Curtis Dahlgren
AMERICA, bless God!
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Behold 'tis the mild idealists who plan our Social Revolutions
And the brutal realists who turn them into executions;
And the first ones on their lists are the Mild Idealists."
—poem from the 60s or 70s, author and title unknown
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WAS ONE OF OUR FIRST "MILD IDEALISTS." Good intentions aside for the moment, Wilson was blessed to live out his life under Freedom instead of under the Revolution that took over Russia during his Administration.
President Carter and Yasser Arafat were Nobel Peace Prize winners, but were Arafat — by some fluke — to have become Dictator-of-the-World, Jimmie Carter might have been one of the first on his "list." A radical thought, but the kind of thoughts we need to be considering in light of continuing treachery in the mainstream media.
Saddam's loyalists and Osama's imported terrorists have delusions of reviving the Arab world empire that peaked somewhere in the Dark Ages, and were they to take over the world, today's journalists and academics would probably be high on their "list" also. Nevertheless, they are shamelessly taking up the cause of the "insurgents" and dumping on Israel, oblivious to the fact that if by some fluke Islamo-TV became the world's only network, the Mild Idealists in the media and education — and even the State Department — would be among the first beheaded or otherwise dispatched.
When "idealism" hits the wall, it's usually the wall in front of a firing squad. Many such "Mild Idealists" who supported the French Revolution were the priests, nuns, and lay people who went to the guillotine, with blood running ankle-deep.
The general idea of the Bolshevik Revolution was supported by some who saw it as an escape from the oppression of non-Orthodox religions — only to see the "brutal realists" impose a campaign of terror on ALL religions.
I remember the day I heard about Castro's victory in Cuba. While the journalists of that time were simply "thrilled," I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Are conservatives just paranoid or is it wise on occasion to listen to their warnings?
Liberal "idealists" ridicule the predictions of "extremist" traditionalists — and then when those predictions become reality, our "Mild Idealists" try to find a way to "spin" it. When there is simply no way to put a positive spin on the outcome, they go totally into denial.
For example, the AIDS epidemic wasn't what they had in mind when they were chanting "Make love, not war" on our colleges and universities, but it was nonetheless one of the many heart-breaking results of their agenda.
And here's another "prediction": those on the Left who religiously believe that mankind is right on the brink of abolishing war and disease and "intolerance" through their attempt to drive all Christian religions underground are sadly mistaken. For one thing, history is not on their side. The Soviet "Union" was a total failure at the very same goal even after 70 years. We have "social science" in the schools now, because they hate history. History teaches us too many lessons that they're not "comfortable" with, and by their hatred for history they are putting their own FUTURE in jeopardy.
SPEAKING OF WOODROW WILSON AND THE "LIVING CONSTITUTION," there are some ominous lines in his book The New Freedom. As the President of a university, he boasted of all the "brains" from all over the world that he was able to "pick" on the subject of societal "evolution." In particular, he spoke of a scholar from Scotland (one of those so-called "Mild Idealists"):
"He called my attention to the fact that in every generation all sorts of speculation and thinking tend to fall under the formula of the dominant thought of the age. For example, after the Newtonian Theory of the Universe had been developed, almost all thinking tended to express itself in the analogies of the Newtonian Theory and since the Darwinian Theory has reigned amongst us, everybody is likely to express whatever he wishes to expound in terms of development and accommodation to environment.
"Now, it came to me, as this interesting man talked, that the Constitution of the United States had been made under the dominion of the Newtonian Theory . . . [The Founders] speak of the 'checks and balances' of the Constitution, and use to express their idea the simile of the organization of the universe, and particularly of the solar system . . . to represent Congress, the Judiciary, and the President as a sort of imitation of the solar system . . .
"They were only following the English Whigs, who gave Great Britain its modern Constitution . . . The trouble with the theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton"[!] — quoted from "Christianity and the Constitution, the Faith of Our Founding Fathers," by John Eidsmoe (Baker Books)
Both explicitly and implicitly, Wilson the "Mild Idealist" was saying that, in so many words, the Founding Fathers were "lost in the 1700s" but that the human race had evolved far beyond such old-fogeyness! And like one of their heroes, today's academics loathe the clear intent of the Constitution. They "rewrite" it by Judicial fiat without bothering with the Amendment process.
AND NEVER MIND IF DARWIN'S THEORY WILL EVEN STAND THE TESTS OF TIME!
The post-modernists are not humbled by earlier failures of much-heralded "theories." They rush in where angels would fear to tip-toe, because their agenda is simply, as Wilson said, "something they WISH TO EXPOUND" [the operative word there is "wish"]. They WANT to believe Darwin and so they apply the theory of evolution to every aspect of life — which in their little minds means silencing the Founding Fathers and producing a secular state that would virtually drive religion of all kinds — given enough time — UNDERGROUND!
A LITTLE HISTORY FROM THOSE "1700s":
"The Bible, through more than 150 years of early settlement in America, remained the base of her people's religious devotion, her education, her colonial government. These Bibles had been shipped from England. Now, suddenly the American Revolution cut off this supply, and the stock dwindled.
"Here was America in its greatest crisis yet — and without Bibles! Patrick Allison, Chaplain of [the Continental] Congress, placed before the body in 1777 a petition praying for immediate relief. It was assigned to a special committee which weighed the matter with great care, and reported:
" . . . 'that the use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great that your committee refer the above to the consideration of Congress, and if Congress shall not think it expedient to order the importation of types and paper, the Committee recommend that Congress will order the Committee of Congress to import 20,000 copies of the Bible.'
"During the session in the fall of 1780 the need arose once more. Robert Aiken, who had set up in Philadelphia as a bookseller and publisher of The Pennsylvania Magazine, saw the need and set about quietly to do something about it. In early 1781 he petitioned Congress and received from them a green light to print the Bibles needed. The Book came off the press in 1782, and Congress approved it.
"So originated the 'Bible of the Revolution,' now one of the world's rarest books." — quoted from "The Rebirth of America," by the Arthur S. De Moss Foundation, 1986.
So much for "the Founders were Deists," "the Founders set up a wall of separation between religious belief and policies of state," etc. So much for "the Constitution is a living document," that is! IF THE CONSTITUTION IS A "LIVING" THING, IT'S WHITHERING ON THE VINE DUE TO JUDICIAL STRANGULATION!
If public school children can now have their Bibles confiscated during recess, and the Ten Commandments can be sand-blasted off the Supreme Court building, there isn't much left of the "living Constitution." It's time for the eulogies, the memories, and the burial.
Remember the famous book and television series "ROOTS"? You ignore your own roots at your own peril. Given the Judeo-Christian roots of this once-proud nation, it's time to put a magnifying glass to the roots of the cultural revolutions of the 20th century before the "brutal realists" take over the execution of our "MILD IDEALISTS" — the high-and-mighty "Moderates"!
If you're one of those "idealists" reading this column, this is for your own good. "Brutal realists" have an eye on you and you're high on their "lists" — and you're on the wrong list! It is in your own self-interest to pray for a return to our ROOTS.
Is this just rhetoric and hyperbole? I DON'T THINK SO!
Politicians used to routinely end a speech with a "God bless America." President Bush changed that to "May God continue to bless America." This is a good thing, because it sounds more like a sincere petition than a "command"!
Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that says, "America Bless God."
GOOD ADVICE!
© Curtis Dahlgren
"Behold 'tis the mild idealists who plan our Social Revolutions
And the brutal realists who turn them into executions;
And the first ones on their lists are the Mild Idealists."
—poem from the 60s or 70s, author and title unknown
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WAS ONE OF OUR FIRST "MILD IDEALISTS." Good intentions aside for the moment, Wilson was blessed to live out his life under Freedom instead of under the Revolution that took over Russia during his Administration.
President Carter and Yasser Arafat were Nobel Peace Prize winners, but were Arafat — by some fluke — to have become Dictator-of-the-World, Jimmie Carter might have been one of the first on his "list." A radical thought, but the kind of thoughts we need to be considering in light of continuing treachery in the mainstream media.
Saddam's loyalists and Osama's imported terrorists have delusions of reviving the Arab world empire that peaked somewhere in the Dark Ages, and were they to take over the world, today's journalists and academics would probably be high on their "list" also. Nevertheless, they are shamelessly taking up the cause of the "insurgents" and dumping on Israel, oblivious to the fact that if by some fluke Islamo-TV became the world's only network, the Mild Idealists in the media and education — and even the State Department — would be among the first beheaded or otherwise dispatched.
When "idealism" hits the wall, it's usually the wall in front of a firing squad. Many such "Mild Idealists" who supported the French Revolution were the priests, nuns, and lay people who went to the guillotine, with blood running ankle-deep.
The general idea of the Bolshevik Revolution was supported by some who saw it as an escape from the oppression of non-Orthodox religions — only to see the "brutal realists" impose a campaign of terror on ALL religions.
I remember the day I heard about Castro's victory in Cuba. While the journalists of that time were simply "thrilled," I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Are conservatives just paranoid or is it wise on occasion to listen to their warnings?
Liberal "idealists" ridicule the predictions of "extremist" traditionalists — and then when those predictions become reality, our "Mild Idealists" try to find a way to "spin" it. When there is simply no way to put a positive spin on the outcome, they go totally into denial.
For example, the AIDS epidemic wasn't what they had in mind when they were chanting "Make love, not war" on our colleges and universities, but it was nonetheless one of the many heart-breaking results of their agenda.
And here's another "prediction": those on the Left who religiously believe that mankind is right on the brink of abolishing war and disease and "intolerance" through their attempt to drive all Christian religions underground are sadly mistaken. For one thing, history is not on their side. The Soviet "Union" was a total failure at the very same goal even after 70 years. We have "social science" in the schools now, because they hate history. History teaches us too many lessons that they're not "comfortable" with, and by their hatred for history they are putting their own FUTURE in jeopardy.
SPEAKING OF WOODROW WILSON AND THE "LIVING CONSTITUTION," there are some ominous lines in his book The New Freedom. As the President of a university, he boasted of all the "brains" from all over the world that he was able to "pick" on the subject of societal "evolution." In particular, he spoke of a scholar from Scotland (one of those so-called "Mild Idealists"):
"He called my attention to the fact that in every generation all sorts of speculation and thinking tend to fall under the formula of the dominant thought of the age. For example, after the Newtonian Theory of the Universe had been developed, almost all thinking tended to express itself in the analogies of the Newtonian Theory and since the Darwinian Theory has reigned amongst us, everybody is likely to express whatever he wishes to expound in terms of development and accommodation to environment.
"Now, it came to me, as this interesting man talked, that the Constitution of the United States had been made under the dominion of the Newtonian Theory . . . [The Founders] speak of the 'checks and balances' of the Constitution, and use to express their idea the simile of the organization of the universe, and particularly of the solar system . . . to represent Congress, the Judiciary, and the President as a sort of imitation of the solar system . . .
"They were only following the English Whigs, who gave Great Britain its modern Constitution . . . The trouble with the theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton"[!] — quoted from "Christianity and the Constitution, the Faith of Our Founding Fathers," by John Eidsmoe (Baker Books)
Both explicitly and implicitly, Wilson the "Mild Idealist" was saying that, in so many words, the Founding Fathers were "lost in the 1700s" but that the human race had evolved far beyond such old-fogeyness! And like one of their heroes, today's academics loathe the clear intent of the Constitution. They "rewrite" it by Judicial fiat without bothering with the Amendment process.
AND NEVER MIND IF DARWIN'S THEORY WILL EVEN STAND THE TESTS OF TIME!
The post-modernists are not humbled by earlier failures of much-heralded "theories." They rush in where angels would fear to tip-toe, because their agenda is simply, as Wilson said, "something they WISH TO EXPOUND" [the operative word there is "wish"]. They WANT to believe Darwin and so they apply the theory of evolution to every aspect of life — which in their little minds means silencing the Founding Fathers and producing a secular state that would virtually drive religion of all kinds — given enough time — UNDERGROUND!
A LITTLE HISTORY FROM THOSE "1700s":
"The Bible, through more than 150 years of early settlement in America, remained the base of her people's religious devotion, her education, her colonial government. These Bibles had been shipped from England. Now, suddenly the American Revolution cut off this supply, and the stock dwindled.
"Here was America in its greatest crisis yet — and without Bibles! Patrick Allison, Chaplain of [the Continental] Congress, placed before the body in 1777 a petition praying for immediate relief. It was assigned to a special committee which weighed the matter with great care, and reported:
" . . . 'that the use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great that your committee refer the above to the consideration of Congress, and if Congress shall not think it expedient to order the importation of types and paper, the Committee recommend that Congress will order the Committee of Congress to import 20,000 copies of the Bible.'
"During the session in the fall of 1780 the need arose once more. Robert Aiken, who had set up in Philadelphia as a bookseller and publisher of The Pennsylvania Magazine, saw the need and set about quietly to do something about it. In early 1781 he petitioned Congress and received from them a green light to print the Bibles needed. The Book came off the press in 1782, and Congress approved it.
"So originated the 'Bible of the Revolution,' now one of the world's rarest books." — quoted from "The Rebirth of America," by the Arthur S. De Moss Foundation, 1986.
So much for "the Founders were Deists," "the Founders set up a wall of separation between religious belief and policies of state," etc. So much for "the Constitution is a living document," that is! IF THE CONSTITUTION IS A "LIVING" THING, IT'S WHITHERING ON THE VINE DUE TO JUDICIAL STRANGULATION!
If public school children can now have their Bibles confiscated during recess, and the Ten Commandments can be sand-blasted off the Supreme Court building, there isn't much left of the "living Constitution." It's time for the eulogies, the memories, and the burial.
Remember the famous book and television series "ROOTS"? You ignore your own roots at your own peril. Given the Judeo-Christian roots of this once-proud nation, it's time to put a magnifying glass to the roots of the cultural revolutions of the 20th century before the "brutal realists" take over the execution of our "MILD IDEALISTS" — the high-and-mighty "Moderates"!
If you're one of those "idealists" reading this column, this is for your own good. "Brutal realists" have an eye on you and you're high on their "lists" — and you're on the wrong list! It is in your own self-interest to pray for a return to our ROOTS.
Is this just rhetoric and hyperbole? I DON'T THINK SO!
Politicians used to routinely end a speech with a "God bless America." President Bush changed that to "May God continue to bless America." This is a good thing, because it sounds more like a sincere petition than a "command"!
Yesterday I saw a bumper sticker that says, "America Bless God."
GOOD ADVICE!
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
