SIN,
CRIME AND KATRINA
FEED ME MASSA' GUMMINT! BOSS MAN SAVE ME!
By: Nathanael
The massive dislocations from Katrina have revealed the endemic criminal
nature of the New Orleans underclass. Having been born and raised in Greater New Orleans (first
in NO on Fern St. off St. Charles Ave. near Carrollton Avenue, then in Metairie on Page
Dr. off Veterans Blvd., then in Gretna on Colony Rd. off the Belle Chase Highway and a
graduate of De La Salle High School on St. Charles Ave.), it is irrefutable that the
majority of crime in NOLA originates in the black community. Yes, NOLA is poverty and
crime riddled but no worse than in DC, Detroit, Oak Cliff-South Dallas and others.
So why has the "black crime problem" now emerged in certain local Dallas
conversations? Could it be that the criminal element was not informed that Highland Park
and University Park were off limits just like Audubon Place near Tulane University?
Is it really a "black problem" or is the root cause something other? The
liberal explanation that "poverty and crime" are due to unfunded job programs,
inadequate redistributionist welfare, lack of education, historical prejudice or mean
spirited non-blacks is empty of truth and beyond old.
The visible crime problem telecast from NOLA actually had two faces. One was obvious
and local. The other was subtle and pandemic. It chilled the soul to watch so many folks
crying out... "The government has done nothing for me. Feed me. Give me shelter. Take
care of me. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do."
Katrina has laid open the nation’s systemic embrace of government as
creator-protector-master. The major media and academia have collaborated by tilling,
watering, weeding and fertilizing this socialist cancer whenever possible. It was the
Democratic icons FDR and LBJ who first instituted American Communism and now the whole
GOP, except for Ron Paul, are willing participants in collectivist theft and forced
redistribution.
Rich and poor are equally addicted. The dependant poor, illiterate or not, think they
are owed something from the government and The Man. They are not. The rich, having been
forced to pay outrageous, confiscatory and illegal taxes, think it is the
government’s job to take care of and remove the poor from their sight. That job never
was and still is not the role of Constitutional government.
Our urbanized, techno-society has resulted in the majority being unable to provide for
themselves. Coming face to face with that vulnerability is one way to understand the
societal chaos after Katrina. Also, the previously common exposure to the healthy core
values of rural life with its connection to the Creator’s Creation has been lost.
What had once been self-sufficiency accompanied by the daily accomplishment of growing or
doing something tangible has all but disappeared.
The small farming communities in America’s Tornado Alley do not degenerate into
lawlessness after weather catastrophes. The Amish have neither a rampant crime problem nor
do they demand government handouts if disaster happens. An insatiable appetite for the
empty wealth of celebrity is now the common American reality. "Things" have
become preeminent.
America’s poverty-crime-welfare-illiteracy-morality problem is primarily
theological and derivatively political. But, the American pulpits have been darkened, its
voice self-muzzled, no true refuge can be found and they do the bidding of the
Local/State/Federal/UN Government. Any 501-c3, non-profit corporate church
has organized itself as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Corporate State, its creator and
master.
Politically speaking…
America has surrendered its freedom and responsibilities for a gilded cage on a
socialist, techno-plantation. The Constitution has been buried. You, your children, your
vehicles, your fiat currency, your gold, your property, your marriage, your business, your
church corporation...everything you think you "own" has been appropriated by the
State. At best you only rent the stuff.
Why is it the obligation of the citizens from Iowa, Nevada, Oregon, Maine and other states
to pay for Katrina’s damage brought about by the insane housing decisions of the
residents of New Orleans? The city is underneath sea level and dead in the middle of the
Mississippi River’s alluvial flood plain. Only the Amazon flows more water
than the Mississippi and life-threatening hurricanes come to the Gulf of Mexico every
year. Ignorance of this inevitable calamity cannot be used as an excuse.
Now that inundation has come, where in the Constitution is the option or the obligation
of the FedGov to crank up the debt machine and flood the place with fake-money FRN’s?
Compassion and assistance for those who have suffered in this disaster is right, proper
and Biblical. It is for the willing individuals, relatives and groups of individuals to
respond. Nowhere in the Constitution is it mandated or optional for the FedGov to rebuild
New Orleans, much less to have everyone else pay for it.
The only sensible, non-communist way for New Orleans to be rebuilt would be as free
city, as in Hong Kong or Monaco. Michael S. Rozeff
on Lew Rockwell does an excellent job of explaining the benefits of such an act of freedom
in "The Gulf Coast –
What Next?" The free market will work every time, a lot quicker and much less
costly than Soviet Commands from the Kremlin on the Potomac. |
It is the un-Constitutional US FedGov disaster that needs permanent
fixing. The problem of protecting one’s personal wealth and resurrecting true liberty
dims with each Supreme Court session, every election of spineless Congress-people and the
pre-selection of Imperial Presidents from the neo-Fascist Republicans or paleo-Communist
Democrats. The first step toward restoration of liberty would be the re-education of basic
truths and Constitutional principles. That effort will not come from the bowels of our
defacto rulers.
Theologically speaking…
Socialism, confiscation of the people’s resources and redistribution to the few,
is grand theft by government. It violates the Eighth Commandment – "Thou
shall not steal." The pulpit stands silent when it should be thundering against
this systemic sin.
The civil laws that have systematized the crimes of stealing, robbery, fraud, unfair
takings, theft, embezzlement and etcetera are based in this Scripture. Men know this as
sin. Man was created knowing this.
For those who might argue that Romans 13 gives government immunity from criticism and
the demand for just dealings, please consider what Jesus said to a ruler of men in the
Gospel of Mark.
Mark 10:17-23 (New American Standard Bible)
The Rich Young Ruler
17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt
before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life?"
18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good
except God alone.
19 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,
DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND
MOTHER.'"
20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my
youth up."
21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing
you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven; and come, follow Me."
22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was
one who owned much property.
23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it will
be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!"
The local and national crime problem is a direct expression of the human sin problem
that originated with the Fall of Man in the Garden. This elemental Biblical doctrine - all
men without exception are the fallen, sinful seed of Adam and in dire need of a Saviour -
is anathema to the seeker-friendly Rick Warrens of today. An easy argument can be made
from the Bible that the sin character of man is amplified when people cluster in large
cities.
The American institutional church hides from the Biblical doctrine of sin and the
fallen nature of man. The New Testament clearly speaks of this reality.
Romans 5:8-15 (New American Standard Bible)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from the wrath of God through Him.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death
of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--
13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there
is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had
not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the
transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the
grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
1 Corinthians 15:20-27 (New American Standard Bible)
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits
of those who are asleep.
21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the
dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who
are Christ's at His coming,
24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father,
when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
27 For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET But when He says,
"All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He is excepted who put
all things in subjection to Him.
The modern American Evangelical church also worships mammon in direct violation of the
First Commandment – "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me."
The overt worship of money found in Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston,
Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar and other Word of Faith preachers
are not the only examples. There is the subtle, studied worship of affluence and power
found at "respectable" Dallas institutions such as Park Cities Presbyterian
Church, Highland Park Methodist Church, Park Cities Baptist, St. Michael and All Angels
and others.
The Sermon
on the Mount and numerous other passages in the Bible instruct those who have to share
with those who do not. In situations such as Katrina, Followers
of the Way of Jesus are to give and do what they can. They are to be cognizable as His Bride,
doing peaceful and righteous acts, and preparing the way for His Kingdom, ruled by the
Prince of Peace. Acts of mercy in helping Believers and non-believers alike are examples
of common grace
and fulfilling the Matthew
28 Great Commission.
The liberal denominations run from the doctrine of sin and Biblical Truth. The high
profile evangelical preachers are enrapt with power, image and money. Many in the
supposedly Reformed denominations have an academic theology disconnected from the real
world and are unwilling to rock the boat.
Jesus did not flinch from making very serious condemnations of the rulers in His day.
See Matthew
23 and Luke
11.
Matthew 23:23-27 (New American Standard Bible)
23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law:
justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without
neglecting the others.
24 "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the
outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and
self-indulgence.
26 "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the
dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead
men's bones and all uncleanness.
Luke 11:44-49 (New American Standard Bible)
44 "Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the
people who walk over them are unaware of it."
45 One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, "Teacher, when You say this,
You insult us too."
46 But He said, "Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with
burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of
your fingers.
47 "Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your
fathers who killed them.
48 "So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because
it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.
49 "For this reason also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them
prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute,
And yet…the people are being consumed by governmental thievery and mayhem,
cultural pathology and an absence of Biblical Truth being proclaimed about the current
morass.
Are there any shepherds who will speak against this shearing of the flock?
What say you R. C. Sproul?
What say you Sinclair
Ferguson?
What say you Skip Ryan?
What say you John MacArthur?
What say you John Piper?
What say you Alistair Begg?
"Published originally at EtherZone.com :
republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."
Nathanael is self-employed and lives in
Dallas, Texas. He had only ever been a life long registered Republican
but changed to the Constitution Party in May of 2004. It would jeopardize his career
if his real name was used, hence the pseudonym of Nathanael. He is a regular
columnist for Ether Zone.
Nathanael can be reached at nathanael4551@yahoo.com
Published in the September 27, 2005 issue of Ether Zone.
Copyright © 1997 - 2005 Ether
Zone.
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