Notes:

• Greg Smith's acclaimed first Goldman piece is here. That Times op-ed on the "96%" is here.

• The images of the Green Party and Libertarian party presidential candidates in the piece are Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, respectively. To offer them a platform, relatively mainstream National Public Radio gave them an opportunity to debate in the same week Obama and Romney had one of their debates. Their debate lasted eleven minutes. So much for the most effusive spouting of the very best of exceedingly good things.

• "For the record" regarding parties: I'd initially noted that the Marijuana Party and Beer Drinker's Party were officially registered with the Federal Election Commission. I have not found conclusive evidence that they are, but these parties have made some expression of their presence however frivolous they are considered.

• George Barna's website is here. Peek around and you'll find some quite illuminating things about the real state of Christianity. He's got people touring about and sharing those sobering things with American Christendom, but sadly they'll never get to what will really stop the bleeding: getting those thousands who listen to go the distance and be on the same page to abjure the World and manifest the Kingdom.

• A sample list of counterfeit Jesuses is here.

• What does ungrafted mean? Here's a page that gets into it. The reasoning for doing so among those in a worship assembly is comprehensively laid out here. Jesus mentioned that ungrafted people would see their deepest desires materialize a hundred-fold greater in the tenth chapter of Mark.

• I also have a page with more about "Becoming De-catholicized," for those who are truly interested in authentically answering the questions posed in this piece.

• Some of my thoughts about the whole Goldman Sachs aura is in this home page piece from May 2010. Much of my work in this webzine involves looking at the Kingdom/World contrast through the principle of value assessment. A couple of other pieces that get into this include this home page piece, and this analysis of human value transfer. I invite you to browse here to find more.

• I should add with full disclosure that I myself, the author of this site, am not wholly divested from World obligations. For instance, I have a mortgage, and as much as I want to be fully sowing with others in that Kingdom economy, I do want to be true to my word and honor the commitment I made long ago. Of course the purpose of my piece is to posit that sowing through the Kingdom is far better, infinitely better, but I will also humbly confess that it is indeed very difficult to be wholly Kingdom-engaged when there are so few who'd be willing to corporately invest in it. This is also a point made quite plainly in the above piece. I have a page of objections or issues about all this, each one accompanied by some thoughts of mine.

• The chapter in Genesis that speaks of Abraham's attempted intercession for Sodom is the 18th one. The 99.7% number I used is in no way scientific and I don't presume that it is. I share it just to make the point. There is, however, some quantifiable distinction between World inhabitants and Kingdom dwellers that only God knows. His words about wheat and tares, a narrow gate and a broad way, and many other bold contrasts demonstrate this truth. Even during the Sodom incident God never answers Abraham with any exact number of who is who, but He did indeed destroy the city.

• Those words about God loving us through His Son even though we're still sinners? Fifth chapter of Romans, eighth verse.