What Phil was referring to

Sharing to what scripture says about sin

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

       On Wednesday, December 18, GQ Magazine broke a story in which Phil Robertson, the star and head of the A&E reality television series “Duck Dynasty” was asked by a reporter as to what his views of the homosexual lifestyle was in regards to his devout Christian beliefs. 

Robertson said, “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there — bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman   and those men.” 

What Robertson was meaning in his comment was that homosexuality is the gateway lifestyle to the deviant, a lot like the gateway drug that marijuana was to a crack, meth, heroin or cocain addict. None of which is behavior that God calls us to. 

He sent His Son, Jesus to die for our sins, yes. But that doesn’t give us a license to sin because Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but that through Him it might be fulfilled. I am covered by the blood of Jesus, which was the covenant of the New Testament. However, even Romans 1 talks about the homosexual lifestyle and what costs come with it. Verse 28 says, “Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only to those that do it, but those that have pleasure in them that do them.” -Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired  words, not mine.

The self-centered assumption that a Christian shouldn’t have a problem with the LGBT community  forcing their views on the rest of us and then expect us to refer to their lifestyle as normal, is a dangerous thought process to invoke in today’s society, especially when Congress and the Senate are trying to legislate such ideology. 

Sharing what God says in His word about our flippant attitude toward any sin (not just homosexuality) is what God called us to do. How else will a lost, dying, hell-bound person hear the word, unless God sends a preacher (Which Phil is) to tell them. 

Here is my theory about what happened. GQ called A&E to set up an appointment for an interview with Phil Robertson. A&E talked the reporter to ask Phil about his Christian beliefs on sin and homosexuality. If you recall, (if you heard about this happening in the news), A&E talked to the Robertsons and said that they were getting a lot of complaints from viewers about the Robertsons praying and involving God in their episodes. 

A&E asked if the Robertsons would stop putting that content on their show. Phil, the spokesman for the family, said that if they couldn’t involve prayer or God in the show, that there would be no show. A&E re-signed them for another season because due to the astronomical ratings that Duck Dynasty affords A&E, it would have been bad for business to not re-sign them. 

The GQ reporter asked Robertson the line of questioning regarding his Christian beliefs toward homosexuality. Robertson, being the outspoken Christian that he is, who believes in the First Amendment rights to free speech that the LGBT community also enjoys, answered that line of questioning, not based on hate, but with what lines up with the word of God.

GQ ran and tattled to GLAAD, GLAAD went viral with their outbursts that Robertson spouted hate speech toward the LGBT Community (which he did not). Therefore, to save face with an organization and a community that A&E champions the cause of, A&E suspended Robertson indefinitely. 

This whole situation was a conspiracy, in my opinion, to take the head of the Robertson family off of the show about the duck call company, Duck Commander, that Robertson started in his garage.

Now this is just my speculative opinion, but if you read John 8, it almost 100 percent mirrors the story of the prostitute that was brought before Jesus by the Sanhedrin to test Jesus. In this analogy, A&E and GQ represent the Sanhedrin. GLAAD  represent the other man that the Sanhedrin did NOT bring before Jesus. Phil Robertson loosely represents the prostitute (in A&E’s and GQ’s failed attempt for self righteousness). and we, the Christian community, standing up for Robertson, represent Jesus, who used scripture to rebuke the Sanhedrin. The LGBT community represent the Jews that had amassed around the prostitute, ready to throw stones. 

Now, in this analogy, let me explain that I don’t believe that Robertson was caught in any sin. That is the difference between him and the prostitute. He was baited, in my opinion, by the GQ reporter and A&E, to answer the line of questioning, because they knew that he would answer it in a way that would arouse and incite rage from the crowd, ready to stone him. 

The prostitute in John 8 was baited by the other man in the equation that nothing happens to, into sinning. That happened so that the Sanhedrin would have a chance to test Jesus in yet another failed attempt to prove that Jesus was a false profit. 

In the passage, Jesus ignored the crowd’s chant for her stoning. He bent down and scribbled in the sand. Many theologians speculate as to what he was scribbling. I have heard one theory that He was writing a law from Leviticus that says if a person baits another person into sinning, then they are just as guilty as the one they baited. That might be possible, but I won’t be so arrogant as to say that was definitely what he was writing. Let’s not give way to semantics. 

But let me say this with great humility and reserve; I pray that the LGBT community, GLAAD, A&E and GQ one day soon are introduced to my God before it is too late for them. My other prayer is that when they have had the truth revealed to them through this, they realize that surrendering to Him does not bind them to a life of ducking and dodging rules. It offers them freedom, with chains broken and no longer a slave to the master they have served in this situation. That slave is the very sin that Phil Robertson was referring to in his comment. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.

The Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign

Where the concept originated that has brought relief to Americans for 120 years

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers this holiday season to serve as bell ringers for its annual fund-raiser, as patrons at busy department stores and grocery stores participate in the organization’s most needy time of the year. 

The annual fund-raiser starts in November on Black Friday, and ends December 24 (Christmas Eve). 

Volunteers from church groups, youth groups, athletes, cheerleaders, Sunday school classes, businesses and individuals volunteer all over America to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. 

The bell ringers have been a steady mainstay at retail stores and shopping malls in America for over 100 years. The tradition began in 1891 when Captain Joseph McFee, a sailor from Liverpool, England, wanted to feed the poor at Christmas time. 

He recalled seeing a red kettle on the docks, called “Simpson’s Pot,” when he was a young sailor. People would toss coins into the kettle to raise money to feed the poor. He set a red kettle out  at the Oakland Ferry Landing in San Francisco with a sign that read, “Keep the pot boiling.”

McFee was able to raise the money needed to feed the poor that Christmas. News of the successful fund-raiser spread so far that in 1897, enough money was raised to feed 150,000 people for Christmas. In 1901 he raised enough to hold a sit down dinner at New York City’s Madison Square Garden for Christmas. 

Today, money collected in the red Salvation Army kettles is used to help the needy, the sick, the aged and other less fortunate, especially during the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Every dollar raised is donated to community charities in the towns in which the money is collected. Money is given to help food banks, low-budget community clinics, assistance with utilities or housing. Every dollar donated counts. 

     This year, I have seen people singing at the red kettle, dancing, playing a trumpet, all the way to cheer leading to attract patrons to donate loose change to a few dollars as they pass the volunteers. 

I have volunteered twice this year at the Walmart in my community. They desperately need people to step up and donate their time, their smile and their Christmas cheer to continue the effort that Captain Joseph McFee began over 120 years ago. There is still time to volunteer by going to the Salvation Army's website at http://www.salvationarmy-usa.org/usn/volunteer.

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.

Who do ‘THEY’ think they are

A thought provoking point-of-view to self thought

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

They said in the 50s that smoking wouldn’t kill you.  They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. They say a person needs just three things in life to be happy; someone to love, something to do and something to hope for.

Just who are ‘they’ and who made them the experts on everything? There is a ever-present force in the world that wants to control and drive the destiny of mankind. Some call them the illuminati. Some call them field specific experts, usually reputable scientists. Some call that driving force ‘the powers that be’. Either way you look at it, ‘they’ want the mass populating to just accept what they tell you and go on like there is no alternative out there, to their say in things. 

The Bible says Romans 1 that from the beginning of mankind, God made His existence known and manifest inside of man, so they are without excuse when they stand before Him in judgement. People may ask, “Well what about the indigenous tribes in the deepest jungles of Africa who have never heard of God?” 

  Who are we to make that assessment? The scriptures in Romans 1 are very clear that God is no respecter of person. All were created with the basic common knowledge that there is a creator. It’s when we try to rationalize and use logic, or apply what theories we have been taught in school by so called “educators”, that we  limit God to what is physically possible. God moves and works in the supernatural, and has no boundaries of physical or absolutely scientific. 

It is sometimes hard to wrap our minds around things that we can’t see, touch or hear. It isn’t always completely our fault either. It’s easy for the influence of others to overtake our thought process and cloud our judgement, because they make it sound so logical and believable. 

They have just used mind control to inhabit their beliefs into another person’s life. However, God sent His Holy Ghost on the earth to break through the confusion  often times created by man to bring truth to expose a lie. The only problem we create for ourselves in this process is again, we limit our understanding to what is physical.
God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. His word is truth set afire in a dark, evil world, which will break through the confusion and bring about clarity when we open our hearts to what the spirit has to reveal to us. It is then that clarity of His will for our lives is seen through the truth, which was already created in us to begin with. 

So the next time someone shadows the truth with what the experts claim, think about it for yourself. If it doesn’t line up with God’s word, reject it, for the opinions of the so called “experts” is yet another tool the enemy uses to deceive us from seeking the truth within the word of God. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative 

Grieving the Holy Spirit

When your child doesn’t come to you for help

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

     

     My dad used to jokingly tell me, if you are ever out and about and you get arrested, don’t come crying to me. He was joking of course... I hope. Then there were times that he would tell me when I legitimately needed him, but didn’t turn to him, “Why didn’t you come to me when the problem started?” 

Often times we’re guilty of doing the same thing to God by not going to Him in prayer when we find ourselves in a jam. In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul specifically instructs us not to grieve the Holy Ghost  by not making Him our first point of contact in a crisis situation.

God desires to be there to help us when the going gets tough. That’s what any father’s desire is for his children. God put our dads in a leadership role as head of and responsibility barer of the family. Traditionally, it is the man who proposes marriage to the woman he has chosen. By doing so, the father is taking on the responsibility role as the person accountable for everything in his family. 

When a family is torn apart by divorce, the father is usually the one to be separated from his family. Even in most cases of adultery where the father was not the guilty party, he is still the one that leaves the rest of the family, leaving the children to cope with life without a father. 

It is still possible to see the pieces of the family put back together again, if God is allowed into the situation to bring about healing of the marital and parental relationship.

In instances where he was the one guilty of the affair, thinking that healing is impossible is the first step in quenching the Holy Ghost from bringing about true change, repentance, and resolving the issue at hand to fit back the pieces of the broken model that God instituted and ordained. 

In the instance of a child doing poorly on a test, and not coming to his or her parent to ask for help in something that they don’t understand, the child can also grieve the Holy Ghost. Not allowing the person that God trusted to be the parent and help out in times of confusion or misunderstanding, is a huge step on the way to a division in trust, respect and hope of the parent/child relationship growing to one that pleases God. 

No one has ever been completely perfect in their lives. Even the professionals with years of training and God-given talent make errors in performance, judgement and morality. It is not a shameful thing to go to the Father when one needs help with an issue they are facing. 

Our friends fail us. Our family fails us. Even the churches we go to don’t always have all the answers and resolution to problems we face. God is a prayer away. Show me a person who is good at bringing others down around them due to their problems, and I will show you a person with no prayer life and no faith in God. If they would only turn to Him and trust His way in all of life’s circumstances, they will not only see a miracle come to them, but the people  around them won’t have to ask if they go to church. They will see the goodness of God in that person through the life they live.

A man was buying a soda one day at a supermarket. He paid with a $20 bill. He saw the clerk inspect the bill to make sure it wasn’t fake. She performed all of the tests that she was trained to do. Before she put the bill in the drawer, she took a tissue and rubbed the dollar bill with it. Inspecting the tissue, she put it in the drawer and gave the man his change and receipt. 

The man was perplexed. He said, “Ma’am, I know you have all the inspection tests that you have to run on the dollar bill, but I didn’t understand the reason for the tissue test.”

The clerk said, “Well sir, I was checking to see if the print of the dollar bill smeared on the tissue Yours did, so that was how I knew it was real. The real thing rubs off.”

If we allow God to help us in time of need, and if we maintain a healthy prayer life, and we stay fed in God’s word and line our lives up with His word, God’s goodness in us will rub off onto others around us. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey  - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.