Faith, Family & Freedom: Part 21‏ of 21

Good day friends!

Welcome back.

In the realm of ideas and their consequences discussed in this series, I though I'd close our 21 week journey with a commentary from legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey. Mr. Harvey had a unique gift of explaining the important issues of our day with clear and concise accuracy. In an article entitled "If I were the devil," he shared his wit:

If I were the devil...

 

"If I were the devil I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. I’d have a third of its real estate and four fifths of its population. But I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree...

 

So I’d set about however necessary, to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first. I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, “Do as you please.” To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them that man created God, instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is square. And the old I would teach to pray after me, “our father which art in Washington...”

 

And then I’d get organized: I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies, and visa-versa. I’d peddle narcotics to whom ever I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves; churches at war with themselves; and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

 

If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellect, but neglect to discipline emotions; just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

 

Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing; I’d have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls—and church money.

 

If I were the devil I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

 

If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want it, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich.

 

I would caution against extremes, and hard work, and patriotism, and moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned—that swinging is much more fun. That what you see on TV is the way to live. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure.

 

In other words, if I were the devil I would keep things just the way they are."

 

Paul Harvey, March 16, 1993

In this final segment we will investigate the last of our radical "Hall of Fame" inductees. This man was the founder of one of the most destructive organizations that our Constitutional Republic has been forced to endured.

Thank you for taking this journey with me. Enjoy the last edition in this series!

"Faith, Family & Freedom: Our American Values Under Fire"

Roger Baldwin

(1884-1981)

“The most effective humanist organization for destroying the laws, morals, and traditional rights of Americans has been the ACLU. Founded in 1920, it is the legal arm of the humanist movement, established and nurtured by the Ethical Cultural Movement.”

I didn’t make that up. David Noebel and Tim LaHaye, two of America’s most perceptive observers of contemporary culture, demonstrate it clearly in their excellent book, Mind Siege. The history and practices of the American Civil Liberties Union substantiates the conclusion that the organization has been a leader in undermining our constitutional liberties. But what motive would inspire anyone to want to destroy America’s free society? One hint is the founder’s choice of office location. On January 20, 1920, Roger Baldwin established the ACLU’s first office, set up in New York City in space shared with the American Communist Party’s tabloid, New Masses.

Other hints are discovered among Baldwin’s co-horts. John Dewey – Part 6’s “father of modern education” in America – signed the Humanist Manifesto I, was a board member of the American Humanist Association, helped establish the League for Industrial Democracy, and assisted Baldwin in founding the American Civil Liberties Union. Another co-founder, William Z. Foster, had previously served as the head of the Unite States Communist Party. Baldwin, Dewey, and Foster set the tone for what the ACLU would become, and today, where there is an attack on religious liberty, you can bet the ACLU is involved either directly or indirectly.

As with most things communist, Baldwin’s organizing began like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. Historian George Grant reports in The Family Under Siege:

In 1920 Baldwin also launched the Mutual Aid Society to offer financial help to leftist intellectuals, trade unionists, and the radical fridge. Baldwin also started the International Committee for Political Prisoners to provide counsel and support to anarchist and communist subversives who had been deported for their criminal activities. He helped to establish the American Fund for Public Service – with two million dollars donated by Charles Garland, a rich young revolutionary from Boston – in order to pour vast sums of money into revolutionary causes. And finally, he developed close institutional ties with the Communist movement and the Socialists International.

The mainstay of the organization’s activities, eradicating religious freedom is only part of the ACLU agenda. Here is a list of “liberties” the ACLU strives to legitimize in America:

• Child Pornography
• Abortion on demand
• Tax exemptions for Satanists
• Totally legalized drug use
• Mandatory sex education for all grades
• Prostitution
• Gambling
• Giving gays and lesbians the same legal benefits married people have
• Letting homosexuals become adoptive and foster parents
• Unconditional legal protection for flag-burners
• Greater benefits for illegal aliens and homosexuals who want to enter the U.S.

And the list of liberties the ACLU opposes? Pretty much everything conservatives support:

• Prayer in public school classrooms (as well as in locker rooms, sports arenas, graduation exercises, courtrooms, and legislative assemblies

• Nativity scenes, crosses, and other Christians symbols on public property

• Voluntary Bible reading in public schools, even during free time after class

• Imprinting “In God we trust” on our coins

• Access for students in Christian schools to any publicly funded services

• Accreditation for science departments at Bible-believing Christian universities

• The posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms or courtroom

• The words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance

• School officials searching students’ lockers for drugs or guns

• Requiring people on welfare to work in exchange for their government aid

• Tax exemptions for Christian churches, ministries, and other charities

• Rating movies to alert parents about sex or violence

• Home-schooling

• Medical safety regulations and reporting of AIDS cases

• Public pro-life demonstrations

• Laws banning polygamy

Lest you think there is even the slightest undue conservative bias in my assertion that the ACLU has been one of America’s most liberal and dangerous organizations from the get-go, consider the results of an investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on Communist Activities in the United States within the first dozen years of the ACLU’s existence. On January 17, 1931, the committee reported:

The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90 percent of its efforts are on behalf of communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly, but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to attempt to protect the communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag by a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each state by the Federal Constitution.

Nearly four decades later, investigators from yet another source were still coming to the same conclusion. A police undercover agent, David D. Gumaer, revealed in 1969 that 206 past leading members of the ACLU had a combined record of 1,754 officially cited Communist front affiliations… The present ACLU Board consists of sixty-eight members, thirty-one of whom have succeeded in amassing a total of at least 355 Communist front affiliations. That total does not include the citations of these individuals which appear in reports from the Senate International Security Subcommittee.

Despite the clever name of the organization, “civil liberties” was never Roger Baldwin’s real goal. In fact, Baldwin was so committed to his radical liberalism that he was willing to use the power of the governmental tyranny to “suppress” the masses and bring his worldview to bear:

When the power of the working class is once achieved, as it has been only in the Soviet Union, I am for maintaining it by any means whatever. No champion of a socialist society could fail to see that some suppression was necessary to achieve it.

As for his atheistic, communist worldview, Baldwin, by his own admission, was no “innocent liberal.” His strategy was precise:

I joined. I don’t regret being part of the Communist tactic, which increased the effectiveness of a good cause. I knew what I was doing. I was not an innocent liberal. I wanted what the Communists wanted and I traveled the United Front road to get it.

So there you go. Roger Baldwin – the father of the ACLU and acclaimed liberal – admits he is a communist, and a communist by definition is an atheist and humanist. The American Civil Liberties Union is not about liberties. It’s about communism, revolution, and oppression! To accomplish his communist revolution in America, Baldwin’s tactics are as true to communism as his underlying philosophy. It is a frightening effective way liberals in general have adopted as the means to achieve their goals – by using lies, deception, and lots of smoke and mirrors:

We want to look like patriots in everything we do. We want to get a lot of flags, talk a great deal about Constitution and what our forefathers wanted to make of this country and how that we are the fellows that really stand for the spirit of our institutions.

While appealing to the Constitution and waving the American flag, Baldwin and company trash the Constitution, defend the right to burn the flag, and persecute genuine patriots in order to achieve their goals. Baldwin outlines his plans:

I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal. It all sums up into one single purpose – the abolition of deg-eat-dog under which we live.

The approach has been stunningly successful. Despite Baldwin’s hatred for the U.S. Constitution, America, God, private property, the free enterprise system, and freedom of religion, in 1981, then-President Jimmy Carter (a Democrat in case you’ve forgotten) gave Baldwin the Medal of Freedom – our nation’s highest civilian honor! Fortunately, not everyone is blind to the ACLU’s true intent. Mark Campisano, former Supreme Court clerk for Justice William Brennan, asserts:

An accounting of the ACLU’s case load suggests that the organization is an ideological chameleon – that beneath the protective coloration of civil liberties, the ACLU is pursuing a very different agenda – a very liberal agenda.

In concluding this review of the Roger Baldwin legacy, I’ll add that – besides fronting for communism, undermining American ideals, and crusading relentlessly against the freedoms we hold dear – the ACLU also shows a vile level of bad taste in the causes it celebrates. In 1978, it rabidly defended “the right of American Nazis to march through a predominately Jewish suburb of Chicago.”

So, may I submit to you my suggestion for an alternate name to go with the initials ACLU? It may help you to remember the organization’s real agenda: American Communist and Leftist Union.

Sources:

Tim LaHaye and David Noebel, “Mind Seige” (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 2000)

Grant, “The Family Under Siege”

Stephane Courtois, “The Black Book of Communism,” (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999)

Brannon Howse, Grave Influence (Worldview Publishing, 2009)

Wise Fools? No, Just Fools…

Romans 1:22 says that “professing to be wise, they became fools,” which is to say they became vain, useless, and futile in their thinking. This clearly describes Karl Marx, John Dewey, John Maynard Keynes, Aldous Huxley, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, and the other radicals we’ve discussed in this series. Among these “leading intellectuals” are child molesters, drug users, family deserters, and at least one who went insane, but the flood of their combined thinking overwhelms much of what we treasure in America today.

Pastor Martin Niemoller was one of some 800 pastors who tried to stop Adolf Hitler. After surviving a concentration camp, he said that if the 14,000 evangelical pastors in Germany had merely stood up to Hitler’s ungodly regime, the numbers of dead might have been as little as 10,000 instead of 11,000,000. A few men and women can make a very big difference. Yet I fear America’s days are numbered because most do not understand – much less expose – the worldviews of those who control us from their graves.

People who share the worldviews of these enemies of our constitutional republic and Biblical worldview do not want their agenda and its consequences to be revealed. Above all, they do not want us to equip and train our children and grandchildren with a Biblical worldview by which to recognize, reject, and fight against their seductive and destructive lies. But enough courageous Americans can still make a difference. They have at many other times in history and in many other places today.

Our ultimate measure of success lies not only in the legislation passed or in the character of representatives we elect. It consists, rather, in how well we fulfill the Great Commission. The culture war neither defines us, nor sets the standard for our success or failure. If we’re ready for this spiritual battle, we’ll stand a better chance of keeping the faith, proclaiming the truth, standing firm for our family, holding to our convictions, and enduring till the end. We must understand the times and know what God would have us do and occupy until His return.

So please join me in making this the finest hour for America!

God Bless ~

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You.  For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. - Psalm 9:10

Blessings on your success! 
Shane <><

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