Category Archives: Liberty Secured

Liberty Secured

Happy Birthday to the Bill of Rights

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born this day 1791 anno DominiBill_of_Rights_Pg1of1_AC
 
I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
 
II. A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
 
III. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
 
IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
 
V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
 
VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
 
VII. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
 
VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
 
IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
 
X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
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Liberty Secured

Obey God Rather Than Men

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And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.”

Acts 5:27-30

maxresdefaultMuch like the theocratic government in first century Israel, our own government has their own “religion” based on a secular progressive utopia. These governments have more in common than history or our present representatives would like to admit. While the earlier actually did put Christ on the cross, the present would like to see the same end to Christ’s followers. Since that is not overtly possible, they like the Sanhedrin of old, attempt to silence Christians. Whether it is the deeming of Christian views as “hate speech” or the intimidation of clergy by over zealous elected activists our Liberties are under attack.

Government officials, then and now, both lack character. While they violate our God-given, Constitutionally protected First Amendment Rights, the tyrants blame the persecuted for their own self inflicted predicaments. So the actual Jewish leaders who pleaded with Pilate to crucify Jesus were worried about being blamed for Christ’s crucifixion. We see parallels with our current government’s hypocrisy labeling Christians as Bible clinging, gun toting domestic terrorists and refuse to challenge and designate Islamic extremist groups like ISIS as terrorists bringing death and chaos to the world.

As Christians, we are asked to leave our religion inside the church. Any religious conviction is scoffed and mocked by the secular progressive. Peter provided a simple answer that should be the single response from any Christian facing the tyranny our government has begun to unleash.

“We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.”

 

Liberty Secured

Christianity: Source of Liberty

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The very institution of Christianity advances individual Liberty where the absence of Christianity recedes it. Our God-given rights are defined by Natural Law – our rights to Life, Liberty, and Property. In the absence of Christianity we no longer look to our Creator for these rights but to some other fallible earthly entity.  When this occurs we no longer exist as individuals but as  segregated groups “as member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general category” (ie slavery)

“The Christian worldview, rooted in Judaism, broke the mold: it created the idea that someone could exist as a soul before God and apart from the social status they were born with”

“As the Victorian Jacob Burckhardt wrote, ‘In the Middle Ages … Man was conscious of himself only as member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general category.'”

Ryan Shinkel of AEI provides a very insightful 2 part article on this subject.

http://valuesandcapitalism.com/christian-europe-inventor-liberty-part/

http://valuesandcapitalism.com/christian-europe-the-inventor-of-liberty-part-ii/

Liberty Secured

Texas Independence Day

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March 2nd is Independence Day in Texas. So, Happy Independence Day to all my Texas native and non native friends.

Texas was then as it is now an independently minded citizenry. Those from Mexican descent and those that immigrated here, both enjoyed liberty under the Constitution of Mexico.  It was not until the military dictator, Santa Anna, abolished the Mexican Constitution did Texans wish to flex that independence that they had come to love about their home.

The Declaration begins:

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

The General Convention laid out all of the grievances perpetrated on the peoples of Texas and their rights trampled on by an oppressive dictator.  Texans, like the Founder’s of the United States had an excellent grasp of Natural Law, as they describe the case for the first law of nature.

When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.

Self-preservation as the first law of nature must exist and should be used to protect the second – Liberty. Most of the declaration discusses the Liberties that were in jeopardy. Religious Liberty was one of such rights worth fighting.

It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.

God Bless Texas! Let us never lose the Independent spirit. Keep up the fight Patriots. As goes Texas, so goes the United States.

Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may. – Sam Houston

texasdeclaration

Liberty Secured

Liberty to the Land

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Congress was assembled in Independence Hall, at Philadelphia, 1778 Independence Hallwhen the Declaration was adopted, and, connected with that event, the following touching incident is related. On the morning of the day of its adoption, the venerable bell-man ascended to the steeple, and a little boy was placed at the door of the Hall to give him notice when the vote should be concluded. The old man waited long at his post, saying, “They will never do it, they will never do it.” Suddenly a loud shout came up from below, and there stood the blue-eyed boy, clapping his hands, and shouting, “Ring! Ring!!” Grasping the iron tongue of the bell, backward and forward he hurled it a hundred times, proclaiming

“Liberty to the land and to the inhabitants thereof.”

– from the Introduction of the 1848 book “Signers of the Declaration of Independence” by B.J. Lossing

84th Legislature, Liberty Secured

Texas Senator Takes Wise and Righteous Stand

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Why should you care about putting a stop to taxpayer funded lobbyists and who is championing this for us in Austin?

Briefly, taxpayer funded lobbyists represent tax funded entities like your local school district, city council, water district, etc.  It also includes other organizations that collect their dues from tax funded governmental entities.

A great example of one of these organizations is the Fast Growth FGSCSchool Coalition. The FGSC is made up of school districts that claim to represent schools whose growth exceeds the norm. Their stated goal is to represent these school districts in Austin lobbying the legislature to “ensure continued support for coalition members”

So, now here is the problem with that. The goal of this lobbying is to “help districts cope with the financial and structural demands of their rapidly expanding populations”, in English, they use your tax dollars to gain membership to the FGSC who then goes to Austin with the stated goal of increasing your tax dollars.

The school districts are not the only guilty participants to this scheme. Cities and water districts use lobbyists much the same way. We must hold our representatives accountable.

Our liberty depends upon creating less dependence on government and more on our Savior. This can only be done by electing God fearing representatives as described in Deuteronomy that will not be blinded nor have their words perverted by bribes from those whose words are already perverted and are already blinded.

“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” (‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭16‬:‭18-20‬ NASB)

Currently in the Texas Senate, there are such champions of Liberty. KonniKonni Burton​ has chosen to take a stand on this issue and she should be applauded. She will only allow the cities and school districts that she represents to address her office directly. A small step that speaks loudly to the Liberty she holds in great regard. I pray other representatives follow suit.

“I am here to defend and represent the taxpayer. Shining a light on this practice by not participating in it is helping to do just that.” – Konni Burton, Texas State Senator SD10

Konni Burton’s web page blog provides her official statement:
http://konniburton.com/2015/02/state-senator-konni-burton-announces-tax-payer-lobbyist-policy/

Founders' Faith, Liberty Secured

Vote Under God

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As another election cycle comes around, Exodus 18:21 provides the measure Christians are to use in selecting our political leaders.

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ wife and children to visit Moses in the wilderness. Jethro observed Moses serving as judge for the people all day. Jethro offered his wisdom to Moses saying that sitting alone as judge was not good. He then offered these incredible requirements to create the first form of government with moral tests.

“Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.”

We as Christians must require these things of those we vote into office:

ABLE

Does your candidate have the necessary qualifications? We are all called by God to a purpose (Ephesians 2:10), but we are not all called to run for office. Sometimes it takes testing an individual at a small, more local level office before we can know whether they can be entrusted with representation over larger responsibility. I was recently teaching my son about the parable of the shrewd manager, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…” (Luke 16:10), explaining how as a young man that he must prove himself in the small things and over time with wisdom, experience and continued competency, he would be able to handle increasing responsibility. Know your candidates record, require an accounting of their past performance in office.

FEAR GOD

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. (‭Proverbs‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬ NKJV)  To call yourself God-fearing should raise the expectation from voters extremely high.  Fearing God means not caving into our own sinful nature. Paul talks about “perfecting Holiness in the fear of God.”(II Corinthians 7:1)  With true fear of The Lord, a candidate understands that above all else they will answer to their maker, before their lobbyists, before even their constituents.

TRUTHFUL

Is your candidate characterized as a seeker of Truth, are they truthful? Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. (‭Psalms‬ ‭86‬:‭11‬ NKJV) We should expect two things from our candidates when it comes to Truth. They should be a seeker of The Truth, walking in Truth, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”(John 14:6) We should expect truth be spoken…always.

HATES COVETOUSNESS

To covet is to have a strong desire to have that which belongs to another. Coveting after other peoples things can lead to sin. Covetousness also means to gain dishonestly. Make sure your candidate understands that they are caretakers of Liberty. Our Liberty comes from God, not government.  It is the governments responsibility to protect that Liberty with all their being.image

We the people are responsible for our own Liberty. We are created with a free will, understanding that we are responsible for the choices we make.  We, as voters, must utilize that free will to place candidates that are able, God-fearing, truthful and without covetousness, lest we face the consequences of voting the wrong candidate or worse not voting at all.

 

“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” (‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭16‬:‭18-20‬ NASB)