So powerful… I am crossposting in full.
From: The Blaze
Today, inside, they dedicated a new statue of another American giant, Fredrick Douglas – a man born into slavery, but who knew instinctively that he was not born a slave. No man is. We all know this. We all know that each man and woman, everywhere, is born free. It is other men that enslave them. And to accomplish this takes a mighty effort. You must intimidate, brutalize, terrorize, belittle, degrade and make sure they don’t understand how to question and think critically.
To keep a man a slave you do much the same as the cruel circus masters did to the elephant around the turn of last century. Clamp heavy chains around their legs and stake them to the ground. Then beat and terrorize them. After a while, you no longer even have to stake the chain, the elephant gives up and just the mere rattle of the chain convinces the elephant there is no hope, so they give up and do what ever it is the circus requires.
Fredrick Douglas was lucky enough to live in a house where he was taught to read, write and think. He knew God did not make men masters over others. Nor did he ever intend any man to impose unrighteous dominion over another man or beast. It is time we remind ourselves of this truth again and begin to rise up against the intimidation before the handful of peanuts from our new political circus masters is considered a kindness and not the symbol of evil cruelty.
In the building behind me, they are now plotting a new war with Syria. This will bring death and destruction the world over. We are told that we need to pick sides and arm those who are so far down the scale of decency that even Vladimir Putin asked Americans if they even knew that those we are arming have literally eaten their enemies on the battle field. The fact that he even needed to ask that question, and that most have never even seen the video of the commander of the rebel troops on TV engaging in this ungodly horror, is an indictment of our government officials and our media.
Are we even worth defending anymore? Who are we? And will we even notice or care when the chain is finally snapped around our legs?
What will be written about us? The greatest generation has passed. We who are historians will watch.
Will it be said that none called for justice, not one pleaded for truth? They trusted in vanity and spoke lies. They conceived mischief and brought forth iniquity.
What is it we even believe as a people anymore? Where did we get these ideas that now seem so popular?
Our forbears came to these shores not for free stuff, but for freedom. The chance to make their own way, create a different life, to not be who others deemed them to be, but what they believed they could be. They came here because they knew that God made them free to make their own way in life. And they wanted to serve him in the way they believed, not as they were told.
But how many care? And, of those who do care, how many really still believe?
Some things are worth believing in: That the little guy can make it, every single life has value and is worth living, that honor and integrity do matter, that justice will prevail – if not in this life – then the next, and God does exist and what we do in our lives matters.
It is the meek and the humble that inherit the earth. Have we forgotten?
We have declared ourselves masters of the earth, spread our troops all over the world, taught the world how to do banking like we do it here in America, while we can’t even master our own homes, protect our neighborhood and simply balance a check book. How grotesque we must appear to those looking in.
I for one still believe in the silly notion of truth, justice and the American way. Since our founding, a good percentage of our fellow citizens closed their eyes to the civil rights of all Americans. They were okay, they didn’t want to think of the bad things going on, they were busy, it didn’t affect them, it couldn’t be that bad, they were just one person and, after all, what could they do about it anyway?
Nothing has changed, except the chairs at the table.
Someone has always been on the losing end of the stick of power. Blacks are the most obvious, the Chinese, the native American, but let’s not forget the Irish, the Catholics, the Mormons, the Jews and now it seems all those of faith that will not conform or do not have special access like the radicalized Muslim Brotherhood and her allies such as CAIR.
For those that think men make progress collectively, they couldn’t be more wrong. We are redeemed one man at a time. There is no “family pass” ticket or park hopping pass to life. One ticket, one life at a time. This is why man loses one target only to find another. From the blacks to the Irish, Atheists to Christians.
But as always there are a few leaders: Ben Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
They never forget that truth, justice and freedom are the wellspring from which the waters of this nation come. And so they must be upheld for all men – those you know, those you do not, and maybe more importantly for those who you do not like or agree with.
In the past, these movements of a small but dedicated portion of our citizens have led to great shifts in our culture. But those movements always came from the same institutions … the church. Not the one with the popular preacher, but the one who put it on the line to tell the people the truth. They were born to be free, and with that freedom comes a great price, a profound responsibility. But our pulpits have gone quiet out of fear and apathy. Their faith is found in the wisdom of man, and not in the power of God.
Between the tithing checks and the Rolex watch, they no longer are willing to call evil by its name. There is no vision. And when there is no vision the people perish.
I humbly suggest to you that Martin Luther King knew the answer. Many find it a new vision based solely on the vision of Gandhi or some new radical progressive philosopher, one that teaches that although we be free of all men, when we choose to make ourselves servants to all we gain the more.
Let’s get a couple of things straight. The Hollywood, music and hippy culture was not the source of power of the 1960s freedom movement of Martin Luther King. God was. He was leading those who risked their lives, not Janice Joplin or Jimmy Hendrix. It wasn’t John Lennon that taught people about love and peace, that job fell on the shoulders of a carpenter. And it is there that we will find the answers that will break the chains that are being forged for a new generation of slaves.
The rights that so many Americans ignorantly preach about so often, are not really their rights. They belong to God and they are given to us for stewardship. They are pretty important and obvious. So obvious that we used to say they were self-evident.
Meaning that humans don’t need to be taught, you instinctively know that you have a right not to be executed without a trial, held without charge, searched without warrant or spied upon without cause. The government is no longer the protector of those civil rights and so we must be.
When we are told that it is okay for the IRS, EPA, ATF, FBI or anyone to hassle, threaten or intimidate others because of their skin color, religion or political belief, we stop being the country that we all want to build and start being the country the world should fear.
The long train of abuses regarding these rights are the same our dusty founders warned us about losing. They knew then, because man never changes. Man loves power and money. No matter the skin color, religion or income level. They warned us and said that if we did not get away from this new two party system they would in the end lie, cheat and steal enough that the American experiment would be over.
We are about to see that prophecy fulfilled if we do not block the path and state plainly, both the Republicans and the Democrats have played us, lied to us and the media no longer plays the role of journalist, but rather public relations.
We have been silent too long. We are not violent, we are not racist, we are not anti-government. We are not the enemy of man’s freedom. And those who wish to use unrighteous dominion over mankind are not enemies of ours they are enemies of God and we will no longer be silent. We will no longer accept the lies, the corruption, or the information and data gathering.
It is evil. And we will surround all of those who wish to break the cycle of corruption. We will use ourselves as shields to protect those with the courage to stand and respectfully, but with the power of the spirit, demand to be treated as an equal member of society. I am a man and I demand to be treated as such.
I answer to only one king and his kingdom will come, his will be done. I have chosen sides and I choose God.
Just as all Americans have done in the past when they choose to change the world for the better, they remember who they are and set forth a few fundamental principles as we did in our declaration of independence.
We, as a nation, acknowledge a creator;
We next acknowledge that he gives certain natural, guaranteed rights to man;
We next declare that government exists primarily to protect these natural, God-given rights;
There is right and wrong;
Man must pay for his mistakes either now on earth or through God’s justice later;
There is no such thing as social justice. Only God can balance things out;
And we are not God;
We need to fight, for the best man can do and that is provide equal justice;
There is no such thing as collective salvation / we are each responsible for our own lives and choices;
We however are going to be judged on how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters. Thus we must serve them, help them with charity toward all.
Malice toward none, Lincoln said. God said it slightly differently – vengeance is mine.
Any one who speaks of punishing their political enemies is on the wrong side. It is clearly evil and we have a responsibility to say so.
America, it is now your time to rise up and boldly declare those same self-evident truths that changed the world and demand that those truths remain the basis of our laws.
My civil rights will not be trampled, and I say this not for me but for my children and all those who yearn to breath free. Those who make your Apple products at Foxconn, those who languish in prisons in Cuba, North Korea And Venezuela. Those homosexuals who are stoned to death in the streets of Egypt, or Iran, while our so-called civil rights leaders hold coffee clutches with third graders in the White House.
We will stand not for our job, house or income, but we will stand for those immigrants who came here the right way and not have their dreams destroyed by increasing competition at the lowest rung of the ladder while keeping the brightest and best minds out of the visa pool allowing for little competition at the top. We will not pervert women’s rights and twist it into a gross silent defense of abortion doctors in Philly and Houston while turning our eyes from the forgotten women who have never had the civil right to walk alone on a street without a man, or to drive a car in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia and even those who now cower in fear with their faces covered in states like Florida, Virginia, New York and Minnesota.
We will not waste another second shadow boxing the demons of the past when the fight to end actual slavery is still happening today. Call it what you will, but those who make your iPad in China – those who make your cute little Mao purses – are the very people you claim to care so much about. They are the ones yearning to breath free. And worse there is the oldest form of human degradation man has ever known, the sex slave trade that currently has in its coils over 2 million children. The biggest source of this evil is a wide-open hole in our Arizona boarder. That is not from a white right wing Christian, but a brave Hispanic lawmaker in Mexico who is begging for the American people to wake up and help the 8 year-old children being sold into sex slavery.
The press may say how dare these men declare themselves the next Martin Luther King or civil rights leaders.
How blind to believe the civil rights movement ever ended.
The civil rights movement never ends and it never will. It has been marching since the beginning of time. Where Martin Luther King started is where Gandhi left off, and where he started, Abe Lincoln left off and before that Whitfield, all the way back to Moses. God has not moved. We have.
But it is never too late. We are not at the mercy of these events. We can alter the course of history. We can stand against the dangerous arc of this story.
But we need people who are willing to speak truth. We need inspiration. We need a model to follow.
The last century was a century of genocide. A century where collectivist, national socialist, and communist evil rose up again and again … swallowing up the lives of millions.
It happens every time man says the collective is more important than the right of the individual. That one phrase becomes in the end – every time – a license to kill anyone deemed standing in the way of progress.
But evil met its match. Goodness eventually prevailed. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lech Walesa and Mother Theresa awoke the world.
They gave their lives to the pursuit of human rights. They took the side of justice against injustice, they held aloft the torch of freedom to push out the darkness of hate.
These men and women lived difficult lives. They often lived shortened lives. They were often born to relative privilege, but willing to take on suffering.
They did want not to martyr themselves. They would have happily lived to the end of their natural lives in comfort … but to the righteous, there is no comfort when evil has taken root.
But the cause of human rights has been taken over by organizations who share little with the individuals who led the movement.
Human rights was once a cry for justice. Now it used as a threat.
These organizations have become bullies and grotesque parodies of the principles they pretend to represent.
They criticize free nations and spare the unfree. They denounce nations like Israel and America, who have high standards for freedom, and leave alone nations that have no freedom at all. They are nearly comical in their double standards.
Whatever moral force they once had is spent. Their time is up. And so, we dismiss them.
Today, we take back the phrase “human rights” and place it where it belongs, as the first half of god’s plan for humanity. The second half is responsibility.
If we want to be endowed with rights – real human rights, we have to act with responsibility. We must not be comfortable with rights. We must be comfortable with responsibility.
We cannot use our few short years on this planet enjoying our rights … we must do everything we can living by our responsibilities to our fellow man. Rights and responsibilities. The two go hand-in-hand, arm-in-arm, together.
Today, I propose a new path. I propose a path led by you – the individual, linked in arms with other individuals. A path where governments and so-called human rights organizations get out of the way and people come together to solve our problems. As God intended.
Some may ask: Why not leave this work up to others – the well-connected and well-educated and well-heeled, our political leaders or the media?
Well, I ask you: Whom do you trust to do this sacred work?
Who will protect your rights better? A king, president or you?
Who will protect the truth? A reporter, a labor union or you?
Who will protect and teach your children to seek truth? A textbook committee, an education bureaucrat, or you?
Did a commission of wise men stop the holocaust? Did a committee of congress end Jim Crow?
No. In each case, the work was done by individuals who would not abide convenient lies.
They saw injustice and they called it out. They saw their nation wage war against a single group and they said “not in my name.” They didn’t wait for the conventions of society to catch up to God’s laws. They pushed. They pressed. And they were victorious.
Each of us have been waiting for a leader to rise from among us. And none have. How many have been called and refused to serve? How many must have failed to heed the call for the Lord to make it all the way down to us?
I pray now that those who have heard the call to rise up in the tradition of peaceful resistance, do so now before, as it was with Bonhoeffer, it is too late.
I beg those with eyes and ears to heed the call and begin to train under the exact system used by MLK. Search his words out. You will find that your history professors and civil rights activists left out the real author of the words of Gandhi, King and Bonhoeffer.
Read them, ponder them and risk living them. Even though they will make you a target of the NSA, having your name on their list as an enemy may in the end be the way your name is forever etched in his book of life.
Pastors, priests and rabbis, I challenge you. What have you done with your knowledge and priesthood power that those without have not done this week? If you can not answer that with power every day, what does that say about you?
Average citizens and college students. I challenge you. Martin Luther King didn’t take a class, get a certificate and a bunch of permits. He saw injustice, knew that love was the answer and marched. If you don’t find a leader, perhaps it is because you were meant to lead.
Christians, I believe in the free market. If your preacher is too afraid to preach it from the pulpit, maybe you should preach it from the street corner and that way when he loses that mansion of his, he can hear you preach on the streets and keep the only mansion that counts anyway.
Our spiritual body is out of shape and we need intensive training right now. Get back to God because some things are true and worth believing in.
The good guys do win in the end. Evil does not stand unless good men never rise up.
The time is now and we are the people the world is waiting for. We must never stop being the shore that others can come to for shelter and hope. But to do so, we must realign ourselves with truth.
This is the vision.
We must preach good tidings to the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to those held captive. To declare vengeance belongs to God and to give unto those who mourn beauty for ashes and water the trees of righteousness.
We shall not perish.
I can’t help that most of us don’t like to hear the truth, but hear it we must: religion and morality are the only stable and lasting basis of individual life and public policy and they must be part of our public policy rather than driven from it.
It is no longer enough to just be a good person, we must rise up to be the size of the bronze giant they dedicated this morning in the building behind me. Fredrick Douglas’ time was in the 1800s, King’s time has passed. This is our time, this is the next long march toward civil rights and we shall overcome.
Stand without fear, lock arms and stare down the bullies that wish to enslave mankind yet again.
With honor, courage and love. Let us today raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.
