Archive for August, 2013

The Beginning of the End for Miley Cyrus?

Posted: August 28, 2013 by David Fiorazo in David's Blog
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Most of us recognize a desperate cry for help when we see one. God help Miley Cyrus. Just like Whitney Houston, Anna Nichole Smith, Heath Ledger, and many others who once fought the demons of fame, worldly success – and lost, I pray Cyrus is not too far gone.

It’s apparent Miley lost her innocence, inhibitions, and self-respect. Her flesh-toned rubber bikini and gyrating performance during the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night caused most American mothers to cringe. I am embarrassed for Cyrus.

Just like Lady Gaga, Cyrus has chosen the path paved by Madonna, using sex and outrageous behavior to get attention.

Imagine how God, her Creator sees her. He had a plan and purpose for her life to be a beautiful influence on young women everywhere and model good, clean values for them.

One mother wrote to her daughter and said Cyrus’ lacked self-respect, acted like an “overheated hound dog” with her tongue hanging out, and is simply screaming for attention because Miley hasn’t heard the word “no” very often. She concluded:

“Dear daughter, I am going to fight or die trying to keep you from becoming like the Miley Cyruses of the world. You can thank me later.”

Imagine being in Miley’s shoes, hearing most of your life that you’re the greatest. Every picture you post and every comment or tweet gets thousands of approving, fawning responses. In her mind perhaps she can do no wrong. Fame has a seductive, worldly lure and temptation that comes from being in the public eye.

So what in the world happened to Miley?

She was raised Christian and baptized in a Southern Baptist church, but we know there are plenty of folks claiming to be Christians and not living according to the Bible they profess to believe in. They fail to build a foundation on faith in God’s eternal Word. Whatever faith she had was not strong enough to endure the high life of celebrity.

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car. Miley went to church growing up and even wore a purity ring. To the world, this is another excuse to call Christians hypocritical; to true believers, this is a sad and tragic fall.

Is Miley a victim of culture, Hollywood, or herself?

She moved to L.A. in 2005 and it took less than five years for her mind to become corrupt and polluted. Her image changed along with her music, and here we are witnessing the awful result of her godless transformation.

Admitted Satanist, Marilyn Manson once said, “Raise your kids better or I’ll be raising them for you.”

He wasn’t joking. Most of us understand the power of music, media and the whole entertainment industry so we had better warn families who have impressionable children. Christian parents, be reminded kids will emulate the fashion, speech, beliefs, and lifestyle of their favorite stars. It is well documented that in many cases, pop culture has been responsible for increased drug use in America, teen pregnancy, murders, suicides, rapes, abortions, and domestic violence.

To better understand the rapid decline of Miley Cyrus, all we need to do is go back to 2009.

Miley turned sweet sixteen and her performance at the Teen Choice Awards included a brief pole dance featuring her in a provocative outfit. She went from Disney’s Hannah Montana to teen idol in a hurry, and through her best-selling single “Party in the USA,” she seemed to take her adult image and sex appeal to the next level when she was seventeen years old.

In 2010, she released Can’t Be Tamed, basically a sexed-up version of her evolving party image. That project excluded any theme alluding to her Christian faith – a subject she had previously been outspoken about.

In the lyrics for Miley Cyrus’ Can’t Be Tamed, she talks about getting crazy and getting her way and describes herself by saying, “I’m hot,” and “I’m built like that.” The song also talks about her getting lots of attention from guys, and that “I go through guys like money flyin’ out the hands.” Her video for the single featured “half-naked dancers and risqué bumping and grinding.”

At her nineteenth birthday party in Hollywood, her friends brought out a Bob Marley birthday cake, and Cyrus said,

“You know you’re a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake. You know you smoke way too much fu**in’ weed.”

Finally, in the 2012 remake of a film called LOL: Laughing Out Loud, in a role Cyrus said she fell in love with, her character loses her virginity, smokes cannabis, gets wasted, and kisses two girlfriends on the lips.

Maybe some of her more conservative fans have caught on after all.

According to The Hollywood Gossip site in 2011, for the second year in a row, Miley Cyrus was named the Worst Celebrity Influence in a poll of nearly 100,000 people.  Ironically, the site’s main audience is ages nine to fifteen, which was once her core fan base. Cyrus even beat out Lindsay Lohan, who has earned her share of negative awards.

There are some who are concerned Cyrus is in danger of becoming the next Hollywood train wreck. We need to pray for her. Though she seems lost, no one is impossible for God to reach, but it appears she’s headed down a destructive path similar to Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or worse. Where are her true friends?

We shouldn’t expect secular celebrities to live according to God’s Word because Christian values are either foreign or offensive to them. As for the salvation of Miley Cyrus who claimed to be a Christian years ago, only God knows her heart.

She and countless other celebrities need the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. No one is without hope, but the Bible warns us the Lord’s return is close. It’s time to wake up and speak up because “now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11)

Will she and other prodigals return to the only God that can save her before it’s too late?

Miley 2008 and 2012

Government Schools: Bible is “Questionable Material” and “Hate Speech”

Posted: August 22, 2013 by David Fiorazo in David's Blog, Eradicate - Blotting Out God In America
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“The battle for mankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith…. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new – the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism.” (John Dunphy, 1983)

The Sheboygan, WisconsinSchool District backed up a February 2012 decision by James Madison Elementary School Principal, Matthew Driscoll, deciding that a Bible verse is “questionable material.” The result was the confiscation of a second grader’s valentines.It all started when a second grader added the wrong message to the candy he wanted to give out for Valentine’s Day: John 3:16, a Bible verse.

Dexter Thielhelm wanted to put the verse with the candy and give them to his JamesMadisonElementary school friends. Another offending message, “Jesus loves you,” was written on the rolled up Bible verse. His siblings helped Dexter put all the valentines together. Apparently, the problem in public schools is you can use the word “love” but you can’t use any reference to religion.

According to the Wausau Herald, Dexter’s mother, Melissa Wolf, said she didn’t know the Christian message, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life, would be objectionable by the school and was unhappy with the way principal Matthew Driscoll handled the situation.

Even though the School District’s assistant superintendent of student and instructional services said there is not a “specific district policy dealing with the distribution of religious verses on Valentine’s Day,” the reason they gave for confiscating the boy’s valentines was that other second graders expected to receive a valentine, not a “religious verse.” It must be noted that Wolf has a son who attends a private school in the same school district, Lake Country Academy. He had no problems sharing the identical Christian valentines at his charter school.

FREE SPEECH FOR ALMOST EVERYONE

Again in Wisconsin, in January 2012 at ShawanoHigh School, Brandon Wegner, a fifteen-year-old student wrote an editorial column in the school paper in support of children being raised in a home by a mother and a father. He cited Scriptures and other sources to back up his point, including verses opposing homosexuality because it is considered a sin.

Both sides of the debate were printed in the school paper as Weg­ner’s article was “released in conjunction with an opposing viewpoint provided by another student, Maddie Marquardt,” the copy editor for the paper. In her article, Marquardt countered by arguing that “gay couples should be able to adopt because the foster system is broken, and children need a two-parent home.”

A homosexual parent wrote a formal complaint to the school that Wegner’s opinion was “constituted as hate speech,” and some kids might commit suicide because he voiced his Christian beliefs. The School Dis­trict issued an immediate written statement calling the article “offen­sive” and saying it “cultivated a negative environment.” Superintendent Todd Carlson went so far as to call Wegner’s opinion piece “bullying.”

Maddie Marquardt was never questioned about promoting homo­sexual adoption in the same paper. Brandon Wegner’s article was wrong because he used the Bible as a reference, and he supported a traditional family view. This is today’s NEA. In a meeting following the incident, Superintendent Todd Carlson asked Wegner if he regretted writing the column, and Wegner said no. Carlson then allegedly told Wegner he had to be “one of the most ignorant kids to try to argue with him on this topic,” and threatened to suspend him.

Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm and ministry, took Wegner’s case and called the situation “shocking” and “outra­geous.” Liberty Counsel’s Matthew Staver sent a letter to the school stating: “The [District] humiliated Brandon in front of everyone, pre­vented him from his exams, and jeopardized his academic progress.” According to the lawyer, Wegner’s parents were never notified about his meetings with the school district…

Conservative Christian teachers currently in the public school sys­tem find themselves in a quagmire of sorts. They have invested time and treasure in their college education and ongoing training. Some of their families could not make it without their salary. Others have been teaching for years and had no idea about the deeper agendas of their mother ship, the NEA, and the U.S. Dept. of Education. We need to pray for them to stand strong in the faith and be the salt and light Jesus Christ commanded us all to be wherever we work. They may not be able to change the union, but they sure can impact the formation of a young child’s worldview.

There is no easy answer and no quick fix, but getting back to America’s founding ethics, principles, and values would be a good start.

In 1788, Noah Webster said:

“Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”

Yes, my friend – let’s rehearse America’s true history, not what has been rewritten.

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6).

*This is  an excerpt from the chapter, “The NEA Agenda” – from Eradicate – Blotting Out God in America. For more, please go to www.blottingoutgod.com

dear God

Learning From Oprah: New Age Spirituality, Racism, and the Influence of Celebrity

Posted: August 17, 2013 by David Fiorazo in David's Blog, Eradicate - Blotting Out God In America
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Oprah Winfrey, one of the most powerful, wealthy, and influential women in the world, added fuel to the racial divide in America this week while promoting her new film, The Butler. Winfrey suggested that just because people are not using the n-word doesn’t mean they’re not racist. Also weighing in on the recent Martin/Zimmerman verdict, Oprah stated:

“But to me it’s ridiculous to look at that case and not think that race was involved.”

It is not, however, her views on race that concern me as much as her views and criticisms about the Bible. Oprah has been more influential than some of America’s pastors and religious leaders. Too many people today follow their pop-culture icons. Oprah has launched book sales and resuscitated careers for many authors and gurus while giving proponents of higher spirituality a platform, particularly those who promote a New Age philosophy.

The following is an excerpt from Eradicate: Blotting Out God in America, from the chapter entitled, “Emerging Into Confusion.”

In his book, For Many Shall Come in My Name, Ray Yungen describes the term “New Age” as based on astrology. Some believe there are cosmic cycles in which the Earth passes through a time period when it falls “under the influence of a certain sign of the zodiac.” This is a belief system that everything exists and revolves around energy containing tiny particles: atoms, molecules, protons, etc.

“All is energy. That energy, they believe, is God, and therefore, all is God. They believe that since we are all part of this ‘God-energy’, then we,too, are God. God is not seen as a Being that dwells in heaven, but as the universe itself.”

Many New Age proponents strive for a “Christ consciousness” or a “higher consciousness” in an effort to become more aware of these spiritual realms… the most direct way to achieve this is through meditation, [which is] “a primary source of spiritual direction of the New Age person.”

There are great resources available on the occult practices and history. It is so important to immerse ourselves into the Word of God and study to show ourselves approved by Him. We must be discerning about things such as: contemplative prayer, “centering prayer” and mantras, the law of attraction, witchcraft and Harry Potter, the Kabbala, spiritual formation, Labyrinth walking, and Wicca.

Teachings promoted by well-known celebrities are dangerous because people tend to believe and follow those they idolize.

“How can there be only one way to heaven or to God?” – Oprah Winfrey

You may have heard about A Course in Miracles which was written by a well-known New Age representative, Helen Schucman, who claims the book came directly from her inner voice. In the course, the listener is taught there is no sin, they are told not to make the “mistake” of “clinging to the old rugged cross,” and that the name of “Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol.”

Oprah has done many good things to help people, but does that mean we should trust her theology and religious beliefs? I’m not judging her heart because we are all wicked without the atonement of Jesus Christ. [Some] Christian pastors have warned about the teachings promoted by Oprah. A Course in Miracles teaches that God is in everyone and everything and that “the oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity, and your limitless power.” Wow.

Maybe you’re an Oprah fan and have always defended her or maybe you had no idea what she believes. In an interview with Oprah, New Age author and mystic, Eckhart Tolle criticized Christianity and also took live calls from viewers. Tolle stated:

“The moment you say ‘only me belief’ or ‘our belief’ is true, and you deny other people’s beliefs, then you’ve adopted an ideology… and then religion becomes a closed door.”

Oprah told the caller to simply realize Christianity is but one of many ways to achieve the higher consciousness, and the belief that one must follow a set of doctrines is a consequence of “ego consciousness.” [Always the opportunist, she should talk about ego?]

She holds that while Christianity is a valid way to achieve high states of spirituality, it must not be considered a unique way, or a “correct way.” Oprah believes God is all love, and she does not subscribe to the teaching that He is also a holy, jealous, just and vengeful God. She told her audience:

“The new spirituality is that you are your own best authority as you work to know and love yourself, you discover how to live a more spiritual life.”

Sadly, millions of spiritual seekers have been led astray, and due to Oprah’s popularity, people have opened themselves up to all kinds of practices, religions, and teachings contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ and biblical Christianity.

We need to pray for her and for those who may blindly hang on her every word, or the words of any secular celebrity.  Oprah is not the enemy – she is deceived – but she obviously believes she has the answers regarding God, spirituality, and eternity. People need to be warned; countless unsuspecting souls following her and those like her are being led away from the One true God and down a path of destruction.

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