August 15 2017 – Click here to listen
I received a letter from one of the African American readers of Words for the Day and she made the following comments:
“The Klansmen had permits to assemble peacefully. They did not have permission to carry signs of racial hatred, to shout racists remarks, derogatory slurs, actions that were sure to antagonize, incite, and disrupt.”
On the contrary ma’am, they had every right to say those things and carry signs saying terrible things under the 1st amendment. It is the law of the land. No matter how repulsive we might think it is to say and do those things, they do have a legal right to do them. Just like Black Lives Matter people have a right to carry equally offensive signs decrying police as “Pigs in a blanket” or shout, “What do you want to do? Kill cops! When do you want to kill them? Now!” as they march down the streets of NYC with police escorts.
How do you suppose that made the police feel to protect them?
She went on to state: “There is no comparison between other groups of protestors and the white supremist.”
Try to tell that to the hundreds of business owners whose livelihoods were destroyed at Berkeley, Ferguson, Baltimore and other cities where they had their businesses looted and burned to the ground, or to those who had the heck beat out of them by the “protestors” (socialist/communist/racist thugs) swinging clubs and hitting people with bicycle locks, or to the widows and families of police officers murdered for no other reason than wearing blue. Please tell me how the new Black Panthers or the militants within Black Lives Matter differ from the white supremacy advocates who only think in terms of skin color and violence against anyone who is different than them.
She concluded: “To be honest the statues and monuments of past racists, murderers do not offend me. It is a part of history. I did not see the blatant display of the Confederate flag until I moved to Florida. By seeing it I am reminded to be more cautious, vigilant, aware that there are folks who still want this country to be ruled by white supremacy. I feel the statues are also a reminder that their way of life is dead and will not be exhumed no matter how many marches they slug through. America will not return to the enslavement of blacks. Descendants of African slaves are a mighty culture that will not bow down to shackles, chains, whips, or rapes. As this nation regresses we will progress to collectively rise and maintain our place as free men and women!”
That is certainly a commendable point of view; however, others in this country look at a confederate flag or a statue in a different light and may not even think of slavery or white supremacy. I can look at the carving of three confederate generals on the side of a mountain in Stone Mountain Georgia and marvel at the sheer size of it and the engineering that took place to carve it where a man can stand in a carved single ear of one of the generals depicted in it. I don’t think of slavery at all when I view it and don’t want to dynamite it, because I don’t like slavery like the NAACP wants to do with it.
I can go to Mount Vernon the home place of our first President George Washington and enjoy being there because he freed this nation from tyranny. Oh but there are slave quarters there. So, should we tear it down, or maintain it as a piece of history?
I don’t own a confederate flag and certainly don’t want to return to slavery. In fact, most of each and every day I spend fighting modern day human slavery, but at the end of the day we either believe in freedom for everyone or we don’t. I believe that black lives matter, but so do white lives, and Asian, and Mexican and so on. All lives matter to God and to any thinking person.
I can look at a 165-foot carving of Buddha on a mountain in Afghanistan and not be offended because it goes against my Christian faith. Muslim fanatics dynamited and destroyed it, because they don’t believe in Buddha. Is that where this country is headed.
It turns my stomach to see witches displaying idols and alters to Satan alongside nativity scenes in parks. Or to see government tax dollars used to pay NEA grants to artists who depict a crucifix in a bottle of urine. I wish the country would just use my opinions on what should be said or prohibited, but this country does not work like that. And overall it’s a good thing.
Opinions can differ and we can debate, but some people in this country believe that we should believe exactly what they believe or else! Or else what? Or else they will riot and destroy until they get there way? That might work in North Korea but I don’t want to live in a country like that.
It’s not the monuments it is the hatred by racists and bigots of all colors that is the problem today. There is no civility. If someone dares to say anything to the contrary of established talking points of the politically correct they are labeled a racist and a bigot, and in many cases the labels are hurled by racists and bigots themselves. God created us with different colors of skin and personalities and belief systems. He wants us to get along, all the while knowing that we will not.
Slavery existed before Christ. It was slaves who built the great pyramids and the roads of Rome. We need to keep fighting for the righteous things of God, but do so in a civilized manner. All but impossible to do in an emotion packed atmosphere fueled by a press that is driven by ratings and the earning capacity therein.
The psalmist asked, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”
The answer is that they rise against Jesus Christ and all for which He stands. To enter the racist battle of hate and division whether black, white, brown, yellow, or maroon is straight out of hell and certainly not of God.
Acts 4:26
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.