HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!
Let’s start with something personal that occurred in October 1999. My
junior high school, now called a “middle school,” was, in my day, and since its
founding in 1948, proud to call its 9th, 8th, and 7th
grade teams, “The Redskins,” “The Braves,” and the Papooses.” (As you might
surmise, the “Papooses” were the 7th graders and the noble “Redskins”
were the 9th graders as each team fought for gridiron basketball glory.)
On those teams were one who would become a professional baseball player and one
who would almost become a professional football player. (Although I give off an
athletic aura, I was neither one.)
You can guess where this is going: in October 1999, the
Redskins ceased to exist and my alma mater’s mascot became “The Knights.” The
change was strange because, as the superintendent of schools said, “There were
no complaints about the former name.” But they changed the name to engage in, as
principal Robert Guerrero admitted,
''political correctness.'' He went on to say that the new name must be
politically correct, so they settled on the “Knights.” This would have made
Edgar Allen Poe happy, since he wrote about “Gaily bedight, A Gallant Knight,” in
the poem, “El Dorado.” (I’m can recite this poem, and will do so upon request.)
In front of my junior high, stood a stone sign which read,
“O. L. Slaton Redskins,” complete with a profile of an Indian’s head in full
headdress. The drawing was a noble one and had class. When they changed the
name, down came the sign and it’s now in a time capsule somewhere. The principal noted that there would be some
expense incurred in the name change—the dismantling of the sign and the
uniforms that they must redo. But that’s what taxpayers are for.
Upon reading of the change, I felt like a stranger in a
strange land.
CELEBRATE!
I’ve learned of another change in those hallowed halls of my
education. In May, they celebrated Cinco de Mayo[1] with
“Ballet Folklorico dancers” performing on stage in the auditorium along with
mariachi musicians. Also, two O. L. Slaton teachers, Ana Montalvo and Daisy
Ortega, explained the cultural significance of Mexican art at the assembly. I
don’t know if Poe would have been pleased, but what are Ballet Folklorico
dancers, and why are they in my
auditorium? (I know, I know. Alex, the answer is “diversity.” But my question
is, “When is there enough diversity?)
Upon reading of the celebration, the Ballet Folklorico
dancers, and the explanation of the significance of Mexican art, I felt like a
stranger in a strange land.
THE INVERSION
But that’s just a team mascot, one dismantled sign, and a
celebration of an event in a foreign country. But the inversion is more
serious.
We can’t let our children play unattended in a public park
in broad daylight; we can’t let them walk home alone from the park without
public censure and risking a citation and a court appearance; we can’t spank
them when they misbehave; we can’t say, “Merry Christmas” without thinking
about it; in some public circles, when a tragedy befalls, we can’t say, “Our
prayers are with you,” we’re to say, “Our thoughts are with you.” In Oakland,
California, schools, students may curse at a teacher without expulsion, because
they might be hungry or tired from not having slept the night before. On the college level, one Harvard student said
that he was opposed to same sex marriage, but was afraid to say so on campus
for fear of reprisals.
Recently a student newspaper reprimanded college a professor
for discussing Ovid’s Metamorphoses in
class which included the following famous myth:
As she [Persephone the daughter of
Zeus, ] reached down to pluck a flower
from its resting place, her feet began to tremble and the earth was split in
two. Life for Persephone would never be the same again.
From this gaping crevice in the ground
emerged the awe-inspiring god of the Underworld, Hades, and before Persephone
could even think to utter a word, she was whisked off her feet onto the god's
golden chariot. As the crack of the whip upon his majestic horses brought her
to her senses, she realized she was about to taken into the black depths from
which he'd come. The thought of this brought terror to her heart, yet any
screams of protest were soon lost within the darkness, as they descended
quickly into the Underworld below.
This is such a famous myth that in the 17th
century, a sculpture was commissioned to depict it. The Italian state purchased
the work and relocated it to the Galleria Borghese. It’s called “The Rape of
Persephone.”[2] The
sculptor is Bernini.
The professor’s discussion of that story caused a member of
the class at Columbia feel unsafe, and the professor was publicly reprimanded
in the university newspaper for being insensitive. The student needed a safe
place in which she could discuss her traumatization at hearing the myth.
SOPHOMORIC
Immature students publicly criticizing their college
professor in print? Offended students
demanding the replacing of a classic of Western Literature? They know what’s best? Someone feels unsafe,
endures trauma, and is offended at hearing a myth?
I feel like a stranger in a strange land.
THE LANGUAGE
We fawn over celebrities that assault us with language for
which we would have thrown them out of our schools, houses, and public
buildings not long ago. Our sports heroes cheat, and remain our heroes; our leaders
look right in the camera and lie, know they’re lying, and when caught, we sigh
a, “So?” In a sports world where soccer players theatrically feign injuries,
where cyclists dope, and college recruiting violations persist, what’s happened
to fair play?
Talk about being a stranger in a strange land: we prosecute,
fine, shame, and ruin those who refuse to deny their biblical beliefs. We kill
babies and have the arrogance to call it “women’s rights,” a part of “reproductive health care.”
We submit to being the most taxed people in recorded
history; our government takes more money away from us than any government ever,
and we don’t seem to mind when it spends $7,000,000 a minute, claims it needs
more and comes after more.
In Fairfax County Virginia, the school board made a decision:
“Those males who think or feel they are girls (a newly discovered phenomenon called,
“gender fluidity”) will be allowed to use the restrooms and locker rooms of the
opposite sex. If the board follows the example of Minnesota, schools would have
to accommodate male transgendered students who want to spend nights at travel
games in hotel rooms with female athletes.” (“The Federalist”)
I feel like I’m a stranger in a strange land where under the
ozone layer is an insane asylum with the inmates in charge.
BUT WAIT . . . THERE’S MORE
It’s like Jonah Goldberg said: We’re in the movie,
“Gaslight,” where a man whose wife is normal, decent, and good tries to drive
her insane, and hounds her to the point where she thinks something is wrong with her, where she comes to the
point that she thinks that she ought to be committed. She’s been “gaslighted.”
That’s the way it is today: If we oppose what’s evil, they
make us think that there’s something wrong with us, not them.
That’s the real inversion. The real inversion is what Isaiah
wrote: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for
light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
On May 27, 2015, Vice President Joe Biden was a spokesman
for this inversion when he, advocating same-sex marriage, called it “progress,”
and said, “I continue to believe that in every corner of the world, people want
to do the right thing. “
No, according to the Bible, people in every corner of the
world want to do the wrong thing. (Romans 1; Eph. 2:2-3) Progress? No, it’s a
regression back to Sodom and Gomorrah and to the Canaanite immorality.
But according to our own vice-president, if we oppose same
sex marriage, then there must be something wrong with us we’re not for
“progress,” and we’re not with the rest of the world which wants to do the
right thing.
We’ve been “gaslighted.”
That’s the inversion we’re seeing. In a society that’s
rotting, the Bible-believing Christian is now declared the deviant!
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Mike Halsey is
the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible
Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of
Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both
available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of
the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like
to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical
teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at
michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship
Journal."
Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org
Also:
Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582
Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org
Also:
Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582
[1] In
2014, Cinco de Mayo (or the nearest Friday, anyway) happened to be the biggest
non-winter drinking day of the year, and it's in the top five drinking holidays
in America in general.
[2] In
Bernini's time the word "rape" signified "kidnapping;”
our English word comes from the Latin, “rapere,” which means to “snatch away,”
“to carry off,” thus, the sculpture represents the kidnapping of Persephone.
