Conversion and Martyrdom: Two of Most Unreported Stories of 2016

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Two seismic events occurred in 2016 that the secular media largely missed.

The press’s failure to report them is caused by many things. Spiritual blindness. Disinterest. Ignorance of religious matters. Obstinate disregard for the reality that faith, not just economics or political power, animates human behavior, good and bad.

Here are the two stories that should arrest the attention of all Christians who are concerned with God’s work in the world:

Around the world, people are coming to know Jesus Christ through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.

Around the world, people who know Jesus Christ are being put to death for their love for him. Others are being tortured, imprisoned, driven from their homes, denied jobs, and otherwise treated cruelly.

The Spread of Faith

As to the first, in every region of the globe, the number of Christians is swelling. For example, in the Middle East, thousands of Muslims are coming to Christ. As reported by the respected anti-persecution ministry Open Doors,

The Islamic State has been filling the headlines for a long time and filling the hearts of many people in the Middle East with fear. But in the midst of all this, the church in the Middle East is showing the love of Christ to those who fled their homes. Muslims in the Middle East are turning to Jesus in unprecedented numbers.

In Iran,

Thousands of Christians are secretly worshiping in Iran as part of a house church movement in the country. The Iranian government considers Christianity a threat to Islam. However, Open Doors USA estimates that as many as 450,000 Christians are in Iran. Others estimate there are more than 1 million practicing Christians in the country.

In 2011, Pew Research published “Global Christianity — A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population.” A careful evaluation of the data led Pew to conclude that there are roughly 70 million Christians in China (around 60 million Protestants and the remainder Catholics). Some observers believe this number is significantly low.

However, according to Purdue University sociologist Fenggang Yang, “the number of Protestant Christians in China could reach 171 million by 2021 and 255 million by 2025 … it is possible that China could become the largest Protestant country by 2021 and the largest Christian country by 2025.”

The growth of the Christian faith is seen in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region broadly. Another of the Pew report’s findings speaks to this:

Christianity has grown enormously in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, where there were relatively few Christians at the beginning of the 20th century. The share of the population that is Christian in sub-Saharan Africa climbed from 9% in 1910 to 63% in 2010, while in the Asia-Pacific region it rose from 3% to 7%. Christianity today — unlike a century ago — is truly a global faith.

The Persecution of the Faithful

Yet with this ongoing and profoundly significant change in religious allegiance throughout the world, there is also a great deal of pain for followers of Jesus. Here are a few headlines that speak to this grim reality:

“Violent Persecution Set to Rise in 2017” — December 29, 2016

“Anti-Christian persecution: 90,000 killed in 2016” — December 26, 2016

“Chinese Communist Party readies crackdown on Christianity” — October 7, 2016

“ISIS Orders Its Franchises to Kill Christians” — August 14, 2016

“New Boko Haram leader vows to kill all Christians” — August 4, 2016

The list could go on and on.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has called President Obama’s record on protecting the persecuted “abysmal.” It is hard not to agree. After leaving the State Department’s key religious liberty post vacant for nearly two years, Mr. Obama appointed a motivational speaker with virtually no knowledge of international persecution issues to the role.

Although her successor, Rabbi David Saperstein, is widely hailed as an effective advocate for the persecuted, the fact remains that President Obama has shown a distinct disinterest in including religious liberty and anti-persecution efforts among his foreign policy priorities.

As his administration draws to a close, the President did recently sign “an update of the 1998 bill that established a religious freedom office in the State Department and an independent watchdog panel, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).” Named the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act in honor of its original author and leading champion for religious liberty around the world, former Congressman Frank Wolf, Christianity Today reports that the measure is designed to improve the federal government’s effectiveness in promoting religious liberty by:

“Requiring the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom to report directly to the secretary of State;

“Establishing an ‘entities of particular concern’ category — a companion to the ‘countries of particular concern’ classification used for nearly 20 years by the State Department — for non-government actors, such as the Islamic State (IS) and the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram.

“Instituting a ‘designated persons list’ for individuals who violate religious freedom and authorizing the president to issue sanctions against those who participate in persecution.”

The bill also “creates a list of overseas religious prisoners; mandates religious liberty training for all foreign service officers; (and) establishes a minimum number of full-time staff members in the State Department’s international religious freedom office.”

This is welcome news not only for the persecuted worldwide but also for our own foreign policy interests: By standing with the persecuted, America not only remains true to her own founding principles of religious liberty and human dignity but also lets the suffering know that they have a friend in the United States. This seed, once planted, will bear good fruit for American diplomacy in the future.

What the enemies of the Gospel don’t understand is that in another of God’s marvelous ironies, persecution only leads to an increase in people coming to Christ. As church father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” May many of those enemies, in 2017, themselves become like Paul — once persecutors, now believers in the Risen Son. May we pray to that end, and never forget to pray and advocate for some of the very least of our — and Jesus’s — brethren. (For more from the author of “Conversion and Martyrdom: Two of Most Unreported Stories of 2016” please click HERE)

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The Most Baffling and Shameful Clinton Endorsement You’ll Read All Year

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In one of the most absurd media endorsement of recent years, the Guardian’s Nigerian edition has named 2016 Democratic presidential nominee as the “Person of the Year” for 2016. Have they really forgotten about her role in the rise of Boko Haram during her time at the U.S. State Department?

The paper’s write-up is just as dubious as the honor. Starting with the failed “Love trumps hate” slogan, the explanation quickly devolves into a praise-only, slathering, tongue bath devoid of any meaningful evaluation of the candidate’s numerous faults and failures. It references her “uncommon dignity” while making no reference to the fact that she referred to a sizable chunk of the American electorate as “a basket or deplorables” or had a complete meltdown in the middle of a public video conference address, which were just two examples of the uninspiring, poorly run campaign that lost the election to Donald Trump.

Conspicuously absent from — and most perplexing about — the POY title is that while it glances across Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, it says nothing about what her apparent cronyism in office did to Nigeria and the entire Lake Chad region. (There were similar instances throughout the rest of the continent, too, but I’m trying to stay focused here.)

As pointed out elsewhere on the site, as what has become the deadliest terror group on earth — Boko Haram — rose to prominence in the African nation’s northern region, Clinton and her subordinates did little more than twiddle their thumbs while the Clinton political machine made bank in foreign donations.

A two-part, investigative report from World Magazine published in July delves into the political wrangling that surrounded the years-long delay of Boko Haram’s designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, even after the administration obtained intelligence indicating Boko Haram’s ties to al Qaeda. Meanwhile, Clinton Foundation donors and others in the then-cabinet secretary’s political circle financially benefitted by making off with hefty political donations:

The Clintons’ long association with top suspect tycoons — and their refusal to answer questions about those associations—takes on greater significance considering the dramatic rise of Boko Haram violence while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. Did some Clinton donors stand to gain from the State Department not taking action against the Islamic terrorist group?

Perhaps the most prominent Nigerian with ties to the Clintons is Houston-based Kase Lawal. The founder of CAMAC Energy, an oil exploration and energy consortium, Lawal had a long history with Bill Clinton before becoming a “bundler” for Hillary’s 2008 presidential bid […]

Today the Houston oil exec — who retired in May as CEO but continues as chairman of the board of CAMAC, now called Erin Energy — tops the list of wealthiest Nigerians living in North America. His firm reports about $2.5 billion in annual revenue, making it one of the top private companies in the United States.

The delays even prompted a congressional probe into Clinton’s Nigeria ties in September.

After Clinton’s resignation from the foundation, many of the hostages may have come home, but Boko Haram is still operating in the jungles of the Lake Chad region. Terror attacks in the country have slowed since the bloody summer of 2015, but now the nation is staring down a jihadism-precipitated famine that threatens the lives of tens of thousands of children. In recent news, one of its leaders proclaimed in New Year’s Eve that “the battle is just beginning.”

The delays even prompted a congressional probe into Clinton’s Nigeria ties in September.

After Clinton’s resignation from the foundation, many of the hostages may have come home, but Boko Haram is still operating in the jungles of the Lake Chad region. Terror attacks in the country have slowed since the bloody summer of 2015, but now the nation is staring down a jihadism-precipitated famine that threatens the lives of tens of thousands of children. In recent news, one of its leaders proclaimed in New Year’s Eve that “the battle is just beginning.”

“[Clinton] ran a campaign of ideas for the future,” the Guardian piece reads. “But her opponent was and is a misogynist, a demagogue whose own ideas, to the extent that he had any, were warped, racist and downright insulting of our collective humanity.”

What about the humanity of those who have been blown to bits, kidnapped, displaced and starved by the terror organization she enabled? Not a drop of digital ‘ink’ to be found.

For any news outlet based out of Nigeria — even if it is an affiliate of a European daily (though it might explain the detachment from reality) — to laud Clinton so one-sidedly while ignoring her role in Nigeria’s dismal and oft-ignored situation is at best baffling, and at worst downright shameful. (For more from the author of “The Most Baffling and Shameful Clinton Endorsement You’ll Read All Year” please click HERE)

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Missouri Gun Owners Won Constitutional Carry. It’s Time to Take This Show NATIONAL

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Constitutional carry is officially legal in the state of Missouri, as a new law permitting legal gun owners to carry concealed firearms has gone into effect with the start of the new year.

The bill that was enacted into law, Senate Bill 656, allows individuals to carry hidden weapons anywhere they can carry weapons openly. Missouri joins 10 other states that allow concealed carry.

The bill’s sponsor, former Missouri Representative Eric Burlison, said that an American’s Second Amendment right to carry a firearm applies both in and outside of your pocket. “The same right you have to carry on the outside of your jacket or pocket, we want to extend that right to be able to carry on the inside of your jacket or pocket,” said Burlison, according to KY3.

Additionally, the new law creates a “stand your ground” right, which allows people to remain in any place they have a legal right to be in and defend themselves with their firearm if there is danger present. It also extends the “castle doctrine”— the right of a homeowner to use deadly force if confronted with a threat in their home — to invited guests, such as a babysitter.

The bill became law after a contentious legislative battle in 2016, in which state senate Republicans used an arcane parliamentary procedure to overturn Democratic Governor Jay Nixon’s veto. The state’s Republican majority has previously used the tactic, known as “calling the previous question,” to overcome Democratic filibusters and force votes on bills.

If only congressional Republicans had that same resolve in advancing their agenda under President Obama. However, there is a great opportunity to defend the Second Amendment under the administration of President-elect Trump.

“The Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right that belongs to all law-abiding Americans,” reads President-elect Trump’s official policy position on the right to bear arms. “The Constitution doesn’t create that right — it ensures that the government can’t take it away. Our Founding Fathers knew, and our Supreme Court has upheld, that the Second Amendment’s purpose is to guarantee our right to defend ourselves and our families. This is about self-defense, plain and simple.”

The president-elect’s strong vocal support for the Second Amendment can be translated into national policy with the passage of national concealed carry reciprocity. Such a law would permit a Missouri resident who can legally carry a firearm in his state to carry his weapon legally in any state in the country.

Trump is in favor of such legislation, declaring: “A driver’s license works in every state, so it’s common sense that a concealed carry permit should work in every state. If we can do that for driving – which is a privilege, not a right – then surely we can do that for concealed carry, which is a right, not a privilege.”

With Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, will national concealed carry reciprocity become law?

Time will tell. And conservatives will exert pressure on Republicans in Congress to advance a conservative agenda. (For more from the author of “Missouri Gun Owners Won Constitutional Carry. It’s Time to Take This Show NATIONAL” please click HERE)

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The Numbers Don’t Lie: Trump Needs to Do Better by 2020

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The year 2017 and the inauguration of a new president are upon us. And though the historic, stunning election of November 8, 2016 is behind us, it looks like the final data on what happened that day are very close to being at last finalized.

I’ve watched that data carefully on pretty much a daily basis since November 8, courtesy of the running tabulation collected by Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, who has been the superb go-to source for people tracking this data. In the first two weeks after the election, Hillary Clinton’s popular vote lead over Donald Trump expanded somewhere in the range of 100,000-plus votes per day, which was shocking to behold. We have truly never seen anything like it.

Thus, while most pundits have moved beyond post-election analysis, I think it’s crucial to pause to revisit the numbers now that we have nearly finalized hard data. We can draw some fairly definitive conclusions.

So, looking at this from the winner’s perspective — that is, Donald Trump’s — let’s call this the good, the bad, and the ugly.

First, the good

Trump’s amazing win was an Electoral College triumph — the only victory that counts in winning a presidential election. It is striking just how narrowly Trump defeated Hillary in the crucial swing states that secured his win.

If the total percentage of victory in states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin were flipped by a mere one percent — or in some cases 0.2 percent — Hillary Clinton would have won them all, and thereby taken the overall election handily. Of course, they weren’t reversed. Trump flipped those states in ways that recent Republicans presidential nominees were unable to do. I wrote a piece on the eve of the 2012 election predicting that Mitt Romney would win Pennsylvania. Close, but no cigar. Trump, however, pulled it off — and it was a great accomplishment.

More good news from Trump on the swing states: As I looked closer at the 13 swing states, I see that Hillary did not reach 50 percent or more in a single swing state. That’s pretty significant. Trump did so in two of them, Iowa and Ohio, where he crushed her in both by margins of, respectively 9.4 percent and 8.1 percent. He got 51 percent in each, which was a major feat. Other swing states, like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin were very tiny margins for him but major victories nonetheless. He also blew the Clinton campaign out in Indiana, a state that Barack Obama won in 2008.

And still more good news from Trump on the state data: It’s interesting how low Hillary’s percentages were in some states. She got under 40 percent in 18 states. She actually got less than 30 percent in six states (Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming). Trump earned less than 40 percent in 10 states and the District of Columbia. He didn’t get less than 30 percent in any states but almost did so in California, the most-populous state, where he was annihilated by Hillary, securing a mere 31.6 percent of the vote. And forget all that bunkum from Trump pom-pom boys about how their guy could compete in New York. He got his butt handed to him in New York with a mere 36.5 percent of the vote there.

Moreover, don’t make the mistake of over-inflating Trump’s seemingly sizable Electoral College vote over Hillary. The final tally was 306 to 232, which was good, but far from great. As Nate Silver pointed out in an enlightening historical analysis of Electoral College victories, Trump’s Electoral College margin was nice but well below average. Out of 54 presidential elections, his Electoral College margin ranks 44th.

Now, for the bad and the ugly for Donald Trump

The sheer depth of Trump’s popular-vote loss to Hillary is literally unprecedented in how bad it is. It is a terrible defeat for a winning president, and Trump enthusiasts should not delude themselves otherwise. They ignore or dismiss it at their and his future political peril.

Looking again at the latest cumulative popular-vote tabulation, Hillary’s lead over Trump as I write is 2.865 million. Her popular-vote lead still might hit three million, but will probably come in just under that. Still, those who (going forward) write about it or casually remark on it will probably tend to round it up to three million.

How dreadful is this for Donald Trump? The previous record popular-vote loss for a winning president was George W. Bush losing by only 543,000 votes to Gore in 2000. Trump’s loss dwarfs that by over five-fold.

Even more alarming, Trump’s percentage loss is 46.1 percent vs. 48.2 percent for Hillary. It has continued to fall and still may slip under 46.0 percent.

The 46.1 percent figure gives Trump a lower percentage than not only Hillary, but also Obama in 2012 (51.1 percent) and 2008 (52.9 percent), Romney in 2012 (47.2 percent), Bush in 2004 (51.0 percent) and 2000 (47.9 percent), Kerry in 2004 (48.5 percent), and Gore in 2000 (48.4 percent).

For a while, I thought that Trump might get lower than who was 45.7 percent, but that probably will not happen. Of course, here as well, historians and pundits and others will round down Trump to 46 percent, just as they tend to round up McCain to 46 percent. It will then look like basically the same vote percentage for both.

(By the way, Michael Dukakis in 1988 got 45.6 percent of the vote, which likewise is usually rounded up to 46 percent by historians. And amazingly, with that Trump-like popular-vote percentage, Dukakis was obliterated in the Electoral College, 426 to 111.)

Some Trump enthusiasts will likely dismiss all of this shocking data by arguing that if we simply removed California, New York, and Illinois from Hillary’s vote totals, Trump would have won the popular vote. That’s just downright absurd. The same could have been said for Romney, for Bush in 2000, and maybe even for McCain, R-Ariz. (F, 32 percent) (I would need to do the math). It wouldn’t be fair to do that to Hillary’s vote total any more than it would be to remove Texas and the South from Trump’s vote total.

Trump also countered that he would have campaigned in places like California had the presidency depended not on the Electoral College but on the popular vote. Sure. But so would have Hillary. In fact, Hillary thus would have campaigned in Texas and the South as well.

This is an asinine argument. If a student of mine made this argument on an exam, I’d give him an “F.”

Look, Trump admirers, your guy got crushed in the popular vote in historically unprecedented fashion for a winning president. So be it. Accept that and move on. You’re far better off conceding your liabilities, so you can work to improve them next time around. Making false assumptions and excuses will be your political downfall. You were extremely fortunate you didn’t get burned by them in November 2016.

So, for Trump supporters who have been emailing me gloating about how brilliantly right they were, in defiance of the literal 90 percent-plus of polls that had him losing to Hillary (i.e., getting less votes), cut the nonsense. The polls were actually right. You were wrong. Be humble and be thankful, because you and your guy are extremely fortunate, even as (yes) his Electoral College triumph was a great achievement.

And here’s where your gloating can come back to bite you: If Trump gets 46.1 percent of the vote in 2020, he’ll be the first one-term president in a while, after three consecutive two-term presidents, and four of the last five.

Keep this recent but crucial historical fact in mind: Barack Obama in 2012 actually got fewer votes than he did in 2008. He got fewer popular votes, fewer Electoral College votes, fewer states, fewer counties, and a lower overall percentage vote. He still won, yes, but his margin of victory over McCain in 2008 had been very significant. He had room for error his second time around. Donald Trump does not.

Don’t gloat. Trump almost achieved the impossible: becoming the only Republican who could’ve lost to Hillary Clinton.

But let’s wrap up on a positive note, circling back to the good from November 2016: Donald Trump deserves tremendous kudos for squeaking out Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida, and for sizable margins in places like North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, and all-around for a solid Electoral College win. Those are the numbers that really count. And that is why we will watch Donald Trump rather than Hillary Clinton taking the oath of office in about three weeks. (For more from the author of “The Numbers Don’t Lie: Trump Needs to Do Better by 2020” please click HERE)

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Think Amazon Echo, Other Home Smart Devices Won’t Disclose Private Conversations? Police Armed With Search Warrants Have Different Plans

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Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot are in millions of homes now, with holiday sales more than quadrupling from 2015. Always listening for its wake word, the breakthrough smart speakers boast seven microphones waiting to take and record your commands.

Now, Arkansas police are hoping an Echo found at a murder scene in Bentonville can aid their investigation.

First reported by The Information, investigators filed search warrants to Amazon (see below), requesting any recordings between November 21 and November 22, 2015, from James A. Bates, who was charged with murder after a man was strangled in a hot tub.

While investigating, police noticed the Echo in the kitchen and pointed out that the music playing in the home could have been voice activated through the device. While the Echo records only after hearing the wake word, police are hoping that ambient noise or background chatter could have accidentally triggered the device, leading to some more clues.

Amazon stores all the voice recordings on its servers, in the hopes of using the data to improve its voice assistant services. While you can delete your personal voice data, there’s still no way to prevent any recordings from being saved on a server. (Read more from “Think Amazon Echo, Other Home Smart Devices Won’t Disclose Private Conversations? Police Armed With Search Warrants Have Different Plans” HERE)

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How France’s ‘Right to Disconnect’ Law Is an Assault on Freedom

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France passed a new labor law over the weekend that gives employees the “right to disconnect” from their work email and devices such as smartphones and laptops after business hours. According to CNN, the policy was informed by French unions, who have long complained that modern technology has led to an “explosion of undeclared labor” that exceeds the country’s 35-hour work week.

The new law seeks to benefit working mothers and fathers, and others who find their home life interrupted by out-of-office requests. Many of these workers, however, probably aren’t aware of the subtle attacks on freedom a government-mandated work-life balance presents.

Like the minimum wage, the “right to disconnect” policy sounds like a pretty good, and even compassionate, idea at first. Many people desire a clearer separation between work and home, and a rule like this can help to create that.

But what about the 23-year-old bachelor seeking to climb the corporate ladder? For him, uncompensated overtime hours might seem like less of a burden and more of an opportunity to jumpstart his career before other obligations like marriage and family take shape in his life. In this case, the “right to disconnect” policy is likely to provoke hostility toward employees who willingly choose to work beyond the time specified by a particular company.

According to the new rule, companies with 50 or more employees must negotiate after-hours email guidelines with their staff. Further, firms are required to “regulate the use of emails” to ensure employees are getting their promised break.

“If management and staff cannot agree on new rules,” CNN reported, “the firm must publish a charter to define and regulate when employees should be able to switch off.”

Under this provision, individuals like the 23-year-old bachelor could be flagged for violating company policy. In order to comply with the new restrictions, he would have to forego his comparative advantage (i.e. more free time and less out-of-office obligations), and the company would cease to benefit from his (completely voluntary) additional labor.

Policies affecting the private lives of employees should be settled through private contracts between individuals and their employers. The issue of out-of-office email should be addressed in the same way companies determine salary negotiation and paid time off. This way, the 23-year-old bachelor receives the same level of consideration as the working mother of three. His willingness to work overtime may provide him with an advantage when it comes to asking for time off. On the other hand, the working mother may value free time with family in the evening more than a few more vacation days. In both cases, employees are afforded the freedom to negotiate a policy that works for them. (For more from the author of “How France’s ‘Right to Disconnect’ Law Is an Assault on Freedom” please click HERE)

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7 Things You Can Do to Make 2017 Better for Yourself and Everyone Else

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The reason we make major New Year’s resolutions is because we’re fed up with the way we’re living and we want to make radical changes in our lives. That’s also why we tend to fail so miserably with those resolutions: It’s hard to make lasting, dramatic changes.

While there certainly is a place to encourage such changes — I plan to do that very thing in my next column — there’s also a place to encourage us to make some smaller, more manageable changes.

Here are 7 things you can do to improve your life and the lives of those you touch.

1) Be nice. Now that all of us can express ourselves all the time about everything via social media and texting — and that means without speaking to people face to face — we’ve become a much nastier society.

How about trying to watch your words and think before you write or speak? How about making an effort to be little nicer? Would it hurt to try? You’ll often see that people respond to niceness with niceness, making it be easier for you to be nicer still. It can lead to a nice-fest.

2) Don’t act like a spoiled, entitled, baby. Nobody likes a crybaby, especially a fully-grown, adult crybaby, but these days we have a crybaby culture. Nothing is our fault. Everyone else is to blame. I’m not responsible for my failures, you are. And on and on it goes, virtually guaranteeing a negative, never-ending, vicious cycle. Perhaps you have the “It’s not my fault” mentality more than you realize?

I encourage you to take full responsibility for yourself and not play the blame game, even if you have been wronged. It’s liberating and life-changing.

3) Be grateful. Surely there’s something for which you can be thankful and someone to whom you can express gratitude. Surely it won’t kill you to give a positive report, to find the good in those you work with and live with. Surely there are plenty of people in far worse circumstances than you, yet they are thankful for what they have.

You’d be amazed to see how a grateful attitude can change a gloomy day into a sunny day.

4) Get out of your rut. If you keep doing things the same way, you’ll get the same results. Count on it. So, if you’re stuck in a rut — professionally or personally or spiritually or relationally — consider doing something different. Otherwise the rut will only get deeper.

Understand that not every routine is healthy and not every discipline is positive, so look at your life, ask yourself what needs to change, and take a step in that direction. If even the thought of it terrifies you, you might be more stuck than you realize.

5) Concentrate on what matters most. Relationships are more important than possessions. Character is more important than appearance. A loving family is more important than riches and fame. That’s why Proverbs says that, “A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate” (this is a paraphrase of Prov. 15:17 in the New Living Translation). It also says, “Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting — and conflict” (Prov. 17:1, NLT).

You can work day and night to get more and be more but lose your family (and even your soul) in the process. Is it worth it?

6) Don’t get distracted from your larger goals. It’s hard not to be distracted in our increasingly wired world. Constant news. Constant emails. Constant texts. Constant updates. Constant entertainment options. Constant distractions.

We find ourselves responding and reacting with very little time to step back and reflect and plan and focus, but if we’re going to accomplish our larger goals, that’s exactly what we need to do. So, to the extent that you can disconnect responsibly, take some time daily (or at least weekly) to disconnect and refocus. And ask yourself this question: Will you fulfill your life goals if you continue to live the way you’re living?

7) Be spiritual and be practical. Why must it be either-or? Jesus taught us to seek God’s kingdom first and foremost, but He also taught us to be responsible stewards — faithful in little things, faithful with our finances, faithful with that which others entrust to us (see Matthew 6:33-34; Luke 16:10-12).

People will not be impressed with your spirituality if you’re flaky when it comes to everyday, practical matters, so why not try to marry the spiritual with the practical in 2017?

If this list overwhelms you, pick one out of the 7 and go to work on that. One step in the right direction goes a long way, and one good day can make for a much better year.

Forward, one step at a time! (For more from the author of “7 Things You Can Do to Make 2017 Better for Yourself and Everyone Else” please click HERE)

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In Europe and the US, Elites Who Live by Lies Despise the Little People Who Don’t

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Kevin Crehan is dead at 35. He perished as an enemy of the British state, the victim of de facto judicial murder. Crehan was in prison for a tasteless prank: offended perhaps by the aggressive demands of immigrant Muslims in Britain for the imposition of sharia law, Crehan left a bacon sandwich on the front steps of a mosque. For that he was sentenced to one year in a prison full of violent Muslim criminals who knew about his prank, with no protective custody. (The cause of his death is still unclear.)

In a bitter twist, Julian Lambert, the judge who sentenced Crehan for his crime, in 2015 gave a sentence of only two years to a member of a Muslim rape gang that preyed on toddlers and a baby. So in 2017, that immigrant baby rapist will be a free man, while Kevin Crehan, Englishman, sleeps in the English earth.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn didn’t live to see this travesty, but a close reading of his works would have allowed you to predict it. The Gulag Archipelago, a masterful work of memory, exposed a vast empire of falsehood, injustice, and cruelty — all carefully masked by puffed-up rationalizations and defended by Western intellectuals who lived comfortably far from its labor camps and psychiatric prisons.

Solzhenitsyn’s book with a deft stroke exposed the messianic cult of Marxism, and doomed the Soviet system. Shortly before Solzhenitsyn was expelled from his native country, he begged his fellow citizens to engage in a simple, prophetic act of resistance: to “live not by lies.”

By contrast, the de facto leader of the European Union, Germany’s Angela Merkel, took to the airwaves for New Year’s to deliver the opposite message, to repeat the governing lie which guides EU elites, and demand that Germans live by it. The woman who single-handedly delivered the continent of Europe to the tender mercies of rape mobs, who flooded its cities with unemployable foreigners who flock to extremist mosques and are infiltrated by ISIS, addressed her bewildered citizens. As Breitbart reports:

In the federal chancellor’s New Year address to Germany, Merkel asserted that the terror attacks committed by Islamist migrants in Würzburg, Ansbach, and recently at a Christmas market in Berlin were not attacks on Western civilisation but an attack on ‘refugees’ and Germany’s willkommenskultur (‘welcome culture’).

She stated terrorists “mock [the willingness of Germany to help] with their deeds [acts of terrorism], like they mock those who really need and deserve our protection.”

Adding that it is “particularly bitter and repulsive” when terrorist attacks are committed by migrants, Merkel pushed back against criticism of her unwavering commitment to mass migration, saying that Germany will fight the “hatred” of terrorism with “humanity” and “unity.”

“With the images of bombed-out Aleppo in Syria, it is important to remember once again how important and correct it was that our country has helped in the past year those who need our protection,” she said.

Acknowledging that Islamic terrorism is the biggest test for Germany, Merkel hinted at new security measures for the year ahead – but not at changes to her open-door mass migration policies.

Over one million unvetted migrants from the Middle East and Africa entered Germany alone at Merkel’s invitation, including potentially hundreds of Islamic State fighters and bringing with them the risk of the terror organisation weaponising migrants already in the country.

Asserting that “[the] state is doing everything to ensure its citizens’ security in freedom,” the chancellor said that in the midst of mourning for the dead and injured in these “difficult days,” Germans should seek “consolation” in each other.

Merkel closed her speech, which will be broadcast Saturday, by asserting that Germans need “openness” and “an open view of the world.” She stated she had “confidence” for 2017 – this New Year confidence an extension of her “Wir schaffen das” (“we can do this”) mantra.

The Captive Mind of the Ideologue

Nothing can penetrate the mind of an ideologue. It’s a hypobaric chamber — hermetically sealed, locked off by a thousand logical fallacies and willful refusals of reason. Soviet leaders knew perfectly well for decades that their people were battered and crushed, toiling miserably in pursuit of a hopeless utopia. But they kept on droning out speeches which promised a glorious future, which “proved” from the crabbed arithmetic of Marx’s fatuous arguments that socialism could dissolve human selfishness in the acid bath of coercion.

None of the violence and intimidation of women that’s afflicting Europe’s cities, none of the terrorist attacks conducted by “refugees” or barely foiled by harried security services, none of the strutting demands for sharia by imams scamming European welfare payments, can make the slightest dent in Merkel’s iron pate. Her politics are as delusional as those of the poor mental patient who rocks back and forth in a corner, convinced he’s the queen of Portugal. But unlike him, Merkel is culpable. She knows what she is doing. She must know.

Merkel and the EU elites, and the bishops and pastors, academics and bureaucrats who back that mad agenda, are united by a powerful governing vision, strong enough to insulate them from any argument or data. Like Marxism, that vision projects a shiny kaleidoscope of colorful, idealist fantasies. But its beating heart is hatred. As Marxists despise and scheme to destroy the thrifty farmer, the hard-working shop owner, and the friar who serves the poor, so globalists hate, from the depths of their bones, the bulk of their countrymen:

Patriotic veterans who cling to their nation’s sovereignty, remembering how the Germans (for instance) once marched in and terrorized them.

Women who expect to dress and act as they see fit, regardless of the jeers and threats of the mobs of welfare-dependent Salafists who now haunt the street of their cities.

Overworked taxpayers who wonder why half their paychecks are confiscated, while foreigners lounge around on public assistance.

Christian refugees from the Middle East, who escaped Muslim persecution in their native lands, only to fear such attacks now in Sweden or Belgium.

Ordinary people who expect that the mores and culture, songs and creeds and customs, of their home country can prevail without constant vituperation and periodic terror attacks by angry, aggressive aliens.

The Government has Dissolved the People and Chosen a New One

The current rulers of Europe detest the Kevin Crehans whom they are governing, with all the white-knuckled fury that Hillary Clinton felt for “deplorable” U.S. voters. So those rulers have chosen to dissolve the people, and import a new one. Elaborate schemes will protect those countries’ policies from “populist” resistance, and shield the haughty governors from the benighted hordes whom they govern. The secret police in Germany will monitor social media to crack down on “hate speech”— defined as speech that diverges from official government policy. (See this couple sentenced to prison and fines in Bavaria for opposing the influx of refugees — and this German policeman threatened with a fine of three months’ wages for calling Merkel’s policies “insane” at a public political rally.)

In the U.S., Trump’s win slowed, if only a little, the crackdown by America’s Angela Merkels against our Kevin Crehans. They will go on suppressing the free speech of conservatives on campus, and trying to ruin the livelihoods of those who attend evangelical churches or run Christian businesses. But perhaps, for the next four years at least, the full power of the U.S. federal government will not be turned against ordinary people for believing common-sense things. We must make the most of that time, an unbought grace God granted us, to steel ourselves and our families to the task that lies before us: To live not by lies. (For more from the author of “In Europe and the US, Elites Who Live by Lies Despise the Little People Who Don’t” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

2017: What a Year It Was

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Well, 2017 is in the books and to the surprise — perhaps even disappointment — of some, President Trump did not blow up the world.

He did, however, blow out of the gate with the fury of a thoroughbred. The final strands from the marching bands had hardly finished echoing down Pennsylvania Avenue before President Trump had begun dismantling Obama’s legacy and reversing his executive fiats.

Looking on as Trump rescinded executive order after executive order was the Winston Churchill bust gifted to us by England, but unceremoniously removed by Obama. Trump had the bust back in the Oval Office quicker than you can say “Brexit.” His first two calls as President were to Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said his third call was to Putin just to send the mainstream media into a tizzy. Actually, his third call was to the family of a serviceman killed over the holidays.

Protesters had tried to make a mess of Inauguration Day. They failed. President Trump tried live tweeting from the Inaugural podium. He succeeded.

The Inaugural Balls were a sight to see. President Trump had dramatically cut back on the number of official balls. For all the talk of his considerable ego, Donald Trump didn’t feel the need to squander extra millions and run all over town to be repeatedly celebrated. And, well, let’s face it. Melania stole the show anyway. She was stunning. It dawned on Americans for the first time what it would mean to have as first lady a supermodel who speaks more languages than C3PO.

The First 100 Days

The first 100 days were a blur. Trump kept to his word on tax reform and repealing-and-replacing Obamacare. A systematic rollback of job-killing regulations was launched. The Johnson Amendment was repealed, freeing the nation’s clergy to speak their hearts on politics without fear of losing their non-profit status. And Trump did nominate a “conservative justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia.” Democrats declare war on her.

A bipartisan infrastructure effort passed over the objections of fiscal conservatives. Heads exploded across the land at the sight of Trump and Nancy Pelosi hugging on the White House lawn. Fear not. She would call him a “racist” days later when he unveiled the blueprints for his Border Wall. The artistic renderings wisely emphasized the wide and welcoming “Freedom Plazas” as much as the imposing barrier.

Among the several “Making America Great Again” initiatives launched:

In partnership with Sen. Rand Paul and the Government Accountability Office, Donald Trump announced of 1000 forensic accountants to audit the books of not only the Fed, but of the entire federal government. “I want the GAO to be as frightening to people who abuse tax dollars as the IRS is to Americans who pay those tax dollars.”

“The Entrepreneur Explosion” — Declaring he wants to see as many small businesses as possible become the “next big business,” Trump launches an effort to mentor entrepreneurs spearheaded by his “good friend” Mitt Romney.

Private industry mentorship is also behind Trump’s new “Apprentice” program, which seeks out the best and brightest disadvantaged youth and teams them with business leaders to solve real and specific problems in their neighborhoods. “I made the ‘Apprentice’ name famous,” Trump boasts. “Might as well use it.” (NBC thinks about suing, but instead agrees to partner as a way of promoting the new Arnold Schwartzenneger-led Apprentice.)

Building on the work already done in inner cities by the likes of NFL legend Jim Brown, Dr. Ben Carson begins operating on America’s urban areas. Speaking endlessly on the importance of personal responsibility and the benefits of working hard, Carson starts convincing those in the inner cities that having a successful life “is not brain surgery.” Carson shrugs off complaints from the Left about stressing the importance of the church’s involvement in the rebirth of our inner city communities.

Flint, Michigan, gets an extra boost in its revitalization effort after a tweet from Donald Trump to Michael Moore: “Help Us … or Shut the H*** Up! #Flint”. A viral photo of Trump and Moore with arms around each other was named “The Most Scandalous Picture of 2017.”

Speaking of the Left

Aided by the mainstream media and entertainment industry, progressives work tirelessly, aggressively, and often get dirty and defamatory, to block every single action of the Trump administration and Trump personally. Even some establishment Republicans join in.

Daily lawsuits are filed with friendly judges, hourly the media parades “victims” of Trump policies and disparages any good news. Every second, hostile tweets insult, twist and contradict anything said or done by anyone not with the progressive program. America shrugs and goes about its business, muttering, “They still don’t get it.” (For more from the author of “2017: What a Year It Was” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Kerry’s Two-Faced Middle East Solution

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In his recent speech excoriating Israel for refusing to commit suicide by allowing a sworn enemy to have a state adjoining the Jewish state, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed the U.S. government “did not draft or originate” the UN resolution critical of Israeli “settlements.”

Kerry said there were no American fingerprints on the resolution and that it was totally the idea of the Egyptians and Palestinians. Except that it wasn’t, if one can believe Egyptian intelligence.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports on a story published in an Egyptian newspaper with close ties to Egyptian Intelligence. According to the report, a secret meeting took place in Washington in mid-December attended by John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and a rather large Palestinian delegation that included PLO Executive Committee secretary and negotiating team leader Saeb Erekat. If the report is true, the Palestinian delegation also supposedly met with representatives of Homeland Security and the CIA. Political discussions were also said to be part of the agenda.

According to the transcribed minutes obtained by the Egyptian daily, Al-Youm Al-Sabi, the secret gathering “reveals U.S. coordination leading up to the UN Security Council vote on Resolution 2334 regarding Israel’s settlements. … It states that the sides ‘agreed to cooperate in drafting a resolution on the settlements’ and that the U.S. representative in the Security Council was ’empowered’ to coordinate with the Palestinian UN representative on the resolution.”

The Egyptian newspaper further reported that the secret meeting in Washington “was aimed at coordinating Kerry’s attendance at the upcoming international Paris Conference set for Jan. 15, 2017, in order to propose his ideas for a permanent arrangement ‘provided they are supported by the Palestinian side.’”

Susan Rice is said to have warned the Palestinians about the “danger” of the incoming Trump administration’s policies, adding that both she and Kerry had advised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to make any preliminary moves that might “provoke the new administration.”

The report also said Kerry and Rice had “fulsomely praised Abbas’ policies and how he handled matters, and harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that he ‘aims to destroy the two-state solution.’”

This is remarkably cynical even in our cynical age. If the Egyptian newspaper report is true — and the Obama administration has so far not denied it — the administration is guilty of a two-faced solution to the conflict, which is no solution at all from the standpoint of Israel and the Jewish people who have been the targets of unprovoked attacks and wars since Israel’s rebirth in 1948.

Not only has Abbas said he would expel all Jews from a Palestinian State, but neither he, nor any other regional player technically still at war with Israel has said they will ever recognize a Jewish state in their midst. Furthermore, since the Palestinian side now includes Hamas and Fatah in a unity coalition — two entities that have vowed not only to never make peace with Israel, but to seek its destruction and the expulsion of all Jews from the land — only a fool would believe that peace is possible under such circumstances.

Peace, like success, is a byproduct, not a goal that can be reached without certain precursors. Success is achieved by hard work, a good education and right relationships. Peace is achieved when one side is victorious or two sides decide they don’t want to fight anymore. Jordan and Egypt gave up on war, leading to peace with Israel. The Palestinian side fights on. They have an ally in the Obama administration, but only for a few more days.

President-elect Trump has promised things will be different when it comes to U.S. policy toward Israel starting Jan. 20. One can only hope. (For more from the author of “Kerry’s Two-Faced Middle East Solution” please click HERE)

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