Having over the past 25 years or so developed a near mindless reaction to the very word “Evangelicals,” my initial thought was “uh-oh.” They’re going to be using their “backdoor” approach — get a foot in the door, plant the agenda seeds, and ultimately take control.

That thought was immediately – I hope, fortunately – suppressed by the idea that this may be a part of the new wave that will fund, if you will, the required numbers for the human race to reach the type of critical mass that will halt, or at least slow down, our onward and determined march to self-annihilation by our hatred, our greed, our sense of superiority, our certitude, our…well you get the point.

In Dave’s statement, “there’s a whole generation of young evangelicals,” the key word for me was “young.” I’ve long since agreed with the notion put forth in a book by the wonderful Ken Carey that “Human beings have a tendency to become imprisoned in their concepts.” Regarding the generation preceding mine (as well as the one, possibly two, that have come after) the truth of this becomes abundantly clear with the passage of each day. The majority simply will not get off their position, which I’ve often thought to be a dead-on description of precisely what happened to Lot’s wife.

As a 22-year-old, standing on the grass just on the other side of Jefferson Ave at the foot of Woodward Avenue, and personally witnessing MLK’s first “I have a dream” speech in June 1963 in Detroit (before the one given in Washington), I was filled with hope. The hope began to dim in November of ’63 but who knew what the future might bring…

23 years later I found myself in the South and again personally witnessing, but this time the not previously experienced variations of an entrenched and intense disdain for all things different: not only race, but also religion (denying the “Christianity” of Catholics, for example, and it goes downhill from that point); “class” distinctions (what’s your Zip Code?), anti-feminism, homophobia, “foreigners” – you name it.

The only hope one could possibly have in this nation is in its youth (and their enlightened elders). So yes, this is “hugely promising.”

Stage One
Economic hit men go into a country and they offer loans to help build up the country. If the country cannot pay back the loan, we take over the majority of the resources for our giant corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton. If the leader of a country does not want to deal with us, we send in the jackals.

Stage Two
The jackals are CIA operatives who are sent into a country to assassinate the leader and overthrow the government. If that does not work, we send in the military.

Stage Three
The military goes into control a country like in Desert Storm. Saddam Hussein did not want to accept loans and become a puppet of the American government. Desert Storm was to soften up Saddam Hussein but he remained a hardliner and so in 2003 shock and awe bombings commenced. I thought it was for the oil but John Perkins said that Iraq also has the water, such as the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. There is also a feeling that the House of Saud is losing control and Iraq would be a good strategic base for American interests. We are really not spreading our democracy we are spreading our corporate influences over these countries.

America went into Haiti to control their farmers and farm land. We have exploited Haiti since the early 1900s.

What is truly amazing is that Stages One, Two, and Three are overt today and not covert.

Americans, for some reason, believe that other countries are corrupt but we are not corrupt and Americans just cannot believe that we are the evil empire that leads in corruption. America is the most corrupt country on planet, Earth.

May God have mercy on America!