Well Done, Good And Faithful Servant

I was going to post some more on Christians and the Republican Party. I still plan to do so later. However, the Christian world was shaken today with the news of the death of Jerry Falwell.

Jerry Falwell was someone who allowed the power of God to change his life to the maximum degree. He was the son of an atheist alcoholic bootlegger, and was barred from delivering the valedictory speech at his high school for using counterfeit lunch tickets. He accepted Christ as his Savior at the age of 19, and soon felt called to vocational ministry. He attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, and returned to Lynchburg, Virginia upon graduation. He then started what became Thomas Road Baptist Church, now a 24,000-member megachurch. He also was the founder of Liberty University, which has evolved in 35 years from a small Bible college into a world-class Christian university.

Falwell was best known, however, for his leadership of the Religious Right. He founded the Moral Majority in 1980, and used it as a vehicle to register evangelical voters and to assist in the election of Ronald Reagan as President. From that point, conservative Christians were a bloc of voters that Republican candidates would ignore at their own peril. Falwell was known as a fiery preacher that was unafraid to speak against social ills such as abortion and homosexuality.

I agreed with him on all the important theological issues, and on most of the minor ones. His church was probably a little too old-fashioned for me, but there's nothing wrong with that at all. I think of him as a prophet. He took unpopular stands on divisive social issues of the day, and was hated by the left and by some on the right. He was a spokesman for traditional morality in a world that was hostile to his convictions, and really didn't want to hear that they might be wrong. Most of all, he was a faithful preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He believed and preached that God loves people, that people were sinners, and that God sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of man. Contrary to the opinion of many, he believed and preached that salvation was obtained by the grace of God by faith alone, and not by works or morality. Though he believed that traditional morality was in the best interest of the United States, he also believed that morality alone could not save the individual, but that only the grace of God alone provided salvation for mankind.

The world and the United States are better because Jerry Falwell was on this earth. I believe he met his Lord today, and heard the words of Jesus: "Well done, good and faithful servant".

Christians and the Republican Party, Part 1

I have been procrastinating, in regards to writing some of my thoughts on this subject. I will begin here to describe some of my current thoughts.

I am a Christian. I am a conservative, both socially and fiscally. I believe in a strong national defense. Currently, my political home is in the Republican party.

Conservative Christians became a force in the Republican party with the first election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. A lot of Christians felt duped by Jimmy Carter in 1976, who campaigned as a born-again Christian, but governed as a social liberal. Dr. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, which organized a large amount of Christians in order to fight social ills such as legalized abortion. The Reagan campaign succeeded in bringing a large amount of socially conservative voters into the Republican column. It made for a winning coalition of business-oriented conservatives, old-line northern Republicans, small-government libertarians, and socially conservative Republicans, independents, and Democrats. Ronald Reagan won two terms with this coalition, which built a party strong enough to capture both houses of Congress in 1994.

This incarnation of the Republican party was able to hold the House for 12 years, and the Senate for all but a couple of those years. It was also able to impeach President Clinton (in the House), and elect George W. Bush president twice.

Now, on the heels of the loss of both houses of Congress, an increasingly unpopular war, and a looming presidential election in 2008, this coalition finds itself on thin ice. In future installments, I will analyze the implications, and the role of the Christian in modern-day American politics.

More to come....

Barack, The Magic Negro

On March 19, 2007, David Ehrenstein of the LA Times wrote a column about Hollywood and politics. The headline of his column: "Obama, the 'Magic Negro.'" Then on March 21, 2007 the Rush Limbaugh show aired a parody produced by Paul Shanklin, imitating the Rev. Al Sharpton singing, "Barack The Magic Negro."

LA Times article

Sometimes, the truth hurts.

Nancy Pelosi's First 100 Days

A Big Deal

Today is the 60th anniversary of the day when Jackie Robinson first played in a major league game. He was the first African-American to play in the major leagues.

Major League Baseball is pulling out all the stops to honor him, declaring today Jackie Robinson Day. His number 42 has already been retired by every major league team. Today, over 200 players are wearing number 42, including several entire teams.

ESPN has been promoting this non-stop for a week. Normally, I believe ESPN blows everything way out of proportion. I get really sick of their hype machine. But, I really don't mind this. This sea of acclaim is coming about 35 years too late.

Jackie Robinson paved the way for African-Americans to play and excel, not just in baseball, but in the NFL and NBA as well. Baseball was a really big deal in 1947, and race relations were not good. Jackie Robinson broke a lot of stereotypes and took a lot of heat as a pioneer.

This is a big deal.

Two addendums: This ceremony at Dodger Stadium is becoming a circus. First, they have a black church choir sing a re-written version of the gospel song "O Happy Day". Instead of saying "when Jesus washed my sins away", they sang a line about Jackie playing baseball. It's not necessarily sacreligious, but it sounded really cheesy.

And, Jesse Jackson is there tonight in his role as President of Black America. I'm sure Jason Whitlock is happy about that.

Someone Who Gets It

Jason Whitlock is a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star and for AOL. He formerly appeared on ESPN.com and on ESPN's The Sports Reporters (he was the big black guy that wasn't from the East Coast).

Jason always has hot opinions. I don't always agree with him, but he always makes his point well.

I doubt if I agree with him much politically. However, he hits the nail on the head with this AOL article:

Time For Jackson, Sharpton To Step Down

I don't think this is merely a case of some young hip-hop guy wanting to take over the civil rights movement. He is, however, exposing Jackson and Sharpton for what they are: race hustlers.

Jason is going to be catching a lot of heat in the next few days, especially in the black community. He gets paid to give hot opinions. I think he has a lot of support out there, though.

Enough, Already

The past week has brought a manufactured firestorm, thanks to the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and the guilty politically correct liberals that run ESPN.

Radio talk show host Don Imus and his producer had a really stupid and offensive conversation over the air last week. In that exchange, he referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos". It was a very ignorant remark. You don't say things like that about anyone in public and in a professional atmosphere, especially over the air on the radio and on TV.

I've always wondered what the big deal was about Imus. I always thought he was an overrated blowhard, but the media elites always liked him and kept his show going.

These comments didn't go unnoticed. Our favorite race hustlers, Jackson and Sharpton got into the act, and fanned the flames of racial tension, as they tried to defend the Rutgers players. Jackson has experience in offending other ethnic groups, having referred to New York City as "Hymietown" in the 1980's. Sharpton had Imus on his radio show over the weekend, and got the embattled host to apologize for his comments.

Today, though, the Rutgers ladies had their own press conference. It took up an hour of airtime on ESPN. I'm glad I was at work, and I'm also glad I wasn't recording World's Strongest Man or whatever on the DVR, or else I would have missed it. The Worldwide Leader In Political Correctness has made sure to give this as much airtime as possible.

Imus's stupidity has been blown way out of proportion. He was wrong to call the Rutgers team what he called them. However, I'm tired of seeing the victim card played here. Imus is the stupid one here. Not the Rutgers team.

Imus plans on meeting with the Rutgers team in the near future. The team has not decided if they will accept Imus' apology. And, so what if they do or don't.

Enough of the race card. Enough of the victim card. Imus looks really ignorant, and he doesn't need the help of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for that.