06/22/2016
An Open Response to an SBC Pastor in Regards to the SBC's Anti-Confederate Flag Resolution (Pastor's email first).
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To the executive director,
I am a pastor of a small struggling Southern Baptist Church. I too have a rich heritage in the Confederate Army, Union Army, and the Revolutionary War. I'm not a SCV. but I had three great-great-granduncles fight for the 25th Virginia Cavalry in the Civil War. I also had a Great-great-grandfather fight for the 9th New Hampshire Regiment co. F. He fought at Burnside bridge at Antietam, South Mountain, and was captured near the end of the war where he was imprisoned as a POW. I am proud of my heritage--extremely. I "had" a son who succumb to the devastating effects of P.T.S.D. after his service in Iraq during the big push in Fallujah. He committed su***de 2 years ago. I'm proud of him. He was a mighty man of valor. I too am a U.S. citizen and will readily defend my neighbors (ones I like and don't like) from both enemies foreign and domestic.
However, I have something for more precious, far more enduring, and way more authoritative; I'm firstly a kingdom citizen. My home and allegiance is in heaven. My marching orders orders come form on high, and I'm never to conflate the two. Scripture speaks of me as I journey here while holding citizenship in heaven as an alien. This in reality is foreign land to those who belong to Christ. While here I want to do all that I can so that others may join me, even you, and according to Scripture I'm to to remove any offense, or stumbling block that will prohibit someone from knowing my Savior. Scripture tells Christians to, "never place a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. " (Rom 14.13) "But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." (1Cor 1.8-9)
If I were your neighbor, and I were asked to stop anything that was rightful for me to do yet legitimately offensive to you or your family, that would prohibit you, your wife, or your children from inheriting eternity, I'd gladly do so. The Bible teaches that "all of this" will eventually be done away with, and a new more meaningful order awaits. I'm sure you can see how a proud CVS [sic] person who proudly display his heritage could be misunderstood by the black family down the street. Certainly.
If our attitudes is "this is my heritage, I have a right, I'm not trying to offend anyone, and if they can't get that, to hell with them." Inadvertently that may be a place reserved for the unsuspecting according to all the "loving the neighbor" stuff Jesus tells us. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13.35) and Jesus also said this, " Scripture likewise said this, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (Rom 13.8 & 2Cor 13.11)
I'm heartbroken. Your resent [sic] email to one of your CVS [sic] members has caused him to sever fellowship with a church that he has attended for 20+ years because he thinks (due to your email) that the 2016 SBC resolution is about being PC; it's not-honestly. I'm sure at a time when each member is greatly valued that I suspect at least six more people will follow his lead. As Christians we want to be effective at reaching everyone with the gospel of Jesus Christ as we can. Is this wrong? Am I wrong in what I have stated? Who do you take your marching orders from? Where is your greatest allegiance? Does tradition and heritage take precedence when eternity hangs in the balance? Do you think it reasonable that if Jesus were here and your exercised freedom was an offense to someone getting to know Him that He'd ask you to remove the offense? Do you know him.
Bewildered, Pastor_______
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Pastor_____,
Thank you for the email and your perspective on this issue. I, too, am a devout Christian who has spent my life with God’s hands on my shoulders in both peace and during war. It is through His almighty favor alone that I live today for I have surely walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and I feared no evil for He was and still is with me. I fear no man for I was supposed to die and I didn’t – nothing else matters except my duty to perform His tasks for me for the glory of Him and the fulfillment of His will. I am sorry to hear about your son – we are losing way too many good people who faced evil over there – for I truly believe we are fighting Satan’s demons there and this war will last for generations.
I share in your understanding of the Gospel and a sincere love of my fellow man. I wish to offend no one, but I also understand who and what we are facing because I have been fighting this for a very long time. You see, we Christians are a loving people and we forgive and try to forget. We turn the other cheek. But there are a lot of people out there who use our religion against us for the advancement of their political objectives. I am an expert in counterinsurgencies and I have researched 20th Century conflicts, especially the N***s and the Marxists. If you were to read The Rise and Fall of N**i Germany, you would see what is happening in America in real time. I’ve studied it so that I could fight it. If you study Communist Russia and all the wars that they have instituted throughout the world to advance their tyrannical dictatorships and how they used the rules of the institutions against their own people, as well as their sincere desire to see everything at face value, then you would truly understand the conflict we face as a people and as a civilization. The Marxists are trying to destroy our nation and Western Civilization and these are the people behind these attacks. Why? Because the South is the last real bastion of freedom and original American thought in the country. They are trying to remove us from our past, our family, our institutions, and everything that binds us to who we are. Southerners are the last people who cling to Christ, our guns, our Constitution, our families, etc. and we are also the only people other than the American Indians who have ever stood up to the full force of the US government when it was wrong. These are dangerous ideas for people who have swapped God as their savior for an over-intrusive government which dictates everything to the people. Satan is surely behind all of this and we are so deceived as to the true nature of what we face. Everything Christian is being attacked to destroy it, especially organized religion, so that they may institute a Godless state where sin is glorified and God is outlawed. The world has seen this before and God’s wrath is awaiting us.
The SBC did not attack the K*K, the Neo-N***s, or the A***n Brotherhood, let alone the Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, Black Panthers, etc. who all advocate hatred and violence. Where are those resolutions? In the SBC’s rush to bring communion with their black brothers and sisters, it didn’t attack those who hate, but rather the SBC attacked a Christian symbol – the Confederate Battle Flag, which led brave men into battle. I’ve attached an eBook for you which discusses the flag and I hope you will take the time to educate yourself on this matter. There are those who will say that the Confederate flag has been hijacked by the Klan – once they have changed the meaning of that symbol from one of “defiance against tyranny” to “racism, bigotry, and murder”, then they will do the same thing to our precious Christian Cross. They are already doing so…it is next, Pastor. What else is next? The Gadsden flag, the US flag, the Christian flag – all of these stand in the way of their political objectives. The problem is that the SBC is being led by the scapegoat down the chute and y’all have no idea that you are being used to advance their broader objectives. Saul Aulinksy (in his book Rules For Radicals) called such people “useful idiots” because they naïvely advance the Marxist’s cause without even knowing that they are doing so. Y’all are men of God, why would y’all be interested in the work of Satan’s minions here on Earth? I wish I didn’t know, but I’ve been fighting them for a very long time, sir.
The SBC’s resolution has many problems – the greatest is that it violates 2 of God’s most holy Commandments: Honor your father and your mother and Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. The whole basis of this resolution is that the South fought to deprive people of freedom and fought a war to preserve slavery and the North fought to destroy it. This is a great story, but it is not the truth – it is the Northern version of the war to justify an illegal invasion of the South and the subjugation of a whole section of the country. The South had a completely different version from the outset and it is now suppressed; anyone who states this version is attacked and demonized, yet it has been the same story from the start and is readily available in their own words. If the South really did fight to preserve slavery, then I would rejoice with you, clasp hands, and fight to destroy the vestiges of evil amongst us. However, if this is not the truth, then you have two options: 1) bury your head in the sand and accept that Satan, the father of all lies, has deceived you and you are an instrument of his doings or 2) stand for the truth against the whole world, because God is truth and the truth will set you free.
The reason the South is the Bible Belt today is because of the great revivals which swept through the Confederate Armies during the war, predominantly in 1863 and 1864 (a great book on this is Christ in the Camp). So many conversions to real Christianity occurred that these men went home after the war and became ministers and founders of churches. It included both black and white – for these men not only fought together, but they prayed together. I am sure you’ve never served in our military, but the rigors of war create bonds amongst men that few understand outside of the real conditions that it creates. Every church of the SBC after the war was pastored by Confederate soldiers – these are your forebears and the fathers of your own church! If the SBC today thinks they are more holy than those men, then the SBC has real moral problems and will be judged not only upon death, but by future generations of SBC pastors, if y’all last that long. The precedence has been set…
A great many blacks fought for the Southern Confederacy. I’ve enclosed a few pictures of black people who take affront to the SBC’s resolution because it paints their ancestors in a horrible light when all they ever did was fight for their state, country, and homes against an invading army. You won’t hear about it and you won’t read about it unless you search on your own. If you are intellectually lazy, then believe what you wish, but I cannot and I will not allow others to blissfully be ignorant and, therefore, attack men who deserve our utmost gratitude rather than scorn. These black men fought under that flag; if it is embarrassing for some or inconvenient for others and it offends, well, then they do not seek the truth, but are rather blind to it and therefore will be blind to God.
When we accept lies, then we empower Satan. When we first seek the truth rather than political agendas, then we serve Christ for He is the way, the truth, and the light! Make up your own mind, but first open your heart to what is rather than what is not. In order to bring people to the church, is the SBC willing to foment lies and deceits? Does the perpetuation of lies to entice people to the church also bring people to Christ? Robert E Lee once said to neither be dishonest to gain a friend or to retain one. He was truly a great Christian by words and deeds, yet the SBC makes a mockery of themselves when they attack such men. These actions are NOT the way of Christ, but rather of Satan. Why not attack the organizations who foment hatred rather than an historical Christian symbol?
If the SBC truly desires to reach out to others and offend no one, then I suggest it has an open and honest discussion with them in the first place. However, how can you offend no one? If you stand for principles, even Christian principles, do you not offend atheists, deists, and others who refuse to accept Christ for who He is? Over 70 million Americans are descended from Confederate soldiers and many of these are black men and women – and not on their white side of the family. It also includes a great many Jews, Native American Indians, Latinos, and even Siamese and Chinese. This is the truth – and if the SBC wishes to turn its back on their fathers, then so be it. The SBC wishes to not offend anyone, yet in the political statement the SBC made, it offended every descendant of these men who know their history because they study it. When the SBC’s perpetuates a lie, no matter how well intended or how innocent, it does the work of the evil one and that offends God. Offend no one is only political speak for not offending a targeted group – search your heart for you know this to be true. Your church member who left did not do so because of our actions, but by the SBC’s. The SCV did not attack the SBC, but rather responsibly responded to a vicious attack on men no longer able to defend themselves. The Southern Baptist denomination is losing members more than any other church in America; this is why it made this statement – in order to entice membership. Christ attacked the Pharisees and Sadducees for being those men appointed to bring His people closer to Him, but they were nothing but white sepulchers - all beautiful on the outside, but dead and rotting on the inside.
Pastor, you are a very intelligent and good man or you wouldn’t be where you are. I know that your heart is with Christ and I hope that God gives you strength to do what is right. I also feel that you are deceived as to this issue, whether you know it or not. The bottom line is that the world is on fire and Satan is very strong right now. You’d be blind to not know this. As Christians, we are the most persecuted people in America – right behind the Southern soldier. I welcome this badge of honor because Christ said that we would all be persecuted for His name’s sake because the world hates Him. If Satan is attacking these things, maybe ask yourself why. Is the SBC the modern day Sanhedrin– would it be like the Pharisees and Sadducees and crucify Christ because the rest of the world clamored for it? Just because the rest of the world says it is so, does it make it so? Does it make it right? Can you achieve salvation by living a lie, no matter how small? I’ve given you the truth – what you do to validate it or not is up to you, but whatever you believe, do so because you have at least discovered the truth yourself. Please don’t just accept (nor reject) my view of it at face value.
I fear the end times are soon. What is right is wrong, what is wrong is right, what is good is bad, and what is bad is good. Evil is cheered and good is condemned. These are the ways of Satan and he is the great deceiver. We must live according to Christ’s principles – and that means being honest to people. Yes, love all men and do good to your enemies, but Christ will bring the sword and separate the wheat from the chaff and throw the chaff in the fire. Christ said that homosexuality is a sin. You asked me if I would remove any offense if it stood in the way of my fellowship with another – would you wish for me to ignore Christ’s message on homosexuality? Would you have me remove God’s 10 Commandments because they would offend murderers, adulterers, thieves, false witnesses, etc. because they would offend those people? In attempts to bring people into your church, does the SBC advocate that it is OK? Does not God tell you to be honest with people, even if it doesn’t meet their desires? Did not Christ Himself offend the moneychangers who made a mockery out of the Holy Temple? Did God remove that offense to them so as to bring them into the church? Isn’t this the role of the pastor; to be honest and forthwith to God’s people so as to lead them to salvation? If Christ be with us, who can be against us? If Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, do you fear man more than you fear God? Does the SBC seek man’s favor or God’s? God has given you the charge to be honest and forthright with people, not to bow to their political desires. If the SBC attacked those who hate, then I’d agree with them and stand with them, but it did no such thing – it made an easy political statement to gain favor with others. I am no politician, but I will stand for the truth, because I can’t and won’t live a lie. In the end, God’s will be done, not ours. I try to offend no one, but I will not live a lie and I would expect others who love truth and liberty to do the same. It does no good to anyone other than Satan.to perpetuate a lie, no matter how small.
God bless you, Pastor, and your flock!
Michael L. Landree
LtCol, USMC, Ret
Executive Director
Sons of Confederate Veterans
