This is Viewpoints for Friday, September 8, 2017

Think again

In the matter of displaying present artifacts depicting historical events and personalities there will be no satisfactory solution unless all parties meet together and listen in good faith to the diverse concerns of all parties. In the future before any new artifacts are to be made and displayed there should be a thorough discussion and common agreement made by many thoughtful persons.

The making of the concerned artifacts in our community required the talents of one or more persons and are art in anyone’s definition. The destruction of art is destructive of society.

Think of the Taliban’s cannons blasting ancient artifacts because those artifacts did not display the Taliban’s current thinking. How many of us have spent thousands of dollars to travel to historic sites in Greece, Rome, Cairo, etc., to view and appreciate the work of our ancestors?

When we view the Coliseum, the pyramids, St. Peter’s Cathedral, etc., do we apply our destructive instincts to them because of what they represented or do we contemplate the historical and present significance and artistic value?

Presidential problems

I am astounded that our new president has as his main goal the eradication of all of Barack Obama’s achievements. Repeal of Obamacare, privatization of our national parks, sending 800,000 DACA residents back to their home countries that most have never even visited, abolition of consumer protections after 2008, weakening of the EPA and environmental protections for cleaner air, etc., weakening of the Food and Drug Administration, tax reductions mostly for our richest citizens, advocating a proposal that would have made 23 million Medicaid recipients lose their coverage and nuclear war with North Korea.

President Donald Trump is the worst president in our nation’s history. He only cares for his family and our richest citizens. He is a total egotist who is liable to tweet us into a nuclear war. He needs to resign.

Scripture authority

Evangelist Charles G. Finley admonished believers in Christ not to allow public sentiment to unduly influence. Based on Pastor Scott Dickison comments, and the congregants comments, that happened. Dickison said First Baptist didn’t have a stated policy that addressed same-sex marriage. However, the true church, purchased by Christ’s blood, repudiates same-sex marriage throughout the scriptures. Leviticus 18:22 considers men having sex with each other abominable.

Pastor Dickison said, “I’m grateful for the congregation traveling together to this point, and it is an important point but it comes with some tenderness.” Certainly same-sex marriage must be discussed with seriousness and sensitivity. However, believers must make decisions based on the scriptures authoritativeness. Often expressing the scripture view produces agony within and produces conflict without.

Let’s consider Proverbs 6:16-18, which refers to seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do evil, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family. Shall his believers promote understanding and sensitivity, by blunting his sharp discourse? No. Amid a society that dismisses scriptural authority, believers must practice gentle dogmatism.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that the church must reclaim its revolutionary ways, “not by merely being a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion, but as a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”

High office disrespect

It is distressing to hear a continuing barrage of rancorous and often unfounded charges leveled against our president and commander in chief. During wartime in the past, and we are at war now, outright fabrications and an almost total disrespect for the highest office in the land would have been considered to be totally disloyal. Far too many so-called journalists rather than reporting the news factually are mixing their biases with their reporting and commentaries. We hear very little from much of the media, thoughtful politicians and moralists in defense of the president of the United States. This is not to suggest that criticisms should not be made. But accuracy and respectfulness devoid of being obsequious should prevail.

In Congress and particularly the United States Senate where civility used to reign supreme, our enemies and the world frequently hear imputations that trample on the world’s greatest office. Even more troubling is to hear some former presidents joining in with the president’s detractors.

What is most distressful concerning this hostile climate is the effect it is having on our future leaders and those looking for any slim excuse for staging protests and destruction of private and government property, injuries and even the death of some fellow citizens. Will they come to believe that in order to reach their goals they must do everything they can to disparage those who may not have similar goals?

Another alarming prospect concerning this incivility is the adverse effect it will have or is already having on the morale of our fine young men and women who are fighting and living in deplorable conditions in the defense of freedom. Hand wringing and the spouting of venomous charges against our leadership and its policies only give encouragement and resolve to our enemies.

The strident critics seem to have forgotten the golden rule and the words of Abraham Lincoln, who suffered his share of unwarranted attacks, in his Gettysburg Address: “…we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Chinese hoax

Isn’t it amazing that many of the politicians who were unwilling to support funding for Sandy relief are seeking money for Harvey relief? Sen. Ted Cruz is still pushing his three Pinocchio story about why he didn’t vote for Sandy relief. Say, didn’t “The Donald” call him “lying Ted”? I guess, “The Donald” got this one right. Well, as they say, “Even a blind hog can root a truffle now and then.”

This story was originally published September 7, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Friday, September 8, 2017."