Dodgeball Defiance in the Day of Obama Scandals
The Plano, TX-based Liberty Institute shouldered the school’s cause, thwarting this attempt by FFRF to intimidatingly scrub visible acknowledgement of religious ideals from Small Town, USA. The inclusion of religious-themed banners, Judge Thomas ruled, squares with students’ First Amendment rights.
“Thanks to legal defense groups like Liberty”, comments Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, “secularists may finally be getting the message that Christians aren’t just putting up a fight – they’re winning them.”
Another swatch of Americana wrested back from the despisers of all things Judeo-Christian.
— A Dearborn, MI evangelistic trio won a civil rights lawsuit and financial settlement, and earned an apology from the city’s mayor, after being arrested, handcuffed, jailed and dragged through a five-week criminal trial (they were acquitted — unanimously(!). These ne’er-do-wells’ putative outrage against society? “Breach of peace” — that is, they handed out Christian literature and openly shared their faith at the municipality’s annual Arab International Festival.
So, it’s official: evangelism is still not outlawed in the Great Lake State — at least not yet.
– A single Pennsylvanian reservist prompted a mea culpa from the Army when he objected to a training session’s lumping together Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity, as examples of “Religious Extremism”, with the likes of the Ku Klux Klan and al-Qaeda. The chain of command disowned and disavowed the defamation.
“[T]he Army was embarrassed by all this”, mentions National Review – sometimes appropriate, as this contretemps reminds us.
America’s founding principle of “federalism” makes the case for — whenever possible — limited government, next state/local control, next individualism. Constitutional conservatives, then, those urgers of governmental restraint and personal responsibility, mustn’t be content occupying the civilizational sidelines, watching the “major players” duke it out. The set-piece engagements — storming the beaches of cultural Normandies, ideological Spartans taking a stand at their political Thermopylaes — may get play on FoxNews, the “Big Three” networks or above-the-fold in the Times – but, by themselves, they can’t/won’t rescue the nation.
Each patriotic, responsible citizen and community has its own skirmishes to undertake – society-shapers which track one way or another depending on how God-and-country lovers engage each one. The Drudge Report likely won’t record these efforts. Regional media might take note. Regardless, along with the more sensationalistic, breaking-news developments, these exertions all serve their purpose, all contribute to a salubrious, cumulative effect.
Jerry Newcombe recently wrote about “find[ing] our liberties chipped away piece by piece”. Yet, that gloomy prognosis can be inverted; we can preserve or retrieve what is best about America in the same manner: piece by piece, one cultural/political tussle at a time, each one of us keeping our eagle-eyed watch.
Yes, by all means, DO talk about politics and religion. Winsomely chat-up your neighbors over important issues; around the dinner table add your reflections on our Founders, history, those trends imperiling Western Culture; write that letter to the editor or op-ed; confront every excrescence of Leftist bilge-water, every time it putridly bubbles to the surface.
Even dodgeball can matter.
Image: United States Marine Corps/ID 100312-M-4913M-092; public domain
