Oregon Wins as our Governor loses (Saturbray)

www.braylog.com ^ | 2/14/15 | bray

[Salvation]

If you would like more information about what's happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me.

I lost my Oregon list when my computer crashed last year, so please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.

[QT3.14]

Gov. Kitzhaber holds the record for the shortest time in office: 1.12.15 - 2.18.15? Yikes!

[fieldmarshaldj]

He’s already served 12 prior years in office (1995-2003; 2011-to date).

[Neoliberalnot]

I have lived in Texas and known and worked with people from Oklahoma. I have also lived in Eastern Oregon. What you write is a libelous pack of lies and nothing that resembles any Christian I ever knew from any of those states.

[bert]

that is what is known to educated folks as sanctimonious self righteous pontification

[Star Traveler]

It’s not that there are not true committed Christians in Oklahoma and Texas, from what I’ve seen ... it’s more that it PERVADES the entirety of society so that there “appears” to be a large number of Christians. You will hear Christian discussions at MacDonalds, or with people walking along the sidewalk, or like a political campaign I saw once, where one of the “bullet points” for “qualifications of the candidate was that he was a Christian.

Those are the kinds of things that would be rare in Oregon. In fact, if you were talking about praying with someone in MacDonalds in Oregon, you would have everyone in the place stop and look at you. If you put down as one of the “qualifications for candidacy” that you were a Christian (in Oregon) you would likely lose the race on that basis.

So, the point is that it pervades the society in Texas and Oklahoma, whereas it does not in Oregon.

BUT ... when you “drill down” with a lot of these “cultural Christians” as to things of the Bible, how or why you’re saved, you get “startling answers” with many of these cultural Christians ... like, “I try to do right!”, “I go to church,” or they accept many unbiblical positions like thinking that you have to respect homosexual lifestyles and it’s not unbiblical, because they can be good people, too, or thinking that abortion is something okay and that God does not form people in the womb ... many things like that.

You then realize that there is a “large segment” of the population who are simply cultural Christians and are not in the knowledgeable and committed category. On the surface, they do “stand for God” verbally, but when actions and issues come up (either in their life or in discussions) they don’t know the right thing according to the Bible and are not committed to it, even if they know what the Bible says.

SO ... overall ... it “seems” like a very large Christian majority, but it’s not. And I would guess that Christians in our society (across the country) consistmof no more than 20% of the population at most. The rest are really not Christians, but “Christians in name only”.

[Neoliberalnot]

I know what you are saying but the narrative you propose is more consistent with another part of the country, like the NE. Check out the Numbers in southern Baptists churches in Texas and Oklahoma. Southern baptists adhere to the Bible, not religious political correctness.

[Star Traveler]

That’s the thing about the “churches” here in Oklahoma, they are all over the place. And so I’m not saying that people don’t show up in church, but that it’s more cultural for a large segment of them.

People “are” involved in churches more here, as there’s no doubt about that, but being involved in church in NO WAY, SHAPE or FORM makes anyone a Christian. You can have someone sitting right next to you in church, and be there week after week, and they have no idea what the Gospel is.

AND ... many of these churches are competing with each other with big “media events” that they’ve got going on. I’m in Tulsa (the “buckle of the Bible Belt) and that’s the way it is here, and there are a lot of Christians here.

I’ve been in Dallas a lot and it’s that way, too. The church I was going to in Dallas was a Southern Baptist Church — First Baptist of Dallas. Right now there is Pastor Jeffress there as a pastor (and he’s a good one). He wasn’t there when my dad and I were going there, though. And “doctrinally speaking” I know what you’re talking about with their teachings ... but ... I’m not talking about the church teachings (although I think a lot of churches are slipping here in Texas and Oklahoma in that regard, too) ... I’m talking about the “people in the pew” ... they are not necessarily in accord with the doctrinal teachings of a church like First Baptist. And believe me, when you go there, you can certainly tell it’s “cultural” with a lot of the people — although First Baptist Dallas is an excellent church, I think ... especially so now with Pastor Jeffress.

The churches I went to in Oregon were part of the “Northwest Conservative Baptist Association” with “Western Conservative Baptist Seminary” (in Portland, Oregon) supplying a lot of the pastors for these churches. I would rank them right along with the Southern Baptist Association.

BUT ... as a side note, a whole lot of churches are slipping in regards to teaching people in their congregation what the Bible says in all that it does say and teach. I won’t go into a lot here, but it’s really really getting “bad” out there in “Christianity-ville” ... :-) ... and I would expect that to be the case, the closer we come to the time of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, returning and setting up his one-world government and ruling in his new government, over the nations of the world, including all of the people in the good ole USA ... but without operating under the US Constitution anymore, as that will be scrapped. The time is here now when we (in this world) are like the time of Noah, before judgement came. The seven-year Tribulation, just prior to the Messiah of Israel’s return, is that severe judgment rendered upon this earth ... and then Jesus sets up the new one-world government.

[Neoliberalnot]

I understand what you are saying. People may not know everything about scripture and some people do go to church just for appearances, but many who are there are seeking God because it is in their nature to do so. Some are lost and will never accept, these are satan’s brood and they will follow him to hell. God sent his Son, and if we believe, that is all that is necessary. Keep him in your heart and he will keep you in heaven.

Who is the greatest evangelist of our time?

[thirst4truth]

Religious church goers, most of them, has been my experience in southern Oregon. Very nice people, just lack an understanding of the truth of Gods word, spiritually clueless. They would not be able to take a stand if prosecution should ever rear its ugly head. But how many could? Would the OK and TX believers convert to islam under penalty of beheading? Or would they die for their belief in Christ, like the Coptic Christians have over and over.

[thirst4truth]

Good piece. I live in the Roseburg area and I am kind of a news junkie, I knew very little about all this until after the election. The D party and their PR group the press knew it all and failed in their duty. We have to have an R government, it is the only government that has a check on it in the form of the fourth estate.