Month: July 2020

Hopelessly Divided?

America is divided as in no other time since the Civil War. National dissonance has metastasized far beyond political competitiveness. It is now a schism between patriotism and anarchism. Americans are forced to choose between traditional American values and an aggressive movement toward socialist anarchy.

I have tried for months to avoid seeing this movement for what it is, convincing myself that the radical anti-American faction was just a fringe culture–a splinter group. But it has become obvious that half of our nation has aligned with this attack on our traditional values. The moderately conservative Democratic party of a few decades ago is now the socialistic anarchist party of today.

Anarchy may seem to be an over-the-top description of the movement drawing in half of our country, but let’s take a hard look at reality. Anarchy is defined as disorder due to the absence of government authority or simply the absence of order–chaos. It is more than rioting and lawlessness. Here is what it looks like in America today.

  • Democrat leaders refusing to stop constant rioting, killing, and property destruction in most major cities
  • Democrats describing the riots, occupations, and violence as myths
  • Democrat leaders de-funding, restraining, and disestablishing the police
  • Democrats inciting racism by political pandering to minorities
  • Democrat leaders declaring many major cities as sanctuaries for harboring illegal immigrants and criminals
  • Democratic controlled media reporting with a totally liberal bias and censoring conservative voices
  • Democrats paralyzing government with a three-year, $40M investigation of the president based on known contrived evidence
  • Democrats impeaching the president over false claims and doing everything else possible to de-legitimize his presidency
  • Democratic Congressional “Squad” calling for the dismantling of our economy and political system as other Democrats follow their lead
  • Democrats pursuing gun control and confiscation
  • Democrats trying to abolish the electoral system so a few highly populated liberal states would elect every president
  • Democrats by the tens of millions supporting an avowed Socialist presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders
  • Democratic university and high school educators teaching radical social concepts and revisionist history to confused students
  • Democrats holding kangaroo court hearings of the president’s cabinet members with constant attacks while disallowing responses
  • Democrats insisting on trillions more dollars for Covid-19 economic stimulus risking unmanageable national debt for political advantage
  • Democrats using delay tactics to slow the reopening of the economy and suppressing promising drugs
  • Democrats keeping their presidential candidate, Joe Biden, from public appearances to hide his real agenda and lack of capacity for leadership
  • Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, claiming he would be the most progressive (revolutionary) president in history

I could go on, but I’ll stop there. All of these moves are attempts weaken or abolish America as we know it.

Democratic rhetoric and actions of late define anarchy as a demonstration of love, rioting as peaceful protests, civility as weakness, lawlessness as an appropriate objective, destruction of property as a right, and the free market as racist.

I don’t believe there has ever been a time in our nation’s history when the words of Isaiah have been more descriptive: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! …Who justify wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!

The battle for the soul of America has become a battle for the survival of America. We must pray more fervently than ever before for the containment of anarchy in our country. We are not without hope, but victory will only come from the Lord. So pray and act as you are guided. Vote against the attempt to abolish all that our great nation stands for.

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How To Choose Between Two Flawed Men

Which flawed man: Trump or Biden?

Let’s face it, each of the presidential candidates leaves a lot to be desired. Yet we have to choose one to lead the greatest nation in the world for the next four years. If you love your country, you will vote. When you vote, don’t look at the man; look at what the man brings with him. Here are some crucial considerations.

The incumbent president and the former vice president are probably two of the most flawed men to ever run for the sacred office of President of the United States.

One has held elected office in the highest echelons of government for 44 years with little positive impact on anything. He has a reputation of lying and political deception along with other moral issues. He will be the oldest presidential nominee ever. He has serious cognitive issues.

The other is an incurable egotist whom some psychologists would classify as a narcissist. He has a reputation for being untruthful. He has a history of moral failures. He is unpredictable. He entered the presidency as the oldest man to initially occupy the oval office.

All of us are flawed. We are all defective. But Americans expect our choices for president to be less defective than these two. This year in particular, we must not vote for the candidate, but for everything the candidate represents–the principles, platform, world view, influence, and ideology that will be ensconced with the position. This election is not about who is worthy of the position, but what the position will do for America and for each of us and our families.

Furthermore, each of these flawed men will be heavily influenced by and obligated to a lot of other powerful people. One will give attention to and favor the far left socialist factions of our nation. The other will listen to and lean toward the extreme conservatives. These relationships will heavily influence judicial nominations, foreign affairs, domestic policy, government control, federal spending, and social programs. We must choose which half of a divided America will have the greatest access to the White House.

So, as you watch, listen, and read about these two flawed men, think beyond the two individuals. Think about which individual will move America closer to the nation you want it to be.

Please “like” this post and share it with your friends. For more thoughts on this topic highlighting differences in specific issues, scroll down to my post, “Vote Your World View,” June 22, 2020.

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The First Three Seconds of Every Day

Highlighted in the Bible amid a lengthy lineage of Judah’s descendants is the prayer of an otherwise innocuous man named Jabez. The short appeal to God screams for our attention by its unique position in a rather boring ancestry list. We can condense the prayer into even fewer words that can be whispered in three seconds: God, gift me, guide me, and guard me. Let’s look at what those three seconds can mean.

The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life is a book familiar to many. It was written by Bruce Wilkinson in 2000. In the book, Wilkinson encourages every Christian to invoke this prayer on a daily basis. I’ve never been very fond of scripted prayers. I’m not even totally comfortable with group recitations of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus offered it as a model prayer but not necessarily what He desires to hear repeated verbatim. Even though I prayed the prayer of Jabez a few times after reading the book, I feel like God seeks and honors outpouring from my own heart in words that I originate–a personal conversation.

I believe it is also important to start our day, the moment we awake, with a deliberate acknowledgement of dependence on our Creator. The first opening of your eyes in the morning is a moment of just you and God. Failing to immediately greet Him is like meeting your best friend without even acknowledging his or her presence.

But rising out of bed and slipping into a robe while still in a fog might not be the best time for a meaningful God-and-you conversation. Then is when a simple “God, please gift me, guide me, and guard me today” sentence prayer makes a first priority connection with the first priority in your life.

Later in the morning, during a reserved quite time or multiple pauses in activity, you can attach more detail in your own words to the three parts of the three-second prayer. For example:

  • Gift me: Lord grant me wisdom and success while giving me the opportunity to speak into someone’s life and minister to them today.
  • Guide me: Show me your direction for my every move and decision and let me see this world as You see it.
  • Guard me: Protect me from anyone and anything that would harm me, then keep me from hurting others in any way.

A prayer-centered life with a structure something like this will help you begin to have a right heart, a right mindset, and a right relationship with the Lord and others. It will bring you joy, peace, contentment, and confidence for which God created you. Try it this week. Start it in the first three seconds of every day.

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What Has Really Caused Racism in America?

Decrying everyone and everything associated with slavery, the Confederacy, and all things white and capitalist is ignoring the real cause of modern racism in America. The plight of African Americans today has little to do with antebellum America and the Civil War but everything to do with a more recent divisive cultural and economic shift.

I realize I’m going precariously out on a limb here, but I am compelled to offer what I believe has ignited the present racial unrest in America. The protesting, rioting, violence, and borderline anarchy is being blamed on centuries of oppression and lack of justice for black Americans. There has been a history of oppression and injustice. But that is only a small piece of the racism puzzle. What is missing is an unbiased view of this history.

Slavery is despicable. Every American should be ashamed of it. But in the minds and hearts of most 18th and 19th century Americans, it was an economic necessity–the way of life with a world history of thousands of years. Almost every nation on earth practiced slavery until a couple of centuries ago. Our founding fathers owned slaves, but they felt the moral obligation to craft a Constitution that guaranteed eventual liberty for all. And, just eight decades after the Revolutionary War, the US honored the Constitution’s intent by proclaiming emancipation for all slaves.

When the 15th Amendment gave blacks the right to vote in 1870, almost all of them registered Republican. Unfortunately, for the next several years, southern Democrats delayed and disrupted the rights of blacks in constant political battles with Republicans determined to institutionalize their blood-bought freedom. Despite the Democratic push-back, brilliant and tenacious blacks made major headway toward equality rising to public office, starting businesses, and leading industrial innovation. It was not until the mid-20th-century civil rights movement that the upward trend in quality of life for blacks began to reverse.

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 fixed some remaining gaps in schooling and employment equality, the Act and the social movement surrounding it began the migration of blacks to the Democratic party sponsoring it. From that point forward, African Americans as a whole have regressed exponentially into poverty, unemployment, family breakup, discrimination, abortion, drugs, criminal activity, substandard education, poor health, and the list goes on. The Democratic response to this social and cultural degradation has for half a century been empty rhetoric, coddling at election time, pervasive welfare programs, forced busing, and affirmative action quotas. All of these moves have been disincentives for achievement and advancement. They have widened the socioeconomic gap between the races keeping the poor, poor with little opportunity for upward mobility.

For examples of the effect of political climate on race relations, look no further than the states and municipalities with the most racial turmoil. Almost all of them have been led by Democrats for years.

The last three years prior to the pandemic abruptly reversed the poverty trend as President Trump’s aggressive conservative policies produced the highest employment rate and best economic opportunity that most black Americans had ever experienced in their lifetimes. Sadly, though, when Covid-19 knocked the whole country on its keister, the short-lived gain was insufficient to suppress the pent-up frustration from decades of inequality and subjugation for blacks. The white on black police killings were just the fuse for what was ready to explode.

Therefore, the cancel-culture vandalism of monuments, denouncing of certain symbols, and endless demands for name changes are actions that fail to recognize the real problem. The misguided focus on slavery as blame for the current racial crisis is from one of two causes:

  • Little understanding of historical fact, or
  • Understanding but refusal to deal with historical fact

The answer to racism is a change of heart on the part of all Americans, black and white, to a genuine respect for all humans. It would require a reality check from everyone. Sadly, such a change is difficult and unlikely in a culture in which the vast majority of blacks is bound to one political philosophy and party–a party that promotes a twisted view of history and an assumption of black loyalty.

For more on this topic, scroll down to my June 1, 2020, post, “Which Party Presents the Best Opportunity for African Americans?”

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Still Reason to Celebrate America’s Birthday

This 4th of July has every reason to be a not-so-celebrative birthday of our nation. On her last birthday, we could not have imagined the regrettable state of the union on her next. However, as in the birthday of a loved one who is ill, we are not celebrating the present condition, but the birth and life that we love, respect, and remember.

This weekend, let us shift our focus from corona virus, rioting, the economy, and political division to the fundamental goodness of America. This birthday celebrates the founding of the greatest country in the history of mankind based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are still a people who value life more than any other society in the world despite the tragic abortions and homicides. We still enjoy freedoms almost to a fault despite quarantines and questionable government mandates. We continue to realize happiness in each other and quality of life found nowhere else despite the virus attacks and protests gone amok.

We can survive and thrive on this present journey through a deep dark valley because our forefathers crafted a miraculous declaration of independence followed by a near-perfect constitution 244 years ago. Moreover, because we have a pervasive faith in Almighty God that was the forerunner of our inception four centuries ago, we find the hope and courage to keep charging ahead. We draw strength from our Creator and a history of tenacity and endurance like no other country.

It is critical that we hold a tight grip on our traditional faith and values that guide us through our present troubles. Millions before us paid a high price in blood, sweat, and tears to keep the American dream alive. Any dilution of democratic principle, any acquiescence of liberty, begins a slippery slope toward America’s becoming inconsequential.

This weekend, celebrate not only our nation’s birthday, but also the generations that sacrificially built on that beginning to gift us the greatest country in the history of mankind. It’s future is now on us.

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