adjacent to the highway. Nothing I tried could get the mother sow under control. Once in the barnyard she sensed the feed bags along the barn wall, and headed to the “food” at a stampede pace. If I valued my life the only course of action I could take was “to get the heck out of her way”!



But the food did contain the mother sow’s movements. As I saw her tear into one of the feed bags, farm experience or not, I was smart enough to know that this mother sow was not going to go any where soon. So I turned my attention to the piglets. As they squealed out of my grasping hands time and time again, I realized that I couldn’t capture one of them. Without a pig farmer’s experience and know-how, I now knew that I was “in way over my head” – or to be more precise, “up crap’s creek without a paddle”.



My near fatal mistake was chasing one of the piglets out into the “boar’s field”. Boars have tusks, and have to be around 700 to 800 pounds. And as soon as I started chasing that piglet out into the boar’s field, the boar started chasing me – “Charging me” would be a better description. Thank God I realized soon enough what was happening, or this story would never be told. The heck with the piglet! I started running toward the boar’s field fence as fast as I could, and leaped over that fence with the grace and prowess of an Olympian. The edge of the boar’s tusks couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 feet behind me.



Once back at the barnyard, I found my breath again, tried to get my heart out of my throat, and back to its proper place in my chest. I also did everything in my power to avert my eyes from the glare and stare of my new boss. How I survived that first day at work, and lived to work there another day, I do not know, and cannot explain. Yet miracles do happen!



But once I did regain my composure, I experienced what I call to this day a “divine illumination”. There was Farmer McCalla using the plywood gate to “whack” the mother sow over to the new and larger pen across the barnyard. All you had to do to control the sow’s movements was hit her in the nose with the plyboard. Once she was in the new pen, an amazing event happened. Gradually but surely, all the piglets made their way to the mother. “Capture the mother, and you’ll get all the children as well.”



**************



Now even in that moment in the barnyard, as I watched all this unfold before my eyes, I realized the Lord was using this experience to teach me a most invaluable lesson. As the farmer must capture the mother pig to get all the piglets, so the Christian must capture the Kingdom first, and “all else that we need will be ours as well.”



What is the “Kingdom”? What is this central core of the Christian life that we must have even as every man and woman must have a pulsating heart at the center of their existence? The “Kingdom” is the “Reign” of God’s Love over the hearts and minds of all humanity. And to enter the Kingdom each of us must make a “prayer of the heart” like Mary, a prayer of openness to God’s Love, God’s Spirit, a prayer allowing that Love to reign over our heart and mind and human spirit.



This is the “heart” of the Christian life. It is the “treasure hidden in the field’, for which a man goes and sells all that he has, and purchases that field. It is the “pearl of great price” for which a man goes and sells all that he has, and purchases that pearl.



Without the “heart”, all the other parts of the body cease to function, cease to live. We lose all without the heart. We gain all with it. So too in the Christian life. if we seek first the “Kingdom of God”, all else we need will be given to us as well. If we capture the “mother pig”, we will get all the piglets!



***************



Andrea, I wanted with all my heart for you to marry Bernadette when you told me and my family that she was the “treasure” – the treasure for which a person should go and sell all that they have to but it. And you meant by “treasure” that Bernadette was a “sign” of the Kingdom, that she was for you, like Mary, the face of Christ’s Love.

I knew at that moment that you were of one heart with my daughter because she believes that you are the “treasure” as well. I wanted your marriage from the moment you said this because I knew then that your marriage would “touch heaven”, even as your wedding was a “touch of heaven”. I knew then your marriage to my daughter would bring “heaven to earth” for all of us, even as Mary did.



Hold on to this “treasure” and God’s Love will always go with you. He will never leave you, fail you or forsake you. With this “treasure” of the “Kingdom of God” within you, with this “treasure” of God’s Love” always on fire in your hearts, all else that you need will always come your way. God give you eyes to see what you have: that you now have the “heart” of the Christian life in your hands… You have the “treasure” hidden in the field, you have the “pearl of great price”, you have given all for the “Kingdom”, you have captured the “Mother Pig”!