WE SURVIVED SO FAR

When my generation was young, kids raced to the car to ride “shotgun”. It was a term derived from western movies and TV shows where the stagecoaches had a driver and a guy with a shotgun next to him. It gave us kids a greater perspective of the world around us as seen from the eyes of the driver.

Now, children are wrapped in a cocoon in the back of a truck (your minivans and SUV’s are just trucks after all) watching a movie, playing a video game or talking on cell phones. When we learned to drive, we instinctively knew what needed to be done. When kids learn to drive now, just being in the front seat is new and doesn’t feel right without a movie to watch or a cell phone in their hands.

We survived with brightly colored lead paint in our cribs and we grew up with ads that would drive mommy’s nuts today.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar and we weren't overweight. Why? Because we were always outside playing, that's why! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day, and we were okay. We weren’t tougher; we simply had something call morals and knew what was right and wrong.

When we were at a public place and it was a day for remembering someone or some event, we gave a public moment of silence and people used that moment to pray. Now, when a moment of silence happens, kids are waving at a camera and adults are busy talking on the almighty cell phone. Prayer isn’t allowed anymore.

We survived wars, bad presidents, bad financial times, the Cold War and the 60’s. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. Little League and football had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. Our faith in the Lord helped a lot.

Little by little God left the equation though. We are a nation built on Christian and Judeo beliefs but in the name of political correctness, we have handed over our faith, little by little without any more than a sigh and a whimper.

Political correctness started out to protect Arabs after 9-11 but became a sounding board for silly law suits against Christians. It started out not like a gentle nudge, but more like a sledge hammer to the face.

I’ve included stories over the years, of such attacks; the removal of the 10 Commandments, nativity scenes or any other religious references from public places. There were so many stories of someone objecting to prayer vigils, meetings or just saying Grace in restaurants. Chaplains in the military and civil service jobs can’t end a prayer, “In the name of Jesus”. The Chaplain I knew in Vietnam would have been thrown out because he wouldn’t obey such a law. I would have left with him.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:62

Riding shotgun gave me a perspective of the road my dad was driving and my faith gave me a perspective of right and wrong and handing over our faith for political correctness is not only wrong, it’s stupid. Living through those times made me strong and not because we took so many chances, but because we knew that God allowed us to take those chances. They weren’t perfect times but came out strong because we lived in a country that allowed freedom of religion.

Will we survive without Christ in our lives? We will soon find out. We have leaders in this country that think the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are living documents and always changing. They think that a government big enough to give rights is big enough to take them away. However, our founders said it right when they said God gave us certain unalienable rights. Who can take away rights God gave us?

We survived so far because we have had God on our side and there is no law or political correctness that will stop me from writing this newsletter. I’m old and physically broken but I can still write and it’s the only way I have to spread the Good Word. I may not be able to open a childproof bottle or ride a bike but I’ve learned to deal with such little failures and prayer allows me to ignore such obstacles.

Barring the return of Christ, sun spots, natural or man-made disasters, children today will skate through life as long as they hold faith close to their hearts. If they don’t, there will be nobody to care for them when they fail and in a life without our Lord, failure is a certainty.

Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13