The Hobbit Chapter 10 – A Warm Welcome Bilbo and the dwarves are floating along in barrels – on and on and on and on they go. But in spite of being doubted, the town ahead is just what they needed. Meanwhile, Gandalf has received word that they are in trouble. Ray picks the story up at this point.
What Not To Do And What To Do When Someone Is Grieving
I’M HEARING SO MANY SAD TALES OF WOE FROM EVERY SECTOR OF SOCIETY. STRANGE THAT I CHOOSE THIS LINE OF THOUGHT PRESENTLY, IN 100+ DEGREE CA HEAT, IT IS DIFFICULT TO MUSTER COMPASSION FOR THE FOLLOWING LADY’S DILEMMA AND CAN ONLY FEIGN COMPASSION. BUT IN JANUARY, IF YOU WERE IN AK, MI, MN, WY, EVEN TAHOE, AND SUCH WINTRY LANDSCAPE, YOU’D IDENTIFY WITH HER CONCERN FOR THE CHILDREN. THUS, SEE THE ANSWER TO HER INQUIRY TOTALLY EVADES HER SERIOUS PROBLEM... ds
Tim Gustafson writes; In desperation, a woman called the housing assistance center where I worked. A heating problem had turned her rental home into a freezer with furniture. Panicked, she asked me how she would care for her children. I hurriedly replied with the scripted official response: “Just move into a hotel and send the landlord the bill.” She angrily hung up on me.
I knew the textbook answer to her question, but I had completely missed her heart. She wanted someone to understand her fear and desperation. She needed to know she wasn’t alone. In essence, I had left her out in the cold.
Donna and I again watched a taped program of a husband/wife country singer duo, Joey and Rory Feek, she having died a difficult cancerous death, leaving behind a precious baby. Well meaning people trying to console Rory by relating Joey’s happiness in heaven, no more pain, and that they will see each other again, soon. All that is correct but the natural human state longs for her presence here and now.
After Job had lost everything, he had friends with answers but little understanding. Zophar told him all he needed to do was live wholeheartedly for God. Then “life will be brighter than noonday,” (11:17). That counsel wasn’t well received, and Job responded with scathing sarcasm: “Wisdom will die with you!” (12:2). Aware the dissatisfying taste of textbook answers to real-world problems. It’s easy to be critical of Job’s friends for their failure to see the big picture. Oh, but how often are we too quick with answers to questions we don’t truly understand?
Oh yes, people want answers, but they want to know we hear and understand.
Before people want to hear what you say, they want to know that you care.
It is fitting, that the oldest biblical book would deal with the most universally experienced human reality—the presence of suffering in the world.
What Not To Do And What To Do When Someone Is Grieving
How And When To Change Your Mind by Milton Gillie How defensive do you get when someone challenges your idea about something? Most people get very defensive at that point. What are they defending? They are defending their paradigm. Milton Gillie has written one of the most important articles I’ve ever read on this subject: How and When to Change Your Mind. Join me now and I’ll share it with you. – Ray
The Grand Weaver: Your Calling Matters by Ravi Zacharias
In this powerful Chapter 3, Ravi will show you how God has designed you personally and individually for a specific purpose. He will also show you what it will take you to discover what that purpose is. Ray will share moments in his own life that God used to bring him to a place where he is now fulfilling his purpose. Ray’s life is a living testimony to what Ravi teaches here. Join him now.
The Grand Weaver: Your Calling Matters by Ravi Zacharias
Who Will Still Be a Presidential Candidate after New Hampshire? (CNN)
This is Ray Mossholder at the Reach More Now news desk in Fort Worth, Texas.
The New Hampshire presidential race has moved to New Hampshire where a lot of lives will be on the line tomorrow as the Granite State casts its primary votes. Chris Christie has said that he will be dropping out of the presidential race if he doesn’t do well in New Hampshire. That may well be true for several others who are candidates today. From CNN, here is an excellent evaluation of the poll numbers until this minute regarding tomorrow’s primary in New Hampshire.
(CNN) On the eve of New Hampshire’s presidential primaries, a new CNN Poll of Polls finds both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are holding on to substantial leads in their respective races, but each faces an opponent whose support is on the rise.
Sanders’ 54% to 40% advantage over Hillary Clinton is down slightly from a 55% to 37% lead in the previous Poll of Polls. No public polling has found Clinton in the lead in New Hampshire since November.
Trump tops the GOP field with 31%, well ahead of Marco Rubio’s 15%. Rubio has picked up four points since the previous New Hampshire Poll of Polls, the biggest change in the averages in the last week. Ted Cruz follows with 13%, John Kasich at 11% and Jeb Bush at 10%. This pack of four — Rubio, Cruz, Kasich and Bush — has been jockeying for second place in the state for some time. The fifth candidate often included in the group, Chris Christie, has generally seen his support dwindle, and now stands well behind, dropping two points in this week’s Poll of Polls to an average of 5%. Carly Fiorina ties Christie at 5% and Ben Carson rounds out the group with 3%.
But the overall wide margins aren’t an indicator that the political world can turn its attentions away from the Granite State just yet. All of the polls included in the Poll of Polls were completed prior to Saturday night’s Republican debate, however, and it remains to be seen how that will impact voters in the final days of the campaign.
Though any candidate would be happy to hold a lead like those held by Trump and Sanders, the polls also indicate large chunks of the electorate haven’t yet finalized their decisions. In the latest CNN/WMUR tracking poll, for example, fully 30% of likely Republican voters said they hadn’t yet decided whom to support, as did 16% of likely Democratic voters.
It’s worth noting that many of the polls included in this week’s update to the Poll of Polls are tracking polls, meaning interviews are conducted daily and each release includes results from the previous three or four days of interviews, dropping out the oldest day and tacking on the most recent day as a replacement. In those cases, only the most recent release from each poll is used in the average, so that no set of daily interviews is counted more than once in the average.
Though the outcome of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary is by no means certain, one thing we can tell you for sure: Pollsters have been very busy.
About a week ago, CNN’s final Poll of Polls in Iowa covered five polls spanning 11 days, and the updated New Hampshire Poll of Polls rolled up five polls covering nearly two weeks. A new update to the Poll of Polls in New Hampshire covers just five days, yet includes seven polls, and those are only the ones that meet CNN’s polling standards.
The New Hampshire presidential primary is a special case for pollsters, and tends to attract more polling than other primary states. Compared with Iowa, where low-turnout caucuses mean that finding actual caucusgoers can require tens of thousands of calls to adults or registered voters, New Hampshire is a breeze to poll. In years where both parties hold contested primaries, more than half of registered voters in the state typically show up to vote, a rate better than many places see in general elections, let alone primaries. In the 2008 New Hampshire primary, more than 525,000 people showed up to vote in a state with a voting eligible population of right around 1 million. That means the chances of reaching a likely voter with a random sample in the state are pretty good.
New Hampshire is also a notoriously late-deciding state, which means pollsters tend to want to be in the field as close to Election Day as possible rather than risk missing a late swing and look wrong. In that same 2008 contest, a late, wide swing on the Democratic side that went undetected by nearly all public pollsters in the state prompted the polling industry to investigate what went wrong. Though the American Association for Public Opinion Research didn’t settle on one definitive source of the polling error in 2008, their report provides a helpful look at all the things that can go wrong in polling a late-deciding, high-interest electorate.
So what did Iowa’s entrance polls tell us about the landscape in New Hampshire?
For one thing, late-deciders are a real thing in this race. On the Republican side, 35% of caucusgoers said they made up their minds in the last few days, and those voters broke more for Cruz and Rubio than they did for Trump.
On the Democratic side, they showed just how strong Sanders’ support is among younger voters. The Vermont Senator topped 80% support among those under age 30, an almost unheard of level of support. For comparison, in 2008 in Iowa, Obama, whose mobilization of young and minority voters is the goal for many Democratic candidates, netted 57% in that same age group. And this time around, although Clinton garnered higher support among women than among men in all other age groups, among the under-30s there was no gender gap at all, which is obviously bad news for Hillary, at least in New Hampshire.
Who Will Still Be a Presidential Candidate after New Hampshire? (CNN)
Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton Has Had A Meltdown (ESPN)
This is Ray Mossholder. I watched the entire Super Bowl game and was often startled by the looks on Cam Newton’s face underneath his facemask through almost the entire game. Now from David Newton, who is no relation to Cam of ESPN, here’s a description of what happened at Cam’s press conference following the game:
(From ESPN staff writer David Newton) SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton showed his personality all season with his dabbin’ and dancing.
Many loved him for it. Some criticized him for it.
The 2015 league MVP showed his personality again after Sunday night’s 24-10 loss to Denver in Super Bowl 50 with short answers and an abrupt exit from his postgame news conference.
It wasn’t pretty. The player known for his infectious smile and designer attire answered seven questions with a frown and black hoodie pulled over his head.
It’ll get Newton more criticism than love. But it was raw emotion, just like his dabbin’.
Newton hates to lose, and he wears that emotion on his sleeve as boldly as he wore those Versace zebra-print pants on the trip to California.
It’s not the way Denver quarterback Peyton Manning would have handled the loss. But you can’t contrast Newton with Manning any more for his postgame behavior than you can for their style — on or off the field. They’re different.
Manning is a dropback passer who typically says all the right things. Endorsers love him for it.
Newton is a dual-threat quarterback who can be outlandish and outspoken. He doesn’t always say the right things, but endorsers still love him.
Manning himself said Newton was the future face of the NFL. That face just happened to be sadder than normal on this day.
But what makes Newton so special is his emotion; his passion makes him want to be the best.
You saw that during a Monday practice in training camp last summer at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when Newton and cornerbackJosh Norman came to blows. The two had been jawing at each other for two weeks. Then two plays into a team drill, Norman picked off a Newton pass and began returning it toward the end zone.
Newton did what most quarterbacks wouldn’t dare and chased down Norman. When Norman gave his quarterback a stiff-arm, Newton retaliated.
“Hit me like that and I’ll show you something,” Newton yelled.
At the end of practice, after he had time to calm down, Newton broke down the team. He said one word: “family.”
It was a poignant moment in this team’s development.
Newton didn’t have time to collect himself on Sunday night. He was rushed to the podium in well under the hour he normally takes to get ready for the media.
Newton had to feel like he let his family down on the biggest stage. He fumbled twice. Denver’s defense recovered the first for a touchdown, and Manning & Co. turned the second into the clinching touchdown.
So Newton was hurting.
On Sunday night he let the world see that hurt, just as he has let the world see him have fun with the Dab. The emotion may be different, but in the end, it’s still emotion.
In 24 hours, or a couple of days or weeks, Newton will feel differently. He’ll be ready to talk about his family and all the good things accomplished this season.
What can’t be lost in Newton’s short answers is he remains the future of the organization. If the Panthers (17-2) are to return to the Super Bowl, it will be because of him, not in spite of him.
Newton showed during a 15-1 regular season in which he threw a career-high 35 touchdowns and ran for 10 more that he belongs among the elite quarterbacks. He showed he can take a group of average receivers to the Super Bowl.
Tight and Greg Olsen said “This can’t turn into the ‘What happened to the Cam Newton? show,’ ”
Olsen reminded that Carolina’s lone touchdown was the result of Newton making two spectacular runs like few quarterbacks in the league can. He reminded that the team had four turnovers and 11 penalties and gave up six sacks. He reminded that the Panthers didn’t take care of the “day one” stuff you learn in training camp.
“It was a collective letdown,” Olsen said.
Newton just chose to show his letdown openly. He’s being criticized for it, but he can’t hide who he is after a win any more than he can after a loss.
You can tell him to grow up, but it’s in part Newton’s childlike behavior that makes him so polarizing.
The words you should pay closest attention to are the ones Newton said when asked what his message was to those he let down.
“We’ll be back,” he said.
And if the Panthers do, Newton will be leading the charge.
Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton Has Had A Meltdown (ESPN)
Super Bowl – end of the first half: Denver 13, South Carolina 7
Denver 13, South Carolina 7, at halftime. What instantly began as a battle between quarterbacks with Denver obviously having the upper hand, has turned into a game of great defensive plays. What will happen in the second half, you’ll have to watch to find out. Join Ray now for an analysis of the two teams.
Peyton Manning will be a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee shortly after his retirement from football. He has been considered one of the best of his generation if not one of the best ever since being drafted number 1 overall by the Colts in 1998. These days Peyton is known for his commercials a well as his play on the field.
Now as hard as I’ve tried, I can’t make the “Nationwide is on your Side” jingle fit those words, but the words of that hymn came to my mind when I read a couple excerpts from the book Manning co-authored by Peyton and his father, Archie.
“My faith has been number one since I was 13 years old and heard from the pulpit on a Sunday morning in New Orleans a simple question: ‘If you died today, are you one hundred percent sure you’d go to heaven?"” Manning writes in his book “Manning.”
“My heart was pounding,” he writes. “The minister invited those who would like that assurance through Jesus Christ to raise their hands, and I did. Then he invited us to come forward, to take a stand, and my heart really started pounding. And from where we sat, it looked like a mile to the front.
“But I got up and did it. I committed my life to Christ, and that faith has been the most important to me ever since.”
He goes on to say “My faith doesn’t make me perfect, it makes me forgiven, and provides me the assurance I looked for half my life ago…I believe, too, that life is much better and freer when you’re committed to God in that way.”
Manning talks about the decision he made to accept Christ as Savior when he was 13 years old
Here are my takeaways from Manning’s story:
1- Blessed Assurance – The life that we live is filled with uncertainty. Things can come up out of nowhere and leave our lives filled with hardships and trials. But when we choose to live for Christ and make Him Lord of our Life, we can have assurance that we will spend eternity with Christ in Heaven. We will be with Him forever and have the joy of worshipping Him, knowing Him and experiencing no more tears, heartache, sorrow or pain. The pastor at the service where Manning made this decision asked the important question for all of us. If we die, do we know for certain that we will go to heaven. Do you believe that Jesus came to die for our sins and defeat death through his resurrection? Have you decided to make him the most important part of your life? If so, you too can rest assured that you will be with Him forever. If not, then I invite you to consider the truth of the Bible and ask God to show Himself to you. He is real, and He has made a way for our sins to be dealt with so we could join Him for eternity. What a Blessed Assurance this is!
Manning knows that he is far from perfect, but his perfect God has forgiven him, and offers the same for each of us.
2- Not Perfect, Just Forgiven – When we make Jesus Lord of our Life, we are not instantly made perfect. We will still sin and hurt people and act selfishly and turn away from His best path for us. But we know that He is with us and will guide us when we ask Him. In Matthew 5.48, Jesus has just taught us to love our enemies. He finishes this thought by telling us to “be perfect as He is perfect”. How can we do that when we are so flawed? We are made perfect my following Him and being “clothed with the robes of righteousness”(Isaiah 61.10) It is not our perfection that saves us, it is Christ’s perfection that saves us. And He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion in the Day of Christ Jesus” We are a work in progress, but His righteousness forgives our sins and makes us unblemished to God.
3- On Your Side – Manning these days is just as known for his Nationwide Insurance commercials as he is for his football. The slogan for Nationwide is “Nationwide is on your side”. As I was thinking about Manning and putting this article together, that jingle stayed at or near the forefront of my mind. And as a summary for Manning’s story and how it connected with me, I was reminded again that “Jesus Christ is on my side”. It is a truth that all who follow Him can know for certain. He fights for us, he comforts us and snatches us to victory from the jaws of our defeat. May that song echo in your mind longer than the Insurance company. “Jesus Christ is On your side”
Other great football players on the Denver Broncos are wide receiver and former Pittsburgh Steeler, Emmanuel Sanders
Former San Francisco 49er Tight end Vernon Leonard Davis
and former Dallas cowboy outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware
Denver Bronco’s Quarterback Peyton Manning is headed for the Hall of Fame
Christian Panthers, Jonathan Stewart and Thomas Davis Sr
If you watch Super Bowl 50, you’ll be sure to see these two playing hard for the Carolina Panthers, Jonathan Stewart and Thomas Davis Sr. Their testimonies for Christ are awesome. Join Ray for their story now.
Christian Panthers, Jonathan Stewart and Thomas Davis Sr
Many Republican Candidates Will Be At Their Last Debate Tonight
This is Ray Mossholder with a timely article by David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post
CONCORD, N.H. — Donald Trump will return to the presidential debate stage tonight in New Hampshire — trying to reclaim his front-runner status and momentum after a surprise loss in Iowa earlier this week.
Tonight’s debate, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Eastern time on ABC, is the last one before Tuesday’s crucial New Hampshire primary. Trump, who skipped the debate before the Iowa caucuses because of a feud with Fox News, is still ahead in this state’s polls.
“So many things to say, so much at stake,” Trump tweeted yesterday. He didn’t make it to New Hampshire to campaign on Friday, as planned, because of a snowstorm. “It will be an incredible evening!”
Trump will be returning to a different race — and an emboldened group of challengers. Iowa proved, after all, that the race’s bombastic front-runner could be beaten.
Tonight Trump is likely to face new attacks from Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), the winner in Iowa, who has been mocking Trump for what Cruz calls “Trumpertantrums.” Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), the third-place finisher in Iowa, is also closing the gap between himself and Trump in some New Hampshire polls.
But Rubio could face serious attacks from a group of three other “establishment” candidates who see him pulling away from them.
“This isn’t a student council election, everybody. This is an election for president of the United States. Let’s get the boy in the bubble of the bubble,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said this week, lambasting Rubio as a media creation, too young and too inexperienced to be president.
Christie — along with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida governor Jeb Bush — are all in a desperate situation here. All three had counted on New Hampshire as the state that would launch their campaign. But it can’t launch all of them; each, at least, has to beat the other two.
“I’ve got to beat Jeb and Kasich here, and if I don’t beat Jeb and Kasich here, I have to think long and hard about whether I go forward or not,” Christie said in an interview with The Washington Post earlier this week.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he lost votes to Sen. Ted Cruz in Monday’s Iowa caucus because of rumors he says Cruz staffers spread about him leaving the race. (AP)
But, in the most recent polls, Christie is running behind Rubio, Bush and Kasich. That means Christie will need to make a memorable impression in Saturday’s debate.
In past debates, Christie has sought to stand out with brusque put-downs of other candidates, frequently mocking Rubio and Cruz as congressional gasbags who would rather talk than face hard decisions. On the campaign trail recently, Christie has compared Congress to grade school, saying that senators are told where to sit, what to talk about and when to go to recess.
The good news for all of these second-tier candidates: One-third of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire said that they could change their minds before Tuesday, according to a Suffolk University-Boston Globe poll released Friday.
The seventh candidate in the debate will be retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has little hope of success in the Granite State; New Hampshire has far fewer evangelical voters, Carson’s base in Iowa.
Carson, however, may still have a path forward, aiming at evangelicals in the Southern primaries, but his campaign is showing signs of sputtering. He recently laid off about half of his campaign staff.
Carson might use tonight’s debate to press allegations that Cruz used “dirty tricks” to steal some votes in Iowa. He says Cruz’s campaign misled voters around caucus time by spreading false reports that he was dropping out of the race. In fact, Carson says, he was just heading home briefly “to get some fresh clothes.”
This will be the first GOP debate without an “undercard” preceding it.
Of the four candidates in the last undercard, two — former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee — have dropped out. The other two candidates, former tech executive Carly Fiorina and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, are still in the race. But their poll numbers were so low, they weren’t invited to tonight’s debate.
“The game is being rigged against you–by the political class & the media elites,” Fiorina tweeted in protest. She added the hashtag “#LetCarlyDebate.”
Gilmore, for his part, used Twitter to complain about Fiorina. He was unhappy that she wasn’t asking for him to be included, too.
“@CarlyFiorina is so busy playing the victim, she’s forgotten there r 9 candidates in the race. Let’s stop whining & talk issues #LetThemDebate,” Gilmore tweeted.
David A. Fahrenthold covers Congress for the Washington Post. He has been at the Post since 2000, and previously covered (in order) the D.C. police, New England, and the environment.
Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself,
‘Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.’
– Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)
I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: – ‘No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.
– Mark Twain
The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.
– George Burns
Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
– Victor Borge
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
– Mark Twain
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
– Groucho Marx
My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
– Jimmy Durante
I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.
– Zsa Zsa Gabor
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
– Alex Levine
My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
– Rodney Dangerfield
Money can’t buy you happiness …. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
– Spike Milligan
Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP .
– Joe Namath
I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.
-Bob Hope (who lived to be 100) said
I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.
– W. C. Fields
We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.
– Will Rogers
Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
– Winston Churchill
Maybe it’s true that life begins at fifty, but everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.
– Phyllis Diller
By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he’s too old to go anywhere.
My thanks to my precious friend Dorothy Baker for this most interesting fact. It is from BP’s Fuel For Thought, a website I highly recommend. BP is actually Pastor Brett Petrillo and he runs one of the most interesting Christian websites on the Internet.
“Ice Cream,” “You Scream,” “We all scream for Ice Cream!” I’m sure you’ve heard or participated in that kind of joyful holler. Vanilla ice cream, according to the major ice cream companies, is the number one choice of Americans. But did you know that vanilla ice cream defies the evolutionary theory?
How does it defy it? Ray will tell you right now.
My thanks to my precious friend Dorothy Baker for this most interesting fact. It is from BP’s Fuel For Thought, a website I highly recommend. BP is actually Pastor Brett Petrillo and he runs one of the most interesting Christian websites on the Internet.
VANILLA ICE CREAM DEFIES EVOLUTION ………
Nearly everyone has enjoyed a yummy bowl of vanilla ice cream.
It is a wonderfully delicious desert. However, vanilla ice cream wouldn’t even exist if
evolution were true.
Let’s start out with a little history.
Until more recent times, Mexico was the only producer of vanilla.
In the 1520s, a man by the name of Hernán Cortés traveled
down to Mexico and loved vanilla. So, he brought some back
with him to Europe. For the next 300 years, the Europeans
tried but were never able to produce vanilla.
See, vanilla grows up a tree as a vine. Eventually the vine
produces an orchid. In order to make the vanilla bean, the
orchid must be pollinated. The problem is, it only blooms one morning per year for
pollination. If it isn’t pollinated within
12 hours, it withers. To make things more difficult, a hood like membrane covers the part
of the vanilla orchid which produces pollen. This makes the production of the vanilla
bean very difficult.
In 1836, Charles François Antoine Morren traveled down to
Mexico to figure out why they weren’t able to produce vanilla
beans in Europe. As Morren was studying the vanilla orchids,
his attention was drawn to a little bee (the Mexican Melipona
Bee). This bee landed on the orchid, lifted up the little hood
like membrane, collected pollen, and then flew off to the next
flower. This bee was pollinating the orchids.After some time,
the orchid produced a vanilla bean.
To this day, the Mexican Melipona Bee is the only insect that
knows how to pollinate the vanilla orchid. This simple fact puts evolution in an extremely
difficult position. Without the Mexican Melipona Bee, we simply would not have vanilla
today. The bee
and the vanilla vine had to be made at the exact same time. Not
to mention, this bee had to be given specific information about
how to pollinate the vanilla orchid. Again, no other insect
knows how to do this. This bee had to be made, designed,
and purposefully created to pollinate the vanilla orchid, and
thus, produce vanilla.
So much of our world points to the Creator. As silly as it
sounds, even vanilla ice cream proclaims the glory of God.
So, the next time you sit down to enjoy a full bowl of vanilla ice cream, remember that you are enjoying a tasty treat which is
What Was The Real Reason Donald Trump Skipped The Iowa Debate?
The media by and large would like you to believe the reason that Donald Trump refused to take part in the Iowa debate was Megyn Kelly who the Donald refers to as a “Bimbo”. But there was a far deeper reason for Mr. Trump’s absence. What was it? Ray will tell you know as he shares the answer from WND.
What Was The Real Reason Donald Trump Skipped The Iowa Debate?
Donald Trump Goes Rogue During Iowa Debateyears, who is
What was the Donald doing while his fellow candidates were debating? He was raising a carload of money for America’s veterans. Two of the candidates in the early debate came to his rally to help raise millions of dollars for our veterans too. Ray will tell you all about it. Join him now.
A little boy of ten was heard to say to his father at his mother’s funeral, “Maybe she was an angel and God just loaned her to us for awhile.” People in many parts of the world still say that today about Vonnette Bright who went home to be with the Lord and to be reunited with her husband Bill on December 23, 2015.
One of my closest forever friends is a former high school student of mine who I had the joy of directing in many plays. His name is Jim Delarme. Jim is the brother of Grace Stoddard who was Bill Bright’s personal secretary for a number of years. Jim wrote me about a couple of memories among the multitude of memories that he has about Vonnette. Jim wrote:
I VERY much recall Vonette Bright !! Vonette was from Minnesota I believe, a wonderful and VERY gracious special woman. She once kidded me when i asked as a teen. about the Campus Crusade “cabin” at LAKE MEARS…some mile or less away from Forest Home Christian Conference center in the Southern California Mountains above forest falls California. We we were all headed there to spend a couple days,we were riding in the same car…I was just about ready to bundle up and get tough…but asked Vonette how “rustic” the “cabin was”…she said to me ..”.well jim you could just about SPIT between the logs,” but when we arrived I saw a VERY well equipped quite modern “cabin” with all the amenities of a NICE home.
Vonette and I were working together in the large garage at 110 stone canyon dr…on SUNSET blvd.across from UCLA, we were BOTH working up a sweat handling boxes and other stored things, she stops and tells me ” I have to go in (NO cell phones in 1959,1960) and check if my BABY is Born yet”…well for a 16-17 year old kid I was worried that I had worked her TOO hard on her ” day of delivery”…and She sure seemed ENTIRELY too agile,slim, cheerful,and spontaneous for a BRAND NEW MOM !!
When she later told me it was a wonderful and precious adoption..and that She was not the birth mother, but ECSTATIC , tearful and DELIGHTED to “be a new MOM”, I understood.
That “Baby” grew to be a GREAT man whose name was Bill Bright, who like his brother, was nurtured and grew up in the wonderful family of a famous former CANDY Baron.. who then turned out to be a HIGHLY respected famous ambassador and teacher, and EVANGELIST for CHRIST…as did VONETTE. Bill Bright founded the famous “Campus Crusade For Christ ” ministry,with chapters on MANY MANY college campuses both nationally and internationally.
Yes I remember HER !
How co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ came to know Jesus
By Mark Ellis
Vonette in college
Vonette Zachary grew up thinking she was a Christian, she maintained high moral standards for herself in college, but there was one thing she lacked – a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The eldest of four children, she grew up in a happy, quintessentially American home in Coweta, Oklahoma.
Her church background motivated her to strive for goodness and moral purity. But in college, her confidence in Christianity faltered and she began to question her faith.
“My prayers seemed shallow and ineffective. In high school, my major interest centered on church-related activities, but in those early days of college, Bible reading was meaningless. Doubts came, and I was not faithful in church attendance,” she wrote later.
One day after her freshman year in college, she received a letter from a former classmate from her hometown in Oklahoma, Bill Bright. “I remembered him from our school days and was impressed by a speech I had heard him deliver when I was in the seventh grade.”
Bill was establishing himself in business in California, and his stationery read “Bright’s California Confections.” Vonette read the letter several times before she shared it with her father.
When her father read it, he said, “Well, our hometown boy has gone away and made good. Now he’s going to come home for his bride.”
Surprisingly, she decided not to respond to his letter! “I decided I would not allow William R. Bright to think I was thrilled to hear from him, so I ignored the letter.”
A forgotten letter
Months went by and she resumed her college classes. But as she cleaned out a desk drawer one day she rediscovered the letter.
After she told her roommate about the curious young man from her hometown, the roommate insisted she should write to him.
She hadn’t seen Bill in three years, but she spent that evening writing a 10-page response to his original missive.
“That was the beginning of a beautiful romance in which the correspondence flourished as we began to write daily. I received flowers, candy, a telegram or telephone call every week. My long-distance courtship became the talk of campus. I was truly swept off my feet,” she recounted.
When Bill came to visit, they had a delightful time together and Bill quickly brought matters to a head. “After talking about what had happened in the years since we had seen each other, Bill proposed marriage, and I accepted.”
But soon it became apparent to both that Vonette did not share Bill’s passionate faith in Jesus. “As we continued our relationship over the next three years, many spiritual questions plagued me. Bill had a deep religious faith. He sent me passages of Scripture to read, but they just did not have the same meaning to me as they did to him. He would also ask me to pray about concerns. I began to realize I was engaged to a man to whom Christ meant a great deal, and yet He was not real to me.”
“I decided Bill had become a religious fanatic and that somehow he must be rescued from this fanaticism. At the same time, Bill was beginning to think that perhaps I was not a Christian. He knew he could not marry me until there was a change in my spiritual life,” she noted.
Nagging doubts
When Vonette graduated from college she was already engaged to Bill, but doubts about the relationship continued to plague her thoughts.
Then Bill invited Vonette to travel to California for a Christian conference. “My parents were opposed to me going, even though our engagement had been announced and the marriage was planned for September,” she recalled.
As she walked across the stage to receive her degree, she decided she would accept Bill’s invite to California. “My motive was to save Bill from the influence of those I considered fanatics. Unknown to me, Bill’s motive was for me to find Christ.”
After her arrival in L.A., they went to the college conference at Forest Home, a Christian conference center in the Southern California foothills.
Vonette was surprised to meet many on-fire Christians. “I met young people who possessed a quality of life I had never seen. They vibrantly shared their faith. Their statements annoyed me because I felt that Christianity was something personal that you didn’t freely discuss. I tried to put their comments out of my mind, yet I admired them and liked their quality of life.
Afterward, as they discussed the difference in these young people, Vonette came to the sad conclusion that Bill’s faith was right for him, but it wouldn’t work for her.
“I knew I did not want to stand in the way of his relationship with God, so I concluded that perhaps the best thing to do was simply bow out of his life. At the end of the week, I would return his ring and we would go our separate ways,” she decided.
Henrietta Mears
But he was not ready to give up easily. Bill had a secret weapon in his arsenal – he arranged for Vonette to meet with Dr. Henrietta Mears, the highly impactful and inspirational leader of the 6,000-member Sunday school at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.
“Miss Mears was expecting me, and what I did not know was that the entire staff was praying for me. Miss Mears explained that she had taught chemistry in Minneapolis and that she could understand how I was thinking. I had minored in chemistry in college, so everything had to be practical and logical to me,” she wrote.
Mears told Vonette that God loved her, and if she was the only person in the entire world, He would have done everything He could to make Himself known to her.
“God has a plan and purpose for you that is far beyond anything you can possibly imagine,” she said. “But before you can know that plan and purpose, it is necessary for you to know God.”
Mears said the reason man does not know God is that he is sinful and separated from God. Speak for yourself, Vonnete thought to herself. That doesn’t apply to me. I’ve worked at this business of being a good girl.
Then Mears showed her Romans 3:23: “All have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Mears explained that sin is falling short of God’s perfect standard and breaking His rules for living.
“I had to admit that I fell short of this standard—and even my own standard—many times. Vonette had been striving ‘desperately’ to be a good person.
Next Mears read Romans 6:23: “The wages [result] of sin [falling short of God’s standard] is death [spiritual separation from God], but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Then Miss Mears read John 14:6, where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
Vonette realized that her attempts to live a good life, keep a high moral standard, and attend church fell short. In spite of these things, there was still something missing in her life.
“I admitted that perhaps Jesus Christ was the ‘ingredient’ I was missing. I turned to Miss Mears and asked, “If Jesus Christ is the way, then how can I know Him?”
Mears responded, “In Revelation 3:20 Christ says, ‘Look! Here I stand at the door [entrance to your heart and life] and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.’ Receiving Christ is a matter of turning your life completely over to Him—your will, emotions, intellect. It is as if we walk out of our lives and Jesus Christ walks in. He takes control.”
Vonette suddenly realized that if what she said was true, she had nothing to lose and everything to gain by following Jesus. “I bowed my head to pray and asked Jesus to come in to my heart and take control. At that moment, God became a reality in my life.”
Immediately after she received Christ, God gave her a remarkable dream.
“The picture that came to my mind was one I shall never forget. I was standing in utter darkness on the edge of a diving board. (I do not swim; as a matter of fact, I almost lost my life in a swimming course in college. I passed the course but have not jumped off a diving board since.) In the dream, I did not know whether or not I could swim, but I knew I had to jump—and I found out that I could swim and that God is real! I gave Him all my trust, and He didn’t fail me.”
Vonette began to notice striking changes after she was born again and became a new creature in Christ.
“God’s direction in my life became a reality as I found my strong will and temper easier to control. The Bible
Bill and Vonette’s wedding
became a living Book and a guide for my life. I could not have imagined how the decision I had made would impact the rest of my life, but it has and is continuing to be the greatest influence,” she wrote later.
Bill and Vonette were married a short time later, and their great adventure began.
Soon after the nuptials, Vonette was awakened by Bill with tears streaming down his face. He told her he decided to quit seminary only a month before graduation, sell their yellow convertible and his businesses, and spend the rest of his life telling others about Jesus.
God had given him a vision to launch Campus Crusade for Christ. Still groggy, Vonette said, “Bill, I think you’re overreacting.”
Unsure of this new calling Vonette prayed, If Bill is right, and this is right, I pray that You will give me a heart to respond.
Starting Campus Crusade for Christ
“I sensed an invisible altar waiting somewhere ahead. Gradually, the Lord Jesus answered my prayer and I became willing to put my sacrifices on that altar—my master’s degree, my career, my book manuscript.”
Bill and Vonette’s new ministry was bathed in prayer. “Bill and I recruited everyone we could think of to serve as prayer partners. We worked to fill every [15-minute slot] and have around-the-clock prayer. We wanted to know that someone, somewhere was uniting in prayer for this ministry. Campus Crusade was born in prayer and prayer is still our lifeline.”
Soon the Bright family grew to include Zac and Brad. The ministry grew to campuses across the country and launched internationally. In 1965, Bill wrote a little tract originally called, “Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?”
This small yellow booklet has been translated into more than 200 languages.
Campus Crusade grew to more than 100 countries and launched more ministries like Athletes in Action and The JESUS Film Project.
In 1988, Vonette introduced legislation for the National Day of Prayer, signed by President Ronald Reagan. She
With their sons, Zac and Brad
served on the National Day of Prayer Task Force from 1982 until 1990.
“I know beyond a doubt that God moved upon my heart with the realization that through united, specific and earnest prayer, we can move the hand of God and have a part in helping change the world.”
Thanks to Vonette’s efforts, today tens of thousands of events are held nationwide for the National Day of Prayer.
In 1993, Vonette launched Women Today International and its radio program, now aired on more than 486 stations.
In 2003, after a valiant fight with lung disease, Bill was called home. Vonette carried on their commitment to helping fulfill the Great Commission until she joined her beloved Bill and her awaiting Savior December 23, 2015.
Letter From A Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
What was the thinking in Martin Luther King Jr.? Why was he so effective among the black people he led? Criticized, lied about, threatened, and hated by those that did not want to accept black people at all. Ray will tell you how this one letter played a part in his own life. Ray says “It is a profound letter and pours out of the man with a fully pacifistic heart”. Ray will begin now.
16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against “outsiders coming in.” I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham’s economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants–for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?” We decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham’s mayoral election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: “Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?” The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state’s segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.” Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of “somebodiness” that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro’s frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible “devil.”
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the “do nothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as “rabble rousers” and “outside agitators” those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies–a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent.” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . .” So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some -such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle–have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as “dirty nigger-lovers.” Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful “action” antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: “Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.” In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.” And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South’s beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: “What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?”
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.”‘ But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent–and often even vocal–sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.” I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.
It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather “nonviolently” in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: “My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.” They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr. Published in: King, Martin Luther Jr.
Letter From A Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
