Election 2016

[HKHaugan]

Election 2016

This election is not about personalities. It's about issues. It's not really about Trump or Clinton. It's what they represent. This is a brief but, admittedly, a lengthy brief and you'll see why.

The most important principle in any society is the heart of every individual born into it. It is the heart of a person that determines how that society will function. It is the heart that influences the mind and the spirit in each person. The development of the human heart depends on the freedom of the mind and spirit to develop it to the fullest. So it is the heart in turn that determines the moral, ethical and maturing base for any society. The heart has to have the freedom to find its place in the world. That freedom has to be protected. It is not just a physical protection but a social one as well.

Given the imperfection of humanity, the tendency to put self first, called sin, the heart needs protection against hurting itself as well as others. It needs the structure of a set of values that give it the most potential for freedom to grow and discern those outside forces that would result in destroying it. Hearts need a family environment in which they can learn those values. It is parents who model them for their children. So every heart needs to know there are both law enforcement and military agencies upon which they can rely to sleep at night and walk freely each day.

Again it is the heart, the inner self conscious 'I am' that is the issue. The documents that form the governing concepts of our nation are built on that precious insight. Phrases like providing for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are heart phrases. The Declaration of Independence is a heart title. Even the Constitution contains the language that guarantees the heart's freedom to make choices and decisions and contains the structures to protect the free process of individual determinism. But an individual determinism that is cushioned by concepts that enable individual hearts to work together to build a society of protected individual heart development, unlike any prior historical system of human interaction.

The bottom line in the whole process is that every concept and the development of the individual heart itself was founded with Holy Scripture in mind. Our whole legal system, the idea of individual freedom, communal cooperation, shared skills building a talented labor force in a capitalistic economy come right out of the Bible. We are a spiritually founded and grounded nation. It is God who has created us in His image; His mind, His heart and His Spirit. The system of government we have is a God inspired reality.

From my perspective as a born citizen we have some real concerns facing us. They are all heart concerns. I'll list them as I see them from a spiritual perspective. It is not what we can see that motivates us but what we can't see. When the leadership of a nation toys with the definition of when life begins and ends we are in trouble. The question is not can we prove when life begins. It's obvious; the moment the egg is fertilized in the womb. Two live people engaged in a live physical act that caused a live conception. It is a live sperm and a live egg that come together in a live womb and their combined life makes a new individual life which ends only when the heart stops beating. Ask any mother. Ask any father. Ask any child. Argue all you want. That's a physical reality and killing the conceived living reality is executing a helpless human heart and defiling the human dignity of those who conceived it.

Secondly, it is a man and a woman make babies. It takes a male and a female. True of false? Babies need a father and mother committed to caring for the growth of that child, a father's heart and a mother's heart. A new heart needs the balance of a father and mother to begin their growth experience. A woman provides the care and nurture of the emotional relationship that sets the stage for their future experience of the same. The father provides the environment not only economically but the authority to stand up and be that person who is balanced with personal confidence and relational sensitivity. The husband provides the security for the wife to be able to devote herself to the relational growth of the child and the love for a husband to be the family provider. So marriage and family need leaders who will remove obstacles to that basic living experience that builds a strong heart. It takes strong hearts to build a strong society.

Thirdly, a new individual needs an identity. Being a new image of God, they are also a child of God and a witness to God. The parents are the managers of the heart's spiritual growth. From their spiritual identity arises the different connections in society that reinforce their psychological and social identities.

Fourthly, a growing heart needs education and encouragement to understand the concept of working to achieve and accomplish goals. This is what builds self confidence and a heart to help in the growth of others. Education builds a mind that can reason and the foundation for the motivated spirit to contribute to the larger society.

Fifthly, a person needs to have a spiritual base to deal with the fact that 100% of everything we do is motivated by what we can't see. The process of thought, emotion and motivation are the core of our invisible being. What we believe, trust and act out is spiritual. The question is who and what does your heart trust for its motivation? The Constitution the Declaration of Independence and our laws are designed to foster the heart's growth, development, accomplishment and destiny to allow the spiritual the freedom to support those ends.

Sixthly, the exterior responsibilities of a nation are to encourage other nations to honor the hearts of their people with freedom. When they have their people's hearts based on the freedom individual heart growth then they too will experience what we in our system have. If however, a government attempts to over regulate the freedom of heart development, control the source of wealth, giving results without work, then the heart is denied the right to grow as human beings were designed to do.

Seventhly, support of Israel is of paramount importance. They are the balancing act in the Middle East and the nation the Lord God has created as a historic marker of His authority over the world. That nation was the vehicle for the coming of the Messiah and continues to carry the moral law that is foundational for world morality.

Eighthly, marriage between a man and a woman is based on their biological ability to reproduce. They are the two entities of intentional relational mutuality that enable a child to develop a balanced stable heart and a productive life. People may choose other lifestyles but the basic one that needs protection is that traditional man/woman, husband/wife, parent/child, common in most cultures worldwide. It is the most established and proven form of maturation to develop the human heart not only for the children but for the adults involved as well. Marriage and family are the only way a heart can find its destiny. Anything less will never find completeness unless it finds its spiritual source.

Ninthly, keeping a strong military and well trained law enforcement agencies guarantees protection both at home and abroad for the democratic process and respect necessary to maintain world peace.

Tenthly, a nation with porous borders and unlimited access only develops pockets of dissent, disillusion, disenchantment and dissatisfaction among those who come here illegally. We do great harm to the hearts of those who come without the cover of all that learning how to be a citizen offers. Amnesty is not an answer. Amnesty is a curse. It guarantees isolation of the heart. With no historical understanding, no language skill, no foundation for what it means to be a citizen, with no education about the principles and formation of this country, the heart will always feel alone, having to struggle for survival in a sea of rejection. Fear of being discovered haunts it. A community of these hearts close their ranks and eventually fight what they find foreign to them or they run and hide. Legal immigration is the only way to blend into the culture they desire to be in. Learning the language and culture deepens the security of the heart and its future. If all you have is where you come from, then where you are has no meaning, just survival.

To prove the point all you have to do is go overseas to any country. Be a foreigner there and then return. When you come back to where you were born, raised in its language, knowing its history and educated in its working environment then you feel at home. Imagine what it would be like to find yourself in another country, no language skill, no job, no friends except a few who are there like you, no contacts for a job, totally dependent on hope that you'll survive and if found you could be either killed or deported.

Amnesty is not the answer. Amnesty is like giving someone a candy bar and a tent telling them they will last as long as they live. They will find out after the last bites and a few rain-filled nights how untrue that is. Then tell me what will the result be? The most compassionate thing you can do is to provide temporary shelter and educate until they understand and feel a part of their new found geography.

Eleventh. The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of conflicting ideas and behavior in our country. Its authority is the Constitution. Unfortunately, in the past six decades it has become a politically influenced body of lawyers whose personal views have shifted from legal to sociological interpretation. When these nine judges begin interpreting the Constitution from any other perspective than its original legal intention then one system of thought dominates and we have a new dictatorship. When ethnic, racial, gender, political and social distinctions replace the mindset of the authors we are no longer a democratic republic but a political anti-heart, anti-justice, anti-spiritual coalition. We are seeing this already happening in decisions that have been made. It is vital that those chosen to sit in the robes of final justice are acquainted with the human heart, how it functions and the legal means to defend its growth. It means the jurists need to think 'Constitutionally' as the authors intended.

Twelfth, there are certain things that are not publicly addressed because of their political sensitivity. When a people's belief system is in direct conflict with the nation of heart growers then its members must either accept the legal system in this heart oriented country or be denied entry. Any attempt to change our country by injecting a foreign legal system must be immediately thwarted. America was founded to bring democracy to the world. Those who try and bring another system here need to be told to stay where they are before they leave. If they are refugees it means they are seeking temporary refuge by definition. The have two choices. If they don't want to remain here they leave or if they want to stay, then they learn the language, the social nature, the history, the founding documents and laws of the land. It's the only compassionate approach for their hearts.

Another thing that needs discussion is exploitation based on fear. One party in particular has chosen to exploit different ethnic and social groups by getting them to think in paranoid fashion that they are being victimized by one segment of the population. The strategy is simple. Think being a victim. Appeal to each self-conscious minority by making them more self-conscious and victimized. Encourage the media to see the average person with so-called 'white skin' as the enemy. That means those with Hispanic, black, tan, Asian, disabled, native American, poor, rich, middle class, elite, Jewish, Anglo-Saxon, legal immigrant, service workers, professionals, illegal immigrant, homosexual, bi-racial, bi-sexual, male, female, trans-gender, union, non-union, are all being discriminated against. This one party creates increased discrimination by exploiting the differences in order to gain political power over for personal control. That control is to get these different self-conscious groupings into a coalition to support that party. Unfortunately here too their language is inflammatory branding one group of people with the prejudice label even to the point of saying that because a person is born 'white' they are born with prejudice in their minds and hearts. That theory is taught in some of our schools.

Once exploitation becomes a political tool there is no end to the social and psychological paranoia that is manifested in demonstrations, rioting and mass shootings. The hearts of everyone in the nation are damaged. The language of exploitation is seen in the words and actions of the highest leaders in the land. They have fomented 'Black Lives Matter', the assassination of law enforcement officers, the disparagement of the Second Amendment, the weaknesses in enforcing our borders, getting ethnic groups into hostile anti-authority behavior. To concentrate on external and cultural differences is to alienate the heart from its person and accentuate the feeling of aloneness and frustration.

What makes all this worse is that those who have no meaning or purpose in their lives will use these circumstances to vent their lack of purpose by accepting hostile behavior as their purpose. Karl Marx knew this and the Communist strategy of social upheaval through defining and exploiting self conscious external identity became a political system. Demonstrations and rioting offer immediate action and immediate action gives immediate self approval. Find a cause and riot for it. There are always those who are ready to finance them for their own personal gratification and power. We've already seen it in this pre-election period.

Social exploitation is dangerous to the individual heart and to encourage it is to contribute to the division and downfall of the country we live in and one party glories in it. The empty platitudes of the leaders in that party are corrupting the hearts of their followers. Those who are refusing to face this greedy attempt at brokering power are only encouraging their own demise.

Fourteenth, the anti-Christian bent of the present liberal party, it's anti-Israel position, it's anti-human pro-abortion move under the guise of health is anti-woman and anti- family, it's anti-truth program that says any truth is truth is not truth at all, its anti-justice approach endangers the highest court in the land, its global economy program destroying the one stable American economy just touch the surface of the detrimental attitude that obsesses the power hungry liberal movement.

Not only that but both parties have been compromised. The liberal party has been described above. The conservatives have mouthed all the conservative values but have done nothing but compromise in order to keep office. The need for an outsider to bring change to a corrupt exploitative system is now. Any conservative candidate will be derided, insulted, lied about and attacked on every possible level. The fact that his insults have been a stark contrast to past conservative compromisers evidences his willingness to get in the think of liberal fancies. He is a threat to the inside factions of compromised two party leadership.

But let's face it. The most important issue is not the person but the change necessary to find a new path to stabilize a divided country. Concentrating on the person, his personality and language, is a distraction. It is the issues that matter. Exploitation is just one. It has to stop. The media exploits it all for their own survival. As believers in Jesus we have to face a bottom line fact. Behind everything above is the spiritual condition of society. It is fallen, decadent and heart destructive. In the midst of all this we have to live in a horizontal environment with a vertical trust. It's time for a horizontal witness while we trust the Lord for the change He can effect if we trust Him. Neither of the candidates are perfect nor can we place out ultimate trust in them or any leader. Only God can fill that position. But that is not the issue. We have to live in a real world with boots on the ground faith. It is the issues mentioned above that are the horizontal reality we live in and the ones we have to dig into to change. As someone who sees the value of the individual heart at stake I can do no other but go for change regardless of who brings that change. The heart of citizen, alien, visitor, citizens of other nations are what we stand for. Right now I believe that the political system that has been in power for decades has lost its heart for the heart. Thank you Lord, it is being challenged at its core. I want to follow that challenge and see the outcome in what is the few years I have left by being an image among images, a child among children and a witness among witnesses, each of God.