Crown Financial Ministries

Scandals in American government are nothing new.  As King Solomon noted, “There is nothing new under the sun.” In fact, most of us can recall a number of major government failures that have come and gone.

Forty years to the week (May 1973) of the Senate hearings of the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal, we have Benghazi Gate, IRS Gate and theAssociated Press Gate all converging in the second term of President Obama.

• Benghazi Gate. The government is accused of spinning the truth about what actually caused the tragic events at the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Hearings will reveal more details in the days to come.
• IRS Gate. The government acknowledges that hundreds of conservative groups were singled out for additional IRS screening in an effort to identify those that were politically active and therefore not eligible for tax exemptions.  Some of that private information was reportedly leaked to political operatives favorable to the White House.
• Associated Press Gate. The government acknowledges that it tapped the private and business phone conversations of Associated Press reporters and one AP editor as part of a Justice Department leak investigation, placing a higher value on uncovering the source of the leak than the First Amendment rights to a free press.

The problems facing our President and his administration are formidable and troubling to all Americans.  We need to sincerely pray for all of our leaders and our nation.

Do I believe that this convergence of actual and suspected scandals will lead to the downfall of President Obama or any of his loyal staff and operatives? Not for a minute.

America is a different nation than it was 40 years ago.

All the scandals receiving intense media, legal and political scrutiny today are ethical in nature. While some will cry they are a violation of the sacred trust we place in those elected to provide good governance to our nation, moral relativism rules the day.

Without a moral compass, an absolute standard to determine right from wrong, one man’s ethics are quickly dismissed by another man’s counter argument.

“Spin” and outright propaganda are so prevalent that they are no longer considered a serious breech of trust. They are standard operating procedure in American political machinery.  Ethical deviations are dismissed as nuances, part and parcel of the political gamesmanship conducted by both sides.

Today, we also have an unprecedented level of government dependence. A record number of the American population receives some form of income from a government program, estimated to be as high as one-half. Many are unwilling “to bite the hand that feeds it.”

But in the midst of the present-day drama with both sides entrenched in a battle to discredit the other party, a bigger scandal is underway right under our noses: perpetual runaway federal spending. We are now a people governed by profligate spenders.

 Profligate means  .  Our tax dollars fall short of the annual expenses of the federal government by almost one third or more, year after year. Since World War II, we have overspent our national income in all but eight years. Worse, the money that is borrowed is consumed on inefficient, bureaucratic programs that accomplish little, but pile up debt seemingly impossible to be repaid.

This scandal shows no favoritism. It holds the potential to deliver the most devastating consequences to all Americans – those that receive government income and those that do not.  This scandal is not a judgment call based upon personal ethics. It is a mathematical fact measured by the gap between our nation’s income and expenses. It is measured in trillions of dollars and growing.

By attempting to borrow our way out of a debt problem, we are attempting to put out a fire with gasoline.

Forty years ago, we were the largest lending nation on Earth, today we are the largest debtor nation on Earth.  We lost our basis for common ethics and our prosperity will surely follow. Proverbs 22:7 warns: “The borrower is servant to the lender.”

God’s Word is the only source of absolute ethics. He told the Israelites that their collective prosperity would be conditional upon their personal obedience to His commands.  Deuteronomy 28 lays out His conditions in vivid terms:

“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on Earth.” (v.1)

“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and over take you:” (v.15)

Regardless of the outcome of this latest round of government misdeeds, theProfligate Scandal marches on. Neither Republicans nor Democrats nor the American voters have yet to muster the courage to call for it to end. We can’t even agree that it needs to end.

Americans somehow are blinded by the myth that it will magically disappear through economic growth, more federal debt, minuscule reductions in annual budget deficits or through the next promising politician.

Like a high stakes game of musical chairs, the music will stop and the charade will one day become painfully apparent. Profligate will be revealed as the greatest scandal ever perpetuated on the American people. The good faith and credit of America, once trusted the world over, will be gone.

Can it be averted? Only if we return our hearts to God and carefully obey His ethics.

That will come through a revival at the grassroots level, in the homes and churches across our land, not through the political process. But to end this cycle of scandal, even in Washington, D.C., personal character must be revived in all.

Chuck Bentley is CEO of Crown, a nonprofit business and personal finance policy and educational organization and author of “The S.A.L.T. Plan: How to Prepare for an Economic Crisis of Biblical Proportions.” He is the host of the nationally syndicated radio feature, My MoneyLife™. Follow Bentley on Twitter @chuckbentley.

The America I was raised in was saturated with the influence of evangelical Christians. While it is hard to define the meaning of the word “evangelical,” I view it as those followers of Christ who believe the Bible is true, who believe that they should share the “Good News” of Jesus Christ and who seek to live by its teachings in every area of their life.

But America is now in the midst of a rapid, cultural change. The very group of people who brought the salt and light of the gospel to this generation are now broadly considered a fading minority and for some, the source of the problems in our nation.

I grew up when it was normal to hear a Christian prayer over the public address system each morning before the opening bell to start the school day. It was normal for a man to marry a woman and a family to consist of a father, a mother and their children and to live together under one roof. It was normal in my childhood to witness people weeping in church as they were moved by a deep sense of conviction over their personal sin.

All of these occurrences and many others in the America I knew are diminishing.

I have been reading The Great Evangelical Recession, 6 Factors that Will Crash the American Church and How to Prepare by John S. Dickerson. It is a sobering wake up call supported by strong research and factual analysis. As my wife, Ann, said, “This is not good bedtime reading.”

Dickerson, a former award-winning journalist and now a pastor in Prescott, Arizona, makes the following conclusions:

• The fuel of American evangelicalism – dollars – is disappearing and will dwindle over the next three decades.
• The church is losing millions of our own people – about  2.6 million per decade.
• The evangelical church is not winning new believers fast enough to keep pace with rapid population growth in the United States.
• The external climate is turning against evangelicals. The fastest growing subcultures in the United States express militant antagonism against Christians who take the Bible seriously.
• The cultural debates and theological differences among the church that remains are splintering and splitting the church.

Having just returned from my trip to Turkey where I gathered with Crown’s European leaders, I came away with the painful awareness that there is no “bottom” to how far we can fall. Europe, once the motherland of the great theologians and the birthplace of Bible translations and sweeping revivals that impacted the world, is today scornful of those who believe the Bible is God’s inspired Word and authoritative over human opinion and philosophies.

While Dickerson offers a number of very insightful and helpful solutions to reverse the trends facing the evangelicals in America, I have summarized his recommendations into a single call to action: God’s leaders are needed now.

My appeal to you, no matter your circumstances, is to recognize that you can make a profound difference by getting engaged in the process of making disciples within your spheres of influence whether that is in your home, church, place of work, community or mission field. In fact, you are needed everywhere God has placed you, right now.

The Church is designed to multiply through this very simple, yet highly effective model: faithful people passing on God’s truth to other faithful people. Paul expressed this relational strategy to his young disciple Timothy.

 “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
II Timothy 2:2

On April 15^th, Crown will release our new, in-depth MoneyLife™ Personal Finance Study. It is both Biblical and very practical.

We have worked for over a year to ensure that the financial tools, the visual stories and the Bible study work together to deliver a comprehensive solution to overcoming financial challenges and achieving God’s purposes for your life.

It is easy to use and can be customized for any length from 4 to 10 weeks to meet the needs of your group.

This material has been carefully designed for leaders to use in their ministry to serve others regardless of their experience level or financial training.

You can preview the material here: www.crown.org.

When you lead the Crown MoneyLife Personal Finance Study, three very important outcomes occur:

• The individual student has personal needs met.
• Many of the students will become faithful stewards and invest their earthly treasure in building and expanding the Church.
• Some students will faithfully multiple by leading others through the study in their sphere of influence.

All of these outcomes are direct needs according to the research in The Great Evangelical Recession. In other words, our partnership, our mutual efforts will serve the greatest need in the Church today, to see faithful disciples who are committed to the growth of the Church.

You are needed and you are needed now.

Please join us in this urgent and vital cause to be the salt and light needed in the world right now.

Chuck Bentley

If you decide to lead a group, please let me and the others who read my blog know by leaving a comment here.  It will be a great encouragement to all.

The second inauguration of President Barack Obama is now history. The theme of his next term was framed by New York Senator Charles Schumer, “Faith in America’s Future.” The president’s address gave us a glimpse of his goals for the next four years and why we should unite as “one people” to advance his administration’s agenda.

We should definitely prepare for the coming agenda. Here’s what I believe we can expect:

1. Increased Federal Debt. The president’s party has yet to approve a budget in the Senate nor shown any willingness to rein in runaway federal spending. In fact, this president increased debt per household more than the first 42 presidents combined.
2. Expansion of Welfare Programs. Government spending on food stamps alone increased 100% in President Obama’s first term and there is no end in sight. The president and others in his party believe this boosts the economy.
3. Immigration Reform. Since the demographics of immigrating populations favor the Democratic Party, expect a strong push for amnesty and more relaxed rules for naturalization and citizenship.
4. Increased Taxes. With bias against the wealthy, new initiatives will seek to increase federal revenue, but only with token reductions in spending. While the rhetoric will call for some to pay their “fair share,” half will continue to pay nothing.
5. Climate Change Legislation. The president believes that man is responsible for global warming, thus we will see even more regulation of manufacturing and new taxes to reduce carbon emissions.
6. Growing Polarization between Liberals and Conservatives. The administration is operating under the assumption it has a “mandate” to implement as much of its agenda as possible. With control of the Senate and a fawning media, opposition will be painted as “obstructionist” and skirted as often as possible.
7. Contempt for Traditional Values. With a view that “tolerance” doesn’t allow for some Christians to offer the benediction at the Presidential Inauguration, we should not expect the president’s second term to advance social, moral or fiscal policy that reflects the traditional values Americans once held dear. Unity will be sought to the exclusion of those viewed as out of touch with “modern” values.
8. Increased Efforts to Limit Gun Ownership. The administration knows it faces an uphill battle in Congress over new gun control laws. Nonetheless, it will try to weaken the Second Amendment that protects our right to bear arms any way it can. What the president can’t get through Congress, he will seek to implement through executive order, as he did 23 times last week.
9. Increased Sanctions of Same Sex Marriage. Last year, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president to support gay marriage. Also, the States of Washington and Maryland became the first to approve gay marriage by referendum. The issue will receive increased pressure and attention in the next four years.
10. Increased Tensions with Conservative States. A number of conservative states will attempt to resist the overreach of the federal government regarding health care, gun ownership and gay marriage.

The president’s re-election campaign motto was “Forward.” I tried to think of anything in the agenda behind the motto that warrants optimism. There are a few potential bright spots:

1. Economic Growth. Although long-term prospects aren’t promising, expect to see the economy stabilize and even expand somewhat with continued massive federal spending and credit manipulation.
2. Job Growth. As the economy stabilizes, private sector job growth will follow, grudgingly. The job market will improve, but experts doubt we’ll ever again see the low levels of unemployment enjoyed by past generations.
3. Backlash. Essentially all of the president’s agenda items mentioned above have negative consequences that will result in moral, social and financial pain. When Americans begin to feel that pain in their homes and workplaces, there may be a great outcry against the foolish policies of our elected officials. Voters may begin to reject this agenda in 2014 or 2016. That is, if there’s an alternative at the polls.
4. Revival. The personal trials created by these policies could spark a fire of revival—a Third Great Awakening. A restored faith in Christ will bring repentance for our personal and national sins and a cultural change at the grassroots level of our country. We should never abandon this hope.

Throughout the Bible, there are many accounts of God’s people living in hostile lands, navigating the challenges imposed by an unrighteous culture. We have the greatest guidebook on how to survive and influence the cultural changes we are witnessing in America. Two thousand years ago, Jude wrote about keeping faith in troubled times:

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.” (Jude 1:3 NIV).

Faith in America’s future is misplaced if we depend on politicians to lead us. True faith is firmly placing our lives under the control and direction of the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting Him for our future.

On Monday, we also celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was through the power of his faith in God Almighty that he led a much needed cultural revolution at the cost of his own life. His “I Have a Dream” speech will continue to inspire us for generations. He made us a better people and we should never forget the example of his peaceful resistance and passionate pleas for freedom.

We may lose influence in the political arena, but we must never lose our faith in the Almighty One. We follow His agenda. Do not fear. Stand firm. Resist evil. Be patient. Submit to authority. Trust God when you suffer, and always seek to advance the kingdom of God.

Our future is securely in His hands.

On July 22, 2011, Norway was rocked by a heinous crime that remains an open wound. Anders Breivik, a 32-year-old terrorist armed with tactical gear, firearms and bombs, murdered a total of 77 innocent civilians, mostly teenagers enjoying their summer camp.

Breivik had long planned the massacre hoping to stir up sympathies for his political ideologies. His trial began on April 16, 2012 and lasted until June 19, 2012. He was found sane and guilty by a panel of five judges. This convicted mass murderer was sentenced to “preventative detention” for 21 years. The sentence can be repeatedly extended by 5 years as long as he is considered a “threat” to society. He received the maximum sentence allowed by Norwegian law.

Only weeks following the tragedy in Norway, the world once again looked on in stunned disbelief at mass barbarism in a “first world” nation—The United Kingdom.

On August 6, 2011, random acts of looting and rioting broke out in London and spread to cities and towns across England.  Pedestrians were attacked. Small businesses, homes, and even a double-decker bus were randomly burned or destroyed by flash mobs of predominately young people, some only nine or ten years old.

The so-called “Blackberry Riots” (because they were organized by cell phone texts and social media) lasted until August 10^th and resulted in the arrests of 3,100 people. Some of England’s finest young leaders were later determined to have taken part in the senseless rampages of destruction.  Many were not driven by anger or rage as much as by boredom and the thrill of taking part in illicit activities along with their peers.

The riots shook the sensibilities of the once proud and proper nation and generated ongoing debate among political, social and academic figures about the causes and context in which they happened. Many blamed the rioters’ behavior on structural factors such as racism, classism, and economic decline, as well as cultural factors like criminality, hooliganism, the breakdown of social morality and gang culture.

In a nation that gave us a harvest of great teachers, missionaries and reformers such as Mueller, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Spurgeon, Taylor, Lewis and Stott, we now find only the dried husk of a once vibrant religious landscape hidden beneath crippling political correctness. Church attendance has almost vanished. Christianity is more a target for mockery and derision than a force of cultural influence.

Parallel to the decline of Christian faith, the judicial systems of both England and Norway have become so liberalized that they appear to slant in favor of criminals, not victims.

Which brings me to our own troubled shores.

The December14^th massacre in Newtown, Connecticut was a horrifying display of evil inside an elementary school that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults. It was the eighteenth such shooting in the U.S. thus far in 2012. The senseless rampage caused the same shock and dismay to us as the mass shooting in Norway and the Blackberry Riots of England caused their countrymen. We have finally been shaken from our national slumber.

The “why” will be debated for years to come.  My guess is that every explanation except a biblical one will be given credence.  Sin and the solution to it will once again be ignored or viewed with contempt.

While it is not difficult for Christians to understand the cause of the moral, social and cultural decay that now rots Western nations, the world is blind to it. Man is sinful and therefore needs either a sword or a Savior to ensure a lawful, orderly and peaceful society. The sword may constrain man’s evil desires, but only the Savior can transform them.

Sin is the manifestation of the evil that resides in the heart of every man. When sin is unleashed, the resulting wickedness knows no bounds. Without the power of the sword or the transforming power of God Almighty, many laws are useless.

American malls, military bases, colleges, churches, high schools and now, elementary schools are no longer safe from cold-blooded killers who desire to go out in a blaze of horror by harming innocent people.  Dare we call that damnable sin? Do we call for government to wield the sword of punishment?

The Newtown murders will drive the well-intentioned but misguided to demand that lawmakers fix the problem. More gun control will be the balm of choice, but don’t be deceived. God cannot be mocked. Regardless of the laws upon laws passed to stop the violence, it will not end.

Return of the Sword

The government has a God-given role to be the bearer of the sword.

“For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13:4).

Like Norway and England, we have liberalized our justice system to allow criminals to operate with little fear of consequences.  It has been reported that Anders Breivik has already registered a formal complaint regarding his uncomfortable prison conditions. Really? Numerous American mass murderers are sitting comfortably behind bars awaiting trial even though there are plenty of eyewitnesses to their crimes.

It is time for the sword to be drawn and used to punish the wrongdoer. It is time for those who conduct terrorist acts in our military bases, in our theatres, in our malls or in our schools to be afraid. In so doing, the sin of man will not cease, but it will be constrained.

Return to the Savior

The sinful heart of man needs to be transformed, made submissive to the laws of man and of God. The Church has a God-given role to lovingly preach the transforming power of the Good News.

The Church—that is, people like you and me—must return to evangelizing the lost, sharing both our guilt to sin and eternal judgment and the grace and redemption found only in Christ. We must be true salt and light in a culture darkened by evil.

As government relaxes our criminal justice system and culture rejects the Gospel, two significant constraints are gone: fear of earthly punishment from the State and fear of the eternal judgment of God for our sin.

Do we really expect more laws to be the answer?

As we approach the celebration of Christmas, may we humbly recognize our desperate need for the Christ Child. Without a revival—without people en masse submitting to God’s laws and receiving His grace—our nation will continue to suffer the consequences of societal sin, encountering the sort of unbridled evil we saw in Newtown.

Post-election, the will of a slight majority is nonetheless clear—50.3 percent of Americans have embraced ever bigger government, more and higher taxes (on others), and even more spending on bloated social programs. For millions of conservatives, this depressing development has caused a silent gloom to creep into our thinking.

Many fear that even beyond the fast-approaching fiscal cliff, the effects of which are likely to be steep but short-term, there looms a far more devastating outcome from the recent election—the loss of freedom itself.

Our Founders established this government in 1787 for one reason, to preserve the precious liberty hard won in the Revolutionary War. Now conservatives fear this same government will rob us of that freedom. The Constitution, of course, long prevented the majority from abusing the rights of the individual, but only when judges and politicians respected that hallowed document and their oaths to preserve it, which, it seems, many no longer do.

So now the great fear is that nothing can stop the implementation of ever more socialist policies that will bring on our financial destruction and with it the absolute loss of economic freedom. Without economic freedom, there really are no personal liberties.

Is this fear unfounded? Could anything that dramatic actually happen here?

To determine if this dread is just a knee-jerk reaction to an election loss or a well-founded concern for an Orwellian future that could realistically occur, I turned to an admittedly conservative think tank—the Heritage Foundation. The data discovered there inspired the title of this column, that not just the U.S., but free nations as a whole, should be placed on the list of endangered species.

The Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index ranks 176 nations. It measures four key indicators: rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency and open markets. These factors work together to create at one end of the scale a robust environment for economic growth and personal liberty or the opposite; think Cuba or North Korea. Economic freedom should matter to each of us because it impacts our daily lives and our ability to earn a living, or as the Founders put it—the pursuit of happiness.

The 2012 Index ranks only five nations high enough to be considered “Free”—Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. That’s less than 3% of the 176 nations in the survey. Further, the U.S. no longer makes the cherished list of free nations. America ranked only 10th overall and is among 22 nations considered only “Mostly Free.” Note Free countries (green) and Mostly Free countries (pale green) on the Heritage map below:

(Click map to see the interactive version at Heritage)

One metric the Heritage map doesn’t show is the population of the nations on the Free list:

      Nation                           Est. Pop.                       % of World            Birth Rate

In the last five nations on earth ranked as Free by Heritage, there are only a combined 48 million people, a shocking .66 percent of the world’s inhabitants, who are truly free.

Obviously, with the United States not even in the top five of the Heritage Index, we can no longer really lay claim to being “The Land of the Free” as our national anthem proclaims. We are steadily dropping in the ranks of freedom. A closer look at the Heritage metrics shows why:

United States

Rule of Law
Property Rights                               85/100
Freedom from Corruption             71/100

Limited Government
Government Spending                 46.7/100
Fiscal Freedom                              69.8/100

Regulatory Efficiency
Business Freedom                       91.1/100
Labor Freedom                            95.8/100
Monetary Freedom                     77.2/100

Open Markets
Trade Freedom                           86.4/100
Investment Freedom                70.0/100
Financial Freedom                    70.0/100

Overall                                    76.3/100

The cold hard facts then indicate that the fear now felt by many conservatives is well placed. I’m at a loss to explain why liberals are not also terrified of the threat to individual freedom posed by ever-increasing taxes, runaway welfare and uncontrolled federal spending. If our course is not corrected, history will record that the greatest nation ever conceived on earth lost control of her spending, wasted her immense fortune, and went broke.

By the Heritage Foundation’s standards, 97 percent of the world’s nations are less than free to varying degrees. And those that are free have dwindling populations, an omen of limited capability to defend their freedom.

For these reasons, I believe we need a new list of endangered species, the countries where people still enjoy the inalienable rights given to us all by God. We can be stripped of them just as effectively by domestic economic policy as we can by the bullets of invading armies.

Patrick Henry’s battle cry should be ringing in our ears: “Give me liberty or give me death.” Only the battle this time is not against flesh and blood, but against an economic philosophy. Call it socialism, statism, or even fascism. The name doesn’t matter. It is a philosophy that does not look to God, but instead exalts government as the solution to all our problems. This is the “soft tyranny” that is now enslaving the United States and conforming us into the image of the majority of nations that have already lost their freedom.

Rest assured we will have many more posts on this in the future and plenty of calls to action. We must now put on the armor of God and faithfully spread the Truth throughout the Church. It is time for everyone to study and learn God’s financial principles because one thing is certain—free countries are going to become more and more rare.

Since 1930, Hostess Brands, Inc. has produced some of America’s most iconic snack foods, like the ever-popular Twinkies, Ding Dongs and my former weakness, white powdered sugar Donettes.

This week, Hostess announced it is shutting down operations and closing its doors after 82 years satisfying America’s sweet tooth. Some 18,500 people will lose their jobs. Why? Because one of the labor unions representing workers at Hostess facilities refused to accept an austerity plan that would have saved the cash-strapped company.

To be fair, the company was asking a lot from the members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union (BCTGM)—an 8% cut in wages and 17% decrease in benefits. However, by rejecting the new agreement, BCTGM members not only sealed the loss of 100% of their own wages and benefits, but that of the other two-thirds of Hostess’ employees who were willing to accept the proposed terms.

While it’s easy to judge those who made such a poor decision—refusing to accept short-term pain to preserve their jobs, we should think before casting the first stone. Who among us likes to give back something we feel we deserve?

But this is the sad dilemma now facing all of us. Government benefits of all varieties are facing real cuts in the coming decades. Government has promised us things it has no real hope of providing—even if they confiscate everything from our affluent neighbors. America has little experience with this. We are entering an era of loss, and we’re profoundly unprepared to accept it financially or emotionally.

Like Hostess, the federal government has far too much debt. But incredibly, we can’t even agree on the extent of the threat it poses, much less what to do about it. Paul Krugman, Princeton University economics professor, Nobel laureate, and Op-Ed contributor to The New York Times says, “Debt matters, but not that much.” Oh, yeah? Ask Greece, Germany, Argentina, Iceland, Zimbabwe, Stockton, California, Bridgeport, Connecticut or Prichard, Alabama. Ask anyone who has ever fallen behind on a debt!

In the case of the U.S., debt doesn’t matter so long as our creditors are forced to accept payment in devalued dollars. But before long, they’ll tire of the “inflate our way out of this mess” schemes of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. His quantitative easing strategies amount to little more than printing money. When creditors refuse to lend us more, our debt will matter a great deal and it will matter to every single taxpayer.

When the U.S. government, run far less efficiently than Hostess, announces to the people that substantial budget cuts are coming, I predict we’ll seek to pass off the financial pain to someone else. Democrats will want to find money by cutting Defense spending. Republicans will seek to cut the bureaucracy and reform entitlement programs.

Small states will want to cut federal subsidies to big states. Poor states will want money cut from rich states, which in turn will want cuts from programs that don’t affect their budgets. Private companies will point to nonproductive, wasteful bureaucracy. The shifting of blame and responsibility will be endless. Nobody wants to go backwards, even when there is no choice.

If you care to see what the desperate scramble to prevent austerity from hitting home looks like, check out “Greek protests” on Youtube.com. There are even live cams set up now when riots flare up. You can see the anger and frustration unfold like a reality TV program. We’ve already seen massive protests in Wisconsin over Scott Walker’s austerity plan. I fear those were just the warm-up act. What’s coming will make that unruly exhibition look like a Sunday picnic.

Extend and Pretend Will Not Work Forever

You may still be asking if austerity is avoidable. Could the “extend and pretend” policies of our Federal Reserve actually work? Yes, but not forever. Let me give you a real life example from another American iconic brand, Milton Bradley’s famous board game, Monopoly. My family still likes to engage in this slow moving retro form of entertainment that requires dice, cards, an old shoe or ship for a game piece, conversation and best of all—thinking.

In a recent match, our 14-year-old son, John, was asset rich and cash poor. He began mortgaging all of his properties to stay in the game. His strategy worked at first—until he ran out of money again. The rules state that you can only borrow from the bank and it must be backed by an asset or property. This limits the amount a player can borrow and can end the game abruptly for poor risk managers who jumped at the chance to purchase coveted real estate like Boardwalk and Park Place without counting their cash reserves. These are definitely old-school rules! Since the rest of us did not want to see John suffer the humiliation and pain of being the first to lose the game through default, we compromised.

The bankrupt player was allowed to hand out I.O.U.s when he landed on properties that bristled with houses and hotels. He simply wrote down the amount that he owed in rent to each of the other players and continued playing in hopes he would recover over time. This should have enabled him to stay in the game for the duration, right? Wrong.

While you could argue theoretically that this type of debt “doesn’t matter,” we quickly discovered that in practice, it matters a great deal. After a few rounds of allowing John to go further and further into debt, the other players began to realize they needed the money John owed them. They were taking on debt too. Guess what happened next? We stopped loaning money to John. We demanded cash. Suddenly, he was in BIG trouble. His properties were not worth as much as his debt and we had grown tired of his neglecting to pay us. It was game over for John and a valuable lesson learned for all of us.

While the family ended our game in good spirits, in real life, this scenario will make lenders very angry with the borrower. Right now, our federal government is handing out I.O.U.s like there’s no tomorrow, but most assuredly, “tomorrow” will come.

It would be much better if our government began an austerity plan and stopped borrowing our nation into bankruptcy while we can still limit the pain. But don’t count on that happening. The day will come, however, when the government will be forced into austerity that will bring pain to millions.

My advice? Prepare now, financially and emotionally, to protect yourself and your family. Rather than watching and waiting to see what the government will do, reduce your uncertainty and anxiety by taking corrective action. Reduce you debt. Save all you can, and diversify your holdings. It’s the best way to prepare for whatever lies ahead. Maybe being forced to give up Twinkies is a good first step towards developing your personal austerity plan.

The 2012 election reveals a sea change in the long-term direction of this nation. We are no longer guided by our historic values, but steaming full speed into darkness without concern for the rocks ahead.

In 2008, voters elected an unknown senator from Illinois to the presidency who had carefully crafted his message of change… undefined change at the time. However, four years later, the record of the change he intended is now very clear.

Yet, by a slight majority, voters have bought into this President’s vision of a diminished America as Utopia.

Unless the trend is stopped somehow, in less than a generation the U.S. will look like Papandreou’s Greece, Hollande’s France, Chavez’s Venezuela or the worst of all, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Take your pick, but it will certainly not look like the America of your childhood.

This is not based upon emotion or sour grapes but the stated positions of the winning ticket. With their vote, Americans have:

• accepted homosexual marriage as a civil right, in blatant disregard for the Bible.

• endorsed the right of women to publicly funded birth-control and abortion.

• agreed to continue running up the largest national deficit in our history, ignoring the biblical warning that the borrower becomes a slave to the lender.

• accepted that fellow Americans who are financially successful should be demonized and that their wealth be redistributed, turning the sin of envy into public policy.

• accepted massive increases in government welfare as a form of compassion and care for the poor, despite the Bible’s teaching that compassion and generosity are a personal responsibility that cannot be shunted off on the government.

• virtually guaranteed that a wasteful and inefficient federal bureaucracy will destroy the finest health care system in the world

The electorate engaged other moral issues as well. Following the lead of the President, two states, Maine and Maryland, voted to legalize homosexual marriages. This marked the first time the practice became legal through a popular vote following unsuccessful attempts in 32 different states since 1998.

Two states, Colorado and Washington, voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana although the federal government still prohibits the use of the drug and despite the tremendous toll drugs take on those poor souls who struggle to be free from its addictive power.

But for me, one of the greatest tragedies of this election was that despite the importance of the issues, too many Americans were poor stewards of their right to vote, to make a difference for their country. People chose not to act. Less than 60% of voting age eligible Americans showed up to participate in the democratic process. It is estimated that 13 million fewer Americans voted in the 2012 Presidential race than turned out in 2008.

Showing up to vote, however, were interest groups rallied by their self-interest.

Like Rome of old, too many Americans have realized that they can vote for their bread and circuses. About half of America does not pay taxes, yet can vote to take more from others. And politicians are elected promising to take from those who do not support them to give more to those who do.

Absent in too much of our political discourse is the biblical admonishment to work as unto God for your resources, if physically able. Absent is a discussion of biblical truth.

All decisions whether personal or political flow from the basis of our worldview. We either see man as fallen and sinful in need of laws to enforce standards of moral conduct, justice and freedom or we see man as good and capable of self-governance without standards that restrain or restrict individual sinful desires. We attempt to put God first, or we attempt to eradicate him from our lives and culture. Labels like Republican or Democrat do not divide us. Vastly differing worldviews are the essence of what divides this nation.

Is it time to resign from the fight?

Based on the results of this election, we continue with this administration; therefore I am moved to pray about the increased spiritual, moral and financial decay that I fear is coming. In spite of all this concern, this is not a time to surrender the battle.

Abraham Kuyper said, “When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.”

People and the values they live by collectively form a culture. Government in a democracy is merely a reflection of the desires of the people and their choices for leadership. We have the potential to change the culture under the nose of the politicians. We must shift our focus from politics to the hearts of the people. Regardless of what happens in Washington, DC. the real solution to America’s problems is the return of the common denominator that once united a diverse people. We must work together to enrich our culture with common values and biblical principles.

In his famous book Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville observed the importance of faith to the success of the United States: “Despotism may be able to do without faith, but freedom cannot … How could society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened? And what can be done with a people master of itself if it is not subject to God?

We must work to rebuild our country as one nation under God. The GOP lost the election, but GOD did not. So I say, no more false hope in the Party of the Elephant! No more false hope in the Party of the Donkey! Our true hope is in the Party led by the Lion.

The Lion of Judah has been about redeeming people from worldly philosophies since they chose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Let us arm ourselves with the ultimate weapons of love and truth and let’s go forth and boldly engage in the battle for hearts and minds.

Crown is committed to that task, one person at a time.

I invite you to join us in this epic battle. We need your financial support, your willingness to teach our materials and your influence to gain new opportunities in your churches and places of business.

The battle has begun. Let’s fight to our last breath.

The origin of the saying “Save it for a rainy day” has been lost, but the meaning remains clear. We should be frugal during “good weather” so that we have something to fall back on when times are bad. Americans understand the meaning, we just don’t seem to do it. In fact, we have it backwards.

In the chart below, compare the rates of personal savings during U.S. recessions since 1950. It’s clear that we tend to save during the rainy days and spend all we have when the economic storms have passed. The shaded columns indicate periods of recession. Note how savings rise dramatically during those periods.

The chart provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that we briefly spiked to a high of near 15% personal savings in 1975–76 to near zero in 2000-01.

To be fair, these numbers do not reflect the rate at which Americans invest long term. It only reflects our tendency to save in more liquid assets, such as savings accounts and CDs. The danger is that far too many people are only setting money aside in pre-tax retirement plans, leaving them without access to needed cash without penalty during a financial crisis such as a job loss or health issue.

In my book, The S.A.L.T. Plan, I examine God’s wisdom that enabled Joseph to prepare the nation of Egypt for a seven-year drought—the longest recorded famine in Scripture. I believe that same course of action can prepare us for an economic downturn of biblical proportion today. The two lessons from Joseph’s story in Genesis 42 are clear and remain relevant.

First, we are to save during the good years. Yet, as you can tell from the graph, our savings habits improve only during the lean years. We should view every good year that the Lord gives us as a blessing and an opportunity to prepare for unknown challenges ahead.

Second, Joseph collected and stored 20 percent of the grain harvest for seven years, or the equivalent of 140 percent of the total grain produced in a single good year. We should strive to do the same today with our personal cash resources. Given the uncertainties we currently face, we should save 140 percent of our annual income and only then begin long-term investing. In this way, we’ll be in a position to provide for ourselves, our families, and even to help others should we experience an economic event on a biblical scale, which, by the way, more than one economist has forecast.

One final note, in Joseph’s plan, the government of Egypt did the saving. The Bible says nothing about the people saving. In fact, the people were forced to pay 20 percent of their grain in taxes to Pharaoh. Later they were further compelled to purchase the grain from the government during their time of need. This important fact needs to be noted—the government did not store the grain in order to provide free handouts to its starving citizens.

We’re already being taxed substantially more than 20 percent by government at all levels. Not only is that money being spent as fast as it comes in, government is borrowing vast amounts more. Unlike ancient Egypt, our government will be hard pressed to save us in an extreme economic crisis.

My advice is to take Joseph’s plan and apply it to your personal finances. Once you achieve the 140 percent savings goal, then begin long-term investing. This will prepare you not just for a rainy day, but a very long dry season as well.

October 3, 2012

Blown Call Illustrates Battle for Truth

If you think that truth is irrelevant and unwelcome in our culture today, consider this modern-day parable from professional football.

Fans of America’s largest and most lucrative sport struggled with poor officiating through the first three Sundays of the 2012 season. But the faithful finally had enough of the “replacement referees” last week when the poorly trained fill-ins blew a game-changing last call on Monday Night Football.

Packer defensive back M.D. Jennings clearly made a heroic interception in the end zone as time ran out, but the replacement refs awarded Seattle with a phantom touchdown and the win. It was the second, observable bad call in the play that should have favored the Packers. Game over. But not forgotten.

With that single event, the sub-par officiating that had been evident across the league during the union referee lockout, suddenly mattered.

For the league, the financial stakes were no longer limited to the union refs’ compensation demands. The dispute was causing even the most devoted fans to walk away, putting at risk the estimated $9 billion the NFL earns in annual revenue.

Even President Barack Obama found time during his busy schedule to weigh in on the issue saying, “We’ve got to get our refs back.”

Just three days after the infamous bad call, now referred to by pundits as “the Inaccurate Reception,” the regular referees were back on the job. All was considered right again in the world of big sports—fans happy, players happy, advertisers happy, owners happy.

It is almost refreshing to be reminded on such a grand stage that the American people, and certainly NFL fans, appreciate truth when it counts. Christians can learn something from this.

First: Consider the recent challenge to Chick-Fil-A owner Dan Cathy’s right to operate his business according to his personal religious beliefs.

The Constitution protects Dan Cathy’s right to free speech and the freedom to practice his religion. Customers who are offended by his statements are free to eat lunch elsewhere. These freedoms should be championed and defended because they are derived from standards given to us by God. And if Dan Cathy can be attacked for his views and bullied, than so can any one of us.

Media elites and even some politicians justified their trampling of Cathy’s Constitutional rights in the name of “tolerance,” defined and practiced as intolerance of faith.

Yet the rule of law is the cornerstone of a free and orderly society. Without standards that are consistently and fairly applied, order becomes chaos.

Leviticus 19:15 warns, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” When there are no longer common standards to determine right or wrong, might makes right and the freedoms we all enjoy are threatened.

Second: Consider the difficulties that are arising as biblical standards of righteousness are removed from our schools, our courts, our businesses and our public policy and replaced with new standards of “tolerance” for everything but biblical values.

Without reliable standards of right and wrong moderating our choices, we are vulnerable to the whims of political correctness. We can clearly see that inept referees calling an interception a touchdown is not good, and we can all understand the far greater threat to society if evil is celebrated as good and good punished as evil.

That bad call cost replacement referees their temporary jobs. Will making man the central authority for moral judgments permanently cost us our nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian values?

Isaiah wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

This past weekend, I experienced a wake-up call.

My wife, Ann, and I with our two youngest sons attended a conference on Creation at an evangelical church. The talk was interrupted repeatedly by a man and woman who appeared to be there solely to mock the presenter, and throughout the course of the event they would applaud references to atheists, as self-appointed referees against biblical truths.

Earlier, this couple even deceived the speaker into having his picture taken with them so they could boast about their exploits on social media. They were cheerleaders for a culture attempting to deconstruct our national basis for Truth, the Bible.

As believers, we have a choice—to remain apathetic to these attacks or to become active. I, for one, am choosing to step up my game. My heart has been quickened to do more, to fight for what is worth dying for and to take a clear stand. I ask you to join me. Put on your spiritual armor and together let’s stand for God’s truth.

To become active, we must be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. This is a call to combine courage, humility and love, but we must all use our voices. But make no mistake; if you take on this challenge and speak up, you will be putting a target on your back.

Prepare to be labeled intolerant, hater, fundamentalist, idiot, bigot, racist—the other side uses the powerful tool of embarrassment and humiliation to discourage and defeat you.

Upholding a standard for Truth is an issue far more important than the outcome of a football game. If we lose the battle to preserve Truth as our common standard, we not only lose America, we lose everything.

It is not time to wave the white flag of surrender. This is not a game; it’s a battle that demands our all, and we are on the winning team.

Chuck Bentley

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