Answers Provided: Excerpt from Promises of Mercy by Valerie M Bodden, and Video of Religion/political Debate

You know folks, I've said before that I consider myself like Thomas, a doubter by life and personality. And, when I was treated as I was by the West Virginia University, I lost one of my most important responses. I began not to Trust, one of the most important word for me and, perhaps, for many of you. So it was natural that, once I had responded to God to share my Testimony yesterday, I immediately began to be nervous. Did I say everything that I should have said... Should I have included my present fears from the republican party... Well, he sent to messages. One from the book that I had just started--the individual excerpt provided today was my answer... 

When I went to YouTube to find the song that was referred to in the excerpt, the following video which was two months old, was on the first page... Right now, I'm so proud of Jasmin. She was much more prepared than I've ever be to debate the Bible. I'm not ashamed of that. It is my reality given my own life. I accept. But, you know, folks, one of my major concerns was just how Christianity is being "used" by the republican party as a tool for manipulation of our citizens... I had never seen any news about this particular event... I wonder why? Was it withhold or just not shared publicly? I don't know... Why I bring it up at all is because, somehow, that 2 month old video was on my screen when I opened that site... If you don't feel chills when I say that, like I just did, then you may want to think through what you know about the Holy Spirit working within each of us...

This video is a dramatization. I'm opposed to much of the use now being "created." But I must admit that I was so thankful for finding it waiting for me. Johnson has been a special thorn for me... Professionally when he told the House to go home so he didn't have to bring something to the House, per Trump's wishes I knew, I lost all desire to listen to his actions. They were tainted in his claiming he followed the words of Christ...

 I was crying as I fell to sleep last night, just as I am crying right now as I write... Not in sadness, but once again being thankful in all the confirmations of life where I KNOW that God is Alive and watching... Listening... Working through His children as their talents allows... Read this sermon from the book written by Valerie M. Bodden/

“Children of God.” Dad’s voice came through the phone, and Judah swallowed. It had been a long time since he had heard his father preach, but those words were so familiar that they brought a strange ache to his throat. “You all might not know this about me,” Dad said, “but I don’t mind making a fool of myself.” A ripple of laughter came through the speaker, and Judah snorted. “Or maybe you do know that,” Dad quipped, and the laughter got louder. Faith joined in. 

“I forgot how much I love your dad’s sermons,” she said. “The pastor at the church in Nashville was good, but he was so stuffy. Almost made you feel like laughing in church was a sin.” Judah nodded. He couldn’t deny that his dad was a good preacher, even if Judah hadn’t believed the things he preached about in a long time. 

“My kids always loved that, growing up,” Dad continued. “Having a dad who wasn’t afraid to embarrass himself—and them in the process. When they were little, we would take them to the zoo, and I would start singing the Wizard of Oz song. You know, the ‘follow the yellow brick road’ one. And I’d do the whole scarecrow walk too, like this.” He broke into song, and Faith’s laugh filled the car. 

“Is he doing the walk?” Judah demanded, not taking his eyes off the road. “Sort of. As much as he can in the pulpit.” Faith giggled. “Did he really used to do that?” “Oh yeah.” Judah groaned, but it turned into a smile at the memory. “The younger kids would always join him, and the rest of us would try to pretend we didn’t know any of them.” 

“Or there was the time,” Dad continued, “that I made the whole family enter a lip sync contest. We had a choreographed dance and everything.” “You did not.” Faith turned to Judah with a disbelieving laugh. “We did,” Judah said grimly. “How did I never hear about this?” “It was before we moved to River Falls. My siblings and I swore each other to secrecy.” Faith was still chuckling as Dad said, “So when I say that I’m not afraid to be called a fool, you know I mean it. And that’s a good thing, because, well, I’ve been called a fool more than once in my life. And not only for the silly things I do. For what I believe.” Dad’s voice sobered. “For the God I serve. For the faith I have.” 

Judah’s hands tightened involuntarily on the wheel, and he winced as pain shot through the injured area. But it was foolishness, what Dad believed, the God he served. Sure, Judah had believed it too, a long time ago. But that was only because he hadn’t known better. Once he’d gotten to college, seen more of the world, he’d realized that none of it made sense. A higher power. Miracles. Eternal life. All of that was just silly, wishful thinking. Silly, wishful thinking that made him look like a fool when he brought it up. That drew snickers and eye rolls from his professors and classmates. And unlike Dad, he did have a problem with being called a fool. 

“I can’t blame people, really,” Dad continued. “After all, what we believe as Christians does sound a little bit foolish. We believe that God spoke the whole world—the whole universe—into existence, out of nothing. We believe that he is triune—three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in one God. We believe that Jesus is both true God and true man. We believe that he came into the world as a baby, born of a virgin, to live a perfect life in our place. We believe he died on the cross—carrying the weight of our sins with him—and then rose from the dead three days later. And we believe that because of that, we will live eternally with him in heaven, even though we die. I mean—” Dad whistled quietly. “None of it seems to make much sense, when you think about it. No wonder people think it’s foolish.” 

That was exactly the conclusion Judah had come to. But he knew Dad well enough to know he wasn’t going to leave things there. “Here’s the thing,” Dad continued. “These are all things I can’t adequately explain. They’re things I can’t prove with scientific evidence. They’re things, some of them, that I don’t even fully understand myself. And we don’t like things we can’t understand, do we?” 

Judah accidentally made a sound of assent. He felt Faith’s eyes come to him, but she didn’t say anything. “And so people dismiss the truth as foolishness,” Dad went on. “They tell us it can’t possibly be real. It’s not reasonable to believe. Well, let me tell you something. Faith isn’t reasonable.” 

Judah’s eyes flicked to the phone in Faith’s hand for a moment. Had he heard right? 

“That’s why it’s called faith,” Dad continued. “We can’t reason it out. We can’t reason ourselves into believing. In fact, too often, our human reason gets in the way of our faith. Not because our human reason is bad. When it comes to paying the bills and growing crops and building cars and performing surgeries”—Judah wondered if that last one was for his benefit—“human reason is wonderful. It’s a gift from God. But when we put our trust in that reason, above faith—that’s when we get into trouble.” 

Dad paused, and Judah’s gaze skipped to Faith, who was nodding along.

 “I know this feels like a new problem,” Dad said. “But Paul was already warning about this only twenty or so years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. He writes in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1: ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power and wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.’” There was a pause, and Judah could imagine Dad gazing at the people in the pews, making sure the words sank in. “That sounds complicated and deep,” Dad finally said. “But really, it’s pretty simple. When it comes to salvation, the wisdom of this world is nothing. The foolishness of God—of believing in a Savior who came into this world to take away our sins—that’s everything.” 

Faith shifted in her seat, her arm brushing against Judah’s as she leaned on the console. Judah told his arm to move out of the way, but it didn’t listen, and they sat with their arms pressed together. 

“Speaking of the foolishness of God—” Dad’s voice was slightly louder with Faith holding the phone closer. “Let’s talk about that. Because when you think about it, God’s love for us is rather foolish, isn’t it? After all, we have nothing to offer him. We can’t pay him back. In fact, rather than paying him back, we too often spit in his face. We sin against him. We ignore him. We deny him and turn away from him. If anyone treated us that way, we would walk away from them. But God’s love isn’t contingent on our love for him. He doesn’t love us because of who we are. He loves us because of who he is. He loves us because he is love. He loves us with a love that never holds back. He lavishes us with his love, as 1 John 3:1 says: ‘See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!’” 

Faith sighed, and Judah glanced over to see her blinking back tears. “What’s wrong?” He was instantly on alert. She laughed a little. “Nothing. Sorry. It’s just— Sometimes I forget how much God loves us.” Judah didn’t say anything, but his heart twitched. Or, it didn’t—he knew without a doubt that hearts didn’t do that. And yet, there was no other way to describe it. He almost wished for a moment that he could believe what Faith did. That he could go back to a time when he did believe. But now that he knew better, how could he? 

“And not only is God’s love for us foolish,” Dad was saying, “but the way he chose to save us seems pretty foolish too. I mean, if it were up to us to come up with a means of salvation, I’m pretty sure we would say, ‘Well, of course you’ll have to do something to earn it. There’s no free lunch. You have to be a good person. Follow all the rules. Keep every commandment.’ But God knew we couldn’t do that. He knew that not a single one of us was good enough or could do enough to earn our way to heaven. So he didn’t say, ‘Well, do the best you can, and maybe if it’s good enough, I’ll let you in.’ No, he said, ‘I’ll do it all for you. I’ll send my one and only Son to live in your place. To be perfect in your place. To die in your place. You don’t have to do anything. Only believe.’ We hear it in Ephesians 2:8-9, ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.’” Judah let out a breath that he hoped Faith didn’t hear. Even if he wanted to, how could he believe something so unbelievable? 

“People want proof of that, they want evidence, they want to see it with their own eyes. Well, it’s all right here. And beyond that, it’s right here.” Judah’s eyes flicked to the screen in Faith’s hand. “The Bible,” she said, as if realizing what he was trying to figure out. “And our hearts.” Judah nodded but pressed his lips together. This was where he had a problem. He couldn’t base his whole life on feelings. “I’m not talking about feelings,” Dad said, as if he had read Judah’s thoughts from forty miles away. “I’m talking about faith. There is a difference. Feelings depend on our circumstances. Faith depends on our Savior. It relies on what he tells us in his Word. It holds to his promises, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense to do so. As the writer of Hebrews tells us, ‘Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’” Dad paused, as if letting that sink in, then continued, “But how? How can we possibly have confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see?” 

Judah nodded. Exactly. It was silly to expect someone to believe in what there was no evidence of. 

“Fortunately—” There was a smile in Dad’s voice. “That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. He is the one who works on our hearts, the one who gives us a heart transplant. ‘I will give you a new heart,’ the Lord says in Ezekiel, ‘and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’” Judah caught his breath. There was no way Dad knew that verse had been playing through his head ever since Amina had said it to him—he didn’t even know Amina had existed. And he couldn’t know that more than once over the past few weeks, in the privacy of his own room, Judah had reread Mama’s note alongside those verses in her Bible. So was it only a coincidence that he had brought it up? 

Or . . . Had God led him to— No. Obviously not. Judah dismissed the possibility. But he couldn’t dismiss Dad’s voice as he continued, “The Holy Spirit takes our hearts that are by nature dead in sin, and he replaces them with living hearts, overflowing with faith and love in him. Hearts that have ‘confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’ Hearts that are willing to ‘become “fools” so that you may become wise.’ Hearts that have an answer that is stronger than any physical proof, any scientific evidence, any seeing with our own eyes. And that answer is Jesus. Amen.”

“Amen,” Faith whispered. Judah kept his eyes on the road and his lips pressed tight as Dad led the congregation in a prayer. If anything, the sermon had only made the ache in his throat sharper, but he didn’t know why. Saying Jesus was the answer to everything sounded nice. But in real life, it didn’t work that way. He’d seen too many children pray for a parent’s recovery, only to have to bury that parent a few days later. Too many spouses with unanswered prayers. Too many parents weeping over the bed of a child they’d been sure God would save. You can’t save me, Dr. Judah, God already has. Amina’s words slipped into Judah’s thoughts. He saved you too, did you know that? Judah had believed it once, but believing it again now felt too . . . futile. Besides, he had turned his back on God for years. There was no reason for God to take him back, even if he wanted to go back. 

“’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, and to take him at his Word.” The words of the hymn seemed to fill the car, and it took Judah a moment to realize that was because Faith was singing along with the hymn. Her voice was low and sweet, and her face shone with a smile that said she trusted completely the truth of the words she sang. Judah’s heart gave another weak twitch, but he tried to ignore it and turned his eyes back to the road. 

!!!!

God Bless

Gabby

This is why I enjoy this retired pastor...

We must all consider to choose between God and This World

Only then will Peace be Achieved...

Peace is created or lost by all of us...

Right now, it's the worst time of hate and violence I've seen...

I DO Want Peace. Do YOU?

Open Memoir: Lawlessness Rushes Forward in Trump's Administration! Is This The Real World That YOU Want?!

 

I thank God for Lawrence O'Donnell--and other MSNBC News Hosts!

For over 20 years, I have had to be on medication for Job Burnout... What that means, in my case, is that I had been working many more hours to try to keep up with an impossible work load, without any sign of recognition from my superiors that they...even...cared...

I ask, would you have even tried to explain how you were feeling if, from the very first, with four new superiors above you, and not one had ever met with you to talk about the responsibilities of your office? Or, not once, asked to review job descriptions to learn exactly what was going on in your unit? Or, even stopped by once in a while to meet your employees, talk to them, and me, and ask how things were going? No, a new President, a new Vice President, a new Assistant Vice President, and a new Director of my office had rode in on white horses claiming they would save the day, that they knew everything they needed to know and that, an authoritative hierarchical structure must be maintained henceforth... Of course, none of those words were ever said--after all, they were all authoritarian, clearly, and were "Do as I Say; Not as I Do!"

I was in an environment of higher education on a land-grant university campus that operated state-wide, which meant the Federal Government was even more involved than with those who were not land-grant institutions. After I had already submitted papers for retirement, after having gone on an extensive medical leave, after being told by my doctor that I had to choose between my life and my job--frankly, there was no choice, I planned to leave an institution that I had loved for over 30 years, having moved upward from my first job in the Office of Personnel. And, to put the icing on the cake, after having absolutely no conversations with me about my employment with that administration, I was given a letter that my job had been eliminated... But, I remember now, that I did have one conversation with the University lawyer, about handling a dismissal of a man who I had been forced to hire. During that discussion he said something like, "You should be glad to have a job." To which I replied, "I used to have a career and I've never been interested in just a job..." There was never any mention of any wrongdoing on my part... 

In fact, during my nearly 40 years, I had received just one performance review. That was in the '60s when the Director of Personnel gave me a letter of excellent performance. And, oh yes, the new Director of my office had given me a form letter something about my running the Office... as if I was the office manager. But, let's face it, he had no idea what I did and only turned to me when he realized that financial accounting of capital funds had gotten out of control, because he, who supposedly ran that side of the office, had never initiated any action toward financial management!

But, of course, I should at least mention that I had defied my Assistant Vice-President, and refused to sign a request from Human Resources that the actions taken by him, after I was released for return, was formally accepted by me... When I refused to sign, I said, "You may have a right to do what you did; but you don't have a right to my respect for what you did." He turned around and walked out...

And I have been defying authoritarian people ever since... I "could" be tearing my hair out each day if not for my faith in God, the very few personal connections I have made, as well as, having found Lawrence O'Donnell! It's not that I chose him "over" others who I also enjoy watching. But, this man was older, had had experience in Congress, had also demonstrated to me his concern with his "desks for African children" program--which meant he cared... Yes, he cares!!! His empathy as he discusses issues reveals just how much he wants to have all of his viewers know about how he views the impact of that newsbite on our lives....

This was important to me. During the years when Trump first came into Office, I had become a fanatic news watcher. At that time, I had never heard of MSNBC, so I was watching CNN daily. The reporters--at that time--were thorough and many expressed concern for the issues and what was happening... Once I found MSNBC, I immediately saw the difference in passion, of concern, and of working and finding research that supported what was happening that day--that time period! However, a series of recent medical operations made me stop to consider my health. I could not afford to move into another mind-melt. So, I chose Lawrence as the one individual who I recorded--I read most nights from about 5PM on... and I watch him most morning as I take my meds for the day.

My point is, that I have found a correlation between the environmental changes at West Virginia University, as I have seen in the government during the years from 2015 and forward--ten years!!! Unbelievable!

One thing I have learned is most important. My personal anguish and job burnout was and is minor in comparison to what Donald J. Trump has/is doing to the United States Federal Government! Seeing the change of a participatory president, James Harlow, as the first WVU president under whom I was employed, through to the last authoritarian set of individuals who were in their positions at the time I was forced into a medical leave and walked out of the job in response to my doctor's warnings, is, frankly, now not even worth remembering...

Except that as each and every day I listen to O'Donnell, I flash back to what I personally went through with bosses who had no time to know me as anything other than a workhorse they viewed that did a good job performing for them--until I didn't... And "fired" me!

Yes, I was once a 9-5 classified employee (although it was 8:15 to 5). That was in 1963 when I first started in the Office of Personnel. Later I moved into the President's Office and worked for two Provosts one after the other (title for VPs at that time) as Secretary. I then moved into a technical position in the Office of Facilities Analysis and Utilization and then continued upward until I reached a non-classified position. What that meant was that I worked any amount of hours in order to get the job done...without additional compensation. BUT, the director of that office, William Campbell, was an excellent supervisor, both interactive with his staff--we felt appreciated--and willing to train. Our office was the first-ever office at WVU and was established to centrally handle all things related to facilities management as required by academic units and auxiliary programs, and the federal government. Under President Harlow, all of the Provosts were, what you might call, his cabinet (including the Medical Center which was a first, so I also responded to the Vice-President, Health Sciences Center, as well as all Vice-Presidents physically located on the main campus--Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Athletics, Off-Campus Activities.

Bill Campbell was well-respected and later, the Office of University Architect, which handled Capital Planning and Construction, was placed under his management. Only one staff architect was retained from the previous office. By that time, I was placed in charge of all activities which were previously directed by Campbell. He began to deal with an entire set of issues, none of which could be handled by the remaining architect. In fact, that individual's inexperience in dealing with the overall planning process, soon resulted in a need to relocate him and begin to add new positions which would merge the analysis side of the office with the capital planning side which was now to be developed. By the time that major leadership changes began, I was promoted to Associate Director of a unit now called Office of Facilities Planning and Management. It was soon clear that the new management planned to eliminate Bill Campbell who would be replaced with a "good ole boy" associate of the new Asst. VP. Next, when a vacancy occured in my area, I was forced to hire another "good ole boy" associate of the Asst VP... All men; all from Military Sciences ROTC.

At the point, when I later had lost a year of my lifeto conduct a complete audit of capital funding allocated to WVU, because the new director did nothing to deal with the financial management of capital construction, I returned to directing  the unit for which I was responsible. Soon, I knew that the last hire which had been forced unto me, was unable to perform at what was a first-level manager position, but which was very numbers/detail oriented in a discipline that at that time was not being taught, but had to be learned through self-study. It was clear that the former Major had no awareness, nor interest, in learning what he needed to know in order to handle that first-level managerial position. In fact, as things were boiling up, this man came to me to share that he had gotten an "A" in one class now being taught under Educational Administration at WVU. He expected, I could tell, that he expected me to be happy. I couldn't be and said, "You expect me to be happy about taking a class and learning what you should have, by now, learned for the job you were hired to do?" This type of comment was what I was experiencing as things led up to my total collapse, which, by the way, for your information, resulted in my not being able to stop crying. My body had tried, but I had failed my body. It rebelled for my treatment. And, rightly so... Did I have a choice? I didn't think so. I had invested over 30 years at WVU and I knew it was the change of superiors that was at fault.

So, regurgitating all of my personal experiences is only to point out that in my own situation, lack of knowledge about the work required and an unwillingness, or, a lack of actual experience in order to visibly see and learn what was the total scope of responsibility for their new positions, to be learned by new authoritarian-type individuals, led to an ultimate total collapse of my unit, of which I was Acting Director by that time.

An interesting tidbit that my dedicated secretary told me later was that, an applicant for the Director's position was offered the job. He had worked at the University of Maryland where Bill Campbell had worked. When this man came looking for me, he learned that I was on medical leave. He wanted to talk with me; I had headed up a Facilities Conference that we hosted on the WVU campus and he had gotten to know me quite well through early planning, etc. When he asked if he could call me, my secretary told him that I wasn't accepting calls from anybody but her. He turned down the Director position. Of course, if I had known... but that's just not what happened, so why bother considering the "what ifs" in life...

Soooo, Trump who was once voting democrat, apparently saw that the republican party seemed to be the proper choice for a possible leap into the power of the presidency. He was right. By that time, the evolution of both parties was significant, as can be found in learning about our history of government politics. In essence, through reading many books and/or videos, I've concluded that the two parties have switched places, sometime around the election of Reagan, the first entertainer hired for the presidency...

Now is a perfect point in this presentation to point out that, until 2015 when I was settled in my new log cabin, doing gardening--actually cleanup of a property which had been neglected for many years due to the death of both owners. After I purchased my home,  in 2015, I heard just one video which was heard across the nation about the Trump candidate, and which led to the Major Women's March on Inauguration Day, 2016. When a man, even if talking "good ole boy" or "locker room" talk as some called it, trash talking with another guy, claimed that because he was a celebrity, he could walk up, grabbed them by the pxxxx, and get away with it... I was, frankly, immediately on alert. I had had my share of sexual invitations while working as a single woman. I had handled them "professionally" as I wanted to do. At no time, was I to have, from men on campus, anything as vulgar, or crudely presented, as I heard from Trump. As I later learned in E. Jean Carroll's book, and from news, of Trump's exploitation of women in all forms, I was incensed... Let me just say, when Trump/Clinton were debating and Trump roamed around behind her as she spoke, I would have turned around and said, "I'll stop until you start acting like an individual who is a candidate for our presidency..." Shoulda been there! LOL

Then when I faced both family insults about my choice to become a democrat and vote against Trump, as well as learning that Evangelical Christian leaders had made a deal with the Devil/Trump. I became somewhat obsessed... I knew immediately as a book reviewer, that I had to start doing my research!

Yet he was reelected... Unbelievable! There are now rumblings about whether Musk had his staff hack into election machines, much more secretly than did Russian hackers during the 2016 election. However. I had thought of it, but then I remembered that for the first time ever, Trump said he had a "mandate" to act, I started to add 2+2...+3... get the idea... All the billionaires watched and learned about Trump. He wanted unlimited riches, power and glory... To even get anywhere, he would have to use "criminal actions" to get it... Power-hungry people came out of the underground... Project 2025 came into existence, which is the actual words that have been used for ALL Executive Orders signed, but not initiated by Trump--except maybe one of his latest, which was to withdraw Biden's ban on plastic straws. With all of the McDonald's he eats, straws are a very important need for President Trump...

And I have become more sarcastic, more short on patience, more acutely aware of the lowering of common sense intelligence of the average American who, in the past, may have not paid much attention because the government was at least visibly doing the things that affected them personally... For me, Affirmative Action, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Need for dual-career marriages due to low salaries, and more... But most of all, the loss of Truth as our guiding interaction on all things affecting the entire population of the United States.

What I have learned through the last 10 years with Trump in the picture, leading the people of America with lies, disinformation, and, importantly, lack of any information unless somebody became a whistle blower in some way, together with the proliferation of technological advances which have moved so fast that a visible loss of control has resulted in, at least for me and others with whom I've talked, a total lack of confidence in a government--a population percentage--that would choose to listen to conmen rather than working to seek out the truth and VERIFY!

God is a God of Truth...

What do you think He is thinking as He watches those who have chosen Trump, one who attempts to act as if he acts for God and can do no wrong...

Pray for God's Truth and Power to touch Those Who May Hear!!! Seek His grace for those who voted for what has/is occurring... When men choose to take away needed money to help the indigent in foreign lands, we know that decision was NOT to respond to Jesus' request to take care of those in need.  When a decision to eliminate public schools, it is the same principle, many cannot afford to send children to private schools...Lord give those who know Thy wishes, the strength and patience... Lead us to the Truth! God's Truth!

Gabby

Attack From Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America by Barbara McQuade - Let's Discuss Exactly What Has Happened in America!

“All warfare is based on deception.” —sun tzu, The Art of War

“The information war is about territory—just not the geographic kind. In a warm information war, the human mind is the territory.” —renée diresta, “The Digital Maginot Line”

On January 5, 2021, Rosanne Boyland left her home in Kennesaw, Georgia, for the ten-hour drive to Washington, DC. Boyland had fallen under the spell of the election-denier movement, bound by a belief that the incumbent president, Donald J. Trump, had won the presidential election but had been robbed of his victory through fraud.1 In fact, sixty-one courts and Trump’s own Justice Department had already rejected every claim of fraud, and federal cybersecurity and election officials had declared the 2020 election “the most secure in US history.”2 

The next day, Boyland joined a mob egged on by Trump and stormed the US Capitol to “Stop the Steal,” as the movement slogan went. Of course, as we all know by now, the crowd breached police lines, smashed windows, and broke into the building where Congress was meeting to certify the count of electoral votes from each state, the final procedure that would seal the presidential victory for Joe Biden. Boyland found herself on the west side of the Capitol, in a tunnel near a door guarded by police. As described by the New York Times, the crowd “massed together in a dangerous crush” and used “the weight of their combined bodies to push the officers back, trapping many people in the process.”3 At some point, Boyland fell to the ground, but the crowd did not relent.4 In all of the chaos, no medical professional could render timely aid and, within a few hours, Boyland would be pronounced dead.5 Witnesses say Boyland was trampled to death. Her official cause of death was an amphetamine overdose,6 but a medical examiner said a contributing factor to her death was the “raucous scene.”7 Her sister later said Boyland would not have been at the Capitol at all that day “if it weren’t for all the misinformation.”8 Like the rest of America, Boyland had been bombarded with false claims that Biden had used fraud to steal the election—a fabrication that would become known as “the Big Lie.”9 Eight others would also lose their lives as a result of the Capitol attack that was sparked by the deluge of disinformation.10 Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter and US Air Force veteran, was shot to death by Capitol Police when she tried to climb through a broken window and breach the Speaker’s Lobby.11 US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died after being attacked by rioters with chemical spray.12 

In addition to the physical injuries suffered by 150 police officers, they and many others also suffered trauma that left unseen emotional scars; four officers committed suicide following the attack.13 And yet, more than a year later, 68 percent of Republicans were still deceived by lies that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.14 Was this abhorrent attack on the temple of our democracy the final act that would break the fever that had gripped the country during the Trump administration? 

Or was it instead the beginning of the end of American democracy? Even after Trump was indicted by a special counsel in 2023 for his efforts to steal the election, the threat persists, because, as journalist Barton Gellman wrote in The Atlantic, “Trump and his party have convinced a dauntingly large number of Americans that the essential workings of democracy are corrupt, that made-up claims of fraud are true, that only cheating can thwart their victory at the polls, that tyranny has usurped their government, and that violence is a legitimate response.”15 

In 2022, former federal judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative, warned that 2020 was merely a dry run to steal future elections.16 He called Trump and his allies a “clear and present danger” to US democracy.17 Indeed, after Trump was charged with crimes for his efforts to upend the 2020 election, he began telling a second Big Lie—that the indictments were themselves election interference, filed solely to prevent his election to the presidency in 2024.18 

Is our democracy ultimately destined for the same fate as Boyland, Babbitt, and Sicknick—death by disinformation? Will America become a country where losing candidates refuse to concede elections, using lies to spark vigilante violence and impose their will? What if, as Gellman suggests, “January 6 was practice,” and Republicans are “much better positioned to subvert the next election”?19 What if Gellman is right, and their next effort succeeds? Or is American democracy undergoing a slower erosion, invisible in real time but as devastating as a metastasizing cancer? Even if our form of government is not destroyed altogether, it risks becoming unrecognizable, controlled not by the people at large but by a small faction of the far right, willing to say or do anything to seize power. And while the current purveyors of disinformation do not represent every member of the GOP, the party’s silence is a form of complicity. When Republican leaders like former congresswoman Liz Cheney denounce their party’s disinformation, they are ignored or purged.20 

Now that the potency of disinformation has been revealed, this weapon can be used by any demagogue or self-interested opportunist, regardless of political affiliation. 

The Power of Disinformation 

Disinformation is the deliberate use of lies to manipulate people, whether to extract profit or to advance a political agenda. Its unwitting accomplice, misinformation, is spread by unknowing dupes who repeat lies they believe to be true. In America today, both forms of falsehood are distorting our perception of reality. In a democracy, the people need a shared set of facts as a basis to debate and make decisions that advance and secure their collective interests. 

Differences of opinion, and even propaganda, have always existed in the United States, but now, enemies of democracy are using disinformation to attack our sovereign right to truthful information, intellectual integrity, and the exercise of the will of the people. Online disinformation is particularly insidious because of its immediacy, its capacity to deceive, and its ability to reach its target. 

In February 2022, the US Department of Homeland Security issued a threat bulletin warning of “an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information (MDM) introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.”21 The bulletin stated that these threat actors “seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence.”22 As technology continues to advance, the threat of disinformation looms even larger. 

Disinformers deliberately inflame our passions and demonize their political opponents to artificially limit options to only two perspectives on an issue. (Debaters refer to this tactic as the “either-or fallacy.”) And when one side is portrayed as good and the other as evil, the choice is easy. You must be for either the Trump-supporting right or the rivals they frame as the “radical left.” There will always be those who get taken by the P. T. Barnums and Bernie Madoffs among us. But now, there is something more at work than simply gullible people falling for lies. 

A significant number of Americans don’t seem to care anymore whether a statement is true. What seems to matter instead is whether any given message is consistent with their worldview. If a lie supports their position, some people seem willing to go along with the con and pretend it’s true. When Donald 

Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of illegally retaining classified national defense documents, for example, his defenders parroted Trump’s claims that he was being attacked for political reasons. On the day of Trump’s arraignment, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said, “God bless America, President Trump, and all those targeted by Biden’s regime as we continue our efforts to end this corrupt political weaponization and stop the deep state.”23 

We are not just living in a post-truth world: we are living in a post-shame world. Trump and his supporters consistently turn the tables on his accusers, not to convince people that he is innocent but to suggest that everyone is corrupt. 

Integrity is for phonies and suckers, their thinking seems to go. And if everyone is corrupt, then you might as well choose the leader who shares your vision for America. Even those who don’t fall for this logic are harmed by it. The risk to the rest of us is that we become cynical about politics. It’s easy to grow weary of relentless arguments and aggression and choose to simply tune out. But when we disengage from public discourse, we surrender a piece of our power to the disinformers. The ultimate result, over time, is a weakened democracy, diminished national security, and a threat to the rule of law. 

America is under attack at this very moment, but not from any external enemy. The attack is from within. How has American democracy come to this? And why now? Part of the equation is recent technological advances. Before the information age, geographic regions in the vast territory of the United States set their own community standards. Immigration patterns and local history shaped the culture of various regions, each of which had its own set of widely shared values. In his eye-opening book American Nations, journalist and historian Colin Woodard describes the cultural history of the United States. According to Woodard, “There isn’t and never has been one America, but rather several Americas.”24 American identity in the Deep South is different from American identity in New York or on the West Coast. Some regions are more segregated than others, resulting in fewer interactions among people of different races, ethnicities, and religious faiths. It is easier to fear someone you have never met. And even within regions, people living in rural areas have different experiences and viewpoints than do those living in urban communities. In parts of the American West, for example, children grow up from an early age learning to use guns for hunting, competing in marksmanship, and protecting livestock from predators. Children who grow up in urban areas, on the other hand, may perceive guns as deadly weapons used to intimidate and kill people. Our varying experiences and cultural norms shape our individual vision of America. Today, the internet shoves all the versions of America in our faces. Our digital connections bring constant visibility to events occurring in other parts of the country and other parts of the world. The community standards of one region of the United States can seem outrageous in another. As former president Barack Obama said in a 2022 speech on technology at Stanford University, “Forty years ago, if you were a conservative in rural Texas, you weren’t necessarily offended by what was going on in San Francisco’s Castro District, because you didn’t know what was going on.”25 This new access to information can be jarring, even frightening, to some people—amounting to what Obama called “a direct affront to their traditions, their belief systems, their place in society.”26 

And so, when someone in one region sees someone from a different region saying America is a “Christian country” or promoting drag queen story hour, they may perceive a threat to their way of life. The other part of the equation is manipulation. Some politicians prey on these fears, using disinformation to advance their personal and party ambitions. They know that when information conflicts with one’s viewpoint, some people will accept distortions of fact rather than change their minds. 

The Black man who was elected president cannot be a legitimate leader, they argue, so he must have been born outside the United States, disqualifying him from office. A lingering pandemic would weaken the economy and make reelection of the incumbent less likely, and so he says it will go away by Easter. No one voted for Biden because he is a socialist, some claim, and so the election must have been rigged. It can be easier to accept lies than to confront truths that make us uncomfortable. This book documents the ways that political opportunists and profiteers use disinformation as a weapon.27 

The far right is not alone in spreading disinformation, and this tool can be used by any political party or faction. During the 2022 election, for example, a photo of Mehmet Oz, the television host who became the GOP candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, was the subject of a fake internet meme showing him on his hands and knees kissing a certain star on the Hollywood walk of fame.28 In fact, the photo was taken of him kissing his own star on the day it was added to the walk, but the meme had been altered to make it appear that he was instead kissing the star of Donald Trump.29 

But at this moment, the most egregious purveyors of disinformation in US politics are far-right members of the Republican Party.30 Currently, rather than call out lies, a large number of Republicans amplify them, or they silently indulge disinformation to advance their own careers and policy goals. Some conservative news media outlets promote falsehoods for ratings and profit, further exacerbating the threat. In 2023, a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems exposed the duplicity of executives and hosts at Fox News, the cable network that pushed election conspiracy theories on air, even as insiders at the network privately acknowledged the falsity of claims that voting machines had flipped votes from Trump to Biden.31 

As is now well known, the false claim of mass fraud was not a good-faith challenge to a contested election; it was the most brazen disinformation campaign in American history. Fox paid a $787.5 million settlement for defaming Dominion because its coverage of the purported fraud was all a lie.32 If Fox learned any lesson from the lawsuit, it was short-lived. Two months later, when Trump was charged in the classified-documents case, Fox showed Biden above a graphic that read, “wannabe dictator speaks at the white house after having his political rival arrested.”33 According to the first two findings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol: Beginning election night and continuing through January 6th and thereafter, Donald Trump purposely disseminated false allegations of fraud related to the 2020 Presidential election in order to aid his effort to overturn the election and for purposes of soliciting contributions. These false claims provoked his supporters to violence on January 6th.  Knowing that he and his supporters had lost dozens of election lawsuits, and despite his own senior advisors refuting his election fraud claims and urging him to concede his election loss, Donald Trump refused to accept the lawful result of the 2020 election. Rather than honor his constitutional obligation to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” President Trump instead plotted to overturn the election outcome.34 The coup attempt was a breathtaking effort to subvert US democracy and the will of the American people. 

Even though Trump left office in 2021, his movement to “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) lives on. For some, America was great when white men were in charge and everyone else knew their place. Leaders of the MAGA movement continue to focus on cultural divides to distract middle- and lower-income voters from economic policies that enrich the wealthy. Since the end of World War II, Americans have been less likely to earn more money than their parents.35 Since the Reagan administration, wealth disparities have grown dramatically, income-tax rates for top earners have fallen, and overseas manufacturing and automation have reduced the availability of blue-collar jobs.36 If people of color, immigrants, “woke” leftists, and a “deep state” of elite bureaucrats can be blamed for their problems, then some voters will tolerate or even embrace policies that go against their own financial interests. Disinformation researchers at the University of Texas have found that, since 2010, many online influence campaigns have used communities of color as pawns, as both subjects and targets of disinformation.37 As Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr wrote following the release of the January 6 Committee’s report, a driving force behind the attack was race.38 “[L]ike many things involving the history, laws, and founding principles of our nation,” she wrote, the attack had “everything to do with race.”39 It was no coincidence that Confederate flags, insignias of white supremacist groups, and a lynching noose were on display during the attack.40 One rioter wore a sweatshirt that said “Camp Auschwitz,” a horrifying antisemitic reference to Nazi death camps.41 In many ways, the attack was as much an expression of white nationalist identity as it was an attempt to seize power. 

Some Republican voters likely did not care whether the election was stolen; instead, what seems to have mattered more to them was installing the administration whose narratives best reinforced their own hopes, fears, and privileges. Long after Trump’s claims of a stolen election have been debunked, the assault on truth continues. Under the pretext of rampant voter fraud, states have passed laws making it more difficult to vote. GOP candidate Kari Lake refused to concede defeat in the 2022 election for governor of Arizona, baselessly claiming that her race was one of the “most dishonest elections in the history of Arizona,” a position she had previewed even before the election.42 Her legal challenges to the election failed.43 While election deniers were largely defeated in the 2022 elections, two—one in Wyoming and one in Indiana—were elected secretary of state, a position in which they would oversee their state’s elections. Election deniers have become GOP party chairs in three states.44 Congressman George Santos (R-NY) was elected to Congress after fabricating his education and employment history, ethnicity, volunteer work, and even a claim that his mother had died in the September 11 attacks.45 Then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) supported the embattled congressman even after a head-spinning amount of disinformation had been exposed, normalizing Santos’s lies by noting that “a lot of people” in Congress fabricate their résumés.46 Santos was later indicted for fraud and false statements.47 Florida governor Ron DeSantis continues to stoke the culture wars, leading a ban in schools on books and discussions about race, gender, and sexuality, calling his state “where woke goes to die.”48 After the January 6 Committee concluded its probe into the attack in December 2022, the new Republican majority that took control of the House in January 2023 created a subcommittee to study the “weaponization” of government investigations, based on a claim that conservatives had been unfairly targeted.49 The subcommittee promised to give life to the lie that government investigations into Trump’s corruption had been witch hunts and hoaxes all along. Chaired by Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), the subcommittee also investigated the criminal charges filed against Trump by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg in 2023 over fraudulent business documents50 and the RICO election-interference case against Trump and eighteen co-defendants filed by Fulton County district attorney Fani T. Willis in Georgia.51 The subcommittee even investigated academic researchers who study disinformation.52 

By fall of 2023, it appeared that their efforts were having a chilling effect on disinformation research. The National Institutes of Health paused its $150 million program devoted to improving the communication of accurate medical information, including vaccines, based on threats of legal actions.53 After Stanford University’s Election Integrity Partnership was accused of working with the government to censor online speech, and right-wing advocate Jack Posobiec threatened to leave it “penniless and powerless,” the founder of the university’s Internet Observatory program said it would have to reconsider its involvement in the project.54 The assault on truth is far from over...

~~~

Formatting and Italics Used for Emphasis

When did you learn how to lie? For some it may have been when you were very young and got scolded over and over and over for being bad, as described by a parent or other influential person, such as a pastor or teacher... For me, it was in my first job as a secretary, when my boss or another professional person in my office told me to tell somebody who was on the phone to tell that person that he/she was unavailable... I didn't like it, but I did it...until it got to be ridiculous. I was in the Office of Personnel and one person in particular never wanted to accept calls... I started refusing to take a message, telling that person that she had called six times so far and I was not going to tell her another lie! 

Truth always mattered to me. There were many things such as the one example that made me appreciate the value of Truth. That's not saying that I have no lied myself--I don't think anybody can try to say that... But, what has happened in America is an entirely different level of that white lie that some of us have told... They've even identified that, now, there must be three different words to define exactly what kind of lie has been told! Seriously! Or maybe it became a major concern in my life when the Evangelical Christians supported the 2016 election of the republican candidate issuing theories that were well beyond the political realm into religion and what it supposedly meant in America. As that happened, more and more books came out pointing out that God is a God of Love; that God is a God of Truth! And Christians all over America began to point out that this line of political rhetoric was not only disinformation but extremely dangerous!

Barbara McQuade says upfront that she wrote the book to hopefully stimulate a national conversation about the ramifications of disinformation. In no real way has that actually occurred since the book was just published. However, it seems to me that, contrary to what the republican party has tried to do, an awareness, an acknowledgment, and, through response to their own actions, people all over have actually started dialogues about topical issues, especially race and women's health. There are groups all over America that have banded together based upon actions by the far right, including the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe vs.Wade. 

Barbara McQuade, known to the many individuals who watch news on MSNBC, is an ongoing legal commentator there based upon her extensive legal expertise and experience... who has taken the tiger by the tail when she chose to spotlight just how many have taken the lack of  Truth to a level so horrific that we may never come back from the precipice that has dragged on for so long that the lack of truth has already led to...death of millions! Probably Billions!

I oppose War. But I support defending and fighting for freedom. It was quite clear to me that, during the past president's time in office, he worked to gain and foster those authoritarian countries that had chosen to remain other than a democracy purely for the riches and power of those leading the country. Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Israel's PM... And, you might recall, that it was Trump that pulled out of an agreement with Iran and never did anything to pull that country back into negotiation to ensure the country did not go back to production of nuclear weapons! Thus freeing that country to begin to fund various groups, such as Hamas, to move into new territories with authoritarian intent...

I hope I am not the only one that noticed that it was at the end of Trump's presidency when authoritarian countries began wars--in Ukraine, in Israel (the response by Israel in cost of life has been significant, more than likely based upon the Prime Minister already having been under investigation when Hamas striked, and was postponed because of that and continued much longer than anybody wants, except for Netanyahu excessive and inhumane acts against civilians... It is quite clear and Trump has even said that his intent would become a dictator just like every other country that uses power at the top while the country's people starve and are kept under control... And America as a democracy would no longer exist!

We can’t begin to develop a coherent strategy to meet new challenges if we continue to allow disinformers to dominate national discourse. Certainly, there will always be room for debate about policy choices and political candidates, but we can’t solve any problems if well-funded hucksters lead us, like lemmings, off a cliff.

And the voices of all of us will be silenced...

Things are changing, sometimes slowly, sometimes not at all, such as when a Trump-appointed Judge chooses to support him rather than the truth in the Classified Documents case, which is now being appealed...again... And the Insurrection Case was stalled by the Supreme Court who then tried to say and did that Trump was to be immune... but has started moving again after years of delay tactics instigated by the former president...

But more people are seeing the reality of Trumpism. A power-hungry administrator made the mistake of talking about Project 2025 on national television and now the entire country knows exactly what the far right republican party wants to do! Take us back to a time before those who have fought for their freedom, for their rights, and a time when white men controlled all power, claiming it was God's plan for America and had been corrupted...

But have you heard about many who are speaking out against Disinformation by MAGA? And have you felt the new hope, the new joy that is sweeping across America... 

We Are Fighting for Freedom

God's Truth

His Truth is Marching Onward!

And when We as a Nation Fight

We Win...!

Visiting Poet, Regis Auffray, Sharing Listen (My Love) - Put a Little Love in Your Heart...

 

Listen (Loved One) Listen to the stars They desire to tell you How to get back home Listen to the voice The voice of your inner child Pleading to be heard Listen to the rill As it warbles down the hill Spilling its secrets Listen to the song For angels are singing to us From heavenly realms Listen to the bird It has flown from far away It tells telling tales Listen to your heart It will reveal all to you Including the truth Listen to the owl It strives to impart wisdom From the depth of night Listen to the wolf Its howl stirs up memories From our forever Listen to this child Her mind is not yet controlled By life in this world Listen to the universe It has been here beyond time Ever evolving Listen if you will To what I am imparting Because I love you © Regis Auffray authorsden

Thank you Regis... For Your Beautiful Words

We all need to stop and turn away from all that is happening in America, for at least just a moment, a minute, a lifetime...

We fear for our democracy given the lies of those running for office...

Can we stop it?

I depend upon God's Truth to win out

He is NOT a God of Lies, of trickery, of seeking power 

of violence...above all else

Even Him...

God is Love

God is Truth

Don't know how to judge truth?

Listen (My Love)

God Speaks to Each of Us

Listen (My Love)

What Would Jesus Do?

Listen to that still small voice churning within

Listen for HIS Truth...

Then Vote to Save Our Democracy...

A GOD Incident!

 

Hi Everybody, It's early in the morning. Actually I woke at 6 and was wide awake. I immediately started thinking about the book I had just finished. It was about praying... Actually, I realized as I got back into it, that it was my second reading--I always highlight books so recognized the parts that were important to me. Why, then, on the second read, had I stopped at a specific part. Yes, It was about praying...You see, I'm one of those that was talked about in the book, Be With Him Be Like Him Cultivate your prayer life, by Vincent H. Chough. I find it hard to actually spend a specific time to talk--to take time to be with the Holy Spirit, with GOD! So, I was feeling a little intimated by what the book was saying, about scheduling a specific time...wow! I was scheduling one thing or another practically my entire life, professionally... Was I now having to, in my retirement, schedule my times with Jesus?

Sooo, like the reader I am, I went on to finish the book, a second time, sleepy of course--which the book actually said I or many would be when they start to think about praying, especially at night... For the record, for health reasons, I've been taking a set of prescribed pills to help me sleep, which I monitor with my doctor... I had been in so much pain before my hip replacement surgery that I couldn't sleep, that I needed a little help...It goes with age, I guess... 

Anyway, as I said I woke at 6 and was wide awake. I immediately started to pray for my BBF, crying out to the Lord... OMG, I had just cried out to the Lord, which the book said was the highest form, when we are in great need and knew God would help...

I stopped and smiled. and laid there silently, calmly... Take Time to be Holy popped into my mind...so I sang the words... Take Time to be Holy, Speak Oft with the Lord, Abide in Him Always, and Feed on His Word, Spend time with God's Children, Help Those wo are weak, And thinking always, His Pleasure to Seek.

Gently, quietly I started hearing the Holy Spirit. For me, It always comes into my left ear, but higher, than my ear...as if it is in some secret spot within my brain--I wonder now, Is That Where the Holy Spirit Resides? I kinda imagined that it would be in the heart...but, as I think about it, it makes sense to reside where my words are to be found...and used... 

And then I was on to the next part of praying...praise him... Immediately I started singing Joyful, Joyful we adore thee, God of Glory, Lord of Love, Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, filling us with the light of love... Oh, I might get a few words wrong, but the words I find are normally about loving and GOD. Now, as an aside, I've been thinking about "Sister Act" because of another book I've finished, Restless for Reparation. I'll be spotting that and the author soon...

And, quietly, again, the memories flooded me... For years (at least up until I started taking meds that would put me to sleep - and may need to reconsider that soon), yes, for years I had spent time singing before falling to sleep. Oh, not out loud, but in my head, the songs I had learned came quickly and easily to mind. They might have been somebody else's words...yeah, a reader tends to do that...find words that are meaningful and remember them... and always, it seemed, the proper song would come to mind...if I were upset and couldn't sleep, for instance...the words would come, Be Not Dismayed wha'ere betide, God Will Take Care of You...

I will often sing the first verse over and over until I was feeling calmer...then move on to, say, Victory in Jesus, maybe, or. as I got older, I would start singing songs that related to my aging, Each Step I Take, with a new slant of meaning...Each step I take just leads me closer to home...

And then I knew, I was being told that, yes, the book will be helpful to some in learning how to talk to God...but each of us will, if we ask for His Presence, will indeed have the Holy Spirit to guide us as to how to spend time with Him... And, as my Mom used to say, Glenda, just play the piano and allow me to listen... I knew, then, that singing words written by others, but used by me to speak of my need, was...just...fine...with...my...Jesus...

One of my favorites and maybe yours?

But that's not the end of the Incident... So reading the books I've been spending time with, often had references from the Bible. I was led to go to Amazon to see if the Bible might be an ebook now, which would allow easier reading with my eye issues... Wow! Did you know that all Bibles are free on Amazon? And I don't think it was a special sale! So if you use an ebook, check it out! It sure is easy to move from one book to another, which happens to be the Bible and check the reference immediately.

Well, I was sleepy, but had also finished the book on praying and still not totally ready to close my eyes... I opened up the Bible and started with Acts. That had been the book that was being mentioned often... And read the first seven chapters until I closed the reader for the night...

At 6AM, I picked up the reader, and opened Kindle, it was on the page where I had stopped... This was after I had awoke and sang a couple of songs, in my head... Here is what the Lord shared:

Reading from the American Standard Version,

Acts: 8-1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 And devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house, and dragging men and women committed them to prison. 4 They therefore that were scattered abroad went about preaching the word. 5 And Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed unto them the Christ. 6 And the multitudes gave heed with one accord unto the things that were spoken by Philip, when they heard, and saw the signs which he did. 7 For from many of those that had unclean spirits, they came out, crying with a loud voice: and many that were palsied, and that were lame, were healed. 8 And there was much joy in that city. 

9 But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime in the city used sorcery, and amazed the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is that power of God which is called Great. 11 And they gave heed to him, because that of long time he had amazed them with his sorceries. 12 But when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 And Simon also himself believed: and being baptized, he continued with Philip; and beholding signs and great miracles wrought, he was amazed. 14 Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15 who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit: 16 for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, 19 saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit. 20 But Peter said unto him, Thy silver perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money. 21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right before God. 22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee. 23 For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. 24 And Simon answered and said, Pray ye for me to the Lord, that none of the things which ye have spoken come upon me. 25 They therefore, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 26 But an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza: the same is desert. 27 And he arose and went: and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship; 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. 30 And Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31 And he said, How can I, except some one shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth: 33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: His generation who shall declare? For his life is taken from the earth. 34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other? 35 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, preached unto him Jesus. 36 And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.; 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, for he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached the gospel to all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea. 

9-1 But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2 and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven: 4 and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: Stopping as guided...

Soooo, many of you know that I have had a heavy heart because of how the seeming "merge" of church and politics has resulted in a divided nation...and even divided families... As you know, I finished recently Michael L. Bown's the Political Seduction of the Church: How Millions of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel. I will continue sharing chapter by chapter as previously indicated... But, of course, when God Speaks, I kinda think I should listen to Him first...👵

The first word that struck me in the scripture was a great persecution of the church. Indeed, we all feel that something has gone wrong with the church...but what is it, we've been asking. This was just after Stephen had been murdered! Violence against the church...Certainly we are seeing, witnessing, and, yes, talking and praying about how violence had become part of the actions in relation to the church...

Again, I picked out the next words that caught attention and am giving you my thoughts...they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions... My first thought was one I use often--that Jesus has asked that we go out and talk about Him...NOT use violence or coercion of any kind, except our love, to bring others to Christ... So while Saul and others who were speaking against the men of Jesus, the apostles went out into lands that were not normally those who would know of this new faith...and performed miracles to those, even, of different faiths... And love and healing was their message!

But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2 and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. One man, yes, one man there at the time of threats, slaughter, and murder continued his violence against all who followed Christ... Of course, you know who I at once thought of...for he has incited much violence against the lord of love, yet many think him the messiah, according to Dr. Brown...

And then God said to Saul Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Can I assume what I believe is right? That Christ has said, I see how you all are persecuting all my followers, the Christians... using violence when love is what I taught...? One of the points that Dr. Brown made is that some are saying that Trump is like Cyrus (or Saul, perhaps) in that God has chosen to change our former president for His Good Use... But, of course, Dr. Brown and I both agree... what is happening is not a revival of love, a giving to share with our neighbors in need... In fact, many of other faiths have been banned from coming to America...and those already in America who are of a different religion, are being persecuted...just as Saul and many leaders at that time, did to Christ. Where is the love that the apostles went out to share with others who knew not Jesus...yet...but were found and given His Spirit! 

Soooo, folks, how do you feel about what I've shared. Is the entire event a God Incident?! I think so... I believe that Christ is watching--Indeed the Holy Trinity is involved! Spend time asking and listening for answers... and, if you think about it, share and discuss my words with others who are wondering, worrying, and waiting... Because, there is ONE Thing I do know! God Indeed is In Control! America WILL BE REUNITED WITH ALL PEOPLES OF ALL NATIONS LIVING TOGETHER, BEING NEIGHBORS... And, learning about Jesus as we who Believe His Words, from those of us who speak of love...not hate...

My Burden is to read as many books that are out there, giving knowledge...recent information, thoughtful commentary... I know books are expensive, and I'm able to read and share with you as I am guided...and concerned about what has and is happening... Leave comments or ask questions...or even disagree with me, telling me why... But, do, I pray, seek Truth! God's Truth - His Love... Don't forget that the author of the Political Seduction book also has AskDrBrown...so go directly to an expert of the evangelical christian faith...seek out the WHY? We all have a responsibility to help ensure the future goes where God is LOVE!