God has not called you to defend yourself, but to be faithful. Here is what I do:

(1) Spend extra time in prayer and fasting,
(2) Talk about it with a trusted friend, and
(3) Go out of my way to act in loving ways to my attackers.

People eventually will see the same issues you saw, if you are correct.

I do agree with your post above. I do have a reflection to add to your thought below.

The Wanderer don't worry about kland. I'm not. Kland often brings up some very good objections that needs clarification that adds to the discussion. Over the years, I have benefited personally from kland objections as without them, I wouldn't of "chewed my cud"(pondered) a little more deeper.

But also, he is good in twisting things and bringing confusion in the matter like he is trying to do in his posts previous. So I take some and I leave some. That's what I do and I have told kland himself about a year ago, that I will do that with his posts.

I believe that the attacks is totally normal and expected. It's part of the process as we grow in Christ. We all buck along this process. I'm still bucking myself when the Lord reveal more new things that shakes my pre-conceived view.

But at the end God "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1Ti 2:4 meaning we (e.g. me & kland & Green & everyone else here) will come to all agree because God will bring us all in the knowledge of the truth. So I know this day is coming where we will all agree and work together in subduing the whole world under Christ feet so that God can be again "all in all". Not "all in some", but "all in all".

I don't want to tell you to not correct kland when he's pulling his stuff. That's not my place. You do whatever the Spirit leads you. But for myself, it's ok. As I understand that the attacks, the bucking, or whatever else is part of the process ... meanwhile I know God perfect plan in us is progressing & maturing and at the end He will fulfill all His words & promises.

Wanderer,

1. When you say Carson has forgotten what it is to be poor, you are saying he has forgotten his formative years for he spent all of them in poverty.

2. Trump and Carson haven't actually cut a cent from the budget in Carson's department. When the government talks about "cutting" it is not saying they are going to spend less money next year than they did this year. It is saying they have reduced the proposed increase in future spending. The media and the government are complicit in this behavior. It is nothing but sophistry when they say they have "cut" spending. When the average man thinks of a "cut" in his personal spending he means he is going to spend less than he did last year/month. Not so the government.

3. The more the government spends the worse the situation is for the poor. They are hurt the worst for deficit spending automatically causes inflation. And who gets hurt the worst by inflation? The poor. When the little they have is worth less than it was previously it is a big deal to them. It is not a big deal to the wealthy individual. They have enough in reserve that inflation is to them no big deal.

4. The government is responsible for most of the current poverty. It has so over-regulated business that it cannot thrive, and without thriving businesses jobs disappear, and what jobs disappear first? The lower income jobs. Also, the more regulations are in place the more businesses have to spend on accountants and lawyers so they can figure out how to comply with the regulations and how much that compliance will cost them. That means they must hire more lawyers and accountants which are high paying jobs. What is sacrificed to pay those expenses that the government mandates? Lower paying jobs for the cuts have to be made somewhere in the labor costs. Put the blame where it belongs, on leftist style government following socialist dogma that says the government should control everything.

5. The fact that you cannot trace out the principles of Marxism in what goes on around you every day says you do not understand it. Socialism, Marxism, is about government control of the economy, not necessarily complete government ownership of it. This is why Obamacare is socialism. It is the government mandating how healthcare will be paid for and how much of it will be administered, how doctors will treat patients, what they can prescribe, how much will be paid for specific treatments, etc.... That is government control.

In the last week or so a story came out about a farmer who was fined $2.8 million for tilling his own field. Why? Because during the winter and early spring when river water levels are high that portion of his field floods. Then, later in the spring in dries out when the water level in the river goes down. The land is dry the rest of the year. It does this every year. The EPA fined this guy all that money because he tilled a dry field. Think that didn't cost some jobs over what is pure nonsense? Think those are high paying, or lower paying, jobs that will be lost? Look at all the jobs that have been taken away by the EPA over the years. They have almost completely destroyed several industries. Government mandated job loss. Government mandated poverty. What about NAFTA and other "trade policies" the government has created? They destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs in this country, if not millions. More government mandated poverty for once all those good paying manufacturing jobs were gone what was left? Service jobs such as flipping hamburgers, janitorial, working in a retail store, etc... where the income level is reduced by more than 50%. Once more, government mandated poverty.

What does the left scream about that Trump is doing? He is getting rid of NAFTA and other really lousy "trade" deals that have destroyed good paying US jobs. He is trying to bring manufacturing back here because those are jobs that pay well and many of them are highly skilled jobs for machinists, welders, etc.... Jobs that it doesn't take a 4 year liberal arts education to get. He is also backing out things like the Paris environmental agreements that kill jobs. You leftists scream about that too, and then you blame everyone but who is really responsible for the job losses and resulting poverty. Another example of government mandated poverty.

Deficit spending, who thought up this job and wealth destroying idiocy? The Marxist's hero economist, John Maynard Keynes. Let's look at him a little. I'm just going to say what I know about him and then give you a link to a book on him that documents it all.

Keynes was a real piece of work. His goal in life, as told to a friend of his, was to do one of three things: organize a trust, swindle the investing public, or manage a railroad. He despised thrift, economy, Christianity, heterosexuality, anyone who had a lower IQ than he had, and honesty. His "great" economic book, General Theory, is nothing more than fraud. It is deliberately written in such obscure and convoluted language that it is almost impossible to understand. He claimed it was all new material, but it has been proven by economists who studied it that it is nothing but a collection of economic theories that had been discarded as unworkable before he wrote the book. He just repackaged them in such obfuscated language that it took years to understand what he was saying. Many of his "facts and figures" are outright dishonest and pulled out thin air, while many of his mathematical formulas have been shown to completely false. This man is the one who most western governments, including the US and Canadian governments and their politicians follow. Why? It gives politicians power to say they can "jumpstart" the economy with government money, in other words, with spending and an ever increasing debt. The facts are, however, much different. Every time politicians and central banks interfere with the economy they create more problems. Our economies are so tinkered with now that there are no "free markets" left. Remember Obama's recent $400,000 speech? A reward for pushing government money to his buddies.

Yet when outsiders like Carson and Trump start reducing the rate of increase in spending, and reduce regulation, what happens? The so-called "friends of the poor" scream bloody murder that they are killing the poor man. Baloney. They are working to help the poor man by creating an economic landscape that is friendly to jobs so that wages will increase as the labor pool shrinks and people will have the money they need to live on.

People look at the debt clock and think, wow, we are $20 trillion in debt. LOL. We are so far in debt that if we cut government spending to the point that we could start to pay off our debt at $1 trillion a year it would take us around 150 years to pay it off. See, our "debt" is spending that Congress has actually taken in hand and said, this is how this will be paid for. We have other spending that Congress hasn't even thought about dealing with, as in how we are going to pay for it when it comes due. And that debt, the last time I looked at it back in 2010 or 2011 was at $120-140 trillion. We are bankrupt many times over. And yet you guys scream when government spending is reduced in any way.

Did you know Obama set things up with the banking industry so that the government can just go in and take money away from us if a big enough crash hits? That's right. They can drain anyone's bank account at will. It's that way in Canada, GB, France, Australia, Germany, Italy, Greece, Japan, etc....

Here is the link to the book on Keynes. Read it. Educate yourself about who you have been following in economic thinking. https://mises.org/library/keynes-man-1

Gary, you have shared REALITY - thanks!

Fifty or sixty or so years ago, a person in north America with drive and determination could raise themselves out of poverty.

But half a century later things have drastically changed, as pointed out in Gary's post. Today the 'socialist' type government -- controlling everything has so regulated and manipulated everything, that it is becoming extremely difficult for most to lift themselves out of poverty.

Rather than knocking Carson, as most were doing -- people should consider what Carson is actually trying to address! A change in government back to something a little more "normal" rather than this beastly control system that is bleeding the middle class dry and driving them into the low income population, while the formerly "low income" category is reduced to poverty.

Yes -- poverty can become a "state of mind" -- a state of hopelessness, a state of "what's the use" why even try. A state of mind that governments have largely created. The aim of socialist government is to get people DEPENDANT on them, then they can control them at will.

One of reasons America grew great, was the independent nature of it's citizens, free to dream and work to achieve their dream -- a land where anyone who had the ambition could advance and achieve. That is no longer the case due to things like Gary described (and there are many more things put in place to impoverish the populations, to take away their drive to achieve and make them dependent upon government).

Could it be that Carson was talking about government changes that bring back the "state of mind" where people feel they can achieve?

dedication,

It is true that it is harder today than it was when I was young, but it is still possible. If men such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington could rise out of poverty after being born into slavery with the overt racism of that day, it can still be done today. It just takes the same kind of effort and sacrifice those men put forth to improve themselves.

If you read their stories you will see just how much they differ from the poor blacks and whites of today. Those men asked for nothing but the chance to stand on their own two feet. They didn't ask for something for nothing. They despised something-for-nothing and recognized it as being destructive to self-respect and dignity, and the prospect of making a success out of their lives. Their state-of-mind was not even similar to what the government has taught people to think today.

well,I thank you for your efforts,but you have essentially wasted your breath. How you can say all this stuff about me is just plain amazing.You have no idea what my political leanings are, I have only stated a 2 or 3 sentence disagreement with something Carson says,and unless you are a mind reader, you should not presume to know people so well from just a few internet posts. You appear to have your mind made up so I will leave you to it.

Blaming the government for HOW people are thinking is just another pile of dead bones. There are plenty of poor people who do not think like the government wants them to

If people would actually do this then it would be seen how wrong his take is on poverty. He has very much confused the cause and effect factor to something that is not real, and that will not help.Come back here in 6 months and tell me again how "wrong" I am on this point.

You are right.God is in control

Well, good try, but no ceegar....

I have read hundreds, if not thousands, of your posts. This is not the only site you post on, nor that I read. I have seen you parrot left-wing talking points many a time. Never once have I seen you express conservative, constitutionalist, or libertarian
political ideas.