Requiem for The Obama File

I read with sadness but no surprise WND's article about the demise of The Obama File, "an extensive depot of information questioning Barack Obama's eligibility to hold the office of president." According to the article,

Parker Shannon, a 70-year-old retiree who has documented alleged violations by Obama for the past two years from his home in suburban Boston … stresses his decision to shut down the site had nothing to do with any kind of pressure from the government.

"The Obama camp didn't get to me. They can't," he told WND. "What got to me is my fellow Americans, the cheap bastards."

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"I'm disappointed," he said, explaining he lives on Social Security and a small amount of retirement money. "I just am tired of doing what I'm doing, and I get 50 e-mails a day telling me I'm a great patriot and they're praying for me. I don't want to hear it. Just send me $10."

Shannon says he spent 60 to 70 hours a week on his efforts and received only $240 in the entire two years despite displaying prominent donation buttons. …

The juxtaposition of prayerful good wishes and indolent support highlights one of the saddest realities of our time. Christ advised his disciples to rely for sustenance on the goodwill of friendly hosts, "eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages" (Luke 10:7). But many of those who work today to defeat the overthrow of our God-given liberty are perishing from the material indifference of those who benefit from and approve of their work.

This partly reflects a successful strategy being implemented by the forces working to achieve the overthrow of liberty. Faced with facts and reasoning they cannot refute, they resort to ad hominem attacks. Chief among these is the accusation that greed motivates the people who try to share facts and arguments the manipulative media systematically ignore. (Ironically greed is, of course, among the chief motives of those who staff the corporate media outlets.) Meanwhile, the people being accused, people like Parker Shannon, me and others I hear from practically every day, inexorably slide toward bankruptcy.

Why do people who profess to believe in government of, by and for the people behave as if the fight to preserve it will be supported and funded by money elites who benefit from its demise? Why do they continue to act with the expectation that elite sources of news and information can be relied upon to thwart the destruction of constitutional government? Constitutional government exists to keep successful elites from abusing less powerful and successful individuals with impunity, as they have routinely done in societies that lack constitutional constraints. The survival of a civil society in which there are effective constitutional safeguards against elitist abuses ultimately depends upon the people's ability and willingness to take the initiative themselves. This requires courageous individuals ready to stand against the tide of censorship, ridicule and invective (and eventually against the abuse of police and other government powers.) But it also requires others ready to give their "widow's mite" toward the livelihood of the people their prayers and plaudits encourage to stand in the forefront of the battle.

Those who mightily encourage others to stand in the thick of the fray, but do nothing to equip them for the battle, may intend to be friends, but in fact, without meaning to, they leave them naked to their enemies. Christ said "Give to him that asks you." Maybe some would say that Parker Shannon and others have to ask often and without shame. But what word is more truly spoken than a righteous deed? Anyone who sees a need and acts to fulfill it is asking for the help of those who thank God that the work is done. (If, before they will respond with help, grateful supporters require that spoken words be added to the deed, they forcibly contribute to the false impression of greedy self-seeking that opponents can use to discredit the work.)

Why are so many of those who profess to believe that the survival of liberty is a righteous cause unwilling to subscribe to that cause? People who, without thought, will spend three or four dollars on snacks every day, don't bother to give a few dollars a month to support the Parker Shannons they claim to pray for. I believe they are sincere when they pray God's blessings upon them, but they seem to forget that God took human form to be the agent of the greatest blessing – and continues in that form to this day through those who truly profess to be the bodily hosts of Christ's indwelling presence. The most faithful prayers (i.e., people who pray) are the ones who speak not with the body's breath only, but acting with the spirit (breath) of God in which they pray. They pray indeed (in deed.)

If such a prayer has but $10 a month to give, he or she could help to underwrite the work of one sentinel like Parker Shannon every month. Ten thousand could meet all his needs by giving only $1 a month, or with $10 they could each month meet the needs of nine others like him. If prayers (people who pray) would stop idly taking God for granted and start actively embodying the blessings they pray for, they alone could be the mighty engine that renews the hope and promise of America's God given liberty.

Tragically, while the work their lips pray for perishes from lack of support, they think nothing of subscribing to newspapers that repress factual truth while actively promoting the destruction of everything they care about. They continue to watch manipulative media sources and hanker after the products they advertise. Their indolent viewing habits provide many millions of dollars for the fat salaries and privileges of the reporters and pundits who despise their faith and the dearest convictions of their hearts. Meanwhile, they wonder if God has abandoned America, when the blessings He would still bestow upon us remain dammed up behind their own unmoving and uncomprehending wills.

"He who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his wages according to his labor" (1 Corinthians 3:8). The sentinel trees of our liberty are dying of thirst. Who will water them if the people themselves do nothing? Don't look to others. That question is for you. (In addition to what is here, you may find further reasons to answer it at LoyalToLiberty.)