Central Bank of Venus

The younger of my two grandsons, a student at a Christian university, was visiting me. Since his grandparents, parents, and his brother had all been active in Christian activities on campus, I asked him what type Christian organizations he was involved with on campus (Union University, Jackson TN)? He said, “I do what I can on campus and at the local church, but they are all just pretenders.”

In my lifetime, I have seen pretension/acting leave the stage and take over in almost all life activities. The government, with an accrued debt including entitlements of $60 trillion, pretends that there is global warming. We have politicians who actually pretend that our government is in good financial condition.

As a 95 year-old, wheelchair-bound woman with cancer is humiliated with her adult diaper at an airport, we pretend that Homeland Security has our safety at heart. According to the Wall Street Journal, 76% of our population feels that we are going in the wrong direction, but at the same time we are supposed to have confidence in our government. Throughout history, every economy has been built on confidence. With 47 million citizens on food stamps, we pretend about our prosperity (how many times have you heard someone say, “we are the richest nation in the world”?).

With Medicare, Medicaid, the US Postal Service, etc. in bankruptcy, we pretend that the government can better handle our healthcare. With three hot wars and other minor conflicts all over the world, America pretends that she is still a superpower. With a meltdown in Greece, with Europe imploding, with the entire world depending on their borrowing from China, we might as well pretend that there is a great central bank on Venus from which we can borrow the necessary funds to keep our social programs, education, military entanglements, and banking fiascoes afloat.

Mr. Obama is the biggest trainwreck in history, but the train track was laid by George W. Bush. I thought that my country had hit rock-bottom as Monica Lewinsky testified in the well of the US Senate about the President-turned-dirtbag by the name of William Clinton. Of course, Bill Clinton is still on the job, traveling the world, making speeches and millions, and God only knows what else, as his Communist wife, the Secretary of State, provokes America's engagement in conflicts. America will never recover from the presidency of Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama.

Cicero said that a country can recover from a poor leader, and even fools in power, but can never survive treason.” A greater treason than that of secular power is the treason of spiritual power. The world has not realized it yet, but it will; especially in America, with a skyline of church steeples and God referred to in so many songs. In history, honored on the buildings at the nation's capital, pretension by political leaders, how many times have you heard politicians, academicians, the powerbrokers of industry and the secular media use these words: “God bless you”? People who have no knowledge of God, no relationship with the Son of God, people who do everything in the world except please God, insulting real Christians, insulting the memory of real saints, insulting the cornerstones on which this democratic republic was built by pretending their belief in God. Much like those who use God's name in vain (the most unforgivable act of mankind, using God's name in vain in cursing and profanity) and loving the false idols in their world of pretension.

Until the 15^th century, before the invention of the printing press, when the common man's knowledge of scripture was restricted to the word read aloud in churches (the few Bibles were so scarce and expensive, that the average man had never seen one). The King James Bible, unequaled in authenticity, prose, the greatest advance to protestants. In earlier centuries, men might be excused for not knowing better; but now, in the 21^st century, the Word of God available to anyone for reading, for hearing, ignorance is not an excuse anymore. I am convinced that the answer for every problem in the world is found in God's Word. I am convinced that the Word of God will heal anyone of disease. For the sick, just sit and read God's Word and you will improve.

The problem is these pretending pastors, pretending priests, pretending parents. Children recognize the pretension of their parents regarding spiritual, as well as secular, activity. The totally inept, lost hearer of a preacher or pastor might not recognize his pretension, but the erstwhile (formerly lost) bought and paid for child of God, recognizes the fake or flake in the pulpit. I can talk with a minister of the Gospel for 15 minutes and know—without fear of contradiction—if he is genuine. The greater problem: so-called Christian colleges, seminaries, Bible schools...the blind attempting to lead the blind. The greatest disappointment of my life was giving tremendous amounts of money to Christian institutions (colleges, churches and ministries) just to learn that they are playing games with me, God and themselves.

Even in the small country school house, farm children learned to pretend, learned to perform in public. Parents from the farmyard, the fields and woods of farmland love to see their children in crepe paper and other costumes pretending to be something which they are not, even silent movies offered entertainment. The important thing is keeping the real form the imaginary, important to know the three R's, very important in crepe paper, to dance like a fairy or flower. Nothing is as important in human development as human beings learning to perform together (bands, orchestras, choirs, plays). Whether on the Broadway stage or a great amphitheater in mid-America, performing and pretending are a vital part of the American experience, but with age and maturity, we learn to leave the real acting and pretending to professionals.

Remarkable in pretending is losing insecurity. Although raised in Pharaoh's household and raised as Pharaoh's son, God assisted Moses in losing his insecurity before going to Pharaoh. (Exodus 3:10) As America, the world, rapidly slips down the slope of financial ruin, in spite of the hope of financial deliverance from the great banking system on Venus or somewhere up there. The knowledge will be indisputable, the redemption of America, the world, only comes from one Source, now as in the beginning, the almighty hand of the One who set this earth spinning on its axis in the beginning. Pretend, if you wish, at your own risk.