Responses To: Are "YOU" Concerned About Your America?

Many times I am amused at responses to my blogs and eNewsletters.   The two responses I received from the one I posted just yesterday titled "Are 'YOU' Concerned About Your America?" made me smile.  The first was from a long time Friend and Christian brother, Pastor Ike Riddle, who responded with a resounding one word reaction, "YES!"  

The other was from a man from my hometown area who will receive my eNewsletters, but will not be Friends on Facebook.  He declares himself to be a BLUE all the way, i.e., a Left-leaning Democrat. 

What is funny is that just last evening two long time Friends and Christian brethren, Jun and Rachel Quintans, stopped by to visit with Dory and me.  Knowing I am from Alabama, Jun asked me if Alabama is Democrat or Republican and I told him, "When I was a youth in the 1940s/50s, Alabama was pretty much Democrat.  However today Alabama is mostly Conservative Republican, RED through and through - but like any other part of Conservative America, there will be a sprinkling of BLUE."  

As I told Jun, if we look at a political map of America - you will find Alabama painted a bright RED.

Growing up in Alabama in the 1940s/50s, when I was of age I automatically registered Democrat.  However the day the Democratic Party nominated Lyndon Johnson to be their 1964 Presidential Candidate - that very day I went out and re-registered Republican.  I wanted nothing to do with Lyndon Johnson. 

But I must say this - If Lyndon Johnson was running against today's crop of Democratic politicians, I would vote for Johnson.  For with Johnson the Democratic Party began to sink into the Morals Septic Tank - but Democratic politicians today have taken America below the Morals Septic Tank, delving even deeper into moral decay.

It would appear that this gentleman who responded to my blog - is one of the few BLUE Democrats sprinkled into the glorious Conservative RED horizon in my home state of Alabama.  Keep in mind that this gentleman does not claim to be a Christian believer - but like most atheists and agnostics, wants to tell us what the Bible teaches - and where it, or Christian believers, is wrong.

He begins his response to my "Are 'YOU' Concerned About Your America?" blog:

His Opinion:  So what has all of this have to do with being a Christian?  Did Jesus attempt to stage a coup to overthrow Rome?  Did Jesus spend time plugging holes in borders to keep out foreigners?  Was Jesus worried about the economy?  Did Jesus spend most of his time “apologizing” for the state of human affairs under Roman rule?

Bill Gray Response:  Was Jesus a rebel?  Not in the sense that most people think of rebels - but He did show great emotion and anger.  If you recall Jesus took a rope and used it to drive the moneychangers out of the temple, telling them in John 2:16, ".  .  . Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!' "

You ask, "Did Jesus spend most of his time 'apologizing' for the state of human affairs under Roman rule?"  No, Jesus, i.e., God, actually used the Romans and the corrupt Jewish leaders - to fulfill Scripture.  In other words, the horrible human affairs under the Roman and Jewish leaders He used to prove His love for mankind - by sending the Perfect Lamb of God, His Son, as a sacrifice, a "paid in full" atonement for mankind's sin nature.

His Opinion:   Why don’t you get your head out of the ground and spread the Jesus of the Bible who you claim to believe in?  I am tired of hearing about how offended and hurt you and others like you are because you claim just Democrats are supposedly ruining this country?

Bill Gray Response:  Let's both look at the record.  Democrat JIMMY CARTER was the most inept president up to that time, driving the economy down and allowing Americans to be held hostage in the American Embassy in Iran for over a year.  His one attempt to free them ended with American military killed and Iranians laughing at America. 

BILL CLINTON spent so much time playing games with a female intern, then lying about it to the American people - that he had little time to goof up our economy.  But he did gut our military forces and capabilities. 

BARACK OBAMA was the most destructive and anti-American president in history.  He destroyed all progress made by the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King - he further gutted our military - he destroyed our economy - flooded America with Illegal Aliens - and did his best to surrender America's sovereignty to the United Nations. 

And today we have the feeble Old JOE BIDEN, Mistress Cackling Kamala Harris, Granny Pelosi, and Bobble-head Schumer - all doing their best to outdo Obama and be the most destructive administration in history. 

They have done everything within their power to push:  Abortion - Same-Sex Marriage - to flood America with ILLEGALS from all over the world - they have supported their Big Daddy, China, in exporting a deadly virus to America and all the world - they have surrendered America's economy to China and her Communist allies - they have surrendered America's Oil Independence (built by President Trump) to the OPEC nations.  And they have done all that damage in less than one year.    

President Trump had made America's Economy the greatest it had ever been - he had Unemployment at a 50 year low - he had America firmly established as the leading nation of the world - and he finally had China, et al, standing up to the bar to pay their fair share.  In other words, President Trump had America on the road to being the strongest it has ever been in our 245 year history. 

And in his first week in office, Old Joe Biden did everything in his power to destroy all the progress which America had accomplished during the 4 year Trump administration.   

His Opinion:  Why not try and see to it that the poor are comforted by tending to their needs: Hunger, health, education, occupations?

Bill Gray Response:  How did Jesus respond to such questions?  In Matthew 26:6-11 we read, "And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table.  But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, 'Why this waste?  For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.'   But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, 'Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me.  For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.' "

His Opinion:  Why not try and protect people, including children, from mad men with guns instead of standing behind a misrepresented 2^nd amendment right to support unrestricted gun ownership?  Giving only “Thoughts and Prayers”  to the dead and injured…?

Bill Gray Response:  All the evil of Communism/Socialism/Naziism/Fascism BEGAN with taking guns away from the citizens.  And look what has happened in all those nations.  The most recent one, Venezuela, was for many years the most prosperous nation in South America - until Socialism took control.  Now that nation is less than a 3rd world country - it is almost, if not actually, as bad as North Korea. 

His Opinion:  Right to personal choice and personal truth, while reserving the self-righteous right to choose how other peoples lives are controlled and guided?

Bill Gray Response:  I realize that you put no value in the Bible and what it teaches, but consider this:  In every nation where Judeo/Christian morals, values, and teachings have been removed - socialism, anarchy, and moral decay soon begin to destroy that nation. 

America is strong because it was founded on Judeo/Christian principles 245 years ago - and although the Left has fought to destroy those values - America is still the strongest nation on earth.  The beliefs you espouse are a direct result of the partial moral decay birthed and nurtured by the Left over the past decades.  

His Opinion:  Is the U.S. the best country in the world that God should protect or love it and its obedience to your unsolicited and unsupported dogma more than other countries?

Bill Gray Response:   I will let the Bible speak to that question:

Psalm 33:12, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people He has chosen as His own inheritance."

Jeremiah 17:7, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,  And whose hope is the LORD."

His Opinion:  What is your supposed “truth” without agape love?  I see none of that in your remarks.  You seem more concerned that your god should condemn and judge those who are not of your opinion.

Bill Gray Response:   I will take these two questions in reverse:  I do not have a "god" - I worship God, the God of the universe, the God of eternity, the one and only God.  Secular folks have many gods - most often beginning with themselves.  But we who believe have only one God.

You ask, "What is your supposed 'truth' without agape love?"   I have to wonder if "agape love" is merely a phrase you have heard other non-believers tossing around - and I have to wonder if you truly know the difference between the kinds of love mentioned in the Bible.  What are the different types of Biblical love:

The first Greek word for “love” is eros, which refers to romantic, lustful, or sexual love. 

The second is storge, which refers to familial love like that of a mother for her baby, or of sibling for one another.

The third Greek word for “love,” philia, refers to friendship and camaraderie.

Then there is the true agape love when we speak of God’s love for the mankind - and the type of love that Christians are taught to emulate.

When the Pharisee asked Jesus about the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:36-39, " 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?'  Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.""    In this passage we find agape love, for it is speaking of loving God and emulating God's love - the greatest love, agape love.
 
His Opinion:  Shame on you… Shame on you… Shame on you…

Bill Gray Response:   I suppose I can only answer that one way:

Luke 6:22, "Blessed are you when men hate you, And when they exclude you, And revile you, and cast out your name as evil, For the Son of Man’s sake."

John 7:7, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil."

It seems that when a believer shares the Light of His Gospel - the world's only response can be to call shame down on us.  In the first century in the city of Antioch in Syria believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26), but it was used as a derogatory name by the secular people of Antioch.  However, quickly the believers made this name a crown of glory - and since then there is nothing the world can call us that is more blessed than "Christian!"

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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Are "You" Concerned About YOUR America?

ARE "YOU" CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR AMERICA, the America where your children and grandchildren will grow up?   I know that I have great concerns about many aspects of American life under the current anti-American Democratic rule. 

Concerns about Immigration, Open Borders, out of control Economy, declining leadership role in world events, and so many other facets of what before was a stable America under Conservative leadership.

Would you and your family go to sea in a ship with many holes in a porous hull where sea water openly flowed in, threatening to sink the vessel?  No?  Then why are you allowing the current political leaders to open holes in our national borders?  Open for millions of illegals to flow in at their will, threatening to sink our beloved America?

And who is controlling the fate and health of YOUR America?  Is it an American leadership constitutionally elected by "We The People"?  Or has America become a nation whose destiny is under the thumb of our national enemies, i.e., China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc.?

Today I received the e-mail below from Hillsdale College.  Who is Hillsdale College?  Glad you asked:

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Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” 

It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.”

As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.

Hillsdale’s founders opened the doors to all, regardless of race or religion, in 1844.  It was the first college in Michigan, and the second in the United States, to admit women on par with men.  Its cosmopolitan student body is assembled from homes from all across America and many foreign countries.

Hillsdale College maintains its defense of the traditional liberal arts curriculum, convinced that it is the best preparation for meeting the challenges of modern life and that it offers to all people of all backgrounds not only an important body of knowledge, but also timeless truths about the human condition.

Since the late 20th century, in order to opt out of federal affirmative action policies, Hillsdale has been among a small number of U.S. colleges to DECLINE governmental financial support, instead depending entirely on private funding to supplement students' tuition.

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Dear Friend,

I wish to invite you to enroll in an eight-lecture course that I prepared with the help and under the auspices of Hillsdale College.  It is called “American Citizenship and Its Decline,” and the online course is based on my latest book, the recently released The Dying Citizen.

Like the book, the course describes the current crises in America as symptoms of a far larger problem: the steady decline of the autonomy and political influence of the citizen.

The class describes the origins and history of citizenship in the West, reminding us that it is a rare phenomenon both in the past and the present - given the enormous responsibility placed on citizens to create and control their own government.

Citizenship then requires a large and self-reliant middle class - currently shrinking under enormous economic strains.  Clearly defined and enforced borders are also essential to ensure a civic space in which citizens can nurture common customs, sustain traditions, and honor their own shared past.

Yet borders are now increasingly fluid as mere residence and citizenship seem often indistinguishable.  Pre-civilizational tribalism - identifying by superficial appearance rather than through shared culture and values - is returning to America as so often the salad bowl replaces the melting pot.

These organic, bottom-up challenges are often matched by top-down stresses such as the growth of a permanent, but unelected, government of bureaucrats and administrators who combine judicial, executive, and legislative powers that overwhelm the citizen.

In addition, revisionists in law, the media, and politics seek to change the Constitution, long-held customs of governance, and political traditions for short-term partisan agendas, on the theory that a new changing and fluid Constitution must match an always evolving human nature.

Globalism is an ancient challenge to the sovereignty of the nation-state.  But in the age of instant communications and unprecedented concentrations of globalized wealth, so often elites seek to supplant American laws and independence with international organizations and often without the consent of the legislative branch or the assent of the governed.

Bill Gray Note:  Beginning with Clinton, but becoming overwhelmingly blatant during the Obama administration, the Democrats have worked diligently to surrender all of America's sovereignty to the Globalist organization, the United Nations.  That threat began during the Wilson administration and World War 1 with the League of Nations - but was fully birthed and nurtured once the United Nations was allowed to share-crop on American soil.

The course ends, however, on an optimistic note that citizens still have it within their power to restore our traditions of empowered citizenship and return government to the control of citizens.

“American Citizenship and Its Decline” is free to enroll in, and you can begin the course today by clicking on the secure link below.

https://online.hillsdale.edu/landing/american-citizenship-and-its-decline

Best wishes,

Victor Davis Hanson
Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History
Hillsdale College

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Knowledge is power!  And I invite all my Friends to learn more about Hillsdale College - and to take advantage of their vast resources of education, lectures, and I especially invite you to subscribe to their great monthly FREE publication, IMPRIMIS.   You can subscribe by visiting this link:  https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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