INEVITABLE RESULTS OF INDOCTRINATION

Reaping the Inevitable Results of Indoctrination

As You Sew, So Shall You Reap
How Our Anti-American Education System Made Riots Inevitable
[click to read]

The past fire-lit weeks in America’s cities have made clear that the protests, and the riots that attend them, have little to do with the condemnable alleged murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis.

Even in the non-violent demonstrations, protesters can be seen burning the American flag, an act that just 30 years ago engendered such outrage it spurred Congress to pass an unconstitutional law, but doesn’t even warrant coverage today. In broad daylight, protesters have defaced and toppled statues dedicated to any and all figures of America’s history.

Lest anyone think the mob’s Year Zero behavior stopped with the slaveholding Confederacy, in Boston a monument to the 54th Massachusetts, an all-black Union regiment during the Civil War, was among those vandalized. Matthias Baldwin, an early abolitionist, got the same treatment in Philadelphia, as did the lesser-known Rotary Club founder Paul Harris, whose plaque in Washington D.C. was marked simply with an ignorance-acknowledging “probably a racist.” The monument to the author of the Emancipation Proclamation on the National Mall was likely spared only because of the protection of the National Guard.

As John Daniel Davidson has noted, toppling statues is not a good sign for the future of the republic; it looks a lot less like a policy conversation about police reform than it does regime change and revolution. (read more)

How Business Got ‘Woke’
[click to read]

American companies’ embrace of radical ideas appears both sudden and inexplicable. In internal trainings, companies from Disney to Lockheed-Martin ask their employees to “challenge colorblind ideologies” and “deconstruct their white male privilege.” Firms spend vast sums of money on such trainings, on diversity-related speakers, and on maintaining a progressive image. Employees find themselves wondering why their workplace has transformed into a progressive propaganda center.

Much has been made of the propagation of certain ideas—call them social-justice ideology, critical race theory, or wokeness—in American institutions. But surprisingly little attention has been paid to the question of why institutions “go woke.” Some address this question in philosophical or ideological terms, noting the continuity between these ideas and the work of certain twentieth-century intellectuals, from the Frankfurt School in the 1920s to the critical race theorists of the 1980s. But a historical and sociological analysis can help explain why institutions accepted these ideas as legitimate in the first place. (read more)

THYME Commentary Has a New Home
[click to read]

Here are links to articles and publications we're reading. (read more)

“O LORD, DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!”

Praying for Revival

“O Lord, Do it Again! Do it Again!”

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” – ISAIAH 6:8

Rev Dr. Gordon Moyes tells a timeless story – one that reaches back into history and into our day: “Dr J. Edwin Orr, the greatest authority ever on renewal in the church was a lecturer at Wheaton College. He took some students in 1940 for a brief visit to England including the Epworth Rectory. Beside the bed were two worn impressions on the carpet where it was said John Wesley knelt hours in prayer for England’s social and spiritual renewal. As the students were getting on the bus, he noticed one was missing. Going back upstairs he found one student kneeling in the carpet knee holes praying with his face on the bed: “O Lord, do it again! Do it again!” Orr placed a hand on the student’s shoulder and said gently, “Come on Billy, we must be going.” And rising, Billy Graham rejoined the bus.” By the 1950’s the young evangelist was bringing revival to the United States. His children and grandchildren now carry the torch. What was the secret to their great effectiveness? I have to believe it was seen on that day in 1940! “O Lord, do it again! Do it again!”

This was from a message preached by Pastor Theo at the Crossway Christian Church in Spencerville, Maryland. What will make a nation great again? Not economic vitality or military might! It is the work of the Divine in our midst that will revitalize our people. This is the message we must carry to our people, particularly in times that are dark and confusing.


The rising sun over Crossroads Christian Church.

A MESSAGE OF HOPE

A Message of Hope

FREEDOM'S DEFENDERS: HENRY ERWIN

Henry 'Red' Erwin.

An Extraordinary Hero

Henry Eugene Erwin was born in Docena, Alabama in 1921. His coal miner father died when he was ten. Gene, as he was called then, was the oldest child and he went to work in the company store to help his struggling family. At the height of the depression, Erwin joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and later went to work in a steel mill in Birmingham. He was now his family's main breadwinner. In 1943 young Erwin joined the army. He qualified for the Air Corps and after training on the B-17 Flying Fortress he became a radio operator on the new B-29. This new Superfortress would soon strike deep into Japanese territory in the Pacific.

After getting married to his wife Betty on furlough in 1944, Erwin and his crew were assigned to Guam. Here their plane, the City of Los Angeles would make bombing runs on the main islands of Japan. On April 12, 1944, the City of Los Angeles led a formation of B-29s striking Koriyama.  Part of Irwin's job was to launch phosphorous smoke bombs to lead the other planes in to their targets. As Erwin pushed the smoke bomb into the chute, something went terribly wrong. It either jammed or was blown back, exlpoding in Erwin's face. He was blinded. His flesh was burning and the plane filled with smoke. The smoke bomb, burning at 1300 degrees, had lodged itself among the bombs in the plane!

The pilots could not see. The plane began a dive. It was certain that death would come, but would it be from the certain crash or the explosion from the munitions? Then the crew saw what had to have seemed to them an apparition as Irwin, totally aflame, located the burning phosphorus bomb and grabbed it with his right hand! Holding the white-hot canister against his rib cage, he somehow made his way towards a plane window by the navigator's station. The navigator's table blocked his progress and the seconds it took to raise it must have seemed like an eternity. Fellow crewmen remember Erwin saying: "Excuse me." as he stumbled past them into the cockpit to throw the bomb out the window.

Henry 'Red' Erwin then collapsed to the floor. He was totally aflame and his distinctive red hair was burned away. The crew put out the fire and administered morphine to the man they thought to be at death's door. But Erwin never lost consciousness. In agony, he asked: "Is everybody else alright?" The plane flew to Iwo Jima where there was a hospital.

"I Don't Say I'm a Hero"
-- Henry Eugene 'Red' Erwin


'Red' Erwin talks about the events of April 12, 1944.

Now began the most difficult set of challenges for Erwin. The doctors did not expect him to live, the phosphorous in his eyes would eventually blind him if he did. He was burned over most of his body. Ironically, his Mae West (life jacket) protected his chest as he clutched the red hot bomb. He was required to wear the life jacket during missions because he couldn't swim! Doctors began removing the phosphorous from his eyes. It was a painful process as the substance had a tendency to ignite when exposed to oxygen.

Major General Curtis E. Le May rushed a recommendation for the Medal of Honor through channels, hoping to present it to Erwin while he was still alive. There was only one problem. The only Medal of Honor in the Pacific was in a locked display case in Honolulu. General Le May had been awakened at 5:00 am to sign the Medal of Honor Citation. A special plane had been dispatched to obtain the medal. Finding noone to unlock the case, the airmen assigned to the mission broke the glass, absconded with the medal, and slipped back to their waiting plane.

Erwin had been flown to the hospital on Guam, where General Le May personally pinned the medal on him, saying: "Your effort to save the lives of your fellow airmen is the most extraordinary kind of heroism I know." Through the bandages covering his wounded face, Erwin responded: "Thank you, sir."

Erwin would go on to endure 43 surgeries in the next thirty months. But what might be his greatest giving of himself was yet to come. He did survive. He and Betty raised four children and he lived to see seven grandchildren. Henry 'Red' Erwin, his right arm permanently disabled, could not go back to the steel mills. Harry Truman had issued orders that any Medal of Honor recipient, otherwise qualified, was eligible for a veterans' benefits job. Erwin went to work for the Veterans Administration as a veterans' benefits counselor. For thirty-seven years he worked with wounded veterans, especially burn victims. Though the sight and smell of burned flesh brought back memories of his own intense pain, Erwin took a special interest in encouraging these heroes.

His son, Henry E. Erwin Jr. says of him: "Dad was a man of manners; He was always polite and courteous. He rarely got angry, but when he did, he meant business. He never yelled and screamed, but he had a firmness to his voice when he was angry. ...He embodied all the ideals of the Medal of Honor. He wore them like a well pressed suit. He was honest, thrifty, and patriotic. ...He never owed a debt, never got a ticket, never was sued. He obeyed the law, attended church, and treated everyone with courtesy and respect." On January 16, 2002, Henry 'Red' Erwin died at the age of eighty.


Henry Erwin with his wife Betty and his mother.

THYME Commentary Has a New Home
[click to read]

Here are links to articles and publications we're reading. (read more)

REPUDIATING THE POLITICS OF DIVISION

Repudiating the Politics of Division

Repudiating the Politics of Division

Virginia’s gubernatorial election was a repudiation of bad policy, it was not about the extreme right “taking over” the state or “anti-science” zealots. In fact, Glenn Youngkin is clearly in tune with most voters, though the mainstream media and the Democrat spin machine would never tell you that. The fact that the Republican candidates won in a state that was thought to be forever turned blue contains a lesson for all of us.

Virginian’s elected a Jamaican immigrant to Lieutenant Governor and a Cuban to Attorney General – hardly a show of white supremacy! What brought out the voters? “It’s the policies people!” The Democrats (notably Terry McAuliff) claimed to have ‘science’ on their side. But science is actually a process of learning and discovery – something that is totally lost in the sweeping implementation of mask and vaccine mandates. The same party won’t even hear the thoughts of physicians like Robert Malone and Pierre Kory, who would have us consider the use of old medicines against the virus. Science is supposed to be about examining all evidence, not suppressing diverse points of view.

Then too, the people that say they follow ‘science’ are telling us that there are maybe 30+ genders. They say they want to create a ‘safe’ environment for all in the schools, but the truth is that in Loudoun County a “trans” boy assaulted a female student in the women’s room. The school system simply transferred him to another school – where he did it again! Students who are uncomfortable with the open bathroom policy “are free to use the private bathroom” according to a cleverly worded policy statement from Augusta County school officials. On first reading, it seems like the policy directs trans students to use the private bathroom, but it actually says the exact opposite! Why would you want to deceive legitimately concerned parents? I'll wait.

Add to that the havoc that has been wrought to women’s athletics, where “trans” athletes take the trophies, and there is legitimate cause for parental concern. But McAuliff, in a moment of honesty, said he didn’t want parents involved in matters of education. That coming on top of the Justice Department’s identification of activist parents as “terrorists” is just one more example of name-calling in the face of legitimate expression of concerns. Parents have legitimate concerns about Critical Race Theory and Sexual Education. Traditionally education has supported the mission of families raising their children. Why should schools now want to wall families out? When children come home talking about lessons that go against their families' values, are the parents 'extreme' for wanting to ask questions?

People have seen the policies pushed down on them from the administrations in Washington and Richmond. They don’t like them. Thus the election must be seen as nothing less than a repudiation of those policies and their makers. Even with the media spin, a lot more people who probably voted Democrat all their lives are seeing that “the party has left them.” Other than Joe Manchin where can you find a Democrat who talks about fiscal responsibility? The younger crop of Democrat candidates tend to all be socialists. The fact that the party resorts to older candidates like Biden and McAuliff says volumes about the direction the party is taking today.

Hopefully the election in Virginia will spur an honest discussion of where people’s hearts truly are as far as policy is concerned. We owe it to ourselves.

THYME Commentary Has a New Home
[click to read]

Here are links to articles and publications we're reading. (read more)

“THIS IS OUR DEFINING MOMENT”

Yes, Your Vote DOES Matter!

“THIS IS OUR DEFINING MOMENT”



“You are Looking at the American Dream”



THYME Commentary Has a New Home
[click to read]

Here are links to articles and publications we're reading. (read more)