Daily Archives: March 4, 2016

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

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From the greatest presidential inauguration speech ever delivered, and only weeks before the President was assassinated. Lincoln delivered this speech 151 years ago today.

1865oathIf we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope–fervently do we pray–that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Take time and read it all from the Library of Congress. It’s not that long.

FN: Lincoln’s Note for Slave Chaplain Window Into President’s Struggles

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Nice. Love this man. We need desperately someone like him now.

1457124570011When more than 40,000 escaped slaves took refuge in Washington in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sought to provide them with food, shelter and medical care.

For their spiritual well-being, he turned to the Rev. Isaac Cross.

“December 15, 1862, Surgeon General, Please say whether there is a vacant chaplaincy in or about this city, to which I could appoint Rev. Mr. Cross, the bearer. A. Lincoln,” reads a letter the 16th president wrote for the Methodist Episcopal Church minister.

The letter, recently discovered and now being offered for sale by a Philadephia rare documents dealer, was written by Lincoln in reply to one Cross brought to Lincoln. That document was signed by more than a dozen officials and pastors in the church, who believed Cross was well-suited to serve the freed slaves.

Read it all.

Peter Wehner (NYT Op-Ed): What Wouldn’t Jesus Do?

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Another spot-on analysis. We as a country are not in a good place.

If this embrace strikes you as discordant, it should. This visionary and inspiring man humiliated his first wife by conducting a very public affair, chronically bullies and demeans people, and says he has never asked God for forgiveness. His name is emblazoned on a casino that features a strip club; he has discussed anal sex on the air with Howard Stern and, after complimenting his daughter Ivanka’s figure, pointed out that if she “weren’t my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her.” He once supported partial-birth abortion and to this day praises Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. He is a narcissist appealing to people whose faith declares that pride goes before a fall.

Mr. Trump’s character is antithetical to many of the qualities evangelicals should prize in a political leader: integrity, compassion and reasoned convictions, wisdom and prudence, trustworthiness, a commitment to the moral good.

When Bill Clinton was president, evangelicals ranked moral probity high on their list of leadership qualities. Supporters of Mr. Trump, a moral degenerate, justify their support by saying we’re electing a president rather than a pastor. Why a significant number of evangelicals are rallying round a man who exposes them as hypocrites is difficult to fathom.

Part of the explanation is that many evangelicals feel increasingly powerless, beaten down, aggrieved and under attack. A sense of ressentiment, or a “narrative of injury,” is leading them to look for scapegoats to explain their growing impotence. People filled with anger and grievances are easily exploited. As the great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis wrote, “We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement and where everyone has a grievance.”

Enter Donald Trump, alpha male.

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