Lessons and Takeaways from "Dedication and Leadership"

Everyone:

I have finished reading "Dedication and Leadership".

This book serves as a conservative-style activist primer for those who want to make a difference in their local communities and fight back against the regressive left and the LGBT onslaught which has become all too prevalent in our country.

"Dedication and Leadership" is an extended lecture delivered by Douglas Hyde, an Anglo-Irish freedom fighter who helped establish the Republic of Ireland. Before that, however, he was a dedicated communist, and he worked his way up the ranks of the Communist Party in Great Britain. He also witnessed the efforts and commitments of communist partisans in other parts of the world.

From all of his experience as a former communist, as well as his research into the nature and machinery of the Communist Party, he was able to explain to an audience of Catholics why Communists have been more effective in taking over governments and waging total war to push their ideology, even though there are far fewer of them in the world.

Here are the main points that I have taken away from his lecture, and how the points he brought up can be used to fight against the LGBT agenda, or any other iteration of Marxist evil:

1. Yes, we want people who are fighting this LGBT agenda to realize that they are a part of a much larger movement. They are indeed changing the world, making it a better place.

2. It is so important to give our new members a clear training in what we are trying to do. They do need to get the bigger picture.

a. We are not looking to live in a world where we coexit with evil, but rather to push LGBT out of it entirely.

b. They are not just winning one battle, but we are fighting an all-out war which will be fought in multiple fronts.

3. New members must realize that we are all about making a difference, not just informing people. We are not committed to education, but engagement and change in learning. That is what is happening. At the end of every meeting, goals have to be established: "How are you going to share or practice what you have learned?"

4. LGBT people must be seen as a small yet all-too-powerful enemy which we are standing up against. They are separating us from our fellows, neighbors, and our countrymen as a whole. They are a divisive, bigoted mob, but a small mob, nonetheless.

5. People need to feel that they are helping the hurt, the poor, the downtrodden in some fashion. We have to show the world that we are helping victims, people who have been victimized and bullied.

6. The fight against the LGBT agenda must be presented as a fight of Good vs. Evil. We need people to get this, that we are dealing with an enemy which actively hates us and wants nothing but our harm and demise.

7. People need to see that our side is already the winning side, and they in effect are coming along for the ride. They are going to be part of a much bigger movement which is already taking off. Communists are often taught that Communism is going to be the final government system of man, so they are urged to help hasten it along.

8. The Communists stress having their new members take classes. Perhaps MassResistance should discuss what kind of course or review we can put forward to get people so that they have the basic ideas and ideologies down. They need to understand that this whole LGBT agenda has been pushing a much broader set of goals, and for a much greater time than realized.

9. Douglas Hyde compares the Catholic Church with the Communist Party, and those comparisons are not the most instructive. The Catholic Church has imposed a rigid hierarchy, in which the laity can never become priests, teachers, leaders such as the priests and bishops already are. The constant theme through all the books I have read about organizing and activism is that we want, we urge people to become leaders, to inspire others. That is key, this is crucial. We are not interested in creating a narrow hierarchy at all.

10. Activists should be the best employees in their respective workplaces in order to earn the respect and the regard of their colleagues. "People will not care what you know, until they know that you care." With this line of thinking in mind, perhaps there is some merit to help Carrie Nolland and the Kenyans to set up their well ...

11. Keep being active, and keep the team of activists active doing meaningful things. This is why it's worth our while to help with causes that we may not win, but we can at least create and grow a strong sense of camaraderie and connection. Hence, it's worth our while to keep connecting with others even during this Coronavirus problem.

12. It's important to give the activists realizable goals, even if they are relatively small, while pushing harder for the larger goals.

13. Activists should not be afraid to make mistakes and to fail, but they should also be trained, be prepared to learn from their mistakes.

14. Whatever we share, write, or publish to the public, must be clearly understandable--no "in-house" jargon.

15. Educate, agitate, organize -- that's what every report that MassResistance shares should do.

16. Let's not focus on making a big impression, but spreading the ideals that we are fighting for.

17. Find points of agreement with people whom we are trying to convert to our side, rather than pointing out to them directly that they are wrong. We have to show people that we are on their side, and want to help the in whatever way we can.

18. Most people look at challenges are problems in the world, and ask "What is someone going to do about this?" Leaders ask instinctively: "What can I do about this?" We want to instill and inculcate in people that they can and must do something about stopping this LGBT perversity in their midst.

White House Wrap-Up: New Hampshire Opioid Crisis and Visit from Irish Prime Minister

What’s troubling New Hampshire 
New Hampshire has had the second highest rate of opioid-involved overdose deaths in the Nation since 2014. A poll conducted last year found that drugs were the biggest problem facing the Granite State—the first time in the poll’s history that a majority named any single issue as the most important.

Today, President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump travel to Manchester, New Hampshire. The President will address America’s opioid epidemic at Manchester Community College and discuss his Administration’s initiative to stop opioid abuse and reduce drug supply and demand, which has four components:

1. Address the driving forces of the opioid crisis, including over-prescription, illicit drug supplies, and insufficient access to evidence-based treatment.

2. Reduce demand and over-prescription in part by educating Americans about the dangers of opioid and other drug use.

3. Cut off the supply of illicit drugs by cracking down on international and domestic supply chains that devastate American communities.

4. Help those struggling with addiction through evidence-based treatment and recovery support services.

Watch live as the President addresses the opioid crisis at 2:40 p.m. ET today.

Learn more: How America will win the war on opioid addiction

New frontiers 
Last week, President Trump took time during a cross-country trip to the U.S.-Mexico border to address military service members at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.

The President touched on many themes, including thanking our hardworking military men and women for their service and dedication to the cause. He also charted a path forward, echoing themes from his National Space Council—a group chaired by Vice President Mike Pence that the President resurrected after a 24-year hiatus.

“From the very beginning, many of our astronauts have been soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen and Marines,” the President said. “We're going to lead the way in space.”

Watch President Trump’s speech to service members at Miramar.

Infrastructure: The Federal role 
The Federal Government provides important infrastructure funding, but it often does so inefficiently and with numerous restrictions. Washington depends on taxpayers at the state and local level, yet Federal funding is too often directed by priorities of those inside the Beltway.

President Trump proposes to fix this problem by maintaining the traditional balance of Federal and non-Federal funding, while investing in a way that stretches every dollar and delivers on local needs. His proposal will keep existing Federal funding in place, including for the Highway Trust Fund.

The President’s plan would improve on existing policy by directing half of Federal funds to an Incentives Program for State and local applicants. This system keeps infrastructure decisions out of the D.C. bureaucracy and in State and local hands.

Learn more: What you need to know about infrastructure funding

PHOTO OF THE DAY

President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar of Ireland | March 15, 2018 (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

POTUS TODAY

This morning, after receiving his daily intelligence briefing, President Trump will travel to Manchester Community College to deliver remarks on combatting the opioid crisis.

There is No Such Things as a "Post-Christian" Culture

"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure"(Isaiah 46:10)

After the voters in the Republic of Ireland voted for "gay" marriage by a landslide (much of fomented by larger donations from massive corporate sponsors), one writer suggested thatIreland had entered a "post-Christian" phase, and needs to be brought back to the Gospel and its Christian roots.

I applaud the daring of the pastors and their willingness to challenge the decadent secularism which has engulfed the Emerald Isle.

But the notion that Ireland, or any nation, can be "post-Christian" is absurd.

First of all, what do they mean by "post-Christian"?

The argument from the secular, regressive left is that Christianity, Christian doctrine, and any recognition of God and the divine are signs of a backward, regressive culture.

"We don't need GOD. We just need to try harder to fix ourselves!"

"Man is perfectible, but he needs help from others, particularly the government, to make people better."

"The state, the general will, the voice of the people is what makes us right."

And of  course, this chilling argument:

"Our rights come from the government, and the better people that we would put in charge of our affairs, the better we will all be."

There is one big problem with this line of thinking: reality.

We are creatures. We are a creation. We have a CREATOR.

We did not make ourselves, as the Psalmist gleefully declares:

1{A Psalm of praise.} Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

2Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100: 1-3)

Furthemore, how can there be anything "Post-Christian" or more specifically, "post-Christ"?

There is no future without Christ, for He determines our paths, and has declared all things.

Notice what Isaiah prophesied, how God declares "The end from the beginning."

He can tell what will happen, and start from that point, and work backwards.

Time is just a plaything to him, like silly puddy, or any other form of matter. Time is not an inexorable force or facet of existence outside of His Power.

He is before all things, and there is nothing that will be after Him:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)

His very name, translated YHWH that God was, is, and always will be:

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)

What does this revelation mean to us?

We are members of the Body of Christ are not fighting from a position of weakness. We are not climbing from the bottom of a hill and attempting to retake the summit.

We already have the high ground--in fact, we have the highest because we are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-6)

And He lives in us (Colossians 1:27)

We need to stop looking at the political landscape, our fallen world, and the deceived culture around us.

The truth is, that there are many who have not heard the truth. A Christian nation by tradition does not remain a Christian nation without Faith. And faith does not come about by osmosis. We grow in our faith in God and embrace Christian truths as we hearing and keeping hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17)

If a nation does not believe in Jesus, it's not that they are "post-Christian", but rather that they are pre-Christian, and need to see Jesus and hear the Good News!ood News!