Monday Morning Music Ministry

11-4-24

As a historian, I sometimes am seduced by the “long view” of events in the life of our nation. Every people, every society, every civilization since the dawn of time has experienced crises. And so has the United States. Natural disasters, sure. Errors, national sins, corruption? We have not been immune. We have muddled through; and frequently we have triumphed.

There are many ways we are different than the myriad civilizations that have preceded us, societies that have risen and fallen. But there is one similarity we cannot escape. America will fall, as those civilizations have fallen. Whether it will be in hazy, distant future; whether it will be a revolution-evolution to a better system we cannot envision, or a slow disintegration from within or by invasions… the wheel of history grinds with determination.

Another path is whether we are in the midst, now, of the passing of the United States, the “extinction of freedom” about which Ronald Reagan warned.

In the days of Noah (Jesus said, recorded in Luke 17:27), they were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when… the flood came and destroyed them all. In other words, we can be in a crisis and not realize it… or its severity.

Because we eat and drink and go to jobs and wake up every morning, we are tempted to think all is normal, that our problems will resolve themselves. However, America is at an unprecedented inflection-point.

• Every dispositive “metric” points to rot and decay – crime statistics; drug use; human trafficking; homelessness; child and spousal abuse; disparity of wealth and poverty.
• Worse, if possible, are the underlying problems that seem insoluble – the decline in religion and faith; the social acceptance of baby-killing; glorification of violence; widespread illiteracy; invasion of millions of the world’s “unknowns” across virtually non-existent borders; the casual disregard of marriage vows and the prevalence of divorce; sex as a commodity.
• Even more insidious are factors that are challenging to discern, manipulated by players difficult to identify – the Dark State increasingly monitors, and controls, our lives; Big Media, Big “Education,” Big Pharma dictate our priorities; our currency is worthless and the economy is a toy in the hands of a few; wars are instigated here and there, and we are like pawns on a giant chessboard whose players are bloodthirsty masters we scarcely know; we being lied to by “journalists,” hypnotized by media, propagandized by pundits.
• … and we are anesthetized by the onetime source of refuge and strength, the mainstream church.

Click: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!”

This time, this election, is different. The choices America makes and the implicit re-dedication that must follow, is consequential. The contest is not really between two individuals. Their unique strengths and weaknesses actually camouflage the larger historical trends are colliding. The election of 2024 is more than Republican vs Democrat; more than conservative vs liberal; more than old vs new.

How can we reverse course? Christian, do not pray that God send revival. It is lazy and irresponsible to pray for revival: that is our job, not God’s! It would not be genuine if we do not, ourselves, one by one, redeem our own lives, our households, our families, our relatives, our neighborhoods, our friends, our towns and cities… our nation. Then: our schools, our media, our churches too.

Some patriots are uncomfortable with Mr Trump as the leader of a moral, as well as a political, Restoration. His opponent Harris is a lightweight Jezebel who quickly will pass from the scene, but the former President, despite his record of accomplishing much for traditional values and Christian concerns, invites skepticism.

But the Bible is replete with flawed figured used by God for His purposes. In fact, Scripture overflows with stories and examples and lessons of people who are not always bright and shiny, yet through whom God has worked His will. And we can add you and me – are we so impure that we cannot let Him use us too? God forbid!

I believe that God can use, and is using, President Trump in many and mighty ways that might help bring this nation back to its standing as a home for the righteous. As we join the fight(s), and before “standing”… we must kneel. And vote. “In God We Trust” – do you believe it? Well, God trusts us, too!

There is an old Irish fable in which a man arrives at Heaven’s Gate and is challenged by St Peter to display the scars he acquired during his life on earth. “I have no scars,” the man says. St Peter replies: “Really? There was nothing you ever thought was worth fighting for?”

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Click: Ray Charles – America The Beautiful (Live in D.C.)

9-9-24

“Something is happening in our world, and I want to be part of it!”

My friend said that to me as we recently discussed current events (“current” as in “high voltage”), and she took the words from my mouth, as it were. Our common point of view is not unalloyed, and I wonder how many readers agree. That is, some things are happening – many things are changing – and few of them are to our liking… but. We want to, we need to, be part of understanding them, resisting many of them, and rescuing our society. We can make things happen too.

Redeem our culture, that is. Protect our families. Defend our faith.

This will not be a political column. As politics have invaded every sphere of life these days, however, we must contend when necessary. Goliath challenged King Saul for 40 days until David stepped up. He recognized that the Philistines were a threat; he accepted that giants were real; and he acted. Neither politeness nor cowardice nor prudence nor excuses nor pride were availed: it was time to act.

Some things are happening in our world. I will list a few. Join me on a 30,000-feet view.

For all of Western civilization’s “progress,” a lot of our intelligence is artificial. I am turning that phrase around, to mean that myriad assumptions are swindles, despite our smug arrogance. After generations of societal life in many places and varied conditions, we believe that our world has evolved to a place where families are no longer sacred foundation-stones; where men and women do not have essential characteristics and functions; where faith must not play a vital role in peoples’ lives; where respect, sexual fidelity, and civility are irrelevancies; where traditions are not valuable tools for moving forward.

This nonsense is palpable, and dangerous. When we review history – which is a taskmaster, not merely a teacher; certainly not a gentle persuader – we see that every civilization that has veered toward these heresies has perished. Often in ugly and brutal fashion. Seldom has a culture chosen to embrace these suicidal tendencies as lustily as ours is doing.

Some other things are happening in our world. As I assured you, I am not getting political, but I will list some facts – largely obscure at the moment, even from a 30,000-foot overview.

Quietly but quickly there are changes afoot. They might be harbingers of a revolution of redemption; or they might be blips on the screen of the cultural decline; or they might be death throes of a world doomed to join past civilizations on the trash-heap of history.

In the major Western nations there are extreme shake-ups in politics (unavoidable to mention, except as “politics” represents many aspects within societies). During the US elections, former Democrats named Trump and Kennedy and Musk and Gabbard now control the Republican Party, or at least the presidential campaign. The Blue-Collar Billionaire and his new allies (and supporters) largely have embraced an agenda that embraces Christian values and conservative priorities.

In the United Kingdom, a four-month-old party named Reform garnered almost as many votes as the victorious Labor Party in recent Parliamentary elections. It is, like the new GOP, similarly small-government, low-tax, anti-immigrant in its focus. The rise of the National Front in France tells the same story. As the leaders of these parties have split from the mainstream and are political renegades, so does the popular leader of Hungary; he shares their platform views, and is a former ally (strongly former!) of George Soros.

In Germany, in recent days the rise of new parties – AfD (Alternative for Germany) and the months-old party of Sahra Wagenknecht – have captured almost half of the votes in two large states, Saxony and Thuringia. The new movements are in certain aspects right and left, respectively, yet they share general free-market, anti-censorship, foreign-policy views (including skepticism about Ukraine) that have observers foreseeing an eventual alliance.

“Horseshoe Politics,” it is being called – where right and left ultimately and nearly meet. New labels are applied – Protest; Populism; Common-Sense – but “Something is happening in our world, and we want to be part of it!”

What place is all this in a Christian essay, one that offers to “put a song in our hearts” to start our week? Well, nothing – if we think we are in fact doomed, too far down the tubes. I can be gloomier, by the way: I believe God has held His hand; that America and the West have rebelled and sinned to an extent that we deserve His severe judgment; that, searching End-Times prophecy, we discern no hint that there will be an America in the world’s last days…

Yet God has held His hand. We are called to repent, and not surrender. As we, individual sinners, may be redeemed, so can our nation find salvation. (I have learned this week that a new book, Write and Live His Answer Now, will reprint an essay I wrote challenging Christians not to plead for Revival, but rather to generate Revival.)

Regarding the political realignments I listed – is the Lord “shaking the nations”? Spiritual revival plays varied roles in all this turmoil, but… there are strange things happ’nin’ every day, as the old Spiritual goes. For instance, without assuming too much, the recent, and frequent, God-affirming testimonies of Robert F Kennedy Jr are surprising and encouraging.

Scripture tells us that especially in times like these we can’t feel at home in the world anymore. But something is happening in our world. We need to discern: maybe something new, and good. And we need to be a part of it!

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Click: This World Is Not My Home

10-23-23

Two weeks in a row, a “life story” with a practical message and a spiritual meaning. This one obviously is personal, so I should get it right, despite being barely conscious during some of it.

Some of you know that I write more than a weekly blog. Other blogs; roughly one magazine article a month; newspaper columns and op-eds; and books. It was my seventy-fifth published book that took me to New York last week. I have been doing interviews, recently the Charlie Kirk and Rita Cosby national radio shows / podcasts. The semi-official Book Launch of The Most Interesting American, Post Hill Press, my third book on Theodore Roosevelt, was scheduled on the campus of Long Island University / C W Post College. Close to Sagamore Hill, the Oyster Bay home of TR.

In addition to LIU, the events – press conference, reception, book signing, speech, public Q&A – was to be covered by C-SPAN for broadcast on its Presidential Books series. The events were co-sponsored by Theodore’s Books, the terrific Oyster Bay shop run by former congressman Steve Israel. For all the resourceful people involved, the real angel was Bernadette Castro, one of the nation’s great natural resources – furniture heiress; onetime New York candidate for the US Senate; 12 years the New York State Parks Commissioner in charge of historic preservation; and an amazing role-model of civic virtue and activism.

In short: I woke up woozy the morning of the events (forgive the technical and medical terms), but I had not eaten much in several days except for a grand dinner the previous evening; I had flown a hurried trip the week before; deadlines plagued me… who knows. It could not have been “stress” about my speech, because I have always said that I could talk about Theodore Roosevelt in my sleep. Inadvertently, here was to be my chance.

At the event, I stumbled in late; I half-realized I was signing my name one and a half times, or just scribbling; I needed help getting to the dining room. It was all a strange sensation, but more so for those who beheld this, ahem, esteemed author. I am sure that the guests (many and distinguished) thought I was drunk or having a stroke. Bernadette assured them that I was quite sober, and if I were sentient I could have assured them… well, in fact, I was not sentient. Medics arrived; then an ambulance; and I blinked back to consciousness in the loving arms of St Francis (the wonderful hospital bearing his name in Port Washington, NY).

When the dust had settled, so to speak, the consensus was not demon rum (I scarcely drink) nor a stroke but a “simple” case of hypoglycemia. My blood-sugar level had dropped to 37. I am on two meds as a pre-diabetic (“pre”? I am never early for anything) and maybe the disruptions of the previous days put those meds into overdrive.

(I only had problems with hypoglycemia once before, but that was in a spelling bee in sixth grade. Seriously, my late wife had diabetes since age 13, so I should be aware of some of the collateral issues. I am more aware, again. I am dropping jokes here as often as nurses who wake you up to ask if you are asleep… but for the first time in my life I thought I was going to die.)

Several days in the hospital; canceled appointments to see old friends and hoped-for business partners; and, having been rushed from my events, no books or papers or laptop or even a phone-charger. But the word had gotten out, and almost 700 well-wishers reached out, between phone calls and texts and e-mails I eventually received. In my case, “well-wisher” usually means people who wish I would fall down a well; but this was very special, really touching.

Among all the outreach, my daughter Emily called from Ireland, once for 45 minutes. And my son Ted drove up from Washington DC, where he is a TV news producer, to “hang with Pop,” and drive me to the airport after a day in Manhattan, just like old times.

To the impatient reader who wonders where is the “practical message, the spiritual meaning,” it is here, thicker than a dose of glucose syrup. Jesus was real to me through this. Not only my faith and grounding, nor that I was in a Catholic hospital. He truly was present in myriad ways.

I had a friend who was a professional skeptic (a.k.a. wiseguy) who once challenged me after some troubles I had. He said, “You keep giving Jesus the credit for the help you got. That wasn’t Him… it was all your friends! Wake up!”

OK. Chapter 2: For all of our conversations about politics and TR, and common work on causes like fighting the attack on historic statues… my greatest bond with Bernadette Castro is when we share personal stories, frequently centering on faith. She showed her character again this week.

This week could have been National Anti-Cliché week, because many of those messages and e-mails were from people who left fervent prayers and shared encouraging verses… as we all are to do, sincerely; not throw off Hallmark-like “Feel Betters” in circumstances like these.

A new friend in Michigan had volunteered to drive me to and from the airport (of course not knowing these things would transpire), saving me parking fees for a week and – surely – a shaky solo drive home, otherwise. A blessing. A friend from another state, who had sent a “love offering” to help with expenses… could not have known how useful that card would be. A blessing.

The hospital staff… well, ‘nuff said. I had interaction with so many people those days who showed Jesus, it was a reinforcement about the Healer, our Ever-Present Help in times of trouble. The Holy Spirit, you see, is the means and the motivator when we share the Jesus who lives within us.

So, Chapter 3. To skeptics like my old friend who said it was not Jesus but merely nice friends who show themselves in such crises (and as he, sadly, must have learned by now) –

It is Jesus who “works” in these situations. The Savior often chooses to work through His people. What better way? – win-win for everyone who is touched. I was ministered to; friends yielded themselves to share Christ’s love; and – I pray – others who hear this Gospel message may be blessed.

Yes. Let’s “wake up!” indeed.

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Click: Where No One Stands Alone