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I am not going to spend a lot of time here, because I think you already know about this arena. My only point is to show that Hope-Mongers selling empty dreams are everywhere and in politics Hope-Mongers reign supreme. Election after election, the candidates get up and say just what we want to hear and then after elected, they go do whatever they wanted to do in the first place. And yet when the next election rolls around, there we are saying, “This time, this person is going to rescue us”—how sad!

Even sadder is when we occasionally get a candidate that has the guts to tell us the truth; he or she is quickly rejected for not saying what the people WANT to hear. The reporters even tell us that when the candidates see that one message is not going well they drop it like a hot potato and jump on a new bandwagon, then public hopefully says, “Well, maybe they’ve changed.”

All that has changed is the message, not the candidate’s direction. Once elected, all bets are off. Now having said all this, I still believe in our country and our system of government. It would just be nice, at some point, if the people would say, “Stop telling us what we want to hear and tell us the truth.” I know that’s only a wild dream, but wasn’t America built on the dreams of a better way of life?

Now I’m really going to get myself in trouble, but having been on the “inside” as a minister, maybe I have a better view than some to speak to this issue. Twenty years ago I got out of formal, organized religion but I never lost my connection with God or stopped ministering to people, it just took on a new format.

Let me preface what I am about to say by acknowledging that no one knows the real motives in the heart of a person except that person themselves. I may not agree with what it looks like on the outside, but there could be a completely different story on the inside. But what really upsets me in religion is what I said in the story of the Hope-Giver—far too many preachers say things that are true (quoting verses) but they are not telling The Truth (how the verses practically fit with life). They say “Just plant your seed (in their organization of course) and God will pour out the blessings upon you.”

While that is true that God set up the law of giving and receiving, there is a bigger Truth that needs to be understood and recognized. In Hebrews 4:2 it says, “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith (believing) in them that heard it.”

This means that it’s not enough to just tell people to give, you have to teach them how to mix faith, which is believing, with that promise of giving so they receive back as God promised. And let me assure you that NO preacher has the right to tell someone that if he or she sends in money today, God will do this or that. God is not a genie in a lamp who jumps at our beckon call, just because we send a certain preacher a check.

Yes, God set up laws and if you work in harmony with them you will get results, but it is wrong for preachers to use a verse that is true without explaining the whole Truth behind it. The preacher is being a Hope-Monger by telling people what to do but not how to do it.

Because of my background and what I do know about the scriptures, it makes me sick when I see men and women who are supposed to represent God manipulating people for their own gain. You can claim that you have all the good intentions you want, but manipulation is manipulation. Okay, okay, you can tell I’m really starting to get wound up here. This topic really deserves a “Declaration” of it’s own so I’ll let it go for now. Just realize there are Hope-Mongers in religion as well.