“bully to you” and the wisdom offered from 1907…a revisit of an older post

“Patriotism means to stand by the country.
It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official,
save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.
It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country.
It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by
inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.
In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth,
whether about the president or anyone else.”
Theodore Roosevelt

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes
here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us,
he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else,
for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed,
or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American,
and nothing but an American…
There can be no divided allegiance here.
Any man who says he is an American, but something else also,
isn’t an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag …
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language …
and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a
loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

This past week was a bit chopped up as we kept the Mayor for a few days
as she was under the weather and unable to go to daycare…
hence my limited words being offered here in bogland.

And boy are there not just a million or more words wrapped in so many
thoughts that need to be explored, dissected and shared…

But given our current state of affairs…the question really isn’t a matter
of where to start…but rather which crisis needs to be addressed
first.

The image below is a picture of the Mayor’s and Sheriff’s new work station.
A pulpit of sorts.
Elevating them to equal footing with the adults in their lives…
and in this case, they are elevated in my kitchen.

It’s what is known as a toddler’s kitchen helper stool.

The Mayor is really wanting to roll up her sleeves while
getting her hands deep and dirty in all the food prep–
and I for one say why not.

However I just can’t get the idea of “pulpit”,
or rather, bully pulpit, out of my head each time I look over at the stool.

And so I went back into my archives and found a post showcasing the
man who coined the very phrase ‘bully pulpit’–that being
President Theodore Roosevelt.

This first Roosevelt president was quite fond of the word bully…
as in that is how he is often remembered…
by offering a rousing “bully” when in agreement with something resoundingly
exciting.

He also offered us the notion of a bully pulpit…a leadership position
where one is offered the opportunity to extol certain thoughts and ideas—
with the office of the presidency being a great place.

According to Wikipedia,
A bully pulpit is a conspicuous position that provides an opportunity to
speak out and be listened to.
This term was coined by United States President Theodore Roosevelt,
who referred to his office as a “bully pulpit”,
by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda.
Roosevelt used the word bully as an adjective meaning “superb”
or “wonderful”, a more common usage at that time.

So whereas T. Roosevelt knew he had quite the platform, he also knew that
his bully pulpit was certainly no throne.
Not a perch in which to dictate downward to the masses, but rather
his bully pulpit was a place to speak his piece to the people—
He always knew that ultimately the people would base their
own decisions upon what they knew to be truth.

A much different view from our current day of dictating liberal
democratic leadership.

Everything from mask mandates and fines, despite vaccinations, all
the way to suppressing support for the nation of Israel.
They tell us what to do, what to believe, what to follow—
it’s all about do and obey…or else.
There will be severe consequences—
from fines, to shunning to canceling.

Shape up, be quiet and fall in line.

I pray that the masses…aka the American people,
will indeed see the truth for what it is.

It seems that T. Roosevelt believed that the truth was akin to
what it meant to be patriotic…

And yet sadly our nation seems to have lost the concept of
patriotism years ago.
Truth has become a wayward causality of a nation who has lost her way
and lost her truth.

May we the people seek our truth.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
John 17:17

Fidei defensor, but who’s faith is it…..

“I do not choose anyone to have it in his power to command me,
nor will I ever suffer it.”
King Henry VIII

(A 1520 Holbein painting of Henry VIII, Getty image)

Four years following Martin Luther’s shot heard around the world with the nailing
of the 95 grievances to the doors of the Wittenberg Cathedral, a then 30 year old
British monarch published a very hostile letter condemning Luther’s act
of “holy” defiance.

Henry VIII had been on the English throne for almost 12 years when he flexed his royal
muscle by letting all of Europe know how he and Great Britain viewed Luther’s
new movement. The British crown would not, according to Henry, be following suit.

Henry had always been a religious man.
He heard mass five times a day unless he was hunting (then he could only hear three).
He was also deeply interested in theological disputes.

In 1521, with Lutheranism infecting the English universities, Henry wrote Defense
of the Seven Sacraments against Luther.

In recognition of Henry’s forceful piety, Pope Leo X awarded him the title
“Fidei defensor,” or Defender of the Faith.

But scarcely a decade later, Henry led a schism of his own,
cleaving the Church of England from the wider Catholic Church after Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry’s 16-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
(Histroy.com and Christianity Today)

Born and raised a devout Catholic and married to an equally deeply religious Catholic woman, the Spanish princess and widow of his older brother Catherine of Aragon, Henry appeared to be the most likely emerging European monarch to be the defender
of the faith outside of Rome…a monarch who would help stave the bleeding of a
now shaken Church in the wake of Luther’s shake up.

That was until both lust and power blinded Henry’s faith.

The Church of England was birthed not because of a German monk’s open defiance
against the Church of Rome, but rather because a married monarch wanted a woman he
was blindly besotted over.

Ann Boleyn toyed with Henry’s overtures, refusing to be his mistress.
If he wanted her, which he desperately did, he would have to divorce his wife
in order to marry and finally bed Ann.

The problem with such was that both Henry and Catherine were Catholic
and the Pope was not about to grant a divorce or annulment of a marriage that was considered by the church,never mind by God himself, as a sacred union.

It also didn’t help matters that Henry had grown frustrated that Catherine,
despite numerous miscarriages and a healthy daughter, had never born him a son
who would in turn be his heir to the monarchy.

Thus ensued a very hostile tit for tat between the man who sat upon the throne
of the British realm and the man who sat upon the the throne of Peter….

Henry, blinded by his lust and wants, was not going to let the Pope in Rome
dictate his life nor his wants nor his needs there in England.

In a nutshell, Henry, with the aid of a hand full of loyal clergy to the
British crown, defied the Pope…who in turn excommunicated Henry.
Thus the English Reformation and the Church of England was born as Henry became
the first, in what would become an ensuing long line of succession, known as
the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

And so is it any wonder that today the Church of England, along with her spawned
cousin The Episcopal Church of America, is in crisis…
as man’s agenda still continues to reign supreme.
How can anyone expect God to bless let alone honor an institution that’s
very inception was steeped in that of defiance, lust and selfish desire…

Many would scoff at such a simplified notion…
scoffing over such a thought as being nonsense as it is really all
so much more complicated than a king’s desire for divorce….

Yet is it?

For I can’t help but see the correlation.

The unraveling began when a monarch put his own wants and desires above that of
those he governed, as well as above his own faith and relationship with his Creator.

That is not to say that there hasn’t been deeply pious individuals who have
followed these denominations down through the ages….yet when something is conceived without the true Grace and or Blessing of God, how can anyone expect it to survive let alone thrive?

English schoolchildren remember Henry VIII’s daughter as “Bloody Mary,”
an allusion to the more than 300 Protestants the staunchly Catholic Mary I
had put to death during her five-year reign.
In truth, though, Henry VIII was by far the bloodiest Tudor ruler,
ordering tens of thousands of executions during the tumult of the English Reformation. (Henry’s most famous victims included his former top advisor Sir Thomas More, as well as two of Henry’s six queens—Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard).
History.com

“The Church of England will collapse under its own weight within quite
a very short time.
There must be a planning of a new idea…we must plan for a very different future…”
The Rt Rev Gavin Ashenden

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
After he had provided purification for sins,
he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has
inherited is superior to theirs.
Hebrews 1:3-4

Prophet of old

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13

(cross on the grounds of Drumcliff Church / Co Sligo, Ireland / Julie Cook / 2015)

“If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used.
If the church in the second half of the twentieth century (an may we now add 21st) is to recover from the injuries
she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher.
The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do.
Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties,
takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to
make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us.

He must be of the old prophet type,
a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne.
When he comes (and I pray God there will not be one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction
to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear.
He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and
opposition of a large segment of Christendom.”
A.W.Tozer

The hour grows late…yet…

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

St. Teresa of Avila

(summer is dried and faded in Autumn’s waning light / Cades Cove, TN / The Great Smokey Mountains National Park / Julie Cook / 2015)

As the sun hangs low along the horizon,
While we mourn both November’s fading light
and Summer’s long spent blooms…
Our remaining hopes and joys are left to slowly shrivel and decay…

The drum beat sounds in the distance,
as wars continue to rage.
While the politicians haggle and leaders finagle
With the truth getting lost in the fray.

Justification and inclusiveness for all is hoisted high above our heads,
as human sin is simply no more as everything is now wrongly so right…
All the while the revelers cry…”Come one, come all to the party,
for everything is accepted tonight…”

With each tragic news story,
While the masses grow numb to the tales,
There are those who are left wondering…
Has the Devil finally had his due…

With everyone preparing for the season of shopping,
The catharsis for Misery’s woes,
No one seems to take notice…
There’s a small reminder hanging hopeful in the changing cooling air

Ancient words rumble across the seemingly silent ages
Forgotten to all but just a few
With warnings signs and omens now colliding each as one…

Yet a King sits waiting and watching
Securely on his throne…
While Hope and Grace ready themselves
for the battle is soon in sight

The wait will soon be over
as the demons will take their leave
Good and Right will rule the night
as Grace and Glory triumphantly save those hopeful souls.