Conservative Christian Movement Podcast Episode 009 Under Pressure

You are listening to the Conservative Christian Movement Podcast, Episode 009 Titled Under Pressure.  I am Jeff Stipe, your host. This episode was Recorded March 17, 2018.

Today on the Conservative Christian Movement Podcast I’ll give details on  Saul Alinsky’s Eighth rule for Radicals, We’ll look at the number One in public policy and why it’s important.  I’ll also discuss the merits or lack thereof for the use of Boycotts  And of course, we can’t forget our favorite liberal rant.   Show Notes for this episode can be found at CCMPodcast.com.   Thank you for joining in, let’s get started.

The verse of the day: James 1:12 (NIV)—

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Since the dawn of Christianity, long before Jesus walked the Earth, those who do not believe in the Christian way of life have criticized those who do.  The Jewish people, God’s people, have been and remain persecuted, endured the holocaust and even today are still surrounded by those who prefer their extinction rather than peace.

As we pass day by day, Christian are treated with more hostility than ever.  Even beheaded by the so-called peace loving Islam.  One cannot forget the image of Christians beheaded one after the other on a beach, or drowned, locked in a cage surrounded by cameras to catch the action from all angles.

Yet one think is certain, Christian persevere in spite of the trials we are all put through.  What is certain, if you stand for God, someone will try to tear you down.

Get involved!  Share your ideas with your neighbors.  It takes a community.  If you share my vision, that of Christians getting more involved in the election process, fighting for the ideas of our forefathers, join my community.  Like and share my facebook page at www.facebook.com/ccmpodcast

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What is One

Every CITIZEN regardless of race, creed, color, religion, wealth or any box you would want to put them into, should be treated the same by way of public policy.

There are some who would disagree with that for sure.  If you look at our tax code, it is graduated.  Wealthy people earning more money pay a higher percentage of the burden for our nation than do lower wage earners.  This is not about simple wealth, but taxable income.

As a conservative, I see so often how one individual, we’ll say Class of people gets carveouts from one bill but hit like a hammer in others.  Free programs given to one, but not available for others.  Some get “means tested” by social security after years of paying into it.  Success is often punished, while lack of success is often praised.  Many times you can trace back the goodness to a beg for votes.

Thinking through the founding fathers intent, I doubt there was a thought of buying votes.  Rather the goal was to treat everyone equal, slavery excluded, at least in the early days.

I talked last week about the 13th amendment to the US Constitution.  The amendment was all of a paragraph long and could fit on a post card.  Take a look at any law these days, and you may be hard pressed to read it.  Often they are hundreds of pages.  The law itself could be simple, but by the time you add legalese, carveouts for friends, benefits to companies, exemptions for voters and donors, amendments unrelated to the bill, etc., you’re far from a post card.  You’re even farther away from a bill that makes sense.

I’d say the Flat Tax plan could be a postcard.  If you have a job and earn income, perhaps 10 percent of your pay goes to the federal government.  Not a penny more.  If that’s not enough from the 200 Million workers, then our government needs a better budget, a balanced one.  Stop funding research for crustaceans on treadmills maybe.  But treat every worker the same.

A bill to control immigration could be a few pages.  That would seem simple.  Don’t cross the Rio Grande without permission, don’t stay here when your time is up.  The law could be fairly clear.  You go to jail if you are here without permission.  Oh, and you won’t vote, you won’t drive a car, and won’t have a job.  it’s not hard.

I’ll talk soon about how to read a bill if you must, or if you want to.

The Eighth Rule for Radicals—

The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

I couldn’t wait to get to this rule.  It is perhaps the most employed rule of them all.  Watch the news and simply watch how many ways a Republican is attacked with unsubstantiated innuendo.  Is some of it real?  Probably so.  However, as I talked in episode 3, “ Honesty Please”, the use of un-named sources, un-verifiable, so-called facts and spliced video all in the name of making someone look bad is out of control.

It is on you the receiver of the reporting to look at credibility.  This is not always easy to do.  Often, reporting is very similar on CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC, such that it appears to be corroborated, when in fact it is just bad data replicated.  Yes, we ALL need to be aware of bias in media, even on Fox News.

As the rule says, keep the pressure on using different tactics.  President Trump is being attacked daily over Russia, over his supposed mental incapacity, over threats of impeachment, over excessive turnover in his administration, among so many other items.  Do you really think he’s that bad?  I don’t, although I could still see improvement if he would leave his phone alone and stop using Twitter without a second thought before hitting send.

How about them Boycotts…

Perhaps you heard about a few boycotts in the past.  Recently Target, Starbucks, Chick-Fil-a and Hobby Lobby found themselves front and center of controversy, but for different reasons.  Each were targets of Boycotts by consumers.  Do these work?

I have to say with certainty, it depends.  Better yet, I might add it may work in reverse if you are not careful.  The  key here is not so much the threat of taking business away, but letting free markets work as intended.  Looking at share prices for publicly traded companies with active boycotts like Target and Starbucks, there is no correlation to threat versus hurt.

Target was hit with a boycott when they dove head first into the transgender bathroom issue.  Starbucks jumped into the gun control and social engineering mix.  Both may have seen slight impacts to their business, but no appreciable decline in shareholder value.  Some shareholders may have sold their shares but clearly from share price perspective, the companies were hurt more from economic pressure than consumer pressure.

On the other hand, conservative companies seem to benefit more from Boycotts than do their Liber counterparts.  They also tend to be privately held companies rather than public.  Take Chick-Fil-a for instance.  When the company refused to yield to homosexual agenda demands, the conservative Christian community supported the company with the single largest sales day in the companies history.  Hobby Lobby stood up for their values by insisting they had the right, in the face of Obamacare to refuse contraception requirements. The company won the fight but threatened to shutter all its stores.

I would say additionally, perservering when under pressure is a sign of faith and leadership.  The leadership team in any company has the right to take sides on an issue, but also has to expect backlash from one side or the other just as I mentioned of the baker in Colorado or the county clerk in Kentucky.

The free market approach seems to be the best approach when companies take the low road.  If Christians are willing to stand together and spend their money in the economy in a way pleasing to God, the natural Boycott will be most effective.

The Liberal Rant of the week…

Looking to the Huffington Post for inspiration?  You will most likely leave disappointed if you are conservative minded.  Clearly the gap between the left and right is the largest it has ever been.  Anand Giridharadas wrong in the Huffington post of Two Americas, a Woke one and a Great one.  I suggest he got part of it right.  His quote follows.

“Everyone is offended all the time, on both sides of the political divide. Taking offense is, in fact, one of the few things that brings us together. A Hollywood award show, a thermoplastic restroom sign, a visiting lecturer in a cardigan, a question about where one is from, a claim that black or blue or white or all lives matter — anything is fodder for the great American war of offense.”

What he leaves out of the argument is the difference in reaction between the left and the right. In General (and frankly in my experience), the reaction of a leftist to my point of view is slamming a door in my face, or calling me names. I know, I called them leftists… My reaction to their opinion is that of disbelief in the inability to think beyond feelings. Law should not be about what people feel, but what is right. No-one should care what Hollywood thinks bout an issue, a boy and a girl are exactly what God made them to be, nothing else. Public bathrooms are generally set to be one or the other when laid out to be shared by more than one. Crossing gender lines is not appropriate. What is wrong after all with claiming all lives matter?

Join the discussion at CCMPodcast.com.  I look forward to your comments abou