Not being one who reads much (to my own detriment) I was not aware of the "Seven Blunders of the World" until a good friend added them to his email tag line in a message he sent me recently.

After checking Google it seems these seven sayings are credited to Gandhi and, so the Internet research goes, were passed on by Gandhi to his grandson, Arun, mere hours before he was assassinated.

Well, Gandhi is no Jesus but he sure had his moments and after reading and re-reading these Seven Blunders I felt this is something that I could comment on. So, here are the Seven Blunders of the World, ala Hoyt!

Wealth without work

I could just say "Paris Hilton" and stop there, but so much more can be said. "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?", "Deal or No Deal?", "One Versus One Hundred", your favorite scratch-off or weekly lottery; all of these have the same central theme - you don't have to work to achieve wealth. Maybe, for some, but I live in a little place called reality and the bills don't get paid if I don't get paid, and I don't get paid if I don't do my job!

Also, there's so much more to wealth than a person's financial status. I am one of the wealthiest people I know. I have been blessed with a wife who loves me, four children whom I adore, a home that is also a project, and a nice little vacation cottage to get away to once in a while. Further, in my case anyway, I love the "work" I do. I have the benefit of getting paid to do something I love to do. That, and the knowledge that my salvation is secure in Christ Jesus, all make me a very wealthy person.

Pleasure without conscience

As I'm writing this piece I'm using the Internet to search each "Blunder" and, while the first few hits all point to Gandhi, it's interesting to see what makes the top ten after the author links. For this one, pleasure without conscience is a "free essay, term paper or book report". I'm sure that's not what most people think of when posed with this thought.

The first thing that comes to my mind is abortion and no-fault divorce. In today's 'I want what I want, as much as I want, when I want it and how I want it' world people seem to forget that there is, and always has been, a moral code. Call that code what you want, I call it the Ten Commandments.

People, Christians and non-Christians alike, tend to view the Commandments as restrictive and limiting with all the "thou shall not" language. But consider how a life lived in harmony with these basic instructions from our Creator really do free us from the guilt and worry of the consequences!

Rather than expound on each of the Commandments in detail, just take a moment to consider how difficult your life can be when you are caught in a lie, or caught "borrowing" (read that as stealing) something.

How about my first two issues - abortion and divorce? Abortion is murder, although most don't consider it such because there is no criminal aspect to the mindset. Divorce typically involves lust (coveting) which can lead to adultery.

How much easier would your life be if you truly lived according to God's law? No worries about being "caught" or the guilt that your "Pleasure without conscience" brings. What a happy place this planet would be!

Knowledge without character

Bill Clinton, enough said. Although how much knowledge does the guy really have? If you equate his knowledge on a scale to his character, ah well, you get the picture.

Commerce without morality

Think back over recent years and all the law suits related to criminal activity in Corporate America. Things weren't always like this.

Before I continue I should point out that I am a huge fan of capitalism. I firmly believe that market forces should be allowed to drive the economy - supply and demand set the price of products and there's absolutely nothing wrong with people making money.

But what we've seen in the recent past crosses the line. When greed, that is a desire to take more than your share at the expense of others, is your primary motivator then society has a problem. Ask the guys from Enron or WorldCom who are sitting in prison as a result of their greed and see what they tell you. Or ask any of the thousands of people who lost their jobs, pensions, everything as a result of a few greedy people.

I'm sure the lesson hasn't been learned yet and we'll continue to see shareholders and employees bilked out of billions, but because it continues to happen doesn't make it right. See last week's commentary if that type of things makes you mad.

Science without humanity

Human cloning and embryonic stem cell research slap me in the face when I think of this topic. I believe science is a wonderful thing and the best tool we have for uncovering the multitude of mysteries God left us with after creation.

But taking the humanity out of science is junk science, in my opinion at least. I mean, take a moment to look up the atrocities perpetrated against human beings, in the name of science, at the Nazi concentration/death camps. A great deal of the things those German "scientists" did in the name of research, that is the experiments they conducted on living, breathing human beings, are still considered to be grotesque by most of us.

Yet, compare those experiments to what the abortion industry does to the murdered child, or the primary reason for cloning (have you seen the movie "The Island"?) are in lock-step with what was happening in those camps sixty years ago. A mere two generations have past and what was once obscene and inhumane is now a relatively unquestioned part of daily life.

Worship without sacrifice

I can only speak on this from the perspective of a Christian, but I know the writings of the Hebrew Bible well enough to know the Mosaic Law called for a multitude of sacrifices for a multitude of reasons.

In Christianity, the man known as Jesus provided the ultimate sacrifice once, for all our sins. Yet we continue in our day-to-day life as though this were no big deal.

Every night at bed time I read a few pages from a book called "Little Pillows" by Frances Ridley Havergal, to my oldest daughter and that book touched on this topic. The author posits that considering all that Christ has done for us, what should our attitude be towards Him in our life?

We are called to worship God in everything we do but how much sacrifice goes into our worship? Do we even think about the sacrifice God made to redeem us from our sin? And I'm not just talking about Sunday morning or Wednesday night, or whenever you happen to attend a church service. I mean how do you "worship" the one, true, Living God, and how is your worship sacrificial?

I pose those questions as much to myself as to anyone reading this as I'm guilty of worship without sacrifice myself. The real question is, what will be done about it?

Politics without principle

Can you guess which one of the seven blunders prompted me to write anything about them? Isn't it amazing how a guy who died sixty years ago had something relevant to say about America today?

Anyone who's been reading my silly little opinion for the past year (yes, it's officially been one year now since I started this) will know the answer to that.

I've been saddened by the actions of the Constitution Party National leadership over the past couple of years, enough so that I am a former member as of January 1, 2007.

The CP has joined the ranks of the Republicrats and Democans with their "big tent" policy, particularly as it relates to abortion, but the question must be asked "what next?" What will be the next issue that the CP will deem inappropriate for public debate for the sake of opening the tent doors a little wider?

The greatest disappointment about this is how the leadership have chosen to sweep the issue under the rug and still claim to have a pro-life position while at the same time saying it's OK for a state affiliate (or two) to promote exceptions to the 100% pro-life plank of the national platform.

Their claim of "we have no business interferring in the business of State affiliates" kind of turns my stomache sour after looking back to what the National office did to the leadership in Illinois and Louisiana. No big deal to interfere with those states, but Nevada is "hands off" for some reason.

I predict that the next National Convention of the CP will see a relocation of the Sanctity of Life plank to its proper alphabetical place in the Platform, removing it from its current #1 position on that document.

I further predict that they will remove the "controversial" language from the Preamble which currently "acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States." I think they'll drop that language faster than President Bush can increase the troop count in Iraq.

The "new" Constitution Party, devoid of principled Christian men like Cal Zastrow and Michael Peroutka, is only interested in numbers - that is, the number of people that they can call members. They may be called "members" by the leadership but the truth is over 350,000 of those people are not joining a political party but merely indicating they are "Independent Americans" on their ballot - at least in California or Nevada.

Oh, and that's another prediction I have - with the CP state affiliates continuing to drop off (Alabama was the most recent; Wisconsin should be next with their Convention in April and I'm waiting to hear from Georgia) I have a feeling that a strong argument will be made for changing the name of the organization from Constitution Party to the Independent American Party. We'll see how far that goes, but I have a sneaky feeling.

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