Santa is dissapointed! Last week we reported: “Just hours after the town of Garner announced it was cancelling its Christmas parade to prevent Confederate Flags from possibly appearing, the town of Wake Forest released a statement noting its parade is still on, and will include the Sons & Daughters of Confederate Veterans.”
Within hours of releasing the issue we received the following update from one of our readers, John Merlin: “I live across the highway from Wake Forest and since that (above) was written, the town of Wake Forest caved and decided to cancel the Christmas parade to prevent violence by ‘triggered” individuals and thereby, insure public safety.
GEORGIA TOWN CANCELS FUTURE PARADES
In response to a lawsuit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans who were prohibited from displaying the flag of their ancestors at an event that was established to honor Confederate veterans the Alpharetta City Council unanimously voted on Monday to stop sponsoring the Old Soldiers Day parade, which it has co-hosted to honor war veterans for almost 70 years.
In its early years, the parade was a tribute to local Confederate veterans. But now Mayor Jim Gilvin says, “It’s just time for us to get out of this parade business.”
The Atlanta suburb spent $20,000 on the August 2019 parade, city spokesman James Drinkard said. A local veterans group also has raised money to put on the event but said it can’t manage it without city support.
Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Martin O’Toole told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the city canceled the parade over political correctness and was “dishonoring all American veterans” by doing so.
UPDATE ON UNC-SCV SETTLEMENT
A national civil rights group has warned the leaders of the University of North Carolina that they should reconsider a $2.5 million settlement involving a statue of a Confederate soldier that protesters toppled last year at the system’s flagship campus.
In a letter sent to the attorney who represented the UNC Board of Governors, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law urged the board “to take all necessary action to meet (its) fiduciary obligations to protect UNC’s interest and to recover the 2.5 million dollars to be paid to support a white supremacist organization whose values are antithetical to UNC’s mission.”
The letter was sent Wednesday, two days before the board holds its regularly scheduled meeting via conference call.
Because of this, the Interim Chancellor of the University wrote the following letter:
December 11, 2019
President William Roper
Randy Ramsey, Chair – UNC Board of Governors
The University of North Carolina System
General Administration, Office of the President
Campus Box 9000
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9000
Dear Bill and Randy:
I am writing to share with you the sincere concerns I have heard from my campus community since the Board of Governors and the UNC System announced the settlement with the Sons of Confederate Veterans regarding the confederate monument. Since last week, I have been meeting with and listening to the reactions of our faculty, students, and staff. There are a range of emotions and many people are struggling.
Since my appointment as interim chancellor, I have maintained that the monument should never return to campus, and I support the work by members of the Board of Governors to pursue this goal. My understanding is that the settlement approved by the court required the Board of Governors and the UNC System to pay $2.5 million to a charitable trust separate and independent from the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) for purposes limited to “the preservation” of the monument. I also understand that none of the funds in the trust can be used for the benefit or the activities of the SCV unrelated to the monument’s preservation.
Given the contents of the order, I am particularly concerned with recently published post-settlement comments from the SCV regarding how the organization may seek to use funds from the charitable trust, including plans to promote an unsupportable understanding of history that is at-odds with well-sourced, factual, and accurate accounts of responsible scholars. These comments, along with various aspects of the settlement, particularly the requirement that UNC-Chapel Hill reimburse the UNC System for the payment of the funds to the trust, have led to concerns and opposition from many corners of our campus.
I join with others on my campus in stating that the values expressed by the SCV are inconsistent with and antithetical to the values of the University. In addition, I am deeply concerned by the comments from SCV regarding their intended use of funds from the charitable trust.
The SCV’s statement triggered false public accusations in the state and national media that the University is funding SCV ideologies rather than allowing for the preservation of the monument off-campus in order to eliminate the ongoing safety, financial, and legal risks of returning the monument to campus. I urge the Board of Governors and the UNC System to take any appropriate steps that are available to ensure that the independent trustee administers the charitable trust in strict compliance with the court’s order and the terms of the trust. I also request that the Board and the UNC System consider providing additional information to our University community about this matter.
I have been fortunate in my time as Interim Chancellor to strengthen our partnership with the System, and I hope that the System and the BOG will help assure our campus and the public that the SCV does not use the charitable trust funds to spark the very divisions that we all hoped an off-campus solution could help us avoid.
Sincerely,
Kevin M. Guskiewicz
Interim Chancellor
IOWA ARTIST PERSECUTED
The resident of a house next to a Des Moines elementary school displaying paintings of historical flags has resulted in outrage on social media and action from Des Moines Public Schools.
William Stark displayed six wooden pallets painted as various flags in front of his home including Confederate flags, a “back the blue” flag supporting law enforcement officers, an American flag and flags that combinded U.S. and Confederate flags.
Vandalism calling the man “Nazi scum” was found Wednesday at his home.
Stark wore a hat with Confederate flags on it when he told local media outlets ahe hadn’t painted the flags out of prejudice. He’s not racist or a white supremacist, he said, adding that he would paint any flag if asked.
NEWLY INSTALLED ON MONUMENT ROW
A massive bronze sculpture of a young black man in a hoodie astride a horse was permanently installed Tuesday in Virginia’s capital city, not far from one of the country’s most prominent displays of Confederate monuments.
At least 1,000 people crowded the lawn of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts as “Rumors of War” was unveiled in its new home. The piece, the first public sculpture by prominent artist Kehinde Wiley and Wiley’s largest work to date, was previously on display in Times Square.
NON-HERITAGE NEWS AFFECTING THE SOUTHLAND:
In response to last week’s reporting:
TEXAS’ CARPETBAGGER POLITICIANS ATTACKING HERITAGE AGAIN
Not satisfied with having removed Confederate memorials earlier this year and last, wanna-be sportscaster turned Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick, has announced that he is forming a special committee to review artwork in the Texas Senate chamber to remove portraits of Confederate leaders.
Some readers have asked how they can take action on the above:
Dan Patrick
Lieutenant Governor of Texas
The Texas Lieutenant Governor Message Line: (512) 463-5342
The Texas Lieutenant Governor Office Line: (512) 463-0001
Mailing Address:
Office of the Lieutenant Governor
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711
IN THE HOSPITAL YET AGAIN
President Jimmy Carter has been hospitalized several times in as many weeks. This last time, for a urinary tract infection.
Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said Monday that the 95-year-old was admitted to Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus over the weekend.
“He is feeling better and looks forward to returning home soon. We will issue a statement when he is released for further rest and recovery at home,” her statement said.
BBC REPORTS
A scorpion stings woman on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Atlanta on December 7th.
ARMY FOOTBALL DROPS MOTTO
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s football team is changing its motto that it has used since the mid-1990s.
The Army Black Knights used a skull-and-crossbones flag with the letters “G.F.B.D.” — for “God Forgives, Brothers Don’t” — written on the skull’s lips.
But, according to ESPN, the football program removed the acronym from the flag and merchandise after administrators were told in September that it’s linked to the Aryan Brotherhood and motorcycle gangs.
In a statement to NBC News, a West Point spokesman said the football program was initially unaware that the acronym and saying were “associated with extremist groups.” – “The motto was originally used to emphasize teamwork, loyalty, and toughness,” the statement said. “The academy immediately discontinued using it upon notification of its tie to hate groups.”
CONGRESS WORKS – OCCASIONALLY
The United States has a new ambassador to Russia after the Senate voted Thursday to confirm the No. 2 official at the State Department to the post.
Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan was confirmed by a 70-22 vote. An unusually large number of Democrats supported the nomination in the current impeachment-charged partisan political atmosphere on Capitol Hill. Senate votes on President Donald Trump’s nominees are often much closer and typically fall on strict party lines.
Sullivan will replace Jon Huntsman at the helm of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Huntsman stepped down from the post in August and is now running for governor of Utah, a job he held a decade ago.
WILL THE VILLAINS GET WHAT THEY HAVE COMING? PROBABLY NOT!
Al Benson, Jr. , is the Editor-in-Chief of The Copperhead Chronicle .
He is also a regular feature writer for The Southern Patriot , The Dixie Heritage Letter , and other pro-Southern publications.
He is a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Confederate Society of America, and the League of the South.
I saw an interesting article by Paul Craig Roberts on Zero Hedge just yesterday (11/26). I’ve read lots of Mr. Roberts stuff over the years and can’t find too much to disagree with him about. I’ve often thought I was a bit cynical regarding our political situation in this country, but if there is anyone more cynical than me it is Paul Craig Roberts, and I don’t say that to denigrate him.
This recent article I just read by him has an interesting (and unfortunately accurate) title. It is Washington, The Cesspool Of The World, Will Never Rat On Itself. He is commenting on the investigations now going on about what the Deep State tried to do to Donald Trump in the 2016 election and afterward.
Many have commented on how really bad all these revelations will be for some of the Deep State denizens of the Washington Swamp–Clapper, Brennan, Comey and even Obama and Hillary. Regarding all this, which most of us would love to see happen so that justice would finally be done, Roberts says: “But I have my doubts. Cabinet departments and government agencies are not very good at investigating themselves. Attorney General Barr’s job is to protect his department., He knows, and will often be told, that to bring indictments against Justice Department officials would discredit the Justice Department in the public’s mind. It would affect the attitude of juries toward DOJ prosecutions. John Durham knows the same thing. He also knows that he will create a hostile environment for himself if he indicts DOJ officials and that when he joins a law firm to capitalize on his experience as a US Attorney, he will not receive the usual favors when he represents clients against DOJ charges. Horowitz knows that his job is to cover up or minimize any illegalities in order to protect the Department of Justice from scandals.”
Go back and reread Roberts’ comments here and reflect on them a minute. As sad as I am to have to admit it, I am afraid he may have hit the nail on the head.
I would be willing to bet (and hope I was wrong) that what we will end up seeing out of all this investigating is that a small handful of CIA, FBI, and other officials, all at lower levels, will be the ones that end up being thrown under the bus and that the really big fish, Brennan, Clapper, and others at that level, will end up walking free, or at most getting a gentle slap on the wrist when they should be getting serious jail time. After all, look at how long the Clintons have been free and all the egregious stuff they have done literally over the past three decades. Where is the justice for them? I am afraid it does not exist in this life. They and people at their exalted level will continue to do what they want when they want and real justice will never be exerted on them in this life. I am afraid the same will hold true for Brennan, Clapper and all the rest.
We have a two tiered system of justice in this country, one for us lowly peons, us deplorables, and there is a whole different standard for the Clintons, Brennans and Clappers of this world. They continue to get by with things you and I would be locked up for life for.
Roberts continued his analysis of all this when he said: “Another sign of a coverup is the use of leaks to shift the focus from high level officials to lowly underlings, and this has happened with the Horowitz Report, which has leaked that a low level FBI attorney is under investigation for allegedly falsifying a document related to the surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page in 2016. According to the leak, the FBI attorney has acknowledged that he did alter the document.” Interesting! So why did he do it? Who instructed him to do it? Are we supposed to believe he just did it on his own because he hated Trump? Come on, folks, get real.
Roberts analysis of this whole situation then gets down to the real nitty-gritty, where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. He says “In other words, it seems we are being prepared for a false story that the plot against Trump originated in lower levels and not with CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and the rest.”
It seems that the Deep State is concerned over all this that the Justice Department will lose all credibility with the public if all these bigwigs are indicted, tried, and locked up. With all that has gone on in the past three years, do they honestly think the Justice Department has not already lost most of its credibility with the general public? If they don’t, then they truly live in a Washington bubble, totally unaffected by what goes on in the real world–the world beyond their Beltway delusions!
Roberts observes that, in all these situations, “Only the underlings take the hit as if they were in charge acting on their own, independently of their superiors.” I am afraid that may be the scenario we will be presented with after all the investigations are over and done with–a batch of low level flunkies doing their own thing, of which the real big boys are supposedly totally oblivious. And as Nikita Kruschev once said “If you believe that, then you will wait for a shrimp to whistle.”
I hope both Paul Craig Roberts and I are totally wrong, but I have this odd feeling that what he says is what will turn out happening. The truly big fish will end up swimming free while the small fish will end up being crushed up and fed to a gullible public as “evidence” that the Deep State system “really works.” And it does work–but not for us ordinary folks!
LOYAL OPPOSITION
DISSIDENT MAMA is Truth warrior, Jesus follower, wife, and boymom. Apologetics practitioner for Orthodox Christianity, the Southern tradition, homeschooling, and liberty. Recovering feminist-socialist-atheist, graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and retired mainstream journalist turned domesticated belle and rabble-rousing rhetorician. A mama who’s adept at triggering statists, so she’s going to bang as loudly as she can.
Did y’all catch Ben Shapiro’s diatribe in Cal a few weeks ago?
It’s utterly deceitful and petty, but so beautifully illustrates the war on true conservatism as waged by neoconservatives who seek to conserve absolutely nothing .
Here are some of the best tricky gems from the king of contradictions:
Don’t act like victims, alt-righters. But … don’t forget that Jews are the biggest victims on the planet, and anyone who disagrees is a “ white nationalist alt-right troll .”
Stop obsessing over something that happened 50 years ago (the USS Liberty ); it’s ancient history, fascists. But … we should never forget the holocaust is the only human genocide that matters. Ever.
“Judeo-Christianity ” is America’s heritage. But … you really must stop believing in that Jesus-centered Christianity, haters. Just worship in the Temple of Conservatism Inc., where we’ll reeducate you on the proper moral laws and statutes.
America is an “idea.” But … we neocons get to decide what that ethos is, not actual non-leftist Americans whose ancestors fought and died defending freedom and family.
Whiteness isn’t even a thing, dummies; it’s only melanin. But … whitey must ignore demographic changes which are marginalizing him, and did I mention how great it is that Jews get to have their ethno-state?
“Conservativism” is a big tent with plenty of room for sodomite Republicans and various melanin-level-based identities. But … we have no room for pro-traditional-family bigots and racists who don’t embrace multiculturalism.
Identity politics is for white losers who live in their mom’s basements. But … Zionism is for liberty-lovers and identifying as white is for Nazis! And don’t forget the biggest identity of all: Murica, one nation-state under God, indivisible but always growing, from regime-change war to regime-change war, with empire and tyranny for all.
Supposedly, Stanford students gnashed their teeth and twitched in the fetal position before Little Benny’s campus speech, saying it would put “ people at risk .” And even though his high-speed rant that included no Q&A was a simply a “sustained attack on the alt-right, the left still attempted to shout him down .”
Unfortunately, my critical-thinking skills and logical sensibilities were definitely put at risk, but progressives were safe within Shapiro’s neoliberal neoconism. But it was also Shapiro who was at risk of being challenged by Groypers , which is why he spent his time offering up a migraine-inducing verbal screed from his bully pulpit against American-firster Nick Fuentes, instead of attacking the leftism he allegedly detests.
In his predictable fashion, Benny didn’t even have the cojones to mention Fuentes by name. (Let’s not forget that Shapiro is the same stalwart “conservative” who immediately bashed the Covington kids , but deleted his negative tweets, offered no apology, and then pretended to defend the boys only when it seemed politically palatable. Total shyster.)
Yep, Shapiro – who is editor of the Daily Wire, a contributor at PragerU, a syndicated columnist, a podcaster and host of a live radio show, a mover-and-shaker within big-money college outreach groups like Young Americans Foundation and Turning Point USA, and pin-up boy for normies from sea to shining sea – found it necessary to take on a YouTuber with fewer than 70,000 subscribers. Why?
We must understand that Shapiro has earned the reputation of being a take-no-prisoners debater. Yet, he makes a habit of using these supposed super-human rhetorical skills only to “smash” and “destroy” and “shut down” the arguments of college leftists.
Hell, I could deconstruct all the idiocy that social-justice warriors spew at universities, and my verbal skills aren’t even that hot. I mean, these cultural Marxists aren’t called “snowflakes” for nothin’. Just disagree with their worldview and their fabricated PTSD kicks in good and hard. After all, simply saying “No!” to just one of the left’s many ever-evolving demands is how Jordan Peterson launched to fame.
As a former feminist-atheist-socialist and Big-10-university-kool-aid drinker, I am well-versed in the language of progressive-ese, so I know what the automatons are going to say before they even utter their initial rote talking points. My guess is that high-IQ Shapiro is rarely if ever stumped by the mindless Millennials and their dead-eyed dogma either. Wow, did you see Shapiro take down that blue-haired feminist? Man, he really showed her. Did you catch Shapiro tearing that pro-abortion activist a new one? Gosh, he’s so bold and articulate … we’d better thank our lucky stars that we have him on our side against those meany liberals.
I think there are a good many people who could out-debate Shapiro, that is, if he’d stop filibustering and just breathe for one damn second and actually engage in a conversation. (Never trust a fast-talker, I always say, especially one who wants you to buy his overpriced “patriotic” ideology which includes paying – and maybe even dying – for Israel’s wars. Talk about a lemon.) In fact, one of Shapiro’s best-known meltdowns was when he fled the scene after being outwitted by a BBC reporter.
“The left has run out of aggressors to target,” Shapiro wrote in 2016 . “Instead, they’ve become the aggressors, self-righteous morality police dedicated to wiping out dissenting thought.” But that is exactly what Shapiro and his neocon tribesmen do.
Shapiro rightly claims that progressives are horrible, but he’ll “debate” them. However, he says alt-righters are just so loathsome that they must be censored for the sake of civility. Yep, the guy who the corporate press calls a “radical” young leader of the “right” won’t even take on the most serious questions from the right.
Unlike the Millennials, who see America as a playground for materialism and wanton sexual pleasures, and think that traditional folks are a punching bag for their fictional and never-ending intersectional oppressions, the Zoomers are pissed because they see the load of crap left for them by previous generations.
“It’s a sin for people to conflate mainstream conservatism with that kind of garbage,” he barked at a Fuentes supporter at Boston University. Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to be taking seriously moral pronouncements from a dude who claimed that Jesus was “a Jew who tried to lead a revolt against the Romans and got killed for his trouble.” It’s no wonder that someone who thinks Christ was just some rootless political activist also pushes America as a “ propositional nation .” Heritage and true history mean nothing to Shapiro.
Groypers, many of whom are outspokenly Catholic, grasp the gravity of the social degradation, political tyranny, debt bondage, and identity-less-ness that has been foisted upon them. And these informed and energetic young men know they’re being marginalized and blamed for the divisive culture for simply existing as who they are. They understand that they’re the archetype .
Maybe it’s their privilege, or their whiteness, or their heterosexuality, or their Christian faith, or that they grew up in a nuclear family (or at least plan to create one of their own, since many themselves are the product of Gen-X divorces and the trauma that creates for children), or the fact that they grasp that Zoomers are being demographically displaced through both illegal and legal immigration.
So, Shapiro is taken aback whenever he gets challenged by these Gen-Z realists who aren’t as brain-dead and gullible as are the Millennials. These Groypers are skeptical, articulate, and frustrated as hell at the status quo. They have legitimate queries and concerns; they question and seek proof for what Conservative Inc. is selling. And lil’ Benny doesn’t like that.
“First of all, I’m happy to address any ideas,” Shapiro told another Groyper. “I’m not happy to debate somebody who has joked about murdering me.” Yep, sensitive Ben – who once told a pro-Palestinian protester, “Well, Israel will just carpet bomb you so …” – is now offended that Fuentes once bantered about the holocaust. Moreover, Shapiro is a fanboy of America’s never-ending wars, so I’d say ethics isn’t his strong suit.
After censoring the Groypers’ freedom of expression, the Red State headline reads that Shapiro “Lays It Out on the Alt-Right and Racism Among Conservatives.” So stunning and brave to call people racist for simply not conforming to every anti-American edict that the neocons decree from on high. Maybe red is dead.
The Groypers resistance to Conservative Inc. has been effective, which is why the corporate media is going after them so hard. In typical subversive form, National Review bashes Fuentes and belittles dissent to neoconism, even leaning on leftist Vox of all venues for backup. Sadly, smear campaigns are nothing new for the traitors at National Review.
In discussing Shapiro’s feud with Fuentes, The Hill assures us that the “new alt-right [is] steeped in anti-Semitism,” whatever that is . But at least they admit that Conservative Inc. seeks to stifle the young and fiery rabble-rousers of Gen Z.
And the Washington Post describes the “‘Alternative right’ as a small, far-right movement which seeks a whites-only state. It appears that fewer people identify with the term since the deadly Charlottesville rally cast a spotlight on alt-right and neo-Nazi demonstrators.” And they say Fuentes attended Unite the Right in 2017, which in 2019 equates to burning a cross on trans black woman’s front lawn or shooting up a synagogue.
And grifter Shapiro, the supposed rebel standing tall against leftism, is playing right along with the progressive narrative. “Are you protesting the part where I’m condemning the Nazis?” he asked the leftist protesters when trying to regain control of the room at Stanford. Let me translate:
Please, cultural Marxists. Just let me continue bashing a young conservative who is a common-sense voice for 20-somethings. I think he and his followers are Nazis, too!
Shapiro shills have even celebrated that Fuentes was deplatformed from Reddit and iTunes, while other neocons have managed to get him banned from “conservative” events like CPAC and Politicon. “These Hate-filled gremlins are NOT conservative,” Tweet the neoliberal cry babies who cannot tolerate free expression, much less the healthy exchange of ideas with actual smart, competent people asking the hard questions.
Michelle Malkin has already been purged by Conservative Inc. for not throwing Fuentes under the bus. All the typical Big Con charlatans, like David French, Matt Walsh, and Guy Benson, continue the drum beat that Fuentes is a “holocaust denier” and an “open anti-Semite” and assure the milquetoast masses that there is “no room for racism and hate” on their neocon watch. “We defeated your special brand of pasty uber-hyper nationalism in 1945. We’ll do it again.” Oy vey, the retarded rhetoric really is too much to bear.
Honestly, Fuentes is a little too rah-rah Murica for my tastes. Although he did attend the now-career-destroying Charlottesville rally, I’m pretty sure the Chicagoan doesn’t care two hoots about the destruction Confederate history. In fact, he said he went there to “demonstrate against mass migration .” And his followers are all too happy to bash the South and North Carolina in particular just because they can. Nice, coalition-building there, fellas.
Still, Fuentes and his Groypers give me hope about the future. First, they’re intelligent and nonconformist enough to be open to the deep, rich traditional conservatism of Southern stalwarts like Drs. Boyd Cathey , Donald Livingston , Clyde Wilson , and Brion McClanahan . After all, Fuentes calls himself a paleoconservative (in this riveting interview with libertarian Dave Smith), as do I, and cites the brilliant Pat Buchanan and outspoken Paul Gottfried as influences. I pray these youngsters wake up to the fact that the modern reconstruction and cultural genocide they abhor was born of Union conquest in 1865. It is the Yankee mindset that is the enemy.
But in the meantime, they’re inspiring other young non-leftist men and women to hold neocons’ feet to the fire. They could be playing video games, or doing drugs, or having lots of deviant sex, or criticizing leftists from the comfort of their home computer, but they’re out there in real time, challenging a “famous” politico who’s on Fox News. They’re willing to withstand public derision, security hassles, demonetization, and I’m sure social shaming and other risks in their own personal spheres in order to break the neocon hypnosis.
Shapiro and his ilk are the loyal opposition. On face value, they seem like they oppose leftism, yet they’re really loyal to the same fundamental interests as the progressive power structure ruining it all. They are committed to the perpetual revolution. This is why they scream about racism and bigotry while anti-whiteness and mass immigration reign supreme, and Rome burns .
As Faith Goldy so aptly explains, If Conservative Inc. wins, America loses . And that, my friend, is the cold, hard truth.
FROM ONE OF OUR READERS:
Dear Fellow Americans:
The impeachment and removal from office of an American President is pretty big stuff! We should consider this issue with utmost sobriety, not taking this step for light and transient reasons.
The U.S. Constitution Article II section 4 calls for impeachment of Presidents guilty of “bribery, treason, and high crimes and misdemeanors”. We therefore should not impeach our Presidents for “bad politics”, or for having personal attributes and traits some of us find offensive. The institutional stability of our form of government is the issue.
President Bill Clinton should have been impeached and removed from office for his serial sex-capades with women not his wife. Rape is a felonious crime, for which any of us “average-ordinary” people would be sent to prison. President Barack Obama should have been impeached and removed from office for surreptitiously sending $150 billion by CIA airplane in the dark of night to our enemy, Islamic Iran. He did this without Congressional authorization, the House of Representatives has the power of the purse. So, he violated the U.S. Constitution while also committing treason(giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States).
There is now less than one year remaining, until the 2020 elections. We should end all this impeachment nonsense on Capitol Hill now, and let the American people decide at the voting polls one year from now, yea or nay, on a second term in the White House for President Donald Trump.
There still remains an important Constitutional issue here, i.e. unconstitutional federal exercise of individual state prerogatives, in violation of the Tenth Amendment. Since the end of the Civil War, the federal government has gradually usurped prerogatives originally given to the states. This is mainly domestic social welfare issues, such as education and health care. We should not impeach the man Donald Trump, but remove some of his power instead. Not for reason of personal hostility against President Trump, but for reason of institutional integrity of our government as per the Constitution Tenth Amendment. Nothing in the text of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to feed, clothe, house, educate or medically treat anybody!
To the end of restoration of proper Constitutional balance between federal and state authority, I am proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, by way of Article V Convention of States: Whereas, at least forty of fifty state Governors shall agree among themselves that a federal law, policy or program violates the Tenth Amendment, they shall have joint power to nullify it for the entire nation. Individual state Governors have this Tenth Amendment power for their respective states now! For the state of Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan was fully authorized to nullify Obama Care.
Lawrence K. Marsh
Gaithersburg, MD
A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE OF SLAVERY – Part 9 of 10 – PHILEMON
Mike Scruggs is the author of The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths , and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You.
As a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist he has written and published over 600 articles on military history, national security, immigration, current political affairs, Islam, and the Middle East.
According to the commentary of the highly esteemed Rev. Matthew Henry (1662-1714) on Paul’s Epistle to Philemon [written about 60 AD], Philemon was probably a minister of the Church at Colossae. The church there met at his home. Philemon had a servant (slave) named Onesimus, who having stolen goods from him, fled and eventually came to Rome. By God’s Providence, there Onesimus came under the influence and preaching of Paul, then a prisoner for preaching the Gospel. Onesimus became a Christian and ministered to Paul’s needs in prison.
He became very useful and like a son to Paul, but understanding that Onesimus was the legal bond-slave of another man, indeed, his close friend in Colossae, Paul realized that he should not retain him there in Rome without the permission of Philemon. Paul thus decided that the right thing to do was to reconcile the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus, sending Onesimus back to him, now an earnest Christian seeking reconciliation with his master. This short letter is a plea from Paul to Philemon to take back Onesimus as a brother in Christ.
This letter and its background are important to our study of a proper Biblical perspective of slavery. It may have been written in the same time frame as Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians.
Philemon 1-10-18
There is a modern controversy over verse 16:
Does this mean that Onesimus was to be freed to voluntarily serve Philemon or does it mean Onesimus would continue to be not only a trusted bondservant but also a beloved brother in Christ?
We do not know what happened. At least one modern conservative commentary hints that this was an advanced unfolding of a new Church social reform policy on slavery. This view, however, is hard to reconcile with Paul’s statements in 1Timothy, Ephesians,
Colossians, Titus, 1 Corinthians, and Philippians. Matthew Henry’s commentary used these books plus 1 Peter to conclude that Paul was by no means lobbying to change the status of Onesimus from bondservant to free but only exclaiming the far more important spiritual improvement and value of Onesimus as now being a Christian brother, which would make him far more than a faithful bondservant.
Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), the famous scholarly colleague of the reformer Martin Luther, puts the question of slavery in this perspective:
In John Calvin’s introduction to his commentary on Paul’s Epistle to Philemon, he obviously believes that Paul’s main motive in writing was to reconcile Philemon to his fugitive slave.
Calvin also deals with the difficulty of reconciling the order, hierarchies, and subordinations of this life to the reason of men.
A helpful note on Bible words meaning slavery
Using our definition of slavery as “servitude for life, descending to the offspring,” this is doulos in Greek, ebed in Hebrew, and servus in Latin. English translations may render them as slave, bondservant, or servant, but they all represent the same legal status. Hired servants are almost always distinguished from these and rendered mishotos in Greek, sakir in Hebrew, and mercenaries in Latin. Many English translations prefer the terms bondservant or servant as less inflammatory than slave, but the meaning and status is all the same.
These verses also point out that regardless of our status in this life, the only status that counts is our relationship to Christ. We should have humble and forgiving hearts befitting bondservants of Christ, who is attentive to justice and assurance of our great and eternal blessing.
Christians should be concerned with justice and relieving those who suffer, but we have a tendency to lose our spiritual perspective, which usually results in strife and unforeseen and undesirable consequences. In John 18:33, Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King of the Jews. We should remember his answer to inform our perspective.
John 18: 36
I will cover one more subject before concluding this article. One Civil War era abolitionist criticism of Southern slavery was that it could divide families. This criticism, however, was also common in the South. The actual incidence was not as common as suggested by ultra-abolitionists. One estimate is that it was only about one in 22 per year, usually the result of estate sales or westward migration. But one in 22 families in a year accumulates ten in a decade. This was an issue that even plagued the late Roman Empire. In 539, the Emperor Justinian prohibited separating slave families. Most Southern pastors were engaged in trying to prevent or alleviate these separations. However, the family separation issue begged for visible state reforms. .It is doubtful that any such reforms would have appeased the radical abolitionists, but appeal to conscience should have been sufficient enough. It also showed a longer range increasing impracticality of any system of long-term slavery. Although separating children as well as husband wife were an important part of the issue, the spirit of Scripture for the whole family can be seen in Mark 10.
Mark 10:7-9
It is important to understand the historical realities of slavery today, because widespread ignorance and shallow perspectives have left our gates open wide to aggressively destructive social and political ideologies.
Until Next Week,
Deo Vindice!
Chaplain Ed
Dixie Heritage
P.O. Box 618
Lowell, FL 32663
