Ephesians 6:12 (King James version)

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12.

Lately, a political blog I follow "Powerline", has had some articles about the growth of the food stamp program and also the recent changes to the welfare program. These articles have troubled me but I couldn't put my finger on exactly why.  I believe that we should do everything in our power to provide for our families. I think I got this from my dad who taught us at a young age to work for what you get. We qualified for free lunch when I attended elementary and my father worked out an arrangement with the school that we would eat lunch and then clean the lunchroom floor when we were done eating, to earn our lunch. This was very embarrassing and not fun and truthfully we barely did it. But the fact that my dad, even though free lunch was offered, would not except it without some sort of payment was a great lesson to us.

Sometimes, we work, cut out spending-give up cable and high speed internet-and cut everything we can and yet we do not have enough in the end to feed our families.  At these times outside help is necessary for our survival.  I would hope we have more options than one to turn to.  Hopefully, we have family, friends, and a church community we can go to for help in difficult times, but even the government is there if needed.

One problem with the government system today is that if you only need a little help, you don't qualify for any help.  I heard a disturbing story from a friend about a friend who needed help with her daycare payments.  She petitioned the government for help and was told she did not qualify for any funds, but if she were to quit her job, she not only could get help for daycare (which she wouldn't need anymore) but would get housing money, food stamps, and more.  She is now a stay-at-home mom dependent on taxpayers.

Is the government interested in helping people?  It seems like they are not trying to help people better their lives, but create a large dependent lower class. Why?

The more I thought about the governments interest in welfare the more troubled I became. It seemed to me there was an underlying agenda that I was missing. So I asked the question. Why? Why would the government want the welfare system to grow? We should want families to help themselves and not live off the taxes of others. So why would the president want to grow these programs? Part of the problem is the economic hardships occurring right now.  These programs are partially growing on their own because of, obviously, the poor economic times. But why is he actually pushing-advertising for more people to get on food stamps and removing the work requirement to the welfare program? Well an obvious answer is VOTES!! It is an election year and voters hit the voting booths in just a few months. That must be the answer.

My feelings, however, kept telling me there was more to this. So I asked a different question. Why does the government want so many people dependent upon them? The answer that came made me gasp. If the people are dependent on the government for financial needs and for food they don't need to depend on anyone else. That is a scary thought because the list includes: themselves, their family, their friends, their church, and last but certainly not least, THEIR GOD!! When that thought entered my mind the last 3 and 1/2 years, even longer than that, suddenly made sense. Not so subtle and sometimes very subtly the government has been making this country something it is not and never should or will be. This is a very radical thought and I will lose many readers, if I have any, but I am convinced that this president and those pulling the strings want a communist state.

Now if you are still with me let me explain. I have been doing research on this the last few days. I read a lot of the communist manifesto. Yeah, I went there. Let me share with you a little of what it is says. "The theory of communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." What does that mean? The poorest of the poor have no property such as homes and cars. In order to abolish private property all together, the state takes it from the middle class and upper classes. Communism in a nutshell is the lower class, with the help of the political elites, abolishing by laws, taxes, war, and what have you the middle and upper classes. There is a little bit more I think worth noting. Communism abolishes not only private property, but families,countries, nationalities, eternal truths including religion and all morality. This is in their manifesto.

So what is the plan. His plan so far has been to 1. create a class warfare. Remember the Occupy movement. "The 1% are bad and don't pay their fair share and we should have what they have." Big business is bad (even though it is businesses that create jobs and boost the economy).  He did not create this movement, but he certainly supported the occupiers.  2. Put government in charge of more of our lives, Affordable Care act. 3. Make people dependent on government and not on a supreme being.  Religion needs to be abolished for communism or socialism to thrive.  It is very difficult to wage a full out attack on religion because there are so many religious people in this country. So the attack must occur slowly and subtly by removing the need to rely on God for help and demonizing religious persons.


So what can we do to stop it. Well to stop the current president we vote him out. What about the next communist or socialist who wants to change America, how do we put a complete stop to it?   I have a 2 fold plan. 1. Elect men who believe in God . Who speak about Him as well as feel accountable to Him.  Was it in doubt that our founding fathers believed in God? No! They might have had many names for Him, but they believed He was the power behind winning the revolutionary war and behind the creating and ratifying of the constitution. They wrote about him, spoke openly about him and lived his precepts. We need those type of men in the offices of congress and president today. 2. This part of the plan is found in 2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophesies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."


I searched google for "religion and communism" and found some quotes I wanted to share. The quotes come from an article by Leslie Mason "The Forum: The Conflict Between Communism and Religion A reply to Baldwin" It was written in the communist review June 1924 Vol 5. no. 2. He says "...judging from the words of Christ, True Christianity and pacifism lull into inactivity the best fighting elements of the working class. Thereby leaving them entirely at the mercy of the capitalist class, without the will or the means of resisting. Would Lenin have accomplished the Revolution if he had adhered to the christian doctrine of pacifism instead of waging the class war? Will the communist parties in the various countries overthrow capitalism by the christian doctrine of love and gentle persuasion instead of by the use of force? No decidedly not! No one can be consistently both a christian and a communist. A true Christian believes in turning the other cheek, resisting not oppression, returning good for evil. It would be madness for a communist to adopt such an attitude towards the oppression of the capitalist class." Then at the end of the article he quotes Trotsky "And therefore, we adopt a ruthlessly irreconcilable attitude to anyone who utters a single word to the effect that mysticism or religious sentimentality might be combined with communism. Religiousness is irreconcilable with the Marxian standpoint. We are of the opinion that Atheism, as an inseparable element of the materialist view of life, is a necessary condition for the theoretical education of the revolution. He who believes in another world is not capable of concentrating all his passion on the transformation of this one."


So how do we combat communism? We teach the doctrine of Christ. Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor everyone. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you" St. Matthew 5:44.

Also we bring to remembrance the goodness and mercy of God which he bestows on all His children who keep His commandments and believe in His Son, Jesus Chris. We remember the Israelites and their afflictions in Egypt and Moses bringing plagues down in Egypt by the power of God. We remember the crossing of the red sea on dry ground and then the Egyptian army being drowned in the sea. We remember Moses smiting a rock and water coming forth to quench the thirst of the children of Israel. We remember the mana and quails that fell from Heaven to feed them. We remember how they were led by a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. We remember the fiery flying serpents and the rod they were to look at for healing. We remember the battle of Jericho. We remember Elijah, the prophet being fed by ravens. We remember the widow woman that had enough food for one last meal and prepared it for the prophet Elijah and her oil and flour never ran out. We remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego who were saved from being consumed in the fire. we remember Daniel in the lions den. We remember Jesus feeding the 5 thousand and the 4 thousand with a few loaves and fishes. We remember Him healing the blind, the deaf, the sick. We remember Christ's sacrifice of death and suffering for us. We remember the revolutionary war and how it was won by the hand of God. We remember that we are Gods children and that He loves us and is willing to bless us according to our faith in Him. We remember that He gave us our agency in the beginning and desires His children to be free.  And we remember that Christ will return. Wickedness will be destroyed and righteousness will remain and He will be our King. We remember that this is the time to prepare to meet God to be judged of our works, desires, and the intentions of our hearts.  We remember that liberty and justice for all are not just pretty words, but what this country stands for.  In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Politics, Religion....Life

I was up at 4:30 this morning tossing and turning trying to go back to sleep but not able to turn my mind off. I couldn't sleep because of this blog post rolling around in my head. I lay there until 6:00am at which time I got out my tablet and started reading (I should have got out my scriptures but I wanted to do research on the thoughts in my head) at 7:00am I went for my Friday 5 mile run to clear my head which didn't really work because I ran the whole way thinking about this post.

I said awhile ago that I post when something is on my mind a lot or really important to me. So here I am again with something on my mind making it hard for me to sleep and something very important to me.


I read yesterday a discussion on facebook about Gay and Lesbian Marriage. I need to learn to stay off of facebook. Anyway one of the comments made during this discussion was the need to take religion out of politics. I have heard this argument before and will hear it again especially when it comes to disagreements because of beliefs. There may be many who agree with the comment. For me, it doesn't make sense. I don't know what it means or how one would do that.


My religion is not just some place I go on Sundays to do what I call worshiping my God. It is not just a belief system that I have that I can use for my benefit or discard when it is not beneficial to me. My religion is the gospel of Jesus Christ, taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which I am a member of because I performed ordinances and entered into covenants with my God only by the authority of the Holy Melchizedek priesthood. It is my life. It is my moral compass, it influences my daily interactions with my children, my husband, my friends in and out of the church. It influences the clothes I buy and wear, the way I speak, the way my children speak, what I read, what I watch, what I do and how I live. To really claim to have a religion, I believe it should be this way---- your life.


Our founding fathers when drafting the constitution and then trying to get it ratified did not take religion out of the process. It was their life. Their strong belief in God is what helped them write it and get it ratified.

Washington called religion, as the source of morality, "a necessary spring of popular government," while Adams claimed that statesmen "may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand."

Benjamin Franklin said during the constitutional convention "the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth--that God governs in the Affairs of Men." "I also believe," Franklin continued, that "without his concurring Aid, we shall succeed in this political Building no better than the Builders of Babel."


So why do some want us to take our religious beliefs out of politics? Because if we can separate out the different aspects of our lives that way then we should have no problems with things like the Affordable Health Care Act which infringes upon religious freedom as the Catholic church has found with the birth control coverage. It doesn't matter if it is a firmly held religious practice and belief not to use it or support its use, they now have to provide the coverage of it for their employees and students attending THEIR schools. And what happens if the board in charge of what is covered decides to allow coverage of abortions for everyone then our premiums go to pay for abortions when we may have firmly held religious beliefs that that is wrong. That is an infringement on our religious freedom.

Gay and lesbian Marriage does the same thing. As I said before I am a member of the LDS church which strongly defends traditional marriage. It is not because of a hatred for Gay and lesbians. I do not hate gays and lesbians. We aren't opposed to them having certain rights that they are fighting for. But we can't be silent on something which interferes with our doctrines, for instance we know that marriage should be between a man and a woman and also that children have the right to be raised by a mother and father and any other situation, although there are many, are not as healthy for the children, more than this though, marriages and families are to last beyond the grave.  The only families that can last beyond the grave are those who have been sealed together by the Spirit of Promise in the temples of God.  This can be done after a couple dies or here on earth.  But, it can only be done for families living God's laws, keeping his commandments and their covenants.

The LDS church released a statement in 2008 which said

"We are not anti-gay, we are pro-marriage between a man and a woman. And there's a huge difference between those two points," Elder L. Whitney Clayton, of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy told KSL News.

One day after last year's election -- in which the Church supported California's Proposition 8 -- Elder Clayton stressed the support of traditional marriage.

The Church's First Presidency also released a statement, which reads, in part, that the Church "does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights or probate rights."


Elder Ballard said in an interview during a temple open house (which is before a temple is dedicated unto the Lord people can go in and view the rooms inside the temple) when asked about our stance on gay and lesbian marriages in a room where marriages are performed and families sealed together for eternity...

"It is 'for all time and eternity,' as Ballard puts it. 'And the families are to be together forever.' It is 'not just an earthly matter,' he adds."

"'That sense of eternity is symbolized by two massive mirrors on opposite walls. Couples look in them and see cascading reflections that seem infinite.'

"Eternal marriage for Mormons always involves a man and a woman. "That's exactly as God declared it," Ballard says. "Because only between a man and a woman can children be born. And children are inheritance of the Lord."

"'There is some very careful study, very careful evaluation being made, as to what would be appropriate and what isn't doctrinally,' Ballard answers. 'But if anything interferes with the basic fundamental principle of marriage being between man and a woman, doctrinally we're locked in. We don't have the capacity to call upon God and tell him to change his mind, that he made a mistake.'"

Just like we cannot ask God to change His mind. He is the same yesterday today and forever. We cannot take our religious beliefs out of different parts of our lives especially politics. Our religions should be a big part of us and that includes the things we do and say and our political beliefs as well. It should be our lives.


Our religious freedoms are being eroded away. We can't as a people sit back and let that happen, the consequences are too great. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.