Rolling the Dice on Republicans: Has the Right Become Delusional?

On March 11, 2024 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Political4 Comments

Conservatives in my state are currently abuzz with talk of gubernatorial primary candidates. One candidate seems favored by activists on the right, partly because he’s saying key things they want to hear but also because he’s the best-funded and deemed most able to beat the Democrat in November.

Upon hearing that this candidate previously served in Congress, I decided to put the matter into perspective by looking up his score in the respected Freedom Index. The index grades representatives on their adherence to the U.S. Constitution, principles of liberty, and fiscal responsibility. During his six terms in the U.S. House, this individual, now proffered as the gubernatorial champion of the right, scored an average of 33 percent adherence to traditional conservative values–worse than simply guessing on a true/false quiz.

Rolling the Dice

I did a little more research and discovered that during the same period, the Republican delegation in the U.S. House as a whole scored a whopping 50 percent adherence to the constitutional rule of law. That’s a 50/50 chance that on any given day, Republicans might protect our God-given rights or give them away. We could get the same results if we just sent a pair of dice to Congress and said, “Give ’em a roll and let’s see which way the country goes.”

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Gorsuch Condemns COVID Policies for Violating Civil Liberties: Where Are the Rest?

On June 5, 2023June 4, 2023 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political4 Comments

In a statement relating to the case of Arizona v. Alejandro Mayorkas (Secretary of Homeland Security), US Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, condemned government-imposed COVID policies that turned the legal and legislative process on its head and violated civil liberties. The justice’s review of actions taken by local, state, and federal governments over the past three years reads like a report on human rights abuses from the socialist Soviet Union era. Previous generations of Americans would have thought the justice’s statements were from a dystopian novel, not current events.

Here are some key passages from Justice Gorsuch’s statement.

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An Open Letter to My U.S. Senator Re Abortion, Rights, and Our Own Bodies

On June 5, 2022June 6, 2022 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political9 Comments

Dear Senator Murray:

In a recent email to your constituents addressing what you call the “right to abortion,” you ask, “do you support a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her own body?” I regret that I cannot answer that question with the simple “yes” or “no” requested as the way it is presented constitutes a false premise.

The trouble is that we’re not talking about the woman’s “own” body, but another body that happens to be inside the woman at the time. This is a body with its own unique DNA that is distinctly different from that of the woman and therefore is clearly not the woman’s “own” body. The body we’re discussing aborting has its own genetic markers that distinguish it from the woman’s body as certainly as if a car parked in my driveway had a VIN number different from the one I hold title to – even if it happens to be in my driveway, it’s not my car and not mine to dispose of.

Whether a body is inhabited by a person at conception as some believe, or at birth as others might believe, it is nevertheless a unique human body that is clearly not that of either the mother or the father as it has DNA that is distinct from each. A human body can only be the possession of the one to inhabit it and no one not inhabiting that body may rightly claim it as their own.

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Why COVID Orders Are Not Law and the Many Ways They Could Be Stopped

On October 12, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political5 Comments

When news of COVID lockdown orders began to be reported back in early 2020, my immediate concern was not over the virus but the lawfulness of the orders. Yes, the virus matters and should be researched by doctors so they can advise their patients as to the best methods of prevention and/or treatment. However, without the rule of law, we have no protection of our God-given rights, including the right to life. Therefore, rights and the rule of law are paramount, even above COVID.

I quickly observed that the lockdown and shutdown orders being issued violated God-given rights, were not constitutionally authorized, and therefore lacked the force of law. As the orders that were promised to be for only a few weeks dragged on into months, it became clear we’d been lied to and that action needed to be taken to restore the rule of law.

I had already been pondering the many ways such violations could and should be stopped and how the usurpation of power by governors could be put in check. However, neither elected officials, political leaders, political parties, nor the big-name organizations of the right seemed ready to step up to the plate and provide the bold and decisive action needed. Without such leadership, the rank and file were effectively sheep without a shepherd, able only to bleat out a modicum of disapproval at their rights being violated by executive orders.

Before discussing the actions that could and should have been taken to put an immediate stop to the violations, there needs to be an understanding of God-given rights and the rule of law that lie at the foundation of this matter.

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Healing is the Natural Effect of the Creator

On August 31, 2021September 1, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Christian2 Comments

“Healing is the natural effect of the Creator coming in contact with His creation.”

This thought actually came to me several years ago. My local church has a Thanksgiving testimony service the night before Thanksgiving Day. One of the guys shared about praying for another guy at the men’s prayer meeting and how the other guy was healed. To be honest, my flesh wanted to recoil a little and pridefully think to itself, “Why did that happen for him? He’s not that super-spiritual, gifted, or anointed.” But, on the other hand, I suppose the carnal mind thinks that healing has to be something spectacular that can only happen after a week of fasting to work up enough “super-faith.”

I believe the Spirit prompted me in that moment to realize that supernatural healing is the most natural thing there is. It’s what happens by nature whenever the Creator is allowed to come in contact with His creation. Healing is something that can occur whenever the smallest act of child-like faith opens the door wide enough for God to come in and come in contact with His creation. It’s actually impossible for anything in creation to come in contact with its Creator and not be saved, delivered, healed, redeemed, renewed, restored, and made whole.

I’m all for growing in faith, and it’s something I’m seeking for myself. However, I think we err when we get the idea that to receive healing, we have to be so super-spiritual that sparks fly off us when we walk into a room. Instead, I perceive it’s more important to simply get enough doubt and unbelief out of the way so that simple, child-like faith can open the door and let the Creator come in, have contact with His creation, and do what He naturally does.

An Open Letter to My U.S. Representative – Hypocrisy is Not a Virtue

On July 30, 2021June 5, 2022 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political2 Comments

Dear Representative McMorris Rodgers:

I am taken aback by the hypocrisy of your July 21 newsletter entitled, “Inflation Hits Home in Eastern Washington.”

In the newsletter, you rightly point out that, “Hardworking families in Eastern Washington and across the country are being crippled by widespread inflation.”

Yes, inflation is harming hardworking families. Prices always increase whenever deficit spending necessitates creating new money at a rate greater than the increase in real goods and services in the economy. That inflating of the money supply always decreases the value of the dollar and diminishes its purchasing power for American workers, families, and the elderly on fixed incomes.

You go on to state that, “President Joe Biden and the Democrats’ out-of-control spending has caused prices on everyday goods to skyrocket, and our families are paying the price.”

Yes, this is true, but you fail to mention that prices began to skyrocket in the spring and summer of 2020 as the result of out-of-control spending under Donald Trump. In fact, debt actually increased more under the last six months of President Trump than the first six months of President Biden.

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Prophetic Word of Increase Fulfilled

On June 23, 2021July 4, 2021 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, ChristianLeave a comment

In May of 2020, Pastor Larry Huggins spoke a prophetic word of financial increase over me during a ZChurch service. It was in the early days of ZChurch before we had our online technologies mastered, so we failed to get a recording of that service to use for a transcript. Nevertheless, the message was to the effect that God had been watching my financial giving and seeing that it had been faithful and consistent, in season and out. Pastor Larry announced that a large increase, or a large sum, was coming and that it would be from an unexpected source.

Over the following weeks, I would find myself thinking about where such a financial increase could come from. But then I would remember that the prophetic word said it would be from an “unexpected” source, so, anything I could think of was automatically disqualified.

I’m a landlord and rental income is my primary source of revenue. I could imagine rents increasing, or expenses decreasing and thereby realizing a financial increase over time. However, that didn’t fit the wording of the prophetic message that indicated a more sudden increase from a specific source, and an unexpected source at that, which rental income was not.

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Having Fellowship With Demons

On October 29, 2020October 29, 2020 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog5 Comments

I just listened to a message by Pastor Rick Renner addressing the topic of Christians participating in Halloween activities. In “How Did the Early Church Respond?” Pastor Renner referenced the Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthians in which Paul explained that by hanging around pagan temples and eating meat offered to idols, the Corinthian believers were inadvertently having fellowship with the demons behind the idol worship (1 Corinthians 10:20).

We know that an idol is nothing but a hunk of wood or metal (1 Corinthians 10:19). Yet there were demons inspiring men to worship the idols in those temples, and just like bad company corrupts, hanging around those temples and the demons in them exposed the believers to some seriously bad company. Therefore, Paul’s instruction was to “flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14).

Pastor Renner makes the case that if Paul thought we should flee from pagan temples where demons hang out, then Paul would probably urge believers to steer clear of activities with demonic, pagan origins as well. Even if the ghosts and goblins displayed on people’s front lawns are fake, the demons behind the origins of the observance are real, so why would we want to even pretend to have fellowship with them.

Pastor Renner and the Apostle Paul’s comments prompted me to consider another application of the same principle.

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Take The Cure for the Coronavirus Fear – Works on Current Pandemics and Future Calamities Too

On April 29, 2020 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Christian3 Comments

Over a decade ago I heard a teaching series titled “Pulling the Plug on Fear.” I listened to the series several times to get the message drilled deep down into me. I have practiced the Biblical precepts of that teaching on fear for so long it has become my primary nature in life to simply give no place to fear. Fear is no longer a factor for consideration in any matter of my life.

The command to “Fear Not” (in its varying forms) is recorded in scripture perhaps more often than any other. It’s as clear as “thou shalt not steal,” or “thou shalt not kill.” Therefore, fear is as clearly sin (i.e., error, or missing the mark) as to lie or commit adultery as it deviates from our maker’s design for us.

Not only is fear a clear violation of a direct command of our king and the laws of his kingdom, but it’s one of the most spiritually dangerous activities we can engage in. Fear is a chief tactic of Satan that he uses to bring people into bondage and subject them to torment (Romans 8:15, Hebrews 2:15, 1 John 4:18). Faith and fear are direct spiritual opposites that are mutually exclusive. Fear negates faith. Therefore, yielding to fear renders the lives of born-again believers spiritually ineffective. Any Christian endeavor impregnated with fear will be stillborn.
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Socialism and a Tale of Two Countries – What Will We Do?

On April 10, 2020June 17, 2020 By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Political2 Comments

In his 2019 State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump said, “America was founded on liberty and independence – not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free… America will never be a socialist country.” Republicans in the chamber cheered the remarks and the political right lauded the President for weeks after as the confirmed, and now certified, champion of conservative values they had already told us he was.

Around that same time, Americans were being shown pictures of empty store shelves in Venezuela and told it was the result of socialism. Threats of possible military intervention were being made as a means by which the U.S. might rescue the people of Venezuela from the horrors of socialism and the deprivation resulting from its draconian, totalitarian, central control. Continue reading “Socialism and a Tale of Two Countries – What Will We Do?” →