by Al Benson, Jr.
On several occasions I can remember my pastor at church saying that if you are not making someone mad then you aren’t doing anything. He has a valid point. If you are at peace with “the world” and no one has any gripe with anything you do or say, then you are a friend of the world and, biblically speaking, that is an unenviable position to be in.
Christians make people mad because they have the temerity to tell people the truth and all people do not relish truth. Some would rather live with lies and giving them the truth ticks them off. So I reckon this article will tick some folks off.
Years ago, when I was in the John Birch Society there were folks that said we had three enemies—liberalism, socialism, and communism. Or to put it more succinctly liberalism=socialism=communism. One is merely a progression to the next. The John Birch Society was anathema to the religious and political left. They detested it with unexcelled passion. They still do. Why? It’s because the JBS tells people the truth about them and they don’t want the American public as a whole to know that truth—yet they can’t dispute it, so what do they do? They smear the JBS with a lot of unfounded accusations which they hope will take people’s minds off the real truth and refocus them on the spurious accusations. Thisis an old Communist tactic—condemn others and elevate yourself. It often works, but not quite as much as it used to. Thanks to the Internet, lots of people have had the chance to see “other options” when it comes to news and commentary and they have picked up a certain amount of discernment regarding what I laughingly refer to as the “news” media.
About twenty years after my initial involvement with the JBS I started to become involved with the Southern Heritage and Confederate Movements. You may think the two are mutually exclusive, and I didn’t make any real connection until I found that those who hated the Southern Movement were, guess who? Liberals, socialists, and communists. So why did the religious and political left hate the Southern Movement? Same reason they hated the JBS. The Southern Movement told the truth about the real reasons for the War of Northern Aggression and about Abraham Lincoln, who was and is a major icon of the left. To find out why, read Lincoln’s Marxists which is available on Amazon.com The truth about Lincoln and the War rattled the left’s cage. The public has, for generations now, been “educated” to believe the War was all about slavery and nothing else. This has been the establishment line for decades now (and I include the establishment as part of the liberal/socialist coterie). To state that such a line is balderdash is only repeating myself.
The liberal/socialist/communist triad absolutely loathes the South, its real history and heritage. All you have to do to prove this is to check out the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center. This will give you a thumbnail sketch of where the left is really coming from in regard to the South and its history. The SPLC is big on hate groups—a “hate group” being anyone that disagrees with their leftist slant on anything. Their take on Southern history is strictly barf-bag material but you’d be surprised at how many “journalists” quote them as a “reliable” source on Southern bigotry or prejudice or whatever other sins the South happens to share with the rest of the country.
All these liberal/left groups use every opportunity to trash the South and its people and they absolutely detest Southern history and Confederate symbols. But if you look at where they are coming from, the reason becomes obvious. The South has been more Christian in its worldview than most of the rest of the country since well before the War of Northern Aggression and the left hates Christianity. They always have, and the reason is that they are in rebellion against God and His law, which they seek to replace with their own “god” (the state) and their “law” (Marx’s “ten commandments” as found in the Communist Manifesto).
The leftists reserve some of the bitterest of their vehemence for Confederate symbols and flags. These, we are dutifully informed, are all symbols of “racism” (a Trotskyite term), prejudice, bigotry, and you name it. Southern whites, we are told, are responsible for every ill in the world from sunspots to the blind staggers. It’s all “whitey’s fault” (all the better to get reparations out of you, my dear) and Southern whites are supposed to feel guilty for, literally, all the sins of mankind, which others committed only because white folks forced them into it. And to absolve ourselves from these heinous sins we have only to cross their palms with silver—again and again and again.
So what are these horrible Confederate symbols that need to be taken down and relegated to the attic or trash heap? Well, there is the well-known Confederate battle flag, which is a Christian symbol, the Cross of St. Andrew. We have to get rid of that because the KKK has used it. If that’s the case, then lets get rid of the United States flag also, because it is a known fact, for those that have done the homework, that the KKK used the United States flag extensively in parades and assemblies. So it would seem apparent that if one is “racist” because it is used by the KKK, then shouldn’t the other be also? There are several other Confederate flags that must be “racist” simply because they are Confederate. There is Polks Battle flag for the First Corps of the Army of Tennessee. It has a St. George’s Cross on it—another Christian symbol. Then there is the battle flag for Confederate troops from Missouri, which is a blue flag, with a red border, with a white Christian Cross on it. Then the 3rdKentucky (Confederate) Infantry flag has a Christian Cross with 13 stars in it, and Major General Dabney Maury’s Headquarters Flag is yet another one with a Christian Cross on it. There are others I could mention, not as well known, but yet still containing Christian symbols. All these flags, supposedly “racist” reflect, to some extent, the worldview of the Confederate States.
I submit that this is really what the leftists want to get rid of—any Southern flag or symbol that reflects the South’s Christian heritage. That’s what they really hate—any kind of Christian symbolism, especially Southern Christian symbolism. Anyone who has read anything about the liberal/socialist/communist cadre realizes that they regard Christianity as one of their main foes, to be either neutralized or gotten rid of any way possible. The left really has no problem with racial prejudice or bigotry. They practice it just as much as anyone else does, only they don’t want to be perceived as being guilty of it so they point the accusing finger at others who may not even be as guilty of it as they are. After all, it was Karl Marx who, condescendingly referred to Jewish people as “Jewish Niggers.” That was Marx’s term, not mine and I have seen him quoted more than once using that term. No, the leftist’s real problem isn’t with racial prejudice—it’s with Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, because they realize that even a sleeping Christian church has the potential of becoming their biggest adversary should something awaken it in the future. And Southern Christians could end up being the biggest adversary of all because even with their faith having been tampered with and watered down, they are still the people in the part of the country where the Christian worldview remains the strongest.
You have to give the liberal/socialist/communist group credit. They at least recognize their Main Enemy. The question is—will the Church wake up and recognize one of hers?
When news of Pender’s death circulated through the army he had left behind, the universal response was grief tinged with regret. Everyone who knew him, and many of those who only knew of him, realized that the Confederacy had lost one of its ablest and, at the same time, one of its most promising officers. Pender’s achievements were well known; in time they would take on almost legendary proportions. Yet his loss was made more painful by the widespread belief that when he went down, greater things lay in store before him. He had transitioned easily from regimental to brigade to divisional command. There was no doubt in the minds of Lee or any of his senior subordinates that Pender was destined for fame and glory as a Corps commander, if not a higher position.