Bonheoffer

Please take about 15 minutes to watch this video. It'll be worth your time to learn about a champion of the Christian faith.



I stumbled across this interview on Glenn Beck and found this guy Dietrich Bonhoeffer to be pretty interesting. I'm always finding myself interested in the Christian leaders who attempt to pull the church away from the secular attractions that occur in almost every society. And what's even more uniquely interesting about it is that The Church (Jesus' church that started in Acts 2) always has the same struggles throughout time, no matter the society or government, and you always find someone, like Bonhoeffer or George Whitfield, who has the courage to try to reel the church back into God's Word. I hope I can eventually get around to reading this book because it seems like it can be really encouraging to hear about a guy with boldness to stand against Nazis. I mean America's churches are struggling and its hard enough to try to stand against this secular pulling, and we aren't against Nazis (yet).

I'm also really impressed with the author of this book,  Eric Metaxas. I know nothing about him but he is speaking with boldness the truths of Jesus Christ on national television. I'd like to learn more about the other books he's written also. And for the record, if anyone has a problem with Fox News or Glenn Beck, I mean listen to what this guy promotes on his national show. He was proclaiming the truth and love of Jesus more clearly than I hear from a pulpit in some cases. This is the Christianity we need to find. People are not looking for the run down dogmatic religion. Just like Bonheoffer they want the real deal in their hearts as well as their heads. Americans need an awakening like Bonheoffer found in that Harlem church. This is the history we need to learn. We need to learn about the prophets of the Christian faith who have been God's vessels in rescuing the church when the church was morphing into the secular society. Its a very inspiring story to Christians living in America right now. And in the condition that America is in right now, I implore all of you to question with boldness and seek God with more boldness. 

Greencastle has an Uber Progressive club?

This has shocked me beyond measure. If anyone from Greencastle, PA has paid any attention to the last few town gatherings, ie. parades, Heritage Christmas, you may have noticed the presence of a group called the Greencastle/Antrim Democratic Club. http://gademocrats.blogspot.com/. Ok I know there are Democrats in Greencastle. Actually I think there's a lot but like the old school Democrats that actually like freedom and liberty and smaller government. But two minutes on their poorly designed blog site and I find socialist and progressive ideals that could have come straight from the mouth of Van Jones! Here's one blog post that was posted after the "shellacking" on November 2nd.

  Don't Mourn...Organize! 

That's been the rallying cry of progressives throughout our country's history.  And, although we have taken a backward step in this election, we cannot stop working for change and social justice for everyone in our country. There are plenty of issues that will need our engagement in the months ahead.  We have to protect the gains we made during President Obama's first two years -- particularly health care and banking reform. We need to pass fair tax legislation in this Congress. We need to protect Pennsylvania from the environmental degradation of drilling in the Marcellus shale. We need to continue to fight for single payer health care for Pennsylvania. Add your issues to the list and then come to our next meeting on November 8 at 7 pm at the Greencastle Presbyterian Church in Greencastle. Let's discuss "what is to be done!"

This is the opposite of the message that Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and even America sent to our government in November's election. Please don't buy into the delusion of this Democratic Club. They are progressive and they want to bring an end to your liberty as you know it and make a nanny state for us all. I'm not saying heckle the people but we need to start addressing this club and debating them on fundamental principles of the United States. No more prancing around Greencastle with these kind of delusional policies.

On a sort of a side note, where do the progressives hold this organizing gene? I mean that's all that they're good at. Don't mourn...organize? Really. They put their entire life into organizing for the Democrat Club. I barely have enough time to manage this blog because I'm too busy living my life and trying not to be drowned by these new progressive policies. I actually thought about forming a Conservative or Tea Party club one time but I was like who has time to sit around and talk about this? I mean I have an idea that an overwhelming number of Greencastle citizens would love to join together with people that share their same values but to organize to the extent that this Democratic Club is organize would be exhausting because frankly we have more important things in our life.

Greencastle has yet to be too hard hit by a socialist state but that's because we stick to our roots and values. Stick to the fundamentals of America and we can be strong against this attack in our community.

(P.S. My name is Brandon Burkett and you are free to express your opinions here. I don't censor your opinions like the Greencastle/Antrim Democratic Club does on their blogspot. God bless.)

Tea

This is something I've yet to comment on much in this blog, my Facebook, or even in real life. The tea party is a force to be reckoned. You know these people. A grassroots wing of conservatives that rally and hold signs that are attempting to pull off big upsets in 2010 and 2012 elections. I won't come out in support or against the candidates running with tea party support but will say instead that the tea party is a republic government done right.

The tea party has started, established and been running strong for 2 years with very little national organizing. The basis of their revolt revolves around taxation, hence the relation to the tea parties of the Revolutionary War. But unlike their Revolutionary heroes these tea partiers are looking to drench Washington in a small government victory.

What I enjoy from the tea party is the chance to see a real Republic in action. The only flaws that could occur in a Republic style government is that the citizens stop paying attention to what their elected officials are doing. Early in American history when an official became corrupt the voters would solve the problem by voting them out but in the age of life time senators you can see that doesn't happen much anymore.

But the tea party has surged as a true example of what we the people can do when dissatisfied with our country's leaders. And yet as a true we the people force they are continually scrutinized. However, you can see that the only people targetting the tea party are the ones in jeopardy of losing their power.
Whether you agree or disagree with the tea party you should at least appreciate the we the people spirit that they demonstrate. The tea party isn't a new political party or even an ideology. It's a force.

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Forward

I wish I could capture everything that's going on in America and put it on this blog site. I wish I had that kind of commitment. I know what I need to say and what I need you to know but somehow it never is that simple. I doubt your in the same line of thought as me and you believe that America is going to tank in the next 2 years and its going to tank by design. But that's where I am. However, no matter how crazy that is, I also know that you feel something in your gut that isn't right. Mainstream media is pulling your limbs apart trying to show you what "accurate" news is. The fact is that America has been going down this road for over a hundred years.

The health care reform bill itself has been brewing in little known progressive organizations for over 20 years. And we're told we can change it by voting Republican in November. We're fighting a fight that's always going to be an uphill struggle. And being really vague, as I'm being now, won't solve anything.

So the point of this post is to let you know I'm back and by hell or high water I'm going to try to bring you blog posts for the enrichment of America, the church, and your community. God bless and look for future posts.

Pesky Freedoms

If you have been living in a hole somewhere in the last 30 days you may not have realized that New York will gain a new Mosque and Cultural Center. The reason this has gained attention is because the new mosque will sit 2 blocks away from Ground Zero. This is something I'd like to inform you about and you need to be made aware of what is really going on here.

What you may not know is that our country has something called religious freedom. Huh.. Really, I swear, watch the video with President Obama again. He says its in something called a Constitution and our Founders were really wild about this "religious freedom". I think its the 4th amendement or like 14th maybe. Now if sarcasm isn't translating well on your blog reader, let me tell you that EVERYONE knows what religious freedom is and it is the cornerstone of why America was founded. Thank you President Obama for always forcing that pesky Constitution down our throats even when we try to resist.

President Obama didn't think for a second when he spoke out to defend the right to build a mosque anywhere you want, but if this seems strange, uncharacteristic, even hypocritical to you, you might have your head screwed on straight. President Obama spoke so fast that he got a lot of heat for his original comments and he had to come back and verify his stance, which is the video you see above. (Oh and a big BTW... the President addressed this issue, whilst hosting a Ramadan dinner at the White House.)

Ok so if you can think for yourself and can multi-task at least two things, you'll know that anyone of any religion has the right to build a church, mosque, synagogue wherever they want. You know that but topic of debate in this case is the wisdom of building a mosque there, which Obama so eloquently avoided. He does seem to be consistently adamant when confronting an infringement on religious freedom, you know except for the following examples.

• During National Prayer Week May 3-7, Wickenburg Christian Academy student's were removed from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court for bowing their heads and praying together. A posted guard asked the group to move to the street to pray, they weren't allowed to on the steps, they asked, "Since when?" The answer? "This week". 
• On June 25th, teens from the Young America's Foundation were singing the National Anthem on the Lincoln Memorial when they were told to stop by a security guard. The guard said that these types of demonstrations could only be content-neutral. 
• What do you think would happen if a nativity scene were placed in downtown New York. Or even your town for example, because there were hundreds of reports of nativity scenes being removed around the country.
• On July 3rd, a 25 year old was arrested for praying outside of a Planned Parenthood facility in Chicago. The arrested man for committing "disorderly conduct" in accordance of a new "bubble law" in Chicago that says you are guilty if you approach another person within 8 feet without their consent, but take a look at the video and see how it really went down.

• The St. Nicolas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed on 9/11 when large pieces of the World Trade Center fell on the small church building. St. Nicolas has been in constant contact with New York Port Authority since 2001 and has yet to acquire a permit and permission to rebuild. There is currently a donation button asking for donations to help rebuild the historic church because with so little political support, unlike the mosque, its hard to find funds. 

Wow I'm getting exhausted finding all of these examples of infringement of the First Amendment. But I'm sure you've heard all these before. No? You mean our President never came out and set the record straight on our freedoms? Why didn't he? Why all of a sudden is our President voicing out in support of religious freedom like he has a backbone but has obviously never had one before? You can't step too far into this before you see whats really going on here America. The progressive left is all over this issue in defense of religious freedom when they are the very people that brought it into question. Check back on the topic of religious freedom this Christmas to see how many progressives rush to your side of freedom then. 

Quakers

I'm reading a book right now that I would recommend to everyone. Its called "A Patriot's History of the United States". Its a book full of the true history of our country without history revising from progressives. Most of what children are taught in school anymore is what we call revisionist history. Over time progressives have tweaked the pages of history to cast America in a terrible light. Most of this revising happened during the Woodrow Wilson presidency and some during FDR's presidency.

Anyway, this book is full of good true stuff about our amazing country. I just started reading and am only to the part about the founding of the colonies, particularly Pennsylvania. What you'll read next is an excerpt from "A Patriot's History of the United States" in the section about William Penn and the Quakers founding Pennsylvania.

Pg. 35- "In 1674 the proprietors sold New Jersey to representatives of an eve more unorthodox Christian group, the Society of Friends, called Quakers. Known for their social habits of refusing to tip their hats to landed gentlemen and for their nonviolence, the Quakers' theology evolved from the teachings of George Fox. Their name came from the shaking and contortions they displayed while in the throes of religious inspiration. Highly democratic in their church government, Quakers literally spoke in church as the Spirit moved them.
William Penn, a wealthy landlord and son of an admiral, had joined the faith, putting him at odds with his father and jeopardizing his inheritance. But upon his father's death, Penn inherited family lands in both England and Ireland, as well as a debt from King Charles II, which the monarch paid in a grant of territory located between New York and Maryland. Penn became proprietor and intended for the colony to make money. He advertised for settlers to migrate to Pennsylvania using multilingual newspaper ads that rival some of the slickest Madison Avenue productions. Penn also wanted to create a "holy experiment" in Pennsylvania, and during a visit to America in 1682 designed a spacious city for his colony called Philadelphia (brotherly love).  Over the years, Pennsylvania's Quakers would lead the charge in freeing slaves, establishing antislavery societies even in the South."

There's a lot in that paragraph that I find very interesting and inspiring about these Quakers. First of all, I don't quite know the extent of their theology but these people were full blown, Spirit-filled, Pentecostal Christians. They were the first American pentecostal movement. They would sit in their meetings and literally quake in the power of God. Nowadays we need 45 minutes of contemporary praise and worship music followed by a 20 minute tithing message, followed by 40 minutes of hard preaching, I mean hard preaching, to get even close to shaking from the Holy Spirit. By they way, don't look up Quaker theology on Wikipedia because its almost hilarious reading their explanation of why Quakers were called Quakers without saying it was the Spirit of God.

Another thing I pull from this is that Quakers were certainly unorthodox as far as Christians go at that time because of their nonviolence. And they didn't even tip their hats to landed men! I mean I tip my hat to everyone that lands anywhere near me, but that's just how I was raised. And using William Penn as an example I see that the Quakers were radical and zealous in their faith because he paid no mind to the implications of his inheritance as a result of his beliefs. The Quakers were apparently very ethnically accepting because Penn attempted to reach out to multilingual people to settle in PA and Quakers lead the way on freeing slaves.

Quakers may still exist today in small numbers but I do know that Quakers help evolve the Mennonite and Brethren faith in America which still exists today. I feel their is much to be learned from these quaking zealots. While I rarely agree with physical nonconformity there is a lot that Quakers have in common with what I see should be a goal of the restoration of the modern church. They didn't compromise on their beliefs, they saw the human race, not just one race, as important in the church body, they abhorred slavery in all forms, and most importantly they understood how insignificant all of the little programs and ministries in the church would be without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the awesome power of God.

To go back to the book for a second, I really encourage everyone to pick up this book and absorb it. Its a heavy read at over 900 pages but I believe its something that will really benefit you and your knowledge of true history. I am also looking forward to writing more posts from this book on the topic of the Biblical and Christian foundations of our country. God bless.

They will make it about hate

Hi, I've never wrote a blog post when I have been angry. There's a first time for everything.

In November 2008, the free (and legal) residents of California went to the polls to exercise the simplest form of democracy. They voted. They voted for Proposition 8. Proposition 8 was provision added to the constitution of California that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Ok, you probably know what happened next. In a state that has been to the furthest reaches of liberalism and progressivism, they passed it. 7 million free Californians exercised their Constitutional right and chose to define marriage in their state as one man, one woman.

Today is a day that will be remembered as another landmark in judicial activism, the proposition was overturned. Let me tell you what just happened to your country.

13,743,177 free Californians voted on Prop 8.
7,001,084 free Californians voted in favor of Prop 8.
6,401,482 free Californians voted against Prop 8.

1 federal judge in a black robe said no.

Tell me what kind of abhorrent tyranny we're living in today. One man is able to silence the voices of 7 million free American citizens? That is a task beyond my comprehension. Even the most ruthless dictators and fascist had to at least buy their votes. Mussolini, Mao, Ahmadenejad, Chavez. They all bought their votes. This is the dream of any ruthless, disgusting dictator, to be able to silence 7 million voices by one swing of a gavel.

I really don't care where you stand on this issue. That is really irrelevant here but what they are going to do is make it about hate. You wanna know what I believe? I believe my Bible. My Bible says that marriage is one man and one woman. And apparently that is what California believes also. Because their citizens told them. If free Californians had decided to allow other definitions of marriage then it would be just as wrong for a judge to take that voice away.

But what the progressives and judicial activists will make it about is how much you hate gays. Do not have a conversation with someone who is going to say that to you. Progressives are way too vile inside to understand that we are upset about a tyrannical judicial ruling and not that boys are gonna marry boys. Progressives will tell you that you're a bad person because you want to support a state's right to make its own rulings. But that's not how they'll say it. They will say you hate. You hate gays and lesbians and you don't want them to have rights. California has the Constitutional right to say how they define marriage in their state, and they did.

Progressives will turn this into an argument of civil rights and if you are a minority you should be puking at that. They will, as they already have, turn homosexuality into a lifestyle and relate their struggles to the struggles of African-Americans and Mexican illegals. If you are a black citizen of this country you are guaranteed life, liberty and to pursue your happiness. And what progressives want is to tell you, black citizen, that homosexuals endure the same biases that you do. Homosexuals were born as people, white, black, yellow, red, made by God, in this country. They have chosen to participate in activities that some states, like California, do not recognize as legitimate. They are NOT like you, black American. You were created by God and born in America with a dark skin color. Homosexuals have chosen to live a certain way that California, in particular, does not allow. Progressives, however, are generalizing and politicizing this issue. Progressives need the ignorant masses to see this as hate because if they see it as it truly is, as a grotesque example of judicial activism, they will lose their power over you. Stand firm against this. I beg you to know what you believe and why you believe it. And to know that you don't believe it out of hate.

The bottom line is that America has lost a little bit of its republic today. The state of California has just been told what to do by a federal judge just as Arizona was told what to do about immigration. Its abhorrent. Its disgusting. Its tyranny. California has already spoken but now their voices have been washed away by the enormous wave of progressivism that make the waves on Huntington Beach look like ripples.

400

3 Months ago I returned to Greencastle, PA from the most challenging, stressful, exciting, but fundamentally maturing place of my life. Returning from Bible College and from one of the most spiritually in tune churches in America back to rural life of area code 17225 was like a brick wall to the forehead. I was getting married in a few months and, long story short, I wanted to find a church with Biblical doctrine and God's kingdom goals. So innocently enough I take to the internet and phone book to find out what my options are. For the purpose of journalistic brevity, I just tell you that I found more than I expected and was now faced with the daunting task of sorting through what turned out to be more than 6 pages of churches in the Yellow Pages, over 400 churches to my best estimate. In a 15 mile radius.

I'm now married and the task of finding a home church is weighing on me more than ever. I've found a few with the vision that God had called for in the New Testament. I've even entertained the idea, with close family and friends, of planting a church. But for months my slogan has been, "There are over 400 churches in this area. We don't need another one, we just need one that works."

A church that works. Imagine that. A church that works for God and does the work that Jesus did. A church that does more work and sees more working miracles of God outside of its four walls than inside on a Sunday morning. A church that outwardly evangelizes and inwardly disciples, without getting the two flip flopped. A church that works with other churches because it realizes the kingdom of God is bigger than their ministry and their congregation's wallets. A church that works for the truth. A church that works out of faith because faith without works is dead. A church that works out of hope because we have truth to stand our hope on top of. A church that works out of love. The greatest is love after all.

Recently my father-in-law was conversing with a close friend of his, who happens to pastor the church I've attended for a few weeks. Specifics aren't important but the pastor revealed that his passion was church-planting. Excuse me? There are 400 churches in this area and you are passionate about church planting? By the way I think 90% of the churches had already been through they're own ascension and descension of spirituality before this guy was even born.

That struck me in such a weird way. How could a guy pastoring a seemingly kingdom advancing church, be passionate about planting churches in an area already over flowing with churches. Why would God plant that desire inside of him to see new churches start and flourish? This revelation hit me harder than the previous brick wall.

The fact that there are over 400 churches in this area doesn't matter anymore. Just because 50 people sit in the same building at the same time on a Sunday morning doesn't mean they are doing the work of The Church.

There aren't too many churches in this area. There aren't enough. Just because you own a building that has the sign and symbol of your denomination doesn't mean you're The Church. Just because you have a tax exempt number doesn't mean you're The Church. Just because you sell DVDs, CDs, MP3s, and have a podcast on iTunes doesn't mean you're The Church. And for that matter, even if you had 3,000 people sitting in your building on Sunday morning doesn't mean you're The Church.

Thank you God for the buildings that You've provided for Your people to minister through. But if Your ministry will only hold enough to fit inside of a variety of shapes of buildings, I'm serving the wrong god. I know you've heard the saying that you can't fit God inside a box. Well, your building is your box and God is not fitting inside so now that only leaves you. Wake up Church. This generation is searching for truth like never before and God is what needs to fall on them. All The Church needs to be is the insignificant bearer of God's love.

Signs of the Times

Gotcha. This isn't a post about the Revelation of the Apostle John on how our world will end, rather something much more trivial than that. I recommend you read up on Revelation and commentary on the hermeneutics of end time prophecy but this isn't where your going to find out about that. I believe the end times are rapidly approaching. I mean Barack Hussein Obama is our president who promotes more and more 'one world' activity and everyday Iran speaks more about wiping Israel off the map. There are wars and rumours of wars and earthquakes more frequently occuring. But no, I need to write to you about another kind of sign today.

Mennonite scripture signs.

Come on, I know you've seen them. While you may not be as specifically intrigued as I am on their creation, you've had to at least wonder where they come from. If you've ever taken a drive on a road through the fields of Franklin County, PA you'll see these scripture signs. They are placed at the end of driveways, usually right by a mailbox, and they quote scripture in a very abbreviated way. Like the example the paraphrase will say "Where will you spend eternity?" and underneath, usually in tiny letters, will be a scripture reference. While I do not oppose anything the signs say of course, I do however think some of the scripture paraphrasing gets written in such a way to promote the Mennonite/Anabaptist way of teaching. But that's not really what is intriguing to me in what I'm now calling the 'mystery of the sign'.

I mean where are these things developed. In Antrim township, I'm knee-deep in Mennonite culture but I've never seen the signs in any store. I doubt I go to many Mennonite stores but it would seem these signs are not for purchase by the general public. So now I assume we're dealing with an underground kind of thing. There may just be Mennonite stores that exclusively handle the signs. It may be a trade among Mennonite farmers who make the signs and distribute to neighbors or even a competition among neighbors like a 'keeping up with the Martin's' kind of thing. Or it may just be that this is a Mennonite trend much like Silly Bands where they go with the 'everyones doing it' philosophy.

So however the signs have affected your life, you can agree they've caused quite the buzz around humble Cumberland Valley. Bless the Mennonite people and their discipline, everyone could learn a little something from them about non conformity. However, I prefer attire from about 1870, not 1780. My advice to you is that you get to the bottom of this mystery so that everyone (probably just me) can get on with their lives. Also, reading the Bible on a sign is awesome, but reading the Bible from the book will change your life. It may just scare the hell out of you.

Nolan Chart

In 1971, a man named David Nolan had a problem. He no longer believed that the political spectrum could be divided up into left and right, conservative and liberal, because he disagreed with both. He sought to come up with a way to express the diversity he saw in political views and created what is now known as the Nolan Chart. As you can see the Nolan Chart has five possible positions for a person to take politically; conservative, liberal, libertarian, statist (totalitarian), and centrist. Of course you can land anywhere between two views as well. Nolan actually went on to create the Libertarian Party (lp.org) in 1971 as well, by joining with other people who wanted to escape the two-party system. The Libertarian Party has grown to be the third largest political party in the U.S.

Another way to look at the Nolan Chart is like the above image. An absolute libertarian wants complete personal freedom and complete economic freedom from the government. A person like that, who is at the very top of the libertarian section is called an anarchist. Because to have complete control of your personal and economic resources would mean there is no government. A person who believes the government should have complete control over their personal life and economics would be at the very bottom of the totalitarian bracket. This person would be a communist or a fascist. Communism and fascism are the exact same thing because they are both total government control. The only difference between a communist and a fascist is which side of left and right they are. For example, Soviet Russia. until 1991, was a communist government which is the liberal form of total government. In 1942, Nazi Germany was a fascist government which is the conservative form of total government. Examples of both exist today. Don't worry if you don't understand the communism vs. fascism part yet, I'm planning to write another post completely dedicated to that.

I want to encourage you to take the survey on the Nolan Chart (click here). Its so important that you realize where you stand politically. There are no wrong answers in the survey, you just need to answer honestly. Personally, I ended up being ranked pretty differently than I expected. But now that I know where my views are I can solidify them by joining with like minded people. If you wouldn't mind, it would be awesome to see your political standings posted on here or on Facebook. I won't share my standings but you can probably take a guess according to my repulsion to federal government power. Through all the muck of political games I hope you will be able to stick to your values and understand how your political views will contribute to restoring the constitution America.