The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

541. POWER OF THE AIRWAVES “Hitler prepared for battle by infiltrating France’s airwaves. Germany hired native-French broadcasters to lure unsuspecting listeners to tune in to amusing radio shows and popular music. Many listeners were oblivious to the propaganda that was subtly included. These radio commentators expressed worry over the German army’s dominance and military strength, and predicted that France could not withstand an attack. The doubt Hitler’s radio programs planted in French minds quickly spread. Edmond Taylor, a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune who lived in France during this period, witnessed Hitler’s intricately choreographed propaganda campaign and how it crumbled France’s resolve. Describing it as a “strategy of terror,” Taylor reported that Germany spent enormous amounts on propaganda and even bribed French newspapers to publish stories that confirmed the rumors of Germany’s superiority. According to Taylor, Germany’s war of ideas planted a sense of dread “in the soul of France that spread like a monstrous cancer, devouring all other emotional faculties [with] an irrational fear [that was] . . . uncontrollable.” So weakened was the confidence of the French that something as innocuous as a test of France’s air-raid-siren system generated ripples of panic; the mere innuendo of invasion somehow reinforced the idea that France would undoubtedly be defeated.

Over 230 million Europeans, once free, fell under Nazi rule.”

Excerpt From: Molly Guptill Manning. “When Books Went to War.”

542. COMPUTER GAMES/SIMULATORS “Artificial renderings of space may provide stimulation to our eyes and to a lesser degree our ears, but they tend to starve our other senses—touch, smell, taste—and greatly restrict the movements of our bodies. A study of rodents, published in Science in 2013, indicated that the brain’s place cells are much less active when animals make their way through computer-generated landscapes than when they navigate the real world. “Half of the neurons just shut up,” reported one of the researchers, UCLA neurophysicist Mayank Mehta. He believes that the drop-off in mental activity likely stems from the lack of “proximal cues”—environmental smells, sounds, and textures that provide clues to location—in digital simulations of space. “A map is not the territory it represents,” the Polish philosopher Alfred Korzybski famously remarked, and a virtual rendering is not the territory it represents either.”

Excerpt From: Carr, Nicholas. “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us.”

543. PRAYER IN SCHOOLS In 1962, the state of New York proposed this prayer for Its schools: “Almighty God we acknowledge our dependence on thee and we beg thy blessing upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.

Excerpt From: Reagan, Ronald. “The Notes.”

544. TIME “Alas! There is no casting anchor in the stream of time!”

— Marguerite Gardiner, 1850

545. PLEASE JUST LISTEN “Many persons call a doctor when all they want is an audience.” — Readers Digest

546. GOOD CONVERSATION “If you want to know how to make people shun you and laugh at you behind your back and even despise you, here is the recipe: Never listen to anyone for long. Talk incessantly about yourself. If you have an idea while the other person is talking, don’t wait for him or her to finish: bust right in and interrupt in the middle of a sentence.

People who talk only of themselves think only of themselves. And “those people who think only of themselves,” Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, longtime president of Columbia University, said, “are hopelessly uneducated. They are not educated,” said Dr. Butler, “no matter how instructed they may be.”

So if you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.”

Excerpt From: Carnegie, Dale. “How To Win Friends & Influence People.”

547. GEN. BRADLEY KNEW “General Omar Bradley was one of the main US Army field commanders in North Africa and Europe during World War II. Later, he was the first officer assigned to the post of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1948, he stated this powerful insight, “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. . . . The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

548. CONTROL YOUR TEMPER “You can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry.” — Bits and Piece

549. PRESIDENTIAL FAITH “No man who enters upon the office to which I have succeeded can fail to recognize how every president of the United States has placed special reliance upon his faith in God. Every president has taken comfort and courage when told . . . that the Lord “will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Fear not—neither be thou dismayed”. . . Each of our presidents in his own way has placed a special trust in God. Those who were strongest intellectually were also strongest spiritually. . . .” — John F. Kennedy in a February 1961 speech

550. BE THERE “God doesn’t ask for ability, but for availability.”

— Unknown

 

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The 14th Amendment Can’t Possibly Require Same-Sex Marriage

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The Supreme Court is about to decide if the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution requires the states to redefine marriage to include same sex relationships. There are several reasons why the answer is no.

The most decisive of these reasons is the fact that when the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868, homosexual behavior was a felony in every state in the union. So if the 14th Amendment was intended to require same-sex marriage, then every state in the union intended to throw the new couple into prison as soon as the marriage was consummated!

Some may say, “Who cares what they believed in 1868 about homosexuality? We’ve evolved since then.”

That’s addressed by the second reason: laws and words have specific scopes and meanings. They don’t have unlimited flexibility as liberal justices tend to think. Neither the intent nor the text of the Constitution requires the states to redefine marriage. If the people of the United States have “evolved” on the issue, then the Constitution provides them with a very clear and fair way for the document to intelligently “evolve”—they need to convince a supermajority of federal and state legislatures to amend the Constitution. That’s the very reason our Constitution has an amendment process!

If we fail to use the amendment process and permit judges to substitute their own definitions and judgments for what the people actually meant when they passed the law in the first place, then we no longer govern ourselves. Why vote or use the political process if unelected justices strike down our laws and impose their own as they go? In fact, why have a Constitution at all? If it’s “evolving” or “living,” then it’s not really a collective agreement of the people—it’s a pretext that allows judges to invent rights and impose any moral (or immoral) position they want against the will of the people.

Imagine if the people were to pass an amendment guaranteeing a right to same-sex marriage. Would you consider the Supreme Court to be legitimate if it imposed its own position and overturned the amendment? No, the people decide what the laws are, not the Court.

Third, the 14th Amendment was intended to prevent states from discriminating against newly freed slaves.  At that time blacks and women didn’t even have the right to vote, yet no court ever thought it could use the “equal protection” clause to change state voting laws. So why do some district courts think they can use it now to change state marriage laws?  Are we to believe that “equal protection” does not guarantee a woman’s right to vote but does guarantee a woman’s right to marry another woman? 

Since the people “evolved” on voting rights, they convinced supermajorities in Congress and of the state legislatures voted to add the 15th and 19th Amendments in 1870 and 1920 respectively. The courts knew they shouldn’t act as legislatures to grant rights not addressed by the Constitution. Neither should this Supreme Court.

Fourth, despite all the talk about equal rights, everyone already has equal marriage rights. Every person has the same equal right to marry someone of the opposite sex. That law treats all people equally, but not every behavior they may desire equally. If people with homosexual desires do not have equal rights, then people with desires to marry their relatives or more than one person don’t have equal rights. The “born that way” justification doesn’t work either because that same justification could make any desired arrangement “marriage,” which means the logic behind it is absurd. The Court needs to acknowledge the fact that natural marriage, same sex-marriage, incestuous marriage, and polygamous marriage are all different behaviors with different outcomes, so the law rightfully treats those behaviors differently while giving every citizen the equal right to participate in marriage whatever its legal definition is.

Finally, the states make marriage law, not the feds. The U.S. Constitution says nothing about marriage. While the Supreme Court did overturn Virginia’s ban on inter-racial marriage, it did so because Virginia discriminated on the basis of race, which is precisely what the 14th Amendment was intended to prevent. There is no rational reason to discriminate on the basis of race because race is irrelevant to marriage. However, gender is essential to it. Even the 2013 Windsor decision, which partially struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, recognized that marriage is a state, not a federal issue. Since there is no 14th Amendment issue here, the Court must leave marriage to the states.

Legal reasons such as these are all the Court is constitutionally permitted to consider. Polls and policy considerations are for the people or their legislatures, not the courts. Ryan T. Anderson writes in his recent column titled Memo to Supreme Court: Nothing in the Constitution Requires States to Redefine Marriage: “The overarching question before the Supreme Court is not whether an exclusively male–female marriage policy is the best, but only whether it is allowed by the U.S. Constitution. The question is not whether government-recognized same-sex marriage is good or bad policy, but only whether it is required by the U.S. Constitution.”

Does the U.S. Constitution require same-sex marriage? No, the U.S. Constitution requires the Court to leave this issue to the states. If you believe otherwise, then amend the Constitution.

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

531. SMART PHONES AND DEMENTIA? “One of the earliest and most debilitating symptoms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, is hippocampal and entorhinal degeneration and the consequent loss of locational memory. Victims begin to forget where they are. Véronique Bohbot, a research psychiatrist and memory expert at McGill University in Montreal, has conducted studies demonstrating that the way people exercise their navigational skills influences the functioning and even the size of the hippocampus—and may provide protection against the deterioration of memory. The harder people work at building cognitive maps of space, the stronger their underlying memory circuits seem to become. They can actually grow gray matter in the hippocampus—a phenomenon documented in London cab drivers—in a way that’s analogous to the building of muscle mass through physical exertion. But when they simply follow turn-by-turn instructions in “a robotic fashion,” Bohbot warns, they don’t “stimulate their hippocampus” and as a result may leave themselves more susceptible to memory loss. Bohbot worries that, should the hippocampus begin to atrophy from a lack of use in navigation, the result could be a general loss of memory and a growing risk of dementia. “Society is geared in many ways toward shrinking the hippocampus,” she told an interviewer. “In the next twenty years, I think we’re going to see dementia occurring earlier and earlier.”

Excerpt From: Carr, Nicholas. “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us.”

532. PERSEVERE Thomas Edison once said, “Most of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success before they gave up.”

533. LEGACY “Great people plant trees they will never sit under.” — Alfred North Whitehead

534. CIVILITY “The strength of a nation is not its legal machinery, but the moral stamina and courage of its people. The law is but the codification of their conscience. There are not enough laws and never will be, to keep a society stable if its members no longer will it. There are not enough policemen, courts, judges or prisons, nor ever can be to prevent the death of a civilization whose people no longer care. Law enforcement is for the criminal few; it collapses if it must be enforced against the many. When the sense of personal accountability is no longer present in majority strength, then no legal device known to man can hold the society together. Freedom is a timely torch blazing in the dark.”

— Ralph Bradford

535. TAXES “The moment you abandon the cardinal principle of extracting from all individuals the same proportion of their income or their property you are at sea without rudder or compass & there is no amount of injustice or folly you may not commit.”

— John McCulloch (100 years ago)

536. BEING LIGHT “What is to give light must endure burning.”

—VIKTOR E. FRANKL

537. TECH EFFECT “Ours may be a time of material comfort and technological wonder, but it’s also a time of aimlessness and gloom. During the first decade of this century, the number of Americans taking prescription drugs to treat depression or anxiety rose by nearly a quarter. One in five adults now regularly takes such medications. The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans increased by nearly 30 percent over the same ten years, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 10 percent of American schoolchildren, and nearly 20 percent of high-school-age boys, have been given a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and two-thirds of that group take drugs like Ritalin and Adderall to treat the condition.”

Excerpt From: Carr, Nicholas. “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us.”

538. BIBLE & PRESIDENTS “The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”

CALVIN COOLIDGE, THIRTIETH PRESIDENT

“We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.”

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, THIRTY-SECOND PRESIDENT

“The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul. . . . If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State!”

HARRY S. TRUMAN, THIRTY-THIRD PRESIDENT

“Inside the Bible’s pages lie all the answers to all of the problems man has ever known. . . . The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds, and refresh our souls.”

RONALD REAGAN, FORTIETH PRESIDENT

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

539. The word “sin” is no longer included in the latest version of the Oxford Junior Dictionary.

540. “Some people mistake a bad memory for a clear conscience.” — Chris Seidman

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Could solar eclipses be evidence for God? — Premier Christianity

eclipse

This morning I published a guest article at the Premier Christianity blog (associated with the UK’s Premier Christian Radio). In it, I elaborate on solar eclipses as part of a cumulative body of data suggestive that our Universe is designed for intelligent life.

Today, the Arctic and Northern Europe, including the UK, will witness a total solar eclipse, representing the first total solar eclipse in Europe in more than a decade. An eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. Since the sun is four hundred times bigger than the moon, but also coincidentally four hundred times further away, the sun and the moon appear to be the same size in the sky. Remarkably, of the many moons in our Solar System, our moon is the only one known to yield the most perfect solar eclipses when viewed from the surface of the earth.

Read the rest here.

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

521. INTERSTATES “One of President Eisenhower’s most enduring contributions is the interstate highway system—something few twenty-first-century Americans can imagine life without. Ike was first inspired to undertake this initiative shortly after the invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944. After troops had landed, they had some difficulty navigating the back roads of France. Those navigational difficulties impaired the American troops’ ability to drive the Nazis back into Germany and finish the war. When the Americans finally did make it to Germany, they found that the Germans had a much more sophisticated roadway system than the French. Ike never forgot that, and as president, he was determined that in the U.S. the road system would be modeled after the one in Germany.”

The interstate highway system contributed to this problem by making our country smaller. It has given those who are motivated to commit violent crimes easier access to potential victims and has allowed them to escape more quickly to destinations that are farther away.

Transportation has also changed the nature of crime in America. Before we had an interstate system, the most violent crimes were between people who knew one another. Over the last several decades, interpersonal crimes against total strangers have been on the rise. The Internet has accelerated this trend—creating, in effect, a new virtual interstate highway system that brings people closer together, for both good and bad purposes.”

Excerpt From: Adams, Mike. “Letters to a Young Progressive.”

522. GENERAL MacARTHUR General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific during World War II, said this in December 1951:

“In this day of gathering storms, as moral deterioration of political power spreads its growing infection, it is essential that every spiritual force be mobilized to defend and preserve the religious base upon which this nation is founded; for it has been that base which has been the motivating impulse to our moral and national growth. History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual reawakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

523. NOTHING NEW “In the 1650s and ’60s the long-simmering fear of God’s wrath grew acute. Every Christian knew his Bible, and everyone knew that the Bible talked of a day of judgment. The question was not whether the world would end but how soon the end would come. The answer, it seemed, was very soon.

Almost no one believed in the idea of progress. (The very scientists whose discoveries would create the modern world did not believe in it.) On the contrary, the nearly universal belief was that the world had been falling apart since Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. Now, it seemed, the fall had accelerated. From high and low, in learned sermons and shrieking pamphlets, men pointed out the signs that the apocalypse was near. Books on the Second Coming were written by the score during this period.”

Excerpt From: Dolnick, Edward. “The Clockwork Universe.”

524. WHY SCIENCE SO COMPLICATED? “God “took delight to hide his works, to the end to have them found out.”

Why would God operate in such a roundabout way? If his intent was to proclaim His majesty, why not arrange the stars to spell out BEHOLD in blazing letters? To seventeenth-century thinkers, this was no mystery. God could have put on a display of cosmic fireworks, but that would have been to win us over by shock and fear. When it came to intellectual questions, coercion was the wrong tool. Having created human beings and endowed us with the power of reason, God surely meant for us to exercise our gifts.

The mission of science was to honor God, and the best way to pay Him homage was to discover and proclaim the perfection of His plans.”

Excerpt From: Dolnick, Edward. “The Clockwork Universe.”

525. WELFARE “If, through guarantees, monopolies, or socialism, one’s paycheck is ensured without effort, the majority will do the minimum possible to continue to receive the reward. We first discovered this in Frédéric Bastiat’s book, The Law.

Bastiat wrote: “Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources. This process is the origin of property.

But it is also true that a man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.

Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain—and since labor is pain in itself—it follows that men will resort to plunder whenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly. And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.

When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor.”

Plunder can be as simple as receiving a check without working, or as big as one country invading another to receive the fruits of another’s labor. Either way the desire is within the heart of man and must be accounted for. In other words, each system must be designed with this inherent attribute in mind, or the organization will decline when people find ways to resort to plunder rather than productivity.

As long as our system encourages various types of plunder rather than making work the easiest way to succeed, we’ll continue to decline. No politician or political party can do anything against this truth.

Excerpt From: Orrin Woodward & Oliver DeMille. “LeaderShift.”

526. SURPRISE QUOTE? “The Fed. govt. must and shall quit this business of relief. Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to National fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.”

— FDR, 1935

527. PEACE THRU STRENGTH “The vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk its own destruction.”

— D. Eisenhower

528. RESULTS OF WEAK VIRTUES “It is my purpose . . . to show how easily the tragedy of the Second World War could have been prevented; how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.”

–W. Churchill

529. DOCTORS AND COMPUTERS “Being led by the screen rather than the patient is particularly perilous for young practitioners, Lown suggests, as it forecloses opportunities to learn the most subtle and human aspects of the art of medicine—the tacit knowledge that can’t be garnered from textbooks or software. It may also, in the long run, hinder doctors from developing the intuition that enables them to respond to emergencies and other unexpected events, when a patient’s fate can be sealed in a matter of minutes. At such moments, doctors can’t be methodical or deliberative; they can’t spend time gathering and analyzing information or working through templates. A computer is of little help. Doctors have to make near-instantaneous decisions about diagnosis and treatment. They have to act. Cognitive scientists who have studied physicians’ thought processes argue that expert clinicians don’t use conscious reasoning, or formal sets of rules, in emergencies. Drawing on their knowledge and experience, they simply “see” what’s wrong—oftentimes making a working diagnosis in a matter of seconds—and proceed to do what needs to be done.

Put a screen between doctor and patient, and you put distance between them. You make it much harder for automaticity and intuition to develop.”

Excerpt From: Carr, Nicholas. “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us.”

530. THE WORLD’S VIEW “…upon coming into the world, we soon find that wisdom and virtue are by no means the sole objects of respect; nor vice and folly, of contempt. We frequently see the respectful attentions of the world more strongly directed towards the rich and the great, than towards the wise and the virtuous.”

Excerpt From: “The Book of Moral Sentiments” by Adam Smith

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

511. LAWS “It will be of little avail to the people that laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” –A. Hamilton

512. PERSECUTION : “The patriot, like the Christian, must learn to bear revilings and persecutions as a part of his duty; and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it becomes more requisite and praiseworthy.  It requires, indeed, self-command.  But that will be fortified in proportion as the calls for its exercise are repeated.” — Thomas Jefferson

513. INFORMATION UNDERLOAD “Automation actually places added and unexpected demands on people, burdening them with extra work. Researchers worry that the lassitude produced by information underload is going to be a particular danger with coming generations of automotive automation. As software takes over more steering and braking chores, the person behind the wheel won’t have enough to do and will tune out. Making matters worse, the driver will likely have received little or no training in the use and risks of automation. Some routine accidents may be avoided, but we’re going to end up with even more bad drivers on the road.”

Excerpt From: Carr, Nicholas. “The Glass Cage: Automation and Us.”

514. WISDOM ABOUT WEALTH “That some should be rich shows that others may become rich & hence is just encouragement to industry & enterprise.” — A. Lincoln

515. TAXATION At the beginning of the dynasty taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the Dynasty taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.” –Ibn Khaldoun (Moslem Phil. 14th Century)

516. VIRTUE PROTECTS A NATION Samuel Adams, the great American patriot accused by King George III of being “the chief rabble-rouser” of American independence, wrote the following in a letter to James Warren, the president of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in 1779:

“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. How necessary then is it for those who are determined to transmit the blessings of liberty as a fair inheritance to posterity, to associate on public principles in support of public virtue.”

God said that He will never leave us or forsake us, but if we leave Him, what then? In Joshua 7, God’s people turned their backs on God and did not obey Him. Only when we are in God’s perfect will, only when we have forsaken sin, will we have the privilege of His presence with us.

Excerpt From: Lee, Richard. “In God We Still Trust: A 365-Day Devotional.”

517. KNOW IT ALL? “The sea gets deeper as you go further into it.” The more you know, the more you realize how much there is to know. You really don’t have to pretend to know everything. Admitting ignorance can be bliss.”

Excerpt From: Roberts, Russ. “How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life.”

518. QUEST FOR EQUALITY “We know from history that any society foolish enough to experiment with Marxism will find that the quest for equality results in a lower standard of living for all. Similarly, any society foolish enough to embrace cultural relativism will find that the quest for equality results in a lower overall standard of morality.”

Excerpt From: Adams, Mike. “Letters to a Young Progressive.”

519. BLACK REVOLUTIONARIES “The first man killed in the American Revolution was a black man. When British soldiers fired on an angry, taunting Boston crowd in 1770, they killed the man who led the “riot” with their first volley. His name was Crispus Attucks, a sailor, a runaway slave, and a black man. He died in what is now known as the Boston Massacre, the first martyr of the revolutionary cause. Blacks rallied to the cause. They crossed the Delaware with Washington and were with him at Valley Forge. It was a black man named Prince who captured British General Prescott, commander of the Royal Army at Newport, Rhode Island. It was another black man, Salem Poor, who distinguished himself so gallantly in battle that fourteen American officers praised him before Congress. In fact more than five thousand blacks fought in defense of liberty at battles like Monmouth, Saratoga, Princeton, and Yorktown.”

Excerpt From: Mansfield, Stephen. “Then Darkness Fled.”

520. HOW PRESIDENTS ONCE TALKED

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OvN1jTkzXbY?rel=0

 

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John and Abigail Adams: America’s Original Sweethearts

John and Abigail Adams’ relationship served as one of the most influential over the formation of our nation’s government during the late 18th-early 19th centuries. When one briefly glances at them, they paint a picture of strength, endurance, and wisdom, which proved to be an iconic ideal during these harsh years for all the couples during these years. Years of travel, together and apart, criticism for beliefs, and the will to fight for a new country and a new government proved the iron will these two maintained to soldier on.

But looking closer, these two did not simply luck out and endure through because of systematic circumstances. Their marriage and individual lives were built and maintained through their dependence on one another, Scripture, and conviction.

John was a lawyer from Massachusetts; Abigail was a self-educated daughter of a minister. Married in 1764, they lived a full 54 years married (keep in mind the average lifespan was less than that) and exchanged over 1,100 pieces of correspondence during the most volatile years of our nation’s history.

Arguably, John Adams was one of the most involved of our Founding Fathers for independence from Britain and establishing our government. He served in the Continental Congress for four years (1774-1778), was in around 90 committees and was the head chairman of 24. He was more involved than any other member. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, he was one of five on the committee to write it.

After the Revolutionary War, he was vocal in his views on government. He was one of two people to sign the Bill of Rights. He once stated, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” He was the first Vice President of the United States of America, and the second president. After nearly 30 years of public service, John Adams returned to Massachusetts in 1800 to live the rest of his 26 years writing prolifically on all of his experiences.

During John’s political years, Abigail raised their four children and often traveled with him. When she was not with John in New York, Philadelphia, Great Britain, France, and eventually our newly formed capitol, Washington, D.C., she was writing to him and several others. Abigail had an overwhelming love for scripture. She was devoted to John, but she was never one to mince words. Combining those attributes, her letters and words of wisdom had a tremendous effect on how John viewed the situations during the Revolutionary War.

For instance, after the Battle of Lexington and Concord, she wrote to John,

Nor doth the eye say unto the hand, “I have no need of thee” [1 Corinthians 12:21]. The Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake his inheritance [Psalm 94:14]. Great events are most certainly in the womb of futurity, and if the present chastisements which we experience have a proper influence upon our conduct, the event will certainly be in our favor. . . . Pharaoh’s [i.e., King George III’s] heart is hardened, and he refuseth(sic) to hearken to them and will not let the people go [Exodus 8:32]. May their deliverance be wrought out for them, as it was for the children of Israel [Exodus 12].

Not only was she a “most trusted advisor,” to John, but to many of the other Founding Fathers. She did not write simply her ideas and feelings, but she wrote of her political ideals. In March 1776, she wrote,

I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

These sentiments are more reflective to the early 20th century than the late 18th century, but that is what made Abigail such an amazing partner to her husband. She did not simply nod and smile; she challenged him and his cohorts. She was the perfect counterpoint. She challenged ideas of the day but did so with the scripture in mind.

Both of these patriots have several of their personal writings and letters published today. If you read but just a fraction, it would be hard to prove that either of them were anything but strong Bible-believing Christians. Not only that but that Christianity should influence government. A government they helped establish.

“The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Christian system in this Earth. Not a baptism, not a marriage, not a sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost. . . . There is no authority, civil or religious – there can be no legitimate government – but that which is administered by this Holy Ghost. There can be no salvation without it. All without it is rebellion and perdition, or in more orthodox words, damnation.” These are the words of John Adams, one of the foremost minds of all of the Founding Fathers. Imagine a pastor, much less an elected official, saying these words today without some derogatory name being labeled to him/her.

He also once wrote, “The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity, and humanity.” Abigail was as explicit about her beliefs when she wrote, “He who neglects his duty to his Maker may well be expected to be deficient and insincere in his duty towards the public.”

Both John and Abigail were well aware that part of their duty was to look to future generations. They did not necessarily think of how their own actions and words would determine their own lives, but of what the next generations would have as a result. John once wrote, “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.” In fact, they were so intent on future generations and raising good citizens, they raised the future sixth president of the United States, John Quincy.

It must be noted, John Quincy was one of the strongest abolitionists in his day, and was so determined to end slavery that after his presidency he went on to serve in the House of Representatives for 17 years until 1848. He was the only President ever to do so, and served as the Speaker of the House with every intention of not leaving until slavery was eradicated. He actually had a stroke while in the House of Representatives’ chamber at the age of 80 during a debate and died two days later in the Speaker of the House office. One of the ceremonial pallbearers was a young representative, Abraham Lincoln. The Adams didn’t simply raise good citizens, they raised people of conviction who fought for their beliefs to the end and left a legacy.

The legacy of the Adams’ is seen all around us today in America and, indeed, is America herself. So much more could and should be (and has been)  shared about the Adams, their individual influence and character. But as a couple, the Adams’ relationship calls to mind Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” John and Abigail Adams correspondence and love for one another, the scripture, their family, and America are a display of how a couple of people can truly influence an entire society and nation.

For more information concerning the Adams, visit:

http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=89988

http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=142673

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The Wisdom Chronicle

The Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, J. Whiddon

501. NEW NATION “It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance.” — Calvin Coolidge

502. WHY CONSTITUTION ERODING? “Jefferson and John Marshall argued about the role of the Court, and in the Civil War era various leaders debated the pros and cons of increased power in Washington. Later, various national leaders debated the changes of 1913 (income tax and Senators generally elected), as well as the Butler case and so many other cases, not to mention the various changes in our laws created by executive orders or treaties like the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 or the proposed Rome Statute of 1998.

But why did all of these happen? Why did the Constitution break down? What was supposed to stop these kinds of things from occurring?”

In all of these situations, freedom was ultimately lost for the same reason. The people let it happen. The Constitution gave them power to stop these things, but they didn’t use it. They assumed their political leaders would do it for them. They were focused on other things, like making a living and raising their families, and they just let their freedoms be written away.

There’s a special word for a society where the four groups don’t really work together on big things, where the political leaders make the governmental decisions while the business leaders focus on profit and growth, and families and influencers are content not to be involved in governance. And that word is decline.

Excerpt From: Orrin Woodward & Oliver DeMille. “LeaderShift”

503. “WHO” or “WHOM”? How do you decide which one to use? When in doubt, substitute him and see if that sounds right. If him is OK, then whom is OK. If the more natural substitute is he, then go with who. For example: You talked to whom? It would be incorrect to say You talked to he? but saying You talked to him? makes grammatical sense.

Source: Dictionary.com

504. PILGRIMS KNEW “We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.”

–John Winthrop, Deck of Arbella, 1630, off Massachusetts Coast

505. CHANGING OUR NATION “We shouldn’t forget the nation’s Founders. They had to totally overcome their culture by taking on centuries of the British caste system, a near-religious belief in the divine right of kings, and the universally accepted but false idea that men are not created equal. It was hard work, but they did it. Our task is no more difficult than theirs.”

Excerpt From: Orrin Woodward & Oliver DeMille. “LeaderShift.”

506. DREAM “There is no magic in small dreams.” –Unknown

507. COMMUNISM “Be prepared to resort to every illegal device to conceal the truth—It would not matter if ¾ of the human race perished; the important thing is that the remaining ¼ be communist.” –V. Lenin

508. EDUCATION “Education which trains in skills but does not teach values is deficient. Its emphasis today all too often does not seek to make the individual a thinking person but seeks to condition him to the generally accepted view of the common good.” –A.C. Brownfield

509. ACHIEVEMENT “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” – Chinese Proverb

510. REPEAT TRUTH! “The truth must be repeated again and again because error is constantly being preached round about us. And not only by isolated individuals but by the majority. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in the schools and Universities everywhere error is dominant, securely and comfortable ensconced in public opinion which is on its side.” — Goethe, 1828

 

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