May 14, 2016 - "Are Your Morals For Sale?"

Chaplain’s Corner

May 14, 2016

Are Your Morals For Sale?

Good Morning Patriots!

With my being the Chaplain, you need to expect that most everything I post here will have a moral or spiritual bent to it. I speak my mind, my heart, and my conscience. I do not claim to be always right, as I am human and flawed and make mistakes daily. However, I seek to be obedient to the Word, and to the leading of God's Holy Spirit, and usually when I have something to say here, it is because I have been thinking and agonizing over the subject for some time. Here is today's diatribe:

Are your morals for sale? Can you put a price tag on right and wrong? Do you stand on principle, even if doing so can, and probably will, cost you financially? Let me explain what I am getting at.

I remember, years ago, being stopped by a State Trooper for speeding, along with two others at the same time; a semi and a van. I had not been speeding, and I knew it, and I honestly believe he knew it, too. I decided, on principle, to take it to traffic court. The judge asked me my side and then he asked the trooper his side, and in his explanation, he lied outright. The judge ruled in his favor and I had to pay the fine, plus court costs, and I had also missed a day of work. It cost me a lot more to fight it on principle, but I couldn't see just paying the ticket without having my day in court.

I have been seeing a lot in the news lately about moral principles being violated, and the threat against them is almost always financial in nature. For example, the bakers in another State who were in trouble for not baking a wedding cake for a gay couple were hit with a $135,000 fine and have lost their business, for their moral stand and Christian conscience. As a direct result of this, and other, similar things, happening all over the country, the State of Indiana took decisive action to protect the moral and religious rights of its citizens by enacting RFRA, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The whole purpose of the act was to protect people from possible spurious lawsuits and litigation for simply following their religious convictions and moral principles. When the whole country got into an uproar and threatened convention boycotts, businesses moving out, etc., the State's reaction was to give in to pressure from a Godless society in fear of losing money. They did not stand on moral principle. They caved in.

In the news now is the whole transgender bathroom debate, and the President just issued a warning that if the schools do not comply with the decayed morality of a sick agenda, then the Federal Government will withhold billions of dollars in aid to the offending States. Where do you stand on this? Do you see a moral issue here? Are you willing to stand on principle even if it ends up costing you? Do you think our State and school districts should, too?

For me, the answer is simple. The money that they are threatening to withhold is already our own money, paid in to the Federal Government by the States. They may choose to hold the money hostage, but that is a matter for the courts to decide, and worst case scenario, we can also just opt to stop paying the Feds. Whatever we do on a financial basis to resolve the issue, my thoughts are that we should NOT compromise simply to avoid the threat of a financial burden. If we honestly feel we are right morally and legally, then I feel we should resist with everything we have. We need to stand for something, or we will fall for anything.

So, where do you stand on your moral conscience? Are you willing to suffer at the hands of interlopers, who would rob you of your moral freedoms, in order to fight the fine fight? Are you willing to make it a matter of prayer and trust that God will be behind you, as long as you stand on moral grounds and principles? Or are you willing to cave in to outside pressure to simply avoid the "possibility" of financial hardship? I know there are no easy answers in life. But honestly, if you are a real Christian at heart, and you truly seek to put God first in your life, then honoring Him with obedience to His moral code should really be a "no-brainer" for any of us.

I invite any of you here to share your thoughts. I want to know the mindset of my fellow Patriots.

God Bless you, every one, and:
God Bless America!
Stephen King
Chaplain@3upi.com