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Another Perspective
In the Spirit of the Season
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
-- from "Happy
Christmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon
"After six o'clock we can be friends; but before six, it's politics," the Democrats' Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill said to the new President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Reagan, in the middle of beating the pants off the astonished and impassioned liberal Speaker, took note. The President said later that "whenever I'd run into him, whatever time it was, I'd say, 'Look, Tip, I'm resetting my watch; it's six o'clock.'"
I mentioned this story a year ago in writing a Christmas column that was devoted, in the spirit of the season, to saying good things about the political opposition. The column was genuine, the expressions of goodwill happily and sincerely meant, taking note that politics, important though it may be (and it surely is, especially right now), was but one slice of life. The point was simple: that however much disagreement there was in this corner with the Other Side, it was more than possible to extend the hand of friendship without compromising one's principles. That in fact, if one believed as strongly in conservative principles as we do over here, it was actually easy to do so since there was no confusion between principle and a shared celebration of the joys of the Christmas season. One cannot exist, as I and so many of my conservative compadres do everyday, with a goodly amount of genuinely liberal friends or relatives and possibly feel otherwise. Ronald Reagan of liberal Hollywood and the late William F. Buckley (who counted as a treasured friend the liberal economist, Harvard professor, and Kennedy aide John Kenneth Galbraith) excelled at this. Reagan's recounting of his relationship with the very liberal Tip O'Neill illustrates the point. To paraphrase the abolutionist William Lloyd Garrison, we conservatives are in earnest, we will not equivocate, we will not excuse, we will not retreat a single inch and we will be heard. So how about lifting an egg nog?
For this sentiment last year I was taken to task by a liberal Scrooge over at Mother Jones magazine. In "Bah! Humbug!" style. My column, it was said heatedly, "almost defies explanation." Surely taking the time to wipe the flecks of foam off the computer screen, the writer fumed that I was "incredibly patronizing" and showed "no respect" for the "work, ideas or positions" of those mentioned in the piece. I was also "smug" to the point of being "almost offensive." If I were really serious, it was advised, I would "tone down the self-satisfaction and raise the level of dialogue to where he [that would be me] thinks it should be."
Ouch! All that for a simple Merry Christmas!
The point in extending good wishes in the spirit of the season in this space is certainly not intended to patronize or be smug. It is to take seriously the very point of the holiday itself, which all too often gets lost in a cloud of Clauses. Not to get too Biblical here, but there is that well-known admonition from Leviticus that "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The verse doesn't say that one should not respond to the impassioned Left of American and global politics with an equally impassioned, and hopefully reasoned, sharp and crystal clear response from the view of a conservative. There is no mention that one must check one's conservative beliefs at the door if one is to be thought of as an accepted member of society in good standing, although admittedly if you spend a few minutes watching almost anything on MSNBC you would think so. There are plenty of us over here who have no trouble balancing conviction in the style of an abolitionist Garrison with friendship as lived so vividly by a Reagan or a Buckley.
So once again, (Mother Jones be damned!) I will take the occasion of the spirit of Christmas to extend good wishes to the political opposition. Particularly to those who have been the targets of criticism in this space, Americans one and all who captured some degree of attention by sharply expressing their own frequently quite opposite views in the public arena.
Specifically:
* President-elect Obama: Congratulations on your victory. It makes you my president. As such, we revert here to Loyal Opposition status. But as the conservative view of your presidency is shaped over the next four years, let it be said that there is a hat's off appreciation that you believe what you believe, that you went out to the American people and got a majority of votes. You come across from this distance as sincere, a nice guy, a good husband, a great Dad. A centrist? A real liberal? A bookend to the Reagan presidency? We'll see. But gee…you beat Hillary! Wow! On occasion over the years I have been to events that begin with a lifting of a glass in a toast "to the President of the United States." You, sir, are now to be the subject of those toasts. Good luck, God bless you and a Merry Christmas to you and your legion of true believers.
* Vice President-elect Biden: What's to say? After all these years I confess I think of you as a garrulous old uncle. Wrong mostly, right occasionally (as in your primary season criticisms of your new boss) and, as I know from my own time in Washington, a man with a reputation as a good man and a very, very dedicated family man. The latter is not only not a political act with you, it is, as we all know, the most important thing anyone can do in life. (Senator Beau? We'll get back to that part of family dedication after the holidays.) Merry Christmas, sir.
* The Reverend John Thomas, President of the United Church of Christ: Interestingly it has been my criticisms of you and the leftward stance of our common national church which you lead that has wound up putting me on the Board of Directors of the UCC's Penn Central Conference. Talk show host Michael Reagan once asked me why I bother to stay in the UCC and I replied something to the effect that we belong to the United Church of Christ, not the United Church of 21st Century American Progressivism. Calvin Coolidge was a member of this church for heaven's sake. What I and so many others perceive as the politicization of one of America's oldest denominations has called forth what might be called a "coalition of the dissenting." Your commitment to liberalism is, I know, genuine. Your criticisms of President Bush and of conservatives over the years has been pointed, sharp, and, in my view, highly political. So much so that there was considerable feeling in UCC-land that the outside world needed to know in spite of your stances, in spite of the (vividly?) expressed views of Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity UCC and Obama-church fame, there is very much a set of opposing views within the UCC itself. (You are, I know, no fan of the website UCC Truths, but it is a wonderful place to spend time thanks to its founder, James Hutchins. Most visitors, while critics of yours, are good folks.) But there is something else people should know about you that many conservatives outside the church probably do not. You, the arch-liberal church president, are the father of a son who is or has been serving as a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard -- stationed in Afghanistan. Your son -- and your family -- are to be saluted, and a thank you and a Merry Christmas is the least that can be said. We disagree on the issues of the day, and doubtless will continue to do so. But what we do have in common is our love for our shared church. Recently I have spent time in my role as president of my local church doing what I know our church does best -- calling on elderly members struggling in nursing homes, a disabled member who just went through the loss of a leg, sharing time with a new member whose still young husband unexpectedly passed away. We also welcomed 11 new members into the congregation. I have no idea of their politics. It isn't relevant. We hope to keep things that way and keep on growing. If you are ever in the neighborhood and feel the need to preach, feel free to stop in. I promise I'll be quiet.
* The Reverend Chuck Currie, the UCC blogger-in-chief. Rev. Currie, a devoted Obama fan and volunteer, has not been a fan of my UCC criticisms, whether of the larger church, of Reverend Thomas, or, on occasion, of himself. He has refused any attempt at dialogue because of this, and even went so far as to effectively ban me from the site after I said the UCC was Soviet-like in its reaction to dissent. Sigh. C'est la vie. But Currie is out there in Portland, Oregon, being a pillar of the local religious left. His views, like those of Thomas, are sharp, pointed, and always aimed at what is perceived here as a cartoon view of Bush and the American Right. He is currently disturbed over the Obama selection of Rick Warren as an inaugural participant, is a relentless advocate for the homeless both in his community and at the state and national level and has become a serious blogger on religious and social issues. While there is disagreement here with his views, I believe that he is to be applauded for bringing his passion to the table. He is the clearly very proud father of twin daughters and, as with Thomas, while we will surely be disagreeing, a hearty Merry Christmas for Chuck and his family.
* Sally Quinn. Yow! Did I write that article? Political commentary is frequently based on the actions of others, and I did indeed react to Ms. Quinn's very sharp and, I believed, clearly way-over-the-line personal criticisms of Governor Sarah Palin. There was no way Palin, by all accounts (even of Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey!) a good soul, could respond so I and many others did so. But it should be said here that Sally Quinn is well known in the Washington community for her devotion to her son, a young man who, like Sarah Palin's Trig, is a special needs kid. Life is always interesting, and the transformation of Sally Quinn from hot young reporter on the make to devoted mother of a struggling child is certainly on the list. Merry Christmas to Ms. Quinn and her family.
Last, but certainly not least, to General Colin Powell, Chris Buckley and David Frum. As above, life is interesting. General Powell's Obama endorsement cannot negate his service to his country as a soldier and, as I recall vividly, his service to President Reagan as deputy national security advisor and later, as the NSC advisor without the deputy title. Ditto his performance as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the Persian Gulf War. Merry Christmas, General. I think you're wrong -- but Merry Christmas. And keep working for all those kids that are America's Promise. As for Messrs. Buckley and Frum? Well...sigh. I'm out of space to discuss. We disagree here. I'm sorry you have felt the need to leave NRO, but I look forward to your work and your books. To borrow from a book of Mr. Frum's, I believe you are both, well, Dead Wrong. But Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, respectively.
Mother Jones not withstanding, Tiny Tim was right.
May God Bless Us One and All.
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Rocco| 12.23.08 @ 6:59AM
Unfortunately, as much as I would wish the contrary, those days of the after-six relationship between Tip and Pres. Reagan are long gone. Too much water has passed under the bridge - some could say it started with the left's obsession with the so-called sleaze factor in Reagan's cabinet, but the left villainized Nixon as well. The left has so poisoned the environment with their endless drivel and vitriol (Bush derangement syndrome) that the only thing I could see myself extending to any of them is my right foot in a steel-toed boot (a la roundhouse) into the teeth of these miserable creatures. Being civil obviously is the preferred course as we are all, or should consider ourselves to be all Americans. Until these idiots grow up, get beyond their miserable self-centeredness and gain a sense of situational awareness and responsibility, I don't see it getting any better. And I dare say that there may be responses to this which bear me out. Anyway, Merry Christmas to the ADULTS out there - be they Democrats, Republicans and Independents.
Jason| 12.23.08 @ 7:18AM
"...those days of the after-six relationship between Tip and Pres. Reagan are long gone."
I agree. Liberals and conservatives shared a common culture then, and some common goals. Liberals are now dead set on remaking America into something unrecognizable. No longer rivals, but enemies.
http://www.rightklik.net/
Bill| 12.23.08 @ 9:07AM
"What communion hath light with darkness"
2 Cor 6:14
Crusader| 12.23.08 @ 10:26AM
Why any conservative would offer prez-dent o-lec Obama "good luck" in his self-proposed quest to "fundamentally change the United States of America" is beyond me.
Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 10:57AM
Rocco --
It didn't take the left to "villainize" Nixon. For crying out loud, man, read a book.
Now, the media is filled with toxic discourse -- and believe me, if you're sitting where I'm sitting, it comes from the right as well as the left.
If you can persuade yourself that this nation's problems stem entirely from the "left," I guess I say more power to you: it must be nice to go through life so assured of the justice of your cause -- an ease thinking people are rarely granted.
Mr. Lord seems to have more class than many of his readers, and if you can't learn from Reagan's friendship with O'Neil -- an example that we ought always to keep in mind, for the two were genuine friends -- then you're being willfully ignorant.
Now even I was a little surprised by Mr. Lord's choice of literature, up there at the top of the posting: Lennon's song was urging the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, if I'm not mistaken. It's a beautiful song, no matter what its politics, and maybe that's Lord's point.
Incidentally, I think if you want to look at what poisoned the well of American politics, you need look no further than Viet Nam. The government -- including a Democratic and a Republican president -- lied repeatedly to the country about that war.
I can't help but admire my country on this point: part of the greatness of the American people is that you need to LIE to them in order to get them to want to go to war.
War is over, if you want it.
Tim| 12.23.08 @ 11:54AM
Crusader, I see your point, but
yes, I will wish everyone a heart felt Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas season with their family and friends.
I also will hope and pray that the incoming administration resists the temptation to destroy the fundamentals our great country. If they do resists and choose to govern within the spirit of our founding fathers fine and I will applaud that and take the time to wish them the very best during the Holiday Season.
If on the other hand some of our worst nightmares begin to surface and we see that an attempt is being made to turn America on it's head well then my guess is that all hell will break loose and we conservatives will have to just politically break it off sideways in their bottoms.
....and to all a good night.....
Rocco| 12.23.08 @ 12:13PM
Jeremiah,
You don't know me any more than you know the man in the moon, so it would be helpful not to make foolish assumptions based on a paragraph. After 30 years in uniform and being a student of military history, politics and economics, I continue to read a large hardcover on any one of the above topics once every two weeks, in addition to any professional education I continue to take. I have likely forgotten more than you will ever know.
If you take the trouble to read what I wrote, I was bemoaning the lack of that kind of spirit between Tip and Reagan. It would certainly help things along if that kind of comity continued - what is the biggest bitch of conservative Republicans about the so-called RINOs? That they go along to get along. Is there any reciprocity from the other side of the aisle? Fat chance, pal. Toxic discourse from the right? Since the overwhelming majority of the media tends left, and might as well be the press office for the Democrats, I'd say you are the one in denial and willfully ignorant. Yes, Vietnam did poison the well, and I wished, for the sake of our armed forces at the time, that we had never gotten involved. I spent years trying to rebuild the Marine Corps from the ground up, along with my fellow Marines as a result of the damage done by clueless politicos. And I am not happy about the performance of the present CinC and his management of the current conflicts. My point is, we need to start acting more like Americans and less like political partisans, for the sake of the country. But, war is on, if that's what the left wants.
ruth| 12.23.08 @ 12:35PM
Jeremiah, before you get on your high-horse, cite me a Liberal column expressing these sentiments toward Conservatives-- just one. I do want war to be over--can we count on Bin Laden, too?
Crusader| 12.23.08 @ 1:09PM
Tim, I hear what you are saying but someone said earlier that we are past the point of liberals and conservatives being mere polotical opponents. Liberal thinking today is pretty much flat-out an enemy of freedom and the Constitution of the United States of America. Obama himself said he want to fundamentally change our country. I tend to believe what radicals say, so I can prepare as best I can for it. Kind of like where islam teaches to kill all infidels, but our gubmint tries to tell us islam is a religion of peace. To paraphrase the Three Stooges, islam IS a religion of "piece," a piece of this country and a piece of that until it conquers the world.
Anyway, I digress. Merry Christmas to you and yours Tim. To Obama and the American Left, they can all rot in h*** for all I care and here is hoping the damage they do to our great country in minimal and reversable.
ruth| 12.23.08 @ 1:19PM
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Crusader.
Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 2:10PM
Rocco
Perhaps you can pull one of your books off the shelf and find where the main problem with Nixon was that the "left" had villainized him.
Probably Viet Nam will continue to haunt us, although I have to say that a post-boomer politics is welcome.
If I could convince a conservative of any single cultural truth about America it would be this: George W Bush has more in common with Abbe Hoffman than he ever did with Barry Goldwater, and Rush Limbaugh and Bill Clinton are two sides of the same coin.
The vitriolic and hyperbolic politics of the nineties coincided with the Boomer take-over of Washington DC. (Not coincidentally, O'Neil and Reagan were not college kids in the mid sixties.)
In 04 the Vice President Cheney said that to vote for a Democrat was to vote for terrorists.
That, for me, was the last straw. I'm sure Republicans can name their own. Often they claim it was the Bork hearings.
For me to have the second in command, the Vice President of the country, tell me that my vote would be in service of the enemies of the United States, made me completely disavow him and his president. They became nothing more than an occupying power. I served my country in the Army (not during war time), and to have this five-deferrment pogue say that my vote was an act of treason was galling beyond belief.
But I would submit that this form of politics was born during the Viet Nam era, when both political parties contrived to deceive the American people about the truth of that war, its cost to her soldiers and to the people of Southeast Asia, and the strategies and long term goals that were actually behind it.
You don't get over that kind of profound failure of governance in a generation, but maybe in two the country will.
Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 2:15PM
Ruth --
I AM a walking, talking, tax and spend-advocating Liberal Column, the last of the good guys, and I wish you and all your friends a Happy Christmas.
Jeremiah| 12.23.08 @ 2:15PM
Ruth --
I AM a walking, talking, tax and spend-advocating Liberal Column, the last of the good guys, and I wish you and all your friends a Happy Christmas.
Crusader| 12.23.08 @ 2:43PM
Ruth, thank you. Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah to you and yours!
ruth| 12.23.08 @ 3:39PM
Hey, Jeremiah, you were so happy to wish me a Merry Christmas, you posted it twice!! Thanks. Merry Christmas to you, too. I'm still waiting for that column.
Alan brooks| 12.23.08 @ 3:49PM
Merry Sideburns! and A Happy Bell Bottomed Trousers to all!
btw has anyone seen my eyebrow pencil?
my very credibility is at stake this holiday!!
ruth| 12.23.08 @ 4:26PM
Alan, take care. I hope you find peace .
Albert Jay Nock| 12.23.08 @ 9:05PM
Why don't you praise arms for hostages for whom people who should have gone to jail didn't.
Why don't you mention why you never took a stand against torturers in our government. It's been going on for years, but never at the top level of government. Lookup Tony "ears" Poe on Wikipedia to get a feel for what you've supported at the highest levels of our government these last eight years
No, the Christmas season doesn't bring any cheer to the appromiately one million dead by the hands of your greedy leaders and their lies that started an unnecessary war.
Quite frankly, before or after 6:00, you will always be loathed by many of us because of what you supported and paid homage to. And most of it falls in the category of "forgive him for he knows not what he does". I'll let your religious right do that. Because they were the larger reason we entered into such an unnecessary war and tortured and killed wantonly.
As the NY Times quotes Rabbisays today about a certain individual who swindled billions:
Rabbi Wolpe said he did not believe Mr. Madoff could ever make amends.
“It is not possible for him to atone for all the damage he did,” the rabbi said, “and I don’t even think that there is a punishment that is commensurate with the crime, for the wreckage of lives that he’s left behind. The only thing he could do, for the rest of his life, is work for redemption that he would never achieve.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/us/24jews.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
That's what I believe about you and your ilk as well. And you aren't the great saint in church that you claim to be. Some of us know you and what you really do there. You stir up trouble. And that's what you love to do. So enjoy the next eight years. I'm sure you won't be trying to work for your own atonement.
ruth| 12.23.08 @ 9:17PM
Merry Christmas, Albert, forgive and forget. Show some of that famous tolerance you liberals claim to possess, and last but not least, 'those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'.
ruth| 12.23.08 @ 11:54PM
Jeremiah, you probably are the last of the good guys--on your side. However, on the right, where I reside, there are still plenty of good guys left.
Albert Jay Nock| 12.24.08 @ 11:21AM
Apparently you don't know me. I once was friends with Mr. Buckley and his stupid son, however we had a falling out over war. I am opposed to it as a stupid exercise of mentally deficit persons, who in my opinions are as low as dogs. I previously wrote about it here.
“Mr. Cram’s thesis is that we do not behave like human beings because the great majority of us, the masses of mankind, are not human beings. We have all along assumed that the zoölogical classification of man is also a competent psychical classification; that all creatures having the physical attributes of Homo sapiens also have the psychical attributes which put them in the category of human beings; and this, Mr. Cram says, is an error of the first magnitude. Consequently we have all along been putting expectations upon the masses of Homo sapiens which they are utterly incapable of meeting …
“They are merely the sub-human raw material out of which the occasional human being is produced by an evolutionary process as yet unexplained, but no doubt catastrophic in character, certainly not progressive. Hence, inasmuch as they are the raw material of humanity, they are inestimably precious…
“My acceptance of Mr. Cram’s theory also caused me for the first time really to like people-at-large. Before that I had frankly disliked people in the mass, though never unkindly. I was often amused by their doings, often interested, but with no feeling of affection.
“Now I find myself liking them, sometimes to a degreee which I should have thought impossible. Flaubert found that le seul moyen de rester tranquille dans son assiette, c'est de regarder le genre humain comme une vaste association de crétins et de canailles. Unquestionably so; they are all of that.
“But when one gets it firmly fixed in one’s head that they are living up to the measure of their own capacities and can not by any conjuration increase those capacities to the point of marking themselves as human beings, one comes at once to like them. At least, to my great surprise, I found myself doing so.
“One has great affection for one’s dogs, even when one sees them revelling in tastes and smells which to us are unspeakably odious. That is the way dogs are, one does not try to change their peculiar penchant, one knows the attempt would be futile, yet one likes them.”
And that's all I have to say about the Holidays.
Modern Conservatism - I don't recognize it. Quit this business of saying only Christians should be greeted in stores. I am of the opinion that the clerks in all the stores should memorize all the names of all the holidays that occur this time of year, including the Druid ones, because in England there are Druids and they might visit us, and then reel them off to every customer that visit the store. The list would be quite long but if they are above the level of dogs, their managers could get such a list together and the store clerks could reel it off. If they are incapable of even that minor exercise in recognizing everyone's beliefs, then Happy Holidays will have to do. And to all a good night.
ruth| 12.24.08 @ 11:28AM
Mr. Nock, (if that's really you) you are right. I don't know you and I don't care to know you, but in the spirit of Christmas--I wish you peace. Pal, you really need it.
Albert Jay Nock| 12.24.08 @ 7:23PM
I am the ghost of Albert Jay Nock. I was one of the most well known figures of the "Old Right" and was highly respected in my day. I wrote such lauded books as "Our Enemy the State" and "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man". I once represented what the Republican party was and what it stood for. But I don't recognize the dogs who call themselves Republicans today. I think John Dean gets it right when he calls the current "Republicans" as Authoritarians and Authoritarian Followers. Barry Goldwater agreed with that assessment. I was intensely against wars, particularly those started for specious reasons. I was never opposed to self defense though.
And I may like dogs in general, but attack dogs who intentionally do harm to other human beings by way of war or supporting a specious war, in my opinion should be treated like any other animal of that nature. I know how it was done in my day. I'm not sure how it's done today, but it doesn't seem to be proper.
I was the voice of Republicanism before that Horrible Harry Truman created the National Security State and caused us to begin making weapons instead of valuable instruments of commerce. I am the Old Right. And it's understandable that those who call themselves Right Wingers today don't know me because they are decidedly not of the real Right Wing. Because they follow the practices of that ghastly Harry Truman, who started the idea of continual war in this country.
It's a terrible shame that the Republican party abandoned me when they went along with the Truman scheme and participated in the notion of continual war by the sorry Government of the United States. That was the day both parties died in this country and the day the nation became doomed.
I don't know you either. You are not recognizable to me or my good friend in the land of Republican ghosts and formerly in my day, HL Mencken and many other famous Republicans of my era. We don't recognize what you are. Monsters would probably be the proper characterization, the same as most of the Democrats. (We do watch the Simpsons here in Heaven)
ruth| 12.25.08 @ 5:09AM
Another miserable freak. Another loser.
Albert Jay Nock| 12.26.08 @ 10:56AM
I'm so glad you quoted Leviticus. I certainly hope you didn't eat pork or shellfish this Christmas. And let's quote more from the old testament. Having been a man of the cloth myself before I saw the error of my ways, I'm familiar with quite a bit of it. So let's see, here's a nice Christmas quote from Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy, Chapter 13:
False prophets must be slain, and idolatrous cities destroyed.
13:1. If there rise in the midst of thee a prophet or one that saith he hath dreamed a dream, and he foretell a sign and a wonder,
13:2. And that come to pass which he spoke, and he say to thee: Let us go and follow strange gods, which thou knowest not, and let us serve them:
13:3. Thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer: for the Lord your God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love him with all your heart, and with all your soul, or not.
13:4. Follow the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and hear his voice: him you shall serve, and to him you shall cleave.
13:5. And that prophet or forger of dreams shall be slain: because he spoke to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage: to make thee go out of the way, which the Lord thy God commanded thee: and thou shalt take away the evil out of the midst of thee.
13:6. If thy brother the son of thy mother, or thy son, or daughter, or thy wife that is in thy bosom, or thy friend, whom thou lovest as thy own soul, would persuade thee secretly, saying: Let us go, and serve strange gods, which thou knowest not, nor thy fathers,
13:7. Of all the nations round about, that are near or afar off, from one end of the earth to the other,
13:8. Consent not to him, hear him not, neither let thy eye spare him to pity and conceal him,
13:9. But thou shalt presently put him to death. Let thy hand be first upon him, and afterwards the hands of all the people.
Presently put him to death... Not by killing him by private authority, but by informing the magistrate, and proceeding by order of justice. [Emphasis added]
13:10. With stones shall he be stoned to death: because he would have withdrawn thee from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage:
13:11. That all Israel hearing may fear, and may do no more any thing like this.
13:12. If in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God shall give thee to dwell in, thou hear some say:
13:13. Children of Belial are gone out of the midst of thee, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, and have said: Let us go, and serve strange gods which you know not:
Belial... That is, without yoke. Hence the wicked, who refuse to be subject to the divine law, are called in scripture the children of Belial.
13:14. Inquire carefully and diligently, the truth of the thing by looking well into it, and if thou find that which is said to be certain, and that this abomination hath been really committed,
13:15. Thou shalt forthwith kill the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, and shalt destroy it and all things that are in it, even the cattle. [Emphasis added, with emphasis.]
13:16. And all the household goods that are there, thou shalt gather together in the midst of the streets thereof, and shall burn them with the city itself, so as to comsume all for the Lord thy God, and that it be a heap for ever: it shall be built no more.
Merry Christmas, fellow idolators. Now go rub your face in your Nixon, Reagan, and Bush dolls. You'll meet them one day in the place where you're headed.
That King James was quite an idiot. Jesus said he came to tear down the temple. I'm certain he meant to tear out the pages of those evil texts as well. President Thomas Jefferson put out a good version of the Bible. It would be a wise man who took the time to read it and if not a dog, go out and live his life in such a fashion. The Deists who wrote the Constitution weren't completely stupid. But too many of the citizens who live in his nation these days are.
ruth| 12.26.08 @ 4:50PM
Sir, not only are you a freak--but you are a freak with way too much time on your hands. Go out and get some fresh air.