World News Through the Third Lens

ALL OF US FOUND OUR ROLES IN HAITI (Dr. Anthony Alessi, Norwich Bulletin, 2/15/10) Following a trip to Haiti made by four health professionals from Norwich along with eleven others from Greenville, N.C., Dr. Alessi's journal of the trip has been running in the Norwich Bulletin. He has expressed nothing but admiration for the compassionate professionalism delivered to the people of Haiti by his colleagues, and the gratitude of the Haitian people. My hat is off to Dr. Alessi (neurologist)and his team members: Dr. Tom Bell (surgeon), his wife Patty Bell (surgical nurse), and Cindy Davis (critical care nurse). As a former EMT and one who has been on two mission trips to Haiti, I can appreciate what these caring professionals accomplished, and how they themselves must have been impacted by all they saw and experienced.

I so appreciate the spiritual element that Dr. Alessi included in Day 2 of his journal, in a section he captioned "Joy amid ruin." Cindy started the week as part of a group that went to the village of Miragaone to set up a clinic. When the team was invited to Mass on Sunday, it found the cathedral was destroyed. "Mass was in a simple building and the people were so well-dressed," she said. "The makeshift church and the surrounding hillside were filled with families, yet they moved chairs forward for each of us to sit on. I'll never forget the joyful sound of the choir singing 'Amazing Grace' a Capella while surrounded by ruin."

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE: I get the distinct impression that the love of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was involved in this medical mission, and as such, the healing ministry of Jesus as described by Matthew is probably appropriate here. "Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people were brought to him with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them." (Matthew 4:23-24)

$100 IN THE BANK COUNTS AS $1000 (William Murray, Religious Freedom Coalition, 2/12/10 and earlier reported by Jerry Robinson in Bankruptcy of our Nation, New Leaf Press, 2009) An explanation of the Federal Reserve Bank's fractional reserve system: "If the reserve requirement is 10%, for example, a bank that receives a $100 deposit may lend out $90 of that deposit. If the borrower then writes out a check to someone for that $90, who then deposits it in the bank, the bank receiving that deposit can then lend out $81. As the process continues, the banking system can expand the initial deposit of $100 into a maximum of $1,000. ($100 + $90 + $81 + 71.90 +.......=$1000). In other words, about 90% of the money ion circulation doesn't really exist. President Barak Obama wants to increase the phony money supply with yet another stimulus. It is mathematically impossible, at this point in time, to pay off the national debt.

First of all, it is no wonder that many of our founding fathers did not want the United States of America to adopt any semblance of the central banking system that was employed in Europe during the 18th century. Initially Thomas Jefferson and similar thinkers prevailed, citing Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution as grounds for keeping private central banks from gaining control over their own government's monetary activities. In spite of this, President Washington signed the First bank of the United States into law in 1791, along with a 20 year charter which expired in 1811. In 1811, Congress voted against renewing the charter. President Madison, under great pressure, signed into law the Second Bank of the United States in 1816, again with a 20 year charter. The schemes of the Central Bank were to lead the country through periods of inflation and recession, with the bank (owned to a large degree by foreign individuals) to profit, no matter the direction of the economy. As the country became aware of these schemes, the charter was not renewed in 1836, thanks to the efforts of Andrew Jackson, under whose leadership the US national debt was paid off for the first and only time. Unfortunately, in 1913 the Federal Reserve was created by an act of Congress on December 23. The Federal Reserve is not Federal but a partnership between the federal government and the private banking system. Listen to U.S. Congressman Ron Paul's summary of the Federal Reserve System. "From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble in 2001, every economic downturn suffered by the country over the past 80 years can be traced to Federal Reserve policy."

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE: The prevailing view in Jesus' day (and little has changed for the past 2000 years) was that to be wealthy was a sign of God's special favor and to be poor was a sign of God's displeasure - an idea soundly rejected by Christ (Luke 6:20, 16:13, 18:24-25). The Bible identifies greed and the pursuit of wealth with idolatry, which is demonic (1 Corinthians 10:19-20; Colossians 3:5) which can bring about enslavement (Matthew 6:24). Riches can be an obstacle both to salvation and discipleship (Matthew 19:24, 13:22), give a false sense of security (Matthew 13:22) and demand the loyalty of one's heart (Matthew 6:21). The few people who are behind the Federal Reserve System are seeking temporal riches at the expense of the many, employing an economic model driven by debt. With China and other foreign nations holding large portions of America's national debt, we need to seriously consider this biblical wisdom: "The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender." (Proverbs 22:7)