Broad-minded

This is the 50th anniversary of the movie On The Beach which was made in 1959. As great as all the performances were, the photography and the script were as out-standing. The only drawback to this black & white classic is the hauntingly depressing nature of the film. Death is never easy to explore and it's done here tastefully, gritty, and realistically. Gregory Peck shines in this controversial role. Ava Gardner (NC native, buried in Smithfield) gives her finest performance. Fred Astaire is incredible in his serious role. However, the film was stolen by the pre-Psycho Anthony Perkins and newcomer Dana Andrews as a doomed young couple with a new baby. The ending of On The Beach is one of the most depressing in screen history, still this is a must see for any fan of any of the actors or the legendary Stanley Kramer. This should awaken all of my broadminded friends who think I'm so narrow minded in my devotion to the Savior of the world, the only One who makes a difference at the time of death.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” Matthew 7:13

From the time I entered college, friends as well as professors challenged me about my narrow minded religious, spiritual beliefs. Recently, my stock broker told me of his nephew who, at the same university which I graduated, challenged an atheist professor about his mockery of God. At the end of the class, the UNC-CH professor, told my friend's nephew, “You can stay in this class if you like, but you will not pass.” So it is, with 85% of all Christian young people who dare leave home, go to a secular university, and will be immediately challenged about their religious beliefs, always with the term, “broadminded”. Always, I said with kindness, to one of these fellow students or professors, “If you have something better, please tell me about it.” I AM STILL WAITING. The number one goal at all secular colleges, is to have students defy God; in their design, making godless, communist, citizens of all US. young people. Parents, prepare your young people for the onslaught by example, encouragement, Christian apologist, erasing intimidation, shaping them in the beauty and the credibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ; the only entity that has changed the history of the world for the better. Have you ever thought what the world would be like if Christ had not come into the world: darkness and desolation. When Christ comes into our life, we have been raised from the dead. In Christ, we have eternal life; it has already started here and now. The unsaved world can offer your student nothing but death. Sin and the degradation of ungodliness may give some pleasure for a season here on earth. (Hebrews 11:25) The victory is ours, the battle has already been won. All that is necessary for us is to not be deceived, to obey.

The greatest force in the world today, in this computer age, is Google. The owners of Google predict that they will become like God, all-knowing. Already, in the equations and intricacies of Google's programs, all the information of the world stored in hard drives has been collected, “processed and developed.” Google not only now has the picture of the front of your house but everything that goes on within the walls of your house. Big Brother (Google) is the right arm of every government agency. Every commercial enterprise, “Slave-Mart” (Wal-Mart) unlike Sergeant Schultz (“I know nothing.”) knows all. These enterprises know what you like, what you buy, and how much money you have for everything. The computer knows more about your tastes, your family, your life activities, than you know. We have sowed to the wind and have reaped a whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7) God told us long ago it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. (Song of Solomon 2:15) The little foxes can not get any smaller than computer chips.

My first experience with a computer, I was amazed that there was a machine that could put my stuff in alphabetical order. (My large collection of antiquarian books, magazines, records, music, etc.) Did anyone think that the hard drive could be so raped, manipulated, totally compromising all your physical security? Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, truly would say, “What hath God wrought?”

From earliest history, men protected themselves with armor; cities protected themselves with walls; castles protected themselves with moats and drawbridges. Modern nations protected themselves with military armies, then with navies, then with planes, then bombs to throw out of the planes, now with missiles that can be fired from long distances. As with the dead animals put in the water systems of the streams going under the walls of the walled fortresses, as with the stable manure put in the wells of these southern farmers when the Yankee Troops came through, as with the IEDs causing so many casualties in our present-day wars; in bed, while we are sleeping, the enemy has invaded, in the name of broadmindedness and conquered. In the name of broadmindedness, “we have met the enemy and he is us” (first used on a poster for Earth Day in 1970).

Every generation wants everything to be rosy and pleasing to them. On the altar of broadmindedness, we have sacrificed every area of common sense. When did we stop thinking ahead to the consequences of our actions? Who told us to get out of a hole we must keep digging? Did anyone consider the consequences of typing in everything on God's earth that pertains to you and then turning it into your enemies? The American Native BRAVE (Indian) could put his ear to the ground and could tell you the direction of a buffalo herd many miles away, the number of buffalo in the herd, and in which direction they were moving. In this electronic age, we are back to 1801 when Thomas Jefferson established a navy because of pirates. When our forefathers with muskets won the Revolutionary War because they could out shoot the trained, British Red-coats. Go to a fast food restaurant, and see if the wait person can count out your change if the electric computer is down. In many ways, we have voted for slavery and now we complain about the shackles.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln

You can promise some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not promise all of the people all of the time.

We have the government we deserve. God must laugh at our stupidity (Psalm 2:4), blessed with so many technology advances. Compared to my childhood, life is so much easier. The poorest now, live better than the rich when I was a child. I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but one way or another, we will come to our senses. What we have sown, we will reap. (Galatians 6:7)

Muslims emphatically insist that the Jihad, or Holy War, was only a means of defense and was never used as an offensive act. This is underlined in the explanatory notes of the Sahih Muslim:

"Jihad in Islam is not an act of violence directed indiscriminately against the non-Muslims; it is the name given to an all-round struggle which a Muslim should launch against evil in whatever form or shape it appears. Fighting in the way of Allah is only one aspect of Jihad. Even this in Islam is not an act of mad brutality....It has MATERIAL and MORAL functions, i.e. self-preservation and the preservation of the moral order in the world."

Our challenge now is the one billion followers of Islam in the world who seek our destruction. In speaking to a Muslim recently, he said, “We seek the death of all unbelievers, all infidels.” I said, “Christians are supposed to love you because we are told to love our neighbors as ourselves. (John 13:34-35, Mark 12:28-31) My Jesus loves you and does not seek your death.” This will be the challenge of this century, not the fact that we have a Muslim president who, playing charades, is bringing this nation to its very knees with debt enslavement, who can quote the Koran in speaking before the Muslim world but wants all symbols and references to Christianity covered as he or his authority moves around this nation. We have chosen debt, not prosperity. We have chosen television trash, not mind enrichment. We have chosen athletic events, not worship services. We have chosen looks and diction, not experience and integrity. We have chosen media cover-ups, not basic common sense. God willing, we will become narrow of the mind.