-By Rev Michael Bresciani
The most read article I have ever written is only made it to my own website after being circulated around the internet for over five years. It has been published to over fifty other sites and read by about 350,000 people. It is entitled “7 Sure Fire Ways To Overcome Stage Fright When Speaking Or Performing” it was written and published back in 2005. Within that article I advise my readers a bit on how to look at a crowd of people with the following advice.
“See the Crowd as Only One Person: No science is available to prove how or why this little tool works, but be assured it will never fail. Always speak to the audience as if you were talking to only one single person. It makes them feel that you are being very personal with each individual, they can feel the difference. It shrinks the crowd on a perceptional level for you. Remember that perception is often the better part of reality. It moves the entire matter to a, one on one. Who wouldn’t admit that they are more comfortable talking to their neighbor or some stranger but not a whole crowd? Approach your performance or address as if you were doing just that and you will succeed.”
When writing, this rule also applies but what are missing are the eye contact and the verbal and emotional responses of the crowd. Yet, even for that, the statistics of an article, the feedback and the demographics of the readership says a lot. So what exactly does it say?
After publishing my latest article on June 7, 2011 entitled “2012 Presidential Choices – When Lincolnesque is Not a Luxury” I see once again that America is still not sure where she is heading as a nation. I was invited to discuss this article in a TV interview only one day after it was published because others have begun to notice that the economy is not the only big question in America.
The political class is laboring under the false notion that the economy is all that matters and spiritual and moral questions are merely appendages to our overall problems. The spiritual people are often insulated from all political activity under the equally misguided belief that “politics and religion don’t mix.”
Here is a case where both groups are completely in error. Both realms of influence are constantly interacting with each other. The elements of faith and morality have a bearing on all politics and conversely politics affects every aspect of religion. Separation of church and state is a moot argument and to be honest it is has nothing to do with either the Bible or the Constitution.
The Bible does not tell us to stay away from politics and the Constitution does not say a single word about the separation of church and state. The Establishment Clause in the first amendment to the Constitution merely says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Nothing found here is about separations, churches, and the state excluding religion.
I am not proposing a marriage of church and state but I am also not proposing an end to a friendship that has lasted for the entirety of our history as a nation.
What I am proposing is a look at one single passage of scripture that along with the trends of the day and my article stats says all too clearly that we are passing over a line. I call it the “Won’t listen – Can’t listen, Line.”
The Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Romans 1: 28)
When people just ‘won’t’ look at the Bible anymore or they refuse its admonitions and guidance they can still be dealt with, coaxed, reasoned with and perhaps convinced but there is a point in which they cross over the line to: ‘can’t.’ That means that God himself removes their ability to spiritually discern what is really right, true, Godly and moral. That is a state of “reprobation.” Some have already crossed that line and they will not be back anytime soon.
Shortly after WW2 a trend began among the statesmen and politicians in our nation that is now busting out all over. News events involving Weiner, Rangel, Studds and Frank are examples of the principle that is being ignored and abandoned all too much in these critical days.
We have begun to accept that a person’s personal decisions or private sense of morality has no bearing on their public service. Everything in the Bible and all the best reasoning of man indicate that this is a total falsehood. What you allow in your private life will affect every decision made in your public life and this is an incontrovertible fact of life.
This is where the lack of religious principles has begun to erode, attack and destroy the best outcome of good politics. It is preceded by politics accepting the falsehood that religion must be kept out of its business. It is America’s version of the Ouroboros, and it is destroying us as sure as a killer storm or a pandemic plague.
We now have a president who is quickly earning the reputation for finding ways to dump Constitutional law as a guide and it is clear from his position on both abortion and homosexuality that he never embraced Biblical principles on either of those matters. With our own confusion rising about these things and a politician at the helm of our nation who completely disregards them, where do you suppose we are headed?
I suggest that regardless of who we elect to lead this country in 2012 if we continue to push across the line from, won’t listen to, can’t listen, we will all arrive in that dreaded state of reprobation from which there is no return.
The simple solution to this problem is to change directions. The word, ‘repent,’ literally means to change direction. In some cases repentance means to ‘return.’ It is a call to return to what was previously valued, adhered to and obeyed as God given guidance.
Repentance is the only thing that will work even for a “superpower.” But that would mean abandoning not the Bible or the Constitution but our lofty view of our new found ability to separate political discourse from religious conviction. Powers rise and fall but the message from the realm of eternity remains… ‘Eternal.’
“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isaiah 57:15)
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Rev. Michael Bresciani is the chief steward of http://www.americanprophet.org. The website has since 2005 featured the articles of columnist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe.