There is No God

Michaelangelo's depiction of the creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel circa 1512

There is no god.

That is a message we often hear. And another which is a bit more subtle, but which has the same effect, "All gods are the same." This last assertion, of the equivalency of all religions should be very familiar to those who have read C. S. Lewis' books, The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically the book The Last Battle.

In that book, the cat Ginger promotes the belief in Tashlan - an amalgamation of the evil diety Tash and the good diety Aslan.  Ginger teaches that Aslan and Tash are the same. Many characters in the book prefer to embrace this easier path and much mischief, destruction and unhappiness results.  It is the central conflict of the book, and in case you haven't read it, I won't spoil the ending for you.

But you and I are living in a different book. We are living in the Book of Life.  And, like our own lives, this book has a beginning, a middle, and most ominously, an end.  And, like any compelling story, our lives, individually and collectively involve an unavoidable conflict.

In Lewis' The Last Battle, the conflict was the choice between Tash and Aslan.  Ginger, by promoting the conflation of Tash and Aslan was presenting a false choice that appeared to be no choice.

Today, we hear three main voices on the topic of religion.  I will tackle each of these separately here, because each is an important argument that each person needs to confront as part of being a responsible adult human being.

1) God does not exist.  Religion is the opiate of the masses and guilty of causing most human suffering throughout history.

2) All religions are the same.  Whatever way you choose to worship god is fine.  The important thing is to live a life that reflects the religious values that are common to nearly all religions - caring for the poor, providing for your family, being kind to others.

3) There is only one true religion, and if you reject that one true religion, then there are unpleasant consequences which will eventually and unavoidably come to you.

I will address each of these in the order above.

1) God Does Not Exist 

- This argument is extremely prevalent, perhaps for the first time in human history.  It has gained ground steadily under two influences: 

A) Communism explicitly embraces the notion that God does not exist and that religion is used by the powers of the world to maintain their hold over the masses by conflating their eternal salvation with support for the government which holds them in thrall.  

B) Intellectualism - this is the conceit of the educated.  They get a bit more knowledge than the average person, be that through science or the arts, and they come to the conclusion that diety is a concept that was invented by humankind to  explain with superstitious stories the world around them which they, at the time, lacked the knowledge to explain and understand. 

Both Communism and Intellectualism reject the concept of the existence of intelligent beings whose powers, knowledge and abilities are incomprehensibly far beyond our own, and who are related to us and seeking to help us.  At best, they will lump this into the realms of science fiction and fantasy novels.  At worst, they utterly embrace the double conceit that humankind is the pinnacle of evolution, not only on this planet, but in the entire universe and that if humankind cannot attain something through their own powers, then it does not exist.

Here is the most pernicious outcome of the notion that god does not exist - it is that humankind is the sole arbiter of right and wrong, good and evil.  Whatever conclusions about those things humanity reaches, must be right, because we are collectively too smart to be all wrong together.

One symptom (and cause of this) is that today, we see an educational system in this country that is being perverted from one that teaches people how to use their powers of reasoning and experimentation to examine facts and come to their own conclusions, into a generation of people who are educated to see everything through the biased lenses of a set of socially acceptable opinions that are purveyed as facts.  

Unfortunately, when people cease to believe in diety, then they cease to believe that one day they will be held accountable for all their actions in this life.  All religions have this in common - the notion that after we leave this life, diety will judge us and reward us according to our obedience to the things we were taught that were right.  If god does not exist, then there is no final accountability where we are measured against an absolute and unyielding yardstick.

This denial of diety and the consequent judgement is extremely liberating to the minds of many.  It frees them up to be as fiendish as they desire while allowing them to utterly ignore either conventional notions of good and evil or the nagging voice of conscience that tries to dissuade them from their destructive and prideful path.  Eventually, they are able to utterly silence the voice of conscience, and they take this withdrawal of the voice of god in their lives as conclusive evidence that they were right in their notion that god does not exist and what is right is whatever they can get away with.

In a world without god, might makes right.  Whether that is the might of majority opinion, or the might of superior firepower.

2) All Religions Are The Same 

- I won't spend a whole lot of time in this space, because of one important reason, the bottom line of this notion is this:  If all relgions are the same, then they are the same as no religion.  Which means that whatever path you decide is right, is right.  This, in the end, is the same as saying There is No God.

The most vile aspect of this notion is the moral equivalency it makes between groups like ISIS who are killing and torturing all who they define as sinners and every other religious organization in the world, including the Dalai Lama, the Pope, and your local priest or minister.  So, whether the religion teaches tolerance and peace, or violent destruction of dissenters, they are all morally the same.

When President Obama makes public arguments equating the Christian Crusaders of the Middle Ages with  ISIS, his argument does not highlight the horror of savage intolerance, rather it seeks to undermine any moral argument that Christianity is different than Islam.  His argument promotes the notion of moral equivalency and instead of increasing the strength or moral and religious arguments against the likes of ISIS, it destroys the foundation for outrage against any outrageous conduct by any person or group.

The Lion Monument or Löwendenkmal, a striking rock sculpture dedicated to the fallen Swiss mercenaries who served under France's notorious King Louis XVI. Narnia fans might find it familiar as it evokes the dying Aslan on the stone table.

3) There is Only One True Religion 

- When I hit on this topic, I know, without question, that I will offend many.  Unfortunately for them, many of those who will be offended, if they critically examine their beliefs will find that they have been lulled into the moral equivalency camp and they have replaced their belief in God with a belief that all ways are right.  

Fortunately for me, I am on very firm ground when I assert that there is only one true religion.  I am on firm ground because Jesus Christ said it long before I did.  He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6).  Jesus did not leave room for ambiguity in his assertion.  And, he was teaching obedience to the god of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.

Image courtesy of GivingPraise.com

Contrary to what Islam preaches, he did proclaim himself as the Son of God, numerous times and placed himself above Abraham.  When he did this in Nazareth, they immediately tried to kill him for speaking what they thought was blasphemy (see John 8:58).

In case I am not being clear enough here, I will state it so plainly that it cannot be misunderstood: Christianity is the only religion on earth that is true.  All other religions have some pieces of the truth and have some value, but they are not pointing people toward the one god that actually exists.

And, before anyone can mock this assertion because of the proliferation of Christian churches, let me stat clearly that there is only one Christian church which is true, in that it possess both the correct teachings and the authority from God to carry out ordinances on earth, such as baptism, that are as binding on God as they are on man.

There is truly, as was stated by Paul, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (Ephesians 4:5). And one religion.  And, it is not one from many, as most Protestant Christian churches preach. Rather, there is only one that contains the binding authority that Christ gave to the Apostle Peter when he told him, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18)

God does exist. And, we know of His existence, not as the intellectualist says because we made it up, rather, we know of His existence, his attributes, his purposes, and our relationship to Him because He revealed Himself, again and again.  He did not leave us here to fend for ourselves and to labor in ignorance.

He showed himself to Adam and Eve and taught them. And He did not leave it at that. He revealed Himself to Enoch and to Noah. And later to Abraham and Jacob.  Then to Moses and Joshua.  And when God sent His own Son to teach His children, they killed him as they did the prophets before him.

But even after the death of Jesus Christ, God revealed himself to the Apostles and many others.  But those witnesses too were killed by those who didn't want to accept the idea that there was only one true religion, one true church, and it wasn't theirs. 

In our days, God again revealed Himself and immediately dispelled the many mistaken notions that had arisen around His nature, purposes, and ways.  And, like those messengers who were rejected in times past, this messenger too was attacked and eventually killed when the message he preached said, again, that there is one true religion, one true church, and it wasn't one of those in power at the time.

I know that my statements here will anger or offend many, but again, let me say that I am only repeating what God Himself has said:

"And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually--"

Doctrine and Covenants 1:30 (emphasis added)

God said it. I cannot argue against it or ameliorate it without turning away from what He has said.  That being said, I also know that under God's plan, no one who lives to any degree in accordance with His doctrines will be shorted in their reward when life is done, whether or not they knew they were His doctrines and principles.  So, it behooves all humankind to live with the sure knowledge that when life is over we will be held accountable for all our deeds in this life by a power far greater than we can comprehend.

In counter to the three points at the start of this article, to conclude this article let me offer three counterpoints:

1) God is real.

2) Moral equivalence is not just wrong, it is evil and destructive.

3) There is one true religion which has been revealed and which can be verified using only the means and methods God has revealed.

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.

Visit Tom's Amazon.com Author's Page

(c) Copyright 2015 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

 Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.

Am I Being Judgmental?

 The Bible teaches, "Judge not."  Or does it?

"Judge not" is not the whole of the teaching.  What it really says, is, "Judge not, that ye be be not judged.  For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged"  Matthew 7:1-2

Many take this as a commandment that we should not judge others.  However, that understanding is false, because it is incomplete.  In John 7:24, we are told, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."  In Psalms (37:30) we read, "The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment."

So, actually, we are commanded by God to judge.  And, we are cautioned to use righteous judgment. 

That begs the question, "what is righteous judgment?" 

In part this can be answered by saying what is unrighteous judgment.

Hypocritical judgment, where we point the finger at someone else when we are guilty of even worse, unrepentant, behavior is unrighteous judgment.  This is what Jesus was referring to when he said we had to first remove the beam from our own eye (truly repenting), before we can legitimately help remove the speck (mote) from another's eye.

When our judgment is based on presuming to know things that we cannot know, we are engaged in unrighteous judgment.  For example, when you assume you know the motives for an action, unless the  actor told you their motives, you cannot know it, because you cannot read minds. 

Another example of this is when you assume someone is going to Hell, or Heaven.  You don't know the thoughts and intents of their hearts (which God will use to judge us), and you don't even know ALL the acts another has done, so you lack the necessary information to make righteous judgment on this matter.  And, God has reserved this particular judgment and kept it out of our hands.

You can exercise righteous judgment by judging actions (rather than actors).  To put it another way, you can righteously judge that someone who is commiting adultery is doing something wrong (evil).  But, if you judge that the adulterer is going to Hell you have engaged in unrighteous judgment.  You can righteously judge whether or not someone has broken a law of man or of God, but you cannot know if a person has broken a law of conscience.

Why am I talking about judgment in a politico-religious blog?  

This exploration was spurred by something that Star Parker said in her book, "Uncle Sam's Plantation."  She took the stance that much of the problems of poverty (and society) today is the replacement of the idea of right and wrong with the notion of values. She sums the idea in the following words,

“Life is chance, and values are relative. I can do whatever I think is right”

Then, she goes on to relate this idea to the actual behavior of a variety of individuals, including herself.

The events of the past several years reveal the natural consequences of a society embracing that philosophy. People blowing up federal buildings, mailing letter bombs or anthrax, disposing of live newborns in dumpsters—these are all acts that seemed right to those who carried them out. This type of moral relativism, taken to its logical extreme, can even justify using airplanes as human bombs to murder innocent civilians. I found it easy to reject the concept of faith because all absolutes were judgmental,

She found it easy to reject the concept of faith because faith introduces the idea that right and wrong can be absolutes instead of relative.  And all absolutes are judgmental.  And, being judgmental is being bad because we are told to "judge not."

Some of my children have accused my wife and I of being judgmental because we stated, without apology, that sexual promiscuity (heterosexual and homosexual) is wrong.  They conflated our condemnation of the acts with a condemnation of the actor (their friend).  Honestly, their confusion on that point is easy to understand.  Many folks don't make the distinction between the act and the actor when they make or express their judgments.  It isn't uncommon to hear someone say, "... he is a bad person, he did bad things."

The irony of my childrens' condemnation of my wife and I as "judgmental" is that they are probably the most judgmental people I have ever met.  Those who don't agree with their views on social matters are almost universally determined to be bad people.  Case in point, if someone opposes gay-marriage, they are a bad person, trying to deny same-sex-marriage proponents of their right to pursue happiness in their own way.

This is also consistent with the utter intolerance of atheists for religionists.  A recent FB dialog I had with folks on that topic is illustrative.  The response of atheists was that religionists should "just shut the f*** up."  Profanity, vitriol and personal attacks while discussing a topic are hallmarks of bigotry and intolerance.  Bigotry and intolerance are hallmarks of unrighteous judgment.

We also see this kind of bigotry and unrighteous judgment in the most ardent proponents of the LGBT movement and among racists (of any color).  The key point here is to make sure that we are not having a beam in our own eye on the point of judgment, regardless of the size of the chunk of wood in someone else's eye.  We cannot excuse our own bad behaviors by pointing to the bad behaviors of our opponents.

But, don't get me wrong here.  I am not saying we should continue to let liberal bullies beat on us while we scream "forgive me, for I have sinned."  Rather, we need to be very assertive and even confrontational without resorting to profanity, vitriol and personal attacks.  We need to argue the cases for Constitutional Conservatism by pointing stubbornly to facts and remaining calm.  When the bullies throw punches, we need to block their attacks and counter-punch with clear-headed facts and cogent arguments, rather than losing our temper and resorting to tantrums or purely emotional responses.

There is nothing inherently wrong with an emotional argument, as long as it can be backed up with facts.  But bear in mind that an emotional argument without facts is just an opinion, not an argument.

For instance, you can say, "I know that people who live by Christian principles, live happier, more fulfilling lives."  That is an opinion and an emotional argument.  It may be right and I may agree with it or it may move me.  AND when you can also cite unbiased surveys and studies that support your assertions, it moves from being simply an opinion or emotional argument into the realm of being a cogent, well founded argument in favor of your position.

To give you a counter example, consider the arguments of the gun-banners.  They assert that banning firearm ownership, or severely limiting it makes society safer.  This is an emotional argument and an opinion.  The emotion is based on the fear of being harmed by someone with a gun.  Unfortunately for the gun-banners, the studies and statistics show that banning or severely limiting legal gun ownership consistently results in higher rates of violent crime.  Consider the current high murder rates of Chicago and New York where legal gun ownership is highly restricted, with those low murder rates in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix where gun ownership is widespread and the right to carry is largely unimpeded.

Or, to take this back to one of Ms. Star's points, consider that every time the minimum wage is increased, the unemployment and underemployment among the most economically challenged people in this country increases.  Employers, forced to pay more for each employee, cut back on the number of employees and pushes each employee still on the payroll to be more productive to make up for the folks who are no longer on the line, or they fire them all and hire robots instead.

Of course, the liberal answer to that last point is, "there oughta be a law against that." and then they try to push forward the nanny-state further by one more piece of ineffective, taxing piece of legislation.

But, back to the point about judgment, Ms. Star Parker says it well when she says, 

“God is your source, not the government!”

We should look to God, He is our source.  Look to His plan for our happiness (to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life [Moses 1:39]), and judge the actions of ourselves and others against that absolute measure of right and wrong, instead of using the changeable measuring sticks of society and government.

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.

Visit Tom's Amazon.com Author's Page

(c) Copyright 2015 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

 Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.

Islam, Anti-Christ, and Prayer

The other day, I received this in my email.  Please read through it and I will comment at the end.

I know there are some of you that are Democrat and love Obama, but this is for Christians first, politics later.   I do pray that it doesn't offend anybody with the truth of the message, but it has to be sent. If you love your Lord first and your politics later, then you will appreciate this message. If you don't, I'm sorry I judged you wrong. When we get 100,000,000, that's one hundred million willing Christians to BOND together, voice their concerns and vote, we can take back America with God's help.   Become one of the One hundred million... Then let's get 200 million. It can be done just by sending this email to your friends.   Do the math. It only takes a single willing heart and a fed up SOUL. 

God Bless America and Shine your light on Her!   In 1952 President Truman Established one day a year as a "National Day of Prayer."   

In 1988 President Reagan Designated the first Thursday in May of each year as The National Day of Prayer.   

In June 2007 (then) Presidential Candidate BarackObama Declared that the USA "Was no longer a Christian nation.   

In 2009 President Obama Canceled the 21st annual National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House under the ruse of "not wanting to offend anyone." HOWEVER... On September 25, 2009 From 4 AM until 7 PM, A National Day of Prayer FOR THE MUSLIM RELIGION Was Held on Capitol Hill, inside the White House. There were over 50,000 Muslims In D.C. that day. PRESIDENT OBAMA PRAYS WITH THE MUSLIMS! I guess it doesn't matter if "Christians" were offended by this event - We obviously don't count as "anyone" anymore.   Now President Obama is encouraging schools to teach the Quran for extra credit, while at the same time, they cannot even talk about the Bible, God, pray, or salute the American Flag. The direction this country is headed should strike fear in the heart of every Christian  especially knowing that the Muslim religion believes that if Christians cannot be converted, they should be annihilated.  

Send this to ten people, or even one hundred and ten!   And, send it the person who Sent it to you!. . To let them know that indeed, it was sent out to many more.

Okay, so that is the email I got.  First, let me say I really hate anything that resembles a chain letter. So, when someone sends me something that says "pass this on," I usually don't, just on principle. If you want to paste it into an email or put it on your blog or Facebook, feel free, but doing so won't prove your love of God or Country and not doing it won't reveal you as a Summer Patriot either. 

Regardless of the "chain-letter" feel, this one called attention to something that I think warrants widespread attention, especially from Christians.  And, since this blog is primarily focused on the collision space between God and Government, then this seemed appropriate.

Although it has consistently been soft-pedaled by the mainstream media, Obama publicly admitted in his books that he will stand with the Muslims.  Add to that a couple of other things in his resume.  
    1) During his first campaign I was watching one of his interviews where he referred to Islam as "my faith." Then he quickly backpedaled, saying "their faith", and the reporter totally let it slide. 
    2) In his own books Obama said he would stand with Islam. 
    2) For more than 20 years he claimed his spiritual guide was the Reverend Jeremiah Wright who takes the framework for his beliefs and preaching from "Liberation  Theology" which, if you didn't know, was created by the KGB as a means to get "Christian" ministers to preach the tenets of communism and anti-Americanism.

So, what we have in our current President of the United States is a Muslim who publicly embraces a theology that has it origins in the Communist Manifesto, which preaches that religion is nothing more or less than a means to control the masses ("... religion is the opiate of the masses.").

Some would be dismissive of all this and say, what does it matter if he is Muslim or not?  Well, to everyone who is not Muslim this is a really, really big deal, because it will ultimately determine if they live or die, when he gets his way.  You may think I am being melodramatic here, but it really is that serious.

Why would I say it is a matter of life and death?  Because, according to the teachings of "the religion of peace" anyone who is not a Muslim, a Christian or a Jew has the choice of either converting to Islam or being killed.  And Christians and Jews, if they want to live, get to pay an annual tax for the privilege of not being killed.  In Islam, there are exactly three categories of people: 1) Muslims 2) Infidels (Jews and Christians) and 3) Pagans.  And the Pagans are to be killed if they won't convert to Islam.  Now, do you understand why Pakistan and Bangladesh had to be carved out of India into separate countries and maintain a pretty hostile relationship with India?  It is because both Pakistan and Bangladesh are predominantly Muslim populations while India is predominantly "pagan."  Having pagans ruling over Muslims would be utterly intolerable, and produced violent results.

Now, one more point is worthy of mention here.  Many don't realize it, but Islam is anti-Christ.

Hold on!  Don't go all wild-eyed on me here.  Do you really know what that term means?

Most Christians get all wrapped up in the Book of the Revelation of Saint John (aka Revelations) and talk about "The Anti-Christ."  But they don't really even know what the phrase anti-Christ means.  They assume it means something like opposite-of-Christ.  You know, like in Star Trek where you have matter and anti-matter.  But, that isn't really what the term means.

What anti-Christ means is someone who says that Jesus of Nazareth was not the the Christ, meaning that they deny that he is the Only Begotten Son of God.

Islam promotes that there are four great prophets: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.  What is wrong with this picture is that Jesus was way more that JUST a prophet.  They even claim that Jesus did not ever claim to be the Son of God, even though he did on more than one occasion in the first four books of the New Testament, and of course there was that whole resurrection thing where he appeared to the Apostles, Paul, and upwards of 500 people at one time.  Add to that his appearance as a resurrected being, with the wounds in his hands and feet, to people in the ancient Americas, as recorded in the Book of Mormon and his divinity becomes pretty irrefutable.  Then, cap it off with his appearance in 1820 to a farm boy in upstate New York and later in the 1830s in Kirtland, Ohio to Joseph Smith Junior and Sidney Rigdon and prophet becomes the least of the terms appropriate for referring to Jesus of Nazareth.

So, when Islam says that Jesus is a prophet, folks think that means they are honoring and respecting him.  In fact, they are attempting to diminish him by saying he is NOT divine.  They are being anti-Christ. 

So, why would a closet Muslim lie about his religion and embrace communism wrapped in a mask of 

Christianity?  Well, I cannot know for sure, since he won't come out and tell the truth (the Qur'an [or Koran if you prefer] says it is okay to lie to infidels and pagans, so absolute rules of behavior don't seem to emerge from the Qur'an),  I surmise that he is looking for a scheme that will rationalize the imposition of some form of dictatorship or oligarchy - a totalitarian government which will have, as one of its aims, to make us all equally poor (except for those who are more equal than others, like the oligarchs and high ranking "public servants" who rule over us - they will get fancy houses, armed guards, servants, and chauffeured limousines).

When Obama declared that "the US is not a Christian nation," [see endnote below] he is saying what he wants, not what is.  And, he is well on his way to getting our government and laws divorced from Christ.  Once the divorce is complete, the moral underpinnings of our laws are cut away. that will lead to immoral laws (we've already seen some of those). Eventually, the laws will become so corrupt that people will cry out for a return to morality based rule.  They may even rise up in armed rebellion. What we will then get won't be a return to the Judaeo-Christian basis of laws that apply to all.  Rather, we will get something akin to Sharia Law, which discriminates against those of differing religious beliefs and puts a religious ruler in charge (like the mullahs of Iran) who can declare things to be both illegal and immoral and give their enforcers the confidence that the rewards of heaven are theirs for their zealotry in carrying out every instruction of their politico-religious leaders.

Not a pretty picture, is it?  Before you laugh it all off, consider the source. As a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons), I truly believe that we have a living prophet on the earth today.  I don't think he is perfect, but he is a very good man.  And, I believe that when he is acting in his office, he is telling me what God wants me to do.  However, I still fact-check with God himself.  And, I know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Christ did what he did so that we would have freedom to choose.  He will not take that away from us and He is the one who inspired the Founding Fathers to write our Constitution.  He supports it.  

But, He will let us throw it away.  And a government that is truly run by God and according to His principles and teachings won't deprive us of choice, or tolerate mistreatment of others because they don't believe the same way as He wants us to. 

Every Christian who believes that the Bible is the word of God knows that in the end, Christ himself will return here to rule the world in person.  That is the only time it will be appropriate to have a theocracy in this land.  Until then, let the President and the Prophet be two different people.  And, let the government and the church not become one.

Endnote:  This is kind of an aside, but when I was looking into this quote I followed one link to FactCheck.org which is supposed to be exactly that - a source of facts instead of opinions.  Instead of telling me what he said, or did not say, the site tries to tell me what he meant.  " Here's what Obama meant to say,...".  Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I have found that FactCheck.org spouts editorial opinions instead of just providing facts.  So, rather than cite a source where the quote is written out, I linked to a YouTube video where you can hear exactly what he says.

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.

Visit Tom's Amazon.com Author's Page

(c) Copyright 2015 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

 Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.