David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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For an American church, the Fourth of July should be just another day

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I know this is hard for some people to believe, but Jesus isn’t an American. He doesn’t spout patriotic words, and He doesn’t pledge allegiance to any flag.

Sadly, many U.S. churches are confused about this issue. As a result, this Sunday will be another confusing day when many American church-goers will be hit with a message that is unbiblical in every way.

When I was growing up, I accepted this odd mixture of Christian religion and civic religion without paying much attention to it. I was a patriotic little kid, so I was happy to see various patriotic songs in the Baptist Hymnal on the backs of the pews where I sat every week. I was happy to see a U.S. flag on stage areas much of the time (sometimes flanked by the weird notion of a “Christian flag“).

As I’ve thought about the implications of this odd mixture of patriotism and Christianity, it makes me sick. The U.S. flag has no place as part of a church, just as the flags of various other civic nations have no place in churches, either. If you have loyalties to a government or a state of some kind, that’s your business, but it has no place being given a place of honor in God’s house.

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This news just in: Aging drug warrior Bill Bennett is still an idiot

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If you want to argue that people don’t have the right to do something, at least have the guts to be honest about it. Don’t pull a page out of “1984” and redefine words to mean whatever you want them to mean.

After U.S. Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank introduced legislation that would end the federal ban on marijuana (but allow states to decide for themselves on the issue), drug warriors have been apoplectic. The latest example is from former “drug czar” Bill Bennett, who argues in a piece he wrote for CNN that giving people the freedom to make their own decisions about drug use isn’t freedom, because people who are addicted to something aren’t free.

Even many conservatives agree that the war on (some) drugs is a failure. National Review, for instance, editorialized last week in favor of the proposal from Paul and Frank. But old drug warriors such as Bennett aren’t going to let facts get in the way of what they’ve devoted their careers to fighting for.

Personally, I’m strongly opposed to the use of recreational drugs. I think it’s a poor decision that leads to lousy outcomes for a substantial number of people. My own decisions about this are so conservative that I don’t even drink alcohol, which is a drug far more dangerous than weed. But freedom is about deciding that for yourself, not letting Bill Bennett decide what freedom means.

Once again, this is why the state needs to go away. People should be free to choose among competing systems of governance that are most likely to make them happy. Let Bennett and his friends go live in the police state they’ve built and are so in love with.

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For equality, we must redistribute eyeballs fairly, my friends

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Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 7035, the Federal Eyeball Inequality Act of 2020.

Our great nation was founded on the principles of liberty and equality. Without liberty, we can’t be equal. Without equality, we can’t have liberty. So when some Americans are treated unequally, it’s an assault on the liberty of each and every one of us. We have a sacred duty to those Founding Fathers who fought and bled for our freedom to bring equality to every American.

Some may say that we are free and we are equal, because we see freedom and we see equality everywhere. But do we? Sadly, not all of us see those things equally — because not all of us see equally well. It is to rectify this incredible injustice that I beg you to join me in using the full moral might of this government to bring equal sight to all. To do less than pass this legislation is to confess before all of us that you hate equality and that you hate liberty.

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