First they came for Mike Flynn

November 5, 2021
First they came for Mike Flynn, but I said nothing...(at American Thinker)
By Andrew W. Coy

– They came after President Trump, but I said nothing because I did not like his tweets.
– They came after the J-6 protesters who have been locked up as political prisoners, but I said nothing because they seemed a little too "unwashed."
– They came after the Founding Fathers, but I said nothing because they're from an age a very long time ago.
– They came after soccer moms at school board meetings, but I said nothing because my kids are already out of school.
– They came after MAGA Nation, but I said nothing because I considered myself a college-educated moderate.
– They came after the Christians/constitutionalists/conservatives in the military, but I said nothing because I never served in uniform.
– They came after the citizens who carry 2A, but I said nothing because guns scare me.
– They came after the police, but I said nothing because none of my family wears blue.
– They came after the EMS/firefighters/nurses, but I said nothing because I was already vaccinated.
– They came after Christian white heterosexual men, but I said nothing because I'm not a Christian white heterosexual man.
– They came after the Evangelicals, but I said nothing because I don't think of myself as that devout.
– They came after Israel's right to exist, but I said nothing because I'm not Jewish.
– They came after the patriots who said the 2020 election was stolen, but I said nothing because I was scared and intimidated.
– They came after writers, authors, .coms, but I said nothing because I don't read negative news that much anymore.
– They came after the blue-collar workers who actually make things and build things, but I said nothing because the slave-labor goods from China were cheaper.
– They came after the farmers, but I said nothing because I thought "climate change" was real.
– They came after Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn, and Roger Stone, but I said nothing because they can afford their own attorneys.
They came after Governor DeSantis, but I said nothing because I live in Michigan.
– They came after Tucker Carlson, but I said nothing because I don't watch FOX News anymore.
– They came after Coach Jon Gruden, but I said nothing because I don't watch the NFL anymore.
– They came after the unvaccinated, but I said nothing because I had already taken the vaccine (but really a therapeutic).
– They came after the pastors, the priests, and the rabbis (they came after God ), but I still said nothing. Nothing at all. Not one word.

Now they are coming after me. But there's no one left to speak for me, fight for me, and stand with me. I wish I had stood up, spoken up, and fought when this all first started. Now it's too late. Some lessons of history we never learn. Or we learn too late, again.

Christians and politics

Politics for Christians is messy these days. I came across a clear explanation with good footnotes that I recommend. Due to the fractured nature of the church, no Christian will agree with all points. https://www.allaboutworldview.org/christian-worldview.htm, specifically, https://www.allaboutworldview.org/christian-politics.htm
Here's where a Christian world view differs with today's socialists in our government--they teach in our schools and proclaim in their power that because the founders were ordinary, sinful men with flaws, rulers in the 21st century are smarter, more righteous and more spiritual and able to take our God given rights and give them to the government.
"Christian Politics – The Source of Human Rights
Christian politics within a Christian worldview understands God as the source and guarantee of our basic human rights. Because we believe we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), we know that we are valuable. (This becomes doubly clear when we remember that Christ took upon Himself human flesh and died for humanity.) God grants all individuals the same rights based on an absolute moral standard.
The Declaration of Independence proclaims, “All men are created equal... [and] endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Two assumptions are inherent in this declaration: 1) we were created by a supernatural Being; and 2) this Being provides the foundation for all human rights.
The knowledge that human rights are based on an unchanging, eternal Source is crucial in our understanding of politics. If our rights were not tied inextricably to God’s character, then they would be arbitrarily assigned according to the whims of each passing generation or political party—rights are “unalienable” only because they are based on God’s unchanging character. Therefore, human rights do not originate with human government, but with God Himself, who ordains governments to secure these rights.
Our founding fathers understood this clearly.
John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1813, says, “The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved Independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite... And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United... Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God.”2
John Winthrop says that the best friend of liberty is one who is “most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy of his country.”3
Noah Webster wrote “The moral principles and precepts found in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. These principles and precepts have truth, immutable truth, for their foundation.”4
Alexis de Tocqueville says, “There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation on the earth.”5
George Washington, in his inaugural address as first president of the United States, referred to “the propitious smiles of Heaven” that fall only on that nation that does not “disregard the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”6"

Faith of the Founders and the current Congress

There are 204 unique individuals in the group called our "Founding Fathers." These are the people who did one or more of the following:

- signed the Declaration of Independence
- signed the Articles of Confederation
- attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ...
- signed the Constitution of the United States of America
- served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791)
- served as U.S. Representatives in the First Federal Congress

88 or 54.7% were Anglican/Episcopalian, 30 or 18.6% were Presbyterians, and 27 or 16.8% were Congregationalist. 4.3% were Quakers (although not life long) and 3.7% were Dutch Reformed/German Reformed. Others like Lutherans 3.1% and Catholics 1.9% combined to make the founders approximately 100% Christian or Christian influenced. I'm sure there were atheists and agnostics clever enough to keep their views to themselves and were baptized members in name only. The third group's grandbaby is the current United Church of Christ (the Obamas' church) and it describes itself as "Christian, Reformed, Congregational and Evangelical" so the current version rolls some of those together. Protestantism is terribly fluid and confusing, a little like tracing your family tree. Where 2 or 3 are gathered, someone forms a new denomination. The 2nd great awakening came later so there are only 2 Methodists.(Religious affiliations of the founders)

92% of the current 114th Congress is made up of Christians, with Protestants at 57% and Catholics at 31%, so they've made huge strides with only 22% of the population reporting Catholic in faith. As was the case with the signers of our original documents, Congress is much more religious counting Jews (5%) than the general population--with more clergy than the Founders.

Some Christians doubt the high percentage in the current Congress. I don't judge when someone says he/she is a Christian--if we take the word of a Muslim, or an atheist, why not a Christian?. There are too many litmus tests among us Christians. God will judge. The journalists of Charlie Hebdo, hateful, nasty, despiser of all faiths, now know for sure.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/congress-christians-protestants-religion/2015/01/06/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/05/pew-research-christians-congress/21288979/

http://www.adherents.com/adh_congress.html#109

More lies about the Founders—left is working overtime

No, democracy wasn't invented by the Founding Fathers nor the indigenous peoples, who had many cultures and languages. They relied on many sources not only in Europe, but the Bible and all the way back to the Greeks and Romans. No one ever learned the nonsense of this straw man poster misinformation which first tells a lie, then reports to correct the lie. Also, we don't have a Democracy, we have a Republic. The Founders were brilliant men with flaws who knew they stood on the shoulder of giants. We have tiny shriveled gnomes today who don't think, plan or read history, whose ideas are rooted in Marxism and the divine right of kings.

Yes, the archives belong to the victors as we say in the library field, however, we are fortunate to have many original documents, although well hidden and disguised in government schools today. There was a real fascination with everything Indian if you check 19th sources. And if you go back to 16th and 17th c. sources, some Europeans were horrified by the behavior and culture they found--and obviously saw their own culture as superior (although not by our enlightened, humanist standards where we sacrifice the unborn for personal gain but not usually living children).

Religious freedom and the founders

The founding fathers spoke eloquently, passionately, and frequently about the importance of religiously grounded morality to the success of their new republic. They provided governmental aid for religion in a variety of ways. The current effort to exclude religious perspectives and ideals and ensure a naked, ideologically "neutral" public square is at odds with their views, the history of our country, and the well-being of our society--a society that still, in many ways, sees itself as a "nation on a hill." Gary Scott Smith, Christian History, Iss. 102, p. 31.

The founders believed in religious liberty, not in kicking out religion. Fortunately, after Massachusetts and Connecticut set aside state churches, religion, primarily Christianity, flourished and Christians tackled slavery eventually abolishing it, creating public schools for factory children, closing saloons and ridding communities of public drunkenness, creating penitentiaries to replace cruel physical punishments for crimes, demanding rights for women so they could retain custody of their children, establishing the first public libraries, and pushing literacy for all so all could read the scriptures. Now Christians are in the forefront of saving the unborn, in a country that is disparaging marriage with a birth rate below replacement level. We weren't on the wrong side on those other issues, and we're on the right side now.

Bishop John Bradosky speaks at the prayer breakfast

Today all across the nation people met to pray. Our church, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, hosted 2 events, a breakfast at the Mill Run campus and a noon worship at Lytham Road, our original church building where we attend the 8:15 traditional service. I attended the breakfast and Bishop Bradosky of the North American Lutheran Church hit it out of the ball park. He gave a fantastic review of religion in America--the role of the Great Awakening, the beliefs of the founders, how the United States form of government is different than all others, that 94% of the founding documents were based on the Bible, that clergy and pastors had a huge role throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, including the founding of such important universities as Harvard and Columbia, that "separation of church and state" was intended to protect the church from being harrassed by the state, not the other way around by keeping the church out of the public square, and that the change needs to begin not in the White House, or the state house, or the court house, but in the house of God! Wow. We were speechless. He even suggested that we all take a course on the Constitution!! We met in the fellowship hall where on Sundays there are 2 services, so I guess you could say this is the first time in my life I've ever heard a sermon about religion in America from the pulpit of a church where I was a member.

A Charter of Negative Liberties--Our Constitution

Redistribution through the courts--"I'm not optimistic." You can craft a rationale bringing economic change through the courts--the 3 of us sitting here could do it.

Warren Court wasn't radical--didn't break free from constraints of the Founding Fathers. The court didn't say what the federal government must do for you on your behalf. [paraphrased based on listening while scratching my head in disbelief]



People who have attended law school in the last 15-20 years probably will not find anything strange in this radio address, just like people listening to Jeremiah Wright for years didn't notice anything--just sounds normal and patriotic to them. This type of unAmerican, radical thinking is so common among certain classes, they are baffled when Conservatives find it alarming.