Very interesting article in “The Atlantic” by Hanna Rosin (Author of “God’s Harvard), titled: “Did Christianity Cause the Crash?” - speaking of the housing crash. She raises some excellent points.

“America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong.”

One church goer in the article is quoted as saying, “… we love the money in Jesus Christ’s name! Jesus loved money too!”

“Demographic Winter – the decline of the human family” is a 56-minute documentary made by Acuity Productions that retails for $19.99.

The beginning of the movie shows you how the birthrate is declining and explains why this is happening. I guessed that the video would be broken up into two clear parts, 1 – that we are having less kids. 2 – that’s going to be bad for the economy. But the movie flows really well and does a good job of giving the viewer the big picture.

One interesting statement that stood out to me is, “Those who can best sustain a large family are not having large families and those who can least sustain large families tend to have more children.”

The movie makes a great case for how much better the world would be if we had more married families. This isn’t a new thought or groundbreaking, but it is laid out very powerfully in the documentary. If you had an argument with this idea before seeing this video, your mind should be changed by the video… but if you had an argument against that simple idea, you may not be capable of seeing the truth of the matter ☺

The video makes a claim, that I’ve always thought makes sense, but is about as un-PC as you can get, “Certain people are destined for extinction.” With the idea that faith-based groups have the most kids and secularists are having less and less kids. They make a good case for this claim.

The video ends with these words from one of the experts: “I’m not churched… I have one child adopted… this is not a faith-based analysis… this is not driven by faith… it just turns out these are the facts.”

I’d recommend watching the video if this topic interests you at all, it is very well done.

http://www.demographicwinter.com/index.html

In the United States of America, God’s law is being removed from the halls of government. It is not by popular vote, but by the law of man that this action is justified. How far has America come as one nation under God? How far will America fall should she step aside from this call?

To look upon a US dollar bill, one will see two printed statements “This Note is legal tender for all debts. Public and private.” and “In God We Trust.” If one were to look upon a credit card, they will see neither statement. They will see a name and a number which is assigned to that name. They will see the name of the credit card company and they will see an expiration date.

These things are very important. The value of a grain of rice when used in trade is its ability to nourish the body. What is the value of the dollar bill? what is the value of credit?

Based simply on what is printed on the dollar bill, i deduce that the value of the bill is based on God’s ability to back it up. I deduce that i am legally permitted to use this note for trade in the US. Looking upon the credit card i deduce names and numbers. The credit card itself is worth nothing for trade, nor is the dollar bill. It is what these things represent that determine their value.

In matters of law, the word trust refers to “confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more others.” When our dollar bill says in “In God We Trust,” We The People are making a binding statement that the value of the dollar bill is owned by God.

The credit card is a different story. The ownership of value in that credit card is three fold. There is a trust that the card holder has in the credit company, that the card will allow them to purchase items. There is a trust the seller has in the card company, that the the transaction will be reimbursed. And there is a trust the credit company has in the card holder that they will pay back what was lent by the card company.

How will the card holder pay back the credit company? Will they pay in cash? a check? or a transfer of funds? will they pay with another credit card? will they wash dishes at the credit card company for a number of years?

More often, these days, companies are paying their employees electronically. Come pay day, a set amount of money appears in said employee’s bank account. Often times, card holders pay their bills, including their credit card bills, electronically. The terms and conditions of “In God We Trust” is not used in any such transaction.

I move now to our tax system. If a government taxes its people, who owns that money? If the democratic republic of the united states is a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” then those tax dollars belong to the people. The government is merely a delegated group of people who steward those funds for the benefit of the people. I ask, in this system, whose trust is placed in whom?

Is the value of the dollar placed in the government, the people, or God?

What i see happening is that the government is trusting the American people to pay the debt. Simultaneously, reference to God in our public places are being removed. The laws and standards of the Ten Commandments and the Bible are being stricken from the halls of government. No longer are we being governed, based in the laws of God, but in the laws of man. No longer are we trusting in God, but slowly our trust is being placed in man.

Again i ask– if America came this far while echoing the Law of God in her halls of justice, and claiming a trust in God upon her money, How far will America fall should she abandon these principles so vital to the well being of her people.