The Whirling of Life

Today is my number two grandson's 12th birthday and today we had all five grand kids at our home most of the day. To see now two 12 year old grandsons and three beautiful, fun-loving, loved grand daughters and their exploits at Grammy and Poppy's is, well, wonderful.  Later in the afternoon I sang a concert at local assisted living location where I have sung many times in the last three years. As I was singing to an amazing array of wonderful elderly people I have grown to know and to love, the whirling sound of life became excruciatingly evident in my mind's ear.

 

My life has been a life around masses of people.  My Goodyear career brought into the world of literally hundreds of thousands of people of all races, languages, beliefs, competencies, religions; and I loved every connection. My military time was vested in thousand of men as we worked complex issues of men, materiel and mission to accomplish assigned goals to a timeline.  I love the challenge and the smell of victory with each accomplished.  Post Goodyear led me to a decade of students as I got to teach and example to seven thousand young men and women.  That decade was a whirl but so many lives I was given access to via this powerful tool called education. I count every encounter blessed though some were better than others; still blessed. Twelve years in jail and prison ministry still takes my breath when I think of the nearly 300,000 men and women I have been blessed to get to know, to learn about, to communicate with and to share God's Will for their lives. So many disappointments  but so few amazing changed lives I have witnessed. But for me, perhaps the most amazing leg of this journey has been in the last four years through music.

 

As I was singing in one of the twenty-one locations where I sing regularly, I saw, yet again, the pace of physical and emotional shifting and transforming the human body can go through oh so quickly.  Seeing the conditions of vibrant, successful, loving mothers and fathers now aging rapidly and to have such a joyful relationship with hundreds via the music is one of the top five joys of my life.  Part of the joy comes in the reality that it has nothing to do with fame or fortune or ego; just pure, unadulterated joy of using gifts God has given me to give to people that need and love what I am doing. Therein lies the blessing for me.

 

At sixty-seven, I well realize from my work these last few years around so many elderly people that life as we know it can change so quickly it takes your breath. But in saying that, the gravity of spiritually being ready to go comes to the surface as the overarching pinnacle of why all the time, effort, energy and work required to do the best I can do when singing for these people. I strive with every song to make it the best it can be; why? For it is their life, their legacy and their  future that makes it all so worth it. 

 

I spoke, today, that I realized in the last few concerts that I have developed a habit of touching my ear with my fingers each time the lyric is about "hearing" meaning when God's is speaking or we are listening for His Word.  So many songs have that resonating theme. We must listen via study, praying, yearning to hear God's Word. God's Word, for many, come through my vocal cords in this wonderful growing ministry.

 

Not knowing how many more years God will grant me nor how many more concerts I will get to sing or  how many sermons I will get to preach or how many hugs and sharings I will get to experience, I know that it is my greatest hope that when God calls me home, he will grant that I be getting to do exactly as I have just described in doing His Will and not laying in a hospital bed not knowing where I am. I want to go in active mode. I want people to remember that I loved the Lord, I loved my family, I loved my ministries and I loved to ENCOURAGE every person that God put in my path.

 

So when you think about your own whirl; count it a blessing!

Gravity of our Day

Good morning. My fingers feel heavy this morning as my heart feels a sense of gravitational pull with the events happening seemingly daily in our world.  Many people simply choose to not be curious or hungry to understand the connectivity to the events of our global village but many of us, I am one, has this insatiable thirst to understand. Those that know me understand that well about me.

 

There are several major heavying channels I could plod but this morning I want to take a few keystrokes about our Nation.  Our nation is fractured, disjointed and worrying on a scale I do not recall in my lifetime. Some will rationalize that that fact resides with the 24/7 news cycles, social media, etc, etc but I hold to the belief that our aggregate world and the events do appear to be more gruesome, more frightening and more disheartening than any time I can recall.

 

When our nation's leader celebrates openly and joyously about Biblical wrongs; I just have to step back and seek to understand.  The hoopla with Mr/Ms Jenner is an abomination short and simple but in our nation today, it is celebrated to the highest levels of our nation.  Murders on an historic scale are viewed as common and, "oh well" as we are becoming numbed by the atrocities.

 

Then you look at the after the act reality such as, for example, the Holmes kid that was found guilty of murdering those kids in a movie theater. First, it was three years ago and the trial, the first trial of others to come, to get this atrocity to a jury.  This will lead to more years the taxpayers will fund, more time chewed up in an overcrowded judicial system and he will probably ultimately write a book or a movie be made of his poor life when in reality this should already have been litigated and execution exacted. Think of the poor families this evil person has destroyed for two generations; they are the real victims. But my point is, this is now the norm in our nation. A very sad norm!

 

Negotiating with Iran, of all nations, in "hopes" Iran has been buckled down for perhaps ten years from getting a nuclear bomb.  Iran is untrustable. Iran wants to spearhead the destruction of Israel. Iran is the world's largest sponsor of terror on the globe.  I am reminded of W's comment after meeting with Putin early in W's presidency after they had met and he felt he has "seen the heart of this man, Putin" and believed he a good person. Well, we see W needed a new set of glasses as the world has become more corrupted and Russia is in open war to regain her empire.  

 

I have to just shake my head about listening to the POTUS try to explain the "deal" and pundits add color but at the aggregate, the deal, sounds to me, is a bundle of needles held together by fog and mist and hope. Iran is and will take grave advantage of this negotiation for as a commentator rightly stated yesterday, you always negotiate from a position of power and power is the reflection of who needs and wants the deal most. America has sent clear signals that we need and want this negotiation more than Iran which puts Iran in the leadership of the negotiation. So all the splash of joy from the "deal" will be short lived plus Iran will now be flush with hundreds of billions of dollars to do what they wish with no metric to measure or monitor. No wonder the Gulf States are scared to death; we should be as well!

 

Leadership begins with strength, vision, clarity of mission wrapped in a tight bundle which inspires people to want to join in for the journey. I see none of that in our nation and I find that very sad. Our social fabric that was woven by the Framers has been made a mockery and celebration of the debacle of societal evaporation.  I think, for me, this poses the greatest concern for me due in large part of seeing my grandchildren often and being integrally involved in their young lives while seeing this demise of what has been the backstop of our society being dashed in celebration.  I state once more than I believe the core of this cancer is this state of toleration and no absolutes and pose the greatest  deteriorating of our once great nation. It is greater than politics, economics and diplomacy. We are talking about the very fabric of our nation going forward.

 

It seems appropriate for me to close with a restatement of my fives principles of life that have been etched into my hard drive:

 

1. If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten
2. If you do not stand for something you will fall for anything
3. If you do not know where you are going, you will most assuredly arrive their
4. Whatever it is in this life you are looking for, you will find it
5. Stay in the Fight!

There is not enough of Number 5 as the forces of evil and wrong are winning the battles that is eating away at our future. What is sacred anymore? Think about that. What, for you, do you truly hold sacred and what are you willing to do to maintain the value of the nature of that which is held as scared. Christians, seems to me, are the last vestige in our nation that are not to be tolerated but the expectation is that Christians must be tolerant of all the other garbage bags of societal wrong that abounds in our nation. Churches and pastors will face growing litigation pressure to perform marriages that are Biblically wrong. We are seeing it daily so it will arrive at your altar very soon if not already. Pray for our churches and its leaders to be able to withstand the tidal wave that is existential.

 

Yes, this morning, I feel the Gravity pulling our nation, my nation deeper into a cesspool. God has to be so disappointed with His People!

Memories; The Hall of Life

I was listening to the words of a song by The Hoppers, an amazing Southern Gospel family I have loved since the early 1970s.  When the song was over, the mother, Connie Hopper, spoke and in her words said life is a set of memories. That brief comment began a mental drilling down for me in realizing just how profound that is for life, truly, is about memories.  Singing at a funeral yesterday for a man younger than me that passed very suddenly just a few days before, I spoke about this very reality as the upload to me singing the great song, Celebrate Me Home.  See the distraught wife, the shell shocked sons and five beautiful grandchildren that just really had not had time to process it all, that scene reinforced the immeasurable power of memories.

 

At sixty-seven years old, my account of memories is staggering with many being good, some simply amazing, some still frightening, still some warms me all over.  Memories of people that have touched my life and my heart along the journey come to me at interesting time such as at funerals or weddings. Events tend to trigger memories don't they? One that stands out to me is in a bitterly hot Alabama summer standing in a small graveyard for a belated funeral of my great grandfather who had fought at Gettysburg for the South. In that same graveyard was a memory etched into my hard drive was a KKK funeral for a distant relative when I was about six years old. I did not understand any of it but I knew the robes and strange hats were abundant. But this time I was asked to sing Precious Memories at the gravestone for it was one of my mother's favorite songs which I later sang at her funeral at her request.  The fact that I started the song out in a key I could not sustain for it was too high is one of the painful memories of that moment but being surrounded by relatives, many of which have now left us for Heaven, was, well, very special and I knew my efforts pleased my mother; a Wonderful Memory.

 

So many enter and exit our lives and some so quickly we do not relish the time nor the touch that person made on our portrait.  Coach Walter Holt, Coach Riley Whitaker, Joe Stone, Earl Hicks, Ruth Epley, Zeddie Morton, my grand father Williams, Alicia Williams and the list begins to wind endlessly through the canals of my mind. Life is, very much, about the shades, shadows and hues of memories.  Losing friends too young, working through hard, tough, complex issues with people you have to rely on, making decisions on discharging people from jobs knowing they need it but have proven themselves unreliable or unworthy scar you for years. 

 

At this stage of my life, the nearly 7,000 students I was honored to teach and thus to touch their lives has made an indelible mark on my life and I believe on many of their lives.  Singing has become the defining place for me at this stage of my life that still staggers my mind wonderfully. but singing to many hundreds of a wide array of people each year is a blessing I could never have imagined I would get to do and to enjoy so very much. I know my time with these wonderful people is my touching their lives; that is the true blessing for me in getting to be an instrument via music to touch hearts. WOW!

 

Relationships are central and core to the memories that create the pathway of life for it is the interface with others both good and not so good that bring the color to HD in replaying the avenues and boulevards of our life.  Watching the photo display at the funeral yesterday deeply reinforced this reality for life does truly move along oh so quickly; so quickly we do not realize it at the time at the etchings on our lives.

 

In closing, I propose each of you reading this take a few moments and take a trip down your interstate of life. Think about people that adjusted your trajectory and arc and thank God for them even though the memory made evoke pain and regret; still the touch made a difference. I realize how unbelievably blessed I am and realized all over again just how quickly this journey of life can end so quickly and unexpectedly which is what was so evident yesterday. For each of you that read this, please know that if you have entered my life at any point, you made a difference for I am here, now, where I am and while happy, I know the best is yet to come!

There is a Storm Brewing in our Land

A great friend of mine posted that Subject line into a FB thread yesterday and it struck a chord with me. I tossed and turned last night in trying to get off to sleep but that term kept whirling through my brain.  As my mind worked back through the news media, Facebook comments and pleas and acidic rhetoric, sermons, phone calls, texts, emails and that quiet introspection that comes when there seems no answer to the myriad questions, I found myself in a state of calm as I quietly sought God's insight on what it all means. I slept soundly from that moment on.

 

Our America, that land we love so much, has become a land where far too many Americans act like they do not love our nation as we have known it. There are many culprits to that terrible journey of dissension and angst and so easy to point fingers or unleash the frustrations on the keystrokes of a computer for that is easy, sanitary, and seemingly harmless to the send or respond to. But in the last two weeks we have all seen the seams of dissent that have been there but surfaced under the light of relevancy and camera lights and we do not like what we have seen.  For what we have seen is our new reality and it is not pretty and it frightens us for we know something is badly broken but seem powerless to fix it so we can move on.

 

The unleashed anger about the Confederate flag literally, like the Civil War, pitted brother against brother, long term friends against long term friends resulting in attacking, threatening rhetoric laced with  this resounding drumbeat of the age old North and South antebellum in America.  The killings in South Carolina, while tragic beyond imagination, was superseded by the presence of the Confederate flag at the State Capitol. The media became heatedly focused on that symbol which fueled days of insults and attacks by people in the South, some of my long term friends,  aimed at anyone or anything with the audacity to even hint that the Confederate was, in fact, a symbol of racial oppression for, frankly and undeniably, it was and it is and always will be. It was an era now gone but I was shocked at the doggedness of those seeing any logical protest about that symbol was translated as hating the South, disconnected from some almost sacred heritage that simply has been washed into the ocean of history.  The pendulum swing overreaction has been dazzling with the removal of the Flag, monuments removed, etc which I think is silly but that is what happens when the stability of history, it seems, is jostled; always overreaction. This will grow sillier until that pendulum hits it's apex and begins it slow swing in the other, less reactive posture; and it will.

 

The Obama eulogy, which I found soothing and Presidential, was met with harsh criticism meaning the fomented distaste of this man, the POTUS, which I feel as well, was momentarily eased by his excellently delivered eulogy. A black man, in a black church, before primarily black people with a uniqueness to their words and actions and songs at a black funeral allowed Obama to be truly "black" in his demeanor and words and actions and song. I found that perfectly alright and I say that as one that sings and speaks at many funerals. Was there a political edge to his utterances? Most certainly but even thinking about it now I believe he, Obama, for the first time for me at least, showed reverence, connectivity, passion and caring in his words and was, for me, very presidential.  Then, as with the flag, any hint of agreeing with his words such as these previous sentences, was met with hostility on the threads of social media.

 

As we go into this Independence Day holiday, multiple billions of taxpayer dollars are being exhausted because of or in the name of terror threats against fueled by social media used apparently effectively by the ideology of hate called ISIL. Social media again!

 

Then the capper was the now infamous decision by the Supreme Court in a very split decision declaring as the Law of the Land the approval of same sex marriage and again even the social media moguls came up with the LGBT colored White House which angered and enraged so many including me for it sickened me.  This decision was simply wrong and Mr. John Roberts will pay a high price for his role in so many landmark decisions that is so dramatic changing the very fabric of our nation.  This decision was simply wrong for it was a direct violation of God's stated principles of marriage. But I also must rely on the fact that it is not I that can or will correct the abomination but God has promised He will take care of this at His timing. Amen I say!

 

So yes, there is a fever and a storm brewing in our land, the once Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  That Land, sadly, is no more as some of us knew it as Baby Boomers growing up in the mid 20th century post World War II. That land is now pock marked with too many lawyers, too much media, instant communication, never ending corruption, weak, manipulative political machines fueled only by money and, yes, social media.

 

But you know, I still believe in the American experiment for that is certainly what it is still.  We are still the nation people will fight to come to.  The demographics of our nation are changing before our eyes as a frightening rate. Latinos in America now hold nearly $2 trillion of our $18 trillion GDP and is close to if not already the largest voting bloc in our nation. Let that soak in a minute! 

 

Our national pride has dimmed and sullied due to shifting mores where we are all supposed to be tolerate of any thing and everybody belief, activity and choice. We, I wholeheartedly disagree with that for if you do not stand for something, you will most certainly fall for anything; THAT describes America today. My level of unsurprising disappointment in our POTUS leadership, our nation and our future is the lowest and most concerning of my lifetime and I see nothing on the horizon that will return us as a nation to a better time.  When Jenner is celebrated as a national hero and icon, well, you get my drift but that is where we are. America is being bullied by factions and now supported at the highest levels of a dysfunctional wrongly aimed higher arm; our government.  This government is no longer for, by and of the people but for, by and of the people of money and voting power.

 

When presidents are elected solely on the amount of money they can raise; the core metric, they are nothing more than NASCAR drivers acting as prostitutes as I view it. We are, I think a better nation, still, than we are showing.  But the once great tenets of spirituality that led and guided leaders in this land have seemingly gone quiet or people just do not really care nor listen to these tenets. Living unwed, LGBT, same sex marriages, etc, etc is the new normal and that is very very sad. But that sad will translate to a sicker future with diseases for God will not tolerate that mockery of Creation I do not believe.

 

So the only, ONLY, aspirin for this terrible headache is prayerfully petitioning God for His Hand in cleaning up this national disaster that will grow much worse before it gets better.  Here is all I know ... I have had some great time with my five grand kids this week and I cannot escape that crawling feeling about their lives in their future and what will be their normal.

 

Dear Lord, come quickly!

The "Equal Protection" Conundrum for We the Christians

I have chosen to leave the TV off, not spend much time on FB and have scanned the morning news paper for wherever you turn you see nothing but the joyous celebration of same sex marriage now the Law of the Land in America in all fifty states and territories. This same week we have seen a flawed health care Federal system validated by that same Supreme Court rendering in fact that the United States Government is the central control and clearing house for a family's health from birth to death. This has been a banner week for the U.S Constitution around the Equal Protection Clause defined as:

 

The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction "the equal protection of the laws."

 

In disconnecting from the flood of joy, I have taken that time to do two fundamental things this morning beginning with praying for our scarred, torn, divided, backward stepping nation in which I have lived, loved, worked, fought for, served and represented for sixty-seven years of my life.  As my wife and were just talking, remembering as Christians we are to hate the sin but not the sinner, that is a very hard test track for me to run on please know but please know as well I try. Growing up around alcoholism, I grew to hate the smell, the hint and the jokes about alcohol so the issue of staying ever mindful of being charged to hate the sin and not the sinner was, for me, was and is still one of the great battles of my life. The second thing I have done today is seek quiet, peace and calm. I have gone through my FB friend list to "thin the herd" with the main caveat being how well do I know this person and do their FB posts lift and encourage or incite. It is a great exercise I highly recommend to each of you.

 

In our nation, as Christians, I believe I have landed on a fundamental reality that has been spoken of my whole life, preached about, sung about and that is that there would come a time when Christians and our beliefs would be challenged and hasten persecution for what we believe. As Americans, we have a central, overarching document that has been fought for and over called the Constitution. Every law, ever act by either branch of our triumvirate form of government is always viewed through the lens of the language of that Constitution. So like it or not, the Constitution is very clear that every citizen is due equal protection under the law.  Many nations where I have traveled do not assure that so we are blessed to live in this nation. 

 

But here is the conundrum for We the Christian; true we live under the weight and protection of the Constitution but we also have God's clear Word on certain principles with one of those being the definition of marriage between one woman and one man.  Pastors across this land will now face a choice; marry gay people or face legal action or leave the ministry and we are seeing hoards of ministers doing exactly that.  I predict the anvil the Government will use and will soon be forthcoming with be the elimination of the 501C3 tax deductible giving for church tithes and offerings further seeking to choke the life out of organized churches seeking to maintain adherence to God's laws. The pressure churches and church leaders will be in the near term will be overwhelming and litigation lawyers will make it a gold mine as they always do.

 

For what it is worth, for all the warnings of pastors for a century, the warnings are now here. So what will We the Christians do; shirk and run or stand and remain vigilant to God's Word. As for me and my house, We will Serve the Lord. I pray for church leaders across this land as they face the alligator swamps now opened as flood gates. 

 

I know many people that claim and are quite proud to be called gay. I respect them as people, and many of my former students fall in this group.  But I cannot imagine what resides across the horizon that is going to be best for my grandchildren; my legacy.  Values are birthed and cultivated in the home with the husband and wife; not Mike and Chuck with adopted children or artificially inseminated women. It is the child and that generation I am deeply concerned with and about.

 

So the battle cry is up, the Christian flag unfurled so how do we stay true to our Christian call while still remaining good citizens knowing the Bible tells us you cannot serve two masters for either you will serve and hate the other? That is a powerful ? mark for each of us.  I just have this sick revulsion in my belly in seeing my nation where it resides and the leadership is aiming it at even greater depths.   We face a troubled future but then when have Christians ever faced a joyous future on this earth, right? Our true joy resides when with Christ in our eternal home.  We will get through this but not unscathed for this hoopla is in direct violation of God's clear Word! He will have the final say so with that, my stomach feels less sick.

 

Feel free to pass this along to whomever you wish, male, female, LGBT, astronauts, etc etc.  As for me and my house We will SERVE the Lord. That has never been more true.  I wish each of you  a great weekend and never forget, we are Special!

The Miracle of Charleston --- Looking Ahead

Perhaps it was because I was in Charleston a few weeks ago and took one of the horse drawn town tours and the tour passed by the church where the massacre took place. Perhaps it is because I am from the South and have realized in these days post massacre just what all the symbols of the Confederacy truly stood for meaning fighting to maintain enslavement of a human being for economic purposes. That does not alter my love for the South and the vast heritage that that infers. But perhaps find myself in a FB firestorm of supporters of my contention that the Confederate flag needs to go the way of a museum artifact only to be swooped up in to some really acidic push back was quite surprising and exhausting to me.  I realized something glaringly through the two days of the rhetoric that the heritage of the South, while colorful and deep, still resounds in many corners with the same sentiment that led to the Civil War in the first place. One commenter posted .."all we want is to be left alone.."  That is precisely what the Southern states wanted in the lead up to the War and then and only then did the issue of slavery, " in the South rebellion states" and not the slave holding Northern states become at issue. In other words indentured servants was sea to shining sea in that early 1800 lets we forget.

 

But another staggering reality was borne on the wings of history; it is 2015, a Civil War was fought affirming the strength of the Constitution meaning there was and is a Federal system and umbrella over all the States that supersedes State laws and regulations.  So the surprise for me was in reading comment after comment in essence rejecting that core reality of a democracy to just "leave us alone."  That would led to absolute chaos on a grander scale than we have witnessed thus far.

 

Given this as the backdrop, I am pasting in a wonderful article by Peggy Noonan of the WSJ that has captured perfectly the real story with the real essence of what real Christian people reacting to a disaster should react in  Christ-like manner. It is past time to keep fighting the War for that War, thankfully, is over, fought honorable, a winner and a loser was declared. The relic of the defeated should not be the core of angst in 2015 but that is exactly what has erupted across this nation.  The pendulum swing of over reaction has been seen clearly but that is more normal than not. 

 

Read this wonderful blog:

 

Two Miracles in Charleston

A stunning demonstration of Christian faith helps resolve a bitter decades-long argument.

ENLARGE

A rally at the South Carolina State House in Columbia calls for the confederate flags removal on June 23. Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis

By

Peggy Noonan

June 25, 2015 7:20 p.m. ET

70 COMMENTS

I know there’s a lot going on, but I think we witnessed two miracles this week, and public miracles are pretty rare and must be named. These two especially should be noted and remembered because they suggest a way out of the ongoing morass.

The first miracle is now nationally famous. It is that scene of amazing, other-worldy forgiveness shown at the bail hearing for the Charleston, S.C., shooting suspect. You have heard what the victims’ relatives said, but it should be underscored that their words were spontaneous, unscripted, and flowed like water pouring from deep wells. Nadine Collier, whose mother, Ethel Lance, 70, was killed: “You took something very precious from me, but I forgive you. . . . You hurt me. You hurt a lot of people, but God forgives you and I forgive you.” Alana Simmons, whose grandfather the Rev. Daniel Lee Simmons Sr. was killed, told the New York Times she didn’t plan to speak at the hearing but found herself inspired by Ms. Collier. “We are here to combat hate-filled actions with love-filled actions,” she said. “And that is what we want to get out of the world.”

Those of us lucky to watch live, who didn’t know what was coming, got to experience the full force of the event. To me most moving was what Bethane Middleton-Brown said of her murdered sister: “She taught me that we are the family love built. We have no room for hating.”

That was the first miracle, the amazing grace that pierced the hearers’ hearts—in America, in 2015, at an alleged murderer’s bail hearing in a plain, homely courtroom. Christian churches and their believers are used to being patronized or mocked as silly, ignorant or hypocritical. They often don’t mind, often laugh along with the joke. But these were public statements that laid out the essence of Christianity, unedited and undiluted, and you couldn’t laugh or scoff. You could only feel awe and ask yourself: “If I were that person in those circumstances, would I be great too?”

Within days, something else wholly unexpected happened. A tough old knot became untied. Something people had been fighting about for a long time was suddenly about to be resolved. The murders at the church, and what was said by the relatives of the dead, prompted the rejection of the Confederate battle flag in gentle, kindly, heartfelt words.

The tableau at the South Carolina Capitol surrounding Gov. Nikki Haley was itself moving—both parties, all colors, the Indian-American governor flanked by the African-American U.S. senator, Tim Scott.

Ms. Haley said that immediately after the shootings, “we were hurt and broken and we needed to heal.” South Carolinians began “not by talking about issues that divide us, but by holding vigils, by hugging neighbors, by honoring those we lost and by falling to our knees in prayer.” She spoke of the victims’ relatives: “Their expression of faith and forgiveness took our breath away.”

“On matters of race, South Carolina has a tough history,” she acknowledged. “We all know that. Many of us have seen it in our own lives—in the lives of our parents and our grandparents. We don’t need reminders.” She turned to the subject of the banner that flies on the statehouse grounds. “For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble—traditions of history, of heritage and of ancestry.” But “for many others . . . the flag is a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past.” The state can “survive” as home to both viewpoints: “We do not need to declare a winner and a loser here. We respect freedom of expression, and that for those who wish to show their respect for the flag on their private property, no one will stand in your way.”

“But the statehouse is different and the events of this past week call upon us to look at this in a different way. . . . Today, we are here in a moment of unity in our state, without ill will, to say it’s time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds.”

And that was that. Within 48 hours the governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley, ordered the flag removed from the statehouse grounds there, and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said his state’s flag, which incorporates the Confederate design, should be altered. Govs. Nathan Deal of Georgia and Terry McAuliffe of Virginia said they’d do away with vanity license plates that include the banner.
It hardly needs be said American politics doesn’t usually work like this. Our political culture tends to be mean-spirited, shouty, full of moral posing and pointed fingers. In this case, everyone seemed to be laying down arms. This was a miracle not of “justice” but of “mercy.” Justice can be argued about forever, but mercy is just what it is, as the people who spoke at the bail hearing know.

It’s hard to imagine the Confederate battle flag is going to be given prominence on statehouse grounds in the future. Something big changed in this old argument, and it won’t change back.
When I first watched the hearing, I hoped the mourning people of South Carolina would not have political debates forced on them while their throats were full of tears. But as Ms. Haley implied, they went forward on their own, as Southerners and South Carolinians, and made the decision while their throats were full of tears.

This was the South talking to the South.

And it was Christians talking to Christians about what Christianity is.
In Christianity Today, writer Michael Wear, who headed President Obama’s faith outreach efforts in the 2012 campaign, had a strong piece with a strong headline: “Stop Explaining Away Black Forgiveness.” Mr. Weir bluntly rejected recent essays arguing that the relatives who spoke at the bail hearing were acting out the traditions or survival mechanisms of their race. That, he argued, is an elitist, racist view. The “confounding forgiveness” given voice at the bail hearing, the “radical love” contained in the statements, was not cultural, sociological or political, it was theological. It was about Jesus Christ. “They did not forgive to express the values of their race or to represent the character of their country, but to be faithful to their God.” Black people, he added, have “equal access to Jesus,” and the survivors could forgive “because they believe that fateful night in the upper room of Mother Emanuel was not the end of their loved ones’ stories.” They believed the dead are as they were, “in the Kingdom of God, beloved by him, their greatest longings realized.” He asked: “What other American community today displays less shame, less reservation . . . about proclaiming the Christian faith?”

That is exactly what I thought as I watched the hearing.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee, if they know it, have some new nominees: the relatives of the dead who offered the mercy that relaxed the hands of those who’d been holding, too tight, to a flag.
Everyone thinks progress depends on indignation, accusation, aggression, demonstration, marching. But we just saw anger lose to love. It’s a huge moment.

Symbols Change Meaning Over Time

We live in a world of symbols for symbols take on a life of their own wrapped with emotion and evolving into heritage that creates the telling of stories, folklore and beliefs.  This week in the wake of the horrific slayings in South Carolina, symbols have again floated to the top of the hurt and disbelief that must be ultimately addressed nationally; which means every American.  Let me give a little biography of myself before my comments ..

 

I was born and reared in Alabama being born in 1948. My great grand father fought for the South at Gettysburg as did his two brothers. There is family blood on that hallowed field that changed the course of history. I attended a junior high school and a senior high school both named for "Confederate" heroes and our athletic teams were the Emma Sansom Rebels.  History is important to Southerners and I am certainly not exempt from that hunger and lure. 

 

Our nation today is at a fever pitch racially; a scale I have not seen since the 1960's which was my teenage decade I remember oh so well. The colored water fountains and bathrooms, back door entrances to doctor's offices for the black; all of that was real, unquestioned, cultural. But that never made it right and surely not today.  Yes, I believe the balance, racially, has shifted for too wide on the pendulum of change as is evidenced in a myriad of ways we can witness on TV and movies and music every moment of every day.  But the fervor and fever of hate has been astonishing to me and how it has now venomously manifested itself in targeting police as the enemy and targets of assassination all in the name of some gibberish that hearkens to the Black Panthers, NAACP, SNCC of the 60s. I say all of that is window dressing for a much deeper cancer is metastasizing all too rapidly.  It is my belief that the ascendancy of Obama to the White House and his behaviors and that of his wife and the legislative process has augmented  and accelerated this racial hate that is perhaps too far heated to be brought under control thus chaos potentially reigns ahead. But then there are the black families in South Carolina that are a blessing to any and all that are witnessing their faith in action!

 

But to my point! The Confederate flag is a  symbol. At one time a symbol of honor and sacred to so many a hundred years ago.  That same flag has become the symbol of red necks driving rusted pick up trucks with gun racks in the back window. As a Southern man, and proud of it, living in the North for almost three decades now, when I see that flag on some redneck vehicle and the perspective of the person driving, I am appalled and dismayed for the symbol is not worth of what it once met.  The Confederate flag is a blaring reminder of a time gone by, a harsh, and deep scar on the American national landscape with nearly a million soldiers killed under the auspices of what that flag stood for.  Seeing that flag on the South Carolina Capital in 2015 in the midst of the hate crime by a twenty-one year old probably deranged young man proudly being pictured with his red neck license plate was, for me, sickening to my stomach and brought a sense of why this flag is nationally allowed to still be flown. For what, for what purpose, for what end?  A symbol that has surpassed its usefulness and now is symbol of hate and gasoline on a aging cause is just plain irresponsible. This symbol needs to GO AWAY NOW. I doubt there are very many South Vietnamese flags to be found waving in the breeze of Vietnam today and yes, it is the same parallel.

 

The second artery now surfaced after each mass shooting is gun laws. I have fired many weapons in my life but am not a member of the NRA but I cannot fathom how an organization like the NRA could in good conscience stand and defend gun use in this nation.  We have the highest, by far, gun death and incident numbers in the world.  Fiddling with legislation with Congress fueled by the dazzling funds flowing from NRA members into political coffers means that will never be corrected.  For me, at this stage, the symbol of Second Amendment rights has been prostituted beyond recognition of what the Founders intended. I believe guns should go the way of the Confederate flag which is complete surrendering and destruction and that gun manufacturers face the same scrutiny as cigarette manufacturers are making their business model unprofitable.

 

People, WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY and these two arteries are front and center of the cancer.