Monday, September 22, 2008

A Manly Man Has Fallen



This past Lord's Day, my grandfather, Malcom Alex Southerland went home to be with Jesus. He was "Pepaw" to his four grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Pepaw lived a life of bravery and fortitude. He served our country valiantly in the U.S. Navy in World War II. After returning home from the war he went to work for the Dallas Police Department. He served as an officer for 38 years before retiring. For as long as I can remember, until the very end of his life when he was physically unable to do so, he ran his small farm during his free time, raising cattle and growing hay primarily. Pepaw was born May 11, 1919. He was 89 years old.

Pepaw was an excellent example of manliness. In an age of ever increasingly effeminate men, Pepaw stood tall as a man who lived a man's life. Yet, he was tender to his wife, children, and grandchildren. I heard tales how he would come home after walking the beat and confronting criminals, and rock my father to sleep when he was a crying baby.

When I totaled his car as a 16 year old boy, his only concern was, "Are you OK?" Cars could be replaced, but he knew his family was paramount. He showed the same attitude when my brother drove the farm truck through the gate. No big deal. Gates, fences, and trucks can be fixed. His concern was for his grandchildren.

I remember the many mornings when I would wake up at his house while staying there as a boy. He'd have fried potatoes and bacon cooking on the stove. Sometimes it was even round steak for breakfast! It was usually the smell that woke me up. The sun would shine in the sliding glass door that overlooked the field of cattle in his back yard.

Pepaw will be missed. He was the last grandparent that Sheri and I had. I will always remember him as a very strong man with a very tender heart. It is those qualities of his that I wish to emulate in my life.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Ponder Pesky Pragmatism and Palin

Since August 29 when John McCain unleashed his bomb shell news that he was selecting Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, I’ve read many opinions about the legitimacy of a woman running for one of the highest offices in the land, with the good possibility that she may ascend to the the highest office in the land should her 70+ year old running mate kill over from old age after they win the election.

The opinions run the gamut from those who think Palin can do no wrong to those who can’t stand her, and everything in between.  There’s a whole host of people who oppose her because she is so conservative.  I will admit that I have not read much of these opinions.  As a very selective consumer of news I don’t subject myself to the typical liberal blather you see on network television.  We don’t even own a TV.  The closest thing I get to secular news is my occasion review of the Wall Street Journal when I have time to read it.  So, for those who can’t stand Palin because she is pro-life, pro-gun, and fiscally conservative…this article is not targeted at you.  If you are an Obama supporter, you may stop reading now.  I personally like Palin’s politics and I can’t stand Barack Hussein Obama’s politics.  Yet, I join with several other brothers in Christ in opposing Palin’s nomination due to the biblical prohibition on a woman in leadership.  I’m in good company.  Some of the men I admire who have publicly opposed Palin’s nomination are Doug Phillips, Paul Vaughn, Voddie Baucham, Scott Brown, Kevin Swanson, Terry Morris, Bill Einwechter, and many others.  Lest you think this is a “men’s club” who have conspired to subjugate women, there is also a host of lady writers who share this opinion.  They include Jennie Chancey, Bethany Vaughn, Jasmine Baucham, Anna Sofia Botkin, and Elizabeth Botkin, plus many others I have failed to mention.  It is my firm conviction that these godly brothers and sisters have done a fine job of expounding the scriptures and arriving at the same convictions that John Knox arrived at when he authored The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.  I’ll not expend my time and effort in making the same case many of my friends have made.  Besides pointing out one obvious fact that many seem to be overlooking….it is John McCain that is running for President – not Sarah Palin…I want to address another angle on it.

The biggest accusation I have faced in my opposition on voting for the McCain/Palin ticket is this:  If you don’t vote for McCain/Palin, then you are, by default, casting a vote for Obama/Biden.

Is there any truth in this?  Maybe, maybe not.  At the top of this article, I dismissed all those who I consider blatant enemies of righteousness.  Hopefully all the Obama voters have already stopped reading.  I now invite all you McCain/Palin lovers, those who think the McCain/Palin ticket is the greatest thing since sliced bread, to go read something else and leave me to my musings.  OK, what I’m left with now is an extremely large group of Christians who don’t really care for McCain and may or may not like Palin.  Yet, to all those who are left reading this article, the thought of a pro-abortion mohammeden leading our country is “obaminable.”  (sorry, couldn’t resist!)  I daresay that the bulk of you will enter the voting booth in November and pull the lever for McCain while holding your nose, thinking all the while that you are doing the best thing for our country.  Many of you look at people like me, who refuse to vote for McCain, as part of the problem and someone to blame if Obama rises to power.  But I want to put this thought before you.  Who is sovereign?  God or man?  It is God who raises up and puts down leaders.  I submit to you that God has already determined the outcome of this election before the first vote is ever cast.  Certainly, in the United States God uses the votes of the people to put the President in office.  Yet, is man so powerful and God so weak that we thwart His will with our votes?  Perish the thought!  I trust God to place whom He will in authority in the highest office in the land (or the world for that matter).  I can only do my duty to vote for someone who would be a godly leader.

I plan to vote for Chuck Baldwin for President.  As has been pointed out in other blogs I have read, by other men I respect, Baldwin is not perfect.  He is a sinner like the rest of us.  However, he has given his positions on the things I care most about on his website (http://www.baldwin08.com) and the policies that he supports are the very same policies I support.  Not to mention that his running mate is not a feminist woman.  He is also a godly, Christian man, Darrell Castle.

Will my vote for Baldwin propel Obama to the Presidency?  Not unless God so wills it.  To think otherwise is to set pragmatism above trust in Almighty God.  Think about it this way:  If Obama would sentence 10,000 babies a day to die by abortion (the current actual number is about 4,000) and McCain would only sentence 1,000 babies a day to die by abortion, are we holding to a moral standard by voting for the one who would sentence fewer children to their death?  Or do you agree with me that a vote for anyone who would allow abortion to continue for even one more day is a vote that is soaked in blood?  Maybe this is hard for you to visualize, because even our actual number of 4,000 innocent children dying every single day is hard to imagine.  It’s equivalent to 9/11/01 happening every single day for 35 years.  If this is hard to imagine, think of it this way.  Hypothetically you are a parent of four children, and for the sake of “overpopulation” Obama declares that three of your children must die.  Yet, in this same hypothetical world McCain is much better and only requires one of your children’s lives, would you actually vote for this guy?  Though this situation is entirely hypothetical, the truth is that Obama is a rabid pro-abort, and McCain is a moderate fence sitting pro-abort (with exceptions).  There’s no such thing as being “pro-life” with exceptions because you don’t make exceptions when it comes to the issue of life.  Any “exception” to a pro-life stance makes you a “pro-abort.”

 You have three choices in November (actually 5 if you count the other two third party candidates):

1.  A rabid pro-abortion muslim democrat.

2.  A wishy-washy pro-abortion republican with a feminist running mate.

…or…

3.  An imperfect, but God fearing man, Chuck Baldwin, who would do everything in his power to end abortion in this land.

 

Will you vote your conscious or will you ponder pesky pragmatism and Palin?

Monday, September 01, 2008

RSS Feed Messed Up

I've been told, and I've confirmed, that my RSS feed is shot. I've spent several hours tracking this last night and this morning. Bummer! If anyone has any experience with resolving an issue of FTP Response 421 received. Server closed connection when trying to republish my entire blog, I'd be most grateful if you drop me a note at mike@mikesoutherland.com. In the meantime, if you click on the subscribe link at the bottom, you'll get routed to an error page. It's weird that I can still publish blog entries. I just can't seem to get the feed working. If this isn't resolved soon, it may be time to start shopping servers.

Mike