Stop yer whinin'. Get involved!

For decades, I've listened to people propagate conspiracy theories. They have no idea what's going on in their local school board or city council. Yet, they know all about the New World Order, the evils of the Federal Reserve, the Council on Foreign Relations, the UN plan to confiscate guns, the Trilateral Commission, UN and other foreign armys positioned to subdue rebellious Americans, the Bilderberg Group, the imminent collapse of the US Dollar and the global economy, and Biblical prophecies of the end of the world. They even believe countless prophesies that have been attributed to God's emissaries, but for which there is absolutely no reliable documentation.

They accept all these catastrophes as inevitable -- that nobody has power to stop them. They don't believe that good people can control the outcome, yet they assume that evil forces can. They are resigned to inevitable fate. This resignation does nothing but empower every selfish, evil, power-hungry, and greedy individual and organization in the family, the community, the nation, and the world. (I wonder if any of the evil powers in the world are resigned to inevitable fate.)

I've listened to people complain about the government. (Oddly, liberals, conservatives, moderates, Democrats, Libertarians, Republicans, constitutionalists, and anarchists all share many of the same concerns and issues.) I ask them how they voted in the last election. Many didn't vote. Many of those who did vote elected the very people who caused, endorsed, or perpetuated the problems we have!

People say it doesn't matter whether they vote. So, they don't. If they do vote, they rarely put more than 10 minutes of research and thought into the decision. Far too many even walk into the voting booth completely clueless and offer a silent prayer that God will guide their hand. I've complained in the past about America's voters: One-third carefully study the issues and candidates before voting; one-third get their news and information from Oprah and Jay Leno monologues; and one-third are completely clueless. The two-thirds of the voters who are idiots are out-voting the rest of us! No wonder things are so so screwed up!

I ask them if they know what the US Constitution says and does. They either have no idea or their idea is completely wrong. They have no clue that most of what the federal government does, and what they expect the federal government to do, violates the limits placed on the federal government by Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution and that, according to the 10th amendment, every other right, power, and responsibility belongs to the people and the States.

I ask them where their rights come from. They think rights come from the Bill of Rights (ie, by government decree). This belief contradicts the understanding of the nation's founders expressed in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...." The Tenth Amendment further clarifies that our rights are not limited to whatever rights are listed in any document, including the Bill of Rights. In reality, we only have whatever rights we are willing to defend -- no matter what our Creater gives us.

I ask people when they last read the editorial page of any newspaper. An awful lot of people don't know what or where that is.

I ask when they last wrote a letter to the editor or to a congressman or a county commissioner or to a school board member. In response, I get a blank stare.

I ask when they last attended their precinct caucus meeting. They've never heard of it.

I ask when they've last attended a meeting of their elected officials (school board meeting, city council, county commission, or even state legislature). Such a person is extremely rare. Our lack of engagement with even politicians, even local politicians, gives them immense, unaccountable power.

I ask if they've ever attended a rally for a political candidate or a political issue. They don't have the time and even scoff at those who do.

I ask if they've been to any website related to a political party or political issue. No, but they've googled the hundreds of secret concentration camps that are known to be scattered across the US. They know about all the sundry government conspiracies against the people. They believe in, and trust, the Maya calendar which allegedly promises the end of the world in 2012. The people who start Internet hoaxes dressed as prophecies and government conspiracies must surely be having a belly laugh.

All these people have all the time in the world conjure or perpetuate conspiracies and sensational prophecies. They seem to assume that since God's prophets have predicted certain events, God must want those events to happen and we must therefore allow them to happen. Yet, they have given no thought that all these conspiracies and doomsday scenarios can be stopped cold if they'd simply educate themselves with facts and get involved in the political process and cast wise, informed votes. I believe that this is what God wants -- not doom, anarchy, and destruction.

People clammor for term limits, as if that would somehow eliminate all evil from politics. They fail to grasp the simple, yet obvious fact that even if we "throw the bums out" on election day or through term limits, the political staffers remain, as do all the bureaucrats and most of the judges! They fail to understand that if term limits "throw the bums out," they also throw out the true, selfless statesmen. "We the people" are the "term limits." This responsibility demands informed and wise voters -- not conspiracy buffs!

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual -- or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. — Samuel Adams

Like many Americans, I believe the US Constitution is inspired. As with personal sin, I believe God will, one day, hold us accountable for our own sins as well as for how valiantly we fought for the truths found in the Scriptures and in the Constitution. He will say something like, "I gave you the Constitution to protect your rights and to be a light of freedom to the world. What did you do to protect the Constitution?"

Article Six of the US Constitution requires that "[t]he Senators and Representatives...and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution...." When I write to my political representatives, I remind them of that oath. We know, from history, that our elected and appointed officials often do not even consult the Constitution, let alone support it. We think that the courts, when they rule on the constitutionality of a law, are defending the Constitution. Yet the courts, like politicians and bureaucrats rarely even consult the Constitution when making their decisions. So who is the ultimate protector of the Constitution? The people. It is "we the people" who created the Constitution. It is "we the people" who must defend it! Nobody else will!

If good men and women would study the nation's founding documents (including the Scriptures), and the writings of the founders, then compare the principles therein with the positions and actions of current local, state, and national politicians, they would make wise and informed votes. All the conspiracies and doom would be stopped cold. We would protect the constitution, the nation, and our God-given rights and liberty. Simply yakking about prophecies, conspiracies, and doom only ensure their fulfillment. Inaction, resignation, and apathy do not help God's plan in any way whatsoever.

Don't we have enough real problems right now that need our attention right now without spending our time and energies on things that might happen in the future -- especially when fixing today's political and moral problems could prevent future man-made catastrophes?

How will you answer when God asks you what you did to stop the fulfillment of His prophecies of evil and destruction?