Curtis Dahlgren
Has anyone ever told you NOT to vote?
By Curtis Dahlgren
"The difference between the men and the boys in politics is, and always has been, that the boys want to be something, while the men want to do something." — Eric Sevareid
"Don't be humble; you're not that great." - Golda Meir
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH — BUT NO BUMPER STICKERS FOR MY CAR(?)!
"Live Free or Die" they say, but do they dare put a sign up in their yard? A Wisconsin state senator's son was nearly choked to death in a college town while defending his yard sign at 2 A.M. (and the President speaks almost exclusively in college towns).
Well anyway, hang together or hang separately as Ben Franklin put it. The real question is how brave will you be this week? Brave enough to make up your mind? Brave enough to show up and "choose"?
"College" may rhyme with "knowledge," but wisdom is the principal — or "principled" — thing! Is it the "principled" thing to write in a sure-loser's name? To vote for everything except President? To stay home?
This election won't be decided by the independents or the "undecideds" but by the NON-VOTERS (some of whom are very decent and otherwise religious people). WHY??
[The following is an excerpt from my book "Massey-Harris 101"]
I HOPE THAT YOU DO NOT OVERLOOK THE OBVIOUS; WE DO HAVE A CHOICE!
"The future of our country will be determined by those who get involved." — Pres. Reagan (March 6, 1984)
In 1983, Reagan tried to buck up the National Association of Evangelicals (some of whom were telling members NOT to "get involved":
"I urge you to beware the temptation of pride — the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and . . thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil."
And J.P. McFadden had written:
"After the Nazi Holocaust, it was charged that those who knew what was happening (great men among them) failed to halt the slaughter . . . Nothing in history is inevitable; men choose, and we Americans can choose to halt the slaughter of our own innocents. If we do not, history will record . . that we were not failed by our great men, that our president called upon us to make the choice."
Personally, I've said for years that America would be in deep doo-doo when the abortion holocaust victim-total surpassed 50 million — which roughly approximates the total casualties during World War II. We are well beyond the 50 million stat, now and judging by last summer's drought and this fall's "perfect" storm on the Eastern seaboard, — well — you can draw your own conclusions as to the "WHY"s and WHEREFORES. Are maybe President Oboma's chickens coming home to roost?
"The world is in agony and we are sleeping. It is a beginning of recovery when we feel that before God we all bear some degree of responsibility and guilt for the degradation into which the world has sunk. What the precise degree of guilt of each individual is becomes a matter of only secondary importance . . .
"[We must] regain that fundamental attitude which does not understand faith merely as a gift, but as a chance. And this chance must be so seriously understood that in the risk of trial and test it exemplifies its genuineness."
- Dr. Arthur Voobus (Estonian Theological Society in Exile)
P.S. Even though some theologians fully realize that governments can theoretically kill churches, and historically have done so, they may still advise their followers not to get "involved" (like onlookers at the scene of a Central Park rape).
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
That is why I Peter 2:15-16 has been my favorite scripture for over 50 years. It simply says:
". . For so is the will of God, that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as FREE (and not using your Freedom as a cloak for maliciousness, but as 'bondslaves' of God)."
WHAT IS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?
The Revised Standard Version says, " . . For it is God's will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as servants of God."
That is the heart of what is probably Peter's longest sentence, but what could be clearer or "plainer"? Perhaps you would "get it" if I rephrased it the other way:
"USE YOUR FREEDOM TO PUT TO SILENCE THE FOOLISHNESS OF IGNORANT MEN."
[Peter was writing to Christians in Asia Minor who weren't under the thumb of the Romans as much as those in the Holy Land. See Paul's account of visiting Mars' Hill; new philosophies were the "in" thing, and people weren't afraid to speak their thoughts out loud. ARE WE BECOMING AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT EVEN IN AMERICA, THE LAND OF THE BRAVE?]
ENOUGH SAID??
© Curtis Dahlgren
November 6, 2012
"The difference between the men and the boys in politics is, and always has been, that the boys want to be something, while the men want to do something." — Eric Sevareid
"Don't be humble; you're not that great." - Golda Meir
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH — BUT NO BUMPER STICKERS FOR MY CAR(?)!
"Live Free or Die" they say, but do they dare put a sign up in their yard? A Wisconsin state senator's son was nearly choked to death in a college town while defending his yard sign at 2 A.M. (and the President speaks almost exclusively in college towns).
Well anyway, hang together or hang separately as Ben Franklin put it. The real question is how brave will you be this week? Brave enough to make up your mind? Brave enough to show up and "choose"?
"College" may rhyme with "knowledge," but wisdom is the principal — or "principled" — thing! Is it the "principled" thing to write in a sure-loser's name? To vote for everything except President? To stay home?
This election won't be decided by the independents or the "undecideds" but by the NON-VOTERS (some of whom are very decent and otherwise religious people). WHY??
[The following is an excerpt from my book "Massey-Harris 101"]
I HOPE THAT YOU DO NOT OVERLOOK THE OBVIOUS; WE DO HAVE A CHOICE!
"The future of our country will be determined by those who get involved." — Pres. Reagan (March 6, 1984)
In 1983, Reagan tried to buck up the National Association of Evangelicals (some of whom were telling members NOT to "get involved":
"I urge you to beware the temptation of pride — the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and . . thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil."
And J.P. McFadden had written:
"After the Nazi Holocaust, it was charged that those who knew what was happening (great men among them) failed to halt the slaughter . . . Nothing in history is inevitable; men choose, and we Americans can choose to halt the slaughter of our own innocents. If we do not, history will record . . that we were not failed by our great men, that our president called upon us to make the choice."
Personally, I've said for years that America would be in deep doo-doo when the abortion holocaust victim-total surpassed 50 million — which roughly approximates the total casualties during World War II. We are well beyond the 50 million stat, now and judging by last summer's drought and this fall's "perfect" storm on the Eastern seaboard, — well — you can draw your own conclusions as to the "WHY"s and WHEREFORES. Are maybe President Oboma's chickens coming home to roost?
"The world is in agony and we are sleeping. It is a beginning of recovery when we feel that before God we all bear some degree of responsibility and guilt for the degradation into which the world has sunk. What the precise degree of guilt of each individual is becomes a matter of only secondary importance . . .
"[We must] regain that fundamental attitude which does not understand faith merely as a gift, but as a chance. And this chance must be so seriously understood that in the risk of trial and test it exemplifies its genuineness."
- Dr. Arthur Voobus (Estonian Theological Society in Exile)
P.S. Even though some theologians fully realize that governments can theoretically kill churches, and historically have done so, they may still advise their followers not to get "involved" (like onlookers at the scene of a Central Park rape).
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." Dietrich Bonhoeffer
That is why I Peter 2:15-16 has been my favorite scripture for over 50 years. It simply says:
". . For so is the will of God, that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as FREE (and not using your Freedom as a cloak for maliciousness, but as 'bondslaves' of God)."
WHAT IS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?
The Revised Standard Version says, " . . For it is God's will that by doing right you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil, but live as servants of God."
That is the heart of what is probably Peter's longest sentence, but what could be clearer or "plainer"? Perhaps you would "get it" if I rephrased it the other way:
"USE YOUR FREEDOM TO PUT TO SILENCE THE FOOLISHNESS OF IGNORANT MEN."
[Peter was writing to Christians in Asia Minor who weren't under the thumb of the Romans as much as those in the Holy Land. See Paul's account of visiting Mars' Hill; new philosophies were the "in" thing, and people weren't afraid to speak their thoughts out loud. ARE WE BECOMING AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT EVEN IN AMERICA, THE LAND OF THE BRAVE?]
ENOUGH SAID??
© Curtis Dahlgren
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