Vaughnshire Farm

Over the weekend, David Nicklaus wrote a revealing article on the economy in the St. Louis Times.

I wrote in this series about the symbiotic relationship between big government and big business.  While David does not mark greed as the cause of this crisis he does point out that greed is a fundamental requirement for our markets to operate.

My least favorite piece of mythology, heard on both sides of the political aisle, is the charge that this crisis was caused by greed.

This one is actually true, after a fashion. Without greedy bankers and house buyers and investors, we wouldn’t have had a housing bubble. We also wouldn’t have an economy, because the capitalist system is based on greed. The market will always need self-interested human beings.

Building on that honest statement concerning the foundation of our economic system, David is able to give a reasonable assessment of our current economic crisis.

If we can’t blame this crisis on deregulation or derivatives or speculators or greed, then what are the real bogeymen? I’ll offer two: excess liquidity and crony capitalism.

What we’re living through is the bursting of a bubble. In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unusually low throughout 2002, 2003 and 2004. It was essentially injecting money into the banking system to keep the economy’s gears moving, even though the economy emerged from recession in November 2001.

Much of that excess liquidity, we now know, went into house mortgages. In part, the rapid increase in house prices was classic, myopic bubble behavior. House prices hadn’t fallen in more than a generation, so people began to believe that they could only go up.

The housing market also had some key players who weren’t subject to normal market discipline.

The hotbed of crony capitalism was in Washington, where Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hired legions of lobbyists to ensure that they could take on a lot of debt, expand like crazy and pass the real risk on to taxpayers. If these giant companies had been regulated like private banks, today’s mortgage mess would be much less severe.

The crony system operated on Wall Street, too. The masters of the universe who created the subprime mortgage market were compensated for volume, with no consideration for the risk they were creating. Boards of directors signed off on this pay, and then watched their companies be destroyed.

The boards need to be made more accountable, either by allowing shareholders to vote on pay packages or by making it easier for them to throw out directors.

In short, what we need isn’t less greed or more regulation but a purer form of capitalism. If we can root out cronyism wherever it exists, the free market may yet stand a chance.

$700,000,000,000.00 is child’s play for those serious about destroying our nation.

We use to call folks who betrayed our nation traitors and saw them hangin on the end of a rope.

Now we joke about their betrayal and we see them dangling in the funny papers.

No one believed Rome could fall,
but now her fall is a proverb among the nations.
What will America’s epitaph be?

“American Empire - so long, we hardly knew you. But good riddance! We liked the old Republic much better.”

That is a quote from Bill Bonner over at the DailyReckoning.  Bill also posted a link to the latest version of the corporate bailout plan.  This could also be known as the “taking money from me and my children by threat of imprisonment if I don’t pay my “fair share” of taxes and then using that money to cover problems caused by corporate greed and prop up a godless economy” bill.  But I digress…

Bill points out some great benefits of the bill like raising the limit on our national debt to $11,315,000,000,000, found in Section 122: Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31 of the US Code.  Yes that number starts with a T.

There are numerous other goodies for corporations and states around the nation.  Check them out if you have the time.  Of course, like most laws, the very size of the document defends it from ever being read completely, but that is another discussion for another day.

As an aside, the Daily Reckoning was also involved in the production of I.O.U.S.A. the movie which is produced by the same folks who put out Supersize Me.  It addresses the trouble in the American economy and is probably a great view, although I’ve not yet made the time to watch it.  I’ll post the trailer below.

 The trail that lead me to The Daily Reckoning article started with a few resources I wanted to share.

First, there is Everbank.  They have some interesting foreign currency money market accounts that are designed to help hedge against the falling dollar.  They also have what seems to be a nice precious metals account.  But the specific piece of information that I thought worthy of posting was found in The Daily Pfennig report from Chuck Butler, the Senior Vice President of EverBank World Markets. 

With all the uncertainty around the huge corporate welfare program on the table again, I could not figure out why the dollar was fairing so well in recent days.  Apparently there is some US Dollar and Euro swapping going on due to a requirement for European Banks to hold cash reserves in US dollar for US issued mortgage bonds.  You can get the whole scope along with the rest of Chuck’s currency report here.  I have subscribed for a few weeks now and have found it a great read.

Of course for all those who are concerned about the economy, let me offer this reassurance.  It will fail, the empire of these United States will fall.  It will not happen overnight, but it is in fact happening right now, and has been happening in earnest for at least a decade.  The question on the table it not if America will fall, but how America will fall.  That is the challenge before us as fathers, and as business men who must learn to provide for our family and future generations in this period of history.  I hope to speak to some of the questions this raises in a future post or two.  Until then remember God is in control and this will not be the first time in history that a great empire has fallen.

Please share as you see fit… as a recent comment said, “Voddie for President!”

Nevertheless, after watching these eruptions over Sarah Palin, I feel disappointed. Not everybody can live an idyllic existence on a farm, existing on revenue from livestock and produce. Go to the inner city, and tell the single mom who has had her child taken away by CPS and is a recovering crack addict and prostitute that by practicing “feminism”-that is, learning job skills and trying to put herself back on her feet with the help of a loving group of women at church who are teaching her how to conduct herself at a job interview-that she is removing herself from God.

This recent comment brought out some points that I think many folks stumble over when contrasting the ideas of feminism and Biblical womanhood.  I would offer a few comments for those attempting to reconcile these two ideas and believe they are somehow in conflict.

First let’s say upfront, Sarah Palin, is not a single mother trying to feed her children in the inner city.  Her choices are not based on necessity, but rather on her personal desire, agenda, and the life she chose.  So when someone is talking about feminism and Sarah Palin, they are not talking about the inner city single women, or single women who live on a farm.

To be sure there are many single women who have a hard time supporting their children on their own.  They find themselves in situations a Christian nation should not place its women.  However, let us not attempt to read our current experiences into the scriptures as we attempt to find a Biblical solution for this problem.  The question we ask is often as important as the answer.  In seeking an answer to this problem we are tempted to only ask the question, “How does a single woman support her children?”  If this is the only question we ask, then our solution for this problem may indeed bring more trouble than it does help.

However, if we ask the question, “Why is it we have so many single women who need to support their children?”,  then our focus will be on an answer that will actually impact long term change and not simply provide another un-biblical patch to the problem.

Both questions are important and need to be answered.  The former needs to be answered immediately for the single mom with a broken family that finds themselves in that situation.  The later needs to be answered if we are going to prevent other women from finding themselves in this situation.

First let me say clearly, I do not believe any would say a single woman who is trying to support her family by working is in sin.  The question I would place on the table is not one of sin or not sin, but what is best for a single mother and her children.  As the bride of Christ, we don’t simply want an answer, we want the right answer, a Biblical answer.  Please note, there is a distinction between seeking a Biblical answer to the question and calling a person’s choices sin.

In our traditional approach, you can read in here un-biblical approach or egalitarian approach, we think the single mom needs a skill and a regular 8-5 job.  That means her children are off to daycare or public school as an immediate ramification of this solution.  This immediately enslaves that mother to the employer or industry her skill is in and places her children in an environment where they will learn the same lifestyle patterns which caused this trouble to begin with.  This feeds the family physically, but allows them to starve spiritually.

At this point, we need to understand the Biblical hierarchy to which this problem should go through.  There are responsibilities in all three of the government’s God has created, the state, the church, and the family.  First the husband should not be granted a divorce except on Biblical grounds.  His covenant before God is to provide and protect his family.  This means the no-fault divorce in America needs to be changed.  This is one aspect of how the state can help to change the growing trend of single parenthood.  Of course this is a result of the state rejecting the Biblical teaching on marriage to begin with.

The state rejecting the teachings of the church is evidence of it’s failure to be salt and light to the culture.  The church in America has departed from sound doctrine that provides real solutions to problems and has embraced a humanistic wealth based replacement for the Gospel of Christ.  As such we have the minions at Planned Parenthood being salt and light to the culture and the church being trod under the foot of man.  So part of the answer needs to be a reforming church that is examining it’s theology that has allowed this to happen.  We will address a couple reforms the church can make to help in a moment.

After her husband, the responsibility of the single mother would fall to her family.  First her father or her oldest brother if the father abdicates his role or is not alive to fulfill his duty.  After that, her other brothers and extended family should support their own family member.  It should only fall to the church if there are no other family members who are willing or able to provide for this family.

Assuming, these other steps fail, what should the churches response be?  What if the church’s response to the single mother was to first and foremost feed them, take care of them, and house them.  If they are widows indeed, shouldn’t the church respond as such?  If the mother desires to work and her children are of an age where she can build a business with them, to provide for their future and launch them into life, how should the church council her?  Shouldn’t the mother be able to sustain herself and her children in some manner that does not place her as a pawn in the industrial workforce and her children as lemmings in training in the public school?  What if the church had entrepreneur training sessions that taught the single mom to work with her children as she educated them?  What if the church had business men who were willing to fund the startup of a small cottage business for this family?  Or there was a family in the church who owned a small business that was able to put her to work part time to help through a tough transition? 

I realize it is easy to talk about this in theory and it is something completely different to have the body of Christ actually function as the body of Christ.  But, I have seen this work and it is a beautiful picture when the body of Christ makes sacrifices to deal with issues Biblically.  When we separate ourselves from the world’s way of thinking; when we stop embracing it’s failed philosophies, and begging for the scrapes from it’s table, then we can see that God has called us to something better.  He has given us solutions that not only solve the immediate issue of putting food on the table, but it also provides the long term generational issues by having the children trained by their mother and loved by the church.  It provides a foundation to deal with the sin that caused children to only have one parent and it provides the ability for those children to avoid the sins of their parents.

In short, the Bible provides an answer that is not a quick fix, but a serious re-aligning of the culture to a Biblical standard.  Of course I must say that for most who make this argument it is not really about the inner city needs of hurting people, but the big city life they have developed for themselves.  Usually, not always, the real hang up is addressing the areas of our own lives that need to be re-aligned with the Bible.  It’s a hard process, but what else can a Christian do?  Either we continue to live off the scraps of the humanistic lies of the feminist movement and deal with the destructive fall out of single parenthood or we embrace the truth of the scripture, reject the philosophies of the world, and begin to see our families and our nation healed.

The most liberal translation of Scriptures clearly shows the normative pattern for women is to be their husband’s (not some other man’s) helpmate.  Many seem to be willing to give Palin a free pass on this issue, because she is pro-life, or because she may help to keep a muslim out of office, or for some other “noble” reason.  I’m at a loss to understand their thinking, or at least in my ability to see it as Biblical.  Perhaps, we have just become so use to feminist dogma in this age of female preachers, priest, and senators that we are tainted.  Perhaps, we are so influenced by the culture around us that we are simply unable to think like Christians any more.

It seems that the critiques fall into two categories.  Some are saying we, those who denounce Palin candidacy outright, are being judgmental and are being unfair to her as an individual.  Yet, others are saying that we are not giving due consideration to the idea that God may place Palin in office - that it may be part of His plan. 

To the first, I would state that when someone puts themselves forward for a position of civic or ecclesiastical leadership, they are no longer simply a private individual.  There are two things that happen.  First, their private life becomes open to public scrutiny.  After all, you cannot lead in public if your character is not sound in private.  Secondly, you and your life become intertwined with that office or position.  When we speak of “the president” we are speaking of a person and an office. 

Next, there are two things that come out of the intertwined life of a leader.  First, there is an honor that is due a properly ordained magistrate.  We are to honor the office, because it is ordained by God and by showing honor to the office we procure peace and order for society.  Secondly, that individual life is measured by the qualifications of that office.  As an example, if my 12 year old wanted to run for mayor, he would be judged not on his ability or character as an individual, but on the fact that he does not meet the minimum requirements for that office. 

I point this out to help to clarify, that when someone speaks critical of Palin they may not be speaking of her as an individual, but of her qualifications for an office.  When I make a claim that she is a feminist, I am not making a judgment about her eternal soul, her relationship with God or her heart.  But I am using her life decisions, the words she speaks and the actions she has taken, to judge whether or not she if qualified for the office she is seeking.  I am judging whether her claims to be a Christian line up with the claims her life makes.  It is not my place to make a judgment about her eternal soul, but it most certainly is our place to judge whether or not she is qualified for the office she seeks.

However, the fact that Palin is a woman, means I don’t have to go into those details to determine if she is qualified for civil office… she is not, based on her gender alone.  If you read that last statement and thought I said something about someone being chained to a stove, please re-read the statement and then read this article or look at the posts found on the topic of feminism for a more complete understanding of a counter cultural, but completely biblical concern.

Many seem to try to bend the Scriptures to either say that it is allowable for a woman to serve in a civic or ecclesiastical role.  Or they try to make a distinction between a civic leader and an ecclesiastical leader.  One does not need to go far in Scripture to understand God’s created order and the roles he gave to men and women.  Even if there was not a clear created order in the relationships between men and women, could we find examples of women leading in the scriptures? 

Let’s go through all the kings of Israel, do we see any women leading there?  How about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, do we see any example of God’s people being lead by a woman?  Let’s search the entire New Testament, are there any examples there?  We have two examples of women who were in the “Whitehouse” of their day.  Both Ester and Jezebel are spoken of as entering into the things of the civil realm.  However, neither of them were civic leaders.  They were married to the king.  One is a great example of courage and the other… well, the other is not.

To be sure there are great women shown to us as examples in the Bible.  In addition to Esther, there are the examples of the mid-wives, Ruth, Rehab, the prophetess Anna in Luke 2, and certainly we should not forget the mother and grandmother of Timothy, Eunice and Lois.  But in all the passages we find, we see but one that seems to indicate some sort of public role, that of Deborah in Judges 4.  Bill Einwechter dealt extensively with that topic and with the topic of women in leadership in general very thoroughly here.  Look for item 5 for the commentary on Deborah.

One last point, on this topic and then I plan to dismiss it from my life.  Many are saying that God may be calling Palin forward as a non-normative leader by His sovereign will.  God may do what He wishes.  But He has given us a standard to live by.  He has graciously given us His Word so that we might be able to make sound judgments and decisions in our lives, including who we might elect for civil leaders.  I’ll be the first to admit, it is difficult to make those decisions in this post Christian nation, but that is our duty none-the-less.  The bottom line is a pro-life feminist, as a VP does not make a bad presidential pick a good one.  If McCain was not a worthy object of our vote last week, he is not worthy of our vote this week. If I may recommend one more article to you, Chuck Baldwin, who is a man worthy of your consideration for this election, has written a thorough review of John McCain’s so called pro-life record.  If we can sum up this issue, it is not about perfection.  We all are sinners worthy of the judgment.  What we are looking for is someone who can meet the minimum requirements.  McCain fails on his understanding of life and the civic and biblical duty to protect it, along with his past martial issues, and Palin fails because she is a woman and a feminist.  Anyone interested in holding Obama up to the light of scriptures?

To serve …beside such a man would be the privilege of a lifetime. And it’s fitting that this trust has been given to me 88 years almost to the day after the women of America first gained the right to vote…. It was rightly noted in Denver this week that (there are) 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America, but it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

…no woman should have to choose between her career, education and her child.  I believe in the strength and the power of women…

So can you name the feminist who made these statements?  Was it the pictured Hillary?  Perhaps, it was Condoleezza Rice?  Or the beloved Margret Sanger?

If you said any of the feminist above, you’d be wrong.  The feminist that made these statements was in fact Governor Palin.  In fact, Governor Palin was speaking of exceeding Hillary Clinton in the speech where she mentioned the glass ceiling.  Since when should a Christian woman be seeking to follow after or over take the path taken by an anti-Christ Marxist?  I am amazed that so many of the normally sound conservative Christians are so quickly willing to give Ms. Palin a pass on how she has embraced the feminist agenda that conflicts so clearly with the teaching of the Bible she claims to follow. 

The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.  (Tit 2:3-5)

But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.  (1Ti 2:12-15)

BTW - Scott Brown has noted here that when a glass ceiling is shattered there is going to be and indeed already has been a lot of bloodshed due to feminism.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but this one leaves me speechless!  Yep, you guessed it, this is none other than First lady Palin and five former first ladies of Alaska. 

I’m not trying to be judgmental or anything, but maybe we should enter Mr. Palin in our Apron giveaway.  What do ya’ll think?   (Check the side bar for a poll on this topic.)

Here is one of the tools we have to judge the situation before us with Mrs. Palin.  We have societal norms and standards, which while they are falling fast, still are based upon a biblical foundation.  This foundation is strong enough for most people to look at this picture and at least do a double take to see what the deal is.  How did you respond?

Here we have a picture of the antithesis.  If it is ok for Mrs. Palin to be a civil leader, then why is it so strange for a her man to be the first lady? 

My friends let us not mince words, if God would not allow a woman to rule over a man in the home or in the church, is it likely that He would condone a woman ruling over all the men in the nation? I think not. At the same time, He may place a woman over this nation according to His sovereign will as a further sign of His judgment upon a nation.  Just like the the weak childish men we have leading us today are a sign of His judgment.

So here is the deal, in honor of calling this debacle what it is, a travesty in American history. If the majority of the Vaughnshire Readers believe that Mr. Palin would make use of a good apron, I personally will buy one and send it to him.  Check the poll on the side bar and register your vote.

Whenever agrarianism is discussed, people want to point out the things they enjoy from the industrial revolution, such as air conditioning, automobiles, and medical advancements, without regard to the cost of these advancements. Advancements in technology and enhancements to our living conditions are indeed very nice. But everything has a cost and not all advantages are worth what they cost.

The period prior to and during the industrial revolution was marked by a departure in Biblical thinking in many areas. One area where this departure is evidenced is the loss of an understanding of the Biblical definition of labor and of wealth. One of the fruits of this change is a debt based economy that enslaves the masses. The industrial economy brought a departure from the Biblical family patterns where the father works with his family, which in turn has led to an individualistic approach to life and the destruction of the family.

We’ve all heard it said that ideas have consequences. It is more true to say that theology has consequences and as soon as we depart from using the Bible as the standard for our lives, both personally and as a nation we reap those consequences.

As we look at the history of the United States over the last 200 years we can see the evidences of a nation who turned her back on God’s Word and in its place looked to the wisdom of man. As we watch the disintegrating economy, the destruction of the family, and the ever changing social programs trying to patch the holes in this sinking ship, we must reconcile the fruit we see with the roots from which it sprang.

Agrarianism is not “the” answer. The answer is a true reformation where we lift up the standard of God’s Word and apply it to every decision we make in life…and that is the heart of Vaughnshire. The farm is fun and exciting. More importantly it is teaching us important lessons about work and wealth. In addition, it provides a certain level of independence from our current failing economic system. But the heart is not to see a nation of farmers, the heart is to see a nation turn back to God.

Cities are not the problem anymore than agrarianism is the answer. If we look to the Scriptures we see that God will give us “goodly cities”. But what many fail to see is that biblical cities, and in fact every city up until the 1900s, had a local agrarian foundation. The food was grown nearby and the substances of the earth formed the foundation for the economy. Wealth was found in items like livestock, food, dry goods, etc… Has anyone tried to make a living raising livestock lately?  How about in textiles? Farms are failing at an unprecedented rate because our economy is not based on a “just weight and measure”.  A paper economy is not a just weight or measure and therefore is not Biblical.  True wealth, that is to say Biblical wealth, is found in production and in working with the raw material of the earth.

The distinction between agrarianism and city living in today’s world is that our cities are centers of consumption. With the exception of a few artisans who are producing works from material that is shipped from abroad, skilled labor is gone from the cities. Even our food service industry, is precariously dependent upon a transportation line that brings its raw material from afar. The fact that it is called a “food service industry” should be a hint to us.

Gone is the craftsman who worked in his shop at his home. The transportation he once produced through wood and iron works has long ago been replaced by the automobile factory, which itself is now being removed from our suburbs and relocated overseas. Gone is the butcher who processed meat raised in the nearby fields. He has long since been replaced by a factory farm and corporate processing plants. This is not the result of cities. This is the result of industrialization coupled with unsound economic policies. This is the cost we must consider. The wealth of America is being exported daily. We are importing a substaintial part of our food supply and our raw materials.  So what becomes of us, when the rest of the world rejects the US dollar? Tell me again why we should be dependent upon this so called global economy?  Tell me again, why we need to import anything?

Vaughnshire is not about bashing city life and yelling to everyone the sky is falling. But what we desire very much to do is to raise a standard to which the wise and prudent may rally. If Christians, can rightly assess the times in which we live and put forward Biblical solutions to the problems we face as a culture, then we can effect the outward reformation of ideas, laws, and practices, while we cry out to God for the inward revival of His grace to be poured out upon the hearts of our nation.

This is one of the funniest political stories I have heard in a long time.  It comes from my own 7 year old young man.  As you read it, I think you’ll agree his keen political insight has him destined for leadership!

Here is the background.  I have offered a reward for a little history work.  In true southern fashion I gave the older boys a pellet gun when they memorized the 50 states and capitols.  Now the next two boys are making the effort.  Our seven year old, Patrick, has been studying diligently and his 5 year old brother is helping him.

Beth recently took Patrick with her to an eye appointment where the conversation suddenly turned serious with this question, “Mom do you think Obama will be president”?  Beth answered with an “I don’t know” and a period of thoughtful silence ensued.  Eventually Patrick states that he sure hopes he can finish learning all the states and capitols before the election.  Beth turns to him, now very curious, and ask what the states and capitols have to do with the election.

Patrick turns to her and says, “Well if Obama is elected he will take all our guns and I won’t get my pellet gun”!  After Beth suppresses the laughter he says, “Yea and Hitler will take away our guns too”.

Beth, puzzled once again, relays to him that Hitler is dead.  A rather shocked and animated Patrick replies, “Really SHE died? I thought she wanted to be president too.”

Out of the mouth of babes….