Author Archives: Marnie Kuhns

The Bible on Climate Change - The Earth Is The Lords

What Does the Bible Say About Climate Change?

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What does the Bible have to say about climate change? I’ve been studying the Bible since I started first grade at a Christian school. In all that time, I don’t ever recall seeing anything in the Bible to indicate that climate change will destroy the earth. You’ve got things that sound like comets striking the earth, earthquakes, the sun darkened, the moon to blood. Sure, pollution in the air can make the moon look red. But over all, climate change isn’t it.

Second, who says the climate changing is a bad thing? Change isn’t always bad. What if the earth is evolving? Our planet is working its way across the galaxy. There are cosmic things at work we don’t even know about or understand. If our climate is really changing, then what if it’s all part of something bigger than us? Men are so convinced they have such a huge impact on this planet, but we’re like ants on a mountain.

I believe we are to be good stewards of the earth and take care of it, yes.

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.” (Psalms 24:1)

In the grand scheme of things, the sky is not falling over climate change. The greater danger to our planet is our wickedness… THAT is what will bring upon us the calamities foretold by the prophets.

Not only that, but calling upon God seems to be the only thing that can protect you from those calamities.

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:16-21)

If our land needs healing, the Bible’s prescription is to turn from our wicked ways and call upon God. There’s nothing mentioned here about reducing your carbon footprint.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

It Doesn’t Have to Be Either/Or. How About “Yes, And…”?

So, yes, take care of the earth. It’s the Lord’s; and we should honor and be good stewards over it. If people would separate environmentalism from politics and if environmentalism wasn’t being weaponized by some on the left, then more conservatives might see the merits of it.

Unfortunately, the hysterics is being used to implement socialism… which just turns off most conservatives. Any ideas about environmentalism seem like the hysterics of the sky-is-falling-socialists instead of viable options. The truth is, finding more effective, efficient, cleaner and affordable energy is a good thing.

The earth isn’t going to end over climate change. We don’t need to raise everyone’s taxes to 90% and adopt socialism to save our planet. Saving our planet requires repenting and turning to God!

Enjoying our stay here requires cleaning up after ourselves and taking care of the beautiful world God gave us!

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Where Has Forgiveness Gone - Front Porch Sense Podcast Episode 28

Episode 28 – Where Has Forgiveness Gone?

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In this episode of Front Porch Sense, Marnie and her husband David Kuhns talk about how society is moving toward an inability to forgive. With technology recording our words and actions, creating a record of nearly everything we do and say, there has to be room for forgiveness and the ability for people to change and grow. Unfortunately there seems to be zero tolerance and no statute of limitations on societal “crimes.”

People were created to learn, change, grow. No one is all good or all bad. If we want to grow and change ourselves we must allow others the opportunity as well. Do we really want to live in a world where there is no redemption? No letting go? No moving on from the past? Where one misstep, one misspoken word, or series of steps/words damns you for the rest of your life?

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Front Porch Sense Episode #27 - Practical Environmentalism

Episode #27 – Green New Deal, Greta and Practical Environmentalism

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We’re hearing a lot about environmentalism with the Green New Deal and Greta from Sweden… let’s talk about practical environmentalism that doesn’t require top-down government bureaucracy and force…

It’s easy to rail and protest and complain. Taking personal responsibility and practical action is what it takes to create change.

In this episode of Front Porch Sense, Marnie talks about ways that we can all take personal responsibility for the environment in a practical way without the need for intense government intervention or militant environmentalism. This episode includes practical ideas you can start implementing in your life today to take personal responsibility for the environment around you:

Find out more about ways you can take personal responsibility for the environment at www.NaturesGuys.com

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Universal Laws - Absolute Moral Truth - Timeless Principles

Is There Absolute Moral Truth?

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The other day, I heard a statistic that two-thirds of Americans do not believe there is absolute moral truth. Many today believe that because we are a highly technological society that “old outdated principles” should be disregarded. Many believe that the laws observed and articulated by our Founding Fathers need to be dismissed in favor of more progressive ideologies. Never mind that our system of government has sustained a free society for 230+ years.

There are those who feel moral laws that underpin our free society are equally antiquated and to be disregarded.  For these mooring-less Americans there are no moral absolutes. There are no laws that protect and preserve freedom.

Why Universal Laws Matter

Let me explain why laws of the Universe do exist and why they do matter.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) discovered 3 Laws of Planetary motion which we still use today. We wouldn’t have been able to go to the moon or Mars or anywhere else in space without a knowledge of Kepler’s 3 Laws of Planetary Motion.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726) discovered 3 Laws of Motion. Without an understanding of Newton’s laws, we wouldn’t be flying airplanes around the world. Countless technologies have been built around the laws Kepler, Newton and others discovered.

Can you imagine saying,

“Those guys are antiquated and from the oppressive, misogynistic era of the 1500’s and 1600’s. We don’t need their observations. We need something new and progressive! Our technology is far beyond theirs. They never even foresaw space or airline travel! We need something new and modern for our modern times and modern problems!”

Go board a plane flown by a pilot who doesn’t understand or work in harmony with those laws. You’ll be eating your words as you plummet to the ground.

Universal Laws Exist Outside Human Influence

Kepler and Newton did not invent these laws. The laws already existed. Kepler and Newton simply discovered them and stated them clearly so that scientists could go forward and create new innovations and technologies.

Principles or laws do not change over time. They remain constant regardless of what mankind chooses to think, believe, say or do. A societal temper tantrum doesn’t change them. A majority vote won’t change them.

Like Newton and Kepler, the Founders spent years studying thousands of years of history, economies and the rise and fall of civilizations to distill laws or principles that govern freedom. The laws they discovered might be called The Laws of Freedom.

As far back as Adam & Eve, Noah and Moses, God gave mankind certain laws that govern happiness. You might call them the Laws of Happiness. Over thousands of years people and civilizations who obeyed these moral codes lived happier, more well-adjusted, productive, and safer lives. Those who disregarded basic moral laws did so at their own peril.

Universal Laws Don’t Sway with Our Beliefs

Whether we choose to believe, accept, or see that there is absolute moral truth and absolute principles that govern freedom, is irrelevant. These laws or principles do not change across time. They aren’t up for a popularity contest. We don’t get to vote on whether they’re right or wrong and expect them to budge — not any more than we could vote on Kepler and Newton’s laws and make the smallest change in them. The fact is these laws simply ARE IMMUTABLE and there are CONSEQUENCES for operating in ways that work in opposition to them.

When you operate in alignment with these laws, they lead you to freedom and life. Work contrary to them and you end up in captivity and death.

Only a fool ignores them. Like a child donning a Superman cape and jumping out a second story window, we will fall if we foolishly ignore or fight against the Laws of Happiness or the Laws of Freedom. Just like gravity for the child, these universal laws that govern happiness and freedom are timeless and the violation of them has severe consequences.

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Front Porch Sense 26 - A Case for Morality

Episode 26 – A Case for Morality

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The problems of our society will never be fixed by more laws or more controls. We have enough laws. What we need is self-mastery, self-government. In a word, morality.

The downside of the concept of freedom and personal agency is that people choose things we don’t like or agree with. They do or say things that may even offend our sensitivities. And we may do things that offend theirs. But, if we do not allow others to believe, think, feel or act as they wish, then we can’t expect to have the freedom to believe, think, feel or act as we wish.

Freedom comes down to choice. We can choose what we wish (given that it doesn’t infringe on someone’s inalienable rights of life, liberty or personal property).  But, we cannot choose the consequences of our choices. When we make a choice, we automatically reap a consequence. We are personally accountable for the choices we make.

Negative thoughts, words and actions bring negative results. Garbage in. Garbage out. For example, a fixation on sex and an addiction to porn leads to certain consequences … the need for something more shocking and more intense.

“Rather than asking ‘does pornography cause rape?’ we would be better served by investigating whether pornography is ever a factor that contributes to rape. In other words, Is pornography implicated in sexual violence in this culture?” (See Pornography and Sexual Violence, Robert Jensen, Ph.D.)

There does appear to be a correlation to many sex-related crimes. For example, see the article, “Sexual Trafficking and Pornography – The Link Between the Two.

While outlawing pornography is a possible option — at a “state or the people” level, it most likely will not stop people from creating their own pornography and texting it to others. Outlawing drugs hasn’t stopped drug use. Outlawing guns won’t stop mass shootings.

People who do not possess self-mastery or moral boundaries will violate whatever laws you put in place. Micromanaging millions of people from a top-down approach is next to impossible. The amount of government force required to micromanage that level of individual control would eradicate freedom completely.

What we need is self-mastery and self-control. We need citizens who take personal responsibility for their choices. In a word, we need a moral people.

John Adams said “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

The best way to teach morality is by introducing people to God. If they choose to create a relationship with God, God will change them from the inside out.

“The Lord works from the inside out. The word works from the outside in. The word would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The word would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature. (Ezra Taft Benson, “Born of God,” Ensign, Nov 1985, 6)

We don’t need more laws in America. We need people, en mass, to return to God!

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Fostering freedom and leaving a legacy of freedom to our posterity

Freedom: What Matters Most

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We each must decide what we want to give our lives to — what matters most to us and what will give our lives meaning. For me, there is nothing more valuable than freedom.

One month from today I’ll be an empty nester. My youngest of 6 children is heading off to Guatemala to serve a 2-year mission with our Church. For the last few days, I’ve had the most unsettled feeling… listless, irritable, and as if nothing I do matters. Why bother? It’s crazy. My life is good. I’m happy. I’m loved. Why the strange emotions?

Today, after a bit of self-examination, I realized I’ve spent the last 31 years rearing children and the last 30 running a business. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, yet in spite of me, my six children managed to turn out wonderful. Sure, there are those who are still working through the ramifications of being parented by an imperfect mother. Yet, overall, they are successful, smart, and independent individuals. So independent, in fact, they don’t need me anymore.

Despite my screw-ups, I succeeded in the one thing that mattered most to me – rearing independent adults who could make their own way in the world.

As I look to the future, I ask myself what’s next. What matters? I’ve been in business long enough to know that there is no business success that (for me) creates the sense of satisfaction from life I’m looking for. It’s no longer about the acknowledgement or the kaching of the cash register. I’ve been there, done that, umpteen times. I sure wish I could swap a lot of that time for having spent more of it with my kids.

Business tends to be a hamster wheel with just enough carrots along the way to give you the illusion that what you’re doing matters. Please, don’t get me wrong. Entrepreneurship is a wonderful thing. We need entrepreneurs to have a free society. Entrepreneurs create jobs; they invent things that make other people’s lives better; they put food on the table for their families and other people’s families. Every major society that has had entrepreneurs has had freedom.  When a society loses its entrepreneurs, it loses its freedom.

Which gets to the heart of what I discovered myself. In asking myself, “What would give my life meaning?” The answer was obvious … fostering freedom. If that means encouraging entrepreneurship, if that means spurring independent thought, if that means educating people on the priceless treasure of freedom we enjoy – that is where I intend to spend my remaining days.

My grandchildren may live far away and never know me. I may never meet my great grandchildren or great great grandchildren. Yet, there is one thing I can work toward and work for … leaving them a legacy of freedom. If I can do something, anything, even a small thing that can turn the tide and leave more freedom for my posterity, my life will have mattered.

The question I’ll be asking myself daily is: “What can I do to foster freedom today?” Then, I intend to act courageously upon the answer.

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The dangerous nature of labels

The Trouble with Labels

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The trouble with labels is all you have to do is label someone as racist, homophobe, xenophobe, misogynist, narcissist, or Islamophobe and you don’t have to deal with them anymore. You don’t have to converse with them or understand their point of view or respect them. Everything they are or any good in them is erased. They are now nonhuman. They are incapable of change, redemption or progress. You have in essence damned them. You are playing God making an assessment of them that can never be reversed.

You might say that conservatives label people as socialists, liberals or leftists with an equal amount of disdain. But I don’t believe it’s the same. Conservatives believe people can change. We’ve seen it happen. I have seen liberals become conservatives. Even people who were once socialist have become conservative in their thinking. It happens nearly every day.

My dad told me once that if you see a young person in their early twenties who isn’t a liberal, you wonder if they have a heart. If they’re still liberal by the time they reach their mid 30’s to 40’s you wonder if they have good sense. There’s something about growing up and living in the real world: having a job, paying your own way, and getting taxed that wakes you up to reality. You suddenly want to keep what you’ve earned. Having the government take it away and give it to other people who haven’t earned it doesn’t feel incredibly fair anymore. So, calling someone a liberal, democrat or leftist isn’t assigning them a permanent destination.

But misogynists, narcissists, racists, etc…. fewer people expect or allow those people to change. Someone who wore black-face thirty years ago (when it was no thing) is a racist today and loses their job because a picture of them at a by-gone Halloween party crops up. In today’s world, there is no statute of limitations on racism, bigotry, etc. There is no allowance for growth.

People were created to learn, change, grow. No one is all good or all bad. If we want to grow and change ourselves we must allow others the opportunity as well. Do we really want to live in a world where there is no redemption? No letting go? No moving on from the past? Where one misstep, one misspoken word, or series of steps/words damns you for the rest of your life?

Our self-righteous, “enlightened” society is eventually self-damning; for there isn’t a soul on this planet who has lived a perfect life save one. And individuals with the same self righteous hypocrisy tortured and murdered Him for it. Even He wasn’t good enough for them. One day we’re going to need the mercy we denied others and it won’t be there.

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What do morality, time, governments, and money all have in common? Standards. They all need standards of measurement outside of the system they measure.

Episode 25 – The Danger In Abandoning Standards

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Whether we’re talking about our morality, our economy or our government, the United States and most of the world is walking away from standards. People who adhere to standards are more stable and less susceptible to manipulation. They are better able to govern themselves.  People who abandon or over-complicate standards are less able to govern themselves and more likely to be manipulated and invite government intervention into their personal lives.

In this episodes, Marnie Pehrson Kuhns explains the reason why standards must exist outside the system they are measuring. Standards that are inside the system aren’t really standards. They vacillate and are manipulated by the system they claim to measure. This episode explains how the abandonment of standards destroys freedom, prosperity and happiness.

Resources

Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy by George Gilder

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How to really Make America Great Again - MAGA

Episode #24 – What Really Makes America Great?

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We hear the slogan Make America Great Again, but what really makes America great? What does greatness look like and how do we return to it?

What really can make America great again? In the 1840’s Alexis de Tocqueville came from France to America to observe first-hand what he referred to as “this great experiment.” When he returned to France and wrote Democracy in America, he explained what he observed that made America great. In this episode, Marnie Pehrson Kuhns shares the secret to America’s greatness that de Tocqueville related and how we can regain it.

Recommended Reading:

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Destruction of Electoral College with National Popular Vote Interestate Compact

Episode 23 – Electoral College Vs National Popular Vote

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Why do we need the Electoral College and why is the National Popular Vote (NPV) Interstate Compact so dangerous to our freedom? The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact binds states with contracts that require them to appropriate their electoral college votes to the Presidential candidate who has the national popular vote.

This episode explores the dangerous convergence of

  • open border immigration policy
  • the proposed lack of citizenship recording in the 2020 census,
  • the National Popular Vote movement (already approved by at least 15 states + DC)
  • the proposed policy to make no ID required for to vote.

The combination of these radical policies will prove deadly to our republic.

Warning: As of July 2019, National Popular Vote has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia. Together, they have 196 electoral votes, which is 36.4% of the Electoral College and 72.6% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.

The following states have adopted NPV. The number out to the right of each state is the number of Electoral College Votes that state represents.

Maryland – 10
New Jersey – 14
Illinois – 20
Hawaii – 4
Washington – 12
Massechusetts – 11
DC – 3
Vermont – 3
Califorina -55
Rhode Island – 4
New York -29
Connecticut – 7
Colorado – 9
Deleware – 3
New Mexico – 5
Oregon – 7

This video from PragerU explains what’s going on in more detail. It was made when only 10 states were on board. Now there are 15.

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