Finding Ourselves

Rit Varriale08.2015Essay Posts675 Comments

This is a time when we should compare and contrast three different tragedies in our nation. The first is the Ft. Hood shooting. The second is the Charleston, SC church shooting. The third is the recent shooting of two reporters in VA. What do all these shootings have in common? Answers: Each of these shootings were horrific events that shocked our nation and each of the shooters were deranged psychos acting alone. No doubt they were acting from an ideological stage, but nonetheless they were acting apart from a larger group. Yet, of the three tragedies, liberals only promoted the Charleston shooting as an indictment of a larger segment of society. Furthermore, the people of Charleston (specifically the people of Emanuel AME Church) provided our nation with the greatest lesson we could have learned – a lesson the liberal media and the current administration chose to ignore. For me, this is a little personal as Charleston is where I went to college. Charleston is where I met my lovely wife. In many ways, Charleston is where I really found myself, but we’ll come back to that in the end.

In the case of the Ft. Hood shooting, everyone knows the shooter was fulfilling a personal commitment to Jihad. Of course, the current administration and the liberal media did everything they could to distance the incident from the larger Islamic community and especially Islamic extremism. We’ve heard all the arguments a thousand times. “This was the act of a lone shooter.” Right… sure. “This was workplace violence.” OK… then why was he yelling, “Allahu Akbar?” “Islam is a religion of peace.” Really? Let’s poll a group of Syrian Christians about that statement. Bottom line… the administration is being led by a bunch of liars and our generals went right along with them.

In the most recent tragedy, the president and the liberal media immediately set out their talking points. You can bet every penny you own that they’re not going make any connections to the racist banter of a black man. No, sir! Black racism doesn’t exist. Nor will they raise any questions or concerns about the stash of sex toys and gay porn found in his apartment. Are you crazy? That definitely had nothing to do with it. There’s no group of people on the planet as intelligent, cultured, and courageous as the LGBTQ community—at least that’s the Hollywood press release from which the President takes his cues. Make no mistake about it, liberals will not attribute this act to a lone wolf. As a matter of fact, you can buckle your political seat belt as the liberals will try to turn this on its head and say this also has to do with income inequality and white privilege.

Yet, the Charleston church shooting was an entirely different matter for liberals. Once the media latched on to a photo of Mr. Roof with a Rebel flag, the incident was no longer an individual act. Rather, the Charleston shooting became an indictment of all Caucasians who reflect southern-pride and/or fly a Rebel flag. Really? Despite the fact that the FBI report revealed that this was a quintessential lone wolf scenario? Nope. Liberals don’t want to hear that nonsense. Furthermore, despite the fact that the Charleston community united in Christ-like love and forgiveness, all the race baiters and self-serving politicians came out of the woodwork to ignore that incredible story and developed their own story line. They wanted you to know this was about the larger issue of white racism and pent-up-civil-war-aggression. Thus, the emotionalism started.

Take down those Rebel flags you bigots! Exhume those Confederate generals from the state house grounds! Change the names of those military bases! Stop selling Confederate paraphernalia at Gettysburg! Sandblast Stone Mountain! All of this activity begged the question; “why?” When was the last time a Confederate group burned a city? Anyone remember Ferguson… just last year? When was the last time a white supremacy group publicly executed someone? ISIS… how about in the past couple of days.

Why does the current administration and the liberal media give a pass to things like radical Islam and black racism, but they mercilessly hammer pre-20^th century sentiments? Answer: Because they have little connection to pre-20^th century sentiments. As a matter of fact, they hate pre-20^th century sentiments. You have to understand that Barack Hussein Obama’s entry point to American life has little to do with pre-20^th century values. Thus, he eschews such values. That’s why the President, a professed constitutional scholar, speaks condescendingly of those who turn to God and guns—two things that were extremely important to early Americans.

In every way—academically, socially, sexually, politically, etc., liberals see themselves as superior to those who have gone before us. That is why they jumped at the chance to pound any positive sentiments toward the Ole’ South right into the ground. You see, to a liberal, the Ole’ South represents white privilege, gun violence, dogmatic theism, and fuddy duddy constitutional state’s rights stuff. Of course, the liberal response is not a correction to any abuses of the aforementioned issues. Rather, liberals exacerbate the problem by promoting minority privilege, financial violence via lawsuits, dogmatic sexism, and a blatant disregard for the U.S. Constitution. For a conservative, the Ole’ South represents God, guns, state’s rights, hard work, self-reliance, and shared community. Which brings me to my last point.

The greatest lesson the people of Charleston (courageously led by the people of Emanuel AME Church) taught us was the power of community. A community that was willing to proclaim first and foremost that Jesus Christ is Lord. A community that refused to focus on skin pigmentation, economics, political affiliation, or the brutal violence of a deranged individual. Rather, they focused on the fact that we are one people. The people of our beloved United States. We are one race. The human race. We have one life to live. Finances won’t matter on your death-bed. We have the power to forgive because we have been forgiven by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the lesson that Charleston taught us. If you want to heal our nation, stop listening to the courts and the politicians and start listening to the pulpits—pulpits that do not pander to politics or public opinion, but pulpits that unashamedly proclaim the truth.

The answer to our social problems is not income redistribution. The tensions of our society will not be alleviated by affirmative action and minority privilege. The problems faced by the LGBTQ community will not disappear because their sexual activity has been legitimized by the courts. The hypocritical silence of the Church on these matters does no service to God or society. Indeed, the answer to all of our problems is found in revival—a revival that must start in the Church and spread to the larger culture. Through the power of Christ, the people of Charleston proved it can be done. Revival can occur. The only question that remains is, “will the Church be willing to stand up and lead it?” If it will, our nation can find in Charleston what I found as a young Citadel cadet… a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ.