Confrontations

At my age, having traveled every continent of the world and studied most things concerning world history, very few news items shock me any more. Today, the President of the United States, just at a convenient time disclosed his birth certificate.; a matter of conjecture for many years, something he should have done long ago. Tomorrow, a future king of England will be married to a commoner with whom he has been fornicating/cohabitating for years.

There was a time when leaders of moral principles would have confronted the world on these and many other things. For instance, America and Europe played footsie with Colonel Gaddafi despite of his atrocities, but now with the 143 million tonnes of gold in his bank and the oil under his desert, it is expedient to get rid of him. Just as soon as new valuable antiquities were discovered in Baghdad, along with the known reserves of oil, the Iraq war started...and so it goes with wars and diplomacy around the globe. Much of the hypocrisy and down right lying and cheating has been revealed by Wikileaks. From one side of the world to the other, controlled citizenry confronting tyrannical leadership.

In a world of spineless politicians, spineless pastors, spineless parents, there is very little confrontation. The psychiatrist or psychologist may confront parental abuse in the home, but the professional usually takes the side of the person paying his bills. The father may be a dictator, but the mother will yield the welfare of her children to have harmony in the home. We think we are not a communist society, but we have all the authoritarian, totalitarian control features that you find in every Marxist country. In the Marxist country, your freedoms are killed from birth to death, the womb to the tomb, there is no need for ambition, dreams.

Even in America, don't expect anyone to understand or appreciate your dreams or ambitions, don't expect appreciation for productivity or accomplishment. You must get the joy and pleasure of living and giving in the good life from the One who has given you life and your ability, don't expect recognition from anyone else. My soul has ached my entire life, mostly associating with supposed Christians, to hear someone say, “I pray for you.” It is time to have the confrontation with your fellow Christians, family, friends. Ask them if they are a real believer, or just an imposter/pretender? Are our interconnections, our interfacing with family, friends, or even children, genuine, or is it just a matter of getting something we want? Is our interaction with God, if any, just a matter of confronting Him when we have a particular need?

You cheat yourself if you do not put flesh and personality with the bones of the great people of history. There is a reason that Elijah and Moses stood with Christ in their glorious reappearance...Elijah was not afraid to confront, even the hundreds of prophets of Baal. He did not care about political correctness...what the world's population of that time might think of him, he said, “in whose presence I stand.” (1 Kings 18:15) Like Moses before Pharaoh, Paul or Luke when confronted, they knew how to stand. Paul had planned to go to Troas, but God led him to Macedonia, Philippi. Think of the value of Paul's love letter to the church at Philippi (Philippians) There is no record that Joseph, a 17-year-old going through the trials of life very young, ever shedding tears in prison, or out. There is no record that he did anything but stand straight at age thirty before Pharaoh.

Today's world is bewitched with silliness, traditions and exaggerations, parents afraid to confront even their own children, much less the abusers of their own children. One of my young employees told me of how he was sexually abused by a babysitter, a friend of his mother. His mother would not believe him, would not confront the abuser, and so it continued, only more violent. I know of abuse in nursing homes, children of the abused, employers of the abusers, all are afraid to confront anyone about anything.

I hear of unbelievable abuse in nursing homes, the patient, afraid to say anything, and the abuse worsens. 79% of the people in nursing homes never have a visitor. Family members will say nothing because they do not want the responsibility of taking care of the abused patient. A long time friend, Udi (now 92), ill, in a nursing home right across the street from New Hanover hospital. An attendant came in with her breakfast, and she said to the attendant, “I need to go to bathroom.” The attendant said, “you can to the bathroom after you eat your breakfast.” My friend's son, just arriving, standing in the door, hearing the conversation, got his mother into the bathroom and when she emerged, put a robe around her and said, “you will not stay in this place one more minute!” There should have been a confrontation with law enforcement about such treatment.

My secretaries over the years have been amused and amazed with the letters I have written about abuse in the business world, the political world. Their first words, “you know that no one is going to do anything about this.” My words, always, “as long as no one says anything, does anything about these horrific practices, it will continue.” You always just hope that some concerned person will take the time to investigate. There was a time when investigative reporters had the spine to confront. In this politically correct world, no one confronts anyone about anything any more. This is the reason that so many dreams are shattered, a country that at one time enjoyed the respect of the world, it was the ambition of the world to come here in order to escape tyranny. The American dream depended on confronting everything, evil, wrongdoing, hypocrisy.

Like a withering plant, we are told that in five years that China will be the world's superpower. Contradictory to everything we believed about the American spirit, American know-how, Satan has drawn us away from God's mercy. We have too much pride to take Jesus at His Word, we should look in the mirror and confront our problems.