tBlog - Vital Signs

It seems that most of George W. Bush's policies and agendas are affected by his belief in a rapture. The rapture, as understood by most American evangelical christians, is a future event whereby Christ will appear in the sky and lift born-again believers from the earth to join him in heaven. Believers are safely off the face of the earth. Once the evangelicals are gone, the world will undergo 7 years of wrath, death and destruction. After the 7 year period is over, satan will be bound and Christ will return to the earth, along with the evangelicals, and rule for 1000 years. At the end of the 1000 years, satan will be unbound and eventually cast into the pit of hell. The Kingdom of heaven will then be established and believers will be with God for an eternity.

Oh, all the bad people, the ones who didn't convert to evangelicalism, will be in hell with satan and his minions. Forever.

There is one problem with this interpretation of scripture. It isn't true. Nowhere in the bible is this theology taught. The Rapture has only been around since the mid 1800s. The early church didn't believe in the rapture. Why? It isn't in the word of God.

Bush's agenda in Israel hinges on his belief in the rapture. He supports a Jewish state at the expense of Palestinians because rapture theology depends on it. In Dubya's mind, Christ's return can not happen until the Jewish state (Israel) is complete and all of God's Chosen are returned to their homeland. Therefore, the push for Israeli rights and the return of all exiled Jews. The kicker is that once all the Jews are returned to their homeland, Christ will return, rapture His church and then destroy 2/3 everyone on the planet. Jew and Gentile. That's right, evangelicals want to bring all the Jews back to Israel so that they can be slaughtered by a vengeful God. Wonderful, eh?

If one were to read Revelation the way it was originally intended to be read and understood, one would realize that it is an Apocalyptic book. A book that reads like Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". All of the crazy scenarios that are described by the Apostle John are images of what could be, not what will be. The book of Revelation depicts Christ as a Lamb, not a warrior. Near the end of the book, John sees what is really in store for Christ's church--an earthly kingdom where peace reigns and all are saved by the GRACE of the Lamb. (A side note: Most of what is depicted in Revelation has already occurred in 70 A.D. with the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Partial Preterists understand this.)

All this to say, beware of christians who try to scare you into belief. They are teaching a theology that can not be true. Bush is one such believer. Beware of Bush. His religion can bring on catastrophe!

War Tax Resistance

"Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay their taxes."
-Alexander Haig, U.S. Sec. of State, June 12, 1982

Voices in the Wilderness, as a campaign, refuses to pay taxes for war and directs efforts and finances to offer alternatives to violence. Many individuals connected with VitW are personally resisting part or all of their federal income tax, as almost half is directed towards the US military.

2005: Call for War Tax Resistance Year-Round

The war machine continues at an incredible pace. We believe war tax resistance is a critical way to slow it down.

Currently, the US government is spending at least $3.9 billion a month to finance its war and occupation on Iraq, and the US military industrial complex.

Members of Voices in the Wilderness and some US members of the Iraq Peace Team implement a variety of methods. Some deliberately earn less than taxable income. Some live in community and strive to be self sustaining through their own labor. Others directly and publicly refuse to pay part or all of their federal income tax.

We do this because roughly half of that tax is used to fund the US war machine. Monstrous amounts of dollars which could reinvigorate our ailing health, housing, and school systems are instead diverted to increase the profits of defense corporations and simultaneously destroy life. As federal support for education programs are slashed and more and more young people are told by military recruiters that the best way they can get a college education is to enlist, the spirit of our society takes a beating.

Tax resistance is the most direct way US citizens can avoid being complicit in this war. If all of us who have written our Congresspersons or taken to the streets also refuse to financially back the war, the decision-makers in Washington have a much harder time ignoring our resistance.

We ask you to consider war tax resistance this tax year, and in the years to come. The best way to stop the war machine is to refuse to fund it.

Cornerstone Festival

Confirmed Bands at Cornerstone:

Pillar
Lost Dogs
Antestor
Every New Day
Jesus Wept
Seeds
the Clergy
Number One Gun
Kutless
Ashley Cleveland
American Culture Experiment
Ester Drang
Jeff Elbel + Ping
One 21
The Choir
Violet Burning
David Crowder Band
Copeland
Alove for Enemies
Duvall
Imperial
Nodes of Ranvier
The Blamed is Dead
This Holiday Life
Jars of Clay
Cool Hand Luke
Abbington
Desole
Hyper Static Union
No Innocent Victim
Symphony In Peril
the Showdown
DJ Stryke
Jeremy Camp
Roper
ZAO
Chad Lawson Trio
Headnoise
Murdering Cannons
Starflyer 59
the Remnants
Ekklesia
Audio Adrenaline
Anberlin
Demon Hunter
Brandtson
Hanover Saints
Mourning September
Souls Unrest
the Regal Line
Dead Poetic
Relient K
mewithoutYou
Project 86
Bloody Sunday
Glenn Kaiser Band
Mental Destruction
Sophomore
the Last Hope
The Lonely Hearts
Toby Mac
Andy Hunter
Extol
Ballydowse
Forever Changed
Man Alive
Society's Finest
the Kick
Haste the Day
Third Day
Thousand Foot Krutch
Hawk Nelson
Azure Skies
Flatfoot 56
Love Drug
Showbread
the Havoc
Winter Solstice
Switchfoot
Skillet
Day of Fire
Aracely
FBS
Joy Electric
Seventh Star
the Crossing
Once Dead

Martin Luther King, Jr Hero

War Tax Resistance

"If a thousand men [and women] were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood."-Henry David Thoreau

"If a thousand men [and women] were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood."
-Henry David Thoreau