Mangers, Crosses, and Tombs

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 4/16/22

            It has been said that if there were no God, man would invent one. In other words, we either strongly sense or deep down in our being we believe or suspect that there really is a God and we aren’t it. Natural design drives us to make a decision. Did the natural world – air, the seasons, plants and animals, the beauty of the earth – or humanity happen all by itself? Can there really be such grandiose design as the universe displays without a designer? Can an unintelligible Grand Poof produce what we see when we look outside our windows during springtime?

            Different faiths and philosophies answer these questions differently. I have a terrific friend whom I deeply respect. He tells me that neither the design all around us nor anything else points to a supreme designer. He believes that “the highest non-human reality is matter and energy.” This friend is not critical of those who believe differently. I have to wonder, though, if this great friend is not troubled by the fact that if there is a supreme designer, he – like it or not – bears a relationship to that designer. I wonder if it bothers him to think that he would be the lesser one in that relationship and that he, necessarily, would be answerable to that designer.

            The Easter season compels us to give thought to these questions. Easter lays claim to an event. That event was the resurrection of a dead man. The claim was first made by men and women who saw this man before, during, and after his death. It is recorded in ancient literature of the 1^st century, in both narratives and epistolary writings.

            For some this will be a jaw-dropper, but a major television network, Fox Nation, is now showing a special in which celebrity Kathy Lee Gifford testifies to how her relationship with this reportedly resurrected man changed her life as well as the lives of many of her friends. Surprisingly, Gifford has been sought by several news outlets to tell her story. Surprisingly because the modern media has not been inclined to grant the opportunity for people of faith to do what Gifford is doing.

            Viewing Gifford’s program reminded me of the life and work of another celebrity who came to believe in this reportedly resurrected man. Lee Strobel was an investigative reporter and legal editor for the Chicago Tribune when he was sent to Kentucky to cover the hillbillies (Strobel’s term) who were arguing for creation to be equally presented with evolution in their county’s schools.  An avowed atheist, Strobel was initially driven toward faith by two things: the humble and kind people he had intended to ridicule and his formerly agnostic wife after she turned to belief in the resurrection. Determined to extricate her from her new “religious cult,” Strobel was stymied by the positive changes in his wife, changes in her personality, character, and values.

            Putting on his investigative, journalistic cap, Strobel still set out to show his wife the error of her ways. However, his much reading and interviewing of both people of faith and of other atheists like himself led him to embrace that which had changed his wife and many other friends and acquaintances as well. Strobel has written that “actually it was Easter that killed my faith in atheism.” In over 20 books Strobel has argued for the veracity of the claims of Easter.

            A similar path to faith was taken by President Richard Nixon’s lawyer and “hatchet man,” Chuck Colson. Imprisoned after pleading guilty to obstructing justice during the famous Watergate hearings era, Colson professed his faith and soon founded Prison Fellowship, a ministry to families of the incarcerated. Having taught in prison for ten years I can attest to the genuineness, longevity, and effectiveness of Colson’s still functioning organization.

            Symbols shape us far more than we know. Manger scenes remind us of cows and sheep. A manger is a trough for feeding livestock. Long ago a couple who had just had a baby placed him in a manger. How humble and lowly is that? Crosses were a major means of execution in the ancient world, certainly no symbol we would wear around our necks, yet today we do. Tombs we logically view as deathly things unless we believe in the miracle of Easter.

            Kathy Lee Gifford’s special is titled “The Jesus I Know.”  Lee Strobel’s pertinent book for the season is “The Case for Easter.” Fittingly, one of Chuck Colson’s most famous books is “How Now Shall we Live?” And that is the question Easter poses. A corollary question is “With hope or without it?”

 

Roger Hines

April 13, 2022

           

             

 

                    Why Conservatives Should Be Smiling

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 4/9/22

             Throughout the country political re-alignments are occurring. The corporate world has essentially switched parties, Republicans are finally wooing the American worker, and the grandchildren of the 1960’s flower children/Vietnam War protestors have abandoned their grandparents’ free speech movement. They now call for censorship. Why? Because views with which they disagree make them feel unsafe. No wonder conservatism is rising.

            Weary conservatives often ask if conservatism is conserving anything. Noting that conservatives are often little more than the toothless opposition, they argue that before conservative values can be conserved, they must first be reclaimed. There is much truth to this line of argument, yet conservatives are now in a posture to do some reclaiming. Consider how the following realities bode well for conservatives in this election year.

            The political left now has a new weapon. For many decades the left’s weapon of choice was the courts. Sue, sue, sue. Sue the states, sue Pro-life or Tea Party groups, sue anybody who disagrees with you. Whether it was the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, or other such leftist groups, the judiciary has long been their refuge. With issue after issue, the tactic was to go to court to contest any law or policy they didn’t like.

            Surprise, surprise! The political left, that has always hated those big, rich, Republican-leaning corporations, now enjoys their favor and power. Yes, corporations, those former Calvin Coolidge/Herbert Hoover/national Chamber of Commerce types that generally favored Republicans are now embracing the far left. Corporations are now ok with Black Lives Matter tactics, the LGBTQ gospel, transgender indoctrination, so-called “equity,” and anything else the left pressures them to support. Whether it’s Coke, Delta, Disney, or any other corporation, call it progressivism in the board room.

 Middle sized corporate heads, desiring to be cool, rush to follow Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. They too want to be CEO activists, telling us lesser folks what we should think, especially about abortion, immigration, homosexuality, and all the transgender euphoria. No longer satisfied with being intellectual defenders of capitalism and free enterprise, even the Koch brothers are now pro-choice, pro-gay, and pro-amnesty. The good news is that polls show Middle America is repelled by this development.

            It can no longer be claimed that the essence of liberalism is tolerance or that the essence of conservatism is restraint. That claim was once true. Liberals always took a broad, broad view of everything. Their motto was “… but on the other hand…” Today they embrace and practice the suppression of expression whenever the expression differs from their own. For decades Republicans went along to get along. That too is changing. A strong, growing bench of conservatives – including Governor Desantis of course – is echoing the sainted William F. Buckley who declared, “A conservative is one who stands athwart history yelling ‘Stop’ when no one is inclined to do so and is impatient with those who so urge it.” Republican leaders are now fighting back with much more vim and vigor on social, economic, and foreign affairs issues. Talk radio ignited this fighting spirit. Cable television sustains it. Conservatives still haven’t touched education, but they have cracked the media. That’s reason to smile.

            The essence of liberalism today is sexual chaos (denial of biology), socialist economics, excusable violence, and the John Lennon (of the Beatles) refrain, “Imagine no countries.” Google this song – “Imagine” – anyhow. The music itself is beautiful even though the compelling lofty words comprise a liberal manifesto. Lennon’s song is a good example of how and why so many youths are swooned into embracing ideologies before thinking. As sociologist Allan Bloom noted, “Nothing is more singular about today’s generation than its addiction to music.” Nothing is more surely in control of today’s music and entertainment than the dead-end ecstasy provided by the very liberal movie, entertainment, and publishing industry. But parents are taking note of this fact and are raising the topic at their “rowdy” school board meetings.

             There are many fronts from which conservatives can take encouragement, issues that is, which are pulling voters away from progressive thought and toward more sensible policies. For instance, the progressives’ war on parents’ rights has awakened an army of mama bears in both red and blue states. Over half of the states have Republican governors. 28 progressives in Congress are choosing not to run for re-election. Republican control of the U.S. House is all but a foregone conclusion. Winning back the Senate is a distinct possibility.

            Alas, even President Biden’s party supporters know what a danger he is to their political future. Even the media is slowly backing away from him. Now that’s something to smile about.

 

Roger Hines

4/6/22

           

           

 What Can Russia’s Turbulent Past and Present Teach                                                       Americans?

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 4/2/22

The long sad history of the Russian people rolls on. Their plight for century upon century has been tyrants and tyranny. One is prone to ask where is a Gorbachev or a Yeltsin when Russia and the rest of the world need them? The brief interlude of governance by these two men wasn’t exactly western democracy, but as Margaret Thatcher said of Gorbachev, “We can do business together.” President Reagan’s assessment of Gorbachev was that under him the USSR was “less evil than it had been before.”

Our minds are primarily on Ukraine today and they should be; however, we should not lose sight of the full picture of the Slavic world. Ukraine and its neighbors, including “Mother Russia,” are of the same Slavic language family. Contested, split, and ruled at one time or another by Poland, Austria-Hungary, and the Tzarist Romanov family, Ukrainians have struggled  for decades, eventually becoming an independent nation in 1991. It’s abundantly clear that Putin, who succeeded Yeltsin and who considered Gorbachev and Yeltsin weak, desires the restoration of a Soviet Union-like country with iron-fisted power. Sadly, yea dangerously, President Biden has shown neither courage nor savvy in dealing with the world’s most dangerous man. Would that he could be a decisive Truman, Kennedy, Thatcher, Reagan, or Trump.

As for governmental power, can anyone seriously argue that the lives of Russians, Ukrainians, and all of their neighboring lands were made better when Lenin displaced the Romanovs in 1917? Practically all Slavic lands had suffered under the 304-year reign of the Romanovs (1613-1917). Slavs soon learned, however, that Lenin’s socialism wasn’t very social. It was tyranny under a different name proffered by a fellow we all know about, Karl Marx. Even though the “Christian” Romanovs behaved like self-appointed royals behave, they did not send their 97% peasant population to work camps. Socialist Russia did. Seems there’s always a catch to socialists and their claims.

Please do the following things. Compare the continuing unsettled political climate of the Slavic nations to that of the USA. Ask yourself the question, “What’s the difference between brutal and subtle?” In Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Central America, political change has typically been brutal. Not so in America. We have not experienced military take-overs, or power-hungry men who raised an army and marched to the seat of government, or work camps for those who disagree with the government. Those who apply the word insurrection to the January 6 goonish caper at the U.S. Capitol haven’t consulted a dictionary. Unlike the rest of the world, America has never known experientially what an insurrection is like.

Yet we have known and have been experiencing for many decades the subtle, invasive march of governmental power and the subtle but steady march of bureaucratic/regulatory/executive order rule and Orwellian governmental creep. Draw a map of the United States. Leave space between the states, viewing them as the entities they were meant to be. Ponder the 13 states (“colonies,” actual outposts of the British Empire), those subjects of the British crown who got together and declared they would be free. Consider the document they adopted that delineated the powers their new central government would and would not have. Read slowly the 28 words in Amendment 10. Finally, mentally list the areas of life which our central government involves itself in but which are forbidden in these 28 words. Being a Teddy Bear, I’ll get you started: education and healthcare.

How hard to handle has public education gotten? How many chefs in the education kitchen are there? Who really controls our schools and what they teach? How big a mess is healthcare? Why do at least three entities – the central government, the insurance company, your beloved doctor – have to be involved in your health? If you’re just dandy with all of this, have a good day. You might also like Eastern Europe, Russia, and China. But please understand that subtle, slow-moving, entangling administrativia birthed in our national legislature equals power, and that school curricula which you don’t like or believe in means you’ve given your children away and you never noticed. No tanks or guns or insurrection brought you to it all. Your inattention to current events, your dislike for history, your abhorrence of politics, your dismissal of the poetic line, “No man is an island entire of itself” brought you to it.

Tyranny is tyranny no matter how it arrives, no matter how strong or moderate its grip. In the end we’ve all lost our freedom and have been either too busy, too lazy, or too uncaring to realize it.

 

Roger Hines

March 31, 2022