Things Unseen

I cannot accept that what we SEE is all that there is because there are things going on inside of me that I can't see that I know are important, that are true, that make my life meaningful:

Thought, knowledge, understanding, love, empathy, compassion, a sense of justice, wonder, awe, worship, gratefulness, and appreciation of beauty…

History Lessons

I am currently reading a book by Jon Meacham about president Andrew Jackson call American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.

Meacham is not a conservative author by any means by I am struck by the content of his book. Our history is so steeped in Christian heritage that he has spent the first one third of the book describing a moral dilemma President Jackson faced in his own cabinet.

Seems one of his cabinet members, John Eaton, married a woman of poor reputation. It was rumored that she had conceived a child through an adulteress affair and had had many male partners in her young life. The scandal played havoc in his first administration.

My observation is this. If we were not a nation guided by Christian morality there would have been no controversy would there? We had very Christian beginnings.

I'm not condoning or condemning the treatment Mrs. Eaton got. I'm saying there would not have been a scandal had there not been high moral standards in that day.

The standard that they embraced and that was thought to be violated was this: sex was to be enjoyed only in the bonds of marriage. Only in the security of a family should a child be born. In Jackson's day there were no social programs to support someone who strayed from the protection of this moral standard. Destitution defined those who did.

It was also considered a lack of character for someone to engage in reckless behavior for such momentary self gratification when the stakes were so high.

We have come a long way. We think nothing of this kind of behavior now and fully expect too write the check for it. In doing this we encourage the bad behavior. All parties are damaged in the process, including the children born.

Since we cannot teach a strict abstinence morality in schools these days, because you know we are not a Christian nation, we can expect you men to feel at liberty with young ladies. The destitution of fatherless children will continue to grow in our country.

If only we could learn from our own history.

I can't end this without making an appeal to young men. I beg you, do not demean and defame the rites of manhood before you have the substance of character to make good on the commitment required to really go "all the way."

Obamacare Patriotism

Couldn't pass this without commenting.

Michael Moore is making foolish and dishonest defense of Obamacare. It is interesting that he is now admitting there will be longer waits for medical care. I don't remember this being mentioned before the bill passed, at least not by Moore.

Michael Moore defends Obamacare and healthcare programs similar to it around the world. Moore says the only "things you maybe have to wait for" are a knee replacement surgery or cataracts.

"Things that are not life-threatening," Moore said on HBO's "Real Time" with host Bill Maher. "The reason why you have to wait sometimes in those countries is they let everybody in the line. We make 50 million people out of the line so the line is shorter, so sometimes you have to wait as long. If you are a patriotic American, you want every American to be covered the same as you. No, not 'I'm going to get ahead because I have health insurance and they don't,'" Michael Moore explained.

The fact is no one was out of the line. Everyone can get medical care in the US even if they do not have insurance. It is not that we are adding 50 million people to the line, it is that we are reducing hundreds of lines to one. Hundreds of private health insurance providers are being whittled down to one, the US government. And thousands of health care providers are being reduced to who knows how few because the incentive to go into the medical profession has been greatly reduce along with the doctor's income potential.

It's not that there are more in line. It's that there will be fewer lines.

So friends, your patiently enduring a bad policy that will certainly hasten our financial ruin is you mark of patriotism.

I would rather think that saving the country from this disastrous bill would be more patriotic.

Shorter waits for medical care are just a bonus.

Spontaneous Patriotism

I love spontaneous patriotism...

Freedom's Holy Light

I was listening to Ravi Zacharias this weekend and he made reference to the fact that freedom is a moral concept. It is entirely a matter of morality. Not only is it a moral concept, it is governed and sustained by morality. Our Founding Fathers saw freedom as a natural extension of their Christian faith. It is the natural setting for the living out of the Christian life but not necessarily fit for any other kind.

“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive of the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren, traditionary faith which seems to vegetate rather than to live in the soul.” (Democracy in America by A. de Tocqueville p306)

In the ancient war between good and evil the advent of freedom on the face of the earth was one of the greatest victories for the cause of good in the whole of man’s history. Before the United States became a nation, the world did not know what civil freedoms looked like. Mankind lived from tyranny to tyranny down through the ages with only brief periods of relief.

The “proposition” that men and women could govern themselves without a sovereign to “manage” them, was born here. We “discovered it” and employed it. In the running of this experiment an additional discovery was made. When men and women are given the chance to pursue a dream of their own conception, they make of themselves much more than they would otherwise have accomplished. And in the pursuit of their dreams they often take others with them to a better life. That is the basis of American freedom, the genesis of the American Dream.

Unfortunately we now have a large group of men and women in government who are more committed to the “management” (tyranny) of men and women than they are to the proposition of American freedom, the cradle of greatness. In the name of helping people they are creating a society that enslaves us and traps us in a “no advancement” situation that will ultimately lead us to the riots we are now seeing in Europe. Out of sheer frustration the population there is striking out at those in a better station of life than they hold. When there is no chance for an individual to step out and channel their energies into realizing a dream, despair is the result. Resentment rises up with its violent cousin vengeance and you have the recipe for a riot.

Those who have a vested interest in tyranny by all means want to stop the revival of morality, especially Christian morality in our culture. I say Christian morality because it is Christian morality that inspired and guided American freedom to greatness. Greatness that is, until we began to abandon this morality in the nineteen sixties. It is Christian principles and truths that truly make men free, a freedom that comes with the burden to do what is right. No honest government has anything to fear from this kind of freedom or morality.

It is the illegitimate kind of government, the one with management of men as its goal, that has something to lose from this kind of morality.

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. Religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack; it is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?” (Ibid p307)

De Tocqueville lays it out pretty clear here. Faith in a moral God who governs in the affairs of men is the only guard to real freedom. But…if it is freedom from morality that we are seeking, the chains of despotism await us. It is important to state here that the opposite could also be said, that monarchs will have something to fear from a people who hold Christian morality in high regard. (King George III is the example here.)

Robert Winthorp, once the speaker of the House of Representatives said of this subject:

"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or a power without them. Either by the Word of God or the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet."

There is a choice before us Americans (and I call you Americans with the greatest of affection and hope of continued greatness), seek what is Good and pursue it or wait submissively for chains to completely master us. Freedom under the guidance of Christian truth is liberty indeed. It leads to the greatness that is the blessing of God.

One more quote from de Tocqueville in which he refers to religion which in this case is most certainly Christianity:

"Liberty regards religion as its companion in all its battles and its triumphs, as the cradle of its infancy and the divine source of its claim. It considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom.”
(Democracy in America- de Tocqueville p 44)

There is no hope of freedom where there is no moral clarity. The clarity to see what is harmful versus what is wholesome to individuals and society. When every citizen has the ability to discern this and act correctly, liberty is assured.

In Ravi Zacharias’ radio message he mentioned the following stanza of My Country Tis of Thee. It sheds light on how we used to understand where freedom came from and how is it sustained.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

There is no earthly reason why we should not entrench freedom in our culture, through Christian moral revival, for us, for our children and grandchildren…for the world. Morality and goodness are not dirty words. They are an assurance of freedom.

Americans, imagine a stranger planning your daughter’s future. Imagine receiving in the mail a letter from a foreign or government official directing your son where to live and where to show up for work on a designated date. We have lived in freedom’s holy light so long we can’t even imagine what the darkness is like.

War Is Not Pro-Life

I thought I had shared this before. If I have, my apologies. It's worth another look. Thought about it while reading over at The Clue Batting Cage.

It is a letter to the editor I wrote back in 2005 that actually got published in our hometown paper about the time the Left was ramping up their anti-war rhetoric. Hope you enjoy.

I was driving to work last week and saw a bumper sticker that I have to take issue with. When I first read it I thought it a clever argument against the War on Terror and conservatives in general. It read “War is not Pro-life.” It seemed like a reasoned argument at first glance. “Wow,” I thought, “how do you respond to that?” After some thought, I realized that it had to be responded to.

The person driving that car probably won’t get this, but I think someone has to remind us that nearly every war, that the United States has been in, has been pro-life. Think about it. The Civil War secured the lives of Black Americans to live in freedom. The First World War secured the lives of millions of Europeans to live in freedom. Ask the Jewish survivors of WWII if that war was pro-life. Ask the Polish, who lived with the Nazi boot on their neck for some four years. The occupied of France would surely agree that WWII was pro-life. The people of southwest Russia, the Czech’s and the Dutch would also agree with me. What about the Korean War? Ask the people of South Korea which side of the 38th Parallel they would rather live on. How about Vietnam? Unfortunately, we lost heart in that war and managed it poorly, so we can’t ask anyone in Vietnam whether or not they were fighting for Life. We made a similar mistake in Desert Storm leaving thousands of Kurds and the Shiites to incur the wrath of Saddam for daring to help us. Just the same, I think I know how the Kuwaiti’s would answer the question. What about the war on terror? Now the Afghanis are free to answer, “Was the war to liberate your country pro-life?” Don’t take my word for it, ask them. Iraq has now been liberated. I wonder who they would say is the most pro-life, Saddam or the U.S.

If we can’t agree that Evil in our time, as in every other, has to be overcome by Good in order to enjoy Life as only free people can, then we are in a crisis of existence. When Evil goes to war Good must engage it on every front or risk extinction. We didn’t ask for this war or want it, but we have to win it.

So after some deliberation I realized that the bumper sticker was a petty slight to conservatives, and more importantly to the men and women fighting to keep us safe and win the freedom of oppressed masses. Americans have developed a time honored and sacred tradition of fighting, bleeding and dying for the freedom of others. It chills my blood to know that some in our country think so little of their sacrifice that they would insult it to try to make a political point.

“That’s all I have to say about that.”

Small Arms Treaty

This is just an addendum to the previous post: Everything's Under Control, Rest Easy Friends

One of the individuals in the Kitchen Table Talk meeting mentioned this treaty and I knew nothing about it. Here is a link to read for yourself about the treaty. BTW I am against any international treaty that encroaches on American freedom. This one appears to be a big over reach.