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Critical Race Theory

What it is and how to fight it.

   We know that our constitution, history and white men in general are under verbal attack. Sometimes right is wrong and wrong is right. Newsmakers say strange things.

   After reading the words of a speech delivered at Hillsdale College, we began to grasp "critical race theory." Then while watching the evening news on two different channels, we quickly identified the issues as part of this theory-in-action, even though no one mentioned "critical race theory" by name.    

   Christopher F. Rufo , journalist, film maker and conservative activist, was the Hillsdale speaker. He reviewed the atrocious history of Marxist nations, described critical race theory, how it works, futile resistance, political engagement and courage.

   It’s not good, friends - I say evil - and its tentacles stretch from Washington, D.C. to elementary schools around the nation.

   Our plan on Views is to summarize the speech - Monday, Wednesday and Friday next week, and the following week on the same days...six blogs in all. It’s that important.

   Marxists posing as defenders of minorities can be defeated, but only if honest, informed Americans understand the threat and stand up to it. 

   There was a revolution for the cause of freedom in 1776. There will be a counter revolution if we don't defeat these leftists in education, business and politics. 

          Jimmy   

 

Two Seconds to Live 

   I was passing on a hill.

   Thanksgiving Day, 1957. After a brief vacation from school, I headed back into Ohio to pick up a buddy and continue west for a friend’s wedding. I was one angry 18-year-old.

   Our team had a great season. I watched them clinch the Big Ten championship.

   Next, the Rose Bowl! Four of us including roommate Ed planned on driving to LA. Dad wouldn’t have it. Hey, this is why I went to college isn’t it? Or at least, this college! 

   Read my mind as I turned south from Ravenna on Rt. 62. I knew this road very well from family visits. There is a short stretch where the road dips, followed by a hill, another dip and another hill.

   Still fuming, I passed a pokey car while climbing the first hill. Yep. Climbing the same hill from the other direction was an unsuspecting driver about to meet a stupid teenager. Guessing that each of us was doing 45 mph, that adds up to 90 mph of trouble. There would be no Gretchen or Glenn, no Kyle, Callie, Liddy or baby William. 

   I slammed on the brakes with two seconds to live. The other car disappeared. I wound up off the road facing north. The other driver came back – he could have cussed me out royally – saying, “You’d better sit it out awhile.” Apparently, my face was ghost white.

   Sometimes I wonder if an angel saved my life and his that day. How could he get off the narrow road with a narrow berm that quickly? How did the driver I was passing escape?

   Young or old, we are not always aware. What we intend to do or say could wreck a relationship or our witness. We may harbor anger or unforgiveness or any number of unholy attitudes. When we least expect it - I looked and thought the coast was clear -  our enemy sneaks over the hill.  

    Not that I deserved it, but Dad came up with scarce money for me to ride the student train from drab Columbus to sunny Los Angeles for five days, 11 in all. The Rose Parade was far more entertaining than the game, and we visited the Grand Canyon on the way back.

Psalm 91:11 – For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.  

     Jimmy

 Good, Bad and Tragic

   We felt for a young woman with two small children, somehow making the trip from Central America to the U.S.-Mexican border, only to be turned away. What does she do now? 

   What a mess!

   No doubt there are desperate folks coming up from nearly unlivable regions. And while we process them, bad guys are slipping through the cracks.

   These are the drug dealers, human traffickers, gang members and who knows what else. People from 141 different countries, they say. We don’t know where immigrants get the money that enriches the cartels who help them cross the border.

   We hear of women being abused. And kids assigned to transport drugs, else family members back home will be eliminated. Some slip through and then die in the desert. 

   We’re told three presidents, including our incumbent, have contributed to the notion that America’s welcome mat is out – more or less. Compassion! People need jobs, education and food stamps. Others are lawless.  

   Dear Lord, what is going on?

   He knows. We don’t. There are desperate Christian families coming across. There are loving Americans taking them in. What else is a Christian to do?

   Some American “believers” are not so welcoming.

   It is right, intermingled with wrong. It is good, while enabling the bad.

   Is God taking care of his business while allowing America to mismanage its business?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. 

Proverbs 3:5

              Jimmy

 Peddle to the Metal

   Every boy remembers his first car. Our grandpa died before I was old enough to drive. My cousin Frank took possession of his 1930-something black Ford sedan. When he went off to Penn State, and I turned 16, the wheels were mine.  

                                                                                   Growing Up No. 2

   Not that I was allowed to go outside of town. I did violate the rule and took my buddy Jack to Conneaut Lake amusement park, 16 miles away. I remember driving my friends out to the ice cream joint about three miles from town. On the way back, they challenged me to let 'er rip. So, I floored the pedal and got the old boy to about 45 mph, and that was downhill. With 8 cylinders. 

   The valves badly needed attention. Dad was smart to nix the idea.

   What I could do was polish and wax the paint, which was solid on automobiles back then. Steel bumpers were another story. Coca-Cola and steel wool couldn’t erase the corrosion.

   This world is a corrosive environment, says a pastor whose hobby is boating and fishing. Just as automobiles and boats need to be cleaned and maintained, our life needs the daily care of God’s Word, prayer, confession and fellowship.

   If we neglect devotion time, we allow spiritual corrosion to overcome. It will fiercely resist cleansing. Are we too busy? Let’s take that to Him.   

Psalm 86:11. Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

              Jimmy 

 

 Woke Attacks!  

   First, to those who contribute to Black Lives Matter, one of the black cofounders of BLM just bought herself a $1.4 million house in a mostly white LA neighborhood, and other property, with your money? We've heard that way more than half of all contributions are going to the founders’ personal accounts. Is it?

 Now to our topic of the day: woke.

   The word “woke,” past tense of wake, has been around for several decades, meaning awake, awareness of social injustice and discrimination. Today its users say, we need to stay angry and stay woke. Fine.

   However, large numbers of people in colleges, politics and news media are using “woke” as a weapon. They decide who should have liberty and who should not. Some activists may strive to be the “wokest” of them all. 

   Last week we wrote how Major League Baseball, Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola supported moving the all-star game from Atlanta to Denver, due to alleged injustice in Georgia’s voting rules. Then we wrote to Delta’s CEO listing a half dozen reasons he is wrong, or inconsiderate of the views of many of his passengers.

   Dinesh D’Souza provided more insight on the internet. He says more than 100 American CEOs joined a zoom call with a Yale professor urging them to be “woke” and do the bidding of political activists, or else. D’Sousa claims participants included the Atlanta Falcons, Walmart, United and American airlines, Lincoln, Levi Strauss and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

   The CEOs were advised to oppose voting reform in any state, and reevaluate investments accordingly. Here’s the scary part. 

   D’Sousa says corporate CEOs on the whole select the board members who establish their pay and benefits. Norwegian’s boss doubled his income to $35 million last year while his business suffered an 80 percent drop in revenue and a $4 billion loss. All these CEOs combined totaled $13.7 million in raises last year, despite the pandemic.

   Coca-Cola’s sugary drinks, D’Souza says, cause 180,000 deaths/year, worldwide. The largest affected region is Central and South America, if that means anything.

   These and other examples paint CEOs in a bad light, and woke activists threaten - with help from woke news media - to turn employees and customers against them. Delta’s top man had no problem with Georgia’s revisions until a woke attack changed his mind. Worse, it is not justice the wokers are concerned about, but solidifying political power, in some measure, Marxist.

   The CEO’s cave to “get them off my back.” It’s getting wokier by the day; the big shots are woked, and now you are awoken to it.

       Jimmy

 Growing Up

   Dad was my mentor. He took the family to Sunday School and Church, and he introduced me to football.

   I was 4 or 5 when we went to a high school game. Then in 1945 we saw his high school team play in Canton, Ohio, where the NFL Hall of Fame now sits. There were twice as many fans there as were people in our hometown. The field was so muddy the uniforms all looked alike, and the final score was – no score.

   In 1948 we went to see the same teams play, but it was a sellout. He spoke with a school official, whom he knew; still no luck. It was like Christmas with no Santa Claus. 

   Finally, the man came up with one ticket, and told Dad if he put me on his lap, it was a go. Turns out, our seat was one of three that were amazingly empty. It was about the 35 yard line, and the right team won, not just the game but the state championship.

   Many games followed, in high school, college and a few pro battles.

   In my 30s, now supposedly an adult, my sports interest had cooled, but not gone. I had agreed to conduct Sunday afternoon services at a retirement home.

   One Sunday a game I wanted to see was on TV. Would I choose the game, or do my duty?

   Is our walk with Christ in danger because we are fixed on a competing habit or attitude or desire? The attraction might be a daily interest, or less frequent, and not even sinful.

   Now I realize - not one player knows or cares about me. But our Lord bled and died for me, and for you.

Galatians 5:1  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

     Jimmy

 A Woman's Historic Choice   

   Long, long ago, a couple and their two sons left their homeland during a famine and settled in another country. The sons married local girls and all was well for about 10 years.

   Then the father died and soon after, both sons also. What were the women to do? 

    The mother heard that food was once again available, and she prepared to walk back home. She told her daughters-in-law to go back to their mother's home, and "May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband." 

    They wept, saying they wanted to go to Bethlehem with her. Naomi made a strong case for them to stay where they were. One finally agreed. The other, named Ruth, wouldn't have it. 

   She replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried."

   Now in Bethlehem, Ruth had to trail behind the harvesters, to "glean" what was overlooked, for her food. (rumor is, there were no restaurants or supermarkets in those days.)

   The story continues with Boaz, a relative of Naomi and a land owner, marrying Ruth who bore a son, named Obed. 

   Boaz became a redeemer in two ways. 1. He married Ruth and preserved the name of her deceased husband...young Obed being considered a son of Naomi's husband. 2. Boaz redeemed (bought) the family land that Naomi had sold and restored it also to her husband's line. 

   Jesus Christ redeems the believer in two ways. 1. Christ purchased us by his own blood and keeps us from perishing. 2. He includes us as redeemed in his eternal inheritance in the new heaven and earth. 

   John 3:16; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Matthew 5:5; Revelation 21:1-7. 

   The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1 is the paternal line of Joseph, legal father of Jesus. The list includes "Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of King David." 

   Luke chapter 3 lists the males in Mary's line. Starting with Jesus the genealogy includes King David, Jesse, Obed and Boaz, and continues back to Adam. Jesus therefore did/does have both the legal and biological right to Messiahship.