Oh Say Can You See?

Take a knee, don't take a knee.  Honor the flag or burn it.  It is your First Amendment right and a multitude of men and women have died to protect that right.  That being said, the national anthem is an emblem of citizenship in a country that has provided more freedoms than any other country present and past.  The country has made some grievous mistakes in its older and recent pasts; however, it is still a privilege to be born here or achieve citizenship here.  If you are dissatisfied with current situations it is your right to say so and to protest, peacefully and civilly those wrongs that have been done. Protesting the symbols of this country (flag, anthem, et.al.) is essentially stating that you are not happy with being a citizen of this country. As such, you also have the right to go live somewhere else and you should.  If that is not what you wish to project, if what you want to project is your dissatisfaction with the laws and attitudes of the current society, then be a good citizen, honor the country's emblems (over which much blood has been spilled to establish, protect, and maintain) and use the avenues established for changing things in a peaceful respectful way.

After saying all that, as a Christian, I am in the world not of it.  I disagree with many things established here but I am so blessed and grateful to be born here and have the comforts and freedoms that are available to me that are not so easily available it most of the world. I pray for our leaders and lawmakers and our country but ultimately my faith is in God and what He decides for our country and our world.  Does that mean that I have divorced myself from my responsibilities of voting, paying taxes, and voicing my opinion over possible injustices?  No.  I still live here and I am commanded to love my neighbor.  Part of that is making effort to see that laws are passed so that my neighbor does not suffer injustices. My neighbors include but are not limited to the police, people of any and all ethnic and religious backgrounds (I did not say race because the only race that I see is the human race), homeless, vets, the people upstairs, and anyone in proximity to me. My responsibilities as a son of the Creator does not include allowing politics and my view on such to occupy my focus.  My focus, is to further the Kingdom of God. His kingdom, not mine, not yours, not any political party's, not the US, not the world, His. Just sayin... 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where Is The Love?

Matt 7:3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Recently, I have read some FB posts about the problems of the modern church.  My friend Ben Jensen wrote an excellent rebuttal to one of them and I will refrain from re-iterating it here.  Please take the time and read his statement in his blog Dear Church: People Will Always Leave You at  http://lifeunstained.blogspot.com/     Read it. It is worth your time. It is easy to go about ranting on what is wrong with the church.  We, who are the church, are fallen, imperfect, etc.  So there is a lot of material available.  Possibly a 1,000+ volume encyclopedia on me alone and I am just 1 of millions. I understand admonishments and exhortations are needed from time-to-time.  And yes discipline needs to be exercised as well.  But we need to be so careful that we do not overstep our authority and find ourselves in dir...
Read more

This Man Knows His History...

Image
Ever come face-to-face with your own history? Today I did.  I had the blessing and humbling honor to meet the man who was responsible for my life and the lives of my family.  Today I met Matthew Duffy, formally, Sgt. Matt Duffy. Sgt Duffy served in the U.S. Army during WWII. Why is he responsible for my family's lives?  Come with me on this incredible tale and find out.  My father, Gottfried Kligmann and his brother Samuel Kligmann were imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp after their half brother turned them in.  They were scheduled to be executed when the US Army arrived an hour ahead of schedule.  Sgt Duffy was one of the soldiers who arrived at that time. Here is a snippet of his story which he related to me today. His battalion, the 2nd Ranger battalion, was attached to the 101st,, airborn battalion but he was with the ground troops.  They were to make a coordinated ground/paratrooper strike on a target. The airborn soldiers were behind schedule and the ground troops wer...
Read more

Do you Hope with expectation?

 I have been re-reading the book of Romans in the Holy Bible. There is a word that occurs 14 times that God has brought to my attention.  The word is "hope."  When God, through His Holy Spirit brings a word to my attention, I research it.  Like all Bible scholars, and wannabes (me), I went to the Greek. The word used for hope, in the Greek, is "elpida, elpidi," et.al.  This word is also translated as expected or expectation. So I contemplated (picture me in an Alistair Cooke setting, LOL) the application of the word hope.  Hope can be anything from hoping for an A on a test, a Lamborghini, a kiss, a healing, a new job, etc. But hope, as the apostle Paul meant in his epistles, was that of expectation.  Not just the hope of a maybe, but the expectation of a promise to be fulfilled.  A hope that requires faith. Faith that says not just something to which we look forward, but a trust and belief that allows you to EXPECT that it will be fulfilled....
Read more