Do Conservative Americans Have Free Speech?

            The topic of discussion for the Constitution Monday concerns the type of government in the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence was signed near the beginning of an eight-year war to win independence from Great Britain. The U.S. Constitution begins “We The People” and created a government described by President Abraham Lincoln as being a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” For more than 235 years, Americans have enjoyed greater liberties and freedoms than people in any other nation in the world. However, things have been changing.

            The changes began under the administration of President Barack Obama, but they were set back by the administration of President Donald Trump. Then Joe Biden was elected as POTUS, and the changes picked up speed again. According to Deroy Murdock, Biden acts like Erich Honecker, and the U.S. government looks more like the government of East Germany as time passes. 

Much like East Germany’s final dictator, Biden brooks no dissent. He vilifies over 74 million Americans who voted for Trump as “ultra-MAGA Republicans,” “extremists,” and “semi-fascists.” 

Even worse, Comrade Joe Honecker has unleashed the FBI—America’s Stasi, or secret police—to terrorize dissenters. 

 • The unprecedented raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, in a dispute over classified or (per Trump) declassified documents, should have been settled in court, at worst, not at gunpoint. These “classified” materials included Trump’s privileged legal documents, tax papers, medical records, passports, other nongermane materials, as well as former first lady Melania Trump’s garments and even items in teenage son Barron’s bedroom. 

• The FBI has seized the cell phones of at least nine Trump allies including former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark; House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa.; Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald; campaign strategist Mike Roman; election security expert Douglas Frank; and My Pillow founder Mike Lindell. 

•The Honecker-Harris regime’s radical War on Attorney-Client Privilege has capsized that ancient legal norm. The FBI has invaded the offices of, and snatched phones from Trump’s legal advisers. These include John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and Victoria Toensing. 

•These Americans were among the 35 to 40 Trump supporters who have endured FBI raids, federal subpoenas, or both. My Fox News colleague Tucker Carlson quoted relevant subpoenas. They’re probing Americans who made “Any claim that the Vice President and/or the President of the Senate had the authority to reject or choose not to count presidential electors.” 

            Murdock reminded his readers that there is nothing illegal about claiming that there was election fraud. Democrats in Congress raised loud doubts about the fairness of the 1968, 2000, 2004, and 2016 elections. At those times, Democrats claimed that “certain states’ electoral votes should be replaced with others.” However, Democrats are using this denial of the results of an election to beat back America First supporters. They are also the basis for unconstitutional acts by the FBI and Department of Justice.

Right or wrong, under the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, Democrats had every right to inquire whether Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Trump won the White House, fair and square. Democrats were in the clear even when they outlandishly claimed that Trump stole Alabama and Wyoming, despite winning 62% and 68% of the vote in those states. 

Republicans, in and out of Congress, also had and have every legal right to object to the 2020 election for all the reasons and in all the ways that Democrats did in previous years.  

When Democrats claim that Republicans cheated, they win applause for their political courage. 

When Republicans claim that Democrats cheated, they get stopped by the FBI, confronted in public, deprived of their cellphones, subjected house raids, arrested in front of their families and friends, and tossed in jail. 

            Such speech is supposed to be free for both Democrats and Republicans because it is protected by the First Amendment. However, only Democrats have the right to free speech because Republicans are raided by the FBI. America is not East Germany, and such tactics should not be taking place in the United States.

How Powerful Is God?

            My Come, Follow Me studies for this week took me to Isaiah 40-49. The title of the lesson was “Comfort Ye My People,” and the lesson began with this introduction. 

“Comfort” is the first word of Isaiah chapter 40. It marks the beginning of a different tone, a different emphasis in the prophet’s message. Where Isaiah’s earlier writings warned Israel and Judah about destruction and captivity that would come because of their sins, these later prophecies were meant to comfort the Jews over 150 years in the future—after Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was desecrated, and the people were taken captive by Babylon. But these prophecies reach even further into the future than to the defeated, disheartened Israelites. They speak to us, who also sometimes feel defeated, disheartened, and even lost.

Isaiah’s message to them and to us is simple: “Fear not” (Isaiah 43:1). All is not lost. The Lord has not forgotten you, and He has power over situations that seem out of your control. Isn’t the Lord “he that created the heavens, and … he that spread forth the earth, and … he that giveth breath unto the people upon it”? (Isaiah 42:5). Isn’t He more powerful than Babylon, than sin, than whatever is holding you captive? “Return unto me,” He pleads, “for I have redeemed thee” (Isaiah 44:22). He can heal, restore, strengthen, forgive, and comfort—whatever is needed for you, in your case, to be redeemed.

            As usual, this lesson contains numerous gospel principles, and the one that I want to share is “God’s power is greater than worldly power.” Isaiah repeatedly reminded the Israelites of God’s matchless power. He even compared God’s power to the oppressive worldly power that surrounded them. Isaiah 40:3-8 is one example.

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

            Isaiah is difficult to understand for several reasons. One reason is that he often used symbolic language. Another reason is that he jumps around in his writing. He may be writing of events in his time, then jumps to the latter days or the time of Christ before going back to his own time.

Isiah wrote about valleys being raised up, and mountains and hills being lowered. He wrote about things that were crooked that would become straight and rough places that would become smooth. This sounds like what can happen in huge earthquakes. The Old Testament Student Manual – Kings through Malachi has the following information.

President Joseph Fielding Smith declared that before the Second Coming of the Lord, there will be an earthquake that will be so destructive that mountains will be made low, valleys will be elevated, and rough places made as a plain. It will be so violent that the sun will be darkened and the moon will be turned to blood. The waters will be driven back into the north countries and the lands joined as they were before the days of Peleg. (see Doctrines of Salvation, 1:85; 2:317; Doctrine and Covenants 49:23; 88:87; 109:74; 133:17-25, 44; Isaiah 54:10; Ezekiel 38:20; Revelation 16:15-20.) (As quoted in the Old Testament Student Manual – Kings through Malachi [2003]). 

            The Institute Manual explains that Isaiah’s statement that “the people are grass.” It explains that the grass grows tall during the spring rains of April and May. Then the hot days of summer come, and the grass quickly turns brown. The statement continued, “The withered, lifeless grass was the metaphor Isaiah chose to describe the wicked whose ways seem to be so attractive to the world but cannot endure long. Only those sanctified of the Lord will withstand the glory of His coming, for the wicked will be as the dried grass before a blazing fire. (Compare Doctrine and Covenants 101:24-25.)

The Lord has the power to change the landscape of the earth through earthquakes and other natural means. He also has the power to destroy the wicked and to save His people even if He must use fire.

Did Christianity Influence the Founding of America?

            Parents can strengthen their families, communities, and nation by teaching correct history to their children. Once the children know the true history of America, they will not be so apt to fall for the false history being peddled in the nation today. The United States of America was founded in the late seventeenth century after fighting an eight-year war with Great Britain. The American colonists fought for independence from their mother country.

            Yet, there are people living in America today that do not believe that the colonists fought for independence. Scott Hogenson wrote about these people who teach through their 1619 Project, critical race theory, and other ways that the war was fought to protect slavery. This group of people are not only attacking America. They are also attacking Christianity by denying its influence on the founding of America. 

            Hogenson reminded his readers that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States assert that people are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” and entitled to the liberties of “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Even the birth of Jesus Christ is subtly acknowledged in Article VII of the Constitution. In addition, forty-six states mention God in their state constitutions. All these official documents show that Christianity was central in the founding of America and continues to be central in the lives of Americans.

            So why are liberal Americans attacking Christianity? Evil people have attacked Christianity since the meridian of time when Jesus Christ walked the earth. Now those assaults on Christianity are part of the political discussion in the United States. Hogenson urged Americans of all faiths to fight back against “the whitewashing of our history and the continued erosion of the liberties articulated in biblical Christianity.”

            Christian parents can help this effort by teaching correct and true history to their children. When Americans know the correct history of America, families, communities, and the nation are stronger.

Why Do Politicians Tell Such Bald-Face Lies?

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the necessity of honesty and respect in democracies. Voters deserve to know the truth, so they can make informed choices. When candidates tell lies, uninformed voters may accept the lies as truth – even bald-faced lies like the one that Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams told at a student forum in Atlanta this week.

            Abrams is not a doctor, and she made extraordinary claims when she responded to a question about how she would protect abortion rights if she were elected governor. This is her response according to Chris Pandolfo at The Blaze: 

There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks….

It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have a right to take control of a woman’s body. [She called fetal heart beats “medically false” and “biologically a lie.”] ….

We ought to get rid of the bill [Georgia’s six-week abortion ban that restricts abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected]. The bill is asinine, it is biologically inappropriate. It is morally wrong, and it should be confined to the dustbin of history….

We have to stop whispering about abortion rights in the shadows and talk about it openly…. It is about how we move our bodies. It is about how we live our lives. This is not a cultural issue. This is a medical issue, it is an economic issue, it is a moral issue, and it is our decision.

… If they can take our vote, our right to control our bodies, they can take our right to decide who to love, they can take all of our civil liberties from us. And every time they chip away at a civil liberty, if you think you’re safe, just wait, they’re coming for you next.

            Pandolfo wrote that Abrams’ “claims are not medically accurate.” According to a review of cardiac development published by Karger (a fetal medicine journal), “The initiation of the first heartbeat via the primitive heart tube begins at gestational day 22, followed by active fetal blood circulation by the end of week 4.” In other words, the heart is one of the first organs to form after conception. Pandolfo continued his explanation:

While it is true that an embryo does not have a fully formed heart at day 22, by the sixth week of gestation in pregnancy an unborn baby’s primitive heartbeat can be detected by an ultrasound. Doctors refer to this as a “manufactured” sound because it is an electrical pulse picked up and translated into sound by the ultrasound machine. But that does not mean the heartbeat is not present and is fabricated by doctors, as Abrams falsely claimed.

            Abrams has stated that she supports abortion even “until the time of birth” in some circumstances and said that it should be a “medical decision” instead of a “political decision.” Abrams must have heard about the primitive heartbeat being called a “manufactured” and assumed that doctors were manufacturing it. She obviously did not understand that it was the ultrasound machine translating an electrical impulse into a sound.

            Abrams was wrong about numerous things in her statement, but she was absolutely correct about abortion being a moral issue. Every human being has the right to choose how to live their lives. However, they are not free from the consequences of those choices. Conception of a baby is the result of the choice to have sexual relations. Once a woman has made the decision to have sex, her opportunity to choose is over because there is another human being involved. No one has the right to kill another human being, not even the mother of an unborn baby. As for babies that are conceived by rape or incest, most abortion bans have waivers to care for those women and girls.

Should Americans Pay Reparations to Descendants of Slaves?

            Leftists push for “reparations” to the descendants of African American slaves. Most likely, they have numerous reasons for do so. However, one of the reasons is that they do not understand history. They came through school systems that did not teach correct history, so they look like fools when their demands for reparations are met with historical facts.

            Recently, Hilary Fordwich, an expert on British royals, was entered by CNN host Don Lemon. He asked her if the British monarchy should pay reparations for colonialism and slavery. That could have been an innocent question, but Lemon got hit in the face with facts.

            Lemon followed his question about reparations with this statement: "'[You] have those who are asking for reparations for colonialism, and they’re wondering, you know, ‘$100 billion, $24 billion here and there, $500 million there.’” 

            Fordwich was prepared with facts and fired with “both barrels.” She first agreed that there are people who are requesting reparations. However, the British monarchy is the wrong place to go for reparations.

            In defense of Britain, Fordwich told Lemon that those people looking for reparations should go first to “the beginning of the supply chain” – meaning that they should go to the African kingdoms who were enslaving and selling Africans. She said that slavers in Africa rounded up other African people and held them in cages on the beach until people came in ships to purchase them. If the slavers had not been catching and selling slaves, the people on the slaves would not have been purchasing them.

            Fordwich then taught more history to Lemon. Most people know that Great Britain was the first nation to abolish slavery. She added that there were two thousand naval men who died on the high seas in an attempt to abolish slavery. Why was there a battle on the seas? Because the African kings rounded up their own people and “had them [in] cages, waiting in the beaches.”

            In her concluding statement, Fordwich added this zinger: “I think you’re totally right. If reparations need to be paid, we need to go right back to the beginning of that supply chain and say, ‘Who was rounding up their own people and having them handcuffed in cages?’ Absolutely, that’s where they should start.”

            Lemon was the host of the show, but he was too stunned to say anything. He had never faced the true history about slavery. The African kings accumulated wealth by selling slaves, and they fought back when Britain and other nations stopped buying slaves and fought to end the practice.

            It is my opinion that the descendants of slaves in America do not have any claim to reparations. The slaves themselves were the ones who suffered from slavery. There is no one living in America today who was a slave or a slave owner. There is no reason why any American alive today should pay another American for something that they did not do and received no benefits.

            The descendants of slaves should be counting their blessings. Their ancestors did in deed suffer because they were enslaved, but they live freely in the greatest nation in the world. The slave owners actually did them a favor by bringing their ancestors to America where they have the power to live the American dream.  Here in America, every citizen has the power to become anything that they want to become IF they are willing to work for it.

If anyone continues to demand reparations for slavery, payment should come in the form of one-way tickets back to the nation of origin for their ancestor and forfeiture of citizenship in the United States. They can go to their ancestral nation to seek reparations from the people who were amassing wealth from slavery. If not, they should stop their demands and start being real Americans – not hyphenated ones -- and wok toward success just like other Americans do.

What Was Graham Thinking?

            Abortion has been in the news for the past year or so after the Supreme Court said that they would hear oral arguments on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. However, the news was quiet until the Supreme Court leak about the probable decision in the case. Protesters marched at Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house and at the home, church, and school of Amy Coney Barrett and her family. A man even traveled across state lines to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh but gave himself up to law officers before doing the deed.

            Although the mainstream media fails to mention all the attacks on pregnancy centers and churches, they have jumped on the news that would further their agenda. There was recent news that a decision on the leaker would be forthcoming, but the news erupted again when Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C) came out with his brainy idea.

            Graham made the stupid decision to introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate “that would prohibit elective abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with few exceptions.” Somehow, Graham did not get the message that the Supreme Court sent the abortion decision back to the STATES. His bill added fuel to the anger of Democrats about Roe v. Wade being overturned.

            In addition to feeding the Democrat anger, Graham’s bill divided Republicans and complicated Republican efforts to take control of the House and the Senate. What a dumb thing to do? Was he trying to sabotage his own party? NBC News reported, “From the halls of Congress to the campaign trail, Republicans attacked the bill as a distraction that divides the GOP and reminds voters that most of them see the party as too extreme on abortion.”

            Graham’s bill also refocused Kelsey Dallas’s “attention on the faith-related fallout from the Supreme Court’s ruling. In her article at the Deseret News, Dallas highlighted “three recent developments at the intersection of religious freedom and abortion rights.” 

            Dallas’s first highlight is that “Faith groups are divided over Graham’s bill” just as they were split over the Supreme Court’s ruling in June. Some groups that are more liberal are now claiming religious freedom demands. “Religious freedom demands the right to an abortion so people can make their own reproductive decisions according to their own beliefs and principles.” Conservative groups are, of course, applauding Graham’s bill just as they did the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

            The second highlight is a “new lawsuit [that] challenges abortion restrictions in Indiana.” A group of religious leaders filed a lawsuit in Indiana against a new abortion ban in the state the “interferes with religious practice.” The lawsuit “contends that the new abortion ban would violate Jewish teaching…. It also cites theological teachings allowing abortion in at least some circumstances by Islamic, Episcopal, Unitarian Universalist and Pagan faiths.”

            The third highlight is a question, “Will religious freedom claims succeed?” No one knows the answer to the question, but “some religious freedom scholars are skeptical” of their success.

            The bottom line is that Graham’s ridiculous law could cause Republicans to lose a few seats in Congress. Will the loss of those seats cause the Republicans to fail to take control of the House and Senate? Democrat control of both Houses of Congress and the White House has been a disaster for America. If you want to save America from communism, VOTE RED!!!

Who Was Queen Elizabeth II?

            My VIP for this week is Queen Elizabeth II, the late Queen of Great Britain. Her funeral was held today, and she was later interred next to her husband. Here is a link to a tribute given by Music and the Spoken Word. It is titled “Grace and Goodness: A Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II.” Elizabeth lived a good life and will be missed by many people besides those of her family, nation, and commonwealth.