4A — The Sunday Courier, Forest City, NC, Sunday, September 27, 2009 ■ A daily forum for opinion, commentary and editorials on the news that affects us all.
James R. Brown/ publisher Steven E. Parham/ executive editor 601 Oak Street, P.O. Box 1149, Forest City, N.C. 28043 Phone: 245-6431 Fax: 248-2790
E-mail: dailycourier@thedigitalcourier.com
Our Views Terror threat remains serious
T
he news this week of arrests in a terror plot in New York and two men in separate cases who conspired with undercover federal agents to bomb sites in Texas and Illinois is a grim reminder that America needs to remain vigilant. Those cases broke as details were released about the terror plans of a group of suspected terrorists arrested in North Carolina recently. The seven North Carolina men alleged to be plotting terror attacks were planning to hit military installations, according to documents filed by federal attorneys. Perhaps most frightening in all these cases are those of the two individuals in Texas and Illinois. In both those cases, undercover officers led both men right up to the point of pushing the button to trigger their bombs and then arrested them. The point is clear. There are still many potential terrorists out there and they are more than willing to try to carry out their attacks on Americans. The good news, so far, is that none have been successful.
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Pension scandals raise questions RALEIGH — Anyone who believes that the large sums of money infecting political campaigns these days don’t cause real harm to real people hasn’t been paying attention to the pay-toplay scandals involving public pension funds around the country. Pension fund scandals in New York, New Mexico and Connecticut have sent pension fund officials and the investment managers with whom they do business to prison. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo continues conducting a nationwide investigation into pension fund investments, political donations by investment firms and the potential for kickbacks. The Securities and Exchange Commission is finally considering rules intended to clean up the mess. What needs to stop is the very obvious conflict of interest when public pension fund managers take thousands of dollars in political contributions from executives at investment firms and then hand out contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollar to the same firms to manage pension fund money. In North Carolina, former State Treasurer Richard Moore perfected the craft. Moore, during his tenure, expanded the amount of pension
Today in North Carolina Scott Mooneyham
fund dollars going to venture capital firms and hedge funds, increasing his pool of likely donors. And he was rewarded. In 2007, employees at 40 of the 90 firms investing North Carolina pension money had donated to Moore’s campaign. Now, you might conclude that the system does work. After all, Moore lost the governor’s race, perhaps in part because of public reports about his penchant for relying on venture capitalists’ donations. Pension fund managers in New York and Connecticut were tossed from office for their misdeeds, and, in the case of one, tossed in the clink. But the focus shouldn’t be on state treasurers or comptrollers. It shouldn’t be on high-powered financiers in their office towers in Manhattan and Boston. It should be on state pensioners and taxpayers. Moore, then and now, would say that none of this campaign money influenced his decisions about where and how to invest
pension fund money. The same can’t be said for former Connecticut Treasurer Paul Silvester, convicted in a kickback scheme. Cuomo’s wide-ranging investigation suggests that other investing decisions across the country aren’t being made based on gaining the best returns for pensioners. Rather, some are about the best results for politicians and their cronies. The resulting harm to real people is lower cost-of-living increases for public-sector pensioners and higher taxpayer contributions to public pension funds to keep them solvent. In her first year in office, State Treasurer Janet Cowell has pushed for reforms including public financing for treasurer’s campaigns. She’s instituted a one-year prohibition against doing business with former treasurer’s office officials who leave for the private sector. But she also continues taking donations from investment firm managers, including one that has come under Cuomo’s scrutiny. Cowell would be wise to jump ahead of any SEC rule and follow New York’s example by refusing to do business with those contributing to her campaign. Mooneyham is executive director of the Capitol Press Association.
Divisions continue as the hearts of all of revealed St. Paul told the church at Ephesus that the ministries of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher were given to the church to bring the church to,”… a perfect man, to the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ.” Why? “That we no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” The true church will mature in the earth but that will come with a price. Just as Christ was birthed and grew up in the earth physically, so will the church spiritually. Something else will come with that however. Just as Christ was a source of great division among his peers and community so will the true church be. He was hated, despised and rejected of men unto death. The true church will bring a sword of distinction on the earth as well. It will not be done with malice or cognitive intent; it is an outgrowth of the nature of Christ we often do not think of. Christ is divisive to some and so will the church be. I did not say the true church is divided, I said the church will bring division. It is a matter of the clean and
Sunday Conversation Fr. Jonathan Lankford
the unclean, the lost and the saved and the chosen and the rejected. This doesn’t always get a lot of “hallelujah’s” but it’s true. This supplants many false notions propagated upon us by a pseudo-gospel that preaches inclusivity, diversity, non-judgmentalism and unbiased acceptance. But a passage of Scripture from the words of Christ Himself clearly tells us that Jesus will bring great division upon the earth. He said,” do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword Matt.” 10:34; a sword of division that separates and cuts like a spiritual scalpel. From the beginning of time distinctions or divisions were being made. God separated the Day from the Night and divided trees into ones that would bring life or death in the garden. Cain, the first murderer, was made distinctive as a mark was place upon him
and divided him from among the rest of humanity. There were those who were divided as in the ark and those out of the ark. God even took a people for Himself and divided them out of the rest of humanity and called them, beginning with Abram, as His chosen. God gave a pattern to Moses to build a tabernacle, a place of meeting, that would be different than anything in the earth. Moses, when faced with a rebellion in the desert, saw Korah, Dathan and Abiram separated from the rest of the people and swallowed by the earth. The question,” Who is on the Lord’s side” may have new relevance for many. All through the Bible we see this occurring even into the New Testament. Christ speaks of sheep and goats on His right and left hand, respectively. He speaks of wheat and tares as well. We see in the book of Revelation a great division occurring at the final judgment. Finally, in the last chapter of Revelation we see a final and eternal distinction. There are those inside the holy city and those outside. Those outside the gates are called,” dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and
whoever loves and practices a lie,” Rev. 22:15. So much for inclusivity. It is unchristian to be divisive just to be divisive. Jesus is telling us that His ministry and very nature would bring division to many. In fact, He said, “I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughterin-law against her motherin-law,” Matt10:35. He is truly telling us He is a rock of offense. We often have an image of Christ who loves everyone to the point of not requiring repentance or a change of behavior. Some even see Him as simply another alternative to heaven, heaven being apprehended through Buddha, self-attainment or any number of ways. I offer an example of a Christian being offensive and paying a price for it. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that a Christian doctor lost his residency at a Wisconsin college because he questioned a lecture on Islam. He filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission as a result. He remarked, “If I would have said to the (medical school director), I’d like to take two and a half hours of teaching time to tell the staff
and the residents and the people who work here about the salvation that’s available through Jesus Christ,’ do you think he would have even let me speak?” The problem began when two Muslim first-year residents gave a presentation on Islam where they spoke about the five pillars of Islam, offered prayers and defended its position on women. It was reported that the good doctor asked six questions from a biblical perspective. He was later taken aside and told that his time at the program was up. This is certainly a preview of things to come. Denominations are being torn apart at the seams as issues of ordaining practicing gays, validating abortion and inclusive pluralism stress the fabric that covers them. We may sit quietly here in our beautiful county and hope for the best. Rest assured that we will not be by-passed by these issues. Jesus is the Sword of the Lord and that image isn’t one we juxtapose with an always loving Christ. The division is coming to a church near you … let’s pray we are on the right side when all is said and done.