Well, I finally reached 100!  Not years, although I like the idea, but blog posts.  I know the post pace has slowed considerably but who knew that retirement could be so time consuming.  All excuses aside, here we go with number 100.

I do Facebook.  Or does one say that they “Facebook”?  Either way, I have a Facebook account and I look at it almost daily.  Now I don’t post pictures of my dinner, or tell everyone how wonderful my life is over and over and over and over and over again.  That would violate “Daryl’s first law of Facebook”.  Which, simply stated, is; “The actual state of one’s life is inversely proportional to its self-description on Facebook”.  Think about it for a second.  Yes?  Anyway, when I say I do Facebook what I really mean is that I watch Facebook.  My daughters say that it’s called “creeping” when you just look at other peoples stuff but don’t comment or post your own stuff.  I guess I’m ok with that.  I’ve always been a student of human nature and I find that I can learn a lot about what makes people tick by observing what they post and how they speak to others online.

However, as much as I try to avoid it, I do occasionally get involved in heated discussions.  We all have hot-button issues and when one of my raw nerves is touched it’s hard not to respond.  I’m especially sensitive to  people who adamantly claim they have a particular world view but then espouse beliefs that are diametrically opposed to that claim. Here’s a good case in point.

I have friends and children of friends who claim to have a deeply committed Christian perspective on life.  They stress the importance of sacrificial giving.  Of serving their fellow man.  Of living a simple, humble life.  All Christ-like attributes that I wholeheartedly agree with and  have strived for my entire life but, here’s the rub, they demand you do it from the barrel of a gun.  Come on, let’s have a little intellectual honesty.  If you’ve ever used the expression “social justice”,  if you believe in most of the tenets on this list then you believe in communism not Christianity.

• Central banking system
• Government controlled education
• Government controlled labor
• Government ownership of transportation and communication vehicles
• Government ownership of agricultural means and factories
• Total abolition of private property
• Property rights confiscation
• Heavy “progressive” income tax
• Elimination of rights of inheritance
• Regional planning

I can hear the screaming from here.  “But Jesus was a communist!”  Can we really believe that?  Did Jesus ever demand that we as Christians take something by force and give it to someone else?  Following Christ is all about a personal commitment, voluntarily giving what you’ve been blessed with.  The key word is, of course, voluntary.  You and I know where the needs are, not faceless bureaucrats.  But, sadly, we are so overtaxed that it’s hard for most folks to give as much as they would like.  Government shouldn’t the arbiter of what is right and wrong, they screw it up every time.  Only a quarter of what is budgeted to help people ever gets to the people, the rest is gobbled up in bureaucracy.  But there are faith based charities where over 90% goes to where the needs are.  Why don’t Europeans give to charity?  Because they abrogated their personal responsibility to government years ago and literally sold their souls to a god who only cares about staying in power.

Now, to be 100% honest, Jesus didn’t really care about economic theory or preferred forms of government.  He was more interested in the hearts of man and the individual choices that we all have to make.  He pretty much ignored the subject all together.  But no country on earth has ever raised the standard of living, pulled more people from poverty, done a better job of giving every citizen an opportunity to thrive than the USA.  And that is only because our nation was founded on Christian principals.  Our rights come from God and they are individual rights.

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, render unto God the things that are God’s”  Let’s stop siding with Caesar.