THE HUNTINGTON COUNTY INDIANA NEWS ·
Steve Harrison · ·
OPINION...
Iâm being taxed on money I never made. Let that sink in.
I bought my property outright for $138,000 in 2001.
Now the county says itâs worth $246,000.
Did I sell it? No.
Did I make a profit? No.
Did I get a check for $246,000? No.
But my taxes jumped like I did.
Thatâs the problem.
This isnât income.
This isnât cash.
This is a number someone decided on paper â and now Iâm being billed for it.
If my stock portfolio doubles, I donât pay taxes until I sell.
If my income doesnât increase, I donât magically owe more income tax.
So why does owning a home work differently?
Why am I being taxed on unrealized gains?
A house isnât just an investment â itâs where people live. And this system means you can do everything right, pay off your home, and still get squeezed harder every year because of a number you never turned into money.
You donât truly own something if you can be taxed out of it.
This isnât about âservicesâ or âinflation.â
Itâs about being charged for value you never received.
And people are starting to notice.
We just started going back to church, so I want to say this carefully, because Iâm fully aware I could be missing something...
âŠbut Iâve been feeling very frustrated with, what I perceive to be, a lack of passion for the truth in the church
In a recent sermons, someone said something like, âHurting people with our words is wrong and we shouldnât do that.â
Not âdonât be unnecessarily cruelâŠâ which I agree with.
Itâs more like⊠âdonât make anyone feel bad.â
Which is NOT the same thing, and frankly⊠I donât know if thatâs even possible.
And I definitely donât know if thatâs what we should be trying to prioritize right now⊠peopleâs FEELINGS, of all things.
Because if âhurting someoneâs feelingsâ becomes the standard, then truth is AUTOMATICALLY in trouble.
So what is the Christian church actually going for, here?
That my responsibility is to protect your emotional comfort⊠even if it requires me to stay silent while you live a lie?
Because I firmly believe the opposite.
Lying to someone is wrong, BUT ALSO allowing someone to keep believing a lie is wrong.
I guess the point Iâm trying to get at here is that I feel like a lot of what gets called âkindnessâ right now is just fear of conflict, or put another way, I feel like kindness is used as a shield for Christians to be passive.
âIâm not perfect, therefore I wonât correct anyone.â
âIâm not God, therefore I wonât say anything.â
âI might make a mistake, so Iâll stay out of it.â
What on earth do you think that creates?
It creates a world where nobody with a conscience says anything out loud, a bunch of people walking around confusing their kindness with pure cowardice.
Honestly, I just feel alone in the fight.
What happens when all the âgoodâ people decide the holiest thing they can do is stay quiet because a pastor is telling them to be terrified to speak up for fear of being called âunlovingâ?
WAKE UP!!!!!
The Left is shaping kids right now and THEY ARE NOT SHY ABOUT IT!!!
Theyâre loud and absolutely relentless.
Theyâre also ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE.
In the schools, entertainment, social media, sports, corporations, and institutions that used to at least pretend to be neutral.
Their messaging is constant, aggressiveâŠAND itâs framed as pure, holy, morality!
So⊠whatâs going on with the Christian church these days?
Is your highest moral principle really, âno one should ever feel uncomfortableâ????
Sorry for the long rant here, I just feel, like I said before, strangely alone in it.
As if Iâm the problem for believing that truth matters more than feelings⊠like wanting to speak out against something that is wrong is somehow âunChristianâ of me if it gets others angry, upset, or threatening⊠TOWARDS ME.
Maybe Iâve got this wrong and Iâm open to hearing it, but in general, I feel alone in this.
Unpardonable sin? Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
*I was asked about this twice yesterday, so forgive the unforgivable length of this post*
The unforgivable sin is simply rejecting Jesus, the only package forgiveness comes in.
In context, Jesusâ own mother and brothers think heâs a lunatic (Mark 3), then immediately the Pharisees accuse him of having a demon. Jesus then says anyone who blasphemes Holy Spirit never âhasâ (Greek: echo) forgiveness. He says this goes for now and in the age to come. To reject and demonize Mercy Himself, Jesus Christ, is likewise demonizing the very Holy Spirit who is prompting and pointing you to Jesus, and therefore not âechoingâ with, resonating with - not participating in - the healing and mercy He has forever poured out.
Jesus is then clear that all sins committed against Himself will be forgiven (in one saving act, all sin has been dealt with: including our rejection of Him). Is the Spirit unlike Jesus, keeping a record of sins? No, the Spirit is pointing us to Jesus Who is the obliteration of our sinfulness. The Spirit only speaks Christ (there is no other Word of God), and to resist the Spirit is to resist Christ.
To resist Christ is to cling to delusion, allowing the degeneration of our false selves to continue defining us (illusory selves that have no actual substance and were in in fact co-crucified with Him). Christ does not know this shadow self I have concocted - for it has no authentic existence outside my own egoic fabrication. My True Self is found in Christ alone (Who is the Book of Life). But living according to the illusory self - being of a âdifferent spiritâ - well, this âstateâ of existing in unforgiveness cannot be eternal, for âforgivenâ is the only eternal reality. No evil can prevail or even exist in Godâs eternal economy. Only His mercy endures forever.
It is impossible to eternally blaspheme through continual resistance. Perhaps we can resist in the âage to come,â but our ultimate existence is found in the One who is beyond all ages. Eternity is more than an extension of time, but a transcendence of time altogether into God alone. Furthermore, this is a sin that is not âpardoned,â but one that necessitates âcorrectionâ if we remain resistant in the age to come (see Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, et al.).
So returning to the text, Jesus explains who are his real âmother and brothersâ ⊠Those who do the will of the Father. Do you wonder if youâve ever committed the unforgivable sin? Ever had intense despair over that thought? Well, rest assured, you probably have! But thereâs good news. See like Mary and James calling Jesus a nutjob, we have likely all blasphemed the Spirit at some point by religiously rejecting Mr. Grace. Rejecting Goodness Incarnate. But Holy Spirit has been tangibly poured out on all flesh. Not everyone âhasâ (Greek: echoes with/resonates with) the Spirit. Nevertheless, Holy Spirit is quite effective in knocking the most murderous, blasphemous Pharisees like Saul off their asses - eradicating our identity crises, so that their true Paul self comes forth.
The old man, the blasphemous self, does not get to exist beyond all ages. Only our True Self in Christ is eternal.
Jesus did not die to pay off the purity requirements of a God who doesnât dirty Himself around sinners. Rather Jesus âisâ God entering into our very darkness, becoming our sin and undoing it by the light of His sheer grace. We (not God) needed His purification to eradicate the disease of sin that was spiraling us off into non-being (so said St. Athanasius). The atonement was an act of love, not legalism.
Weâve wrongly cast the gospel in the framework of an egotistical God, behind the back of Jesus, requiring the death of Jesus as a payoff so our debts could be absolved and we could be legally forgiven.
But thatâs not even logical.
It cannot be both a payoff and mercy.
If itâs payment, itâs not forgiveness.
It has to be one or the other.
The two are mutually exclusive.
The Triune God is not law.
He is love all the way through.
One thing that is painfully obvious now, after President Trump's first two hundred days, is that the previous administration was not only incompetent, they were actively doing everything in their power to collapse the United States from within.
Democrats are domestic terrorists.
.@realDonaldTrump I hesitated to write this however, with the utmost respect and deference to you for all youâve withstood (few know it better than me what the âdeep stateâ can do when they want to turn on a person). The EPSTEIN AFFAIR is NOT about who killed him or if he committed suicideâpersonally, Iâm glad this known pedophile is dead.
But neither is this a hoax.
This issue goes beyond all that. There are millions of Americans who overwhelmingly voted for you to be OUR President, and we want you to be massively successful. No one more than me. Personally, I still have a target on my forehead. I know that but, like you, I still fight.
Beyond all that, OUR country is facing a level of internal subversion and it is a relentless attack on the very foundation of our constitutional republic. If youâre not successful, our country may not survive. It is that extreme of a situation we currently face. Read Lincolnâs Lyceum speech of 1838. He knew, as you know (and as we all can see with our very eyes), our nation will not die from a foreign foe, NEVER, if we die, it will be by our own suicide.
There is an ongoing undermining by subversive elements inside and outside the USG. That is the essence of the deep state.
All we want at this stage is for a modicum of trust to be reestablished between our federal government and the people it is designed to serve. Thatâs all (PERIOD!).
An element that is of great importance surrounding this Epstein affair is the fact this man was a known pedophile, had a list of clients who represented the upper crust of society, and likely did untoward things to CHILDREN on his island, in his homes in NYC, and New Mexico (and maybe elsewhere). He was convicted of it.
Regardless of what class of society abuses and commits crimes against CHILDREN, it is NEVER acceptable.
This is where this argument went off the rails. It is NOT about Epstein or the left. It is about committing crimes against CHILDREN. If he were part of an intel operation known or run by our CIA (shame on them) and those responsible MUST be held accountable. If there is another country involved, then shame on them as well. If there are elites inside of our country that committed crimes against CHILDREN (shame on them) and they MUST be held ACCOUNTABLE.
Few know how many crystal balls you juggle on a daily basis (I do). And I know you cannot drop any of them.
With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this. The roll out of this was terrible, no way around that. Americans want America to be successful, therefore, WE NEED YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
Please take this missive as though coming from someone who willingly and voluntarily fought for this country against multiple enemies overseas only to come home to face my greatest enemy right here at home. You know precisely what I mean.
God bless you and may God continue to protect you from the dark forces that do exist. I believe you were put on this earth for such a time as this.
You truly represent
ISAIAH 6:8 đđŒđșđž
The Department of Education began in 1979.
In 1978, America was ranked #1 in education.
Today, America is ranked 28th in Education.
The Department of Education is a FAILED experiment.
SHUT IT DOWN.
The bottom line is, Trump is engaged in a shadow war with the Deep State, and you either trust him or you donât.
If Trump is unhappy with Bondi or any of his appointees, he will address it when he deems fit.
We as the public also have to understand that we do not have all the pieces to the puzzle, and things are NEVER as they initially seem. This became very apparent with the Iran situation. Trump had the situation under control the entire time, while the public had no idea. Thankfully, Trump does not take advice from clickbait influencers online. He knew what he was doing.
The same can be said for the DOJ/FBI situation, and every other situation. Trump has a game plan, and you can either trust Trump to carry out his plan, or you can cry about it online all day and vote for someone else in 3.5 years. But until then, Trump is our best and only shot. He has proven he is the opposition to the Deep State, and Iâm going to wait and see how the entire thing unfolds. If everything is a massive failure at the end of Trumpâs term, we can reassess and develop a new course of action, but until then, Iâm going to trust Trump.
Also, we know this is an information war, and nefarious entities are perpetually targeting the emotions of the public, looking to sow discord and doubt at every opportunity.
Put your emotions aside and just watch it unfold. Do not fall victim to the cyclical emotional roller coaster.
@atensnut Not the right time for a third party. It will take several terms for a new party to establish itself and the Dems would destroy America by then.