Let’s discuss the issue of pro-athletes kneeling when the flag is raised and the national anthem is sung. It came to the public attention again when Drew Brees said he considered it disrespectful to kneel before NFL games during the National Anthem. A firestorm of hateful dialogue swept over him from black athletes. It occurred to me: we’re not talking about Gospel truth, where God is right and every human being is wrong. We’re discussing social issues between two sides, each of which has contributed to the problem. However, in matters of opinion, freedom of differences should be expected, not name-calling or bludgeoning rebuttals. We still need the position of the man disagreeing with his neighbor, but saying he would defend to the death his right to say it.
Blacks seem unable to acknowledge that right. As if they’re the only ones with a valuable opinion on flag loyalty. Again, only when both sides have an equal voice can common ground be reached. While they represent 81% of athletes in the NFL, they don’t represent the majority opinion of 300 MILLION people in America. Those millions also have the right to be heard. The savage attacks by pro blacks led Brees to first qualify, then retract, his criticism. He even admitted he “missed the mark.” Maybe he doesn’t know that “missing the mark” is a description of sin. Even given that he made a mistake, he didn’t sin. However, another issue is at stake here. When someone takes a stand for what he believes is right—he should have the fortitude to defend what he said. If he doesn’t, he shouldn’t say it. Furthermore, listening to explanations from Lebron James et al, Brees came to the conclusion that the kneeling wasn’t about the flag. Really? When it’s done publicly when the national Anthem is played and the flag is raised? How inconsistent can you get and still claim to be rational? But...accept their position for a moment. If it isn’t the flag, let pro players find other ways to express their displeasure with America. Like...boycotting luxury home builders...but no, the athletes live in those mansions. Or protesting before yacht builders...but no, they sail those luxury ships. Or protesting before luxury automobile builders...but no, they drive their cars. Or boycotting luxury clothing manufacturers...but no, they wear their fashion-plate duds. In other words, they kneel in a public venue and get attention, but the ostentatious act is but cheap sympathy, costing nothing they want to keep as a lifestyle. In conclusion I add a statement I sent to the Union-Tribune for their Reader’s Write column. They didn’t accept it. Here it is in full. Cowardly NFL owners bank billions annually as owners. Black athletes demand toleration of their intolerant views, but show no tolerance of NFL peers who express appreciation of the flag. Since...black athletes have a career under the flag, make millions under the flag, buy mansions under the flag, drive expensive cars under the flag, expect soldiers serving under the flag to keep them free and policemen to keep them safe, etc., etc., etc., shouldn’t they honor the flag and Anthem supporting it? That would be entirely RATIONAL if the issue hadn’t become so EMOTIONAL. Fini
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Saying Black Lives Matter is racist, but can hurt feelings, overlooks the fact that it isn’t a new slogan; the present problems have simply made it seem nearly-necessary to show support for our black brothers and sisters. It isn't necessary. All human life still equally matters, and emphasizing one race’s importance subconsciously exalts their importance in society.
Now...a point of greater importance. Truth almost always hurts our feelings because we disobey whatever fact it demands we obey. Truth never hurts when we consciously and perseveringly TRY to live by, and up to, whatever facts it demands. Indeed, merely making serious efforts to obey its facts reduces or eliminates hurt feelings we otherwise bear. As an example, I’ve never heard a tither feel hurt when hearing tithing preached. But for those who don’t tithe—a different response. That’s the powerhouse message Jesus taught in John 8:31-32. Knowing and living by and for God’s will both forgives our sin and empowers life beyond the guilt of having sinned. A great release that gives us freedom of thought and perspective. So...let truth hurt—its natural impact when we don’t obey its demands. For in release from the sin we also experience release from its guilt! The entire Christian message teaches our liberation from a past that bound us and gives us a future of spiritual freedom. God won’t have us returning to the shackled life Christ forgave. His own resurrected life shamed all satanic powers arrayed against him, symbolized by the 16-man Roman guard at his tomb. His resurrection so terrified the soldiers that they “became as dead men.” But Jesus didn’t rush over, shred their standards, strike them dead, then break their swords in two. He instead let them be witnesses to the leadership that they had committed a colossal blunder—SIN—by having him crucified. His personal resurrection rendered destruction of heathen symbols unnecessary. True, later in Ephesus, the former dabblers in the white and black arts brought the scrolls of that life to the burning Acts 19:18-19. Their decision, however, not Paul’s. That truth applies to the Fifth Suggestion. Black culture today has the ability to live pro-actively for their freedoms rather than responding reactively to the slavery of their ancestors. One hundred fifty-five years of freedom enfranchises them to be 155 light-years beyond that unjust, criminal and sinful imposition. Their present attacks on Confederate symbols instead at least implies a needless mental and emotional captivity to them. You have risen far beyond the limitations the Confederacy placed on your ancestors—indeed on the potential THEY had to excel. Since they had no opportunity to excel, and you have by your creative successes in many fields, you prove the Confederacy lived a lie—and would have been proven a lie had your ancestors enjoyed your freedom. The clinching argument against slavery in any race, at any time, is that all races, once free, instinctively develop God-given skills within them, and ACHIEVE. Removing the symbols will never increase self-esteem like personally having gone beyond what the captor expected could be accomplished. Indeed, leaving them in place shames the shortsightedness of the penitentiary culture that began in 1619 and lasted till April, 1865. Indeed, letting them remain mocks the racism that raised them as symbols of a Lost Cause that God considered a Sinful Cause. Sixth, the problems of drugs, incarceration rates and welfare dependency, whatever the culture, must be solved from within the culture. Not by restricting funding to police departments so more community money can be SENT into the afflicted communities. The billions of tax dollars spent over the decades have helped a few but failed to solve the problems of the many in black communities. Why would we think millions more would? We have surely heard the old saying, “Don’t send good money after bad.” Here’s a single suggestion that could increase home ownership in black communities, improve their neighborhoods and make them uncomfortable places for drug dealers to hide. Establish a black-operated financial consortium, tapping for investment purposes the millions of dollars in their businessmen, pro-athletes and professional people—as well as inviting public, not government, investment. Pay dividends to investors by making loans to people for home purchases or improvements, charging interest according to the ability to pay. Allow for an incremental rate increase as their income grows. Give nothing. Expect people to pay their way. That’s as essential for their confidence as individuals as for your profit. That empowers individuals and families to make a home from a house and a neighborhood from scattered families. That’s only a small effort, but it’s a start. A bigger help would be if married couples of different races, who have succeeded in careers by taking advantage of educational opportunities, would rear families in those communities, buy homes, improve them and model what life can still be when caring, capable people lead in the effort. Many such neighborhoods in America have been rehabilitated in just that way. End Part III Third, Shared blame must be accepted. The police, where they have allowed authority to become authoritarian. The blacks, by taking refuge in victim-hood. Nothing will be resolved so long as the stories are all one-sided, with blacks the innocent and police the guilty: predators preying! Truth to tell however: why is the discussion nearly one-sided? As in, “what can be done to reduce police brutality?” Why is no one asking, “What are black community leaders doing to help the police use less force by encouraging their people not to run when stopped and not to resist when arrested?”
We look in vain to find common ground in a one-sided issue. Seeing it as a two-sided problem empowers a call for human decency under a just God against bad decisions by both parties. It brings a meeting of equals before God, seeking solutions to wounds that intentional or unintentional charges and counter-charges have festered into open, ugly, conscious distrust. Such people are agents of reconciliation, not aggravation. They compromise to seek common ground, not pontificate to defend positions. They want healing, not contention. They negotiate disputed points, not defend doctrinaire stances. Such discussion necessarily excludes those who have a street mentality. They’re professional agitators, lurking everywhere and immediately flying to wherever they think opportunity exists to stir discontent into a witch’s brew of looting and violence. Their forte is hustling and provoking confrontations that make good press for the ever-sensational-seeking media. Those people know how to blow smoke into fire; but not how to nurture a flickering wick into a candle-light. They know how to stomp people’s dreams to death; but not how to cradle a bruised reed in gentle hands until it heals Matthew 12:20. They satisfy themselves by disturbing the peace, exacerbating differences and creating disruptive warfare where strong divisions exist. They pass combustible situations and casually throw explosives, delighting in the blowup that follows. Then, like arsonists returning to admire their handiwork, the street agitators stand by WATCHING with pleasure at the mayhem they have caused. Obey Paul’s directive in Titus 3:10-11 regarding such people. Fourth, black preachers need to help their people take command and assume responsibility for their lives. They have that very influence in their communities denied white ministers in theirs. Let them by teaching and personal example lead their people from believing others owe them. They instead owe themselves the right of every race in a free America. And it’s being done by hundreds of thousands of black brothers and sisters by putting effort into satisfying careers instead of waiting for someone to help them find one or to provide a living without having one. Their success in a highly technical age proves how wrong the slave masters were. They can think with the best brains of other races, compete in every field with other races, achieve equal success with other races. Indeed, even as slaves, they outthought and outworked their masters and lacked only a free market in which to compete. Those who by effort, working with people of good-will in other races, can resolve differences that always exist in humanity, even in a thoroughly homogeneous society, certainly in a culture diverse as ours. That “work-ethic” approach to everyday life will also resolve the problem of respect. “Show me respect” so many black people say. Funny, I don’t hear any other race in America making that demand. Maybe what they’re really saying is, “Give me self-respect.” Only the person himself, no one else, can provide self-respect. In fact, it can’t be given or demanded. It certainly can’t be TAKEN. It must be earned. And the best way to EARN it is to SHOW it to others. I pass many people on my walks. Because I owe them recognition, I greet them. I seldom fail to hear a return greeting. Abraham Lincoln always said he’d show a man respect by getting off the sidewalk if he wanted the whole space. I’ve done it more than once. Not because I’m a pushover, but I save my warrior-nature for more important issues than space on concrete. The difference in many societies is: some people in every race want the government to take care of them. Others in the same race want to take care of themselves, to earn their own way by the God-given talents he put in every race. People will always find politicians who promise to “take care of them” if they vote the right way. This writer had a white member of a church who was told he would have all his family needs met if he made the right religious choice. He “no-thanked” them and continued following Christ. Communists and Nazis traded welfare societies for votes, but where did it leave their people in the end? End Part II |
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