Human Rights

The original intent of this blog was to call attention to and give my perspective on human rights abuses around the world. Over the years United States politics has taken center stage as the United States, its mere existence, is the greatest defender of human rights the world has ever seen. This free and still Christian nation has been the platform for many to stand upon to speak out against abuses around the world. It has been a refuge for many who have escaped tyranny and persecution from its very founding. The United States’ economy and free market capitalist system has been a driving force in bringing relief and prosperity to nations near and far, raising the living standards of all people.

So the political and economic state of this great nation is a human rights issue. When we lose our moral compass, our moral fortitude, and ignore the plight of the rest of the world we only empower tyrants to act more boldly. When our economy fails, so will the economies of most the world bringing utter devastation to some.

As we end this year with many putting together lists of the biggest events of 2012 and pondering the lives of significant people who have passed trying to make us all feel special just for being here, let me share my perspective on the human condition. Let me give you my understanding of the condition of human rights as I see it from what a common man can glean from the various forms of media available in this modern age.

Russia certainly allows the freedom to assemble and religious freedom. People are free to build businesses, a life for themselves, but become too successful or locate in a desirable area and the government will take over all your assets and most likely throw you in prison whether you are Russian or foreign born. The courts rubber stamp the governments agenda and journalists are murdered on a regular basis if they dare print the truth or question authority.

Russia still persecutes and harasses break away republics and is a supporter of Syria which has now murdered tens of thousands of its own citizens in order to hold onto power. Why are we so incapable of removing a murderer who kills openly before the eyes of the world?

The Arab Spring has unseated tyrants of various levels of infamy but has opened the door for even greater tyrants to take over. The struggle goes on. Piracy, slavery, corruption, genocide and the ravages of war and starvation still persist in Africa.

China is persecuting and murdering Christians as well as other religious groups and political dissidents. Little is said because they are China and their economic growth has been considered a miracle, something to aspire in the opinion of some. Though the environmental and human disasters unfolding would never be tolerated in the developed world they are given a pass. Now adding an aircraft carrier to their navy, with more to come, their talk of expansion via military is becoming recognized as a real threat.

But why take China seriously if we will not take Iran seriously as they pursue nuclear weapons, weapons they have said over and over they will use to wipe Israel off the face of the earth? We have been warned. The Iranians themselves suffer from a brutal and objective form of justice under Islamic rule.

The evils of North Korea are rising into the consciousness of the general public through the research and work of authors who have taken up the cause of the few who have escaped. The brutal imprisonment of political prisoners along with three generations of their families is being uncovered. Prison camps as large as cities where living conditions are below subsistence where murderous execution is commonplace are being exposed. The media has begun to inform the larger public of these realities because of the books and no one looks to whitewash over these atrocities because they are Korea. Though the government may convey their works as miracles before its people, no one else is insane enough to see them that way.

Mexico, Central and South America are still ravaged by drug gangs and the remnants of communist insurgencies. Many of the murderous rampages that have become commonplace across our southern border were fueled with arms from our very own President Obama through his Fast and Furious campaign leading to scores of deaths if not more.

Human trafficking and the sexual abuse of women and children are epidemic in our society. Cuba is awash with child prostitutes. The Internet is filled with every dehumanizing perversion one can imagine and then some. Significant historic cultures centered on Islam and older religions relegate women to the status of material. The Taliban and other Islamic groups maim and murder women for seeking an education. In India we have the recent gang rape and murder of a medical college student while on what was thought to be a public bus. If anything could be a catalyst for women’s rights around the world to become front and center in 2013 it will be this women’s horrific struggle and death.

What is more important, more central to life than our duty to our fellow man, women included? What is more central to a good and righteous world, for us to be a single family of man, than the dignity of women in society to anchor the institution of family in safe harbor?

Did Mitt Romney Lose because He is a Mormon?

My first instinct, when I heard that over three million (now I hear four) of the Republican base didn’t turn out in the last Presidential election, was that it was because Mitt Romney was a Mormon. No one in the media claimed outright that it was the cause but some alluded to it. Now after the fact I am hearing from others, when the topic of politics arises, that they hold the same impression as myself.

Was Mitt Romney’s faith the only reason they didn’t vote for him or anyone? Or did other reasons combine with the bigotries of many in this country to bring about this failing result? If this four million had come out to vote for Mitt Romney would the outcome have changed?

We would still be contesting the election results even now if the entire republican base had come out. Fights would be going on in the courts and our country would be locked in a state of confusion.

So are we a nation of bigots, haters and racists? Surely if we were a nation of racists we would not have elected Barack Hussein Obama in the first place. It has been clear debates over policy that have been the issues with all of us who have opposed the President, not his race. The fact that he and his family go out freely, travel the country and world vacationing, politicking, fundraising and playing golf suggests that there are and never have been any real threats to the President.

Though many have concluded that bigotry cost Mitt Romney the election, would it have if he ran on a truly conservative platform? Would he have won if the republicans themselves did not spend far too long fighting over the nomination, attacking each other and expending large amounts of resources in the primary process?

President Obama is a highly flawed candidate, especially considering the economy, so how did he win? There was Fast and Furious and Benghazi to top the list of numerous acts of incompetence if not outright anti-Americanism. But the democrats picked a single candidate and stuck with him and fought for him with near unshakable loyalty. Why? How?

The United States, the leading Christian nation in the world, has been a source of hope, freedom and blessing the world through. So why is this nation so battered and beleaguered by its enemies? Why have we not been able to put an end to a communist ideology that has failed many times over yet is poised to take this nation to its destructive ends? Why do we appear powerless to bring an end to Islamo- fascism? Why are we incapable of offer leadership to a world that is seeking democracy, seeking the freedoms and prosperity found here in the United States?

It is because our enemies, and I am including the communist leadership of our democratic party, all have a clear world view. They have a clear teaching on how this world should be, how we should all be living together in ‘this world’. Generally Christianity puts all their hope in the next world. There is no Kingdom of Heaven here in this world in the Christian doctrine. This is contrary to the leading thought of Judaism in the days of Jesus, He was a Jew you know, but somehow this ‘no hope in this world’ view, God will come with judgment and fire to “ha ha!” destroy all you who don’t believe as I do (rather than simply evil doers as Judaism teaches), won over the predominantly gentile believers of four-hundred years ago who first brought together a singular cohesive doctrine for the Christian faith. And the “ha ha!” aspect of the worldview destroyed any previous visions of a Christian Kingdom on this earth as wars of religion ravaged the world.

What we must realize as a nation is that the true conservative cause is a solid and well founded Christian worldview. Our founding fathers themselves initially would not even pray together, yet they eventually came together in prayer to open every gathering. They were driven by the leading thinkers of the age, an age of reason and enlightenment, to put together a government that was effective and representative of the people. They were inspired by God to realize all rights came from Him and to understand the inherent evils of any and all overbearing governments. And they existed in an environment that screamed to be fruitful, have dominion and fill the earth. With a vast wilderness spread out before them they were eager to get to work to build their ideals substantially on this earth, in this world. To carve out those shining cities on a hill upon that clean slate of the New World. It was an age of faith, of individual responsibility and drive, and trust in one’s fellow man.

This nation and the ideals upon which it was founded are still the greatest hope for this world. The founding spirit of this nation has the power to bring all peoples and faiths together and lead this world into a yet to be seen world of freedom and prosperity for all. If Mitt Romney had embraced these conservative ideals bigotry would not have been an issue and he would have pulled many so called Reagan democrats to his side.

Ultimately to embrace these conservative ideals, to reignite the founding spirit of this nation we need only to turn back to God and His true ways.