Before I committed myself to actually live it, and be converted in my heart, I read all I could about every Christian Faith that has suffered persecution… The Salvation Army is a stand-out, and of course, there was the infamous Extermination Order signed by Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs on October 27, 1838, directed that the Mormons be driven from the state or exterminated, mostly because of the Church's support for the abolition of slavery.

Since past presidents of the Church have said it could happen again, one would be foolish not to consider it. Of course, one can never be sure he'll "endure until the end", but if a man has had witness of the Truth, he understands that the time here is an eyeblink, and then we are judged on how we held to that Truth by a Loving Heavenly Father who is just.

It stands to reason that if this time, this mere 100 yrs of life here, are an eyeblink in our Soul's life, then whether we live or die matters not, just how we comport ourselves during that time. If we call The Christ "Our Master", He has given us our orders, and anyone can read what they are, its in the Bible, (…and for us LDS, The Book of Mormon — which presents the same concepts in a different way).

We are to treat each man as our brother: love them and help them. We are, in extremes, to defend ourselves… but not look for trouble. We were made in the Image of The Creator of The Universe, and should treat ourselves and each other with the respect that engenders, indeed, necessitates from the Children so created.

For the life of me, I cannot understand what a person could find offensive about that.

‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

When power reaches some level of critical mass, the natural move of those in power is to gain a monopoly – eliminate any contrasting competition.

We’re seeing it now in the area of healthcare. Rather than admit to a series of escalating political policies that have so greatly failed financially and deal with it on that basis, those on the left are instead attempting to rescue the intrusion and substantial involvement in healthcare, Medicare and Medicaid, by assimilating the private methods so that they can then be in a position to cut services for all.

We may see a similar approach with investments and pensions being absorbed into the failed social security debacle.

I believe these demonstrate what happens when a government gets in the business of ideology. There is a natural move to eliminate competition as has happened in communist, Muslim and every other ideology-based system of governing. We see large scale exclusion already now in larger public groups; media, sciences, academia, entertainment, publishing, and evidence through many court rulings, retail business practices, and even within the Republican Party.

Religion that brings about lifestyle change in individuals that is based on fundamental principles that are in contrast to group-controlled ideology is real competition. The objection to that lifestyle comes from within human nature; pride, inability to admit mistaken attempts and failure, and is heightened by the contrast.

It also just naturally follows the current secular philosophy of pragmatism; abandonment of principle (such as constitutional authority and limitations of government) for solutions that ‘kick the ball down the road’ and fix a public symptom while ignoring the disease – Johnson’s attempt to end poverty for example.

Another disturbing observation is of those who are at least hardcore liberals (those to the left of them no longer seem to hide Marxism any longer these days – they’ve all ‘outed’ themselves); they are ‘true believers.’

That’s the only way to make sense of positions taken for example by Jews who defend Obama currently. He’s blatantly for the Palestinian cause and my Jewish friends don’t deny that position and all seem to say in some fashion that Israel has to compromise, ‘make a deal.’ They deny the obvious fact that making any kind of deal that they’re suggesting will probably eliminate Israel’s existence. They give up their heritage and religious beliefs for what has now become a higher cause – the new religion of the left.

We are most certainly competition, a large target, and it has to get worse. Unlike the AMA and AARP most recently, we cannot be paid off to go along. One good thing I suppose is that there is no middle ground any longer. In order to live a Christian life, if it doesn’t already, it most certainly will require supernatural enablement.