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I get so many things that once were dusty words in
history books. The people on those pages have been coming to life, practically against
my will. The dates and fashion that kept them locked down in the past no longer
separate us. Gradually appearing in the shadows of current events, they are
real people who once walked in the shoes I’m wearing now. Only mine don’t have
big black buckles on them.
Suddenly, I know how they felt in both the struggle to
gain freedom and the fight to keep it.
I’ve been to the birthplace of America a couple of
times with my family. We walked Boston’s Freedom Trail where all those guys in
funny looking tights put their lives, their wealth and their sacred honor on
the line. We stood beside the grave where Paul Revere is buried. The North Church, where he lit “two lanterns if by sea,” is in peril once again, just as much as
the upscale businesses surrounding it.
And we’ve driven through Gettysburg where bullet holes
still riddle the stone walls of historic buildings, sobering reminders of what can
happen when friends and family divide over little things like states’ rights.
They say there are ghosts who still linger on its Civil War battlefields. But
apparitions like those are as questionable as Covid case numbers. The thing
that haunts me about that conflict, which took more American lives than all other
wars combined, is this—now I understand how friends can be lost, families can
divide, and a nation can disintegrate when unity is undermined. I’ve already
seen brother turn against brother and children against their parents. There
were probably more tears shed in that war than in all others combined, too.
My history teacher never told me there’d be a final
exam like this one.
Bible stories are coming to life for me as well. Fear
is written in its pages where true stories of oppression and depravity are told
without the gilt edges of censorship. The conflict there was always good vs. evil,
leading up to the climax of Jesus’ death. But in a well-played sting operation,
Jesus turned the tables on his enemies by rising from the dead and overcoming
sin for us. He is alive. But the Church is on a ventilator. The cancel culture
of A.D. 85 feels like a mirror image to dictatorships like the one happening in California where now, as then, Christians began to meet in secret
to avoid arrest and persecution.
I never thought I’d see the day when governors would
order churches to close and stay closed. Or that corrupt politicians like Gavin
Newsom would forbid Christians to hold in-home Bible studies. Or sing together.
All while mass riots are not only overlooked but validated as important for the
mental health of its violent participants.
Suddenly, bullying is not only tolerated, it is
encouraged.
So, when John wrote his epistle to the first century church with teaching on how to become a Christian, he wasn't suggesting that born-again believers weren’t born again. John knew his audience. He knew their audience. And just like today, when Christians are afraid to show up at church for fear of being turned in by trolls, the apostle understood the reason. Congregations in A.D. 85 were a mixed bag of Christians and spies.
The echoes of those holy sandals rings loud in my ears
right now.
Freedom, that thing which matters as much to God as it
does to us, is under fire. Again. And the reason? Because control is a valuable
commodity to bullies. We let our guard down while our enemies, both foreign and
domestic, have burned their candles at both ends for decades. We took our
cherished independence for granted, assuming we were immune to hostile
takeovers. After all, we’re the land of the free and the home of the brave,
right? But we got careless. Lazy. Lulled to sleep by entertainment and
complicity. If the hostilities we are dealing with right now take a turn for
the worse, many of us will wonder how and where we missed the warning signs.
Why didn’t we listen to the alarms of watchmen on the
crumbling walls of liberty? Because fear sells and liars know this. We have
forgotten how to think for ourselves, listening instead to the advice of power-hungry
authorities and caving under peer pressure. Or maybe we never knew how.
Critical thinking, too, is a valuable commodity because it is rare.
So, what about those shadowy people I just mentioned?
That great cloud of witnesses who fought back against tyranny in their own
time? And those who didn’t? In junior high when I read about peace loving
Quakers who didn’t believe in conflict, I thought they were just fearful. Even
disloyal for leaving the freedom fight up to others. Then when America’s
enemies were eventually routed, conscientious objectors reaped the benefits of
victory. I judged them as a bunch of cowards.
But, this morning, my own conflict-hating stomach is
in knots. I watched a video of folks much braver than me who did what has
become the unthinkable. As medical professionals who took an oath never to
harm, they stepped out on thin ice and told the truth. They walked out in
public in our nation’s capital to tell us we can have hope and live free. It
wasn’t a popular message in D.C., strangely enough. While hecklers tried to
shout them down outside, inside the hallowed halls of Washington politicians made
sure their good news was censored. We wouldn’t want people to unite in these
United States, especially while we’re being told to be fearful and stay away
from one another.
Ironic, isn’t it? Who’s really afraid here?
Mesmerized, I saw a video of a man in an open-air event in
communist California. By the time it was over, he’d been hung out to dry in the
farmer’s market. His transgression? Bucking government approved fashion trends
and letting people see his lips move. He refused to cave before a faceless
society. He was mocked. Threatened. Confronted by a police officer who could
not tell him what law he was breaking by breathing free outdoors. I was proud
of him—from where I watched inside the temporary safety of my own home.
Unmasked. Unseen. Unassaulted. Uncondemned.
I want peace. I want my life back. I want to wake up
from this dystopian nightmare. But every single morning, it’s Groundhog Day.
More liberties, paid for by my relatives and yours as they, too, were attacked
by socialist enemies, are stolen. Right out from under our masked noses while
we try to keep the peace, not make waves, and live our lives in silent desperation.
It’s the silence that is killing us.
Freedom matters. That’s the reason it’s under attack
by people we actually elected to represent us in government, people who swore
to protect the Constitution of the United States. It’s under attack by the CDC
and Fauci and Birx, health officials who are breaking their Hippocratic oath to
do no harm. And it’s under attack in farmer’s markets in California
where citizens are held hostage by a communist governor who has them scared to death by
illegal mandates.
Freedom is under attack in grocery stores that make
announcements to “mask up or get out and do your shopping online.” You are
dangerous, you oxygen-breathing resisters. We see you. We can pick you out in a
crowd. You’re the one with the face.
Freedom is forbidden in fast food restaurants, too,
where asthmatic teenagers deliver milkshakes to self-righteous drivers who yell
at them for not wearing a mask. The choice now is "paper or fabric?" Our forced
protection against a virus at least ten times smaller than the tiniest opening
in a “face covering.” There’s a reason they’ve changed the noun there, you
know. Calling them ‘masks’ isn’t specific enough—just ask the Lone Ranger. Face
coverings imply that your ability to be seen is a danger to others—and they are
one step away from a burqa.
But I get it. You can’t incite a Marxist takeover of a
Republic by being obvious. You have to make it look like the rebels are those
who resist. You can’t call yourself a communist when Democratic Socialist
sounds more politically correct. You can’t capture a population of 350 million
people by an overt attack. But you can immobilize them with panic and fear if
you use a less-than-novel virus to cripple their courage, shoving propaganda in
their faces twenty-four-seven on every TV, freeway, and store in America.
We are being conditioned to accept the unacceptable.
And what is that? You already know. And our shadowy ancestors know. If we don’t
get their history—which is our history—we will be doomed to repeat it. The
goal of the left is to keep us so ignorant that while we submit to illegal
mandates and government overreaches, we won’t realize we are surrendering everything.
It’s a white flag assault on our liberties and the future of our children. But we never saw it coming. We never thought our voice mattered. Until it was silenced.
It's time for the Silent Majority to make their voices heard. It’s not too late. It’s actually our time, and our turn. While the pen pauses and history waits to record our choice, we can take back what was given to us by the millions of Americans who gave their all for us. But we have to speak up in whatever way we know how. The warriors are weary. You and I are needed. Our silence won't cut it anymore.
This time, if we value freedom, it's going to be up to us to . . . get it.
With thanks to Simon Johansson for the use of the photo above. The original can be viewed by following this link:
