Why I am a Dirt Poor "Extremist"
I'm wondering if you can help me develop some ethical income streams.

Ever since I graduated from college, I have worked full-time for non-profit social service groups. I have received room and board, but little or no monetary income. I now feel compelled to follow the example of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, who made and sold tents in order to raise money for his missionary journeys.

This webpage explains what I want to do (why I am an "extremist") and what I've done that has left me "dirt poor."

Why I am "Dirt Poor"

I have no objection to making money. Since I graduated from college, I have chosen not to, for various reasons I won't go into here. I believe there's something noble about working pro bono publico -- "for the good of the public." I tend to be "all work and no play," but I also tend to work without compensation. That's not a good "business plan." But I'd like to think I've been helping people, and helping myself become a better person. Examples:

At this time Gary North published a newsletter for Christian Schools called "The Biblical Educator," in which several of my articles were published.

My first job out of college was teaching in a small Christian school. The school was affiliated with a small church, where I preached. I received room and board, but no salary for either position.

I nearly single-handedly established a law library for a small Christian wanna-be law school, physically moving vanloads of books while I was studying for the Bar Exam. I also worked for the Legal Aid Society in a volunteer capacity. I was not allowed to obtain a license to practice law because my allegiance to God is greater than my allegiance to the government. I have explained this here:

http://i.am/not-a-lawyer

Although I am not a Catholic, I have been influenced by the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, Peter Maurin.

After passing the Bar Exam and during the time I was reading hundreds of court cases and law review articles in litigation to get a law license, I rented a 12-room house in a bad part of town with a couple of fellow "extremists." We took a couple of rooms upstairs and permitted recovering homeless drug addicts to stay in the remaining rooms. We helped them write résumés, get to job interviews, save up first- and last-month's rent, and stay clean and sober. We had an average of 19 homeless people in our home 24/7, for the better part of a decade. We also served tens of thousands of lunches to the homeless in our dining room, and gave thousands of bags of groceries to neighbors. We got food from grocery stores, restaurants, hospitals, and other sources. More people were served than in "competing" agencies with budgets ten times larger. They took government funds; we did not. I did not take a dime in salary, though my extremist colleagues and I always gave ourselves a $5.00 stipend each week to get out of the house and go see a movie (adjusted upward as ticket prices increased).

Despite not having a law license, I have used my legal knowledge to create a dozen non-profit agencies. Here is one. I have never demanded compensation.

The Internet Marketing gurus have told me that the secret to Internet Riches is to find out what people on the Internet want, and sell them what they want.

In contrast, football coaching icon Vince Lombardi once said that a coach tells people what they do not want to hear and shows them what they do not want to see so that they can be all that they can be.

The Marketing Gurus are totally dismayed that I have assumed the role of creating a product nobody is searching for, and selling it to people who don't want to buy it.

That may be overly negative; I think there are in fact many people looking for it, or don't yet have full cognition that they're looking for it. These people are saying, "I'll know it when I find it," and when they find my program, they'll know they've found what they're looking for.

I have investigated some internet marketing programs, and they all strongly recommend doing "keyword research" and selling products or information that people are already searching for. Although I do need the money, I am hesitant to sell just any ol' product, even if people would buy it. I have something specific I want to promote. I need to find ways to promote it to people who aren't sure what they're looking for.

In my experience, there are people who have never heard the phrase "Vine & Fig Tree" and instantly recognize that this is what they've been looking for years. See some testimonials.

I'm looking for a business coach or internet marketing guru who can help me set up websites that will sell an educational program designed to inculcate a worldview in people who will know it's what they've "always been looking for."

If you're that coach, and you're willing to invest in me and my program because you're confident that it won't be long before this starts making some good money, I wouldn't hesitate to compensate your for your help, if you're also willing to help "pro bono" -- at least at first.

I want to set up shop as a "personal coach." I may be more of a "trainer" or "educator" than a "coach." I have tested parts of a mentoring/coaching program at a school called "Future Men." The boys at this school were "troubled" youth, though not criminals. They were not there voluntarily. There was a college-aged mentor for every 2 or 3 boys. I believe the principles in this program are great for everyone. But I can only get the desperate and those threatened with incarceration to go through the program.

Virtually every American 200 years ago went through this program. Every person who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution went through this program, and they would threaten a sizeable majority of today's Americans with incarceration if they didn't go through this program, because they required it of all children in those days, and most Americans today haven't got a clue what's in the program.

I need help marketing this "home study course" or "coaching program."

I'm hoping to make the program available over the internet. I would just as soon offer it free to any who are interested in it, but now that I have had cancer, I anticipate some medical expenses as life goes on, and it is time to start making some money. I'm dropping out of the "Mother Teresa School of Entrepreneurship." I'm enrolling in the school for "greedy capitalists." I'm hoping you can help me, because I lack skills in this area.

My main desire is not to make a huge income, but to have a huge impact.

I have formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization to create this impact. The name of the organization is  "Vine & Fig Tree." Here is the "Vine & Fig Tree" worldview:

www.VFTonline.com

One way I advance this vision is by appearing before the public in town halls, on radio and television, by running for U.S. Congress every two years:

www.KevinCraig.us

(I do not accept any campaign contributions. Not from corporations, not from PAC's not from unions, not even from ordinary people like you.)

I have a few other ideas on how to advance the vision and make some money.

But again, my desire is not to live in a swanky house and drive a luxury car. I want to change the way people think and restore "Liberty Under God" in America.

www.LibertyUnderGod.com

My webhosting costs will completely absorb all the money in the bank account of Vine & Fig Tree by the end of the year.

I'm hoping you can teach me the skills of Internet Marketing to help sell the "Vine & Fig Tree" worldview to people who aren't looking for it yet, but are looking for a way to make sense of their world and become a valuable contributor to the "Vine & Fig Tree" vision and the cause of "Liberty Under God."

More info here or here.

My Goal is to be the next Sam Adams.
       Samuel Adams (whose name and face is only known to most Americans today from a bottle of beer) was once known as "the Father of the American Revolution." He was America's "coach," inspiring a nation to stand up and fight for "Liberty Under God." He and John Hancock and other members of "The Sons of Liberty" tossed the tea into the Boston Harbor over a tax of 3 pence per pound. One can only guess what Sam Adams would say about today's taxes, such as a tax TEN TIMES that amount on every gallon of gas. And in a day when every colonial schoolhouse taught students the Westminster Catechism, it would have been unthinkable for the government to remove all endorsement of religion from public schools. Adams would say America is now an atheistic dictatorship.
       I believe Sam Adams (and the rest of America's Founding Fathers) made three mistakes, which I do not intend to repeat:
  1.  They took up arms. The Bible says "pay your taxes." It was unChristian to use muskets and cannons against the "RedCoats."
  2. They emphasized "rights" rather than duties. Today's Americans believe they have a right to a standard of living which the richest human beings in the world could not have dreamed of -- much less obtained -- in 1776, including highly-paid jobs, high-tech education, the income necessary to use cars, television, microwave ovens, hot running water, central air and heating, and advanced healthcare which the Founders could not have imagined. There are no such "rights." These are privileges; gifts from "the Invisible Hand" of God.
    1. You have the duty not to kill me;
      You have the duty not to hire someone to kill me.
    2. You have the duty not to steal my property;
      You have the duty not to "vote" for someone to steal my property.
    3. America's Founders understood that these duties were the foundation of freedom; but they were not entirely consistent with that insight.
  3. After abolishing the British government, they replaced it with another. This turns out to have been the destruction of everything the Founders worked for. They thought they had safeguarded liberty with the "chains of the Constitution." They were wrong. The greatest constitution in history failed to prevent the rise of the most hegemonic empire in history. History now conclusively proves that it is impossible to form a government with any socialist elements that will not eventually turn into a tyranny. The next step in human evolution will be a society without a "State."
       I want to coach Americans to be great Americans, to be willing to risk "our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor" for the idea of Liberty Under God, as embodied in the prophet Micah's "Vine & Fig Tree" vision. By following Sam Adams' blueprints, each client can become prosperous and admired like America once was.
       I would like to create a business with a team of coaches like Sam Adams, working non-violently to equip Americans to fulfill Micah's prophecy and restore "Liberty Under God" in America.

Can you help me?

Why I am an "Extremist"

Every 4th of July, millions of Americans celebrate a holiday called "Independence Day."

One survey suggests that about 20% of those who watch the fireworks believe that on "Independence Day" America celebrates the freeing of the slaves.

If the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were to travel through time to our day, most Americans would dismiss them as "extremists" or "wacko nut jobs," and the Signers would dismiss most Americans as useless and unpatriotic victims of educational malpractice.
 
America's Founding Fathers believed two things:
1. Their government was a tyranny.
2. They had a right and a duty to abolish tyranny.

To achieve this goal, they risked "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

If the government described in the Declaration of Independence -- a comparatively powerless Christian monarchy -- was a "tyranny," then today's government is an atheistic dictatorship of unimaginable proportions.

A true American is an "extremist" for liberty, an extremist against tyranny.

Liberty Under God

The ideal enshrined in the Declaration of Independence can be summed up in three words: Liberty Under God. On this philosophy America's Founders built a nation which became the most prosperous and admired nation in the history of the world.

America is now bankrupt and despised even by former admirers.

I have risked a great deal to restore "Liberty Under God." In this letter I'd like to ask you to join me.

Most Americans today would not believe that the government in 1776 was a "tyranny." They would not risk anything to abolish it. That government was far more libertarian and Christian than America's government today.

I would join America's Founding Fathers in declaring today's government to be a tyranny, and the necessity of abolishing it.

I would reject the use of armed violence to do so.

I guess this all makes me some kind of "radical" or "extremist."

Useless and Unpatriotic Americans

Consider Sam Adams' words:

Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say "what should be the reward of such sacrifices?" Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
Speech, State House of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1 August 1776)

Do you love wealth more than liberty?

Sam Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock, and other members of "The Sons of Liberty" tossed the tea into the Boston Harbor rather than pay a tax of 3 pence per pound. Today Americans pay TEN TIMES that amount on every gallon of gas. Government today takes nearly two-thirds of everything you earn. Why is it that Americans today place so little value on "Liberty?"

Do you fear "the animated contest of freedom?"

Afraid that your involvement in a politically incorrect movement might bring the IRS down on you? Afraid that pure laissez-faire capitalism would cause your government subsidies to dry up, and force you to accept personal responsibility for your entrepreneurial success -- or failure?

Are you a Victim of Educational Malpractice?

Why is it that most Americans today lack the reading comprehension skills to understand the words of the Declaration of Independence, lack the patriotic maturity to embrace the ideas, and lack the moral courage to fight for them?

Answer: we live in an atheistic dictatorship, where it is illegal to teach children in public schools that the Declaration of Independence is really true. Find out more.

[ back to top ]