Maybe there is hope after all!
A NATION OF SQUEALERS, SPIES AND SURVEILLANCE
http://www.newswithviews.com/Betty/Freauf58.htm By Betty Freauf
July 31, 2004
NewsWitViews.com
When I was growing up in a small Eastern Washington farm community, only people in small towns had telephone service. It was years before the farmers were actually served. I lived in town. Our phone was one of those brown, wooden boxes that hung on the wall with a handle on the side. If we wanted to talk to a neighbor, we had to crank the handle one long and two shorts or something like that. If we wanted to talk to someone not on our "party" line, we had to call the operator, who had the "telephone company" in her living room, and she'd connect them for us.
We had what we called "rubber neckers." They are the ones that would listen to our private conversations. We could hear them breathing on the other end and we were very careful not to say anything we didn't want spread around the countryside. As technology advanced and we got "private" lines, I thought those days were gone but I'm finding they were innocent compared to today's ability to "rubber neck".
We now have the "eye in the sky". The overhead satellites photograph and catalog each square inch of the earth several times a day with accuracy. They claim they can spot and identify the brand of a package of cigarettes lying on your driveway.
Children in the government schools are innocently encouraged to write in journals things of a private family nature and what the children may not write in their journals, they may share with peer counselors who then report to another authority. Matthew 10:21 says the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death...
And then there are the chips in our pets, our clothing and on our vehicles, which help catch the thief who stole your car and the boss to keep track of your whereabouts.
Some people volunteer to be implanted with chips for medical reasons and now with the disappearance of so many young people, will they all be chipped next for security purposes?
Others who may not be so enthralled with this new electronic tracking system are criminals who can spend time out of jail with electronic bracelets but has the hundreds of new prisons and those bracelets restricting mobility stopped criminal activity? No. Crime is running as rampant as ever.
Our individual rights have gone up in smoke. We have become a nation of squealers, spies and surveillance.
And what the electronic gadgets cannot detect, there are always the self-righteous "do goody" people who want to help Big Brother out. They never see themselves breaking any laws but are quick to report anyone else. But James 2:10 says: For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he or she is guilty of all. So what's a person to do? Ask God for wisdom and read your bible for the answer.
The "do gooders" are the ones who report false child abuse charges with immunity that destroy careers and reputations , tear families apart and force them into bankruptcy for all the costs involved in trying to defend oneself against such charges.
It was reported in February 2002 the White House under George Bush intended to use the Citizen Corp program to receive grant money and nationalize the Neighborhood Watch programs "to incorporate terrorism prevention into its mission."
We inventory our valuables for the authorities and we have block captains and Neighborhood Councils just like in Communist Cuba. Since we are discouraged from owning guns to protect ourselves, we turn to law enforcement and Neighborhood Watch groups. The Chinese Communist Party has representatives in every hamlet throughout the country which goes so far as to keep records of menstrual cycles of women. While guards watch over prisoners, a network of "village watchers" watch over neighbors. Whenever communists attain power, they build a society of universal suspicion resulting in universal fear. Prov. 24:28 says "Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause and deceive not with thy lips."
But the latest I've heard about is a group based in Kansas for eleven years called "Mainstream Coalition." Their members go into houses of worship to "spy" on what the pastor, priest or rabbi may be saying from the podium that violates the 501(c)3 tax exempt status.
Carol McKnight from that organization was recently interviewed on a radio talk show. She claims while they are not monitoring anything as an official government agency and that the word "spy" is odious to her, she does admit their members purposely infiltrate houses of worship to see what is being said. Muslim mosques require a certain attire and then it's bottoms up so I wonder if they "infiltrate" them too?
Come into my web said the spider to the fly or Judas kissing Jesus as he betrayed him in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-56) came to my mind as I heard her say she was amazed at how warm, friendly and loving the church people are to these "visitors". But does she wear an "S" for snitch on her forehead? No! The members are unaware that these people are there to cause them problems.
She accuses the talk show host of taking their visitations w-a-y out of context when he accuses her of reporting their activities to the I.R.S. She says their ONLY goal is not to be a snitch for the government but rather to raise awareness that the 501(c)3 I.R.S. law is being violated in many houses of worship. Her coalition supports the separation of church and state.
Now, when they find some house of worship "stepping over the line" according to their definition, will they simply go home, make a note in their personal journals and leave it at that? Only in your dreams. No, what they'll do is tip off some liberal journalist who will write a story which will end up on the A-P wire service and the I.R.S. will find out about it.
A July 2004 newspaper article said Jerry Falwell was accused of violating his tax status. It seems he wrote a newsletter encouraging his followers to support Gary Bauer's Campaign for Working Families with its goal of helping re-elect George Bush to the Oval Office.
The voters in the states of Oregon, Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah will have initiatives opposing the recognition of gay marriages. In Oregon, advocates of the ban turned in 240,850 signatures in five weeks -- a record breaking accomplishment. And the sample used to verify these signatures found 204,160 were legitimate voters -- more than twice the 100,840 required for a constitutional ban of same-sex marriages.
Can all the houses of worship involved in this feat be expected to find "visitors" attending their services?
Carol says, "No church has to be a 501(c)3 organization. They can opt not to be. They can do without their tax exemption and they can say virtually anything they want out of purview of the I.R.S."
So, if anything comes out of this spy operation, it may be that houses of worship will get rid of their tax exempt status which has fulfilled the intent of the law to muzzle pastors, priests and rabbis and that perhaps brought American to the state of total immorality today and will be the downfall of our nation.
Most everyone reading this article knows full well that such organizations as the YMCA, YWCA, Jesse Jackson and his tax-exempt Rainbow Coalition, as only a few examples, are not going to be targeted. Groups have filed complaints with the I.R.S. and the Federal Election Commission about The Reverend Jackson's illegal activities but nothing has ever been done. Bill O'Reilly on FOX has long harped about an audit of Jackson with no results.
In 2002 some congressman introduced the "Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act" which would amend the I.R.S. code "to permit churches and other houses of worship to engage in political campaigns" without the threat of losing their tax-exempt status. Whatever became of that bill?
Carol says Voter's Guides distributed to many houses of worship prior to an election must be palpable for the I.R.S. regulations. They must not appear to be endorsing or disparaging any certain candidate. The guides must be fairly general and broad based. The Voter's Guides with which I am familiar makes it very clear how candidates stand on moral issues so they probably would not pass the I.R.S. litmus test.
This election cycle is turning out to be one of the ugliest I've ever seen since I became a registered voter decades ago. Maybe it's time for the houses of worship to tell the I.R.S., and if I may borrow two words of the possible next first lady, take your tax exemption and "shove it"!
Rev. Martin Neimoller, German Lutheran pastor, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937. He said, "In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."
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