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Category Archives: Ron Miller

You Missed an Opportunity, Mr. President

By Ron Miller

Dear Mr. President:

You and I agree on practically nothing in the area of public policy, so I don’t expect my words to have any weight with you. Despite our policy disagreements, I have always tried to show you the proper respect as our president. As a veteran and the child of a veteran, I was raised “old school” – I respect the commander-in-chief, even if his politics are not my own.

I also respect you as a husband and a father. Your words and deeds leave me no doubt that you are a loving and devoted husband, and a doting father, and in that regard you are a much needed role model for the young men in our country, especially young black men. Most of them have never seen a positive male figure in their lives, so I do not diminish the example you set for them.

It is because I am an “old school” officer and gentleman, and because I admire your family ties, that I was extremely disappointed that you missed an opportunity during your press conference today to show leadership that transcends politics and the divisiveness of our day. You had an opportunity today to allow your better angels to take hold, and you let it pass.

You recently called a supporter and ideological ally to offer your support after conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh used intemperate language to describe her after her public statements defending your contraception mandate. You said you thought about your daughters and how you hoped they, too, would someday become actively engaged in issues they care about, and you didn’t “want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”

Twice in today’s press conference, you were given an opportunity to show your fair-mindedness and burnish your credentials as the president of all Americans, not just those with whom you agree. You once indignantly declared, “I am not an ideologue,” and you were given a perfect opportunity to prove it. You were given a chance to show that your concern for women is more than about just politics, but that you defend the dignity and worth of all women.

And you failed miserably.

 

Many of my friends, acquaintances and colleagues will chide me for being disappointed, saying, “That’s just the way he is,” or “What did you expect?” I am a hopeful person, however, even in the midst of trying times for our nation and world, and for me personally, and I was truly hoping you’d knock this issue out of the park. I was hoping you would be a man.

It wouldn’t have cost you anything politically, either. If anything, the independents who’ve been running away from you in droves might have been persuaded to give you another chance if you had chosen to be a leader and a statesman rather than a panderer to your base.

Kirsten Powers showed leadership this week. The liberal columnist for the Daily Beast risked taking it on the chin from her ideological teammates by decrying misogyny regardless of its origins, and correctly pointing out how liberals look the other way when it’s one of their own making crude or vile statements about women. Any fair-minded person knows it shouldn’t matter if the person being insulted is conservative or liberal, but in our superheated, hyper-partisan political environment, the side on which you stand along the ideological fault line seems to be all that matters. Ms. Powers showed courage and integrity with her words, the qualities of a true leader.

Instead of taking on this issue like a man, you offered up an excuse that you didn’t have the time to take on every insult made over the public airwaves, and that it’s the press that should be holding commentators accountable, not you. That, sir, is a flimsy excuse. You clearly took the time to call your supporter after the Rush Limbaugh flap, and you’ve had no qualms in the past about jumping right into the middle of a current story – if your friends are involved. You disrespect us with your light regard for our discernment.

In the  end, you continue to demonstrate your inability to show even the most rudimentary qualities of leadership over a diverse nation much in need of a sign of unity from you. Everything in your calculus is political, and there is no room for considering how your tactics are segmenting the nation to the point where the damage could be irreparable. I have daughters, too, Mr. President, and a son, and the example I try to set for them is that right and wrong are not ideological concepts, but matters of truth. That is why I can write in defense of your wife when she is attacked unfairly, even if I don’t agree with her politics.

I am disappointed that you couldn’t, even this once, meet that standard, and I fear that because you took the wide and well-traveled road, the chances your daughters will be “attacked or called horrible names” as they exercise their citizenship are increased, not lessened. You were given a chance to put out the flames, and you chose to walk away while the nation burns.

Ron Miller

Ron Miller of Lynchburg, Virginia is an associate dean and assistant professor of government at Liberty University, a conservative activist and commentator, and author of the book, SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch. The nine-year plus veteran of the U.S. Air Force and married father of three writes columns for several online sites and print publications, and his own website, RonOnTheRight.com. Join him on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

Weary and Heavy Laden

Weary and Heavy Laden

I have a confession to make.

It hit me last night, as I returned from watching my Liberty Flames go down to defeat in football, 27-24. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful evening of tailgating with a couple of my new colleagues and their families, and I got to hang out with my son, who greatly enjoys live sports and is even teaching me a thing or two about how the game of football is played these days.

After I got back to the house and prepared for bed, I decided to check in on my Facebook “public figure” page, which has become the center of my political social network based on sheer numbers and participation. I did the usual scan of updated comments, responded to some of them, and added a couple of items of interest to wrap up the evening.

As I was reading, though, I felt the good feelings of my evening out draining from me, and I reached a point where I simply couldn’t read or respond any more. I went to bed thinking about it, and I woke up much earlier than I wanted this morning because it was still on my mind.

I am tired of the arrogance and condescension of my ideological adversaries, who consider policy disagreement a character flaw or a sign of intellectual poverty, rather than a different worldview with the benefit of historical, evidential and observational merit.

I am tired of people who think my faith forbids me from even expressing my point of view publicly, much less participate in the political process, and that they have the power to suppress my unalienable rights, rights they did not grant to me, because I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I am tired of refereeing disputes between people who agree 80 percent of the time, but think that less than 100 percent purity is apostasy and those lesser beings are pond scum, thereby refusing to acknowledge that a demand of absolute fealty leads to an all or nothing outcome, most likely nothing.

In short, I am exhausted by today’s politics.

This is an unusual admission for me to make, because if you looked up the definition of “political,” I’m sure my picture would be one of the illustrations provided as an example. I’ve been fascinated by politics since childhood, so much so that my classmates thought I was abnormal, and my worried parents had me seek counseling because I was so immersed in weighty matters like elections, public policy and candidates.

After I recommitted my life to Christ in 1993, I struggled with this innate attraction to the political realm because I feared it wasn’t of God. It took me years to finally realize that, as David wrote in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

Everything is His, and all of us are His, and that includes politics and the people engaged in it. There is no discipline or sphere of influence that God does not own, and He expects His people to be salt and light to everyone, everywhere.

I recount in my book how the story of William Wilberforce, the great British politician, poignantly told in the movie Amazing Grace, was an inspiration to me:

Because of my personal struggle with this question, the movie Amazing Grace, chronicling the life of British Member of Parliament William Wilberforce, had great appeal to me. Wilberforce waged a lifelong battle to abolish the slave trade and, eventually, slavery itself in Great Britain.

Wilberforce was an up-and-coming young British politician, a stirring and accomplished orator with a bright future. Things changed, however, and in the movie, his butler finds him one day sitting in the middle of a meadow contemplating nature:

Richard the Butler: “You found God, sir?”

William Wilberforce: “I think He found me. You have any idea how inconvenient that is? How idiotic it will sound? I have a political career glittering ahead of me, and in my heart I want spider’s webs.”

Later, Wilberforce and his best friend, William Pitt, the youngest prime minister in British history, entertain several members of the abolitionist movement at Wilberforce’s home. They are knowledgeable of his passion for their cause, his considerable political skills and his dilemma in reconciling his political career and his faith:

Thomas Clarkson: “We understand that you are having difficulty deciding whether to do the work of God or the work of a political activist.”

Hannah More: “We humbly suggest you can do both.”

I can’t tell you how stirred I was by this brief scene in a movie. It summed up the challenge of my life and the response required of me. I’ve always thought back to it whenever I doubted myself or the course I’m taking.

Further in the book, I quoted Rick Boxx of the Integrity Resource Center:

Imagine a world in which everyone that claimed allegiance and devotion to Jesus Christ—called “Christians” in the Bible—served only as pastors and missionaries. Who would reach the people in the workplaces of the world? Who would provide the food, shelter, clothing, and other necessities that are essential for carrying out God’s plan? Who would start businesses or lead our governments? To withdraw from being an integral, contributing part of the so-called “secular” work world (the Bible makes no such distinction) would be disastrous. Even worse, to do so is not God’s plan.

With my fears assuaged, I have devoted myself to being one of God’s workmen in the field of politics, as best as I understand that role to be.

Truth be told, however, I am not well-equipped to exercise this passion I carry with me, at least not in accordance with the world’s expectations.

While I believe God has given me gifts of leadership, empathy and self-awareness, intelligence, and communications, thereby enabling me to influence others, I have no lust for power. Any role of influence granted to me is a charge placed upon me by the Lord, and I undertake such a role with reverence and gratitude for the trust He has in me.

While politics is often characterized by conflict, I have no desire to argue with anyone. My goal is to be persuasive and, failing that, I adhere to Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:14, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.”

He has even designed my personality with a ‘governor’ for conflict. My personality profiles suggest an even-keeled demeanor, but with it comes a low energy reserve and the tendency to deplete them sooner than many when conflict ensues.

Some people reading this would say, “Why in the world are you in politics, then?” Politics is all about power and conflict, and I suppose if I thought as the world did, I would either need to man up or get out of the way. As Finley Peter Dunne once said in his Irish brogue, “Politics ain’t beanbag: ’tis a man’s game, and women, children ‘n’ pro-hy-bitionists had best stay out of it.” A little chauvinistic of him considering the great women of politics throughout history, but you get my point!

But my faith teaches me to put my trust in God and not man. There is a common church saying that goes, “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.” God calls us to do great things, but if we could do them without His help, they’re either not great, or He’s not God.

My pastor at Chesapeake Church always taught that another common church saying, “God will never give us more than we can bear,” has no Biblical basis because, if we could bear it, why would we need God?

Instead, the Bible is replete with examples of people who were ill-equipped for the great work God placed before them, but God gave them what they needed so that they would glorify Him and not themselves, and others who knew of their shortcomings would marvel at how God used them to accomplish great things.

Moses had a speech impediment and felt inadequate to confront the great Pharaoh of Egypt. In Exodus 4:10, Moses complains, “But my Lord, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence, either before or since you have spoken to your servant. I am a slow speaker and not able to speak well.” It is written that, in response:

“The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’” ~ Exodus 4:11

If you read on, you’ll find that Moses continued to complain, and an exasperated Lord agreed to have Moses more eloquent brother, Aaron, accompany him. He was not, however, going to escape the calling the Lord had for him.

The Lord called upon Jeremiah, telling him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).”

Jeremiah, like Moses, declared himself unfit for duty:

“Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” ~ Jeremiah 1:6

The Lord set him straight, too:

But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” ~ Jeremiah 1:7-10

The Lord made the young Jeremiah “a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land (Jeremiah 1:18).

Now that’s power unmatched by anything this world offers. When the nation of Israel is in exile in Babylon, the Lord uses Jeremiah to make them a promise that has become my favorite Bible verse:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~ Jeremiah 29:11

So, yes, I am taxed beyond my temperament and tolerance by this calling that has been placed before me, but I also know that I have an infinite source of strength in the Lord, as long as I stay in the center of His will. Perhaps the Lord will use me to deliver a message of hope to the people. Who knows? Whatever His plans, I must be prepared – and willing.

I will press on, I will drink deeply of my family and friends to remind me of the gifts God has given me and, when I really need rest, I know where to go:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” ~ Matthew 11:28

 

About Ron Miller

Ron Miller of Lynchburg, Virginia is an associate dean and assistant professor of government at Liberty University, a conservative activist and commentator, and author of the book, SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch. The nine-year plus veteran of the U.S. Air Force and married father of three writes columns for several online sites and print publications, and his own website, TeamRonMiller.com. Join him on Facebook and Twitter at @TeamRonMiller.

 

Another Civil War?

Another Civil War?

My next statement is uncharacteristic of me because, as a former intelligence officer, business executive, homeland security professional and now an associate dean, my hallmark has always been prudence and ensuring my words are measured. But I feel it needs to be said.I wonder if 2008 is the last peaceful American presidential election I will have witnessed in my lifetime. I find myself asking, “To what lengths will people go to ensure President Obama is reelected?”

Will President Obama step in and calm the waters, and if he doesn’t, does that beg the question of whether or not agitation to the point of violence is the Democrats’ strategy for victory in 2012?

I look around me and, like a geologist measuring the warning signs of an impending volcanic eruption, I’m disturbed and wondering if anyone else is picking up on the signs of disaster.

The incendiary words of the Congressional Black Caucus during their “jobs tour” were the rhetorical equivalent of throwing a lighted match in a tinderbox.

Rep. Maxine Waters declared the Tea Party “can go straight to hell…and I intend to help them get there.” One satirist suggested that this wasn’t a threat, but rather an invitationsince, in his words, “Her district IS hell.” But I digress.

Rep. Frederica Wilson, a freshman congresswoman from Florida, said the real enemy of the people was the Tea Party.

These are the orchestrated rantings of demagogues, whose intent in stirring the passions of their constituents is presumably to achieve the electoral results they desire in 2012.

When every disagreement on policy, every word spoken from one ideological corner, or every criticism of America’s first black president, however legitimate, constitutes an act of racism, the collective tendency of everyday Americans is to throw up their hands in disgust and “shake the dust off [their] feet,” to use Jesus’ words, as they leave their intransigent brethren behind to wallow in their bitterness and suffering.

It’s not enough, however, that over the past two years, their scurrilous and baseless claims have diminished the charge of racism to the point of irrelevance, at least as far as the general population is concerned.

Rep. Andre Carson opened a new and dangerous chapter in this ongoing battle of worldviews when he stated that members of Congress affiliated with the Tea Party movement wanted to see blacks “hanging on a tree.”

Taken together with the other statements from Congressional Black Caucus members, accusing the Tea Party of wanting a return to Jim Crow laws and second-class citizenship for black people, this has all the appearances of an orchestrated campaign to stir up animosity in the black community with the intent of, at best, intimidating voters who don’t support their divisive agenda or, at worst, making targets of them.

The resulting firestorm and calls for his resignation have not swayed Rep. Carson who, incidentally, is one of the members of Congress who falsely accused Tea Party crowds of spitting on and hurling racial slurs at black legislators during the Obamacare debate in March of 2009. Rep. Carson said to CNN:

“I stand on the truth of what I spoke…My intentions weren’t to hurt anyone or any group. I wanted to speak to the issues that concern me and the philosophical issues that concern me as it relates to certain leadership within the tea party organization, not the entire tea party, but certain elements that have concerned me deeply and for quite some time that I think should really re-evaluate what it means to be an American and we shouldn’t go along the path of taking America back to the ‘good old days’ because those days were not good for everyone.”

Truth? What truth?

There isn’t a scintilla of truth in his charge that Tea Party participants want to lynch black people. In fact, judging from the flash mobs in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, it appears that white people have more to fear from black people than the other way around when it comes to violence.

The only white people I’ve heard recently that expressed a desire to lynch black people are the tolerant liberals at a Common Cause rally in Palm Springs, California, who believe the best way to demonstrate their displeasure with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is to “put him back in the fields” and “string him up…and his wife, too.” And they call the Tea Party “terrorists“?

Rep. Carson’s statement is irresponsible, especially coming from a member of Congress who took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not agitate against it by provoking a desperate community which, frankly, has been misled as to the source of their desperation.

Despite the outcries, he will not resign, nor will he apologize, because his intent is not to build bridges, but to burn them, and the communities on either side of them, to the ground. He is doing precisely what he and others of his ilk intend to do, and that frightens me. They are convinced that this nation is irredeemable, and so they have no qualms about taking us to the brink of chaos, and beyond.

I didn’t think violent political upheaval could happen here, because I believed our political system, our sense of justice, and the fundamental character of America wouldn’t allow it.

But when the Department of Selective Justice – err, the Department of Justice – presumably with President Obama’s blessing, refused to pursue the slam-dunk prosecution of the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation in 2008, it could have been the first indicator of the Democrats’ plans to ignore or allow voter intimidation in 2012, when the president stands for reelection.

The black community is hurting, and they are buying into the lie that their pain is caused by the everyday Americans in the Tea Party movement, who are too busy with their own struggles and frustrations with Washington to spend even a nanosecond plotting to hang blacks from trees.

The black community is hurting for better education, and it’s the Tea Party that’s fighting to give them choices while the NAACP and the unions block the pathway to better schools. Yet somehow it’s the Tea Party that wants them “hanging on a tree”?

The black community is hurting for jobs, and it’s the Tea Party that insists on immigration enforcement so jobs are preserved for Americans and legal residents, while the Congressional Black Caucus, as I’ve written in the past, finds ”more solidarity with illegal aliens and unscrupulous employers, who collude to take jobs away from young and low-skill American workers, than they do with their constituents who look to them for help.” Yet somehow it’s the Tea Party that wants them “hanging on a tree”?

The black community is hurting to create generational wealth, and it’s the Tea Party movement that wants to eliminate the death tax, which hurts black families in the nascent stages of wealth creation, and wants to unleash black entrepreneurs from the shackles of overtaxation and overregulation so they can become rich and leave a legacy for their children and their communities. Yet somehow it’s the Tea Party that wants them “hanging on a tree”?

We need to wake up.

I’ve said it publicly, and I’ll say it again: Every liberal policy that purports to help black people either kills or demeans them. If the black community wants to know who’s holding the rope, they should look to those who claim to be on their side.

Emotion has a blinding effect, however, and the agitators in the Congressional Black Caucus know this all too well. How else do you think they are returned to power in every election despite the crushing poverty, crime and untimely death in their districts?

What, then, should our response be?

I am reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

These are the words of a statesman, and his message of non-violence and love exposes the members of the Congressional Black Caucus as the mean-spirited mini-potentates they have become.

I imagine that, when they come to commemorate the new memorial in Washington which bears his name, his statue will glower at them as they profess to honor his name, while their actions violate his legacy. They are shooting holes in the boat we’re sharing.

I assure you that not every black person in America subscribes to their frenzied threats of another “civil war” driven by race and class. All Americans of good will must come together and stand against intimidation, threats and violence in this political season, wherever and against whomever they may occur.

We can stand together against those who would stir the discontent of others into hatred. The demagogues and race merchants are declaring war on everyday Americans who do not wish them ill, but we will not stand idly by and allow them to set our nation aflame. We will confront violence with respect for the rule of law, and agitation with solidarity that reaches across racial boundaries.

Proverbs 25:21-22 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.” We will answer their campaign of hate with a response of love, and their consciences will burn with shame, even if they are too prideful to admit it.

About Ron Miller

Ron Miller of Lynchburg, Virginia is an associate dean and assistant professor of government at Liberty University, a conservative activist and commentator, and author of the book, SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch. The nine-year plus veteran of the U.S. Air Force and married father of three writes columns for several online sites and print publications, and his own website, TeamRonMiller.com. Join him on Facebook and Twitter at @TeamRonMiller.

 

One Nation Over God, Divisible

Posted on July 4th By Ron Miller – www.tfdf.org – our national site

This is the 51st Independence Day celebration in my lifetime and, as I watched the fireworks over the Chesapeake Bay from a friend’s house, I found myself wondering how many more of these we will celebrate as the United States of America.

It has been my great honor over the past few years to be part of a grass-roots movement that took the nation by surprise, and has revived our institutional memory of what it truly means to be American. Long-forgotten words like liberty, faith and family are being spoken from lecterns at outdoor rallies, public libraries, churches, exhibition halls, gymnasiums or wherever Tea Party groups gather.

I have been invited to and welcomed with open arms to these gatherings, and I have broken bread and had meaningful fellowship with people all over the country who are bound by their devotion to the American ideal as it once existed. I have been blessed by their hospitality as they have opened their homes to me, given me a place to rest, and fed me from their bounty before I went on my way to the next destination.

And yet, I feel despair, and I feel anger.

I read about people who have been kissed by fame, and have used their blessing to disparage the people who have shown me such kindness. I read of Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olbermann, still professing to know the hearts of tens of millions of people they’ve neither met nor bothered to meet, with Garofalo declaring:

I do not enjoy when people don’t like me … I would prefer to be well liked in any and all situations. And I also feel it’s quite unjust to be punished for calling racism “racism.”

No, Ms. Garofalo, the injustice is finding people who are NOT racists guilty of racism, and THAT is why people don’t like you. I have been overwhelmed by the love of white strangers who cared not about the color of my skin, but that I shared the same ideals they did. They honor my service to my country, in which I proudly wore the uniform here and abroad to defend your liberty, and that of your self-important media friend, to say utterly indefensible and evil things about good, decent people.

How. dare. you.

I watch my president who, by the nature of the position to which we have elevated him, should be a statesman and a leader in this time of great crisis. Many of the men who preceded him summoned in troubled times a strength of spirit and a commitment to unity that brought the nation together to meet its greatest challenges.

Not so the campaigner-in-chief occupying the White House.

He stirs the pot of covetousness and envy, blaming people who have worked hard to make a living, and been successful at it, for all the ills those who suffer are facing. He paints a stark picture of corporate fat cats versus starving children and sick seniors to justify the same failed prescriptions for our economy, yet it is a false choice. What’s worse, he knows it. He knows that every dollar earned is not a dollar taken from someone else, and that capitalism, when allowed to flourish, creates more dollars to go around for everyone.

If he doesn’t, and he truly believes the rhetoric he is spouting, then he is a dangerous man who must not be handed the reins of power again.

Despite the fact he is the president of all the people, he has deemed some to be unworthy of the fruits of their labors. By proposing the use of the coercive power of government to seize whatever portion of those fruits he deems necessary, he has reduced the producers of this nation to mere property. If you own the fruits of their labor, you own their labor, and therefore you own them.

I thought the question of who owns a man’s labor was put to rest with the 13thAmendment to the Constitution of the United States.

And he won’t stop there. He is determined to win reelection, even if it means pitting blacks against whites, Hispanics against whites, gays against straights, or whatever coalition he needs to push back against the tide of disillusionment from those voters who expected so much more of him than his character apparently allows him to deliver.

Across the country, God is demonized and disparaged as the wellspring of intolerance, because man cannot accept that God doesn’t think or act as he does. We presume that we, the created, are more enlightened than the Creator, and so we overturn everything that doesn’t conform to our will.

It’s our kingdom come, our will be done.

John Adams was unequivocal when he said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

He was not advocating a national religion, but rather a common sense of humility and awe at the beauty, vastness and order of the universe, and the magnitude of the One who created such magnificence.

Instead, we presume to tell God what He should really believe or how He should really feel. The foolishness of such thinking should be readily apparent:

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? ~ Romans 9:20-21

Why is humility toward God and the subservience of our will to His important to America? Because, as Adams stated, we must have the values to govern ourselves if the system of limited government they created in our Constitution is to work.

Even if one doesn’t believe in God, there still must be an inviolable set of virtues and standards to which one submits. Without them, our individual desires, regardless of what they are, become “rights,” and conflict is inevitable.

This is why I wonder how many more July 4th celebrations we have left as the United States of America. We are not united, and we cannot come together even in a time of great peril.

Our leaders are either the instigators of this divisiveness, or they are too timid to push back against it.

People with the fame and influence to bring us together are insistent on tearing us apart. They mock and insult people who don’t agree with them, and the truth is irrelevant to their rants.

God is being told He’s out of step with the times, and needs to make way so the loud, arrogant and audacious creation He called man can do whatever he wants.

So this is how it’s going to go down. Nothing is going to be done to handle the approaching tsunami of debt. Nothing is going to be done to reduce the size of government or its intrusion into our lives. Nothing is going to be done to respect liberty, faith and family.

One party doesn’t want to do anything about it, so they deny there’s a problem, or think that taking more money from people is the answer.

The other party doesn’t have the guts to fight them because they are more concerned with people taking offense than they are with saving the nation from itself.

As a result, we’re going off a cliff, and we’re going to crash.

Those who understand that the best government in America is self-government will pick themselves up, dust themselves off and figure out how to make a way for themselves and their families. They’ll raise their own food, take care of themselves and their neighbors through the bartering of goods and services, and arm themselves to provide for their own security.

Those who don’t understand this, or who have never had to fend for themselves, will flail about in frustration because the promise of government always being there for them was a lie and, like the victims of Hurricane Katrina, they will wait for someone to come and rescue them rather than saving themselves.

Ultimately, what will it take to see more Independence Day celebrations? I have one answer:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

About Ron Miller

Ron Miller of Huntingtown, Maryland is a conservative writer and commentator, and author of the book, SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom’s Porch. He is the president of Regular Folks United, which promotes and defends individual liberty, and president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of Maryland, the state chapter of the nation’s preeminent organization of Christian black Republicans. The nine-year plus veteran of the U.S. Air Force and married father of three writes columns for several online sites and print publications, and his own website, TeamRonMiller.com. Join him on Facebook and Twitter at @TeamRonMiller.

 

Bloody Treasure and Hardened Hearts

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Ron Miller – www.tfdf.org

 

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”  ~ Thomas Jefferson

The drama that is currently being played out between the state of Indiana and the federal government over its decision to defund Planned Parenthood is rich in subtext.

The issues of state sovereignty and the federal government’s violation of the Tenth Amendment alone make this a compelling story, but there is another, darker revelation as well, one which should trouble all Americans of good conscience.

Most of us would agree with Thomas Jefferson’s declaration above, and each of us would have our own list of federal projects, policies or actions to which we personally object. His statement, however, goes deeper than opposing earmarks or raising the debt ceiling. He is speaking to moral issues that transcend mere policy and speak to who we are as a people

The issue of abortion has divided this country for nearly four decades, but recent polls, to include a Gallup poll on abortion done one month ago, suggest that a significant majority of Americans, 61 percent, now believe practically all abortions should be illegal, and a majority of Americans believe it is morally wrong.

By Jefferson’s standard, it should be clear, even to those who are confused about the unalienable right to life, or who disavow the existence of such a right altogether, that it is “sinful and tyrannical” to use our money, confiscated from us through the force of government authority, to subsidize a practice most Americans find morally abhorrent.

Yet it has been going on for years, with Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, receiving millions of taxpayer dollars annually.

In the interest of casting light onto darkness, let me make a couple of points to illuminate the discussion.

Don’t let the lies about where the money goes deceive you. Saying that the money is used only to fund services or operations outside of abortion is a shell game. Those who manage the funds oversee all of the organization’s operations, and subsidies for one function frees them to use other money elsewhere. Those taxpayer millions protect the millions they spend on their abortuaries.

Don’t let them downplay the significance of abortion services to their bottom line. They like to claim that only 3% of the services they provide are abortions. Every single family planning procedure, however, is counted as a service, while abortion-related visits are bundled together as one. It creates a false narrative, which is precisely their intent. What they aren’t saying is that about a fifth of their annual revenue comes from abortions alone.

The last point of illumination is the canard that women will be denied valuable family planning services should Planned Parenthood be defunded. Although they are difficult to count because they are usually independent operations, there are, at a minimum, an estimated 2,300 pregnancy care centers across the nation, compared to 820 Planned Parenthood clinics. These pregnancy care centers offer the same family planning services at little or no cost, and do not perform abortions.

Given Planned Parenthood’s professed concern for women, you would think they’d welcome these pregnancy care clinics as partners in advancing women’s health.

Instead, they fight them tooth and claw because they aren’t really as invested in women’s health as they are in abortion, and any woman who goes to a pregnancy care center is one less to offer their unborn child to the abortuaries and the killers who operate them.

In fact, their barely disguised hostility toward pregnancy care centers, and the actions they take to try and shut them down, is all the evidence you need of who they really are. That same unit of measure – “By their fruits you shall know them” – can be used to determine where the federal government stands on the issue of taxpayer funding of abortions.

When the federal government approached its first budget deadline earlier this year, and a continuing resolution proposal was put forward to the White House which included the defunding of Planned Parenthood, the administration rejected it out of hand. President Obama was more than willing to shut down the government, and deny pay to our men and women in the armed forces, to preserve federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

The federal government’s response to the Indiana law was equally revealing. Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services essentially threatened to cut off all federal funds to the state’s Medicaid program unless they rescinded the law and restored Planned Parenthood’s funding.

Medicaid is the federal government’s health insurance program for low-income people and families, and it is funded jointly by the states and the federal government. By linking their share of the funds to the funding for Planned Parenthood, the federal government is essentially threatening to throw health care for the poor under the bus in favor of Planned Parenthood.

If that is their stated policy, they will then have to take the same stand against Kansas and North Carolina, whose legislature overrode the governor’s veto to implement their state budget, which included defunding Planned Parenthood. The state of Texas is considering a similar measure.

As proud as I am to see the states reassert their rightful place in the design of our republic, I’m equally disturbed at the stridence of the federal government on abortion, which is more sacrosanct to them than the daily operations of government, the armed forces, or medical care for the poor. It is written, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” They are hell-bent on spending our treasure on the blood sacrifice of children yet to be born, and I shudder to think how hardened their hearts must be.

http://www.teamronmiller.com/

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