Free to be both Native American AND Christian

A woman was advocating for rights of tribal members and freedom from tribal government tyranny, while at the same time telling me that my husband and I were wrong to share our Christianity because the only way tribal members can be free from alcohol is through traditional religion.

So... while on the one hand she decried being dictated to and controlled by tribal government, she was attempting to dictate to and control other tribal members when it came to spirituality.

This is a very important point about freedom for tribal members. Some tribal governments do try to dictate that tribal members follow traditional religion, not any other.

When my husband, Roland, was testifying in Seattle against tribal jurisdiction, a representative of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) told us that reservations have a right to keep Christians off their property - and Christians have no right to speak to tribal members about their religion.

We asked "What if an elder has lived there all his life and becomes a Christian - and wants to talk to his grandchildren about it?" The NICWA representative answered that the grandfather had no right to speak to his grandchildren about it and would have to move.

This is not an unusual point of view within some tribal circles, nor was it unusual in many historical dictatorships where one religion was chosen for the entire country and all had to abide by it. This was why many settlers came to America and why the very first phrase of our constitutional amendments addresses freedom of religion.

Then comes the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is used by some tribal governments to dictate the religion Indian children must be raised in. Some times exposure to powwows and traditional Indian religion is mandated by courts and tribal governments as a condition of foster care or adoption. Other times, children are simply removed from Christian homes. This can happen even if the parents and grandparents placed the children in that home and want the children to be raised Christian.

Because ICWA is a federal law, the U.S. Congress is just as much to blame for this robbing of individual freedom and 1st amendment rights as tribal governments.

My husband and I knew who we wanted to be guardians of our kids if we were to die. We chose a man from our church. His race didn't matter to us - his spirituality and heart were all that mattered. This was - and is - our constitutional and God-given right as parents to choose. Neither Congress nor any tribal government should be allowed to steal that from us.

NO ONE else in America is put underneath a law that dictates how you are supposed to spiritually raise your kids. The 1st amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"... but the ICWA Congress enacted comes dangerously close to doing just that.

Dying in Indian Country is available at: http://dyinginindiancountry.com

Has God used the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare to impact you or a loved one?

Consider impacting someone else by giving a gift

   

ICWA is Hurting Families: All Children deserve to feel safe: National Adoption Day Kick Off - Nov 20, 2010

Please help us Advocate, Educate, Assist, and Defend

http://www.firstgiving.com/caicw/Event/AdoptionRetainerFund

Deborah Maddox, acting Director of the BIA Office of Tribal Services in 1993, once said Congress intended the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

“to protect Indian children from removal from their tribes and to assure that tribes are given the opportunity to raise Indian children in a manner which reflects the unique values of Indian culture."

Advocates of ICWA point to the devastation suffered by children of tribal heritage when, years ago, they were forcefully removed from homes they loved and forced to stay at boarding schools. The trauma those children and families experienced was, indeed, devastating.

However, in the implementation of the ICWA, the exact same thing has been happening to children in reverse. What has to be acknowledged is that we live in a migratory, multi-cultural society. This means that many children who fall under the jurisdiction of the Indian Child Welfare Act have more than one heritage, and many times are predominantly of another heritage, and/or have family who not only haven’t any connection to the Indian Reservation, but have specifically chosen not to participate in the reservation system.

Though some argue that ICWA has safeguards to prevent misuse, scores of multi-racial children have been negatively affected by its application. Letters from birth parents, grandparents, foster families, and pre-adoptive families concerning their children hurt by misapplication of ICWA can be read at ~ http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html

There is no inborn difference between persons of tribal heritage and other persons. Any emotionally healthy child, no matter their heritage, will be devastated when they are taken from their familiar homes and forced to live with strangers.

Even children of 100% tribal heritage can be devastated if taken from the only home they know and love, no matter the heritage, and placed into a home they know nothing about.

In the words of Dr. William Allen, former Chair, US Comm. On Civil Rights (1989) and Emeritus Professor, Political Science MSU;

“... We are talking about our brothers and our sisters. We’re talking about what happens to people who share with us an extremely important identity. And that identity is the identity of free citizens in a Republic…" (Re: The Indian Child Welfare Act, September 20, 2008, Wahkon, MN)

Consequent to this Congressional error in understanding the practical aspects of the ICWA, dozens of adoptions are held up every year. Some of these adoptive homes have had the children since infancy and are the only homes the children know. However, even simple adoptions can be expensive and many families aren’t prepared for this additional impediment. Time and again families have contacted the Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare (CAICW) to ask for help because they don’t have the funds needed to hire attorney’s to defend their children. Some families, after mortgaging their homes and having nothing else to use, have been forced to give up the fight for their children.

- Children have been removed from safe, loving homes and been placed into dangerous situations by Social Services.
- Some Indian and non-Indian families have felt threatened by tribal government.
- Some have had to take out additional mortgage on their homes and endure lengthy legal processes in attempt to protect their children.
- Equal opportunities for adoption, safety and stability are not available to children of all heritages.
- The Constitutional right of parents to make life choices for their children, for children of Indian heritage to associate freely, and for children of Indian heritage to enjoy Equal Protection has in many cases been denied.

Saturday, November 20, 2010 is National Adoption Day. Support Families nationally in defending eir children from unreasonable impediment to their adoptions by helping raise $50,000 for ten $5000 Attorney retainer fees for ten Adoptive Families. These would be families that are in the midst of adopting children they have had physical custody of over a long term or from infancy, or stable ‘relative families’ attempting to retain or regain custody within the extended family – whether or not said family is enrollable with a tribe.

The “Fund Attorney Retainers for 10 Families” Drive begins on National Adoption Day, November 20, 2010 and ends on December 31, 2010. The Fund website can be found through FirstGiving.com at http://www.firstgiving.com/caicw/Event/AdoptionRetainerFund

The Christian Alliance for Indian Child Welfare (CAICW) has been advocating for families affected by the Indian Child Welfare Act since 2004 and is the only National org advocating for these families. Our advocacy is both Judicial and Legislative, as well as a prayer resource and shoulder to cry on.

Funds raised from this event will be used to assist up to 10 families in obtaining the legal assistance they need in order to complete their adoptions.

Additional informational links:


Legal and Constitutional concerns re: ICWA http://www.caicw.org/icw.html


Letters from Affected Families: http://www.caicw.org/familystories.html


ICWA Case Law: http://www.caicw.org/caselaw.html

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ICWA is Hurting Families: All Children deserve to feel safe: National Adoption Day Kick Off - Nov 20, 2010

Christian Theologian on Earth Day: ‘Climate Change Is the Totalitarian’s Dream Come True’

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Good Article in full...

CNSNews.com - Thursday, April 22, 2010
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

For E. Calvin Beisner and his colleagues at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation (CASC), every day is Earth Day because Christians are called by God to be good stewards of the planet and its inhabitants.

Beisner believes that it is not carbon emissions but global warming activism and international climate treaties that are a threat to the nation’s future and the world’s poorest populations.

“Climate change is the totalitarian’s dream come true,” Beisner, founder of the CASC, said at a conference on Thursday at the Family Research Council in Washington. “It offers a rationale for government intrusion into every aspect of life for every person on Earth.”

Beisner, who is also the national spokesman for the CASC, is a teacher and author who frequently speaks on the connection between religion and environmentalism.

Beisner painted a chilling picture of what would happen if the United States signed on to the kind of international climate-change treaty proposed at a United Nations conference in Copenhagen last year.

“Global warming alarmists see each new human being in terms of his or her ‘carbon footprint,’ and already many are saying that the best way to fight global warming is for everyone to have just one child so that the population will shrink,” Beisner said.

The enforcement of a U.N.-style treaty would mean a global government’s intrusion into how people live their private lives – “everything from the temperature at which you keep your house to whether to drive a large, crash-worthy vehicle or a small car that conserves fuel but is a death trap in an accident,” Beisner said.

In his speech, Beisner said that Christians should be concerned about global warming policies because they affect myriad issues, such as the sanctity of human life, individual liberty, the survival of free enterprise and free markets in the United States, compassion for the poor around the world, and a sovereign America with the kind of limited government envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Christians are commanded by God to care for the poor, which Beisner said would suffer the most from the kind of environmental controls and alternative energy plans proposed by both the United Nations and the U.S. Congress.

“The Bible requires us to care for the poor,” he said, detailing how the policies focused on cutting the use of fossil fuels, for example, will hurt the poorest people by increasing the cost of energy and limiting its availability in the world’s poorest places where access to abundant energy supplies can prevent disease and premature death.

“Global warming legislation is part of a concerted effort to push environmentalism to the fore in American politics and culture,” Beisner said. “And environmentalism is hardly limited to good stewardship of God-given natural resources.

“Secular environmentalism, in contrast to creation stewardship, is at heart a false religion,” Beisner said.

“It degrades human beings, the crown of God’s creation, deifies nature in its untouched state as the ideal – contrary to God’s mandate for man to fill, subdue, and rule the Earth – and disregards the poor, who often are harmed by environmental policies like banning DDT, a cheap and safe insecticide that could largely eliminate the malaria-bearing mosquitoes that cost millions of lives every year in the Third World,” he added.

Beisner also said the cap-and-trade legislation proposed by Democrats in Congress to limit carbon emissions and allow the trading of “carbon credits” will harm an already struggling economy by killing jobs and slowing or even reversing economic growth.

Beisner said his organization late last year released a comprehensive research project, “A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming.”

This project, he said, “provides solid Biblical, scientific, and economic basis for not only rejecting belief in dangerous manmade global warming, but also for rejecting policies meant to fight it.”

Beisner concluded by citing one of the founding principles of the CASC, which states that the Earth is not a fragile entity made randomly by chance but the creation of an almighty God, who sustains it.

“Raising the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from 27 thousandths of one percent to 39 thousandths of one percent, or even to 108 thousandths of one percent, is not going to cause catastrophic global warming that will, as Al Gore puts it, threaten to destroy human civilization and wipe out 90 percent or more of all species,” Beisner said.

“Our God is a more intelligent designer than to make a system so fragile, and a better judge to call such a system ‘very good’ after he made it,” Beisner said.

Read More http://cnsnews.com/news/article/64598
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Serving the King -: "Slain in the Spirit" - Is it for Real?

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As a Christian, I have seen many charlatans, including having gone once to a Benny Hinn event where, sitting in the stands, I watched as they manipulated the seating to make it appear to cameras that the arena was full, and people pushed and shoved each other to be the first down the stars to the floor, where they could get in line to be touched by Benny - if Benny's guards, who were stopping and questioning each potential sick-person-in-need-of-healing, allowed you to. The air was thick with the power of a spirit in action; only I don't think it was the Holy one...

And yes, I have stood at the prayer altar and felt a pastor try to push me, with two fingers on my chest, back into the arms of someone standing behind me. I stood straight, and kept praying to Jesus that what ever His will was, that I would do. But I wasn't going to lay down for any man. The pastor seemed to get frustrated with me, and moved on.

However, there was once, at an average chapel service at a small church

Read More: Serving the King -: "Slain in the Spirit" - Is it for Real?
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GOP forcing Healthcare Bill back to House for a Second Vote

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The Senate GOP Has forced the Healthcare Bill back to the House for a Second Vote. The Senate parliamentarian agreed this was necessary because of unfunded mandates for the Student Loan legislation that Democrats piggy-backed onto the Health care legislation.

Did you think they would stop with the federalization of healthcare? Of course not! They federalized Education funding at the same time!

With all the frightening things this Health Insurance legislation is bringing on us - such as punishing doctors for making referrals to Cancer specialists, Pulmonary specialists, Ear, Nose & Throat Doctors, Orthopedists, or ANY specialist, for that matter - and mandating that Parents be responsible for their children's health premiums all the way till they are 26; well into adulthood - and that abortion funding loopholes still exist -and Robbing our Elders of their Insurance by robbing Medicare - AND FORGETTING their promise that Children are immediately benefited by coverage that ignores pre-existing conditions -

And lots more stomach turning nonsense - none of which actually improves health care in America -

PLEASE PRAY about this forced vote!!

We all know that NO Democrat will change his/her vote outside of a miracle. Through Deception, whether it be a bought vote, or Obama/Pelosi pressure, or an extremely liberal district, they are all determined to push this horrendous bill through. And Pundits say that once it is in place, it will be extremely difficult to repeal.

Therefore, it will only be through a miracle that this bill is defeated.

Please - we don't know what God's plans are; we are humans with only limited insight -Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding"

So, although what I think we want is for at least four Democrats to suddenly vote "No" on the bill and for the bill to fail, I am praying for God's Will, as He has the whole picture in view - Colossians 2:3 "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

I pray, therefore, for God's Will to be Done. I pray for my Nation, I pray for it's leaders, and I pray for it's people.

Lord God, Jesus Christ, My Lord and Master, Please shape our country the way you want it shaped, according to Your Will, and Your Will alone. Lord Jesus, please protect Your children, take Care of Your Children. Please Set in place the Leaders that You want to have leading, who will bring about the things that You want brought about. If it is Your Will that America fail, make that way easy, open the doors for that to happen, and please give me the Grace and courage to accept it.

But if NOT, Lord Jesus, I ask in Your Holy Name, that You Close all the Doors that are attempting to destroy our Country, lock those doors, and prevent the destruction from happening. And Lord Jesus, please make it very clear that this is Your Move and Will, no matter what. Thank You Jesus, for your Wisdom, Grace and Protection. Thank You for answering our Prayers. Amen.
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Living Faith Bible College

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Thinking of Bible College this fall? Living Faith is an awesome, evangelical Christian Bible College located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Alberta. It is non-denominational, “equipping for life and ministry around the world” and aims to affect local and global communities by changing hearts, teaching minds, and serving others.

They have a wide spectrum of students from different denominations from around the world. The campus, small & family oriented, is away from the bustle of the city, and is surrounded by wildlife, rivers, trees and mountains.

For more information - www.lfbc.net


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Breaking Christian News Site -

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Don't forget - this new Christian News & Resources site has everything a person needs: Breaking US, World, and Christian news, Bible Study Tools, Christian Media, Ministries, & more -

This fantastic site is a full service News & Resource portal for the Christian community. It includes links to Breaking News, Bible Study Tools, News Commentary, Christian History, Christian Media, Christian Blogs, Denominations, Christian Ministries, Christian Resources, and general information related to the Christian Worldview. It also has an incredible list of online Bible Study tools and Resources. Try it!

www.christsinternet.com

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Tim Tebow under attack from Abortion orgs

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A small number of groups purporting to speak for women are getting their panties in a knot over the free expression of others with whom they don't agree.

These days, it isn't unusual for someone outspokenly Christian or anti-abortion to be horribly vilified by the left. Sarah Palin was treated brutally. Now it's the Tebow's turn.

Let me make something perfectly clear to the National Organization of Women, Women's Media Center, and the other anti-baby, anti-woman organizations currently attacking the Tebows.
You do not represent me, a low income widow with a racially diverse family. You do not represent my daughters, two of whom have had children out of wedlock while still in their teens. We love our babies and would never hurt them. Please don't pretend to speak for all women.
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Global Christians -

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“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Rom. 12:1

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Hiatians saying God wants Change -

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Some Religious Hiatains are saying that the Earthquake was God's way of forcing change - www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583236,00.html
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Josh McDowell Takes on Oprah Winfrey

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Best Selling Author Josh McDowell takes on Spirtual flake Oprah Winfrey. It's about time someone put a sock in it -
www.christiannewswire.com/news/4896112725.html
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New Site for Christian News & Resources

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Breaking Christian News & Resources: Bible Study Tools, Christian Media, Ministries, & more -

This fantastic site is a full service News & Resource portal for the Christian community. It includes links to Breaking News, Bible Study Tools, News Commentary, Christian History, Christian Media, Christian Blogs, Denominations, Christian Ministries, Christian Resources, and general information related to the Christian Worldview. It also has an incredible list of online Bible Study tools and Resources. Try it!

http://www.christsinternet.com/

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Born-Again Christian Gavin Mcleod Stars in New Faith-Based Film

Born-Again Christian Gavin Mcleod Stars in New Faith-Based Film - FOXNews.com

Posted using ShareThis

Joel Osteen - Pastor or Profiteer?

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Joel Osteen preaches that "All people can reach their God given potential of health, wealth and happiness." He tells women to tell themselves;"Ten years from now I will be married" and "He's going to be rich and good looking!"

Is that what God is really looking for in our prayer? God's purpose for us is clearly stated in Genesis 12:1-3 and restated throughout the entire Bible. God's children have a Great Commission to be a light to the rest of the world, and preach the Word with the courage he provides through the Holy Spirit. And the Word, the Good News, the Gospel is this: that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to die for us in order to save us, despite the fact that we are all sinners and don't deserve his gift of salvation. We have been given the gift of salvation, and all we need to do is realize our sinfulness, humble ourselves, repent, ask for forgiveness, and accept His gift.

Where and how do rich husbands fit into this picture?

Osteen chooses to focus on lusting for potential gifts from God rather than repenting from sin. He rarely uses Scripture and instead, claims he is a Christian "life coach." Yet he doesn't use Scripture as a text. At times, he has even seemed to deny that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.

Osteen seems to be a saleman and "Christian" events are his marketplace. Note the amount of money spent at his events, and remember that neither Jesus nor any of his true disciples required funds from their listeners. In fact, Jesus fed the lot of them - for free - simply because they needed to be fed.

No wonder Osteen doesn't understand the deity and purpose of Jesus Christ, nor the purpose of Scripture, nor the purpose of Christians. Osteen has never studied theology or even religion at a college of seminary. He attended Oral Roberts University for a short time, but reportedly didn't take the theology courses while there.

Pay close attention to God's warnings in Matt 7:15, Acts 20:29, Romans 16:18, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, and 2 Peter 2-3.
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Thank You Sarah Palin

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Sarah, you are awesome. I didn't know anything about you prior to the Republican Convention, but I fell in love with you right off the bat.

A Conservative, Christian, home school mom. A praying, believing Mom. Just like the women I know and love in my church community - you reminded me of Kathy, Ann, and dozens of others.

I trusted you right away.

I listened to your pastor do interviews. I saw the prayer for you on the internet. (Interesting that the media now reports that Obama was prayed for in Kenya, in a "traditional Pentecostal" way, but apparently, it was okay for him)

I liked your pastors. I also liked that you were on the same page with us as far as the issues were concerned.

I could also relate to - and was hurt by - attacks on your oldest daughter. My daughter had her baby almost two years ago. I want to tell you, it was hard to learn she was pregnant, but that little guy, he's the joy of our household. He makes us all so happy, especially with everything being so stressful lately. He brightens my day by just walking in to the room.

You've done a great job with your kids. You've been a great Mayor and Governor. You did an awesome job standing up to all the pummeling these last two months. We look forward to working with you more.

We met your husband in Moorhead. He's so easy going; we loved him. My daughter told him she felt for your daughter, and showed him her baby. On the drive home, one of my adult daughters said that while listening to Obama speak earlier this year, she found it hard to pay attention. She said Obama had good inflection, but his content was too smooth. As she put it, too “politician.” But she really enjoyed listening to Todd. He wasn’t a polished speaker, but she said that’s what she liked. He was real, and you knew that what he was saying was coming from his heart.

I also told him that I'd like to talk to you about the Indian Child Welfare Act and how it is hurting families. Hope you got the message.

Why is Sarah Palin our Esther?

Every time Hollywood celebrities say vulgar things about Sarah, they are also saying it to me, a 40-something, Christian, former homeschooling, politically active, rural, not-always-perfect mom. When they mock her for being down-to-earth, pro-life, evangelical and the mom of a pregnant teenager, they are mocking my family as well. It appears that half of America bitterly hates Christians. That's kind of scary.

Sarah isn't perfect, but the jokers currently running Congress are far less perfect. It's beyond me why half of America is suddenly saying that the vice President needs to be one of the "Good Old Boys", after screaming for so long about "change. Why is it that their idea of change means putting someone politically nurtured by the corrupt Chicago establishment into the office of the President?

Not only is Sarah an average person from outside of the beltway, someone who truly represents change, but finally, here is a woman that is on the right side of the issues.

• Abortion is wrong. Even during the most difficult times of my very turbulent life, aborting my children has never been a consideration. Sarah understands this. The woman's movement has never understood women like me.
• Open up ANWR to drilling. If a few acres of American tundra can make a difference, we should be doing that rather than buying oil from overseas.
• None of us like the war. But I do believe, as Sarah does, that McCain is the only candidate that understands what to do in Iraq.
• Corrupt government employees - including corrupt Senators, State Commissioners, or even Troopers - need a swift boot out of office.
• Socialism is wrong. Although we have been low income, my husband vowed in 1992 not to take anymore welfare or entitlements. He made that vow and from that time until his death, he kept it - doing everything he could with his own two hands to feed us. We did not want our neighbors to have to take care of us. We came to understand Capitalism and agree with fiscal conservatives like Sarah. We do believe the Democratic push on the banks laid the foundation for this current crisis.
• My husband, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, fed our family through hunting. He taught our children to hunt and cut up the meat on our kitchen table. There have been times when this was our only meat. We believe in hunting and gun rights for all US citizens(excepting convicted criminals).
• Yes, Creationism is something that many Americans believe in. We aren't nuts; it's part of our religion - (Remember? That thing that the first amendment allows us to have...) So when my kids come home from school, I need to re-teach them and explain that evolution is just a theory - there is no proof for it. Then I explain to them why. (Yes, as a former RN, I have an Associate in Science and can explain.) This is why many of us choose to home school. Something else we have a right to do.
• And yes, I and other parents like me are glad to have a home school mom in high office. You see, when so many from the left mock us and try to take away our right to teach our children our faith, that's a very scary thing.
• And Sarah believes in prayer. When I have listened to her pastors on the Internet, I have appreciated them. They are no different than any of the pastors I have grown to love here in the lower forty.

I am so glad that Sarah, a prayerful woman, is in the position she is in. I have said that with the amount of mocking she has received from the elite, she is like our Princess Di. But she is also like our Esther. God Bless you, Sarah. We are praying for you.

Jesse Jackson Stirs Racism

Much of what Jesse Jackson said to New York Post columnist Amir Taheri at the First World Policy Forum in Evian, France, last week has been reported – but there was more to the interview than has been talked about.

Jackson said, "Obama is about change, and the change that Obama promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of the way America looks at the world and its place in it." Jackson makes Obama sound like a messiah that assumes he truly can change the way half of America feels on the issues.

Taheri then asked Jackson if Obama's election will close the chapter of black grievances linked to slavery. Jackson appeared to take a deep breath and think, then responded, "No, that chapter won't be closed. However, Obama's victory will be a huge step in the direction we have wanted America to take for decades."

Of course he wouldn’t respond that it would be closed. The milking of white guilt has got to be maintained as long as possible. This is why he needed to stop and think before he responded to this unexpected question. Of course, white people can never, ever be absolved of the guilt they're all supposed to feel.

Jackson then rejected the suggestion that Obama was influenced by Marxist ideas in his youth. He said, "I see no evidence of that. Obama's thirst for justice and equality is rooted in his black culture." Again, Jachson shows his prejudice by insinuating that justice and equality are things foreign to non-black cultures. And yet, Obama sees no injustice in taking hard earned money from laborers and giving it to those that haven’t earned it. He sees no injustice in destroying the lives of unborn babies. He see no injustice in the agreements Palestinians have made with Israel, only to back track when the agreements weren't convenient anymore.

But, Taheri asks Jackson, is Obama - who's not a descendant of slaves - a typical American black? Jackson emphatically answered: "You don't need to be a descendant of slaves to experience the oppression, the suffocating injustice and the ugly racism that exists in our society," he says. "Obama experienced the same environment as all American blacks did." (while growing up in Indonesia and Hawaii as well as attending Columbia University and Harvard Law School.)

Jackson also strongly supports Obama's idea of opening up direct dialogue with the Iranian leadership. "We've got to talk to tell them what we want and hear what they want," Jackson says. "Nothing is gained by not talking to others."

This ignores the fact that many non-western countries have a foundational worldview different from Americans. One can not simply assume that by sitting down at the table one can talk things out if there is no foundational agreement in goals and objectives. Mid-eastern countries are notorious for saying what’s necessary at the table and then doing their own thing, because their goals and values are different than ours. We have a foundational history in America of attempting to compromise so that everyone benefits as a nation. They have a foundational history of doing what is necessary to benefit their individual tribes and clans, and that doesn't always mean their nations. Remember, as an example, that most of Saddam Hussein's administration came from his home town of Tikrit. They were members of his clan. This is common in the Middle-east. Clans come first – even before their nation. (See “From Beirut to Jerusalem” by Tom Friedman.) Compromise isn't a foundational value. Survival of and benefit for the clan is.

Jackson says that as long as the Palestinians haven't seen justice, the Middle East will "remain a source of danger to us all." He doesn’t understand that Justice isn’t what many of our Mid-east opponents are really looking for. They are looking to win, irrespective of justice.

Jackson goes on, "Barack is determined to repair our relations with the world of Islam and Muslims. Thanks to his background and ecumenical approach, he knows how Muslims feel while remaining committed to his own faith."

I don’t doubt that Barack, having attended a Muslim school in Indonesia as a child, understands how Muslims feel. My greater concern is that neither Obama or Jackson, despite calling themselves Christians, understand the way Christians feel or have any real understanding of Christianity at all. Jesus Christ had special warnings for those that would harm children, as abortion does. Christians also understand the special purpose God has for the Jewish people in the Middle East. And Christians understand that God made us all in his image. Race is unimportant in the eyes of God. My husband used to say he was a Christian first and a Native American second because when he accepted Jesus Christ, he accepted his part in the family of God – first and foremost. This is the way we’ve raised our kids. We don’t identify ourselves as Indian, White, Jewish, German, or Irish. My children are all of those things, but first and foremost, they are Christian. All the rest is secondary. It would be great if our society as a whole, including Obama and Jackson, would consider race a non-issue.