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'We Don't Do God'
by Fenny West 'We Don't Do God' 'Tony Blair's most senior advisers have intervened to prevent him discussing his faith in public, according to two new profiles of the Prime Minister. The bar on the topic is so rigid that Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's director of strategy and communications, intervened in a recent interview to prevent the Prime Minister from answering a question about his Christianity. "We don't do God," Mr Campbell interrupted. (Colin Brown, Political editor, Daily Telegraph 3/5/2003) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/04/nblair04.xml 'We don't Do God' is now a common phrase attributed to, Alastair Campbell, a highly influential political figure in Tony Blair's era as Prime Minister of Britain. To be more precise, he was his personal adviser. In a nation that took the gospel to Africa and pivotal to the spreading the gospel along time ago but which has now become materially prosperous to the point that God can now be dispensed with. He must take a back seat and have no say in the affairs of the nation. How sad, but this is the danger of prosperity without God- a trend prevalent in many affluent countries. God delights in the prosperity of His servants. In fact material prosperity will come to those who work hard, invest and encourage investment. But the prosperity of the fool shall destroy him. It w ill make him proud, egotistical, and think too highly of himself and make him forget God who had given him the power to get wealth. That was why God warned the Israelites. 'When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. 11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: 12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; 13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; 16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. 18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. 19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God. (Deut 8:10-20) Whereas the nation can boast as the financial centre of the world, with property ownership booming for some people yet some people have been priced out of the property market. The nation, in this feel-good- factor mentality has been plagued imperceptibly with the disease of 'buy now pay later', that her debt per household has risen beyond imagination. 'Briton's have never owed so much money. After five increases in interest rates in a year, personal debt is now rising by a billion pounds every 5 minutes.' Jasmine Birtles, is the author of several self-help guides to money and runs a website that helps people to get out of debt. With bankruptcies doubling in the past two years, she's never been busier. Jasmine believes one reason is that it's just too easy to obtain loans and credit cards. (http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/ontv/theinsider/britains+debt+crisis/741052) Social values are crumbling, teenagers are shot dead and as gangs rule the streets almost every week in gang related crimes 'We don't do God.' The elderly are treated like a burden to society. some are dumped in homes where they are abused, left in their urine and excrement for days. Those that are in their homes are afraid that they may lose their homes if their health deteriorated so much that they had to be taken into a care home Ivan Lewis, the care services minister, said, not too long ago: "I want people to be as outraged by the abuse of an older person as they are by the abuse of a child. "Sadly, we are nowhere near that yet as a society but that culture has to change." 'Ministers also plan legislation to put adult protection on a par with child protection, and enable authorities to use protection orders to help elderly people most at risk. 'Mr Lewis was speaking as research found that one in 40 older people - roughly 227,000 - might have experienced mistreatment involving a family member, friend or care worker within the past year. 'The study, which looked at older people in private households - including sheltered housing but excluding care homes and hospitals, found that women were almost four times as likely to suffer mistreatment as men. At the same time, three in four perpetrators of mistreatment were men. 'The types of mistreatment included neglect and stealing their money, as well as psychological, physical and even sexual abuse. Half of all incidents involved a partner or another family member.' (Sarah Womach, Mistreatment of elderly 'as bad as child abuse' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/15/nabuse115.xml) Societal values are warped. What used to be abomination, are now openly celebrated in the name of freedom tolerance, rule of law, free speech and democracy. Some streets are no-go areas because drug baron have colonised them. Gun-related crime is rising in the land 'Gun-related crime kills, maims and intimidates, and is frequently linked to gang activity and the illegal drugs trade in the UK. (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/gun-crime/ 'The mushrooming gang culture on Britain's streets, drawing more young members from ethnic minorities, came into sharp focus this week with the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy. Rhys Jones, killed Wednesday night as he played football with friends in Liverpool in north-west England, became the eighth youngster killed by guns this year.' In 1996, there were 72 gangs in England and Wales whose members were mostly white and aged between 25 and 29. By last year, however, London's Metropolitan Police counted 169 gangs in the capital alone, a figure which may have risen as high as 257, according to a report published by the police force Friday. The gangs' members are mostly black and also younger than in past years. (http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=ODk4MzUzNjMz) Children are taught their rights but not their responsibility such that some parents are afraid of their children. Teenage pregnancy is one of the highest in Europe. 'We don't do God.' 'Teenagers are failing to heed warnings about under-age sex, leading to soaring numbers of unplanned pregnancies. 'Britain has the second-highest rate of teenage conceptions in the western world, with more than 7,000 girls under 16 conceiving each year. ' (Isabel Oakeshott Daily Mail) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=299691&in_page_id=1799 Church attendance has dwindled to staggering proportions because dead religion has been allowed to take the place of vibrant relationship with God. Some churches are closing down whilst pubs are and other religious practices opposed to Christianity and even godliness are encouraged and sometimes championed, and are on the rise. 'When Lord Bromley Betchworth returned to the United Kingdom (U.K.) after living in the U.S. for 12 years, he returned to a culture that had dramatically changed. "I was shocked at how moral values had changed in such a short time and how church attendance in mainstream denominations was in free fall," he said. "Four out of five churches were either declining or simply static." Betchworth wrote those words in the forward to a fascinating new report that seeks to explain the moral breakdown in a once vibrant Christian nation. Ed Vitagliano Christianity Vanquished in Britain? Agape Press (http://www.crosswalk.com/1340991/) Naill Ferguson writing in the Los Angeles 'decries the decline of Christianity in Britain.' ( Phil Hunt the 'Decline of Christianity in Britain') http://www.thesharpener.net/2005/10/10/the-decline-of-christianity-in-britain/ This is a nation that would call itself a Christian nation and yet has trampled its Christian principles which incidentally formed the bedrock of its Acts of parliament at the onset. Why? 'We don't do God' If you don't do God, You cannot do good that will be lasting. It you don't do God, you open the door for Satan and his cohorts, greed, chaos, insensitivity, dishonesty, moral vacuum and bankruptcy, burglary, drug dealing, violence, indolence, impatience, self indulgence selfishness, laziness, licentiousness, promiscuity, 'dog eat dog mentality', societal inequality, widening gap between the rich and the poor; pious phrases of 'equal opportunity' without equal access, breeding social exclusion, gang warfare will thrive,, hatred and slow painful death of the societal fabric and even decline and demise of the nation will follow. According to Matthews Henry in his commentary on Deut 8:10-20 'We forget God if we keep not his commandments; we forget his authority over us, and our obligations to him and expectations from him, if we are not obedient to his laws. When men grow rich they are tempted to think religion a needless thing. They are happy without it, think it a thing below them and too hard upon them. Their dignity forbids them to stoop, and their liberty forbids them to serve. But we are basely ungrateful if the better God is to us the worse we are to him' (http://www.usaquality.com/bible/mhc/MHC05008.HTM.) You will recall various attempts in the USA, where attempts were made to wipe traces of God from schools, first, to rid them first of them of the Ten Commandments. Make no mistake, it is the same 'We don't do God' Spirit. 'the decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals against Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore placing his Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.' 'In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled against the posting of the Ten Commandments in the public schools in the case of Stone v. Graham. They ruled that the "preeminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls is plainly religious in nature." http://www.leaderu.com/common/10commandmentsamerica.htm Simply put, if you don't do God, you will 'do Satan' and he does not come openly saying, 'I am Satan.' He comes stealthily like an angel of light, camouflaged, a wolf in sheep's clothing with one aim: To kill, steal and destroy. Let us 'do God' in all our dealings and we shall not be disappointed or damned in our prosperity. Copy it rightly www.inspiration4generations.com [email protected] Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |