I know indeed how much everyone loves to pile on Republicans.
It's George W. Bush's fault. I voted for the guy because he was one degree better than John Kerry. The closer the 2004 election approached, the more reserved my support became for Bush 43.
One college friend told me during the 2000 election that George W. Bush was more liberal than McCain. After McCain-Feingold on campaign contributions, and McCain-Lieberman on global warming, and McCain-Kennedy on immigration reform, I did not believe that there could be a more liberal Republican than George W. Bush.
I was sadly mistaken.
From subsidies to major companies, to giving more to seniors in Medicare Part D, to No Child Left Behind, to the invasion of Terry Schiavo's final months, to domestic wiretapping, to easy credit, to Homeland Security, to Afghanistan and Iraq, to surges in America's Middle East forces, George W. Bush was a Democrat, spending money that this nation did not have on resources and projects that we did not need, to people and corporations who did not deserve them.
George W. Bush was a Democrat, and President Obama is doing the same things that Bush did. Because President Obama ran for President as a Democrat, because there is no difference in his party's platform and his actions, President Obama does not elicit as much controversy or inquiry from his base or the press. Of course, the "Mainstream Media" have been gushing over President Obama since he was elected US Senator out of Illinois in 2004. He is a media-hyped amalgam of race-baiting rhetoric, progressive exuberance, and youthful narcissism.
President Obama is the culmination of the multi-cultural Facebook legacy, in which style and hope has replaced substance and faith. Instead of looking at the state as the result of man's ingenuity and a response to values, the government is the author and finisher of man's time, place, and purpose. George W. Bush laid the fire and the wood, but President Obama has inducted the slim majority of voters into the cult of the state. As high priest, he can command loyalty to his cause, because his fans, his supporters, now his worshippers, will not feel conflicted or hypocritical about the preeminence of Big Government.
George W. Bush was a Democrat, but he ran for office as a Republican. President Obama is a Democrat, ran for office as a Democrat, and has furthered Bush's policies without any resistance from his base or from media and political elites.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
South Bay United Teachers: "Where Are You?"
In the past two years, South Bay residents have read about "major" stories about dissed and dismissed educators. These teachers and coaches went out of their way to perform for their students, so that they could succeed later in life. No matter what background students hail from, no matter how well-off their parents may be, the growing disrespect toward teachers, along with rising student drug use and deviance in the South Bay, should alarm residents.
"Bullying" has become a major topic in the press and public education. From school shootings to harassment of minorities, intimidation and retaliation are getting more attention, yet teachers and coaches are getting harassed, too, and no one seems to care. "South Bay United Teachers" represents Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Centinela Valley teachers, yet more often than not it appears that SBUT has been MIA on behalf of their members.
Redondo Beach Unified has had its share of drama. Paul White was a nationally recognized teacher who had taken charge at West Valley Leadership Academy, where 80 percent of students graduated, a third higher than the average for the Los Angeles area. His credentials impressed Redondo Beach district leadership enough to hire him for the South Bay Adult School, where White put a stop to promiscuous sexual activity and drug use rampant among students. Yet after ten weeks on the job, district administration with campus security confronted him, informed him that they were placing him on administrative leave, and required him to turn over all access to his classroom and position. On leave for eight months, White received his full salary along with benefits, then he was released on July 1, 2011.
Varsity Basketball coach Tom Maier had a successful career at Redondo Union High School. After eleven years with a 197-111 record, Maier was dismissed without warning. According to Maier, parents were abusing his staff and the team's opponents in basketball games. Even though the principal had issued a gag-order, the abusive parents and their kids never let up. One student actually assaulted the coach, but nothing was done about it. One parent explained that his son came home in tears, then criticized the coach because Maier was not "nurturing enough", and he "mentor" the student.
Maier's final comment foreshadows the drama that Mira Costa's baseball coach Cassidy Olson would face (more on Olson later):
“They[school administration] gave me no help with the situation. I’ve become one of many coaches at the high school level victimized by parents and the administrators who succumb to them.”
At the end of the 2011-2012 year, Redondo Beach Unified School District informed music teacher Scott Sutherland that they would not renew his contract for the next year. According to The Daily Breeze, Sutherland had issued an "impassioned" email to the district officials about a construction project. Sutherland later apologized for his email. Nevertheless, he received a "needs improvement" mark on his teaching evaluation, which was enough to deny him tenure after two years of vastly improving the music program at Parras Middle School. Despite a massive protest from parents and students, Sutherland was forced to leave.
Someone needs to ask Redondo Beach Teachers Association President Monica Joyce: "Where are you?"
Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association (MBUTA) has faced off against a district leadership with mixed priorities. First, the district splurged on Ipads, while the teachers had gone without a raise in five years. Next, the school board contracted out retired administrators with five figure salaries to do the jobs which the current leadership was supposed to be doing. Now Mira Costa baseball coach Cassidy Olson has been sanctioned because a handful of irate parents are "defending" their children from his "abuse".
Karl Kurz is the president of the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association (MBUTA). How come his members are facing a culture of hostility? District money goes to non-essentials at the expense of the teachers and the students. When will the MBUTA ask Kurz: "Where are you?"
Centinela Valley Union High School District is the "Valley of Elah" when it comes to abused teachers. Donald Flaherty, the former Hawthorne High School band director, got the boot for standing up to corrupt district administration. Then Principal Vince Bravo of Lawndale High School got promoted, transferred, and then demoted, only to resign in undeserved and undisclosed disgrace. Many CV teachers complained about district leadership, only to receive involuntary transfers or unsuitable assignments per their credential. The CVUTA changed leadership two years ago, then changed again, but has the abuse and disrespect of qualified personnel dissipated?
Jack Foreman, President of the CVSTA, where are you? It seems that CVUHDS teachers are not getting the union representation that they deserve. They have to pay their dues, stand down with their union, but when tenured staff get pushed into a corner, more often than not the district wins. From irate parents to abusive students to inadequate pay to poor district leadership splurging on unnecessary innovations at the expense of the teachers, every educator in the South Bay should be asking the South Bay United Teachers : "Where are you?"
"Bullying" has become a major topic in the press and public education. From school shootings to harassment of minorities, intimidation and retaliation are getting more attention, yet teachers and coaches are getting harassed, too, and no one seems to care. "South Bay United Teachers" represents Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Centinela Valley teachers, yet more often than not it appears that SBUT has been MIA on behalf of their members.
Redondo Beach Unified has had its share of drama. Paul White was a nationally recognized teacher who had taken charge at West Valley Leadership Academy, where 80 percent of students graduated, a third higher than the average for the Los Angeles area. His credentials impressed Redondo Beach district leadership enough to hire him for the South Bay Adult School, where White put a stop to promiscuous sexual activity and drug use rampant among students. Yet after ten weeks on the job, district administration with campus security confronted him, informed him that they were placing him on administrative leave, and required him to turn over all access to his classroom and position. On leave for eight months, White received his full salary along with benefits, then he was released on July 1, 2011.
Varsity Basketball coach Tom Maier had a successful career at Redondo Union High School. After eleven years with a 197-111 record, Maier was dismissed without warning. According to Maier, parents were abusing his staff and the team's opponents in basketball games. Even though the principal had issued a gag-order, the abusive parents and their kids never let up. One student actually assaulted the coach, but nothing was done about it. One parent explained that his son came home in tears, then criticized the coach because Maier was not "nurturing enough", and he "mentor" the student.
Maier's final comment foreshadows the drama that Mira Costa's baseball coach Cassidy Olson would face (more on Olson later):
“They[school administration] gave me no help with the situation. I’ve become one of many coaches at the high school level victimized by parents and the administrators who succumb to them.”
At the end of the 2011-2012 year, Redondo Beach Unified School District informed music teacher Scott Sutherland that they would not renew his contract for the next year. According to The Daily Breeze, Sutherland had issued an "impassioned" email to the district officials about a construction project. Sutherland later apologized for his email. Nevertheless, he received a "needs improvement" mark on his teaching evaluation, which was enough to deny him tenure after two years of vastly improving the music program at Parras Middle School. Despite a massive protest from parents and students, Sutherland was forced to leave.
Someone needs to ask Redondo Beach Teachers Association President Monica Joyce: "Where are you?"
Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association (MBUTA) has faced off against a district leadership with mixed priorities. First, the district splurged on Ipads, while the teachers had gone without a raise in five years. Next, the school board contracted out retired administrators with five figure salaries to do the jobs which the current leadership was supposed to be doing. Now Mira Costa baseball coach Cassidy Olson has been sanctioned because a handful of irate parents are "defending" their children from his "abuse".
Karl Kurz is the president of the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association (MBUTA). How come his members are facing a culture of hostility? District money goes to non-essentials at the expense of the teachers and the students. When will the MBUTA ask Kurz: "Where are you?"
Centinela Valley Union High School District is the "Valley of Elah" when it comes to abused teachers. Donald Flaherty, the former Hawthorne High School band director, got the boot for standing up to corrupt district administration. Then Principal Vince Bravo of Lawndale High School got promoted, transferred, and then demoted, only to resign in undeserved and undisclosed disgrace. Many CV teachers complained about district leadership, only to receive involuntary transfers or unsuitable assignments per their credential. The CVUTA changed leadership two years ago, then changed again, but has the abuse and disrespect of qualified personnel dissipated?
Jack Foreman, President of the CVSTA, where are you? It seems that CVUHDS teachers are not getting the union representation that they deserve. They have to pay their dues, stand down with their union, but when tenured staff get pushed into a corner, more often than not the district wins. From irate parents to abusive students to inadequate pay to poor district leadership splurging on unnecessary innovations at the expense of the teachers, every educator in the South Bay should be asking the South Bay United Teachers : "Where are you?"
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Rhode Island: I Now Pronounce You Indebted and Bankrupt
So, marriage equality is all the rage these days in Providence. Who knows if Divine Providence in the Heavens and throughout the Earth would be inclined to agree, or would decline to permit such a standard.
Governor Lincoln Chafee runs a state with the highest unemployment, the worst business climate, and the most pressing pension obligations in the country, and he wants to let people of the same sex tie the knot? Why not undo the heavy burdens marriage in the first place by wholly removing the government from holy matrimony? Besides, tying the knot is not a prerogative of the government. Marriage does not belong to the state, and there is no state less qualified to discuss commitment about anything that Rhode Island. The Ocean State political class has not been faithful to her share-holders, her taxpayers, and even the many people who are barely making it on whatever they can get from public thievery or private charity.
Marriage, like the rearing of our children or the feeding of men and women, does not belong to the government. The first time that civil unions were instituted ("civil union" is a euphemism since any growth or encroachment of the government into a higher institution is neither civil nor unified), the Prussian "Iron Chancellor" Otto von Bismarck created it because he was fighting against the political power of the Catholic church in the German states. In a domestic policy move which historians have termed "Kulturkampf", or "culture war", Bismarck wanted to remove the private authority of the separate Catholic authority over the unions of men and women. As a matter course, the notion of two men or two women marrying each other was unimaginable in the mid-to-late 1800's
Unlike the Catholic priests in the German states, Protestant ministers were paid by the German princes or the regional governments. Hence, there was no real religious liberty in Germany for decades, aside from the Catholic churches, where congregants did not respect the religious preeminence in their prince or their king. Instead, they regarded the traditions of their church communities and the preeminence of the Pope. Bismarck would not brook any dissent in his planned unified Germany, so he required that Prussian couples receive a license from the state in order to "tie the knot".
Bismarck wanted to subjugate the Catholic Church as a crowning achievement for the unification of all German states to the Prussian Crown. The Catholic Southern German regions resisted unification, in part because the power base and legacy of regional rule remained strong. Only after the Franco-Prussian War, which pitted an easily-slighted France against the German war-machine, did Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck establish the requisite alliances to bring together all the German states under one federal government. Just to rub it in, King Wilhelm of Prussia was crowned Kaiser Wilhelm in the "Hall of Mirrors" in Versailles. Following this unification ceremony, civil unions spread throughout the remaining German states.
Bismarck's legacy of government overreach into the private sacrament of marriage continued in the United States. Managing-and-controlling progressives wanted to track the health of individual couples getting married. This insulting policy proceeded from the notion that a man and a woman were so incompetent, that they would blindly marry a blood relative or a spouse with a devastating venereal disease. This nanny-state intervention held a shot gun to the institution, and so marriage licenses were required from the early 1900's to this day.
Today, the vocal gay minority wants to change the definition of marriage and force private institutions to recognize their diverse unions. Another bullying power grab which abuses the power of the state, gay marriage (and straight marriage, for that matter) should not be the battleground of today's culture wars.
Rhode Island founder Roger Williams established his colony on toleration and religious liberty. The state's requirement that all unions be defined, determined, and dedicated by the government is another step away from religious liberty and toward state-sponsored tyranny in the name of "marriage equality" (a malapropism, since a good marriage is not about equality, but mutual submission between partners).
Leaders in the Providence statehouse have no right, reason, nor respect to play Providence in the state of Rhode Island or in anyone's house. Rhode Island leaders should be wedded to divorcing the citizens from the state's outrageous pension obligations instead of stepping to who marries whom.The Ocean State's conservative communities, of which there are more than most politicians or media elites realize, and the Rhode Island GOP should demand that their government respect the institution of marriage and leave it alone. They have no authority to pronounce men and women "man and wife", since the leaders in Providence will have to pronounce their state "indebted and bankrupt" very soon because of their inability to keep their vows to maintain the soundness and stability of Rhode Island.
Governor Lincoln Chafee runs a state with the highest unemployment, the worst business climate, and the most pressing pension obligations in the country, and he wants to let people of the same sex tie the knot? Why not undo the heavy burdens marriage in the first place by wholly removing the government from holy matrimony? Besides, tying the knot is not a prerogative of the government. Marriage does not belong to the state, and there is no state less qualified to discuss commitment about anything that Rhode Island. The Ocean State political class has not been faithful to her share-holders, her taxpayers, and even the many people who are barely making it on whatever they can get from public thievery or private charity.
Marriage, like the rearing of our children or the feeding of men and women, does not belong to the government. The first time that civil unions were instituted ("civil union" is a euphemism since any growth or encroachment of the government into a higher institution is neither civil nor unified), the Prussian "Iron Chancellor" Otto von Bismarck created it because he was fighting against the political power of the Catholic church in the German states. In a domestic policy move which historians have termed "Kulturkampf", or "culture war", Bismarck wanted to remove the private authority of the separate Catholic authority over the unions of men and women. As a matter course, the notion of two men or two women marrying each other was unimaginable in the mid-to-late 1800's
Unlike the Catholic priests in the German states, Protestant ministers were paid by the German princes or the regional governments. Hence, there was no real religious liberty in Germany for decades, aside from the Catholic churches, where congregants did not respect the religious preeminence in their prince or their king. Instead, they regarded the traditions of their church communities and the preeminence of the Pope. Bismarck would not brook any dissent in his planned unified Germany, so he required that Prussian couples receive a license from the state in order to "tie the knot".
Bismarck wanted to subjugate the Catholic Church as a crowning achievement for the unification of all German states to the Prussian Crown. The Catholic Southern German regions resisted unification, in part because the power base and legacy of regional rule remained strong. Only after the Franco-Prussian War, which pitted an easily-slighted France against the German war-machine, did Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck establish the requisite alliances to bring together all the German states under one federal government. Just to rub it in, King Wilhelm of Prussia was crowned Kaiser Wilhelm in the "Hall of Mirrors" in Versailles. Following this unification ceremony, civil unions spread throughout the remaining German states.
Bismarck's legacy of government overreach into the private sacrament of marriage continued in the United States. Managing-and-controlling progressives wanted to track the health of individual couples getting married. This insulting policy proceeded from the notion that a man and a woman were so incompetent, that they would blindly marry a blood relative or a spouse with a devastating venereal disease. This nanny-state intervention held a shot gun to the institution, and so marriage licenses were required from the early 1900's to this day.
Today, the vocal gay minority wants to change the definition of marriage and force private institutions to recognize their diverse unions. Another bullying power grab which abuses the power of the state, gay marriage (and straight marriage, for that matter) should not be the battleground of today's culture wars.
Rhode Island founder Roger Williams established his colony on toleration and religious liberty. The state's requirement that all unions be defined, determined, and dedicated by the government is another step away from religious liberty and toward state-sponsored tyranny in the name of "marriage equality" (a malapropism, since a good marriage is not about equality, but mutual submission between partners).
Leaders in the Providence statehouse have no right, reason, nor respect to play Providence in the state of Rhode Island or in anyone's house. Rhode Island leaders should be wedded to divorcing the citizens from the state's outrageous pension obligations instead of stepping to who marries whom.The Ocean State's conservative communities, of which there are more than most politicians or media elites realize, and the Rhode Island GOP should demand that their government respect the institution of marriage and leave it alone. They have no authority to pronounce men and women "man and wife", since the leaders in Providence will have to pronounce their state "indebted and bankrupt" very soon because of their inability to keep their vows to maintain the soundness and stability of Rhode Island.
Grace, Rainbows, and NJ Governors
Former Democratic New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey stepped down following revelation of an affair with a male staffer. Recently, he was featured in a documentary called “Fall to Grace”. Since coming out of the closet, he has attended seminary and worked with prisoners.
The same documentary ignored the outstanding number of corruption allegations against McGreevey. Instead of coming clean, McGreevey decided to resign from office and hide behind “the rainbow”. His fall into grace did not grace the Garden State with anything more than unstable leadership for the next seven years.
The next governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine, spent one pot of gold, his own, to get elected. Then he wasted the pot of gold at the end of the New Jersey rainbow. Leaving office in disgrace, Corzine spent MF Global’s pot of gold on another set of risky schemes. Instead of a rainbow, Corzine hid behind his ego.
Governor Chris Christie is now cleaning up the mess left by McGreevey and Jon Corzine.
At the end of this colorful governor’s tenure, perhaps he will leave a pot of gold for New Jersey and her residents to enjoy. He sure played a “good luck charm” for the state during Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.
In the Bible, the rainbow is a spectrum which promises no more floods. After Christie’s tenure, whether 2014 or 2018, New Jerseyans hopefully will never be flooded with debt again. Perhaps they will taste the rainbow of economic recovery and deficit reduction in the future.
"I Have a Dream" -- and the More Glorious Reality
Below, I have posted in italics Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.;s "I have a dream" speech. As a Reverend, it appears all too often that he has neglected, or never even knew about, the New Covenant of grace, in which God promises to be a god to every one of us because in Christ all our sins are forgiven, and never again will our sins be remembered.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
What about the American Revolution?
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
Sorry to burst this bubble, but Abraham Lincoln invoked the Emancipation Proclamation to appease European interests who were geared toward supporting the Southern States. The Proclamation is still a noteworthy statement, however, since the first President in US History recognized the freedom of black men and women.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
Segregation and discrimination are evil things. It has been government, whether at the federal level or the local level, which made segregation and discrimination possible. Is the "Negro" truly poor? If he seeks his respect from man, then indeed he will be poor. But if he rests in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, lo and behold the spiritual blessings from within will work their way out. Booker T. Washington did not wait for Washington to play fair. He set about doing good and healing many blacks who had been impoverished and denied access to better opportunities. He did not play 'the white man's game', but he did not try to change the rules, since the wicked hearts of men cannot be changed.
Thomas Sowell's surprising studies have outlined that "persecuted" minorities actually thrive in discriminatory societies! The grace of God has indeed appeared to all men, and those who suffer at the hands of man will find that the gifts of righteousness and abundance of grace are there for the taking in Christ.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The Framers of the Constitution did not honor all men as created equal. The defining expansions of "man" has included women and men and women of "color". What is man? He is defined by the spirit, not by his color, not by his culture, not by his character. He is either dead in Adam, or he is alive in Christ.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
The assumption that the state, or the country, owes on group of people is offensive and dangerous. Governments are instituted among men to protect the rights of men. No one should treat this expectation as a promise, but the conditions of a contract.
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
Men are not God's children until they receive the spirit of adoption. This fraught division of men, that we are born into a dead flesh desiring life and rest, but this rest is the real promise, which we receive through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
Equality of opportunity, equality of results, or equality of confusion? Equality has created more problems than it has solved. Right and wrong cannot manifest in a world which prizes equality, for truth necessarily implies that other ideas, other stances are not only wrong, but discouraged. Furthermore, imposing equality necessitates and abridgment of freedom. Instead of fighting for ones' rights, the sleights of men will be sleight indeed in the face of God's superabounding grace.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
"My people": how condescending can you get? Does he own them? Does he speak for all of them? I do agree that a desire for freedom should not make anyone bitter of hateful, but the freedom that man needs will not be found in Washington, the state capital, or even the city hall:
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8: 32)
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
I wonder if Dr. King ever read the following psalm:
"The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psalm 110: 1)
As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4: 17), and in the deepest persecution, His death at the Cross, the grace of God was revealed to the world, and He was glorified as the First born of many, the First born from the dead. It's one thing to fight for our rights, but it is far more glorious indeed to rest in our righteousness and let God the Father fight our battles for us!
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
"We, we, we, we", a corporate form of "I, I, I". "We can never be satisfied." Absolutely, no one should rejoice in iniquity, not one bit. Every one of us should commend the entire Southern Baptist Christian League, but let us remember that the focus is Christ, not the "Christian", nor the Southern Baptist, nor any other human league.
"Robbed of their selfhood" This is wrong! No one, not one person, can take your respect away, and thus for that reason men and women can rise up and say "enough!"
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. -- This is a great statement.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Freedom starts from within: Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 2) Even the German thinker Hegel admitted that before there is any revolution, there must be a reformation, a change from within which knows and believes that man is meant to be free, not meant to be enslaved. This truth comes not through protests or intellectual achievement, but is a self-evident truth from God.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8: 36)
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
What about the American Revolution?
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
Sorry to burst this bubble, but Abraham Lincoln invoked the Emancipation Proclamation to appease European interests who were geared toward supporting the Southern States. The Proclamation is still a noteworthy statement, however, since the first President in US History recognized the freedom of black men and women.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
Segregation and discrimination are evil things. It has been government, whether at the federal level or the local level, which made segregation and discrimination possible. Is the "Negro" truly poor? If he seeks his respect from man, then indeed he will be poor. But if he rests in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, lo and behold the spiritual blessings from within will work their way out. Booker T. Washington did not wait for Washington to play fair. He set about doing good and healing many blacks who had been impoverished and denied access to better opportunities. He did not play 'the white man's game', but he did not try to change the rules, since the wicked hearts of men cannot be changed.
Thomas Sowell's surprising studies have outlined that "persecuted" minorities actually thrive in discriminatory societies! The grace of God has indeed appeared to all men, and those who suffer at the hands of man will find that the gifts of righteousness and abundance of grace are there for the taking in Christ.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The Framers of the Constitution did not honor all men as created equal. The defining expansions of "man" has included women and men and women of "color". What is man? He is defined by the spirit, not by his color, not by his culture, not by his character. He is either dead in Adam, or he is alive in Christ.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
The assumption that the state, or the country, owes on group of people is offensive and dangerous. Governments are instituted among men to protect the rights of men. No one should treat this expectation as a promise, but the conditions of a contract.
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
Men are not God's children until they receive the spirit of adoption. This fraught division of men, that we are born into a dead flesh desiring life and rest, but this rest is the real promise, which we receive through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
Equality of opportunity, equality of results, or equality of confusion? Equality has created more problems than it has solved. Right and wrong cannot manifest in a world which prizes equality, for truth necessarily implies that other ideas, other stances are not only wrong, but discouraged. Furthermore, imposing equality necessitates and abridgment of freedom. Instead of fighting for ones' rights, the sleights of men will be sleight indeed in the face of God's superabounding grace.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
"My people": how condescending can you get? Does he own them? Does he speak for all of them? I do agree that a desire for freedom should not make anyone bitter of hateful, but the freedom that man needs will not be found in Washington, the state capital, or even the city hall:
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8: 32)
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
I wonder if Dr. King ever read the following psalm:
"The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psalm 110: 1)
As Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4: 17), and in the deepest persecution, His death at the Cross, the grace of God was revealed to the world, and He was glorified as the First born of many, the First born from the dead. It's one thing to fight for our rights, but it is far more glorious indeed to rest in our righteousness and let God the Father fight our battles for us!
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
"We, we, we, we", a corporate form of "I, I, I". "We can never be satisfied." Absolutely, no one should rejoice in iniquity, not one bit. Every one of us should commend the entire Southern Baptist Christian League, but let us remember that the focus is Christ, not the "Christian", nor the Southern Baptist, nor any other human league.
"Robbed of their selfhood" This is wrong! No one, not one person, can take your respect away, and thus for that reason men and women can rise up and say "enough!"
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. -- This is a great statement.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Freedom starts from within: Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 2) Even the German thinker Hegel admitted that before there is any revolution, there must be a reformation, a change from within which knows and believes that man is meant to be free, not meant to be enslaved. This truth comes not through protests or intellectual achievement, but is a self-evident truth from God.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8: 36)
Litany at the Tomb of Frederick Douglass -- A Criticism
MartÃn Espada
Poet, Essayist, Editor & Translator
Poet, Essayist, Editor & Translator
Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York
November 7, 2008
This is the longitude and latitude of the impossible;
this is the epicenter of the unthinkable;
this is the crossroads of the unimaginable:
the tomb of Frederick Douglass, three days after the election.
Political poetry has good and bad to it. Because of the conflicting nature of polics and ethnic identity, the program can shut itself off from many readers who may or may not identity with its values or its import.
"Three days after the election" -- which election? The President of the United States is elected, or reelected, every four years. The very nature of the political process ensures that these dynamic changes are not magnetic or tectonic. The Framers did not want the American electorate to tie up their hopes in one man, or in any government. Their final instrument, the Constitution, intended for power to be frustrated in the minds of the few and diffused to the hands of the many.
Political poetry has good and bad to it. Because of the conflicting nature of polics and ethnic identity, the program can shut itself off from many readers who may or may not identity with its values or its import.
"Three days after the election" -- which election? The President of the United States is elected, or reelected, every four years. The very nature of the political process ensures that these dynamic changes are not magnetic or tectonic. The Framers did not want the American electorate to tie up their hopes in one man, or in any government. Their final instrument, the Constitution, intended for power to be frustrated in the minds of the few and diffused to the hands of the many.
This is a world spinning away from the gravity of centuries,
where the grave of a fugitive slave has become an altar.
Frederick Douglass would likely be appalled at such affirmation, or deification. Frederick Douglass was not the self-righteous partisan which modern politics has depicted. The world is spinning away, all right, but more like the "widening and widening in the gyre" foretold by William Butler Yeats in the Second Coming.
Frederick Douglass would likely be appalled at such affirmation, or deification. Frederick Douglass was not the self-righteous partisan which modern politics has depicted. The world is spinning away, all right, but more like the "widening and widening in the gyre" foretold by William Butler Yeats in the Second Coming.
This is the tomb of a man born as chattel, who taught himself to read in secret,
scraping the letters in his name with chalk on wood; now on the anvil-flat stone
a campaign button fills the O in Douglass.The button says: Obama.
Has poetry been reduced to impolitic political soundbytes? Really? Someone need to remind this poety that Douglass was a free-thinking abolitionist, but he would be appalled at the expansive, expensive welfare state which has brought minorities, including blacks, into a different bondage of servitude.
Has poetry been reduced to impolitic political soundbytes? Really? Someone need to remind this poety that Douglass was a free-thinking abolitionist, but he would be appalled at the expansive, expensive welfare state which has brought minorities, including blacks, into a different bondage of servitude.
This is the tomb of a man in chains, who left his fingerprints
on the slavebreaker’s throat so the whip would never carve his back again;
Yes, Douglass fought against Edward Covey, but not because he was a "black" man, but because he was a man made in God's image. He may have been a slave in form, but he was no longer a "slave in fact". He stopped identifying the denigrating slaveowners' depiction of himself.
Yes, Douglass fought against Edward Covey, but not because he was a "black" man, but because he was a man made in God's image. He may have been a slave in form, but he was no longer a "slave in fact". He stopped identifying the denigrating slaveowners' depiction of himself.
now a labor union T-shirt drapes itself across the stone, offered up
by a nurse, a janitor, a bus driver. A sticker on the sleeve says: I Voted Today.
Labor unions are as cruel, if not as overt, as plantation owners. They take away a man's livelihood with compulsory union dues, then they spend the money on candidates and causes which most of the men and women do not support. It's wage slavocracy, to say the least.
Labor unions are as cruel, if not as overt, as plantation owners. They take away a man's livelihood with compulsory union dues, then they spend the money on candidates and causes which most of the men and women do not support. It's wage slavocracy, to say the least.
This is the tomb of a man who rolled his call to arms off the press,
peering through spectacles at the abolitionist headline; now a newspaper
spreads above his dates of birth and death. The headline says: Obama Wins.
President Obama has subjugated the very Constitution and rule of law which Douglass cherished. This fatuous peaen to race as identity is offensive and effusive in self-congratulatory praise.
Honestly, is there any merit in praising one black President who has done more harm than good to African-American citizens in this country?
President Obama has subjugated the very Constitution and rule of law which Douglass cherished. This fatuous peaen to race as identity is offensive and effusive in self-congratulatory praise.
Honestly, is there any merit in praising one black President who has done more harm than good to African-American citizens in this country?
This is the stillness at the heart of the storm that began in the body
of the first slave, dragged aboard the first ship to America. Yellow leaves
descend in waves, and the newspaper flutters on the tomb, like the sails
There is no stillness, sir. The stillness of a tomb speaks of the only great equalizer, or emancipator, ad that would be Death. Darker than color, the more potent prejudice, which offends man because something deeper than ethnic pride insists that "death is wrong", yet death laughs at the "Black and Brown power" of academic elites and marauding gangs.
There is no stillness, sir. The stillness of a tomb speaks of the only great equalizer, or emancipator, ad that would be Death. Darker than color, the more potent prejudice, which offends man because something deeper than ethnic pride insists that "death is wrong", yet death laughs at the "Black and Brown power" of academic elites and marauding gangs.
Douglass saw in the bay, like the eyes of a slave closing to watch himself
escape with the tide. Believers in spirits would see the pages trembling
on the stone and say: look how the slave boy teaches himself to read.
Believers in spirits? This poet admitted that he haas not faith in the Divine, but he has faith in the inane notion that a man is defined by the color of his skin. The slave boy was taught to read with the help of a sympathetic white boy in Baltimore, yet I suppose this poet left that white element blank because it does not fit in with the self-glorification of race at the expense of the true spirit of man.
Believers in spirits? This poet admitted that he haas not faith in the Divine, but he has faith in the inane notion that a man is defined by the color of his skin. The slave boy was taught to read with the help of a sympathetic white boy in Baltimore, yet I suppose this poet left that white element blank because it does not fit in with the self-glorification of race at the expense of the true spirit of man.
I say a prayer, the first in years: that here we bury what we call
the impossible, the unthinkable, the unimaginable, now and forever. Amen.
This man prays, but to what? Within himself, like the rich young ruler, or the older one who was rich towards men but poor towards God? The poet is praying to himself, and thus he is praying to no one. With God, nothing is impossible. Without God, without the Divine, there is nothing indeed but an empty tomb.
This man prays, but to what? Within himself, like the rich young ruler, or the older one who was rich towards men but poor towards God? The poet is praying to himself, and thus he is praying to no one. With God, nothing is impossible. Without God, without the Divine, there is nothing indeed but an empty tomb.
One More Thing About Jesus, the Answer to Racism and Prejudice
Dr. Martin Luther King made a big mistake.
Like many black activists today, he believed that answer through public pressure and the public sector would do away with racism prejudice, and intolerance.
Unfortunately, the heart of man ungenerated is wicked, whether white or black or any other color, beyond the calculation or care of man. (Jeremiah 17: 6)
The solution to prejudice is not found in man, in marches, in boycotts, or in sending the correct elected officials to office:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12) Man needs a new heart, not just a new set of ideas, not just "consciousness-raising". Man needs to be raised from the dead. He needs to repent in his mind from believing that this is a harsh world where God either does not care or is mad at the world, to accepting that God so loved the world, so loved man, that He sent His son to die for our sins and give us everlasting life (John 3: 16). This life, this promise of a new heart, is based on one gift: righteousness. Righteousness is not something that we do, not something that we have, not something that we create, and definitely not something that we can earn. Righteousness is accorded to us through the grace of God, which has appeared to all men because of Jesus' death on the Cross (Titus 2: 11-12). This righteousness is a gift, one which we receive along with the abundance of grace through Christ (Romans 5: 17) Yet too many people, especially among certain minorities, are dead set on pursuing and asserting their "rights". Paul had this to say about fighting for "rights": "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" (1 Corinthians 6: 1-3) Keeping in mind that Paul appealled to Caesar because of his unjust treatment (but it was for the glory of God, not for his own glory that he made appeal (Acts 25: 11), Paul disdained the petty attitude of the Corinthians to sue over anything, specifically suing each other in court before unbelievers. Jesus disdained pursuing people in court because of greed or material gain: "13And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? 15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." (Like 12: 13-15) Instead of fighting for our rights, Jesus invites us to rest in His righteousness, that Jesus Christ has paid for it all: "9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. " (Hebrews 4: 9-11) The devil loves to see men and women fight over things, when God has promised that Jesus gives us all things (Romans 8: 31-32)
The key element is righteousness: "33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6: 33-34)
Righteousness is the key that unlocks the door to every good and perfect gift from God the Father (James 1: 17), and James features that God is the Father of Lights, for in His light, the Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1: 17)
Stop fighting for your rights, church! Rest in his righteousness, and whatever persecution that man may bring, you can trust that God's grace will superabound towards you (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10), because:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
Like many black activists today, he believed that answer through public pressure and the public sector would do away with racism prejudice, and intolerance.
Unfortunately, the heart of man ungenerated is wicked, whether white or black or any other color, beyond the calculation or care of man. (Jeremiah 17: 6)
The solution to prejudice is not found in man, in marches, in boycotts, or in sending the correct elected officials to office:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12) Man needs a new heart, not just a new set of ideas, not just "consciousness-raising". Man needs to be raised from the dead. He needs to repent in his mind from believing that this is a harsh world where God either does not care or is mad at the world, to accepting that God so loved the world, so loved man, that He sent His son to die for our sins and give us everlasting life (John 3: 16). This life, this promise of a new heart, is based on one gift: righteousness. Righteousness is not something that we do, not something that we have, not something that we create, and definitely not something that we can earn. Righteousness is accorded to us through the grace of God, which has appeared to all men because of Jesus' death on the Cross (Titus 2: 11-12). This righteousness is a gift, one which we receive along with the abundance of grace through Christ (Romans 5: 17) Yet too many people, especially among certain minorities, are dead set on pursuing and asserting their "rights". Paul had this to say about fighting for "rights": "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" (1 Corinthians 6: 1-3) Keeping in mind that Paul appealled to Caesar because of his unjust treatment (but it was for the glory of God, not for his own glory that he made appeal (Acts 25: 11), Paul disdained the petty attitude of the Corinthians to sue over anything, specifically suing each other in court before unbelievers. Jesus disdained pursuing people in court because of greed or material gain: "13And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? 15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." (Like 12: 13-15) Instead of fighting for our rights, Jesus invites us to rest in His righteousness, that Jesus Christ has paid for it all: "9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. " (Hebrews 4: 9-11) The devil loves to see men and women fight over things, when God has promised that Jesus gives us all things (Romans 8: 31-32)
34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6: 33-34)
Righteousness is the key that unlocks the door to every good and perfect gift from God the Father (James 1: 17), and James features that God is the Father of Lights, for in His light, the Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1: 17)
Stop fighting for your rights, church! Rest in his righteousness, and whatever persecution that man may bring, you can trust that God's grace will superabound towards you (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10), because:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
More on Jesus: Answer to Prejudice in the Church
Of course, Paul blasted prejudice sorely in one epistle:
"For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;" (Titus 1: 10-13)
Paul was appalled to learn that vain Judaizers were persecuting one group of people, specifically the residents of Crete, where Titus would serve as the first bishop. These Judaizers wanted to bring in the Law of Moses back into the church, even though the New Covenant has nothing to do with the law, but in fact replaces the Law, essential to the Old Covenant, yet inimical to the New once man dead in his trespasses receives God's grace:
"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" (Galatians 4:21)
followed by
"Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." (Galatians 4: 30-31)
The law has to go, and in fact, it has already been taken care of:
"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8: 13)
Therefore, what aggravates racial prejudice of any kind is not merely the hatred in the hearts of men, although the flesh of man is forever predisposed to fighting (Galatians 5: 19-21), but the Law, the Ten Commandments, when men and women try to earn their righteousness before God through obedience to the law, men and women begin to bite and devour each other (Galatians 5: 15), including over issues of grace.
Instead of rule-keeping in the flesh, Paul wrote that we should walk in the Spirit:
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5: 16)
Walking in the Spirit, resting on the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, gives us the greater glory of letting God's grace growing and flow in our lives. As we continue receiving God's gifts of righteousness and grace (Romans 5: 17), the old nature of division and strife gives way.
In other words, we become more "sound" or whole in the faith, and this faith is not even our faith, but rather the faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2: 20-21)
"For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;" (Titus 1: 10-13)
Paul was appalled to learn that vain Judaizers were persecuting one group of people, specifically the residents of Crete, where Titus would serve as the first bishop. These Judaizers wanted to bring in the Law of Moses back into the church, even though the New Covenant has nothing to do with the law, but in fact replaces the Law, essential to the Old Covenant, yet inimical to the New once man dead in his trespasses receives God's grace:
"Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?" (Galatians 4:21)
followed by
"Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." (Galatians 4: 30-31)
The law has to go, and in fact, it has already been taken care of:
"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8: 13)
Therefore, what aggravates racial prejudice of any kind is not merely the hatred in the hearts of men, although the flesh of man is forever predisposed to fighting (Galatians 5: 19-21), but the Law, the Ten Commandments, when men and women try to earn their righteousness before God through obedience to the law, men and women begin to bite and devour each other (Galatians 5: 15), including over issues of grace.
Instead of rule-keeping in the flesh, Paul wrote that we should walk in the Spirit:
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." (Galatians 5: 16)
Walking in the Spirit, resting on the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, gives us the greater glory of letting God's grace growing and flow in our lives. As we continue receiving God's gifts of righteousness and grace (Romans 5: 17), the old nature of division and strife gives way.
In other words, we become more "sound" or whole in the faith, and this faith is not even our faith, but rather the faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2: 20-21)
The Answer to Racial Divisions in Churches: Jesus Christ
In many churches across the country, pastors will be preaching about Martin Luther King, Jr., or they will take about race, prejudice, or some other topic touching on the Civil Rights Movement.
In one church service, the pastor spent the greater part of his sermon talking about the different women whom he dated. He also talked about the primacy of Christ Jesus instead of culture.
Yet he spent the greater amount of time in the pulpit talking about race, prejudice, and our need to welcome all people, regardless of race, color, or creed.
What does the Bible teach about ethnic conflict, and what does the Word of God reveal about overcoming prejudice, racism or ethnic divisions in our midst?
First of all, in Christ these ethnic divisions do not exist:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3: 28)
We are called to related to one another in the Spirit, not accord to our skin, or our flesh:
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." (2 Corinthians 5: 16)
We do not know Christ after the flesh, but after the Spirit and through His Word.
As far as the Bible is concerned, as far as the New Covenant is concerned, race and national status are marginal issues.
Yet strife about our political status will emerge from time to time. What does the Bible teach regarding this?:
"1And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 2Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. 3Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 4But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6: 1-4)
The divisions between Jew and Greek starts with the division over the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. At one point, even the apostles got taken in and turned up about these ethnic divisions, and fearing the Jews, or '"the circumcision" as Paul refers to them, Peter and Barnabas would withdraw themselves from Gentile believers in order to not be shamed by the Jewish authorities. Paul the apostle would have none of this:
"And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. 14But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? " (Galatians 2: 13-14)
Returning to Acts 6, there were murmurings and complainings among the Greeks and the Jews. All of this murmuring and fighting is just the "old man" breaking out, when God has called us to reckon ourselves dead in the flesh, but alive in Christ (Romans 6: 11). How did the twelve apostles handle the "racism" and "prejudice" in their midst? The reminded them who they were and why they were there, not to "serve tables" but to receive and preach the Word of God.
In effect, all of this discussion and debate about race is a big, bad distraction from the Word of God, from Jesus Christ, in whom we have (present tense, folks!) forgiveness of sins, and in whom we are accepted (Ephesians1: 6-7) The "perfect" answer to the Acts 6 problem was "seven" (the number of perfection) men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. The Holy Spirit breaks forth in love, joy, peace, and all the other fruits of the Spirit, and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit will always reveal Jesus, who is made through God to every believer wisdom, as well as righteousness, redemption, and sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth, and in Christ no member is of lesser repute or greater dispute:
"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Corinthians 12: 27)
To end divisions over race, class, creed, or any other fleshly thing, pastors and members of local churches need only declare Christ and Him Crucified. When men and women, no matter what their background, take in a growing revelation of Jesus Christ and his grace, there is no reason whatsoever to be bitter or prejudiced toward anyone.
The answer to ethnic strife and prejudice is not :education" about different races or accommodation of different cultures, but Jesus Christ, who is made unto Wisdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In one church service, the pastor spent the greater part of his sermon talking about the different women whom he dated. He also talked about the primacy of Christ Jesus instead of culture.
Yet he spent the greater amount of time in the pulpit talking about race, prejudice, and our need to welcome all people, regardless of race, color, or creed.
What does the Bible teach about ethnic conflict, and what does the Word of God reveal about overcoming prejudice, racism or ethnic divisions in our midst?
First of all, in Christ these ethnic divisions do not exist:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3: 28)
We are called to related to one another in the Spirit, not accord to our skin, or our flesh:
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." (2 Corinthians 5: 16)
We do not know Christ after the flesh, but after the Spirit and through His Word.
As far as the Bible is concerned, as far as the New Covenant is concerned, race and national status are marginal issues.
Yet strife about our political status will emerge from time to time. What does the Bible teach regarding this?:
"1And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. 2Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. 3Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 4But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6: 1-4)
The divisions between Jew and Greek starts with the division over the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. At one point, even the apostles got taken in and turned up about these ethnic divisions, and fearing the Jews, or '"the circumcision" as Paul refers to them, Peter and Barnabas would withdraw themselves from Gentile believers in order to not be shamed by the Jewish authorities. Paul the apostle would have none of this:
"And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. 14But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? " (Galatians 2: 13-14)
Returning to Acts 6, there were murmurings and complainings among the Greeks and the Jews. All of this murmuring and fighting is just the "old man" breaking out, when God has called us to reckon ourselves dead in the flesh, but alive in Christ (Romans 6: 11). How did the twelve apostles handle the "racism" and "prejudice" in their midst? The reminded them who they were and why they were there, not to "serve tables" but to receive and preach the Word of God.
In effect, all of this discussion and debate about race is a big, bad distraction from the Word of God, from Jesus Christ, in whom we have (present tense, folks!) forgiveness of sins, and in whom we are accepted (Ephesians1: 6-7) The "perfect" answer to the Acts 6 problem was "seven" (the number of perfection) men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. The Holy Spirit breaks forth in love, joy, peace, and all the other fruits of the Spirit, and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit will always reveal Jesus, who is made through God to every believer wisdom, as well as righteousness, redemption, and sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth, and in Christ no member is of lesser repute or greater dispute:
"Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Corinthians 12: 27)
To end divisions over race, class, creed, or any other fleshly thing, pastors and members of local churches need only declare Christ and Him Crucified. When men and women, no matter what their background, take in a growing revelation of Jesus Christ and his grace, there is no reason whatsoever to be bitter or prejudiced toward anyone.
The answer to ethnic strife and prejudice is not :education" about different races or accommodation of different cultures, but Jesus Christ, who is made unto Wisdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Walker's Reforms Upheld in Court
Scott Walker was elected in 2010. In 2011, Wisconsin faced a $3.6 billion dollar deficit. Walker proposed Act 10, which curbed the collective bargaining rights of public sector employees, barred automatic union due deductions, and prevented public sector unions from negotiating anything beyond wages. Employees also had to contribute more toward their pensions and benefits (still less than the private sector.)
The backlash from the public sector unions was immense. The flight of Democratic lawmakers to neighboring Illinois was immediate. Walker's Act 10 prevailed, an immense and immediate success. Despite legal challenges and recall papers, the liberal Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel endorsed Walker, who overcame the recall.
The unions filed a lawsuit. Misconstruing the Constitution, Judge Juan Colas ruled key parts unconstitutional. A federal judge also ruled in favor of the public sector unions. Despite legal challenges, Walker prepared to lower income taxes, expand mining rights, and implement education reforms. Right-to-work legislation lingers in the Madison statehouse.
Recently, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed the lower courts’ rulings, another win for Wisconsin reforms, and a blatant harbinger of declining union influence. The first state to enshrine collective bargaining rights, Wisconsin represents the victorious battleground of the statehouse against the union hall.
Congratulations to Governor Walker and Wisconsin voters, both Democrats and Republicans, who supported comprehensive reforms of collective bargaining rights. Walker's example will embolden state leaders to save their statehouses from the crippling public sector unions and the creeping pension obligations weighing on taxpayers across the United States.
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