Who told you to be offended?

   Social media and the news is flooding with us with reports about people tearing down Civil War monuments of those who fought on the wrong side in the Civil War. I can't scroll very far without running onto another news story or someone posting something about it, usually taking the side that we must tear these monuments down.

 I personally find it all insane. These monuments have been standing for years, and suddenly everyone is offended by them because it is politically correct to find them offensive. The media and liberals are telling everyone how evil they are, and how they must come down..... so like the good zombies people are, they are lining up and being offended because they are told they must be offended.

 On the humorous side, a friend posted this last night on Facebook: "Notice to all: please do not use the one, twenty, fifty or one hundred dollar bills as they have pictures of slave owners on them. Send them to me and I will dispose of them properly." She was joking, but it does raise a couple of interesting questions: is it any worse to have people who owned slaves on our money than it is to have a statue to someone who owned slaves and fought for the right to own them? And the second question: how long before these same people do go after our money and demand that Washington, Jefferson, and the others who owned slaves be taken off of our money? When will the insanity stop? Will they next go after Robert E Lee's house, which is a tourist attraction? Is it any worse to have a statue than to have his actual home?

 I honestly feel this is a non-issue. You cannot erase history. These men are as important to many in the South as Grant, Lincoln, and others are to we in the North. Should statues that offend a small group of people be taken down to appease those people? And why should one group of people be appeased and not others? What about the things that offend me? Am I less important than those offended by these monuments?

Abortion offends me

Cursing offends me

Lady Gaga offends me

Madonna offends me

People treating their dogs like babies offends me

Hillary Clinton, Obama, and Donald Trump offend me

Mornings offend me

I am offended that I have to ask for no mayonnaise and sour cream on thins that come with those

I am offended by women who show parts of their breasts in public

Smoking offends me

BLM offends me

People who want to legalize pot offend me

Rap music offends me.....it being called music offends me

  I could go on, but I don't want to sound as much of a weenie as the anti-monument people. But seriously people, when is it going to stop? It seems weekly there is something new to be offended by, and a push is made to remove it from public eye so someone doesn't get a butt hurt: the Confederate flag (I am tempted to fly one myself, I am so weary of that outrage), monuments, the 10 Commandments on government property, saying "Merry Christmas", and on and on.

 It seems to me that the majority of people being offended by these things are not offended until they are told they should be. Think about it: the media and liberals are usually the ones pushing this insanity. Over and over they say how offensive it is, and gullible people swallow it, get outraged, protest, destroy property, and demand that the offensive items be pulled from the public eye and history.

 Where will it end? I saw a news story where people want a statue of Theodore Roosevelt torn down because he supported slavery. Who and what will they go after next... Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Jesus Christ? What about we who are offended by Margaret Sanger, a woman who was pro-abortion so the black population could be thinned down.......yet is a heroine to liberals, and no one is demanding a bust of her be knocked down that is in the Smithsonian.

 Most of this all boils down to political correctness, and trying to appease a small portion of  the population who is suddenly offended with something that has been around for a long time.

   And don't get me wrong. There are things we should be offended and even outraged about. The murder of innocent babies should outrage us. Planned Parenthood making money off of killing babies and selling their body parts should outrage us. People twisting Scripture and telling gay people God is OK with them having sex with the same gender and they can be gay and Christian should offend us. Injustice should offend us.

   But we shouldn't be too easily offended about so much. Christians especially are not to take offense so easily, but those are parts of the Bible we tend to pass over and not observe. "Yes, but" has become a popular thing for us to say.

   Back to the monuments. The South has as much right to have monuments to their Civil War heroes  as we do in the North to the guys who were on our side. It is all part of history, and tearing down monuments will not change history, nor will it change any racism that still exists today.

 Let's stop being so easily offended, and let's definitely stop letting the media and liberals dictate to us what we must be offended by each day. It is just another way they are dividing Americans.

What's your total worth?

  "So, what is your total worth?" The cashier looked startled for a moment, then glanced down at her shirt where 6 or 7 different price tags resided. She laughed, and said "about $20." I smiled, and asked "is that all?" I walked out of the store with my purchases, still smiling and wondering why she had all of those price tags on her shirt.

   But the thought has stuck with me. What is our total worth? We tend to judge the worth of ourselves and everyone else by outward things. If people hold a steady job, have a nice family, a good marriage, go to church regularly, and are good people....they are worth more in our eyes than the drunk on the corner or the drug addict shooing up another fix.

  I often judge myself harshly and view my worth by a myriad of different things that won't matter in the end. For the last 9 years, I have been living with my parents with most of my things in storage. Most of the time, I didn't have a full time job that paid enough to get my own place, but in the last few years I have.... yet I couldn't seem to find a place. My self worth has been really low..... here I am a guy in my 40's, living with my parents, and having most of what I own in a storage unit. Shame has been a constant companion, and the whispers of "you're hopeless and worthless" play over and over in my brain like an annoying song you can't get out of your head.

 But now things are changing. If all goes well, I plan to move at the end of this month and rent a 3 bedroom house for a very reasonable amount. I am excited and a bit fearful. It has been 11 years since I lived on my own. Life is going to be totally different, and I'll have responsibilities that I haven't had for a while.

 The question arises now, will my worth change? No longer will I be so dependent on my parents. I'll have more bills to pay, all of the housecleaning and cooking will be up to me. I'll have my own yard to mow, my own driveway and walkway to shovel when the evil snow falls. I'll be able to get my books out of the plastic totes where they reside and put them on shelves... many of them for the first time. I can hook up my stereo, and take my CDs out of the crates they are in and put them on the CD racks that are currently in storage.

 I'll still be the same person, but I'll be on my own again..... so will my worth change? You know the answer. It will not. How I view my self worth will most likely change, but the way God views me and the truth of the matter is I am no less or more valuable having my own place or not.

 If we had price tags on us defining our self worth in our own eyes and the eyes of others, the numbers would all too often be in the negative amounts.

 Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the whole world. He viewed all of mankind as worth what He went through so we can have eternal life if we believe. He doesn't sit up there and put different price tags of what we are worth depending on our actions or our financial status in life. To Him, the drug addict or prostitute is worth as much as Mother Theresa or Billy Graham. God can save any of them, and use anyone as much as He has used the two I named.

 A Southern Gospel group I listen to recorded a song several years ago that goes like this:

I must be special, for He paid a special price for me
The One who had it all, gave His all when He died on Calvary
Some may think that I'm not much, but friend they just can't see
That I must be special for He paid a special price for me.



 

Being OK with hate

  Facebook and the news has been full of the events of the weekend in Charlottesville. Everyone is out in full force to condemn the white supremacists. And they should be. What bothers me though, is many condemning their hate, racism, and actions have no issue with the same when it comes from groups like black lives matters.

 I have paid attention since BLM came on the scene. I have watched them destroy property, cheer the deaths of police officers, threaten white people and say all sorts of mean and nasty things about whites......and they get defended. I have called them a hate group from the start, and am more convinced of it than ever. Anyone who disagrees is either deluded, not paying attention, or is politically motivated to ignore the bad.

 Is there racism against black people in our country? Yes, of course there is..... but not as much as the media, Obama, and BLM would lead us to believe. Obama went into office with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas regarding white people. All during his presidency, he screamed racism as often as he could and got involved in as many white on black cases as he could.

 Case in point: Michael Brown. To this day, liberals and a lot of black people believe the false narrative that the police officer shot poor innocent Michael.... even though the evidence showed otherwise that Brown robbed a store, fought the cop for his gun, and charged the cop......but none of that matters. They insist Brown was wronged, and that event had a lot to do with the hate group Black Lives Matters being started.

 Around that same time, a white kid was shot by a black cop in similar circumstances.....and no one cared. No one destroyed buildings and shouted against black people......because it didn't fit the political agenda of Obama, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the liberal media.

 I pay attention to the news, and there is a lot of hate and racism by blacks towards white people. Black people have made threats, called for killing white babies, and all whites. And the media is silent. They don't care about racism and hate aimed at white people, yet find racism and hate towards black people behind every bush and make it front page news.

 Here's the thing: You cannot condemn the white supremacists and support Black Lives Matters. They are two sides of the same coin. Both are guilty of hatred, bigotry, and racism. I read a blog post recently by a black man - read that again - a black man wrote it - and he strongly condemned Black Lives Matters and said a Christian cannot support them. Yet, many white people condemn you if you do not support them.

 I still despise everything about Donald Trump and believe conservatives and Christians in the Republican party lost their minds and morals when they nominated him for the GOP contender for president. I feel he divided the Republican party as Obama divided the country, and is a bully who has said a lot of mean and cruel things about people. That said, I don't believe the events of this weekend can be laid at his feet. He may have helped it along by his rhetoric, but those people were what they are long before he ran for president.

 If Donald Trump can be blamed for the events of this weekend, then Obama must be blamed for the hatred, destruction, and racism done by Black Lives Matters and other black people who are set against cops and white people. You cannot hold Trump guilty and give Obama a free pass for all of his hateful rhetoric, anti-Christian, anti-white, and anti-cop comments he made during his presidency.

 If Donald Trump can be condemned for not condemning the events of this weekend harshly enough, then Obama should be condemned for not condemning at all  the destruction, hatred, and racism from Black Lives Matters. ( And no, I am not defending DT. I still don't like him)

 The thing is, it is all about politics. There are people who defend the evil done and said by BLM, who are hotly condemning the white supremacists. And though I know of none personally, there are people condemning BLM who are OK with white supremacists and their actions and hate.

The truth of the matter is, we put blinders on and only care about the issues important to us. There are people condemning things Trump does that Obama did, and they were OK with it from him. There are people who condemned Obama for things they are OK with in Trump.

 As Christians, we should oppose all racism, not just what our political party tells us to oppose....whether it be against blacks, whites, Chinese, or martians. We should oppose destruction and hate speech from any group, not just ones we oppose because of politics.

 I firmly believe no true Christian should support Black Lives Matters OR the white supremacists. To support either, is to be OK with the hatred and racism of that group. And we should never, ever be OK with that.

 **And yes, I know there are likely some people in BLM with legitimate complaints and concerns, but they are drowned out by the voices of hate, racism, and those making insane demands that are special treatment, not equal treatment.