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Campaign Crawlers
Having a Cow for Freedom
A political rally where at least one speaker’s sermonizing proved counterproductive.
LYNDEN, Washington — Saturday night, your humble correspondent spent some time at a local Freedom Rally held in the countryside just south of town at a place called Farmer Ben’s. As hundreds of drivers approached the farm from the closest major artery, we were greeted with plastic-wrapped giant white hay bales that said FREEDOM on one side and LIBERTY on the other.
Children played on those hay bales and on a nearby swing set. Their parents got ice cream and talked with candidates and mingled while they waited for the speechifying to start. One old family friend warned me I had better not portray them as a bunch of “gap-toothed hillbillies” in a write-up. I reassured him that his front teeth were appropriately packed together.
The stage candidates were to speak upon was a hay wagon festooned with American flags and patriotic regalia. So it was a little surprising when we were asked to stand “for the presentation of the colors” by three local scouts. The opening had us constantly in and out of our lawn chairs: for a prayer, for the flag, for the pledge, for the Star Spangled Banner, and then for the awarding of a flag to a decorated World War II veteran — the organizer’s infirm but deeply moved and therefore moving grandfather.
We were finally allowed to be seated when my landlord, state representative Vincent “Vince” Buys, began speaking. Buys struck a defiant note. He said his first political speech several years ago was to a group of Republican women. At the time, the state was trying to implement a noxious smoking ban that prohibits and penalizes smoking not only in every workplace but 25 feet from all of the entrances. And I mean all of them: bank drive-thru windows now carry “no smoking” warnings.
Buys spoke against this as a non-smoker and challenged the GOP gals to do so as well. If you are not willing to fight for the freedom of others, he said, yours will surely eventually be taken from you by a non-smoking overweening government. And our freedoms will surely be restored in the same way: bit by bit, piece by piece, by a coalition dedicated to paring back government and restoring freedom to all citizens.
He was followed by fellow Whatcom County-based state rep Jason Overstreet, who in the last session voted “no” more than any other legislator. Overstreet counseled the audience to stand on conservative principle, period. Do that, he said, “and you’ll sleep like a baby every time,” win or lose. However, given the response to Overstreet and other speakers, the natives appeared a little more restless than that. They want to win in November after 12 years of unitary Democratic rule.
They also want that win to mean something. Much of the speechifying Saturday night was about pushing the Republican Party in a more radical, Tea Party-ish direction. Matt Shea, state rep from Spokane, listed a number of issues — environmentalism, Obamacare, etc. — and said of those people who weren’t willing to follow the conservative line, “I question if you’re a Republican.”
Shea told a story about his Hungarian wife’s father who fought off a bunch of thieves during World War II with a pitchfork. They had attempted to make off with the family farm’s one cow. Likewise with modern bureaucrats today. “They want to take your cow,” he said, with cattle lowing in the background.
The event was draped in civic and actual religion. God was acknowledged in the opening prayer and obliquely and explicitly by speakers. Pro-life notes were sounded. “Evangelical” voters were appealed to by name. A Kirk Cameron movie was commended to us. The general victory that we were asked to imagine was more than just displacing Dems from the legislature and the governorship. It was about getting back to the basic conservative, constitutional, and incidentally Christian virtues of thrift and restraint.
Given all of that, I probably shouldn’t have felt cold-cocked when we got an actual sermon, but it stung all the same. A local pastor took the stage to deliver a revivalist sawduster, sans altar call. All of this politics stuff matters not a whit, he said, if you don’t have Jesus in your heart. He took pot shots at gay marriage and Mormonism and more institutional forms of Christianity. He followed that up with one of those tedious numerical challenges that preachers like to give: for every minute we spend doing Y, we ought to spend a multiple of that doing something more worthy. In this case, we ought spend four minutes preaching at people for every minute we spend talking about politics.
This was deeply annoying and also, it seemed to me, counterproductive to the purpose of the rally. Like most Americans, I am comfortable with invocations of the Almighty in politics, up to a point. But surely church and state should enjoy some distance. If I went to Mass Sunday morning and got a sermon about tort reform, I would not be a happy camper. Likewise, when I go to a political rally on Saturday night and get a sermon instead, it chafes.
There are practical and theological reasons why the normal American instinct is right here and the preacher wrong. The practical: Any effective coalition for freedom will have to stick up for sin as well as saintliness. The theological: You can’t have saintliness without the possibility of sin, because virtue eventually involves a choice. A rightly ordered politics can make that choice easier, but it can not and indeed should not make it for us.
About the Author
Jeremy Lott is editor of RealClearPolicy.com, RealClearBooks.com and RealClearReligion.org and associate editor of RealClearScience.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (35) | Leave a comment
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Scaramouche| 7.9.12 @ 7:14AM
Why do I have the nagging feeling, that you're laughing at us simple folk, behind our backs?
Smithy| 7.9.12 @ 7:28AM
The tacky flag-draped trailer says it all.
Granger| 7.10.12 @ 7:30PM
So you think a red star and hammer and sickle is more appropriate?
nathan| 7.9.12 @ 7:48AM
If you don't want the minister to say what he did, don't invite him to such gatherings? As Christians we are called first and foremost to as Paul wrote Timothy "do the work of an evangelist". If we truly want to change America it won't be by electing this or that politician or enacting this law or that law. We know that redeemed hearts build redeemed societies and if we don't go out and change the hearts of Americans by bringing them into a relationship with with Jesus Christ, then no matter what we do politically our success WILL be minimal.
The great commission "go into the world and preach the gospel" was a command not a suggestion and for Christians it's our primary obligation. At one point in our lives someone took the time and effort to tell each of us about the Risen Savior. We have an equal obligation to go and do likewise. And Mr. Lott I'm sorry that obligation trumps going out and speaking out for your favorite political candidate. Fifty years from now who wins in November won't matter. All that will matter to those around you is whether they accepted Jesus. Because if they don't there is a literal hell waiting for them and that eternity is as real as the one waiting those who accept Christ.
Sir the preacher was right and you sir are wrong.
Smithy| 7.9.12 @ 8:08AM
A "literal hell"? What a primitive belief.
DTOM| 7.9.12 @ 8:48AM
You will come to believe it, literally. We just don't know when. Good luck with that.
Ever try to imagine how long eternity lasts? It's much longer than your attention span, and that of Mr. Lott.
Smithy| 7.9.12 @ 8:08AM
A "literal hell"? What a primitive belief.
Ryan| 7.9.12 @ 8:37AM
What do we deserve?
MichaellS| 7.10.12 @ 5:33AM
"Sir the preacher was right and you sir are wrong"
While I'll agree it wasn't right, he should have all the leeway to execute the "hieght and breadth".
AhiaBoy| 7.9.12 @ 8:53AM
This is apparently the author's "summer vacation send-in" article. I fail to see any point other than his random musings on attending a small political rally in a rural location. A review of the local farmer's market or ice cream stand would have been more useful & enlightening.
Louis Jenkins| 7.9.12 @ 9:47AM
Mr. Lott should be advised that the Revolution was espoused from a great many pulpits. Without their effort the whole act could have come crashing down, and with it many a militiaman went to his death secure in the knowledge that he was in the right, and was closer to God than his British foe. I am sure that a better Minister could have been nominated, but then I wasn't there and only speculate. Enjoy it for what it was. It could have been a liberal rally, and imagine what or who would have been the speakers.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.9.12 @ 10:48AM
Unfortunately, many of our "preachers" are ignoramuses, who wouldn't know Calvin from Hobbes, or Madison from the Pillsbury Doughboy. Progressivism, Darwinism, and other attacks upon Christianity in the early 20th century drove many preachers into an anti-intellectualist position of opposing various "isms" by focusing on conversion stories and manipulating people's "hearts."
So rather than getting learned sermons in our day, we get fluff and nonsense.
JimH| 7.9.12 @ 11:31AM
Hobbes was the tiger, right?
Dai Alanye | 7.9.12 @ 1:42PM
Will someone please ban this air-max idiot from the site?
Petronius| 7.9.12 @ 12:08PM
When it comes to campaigning, Republicans have never been able to get out of their own way. The only ones who didn't were Goldwater and Reagan. Romney is another Bushite goob. We Conservatives want Our Freedom back and he barely mentions it. He will lose because he doesn't understand the power the Liberals use to strangle Us doesn't get near his front door because he is both affluent, and really doesn't care.
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 12:20PM
They told you before the affair started that they were going to do it their way, and you act like the Jewish girl who joined the high school choir at her high school in Salt Lake City, and then brought a lawsuit because the choir was going to sing Christmas songs at a Christmas cantata. What did you THINK was going to happen? Try to get some perspective and re-think your sense of offense.
Granger| 7.10.12 @ 7:33PM
LOL! Well said!
Tom Kyba| 7.9.12 @ 1:20PM
Sorry, but I don't see the author's ruminations as an insult to "simple folk" at all. If I take the preacher at his word as well as some of the commenters, I am seeing a mirror image of the intolerance of modern liberalism. This isn't about accepting gay marriage or greedy politicians, it's about the clear message given by the preacher that our insular version of Christianity is the only way, and hell awaits those who don't comply. If I want to live in a dystopian nightmare of hiding my honest opinions on scraps of paper buried in my back yard, I will become a liberal. if you believe that the last two paragraphs show the author to be the sort of phony liberal for whom religion is a wishy-washy matter of convenience, then in my humble opinion you are merely fishing for enemies. Life is wishy-washy and the more exclusive you make your philosophy, the more lonely and insufferable you become. And no, I'm not calling for people to be more "liberal , just articulating a fear of what happens if you run too far in the other direction.
Dai Alanye | 7.9.12 @ 1:46PM
To talk partisan politics at a revival meeting would be tacky, and to talk partisan religion at a political meeting is fully as tacky. We have a secular republic for good reason. Anyone who prefers a religious government should look to the Thirty Years War (among many others) as a guide.
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 1:54PM
A political rally is not government. Religious practices at one is not tacky, inappropriate, or constitutionally contraindicated. In fact, until the last three or four generations, religious practices at political rallies were quite common.
Even Congress has a prayer before beginning its sessions, and that IS government.
John Navratil| 7.9.12 @ 3:42PM
Bill84728,
I'm a believer. You'll have to believe me. There is nothing better than a good sermon or homily. However, I've left churches over the political nature of both. I mingle politics and religion shamelessly for myself. I prefer to vote for the "values" candidate.
I don't wear my religion on my sleeve, but am not offended by those more overt than I except when they are busy exhorting me to some great ideal.
Give me the pledge and the opening prayer, but save the sermon. They don't do that, even in Congress.
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 5:40PM
Personally, I don't have a big problem with religious people making sermons at political rallies. I DO have a problem with my ministers making political sermons when I go to church.
To me, one fits OK while the other doesn't.
SSG Baker| 7.13.12 @ 3:33PM
I am sure the Tories and British thought the same thing, wait, they did say something about that.
The link is to another site about the ministers of the Revolution.
http://brr.wallbuilders.com/th.....iment.aspx
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 2:03PM
"They want to take your cow" sounds like a joke when you read it in 2012 in the National Review in the U.S.A., but consider 1932 in the U.S.S.R., when one of the indicia that a farmer was a kulak "wrecker" who should be starved to death was whether or not he owned a cow. Also, consider how many Ukranians killed their livestock and ate the creatures rather than surrender them to the Soviet state in the Great Hunger Terror.
How far away from that is the U.S.A.? Real far, right now; tomorrow, maybe not so far.
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 2:04PM
American Spectator, not National Review. Sorry.
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 2:07PM
The FDR Administration set up a government program of hiring federal employees in the Dust Bowl to kill the animals that were starving, so it may not be as far away as we may want to believe.
Skippy| 7.9.12 @ 3:15PM
When do we get to start eating bureaucrats?
I hear they taste just like chicken.
Bill84728| 7.9.12 @ 5:38PM
I was watching some TV show on eating yesterday. They had someone at the Furnace Creek Resort in Death Valley National Park explaining how to prepare a gourmet version of rattlesnake, and she said it tastes like spiced ground beef.
But chicken or beef, I say chow down!
MK| 7.9.12 @ 6:15PM
Matt Shea's wife is Ukrainian not Hungarian.
MK| 7.10.12 @ 12:51PM
I also had a cow of a time last Saturday night… http://spectator.org/archives/.....or-freedom
I was there, Saturday night! At Farmer Ben’s!!! I-- went with questions— not looking for an angst topic to keep my “New Yorker” blog audience happy.
Q: Will xxx be there? I would really like to connect and find out their thoughts on…
Q: Who is Shahram Hadian? Why are people getting fired up about Hadian when McKenna is practicing his victory night speech?
Q: So this is a first time event for some young local organizers—what will they do right? Is it worth the effort? Will anybody show up?
Q: My kids are learning about political process and public policy. Will they get to talk with candidates and learn something new?
I was not disappointed. It was a GREAT networking event! Of course, Buys and Overstreet-- I’ve heard their stump speeches before, BUT
MK| 7.10.12 @ 12:52PM
-- it was an eyeopener what Clint Didier shared about how lands commissioner Peter Goldmark is playing the Washington DNR department to curtail property rights and is losing money for public shareholders in the process. Sounds like a DNR mutiny going on against Goldmark in favor of Didier. C’mon, columnist—this is news. Check THIS out and write a story! Whatcom County conservatives are realizing they have been played big time by County Council members Sam Crawford and Kathy Kershner over the County purchase of DNR land around Lake Whatcom, and what fiasco will Goldmark use this money on next? So much for former County Executive Pete Kremen’s “legacy” (dues owing?).
-- I was encouraged to hear that a traditional high profile Democrat voter (read president of Washington State Neurosurgeons Association id?) publicly endorsed Dr. Art Coday with a generous check at a their recent gathering. Maybe Coday IS getting traction against Senaor Maria Cantwell over ObamaCare.
MK| 7.10.12 @ 12:53PM
-- Whatcom County has been a significant “nuclear” test site for anti-property rights”sustainable” activists—read former Whatcom County Planning and Development Director David Stalheim and former Whatcom County Planning Commission Chairperson Jean Melious, quasi non profit progressive activist agency ReSources (takes local budget money to snoop on private property and bring over the top lawsuits against local businesses)… and their hordes of “sincere and oppressed” witnesses who testify at public hearings every time a push is needed to get a communitarian, read “anti property rights” item enacted.
There are dozens of long suffering property owners who have been served “property rights cyanide” by some (not all) Whatcom County Planning and Development Staff using LAMIRDS and RURAL ELEMENTS over the last years for their blind trust of the sytem. Well, it would seem the quiet folk of Whatcom County are steadily waking up and pushing back. The biggest responses at the Saturday night rally were on this issue!! The minister was well meaning AND long winded AND needs to get to know local political activists before pulling his six shooter, but why make that the biggest news of the night? Are American Spectator writers embarrassed to be seen with “other types”? (Rosa Koire of Democrats against Communitarianism will be speaking in Bellingham in October—now that’s news!)
MK| 7.10.12 @ 12:54PM
-- Shahram Hadian was handing out a killer pamplet comparing his positions to Washington State Governor candidates McKenna and Inslee. McKenna IS a RINO!!! Check out Hadian’s pamphlet, http://hadian2012.com/compare-and-contrast and don’t hand buyers remorse to me as McKenna sells out conservative principles like he is telegraphing. IS there any difference between the Republican McKenna and Democrat Inslee?
And--- the esteemed author of this article can send me a part of his check for finishing his column for him… what was that about the “drive by media”. Perhaps he should spend more time checking out the fortunes of the community he lives in—part time that is.
Thank you! John Kirk, Sumas, WA
Granger| 7.10.12 @ 7:21PM
the writer says "But surely church and state should enjoy some distance" is probably from the same brainwashed mentality that "separation of church and state" is in the Constitution of the USA.
Granger| 7.10.12 @ 7:26PM
writer Jeremy needs some history lesson from something other than the socialist/communist college paper. You can't separate "church" from state. Every nation adopts the beliefs of some form of religion. Politics is formed through ideology; ideology in turn is formed by one's belief and faith. America has long been established using Judeo/Christian which is why many around the world referred to America as a Christian nation.