Charlie Brown and Politics | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The price of leadership is that now you are in a spotlight for all to judge you---for better or worse. Freedom of Speech is a hallmark of America that lets us criticize until the cows come home.

    Charlie Brown, that great philosopher/theologian once said: "There are 3 things I don't discuss --- religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin!" He has his mind made up on the Great Pumpkin so there is no point in trying to change it. The other 2 matters, Religion / Politics, will always get you an argument, no matter where you are . . .

    Religion

    As a Baptist Preacher's kid I had no choice on going to church. The rural and devout nature of Moon's Grove Baptist Church outside Athens, GA, was my father's place. The Berea Baptist Church off the White Horse Road near Greenville, SC, was my mother's place. Neither of them dared to miss a Sunday lest the boogie man get them! Any of us who grew up with great religious fervor in our parents know YOU HAVE TO BE AT CHURCH!

    Baptists meet Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday night for Prayer Meeting. My father forbade me to play football since practice would interfere with Royal Ambassadors on Wednesday night. I had signed up for 8th grade football at Clarkston High School (back in that day high school started in 8th grade), we had scrounged up the money to buy my cleats, and then daddy found out about the conflict with Wednesday night activities---OMG!!! He was used to "small town biggest church" pastoral power and wrote a scalding letter to the Superintendent of DeKalb County Schools (with copies to the Principal and Coach) demanding they change the conflict and refund our money for the shoes.

    Boy was I embarrassed! They responded with a kind but firm reply: "This is not the small country towns of SC and NC where you have been. It is a large school system where sports practice has always been each night of the week. We respect the churches enough to not play games on Wednesdays or Sundays, but that is as far as we will go. Not all churches in DeKalb County are Baptist and most do not have Wednesday night services. With all due respect --- NO!"

    It became real personal for me as our somewhat immature football coach made a big drama of taking back my new cleats and giving the money in cash back to a timid 8th grade lad who just wanted to fit in --- as do all students that age. He even noted my smile (of embarrassment) as he did his drama and started calling me "Possum." That "Sweet Old Baptist" (SOB) was about as harsh as they come with the "coach embarrasses player" routine. Clarkston was hardly a powerhouse in football and he seemed most years to have a losing team in Class C small school sports around metro Atlanta. The Tucker Tigers always whupped our tails because they were class AAA. It was like Georgia Tech playing the University of Georgia when GT players had to attend classes on Saturdays before the afternoon game. When you have high academic standards of a Technical School similar to NC State Wolfpack players, it is hard to play against Gorillas and Watusi-es on the sports field.

    For most people who attend church of any denomination faithfully, they do so because they are right and most others are wrong or "not so right." I was raised to believe Catholics and Mormons were bound for hell while Baptists were the best. Not until I studied the writings and theology of the Catholic Church Fathers and a Ward Leader in the Mormon Church did I learn that we share far more beliefs than differences Baptists try to magnify by "always being right." The problem with Baptist arrogance stems from typical lower class striving to be better than the upper class Supervisor at the Mill who is often Episcopalian or Methodist!

    Politics

    I was greatly influenced by a SC Democrat Farmer who loved to talk politics. My father was less political due to our belief as Baptists that Separation of Church and State are essential to good religion in any nation. Any preacher of any denomination is well-advised to avoid politics in the pulpit because that gets you on the bad side of any who believe in another party than the one you pump. People are in any church --- mostly because they grew up in it. The same is true with political parties. Any child who decided to be a Democrat in a Republican family is liable to get his butt busted!

    As a Baptist Pastor I kept my politics to myself. I would encourage all to vote on Election Day, BUT when the curtain closed behind me, it was between me and the ballot --- and that is my private business I will not discuss publically. That was true until Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson formed the Moral Majority which gave Reagan the boost he needed to become President. In my view the tax-exempt status of any church is dependent on keeping politics out of the pulpit and hallway. Unified religious folks can start a fist fight over Politics before or after Sunday School and Worship!

    People who have a wise religious head realize Religion is a unifying thing / Politics is a divisive thing. Churches all work best when there is a spirit of love and unity inside their walls and ministry. The first Deacons were asked to solve a political problem between the Hebrew and Greek Widows who were about to have a lady-fight over the alms given them without a man to care for their needs in their day.

    In the South of my Depression-era farming granddaddy, there was little question over political party. The South was solid Democrat. Some called the Senators and Governors of the Deep South "Dixicrats." That meant Conservative / Segregationist / Unified in Congress. Men like Strom Thurmond (who I often met in SC), Richard Russell (GA), Hewy Long (LA), and all others served long Senatorial terms and held most big positions on the Armed Services Committee and others with great money expenditures and power. The leaders of the 1930's Democratic Party were from SC. I met Miss Mae Coker in Hartsville whose father was Under Secretary of the Treasury for FDR and actually stayed at her mansion for a week before my wife and new baby joined me after our ministry at Easley, SC. There, the sister of Bobby Baker was a church member --- and I was quickly warned not to bring up the embarrassment of him with an LBJ scandal.

    My farming grandfather and all others farming in the South were saved with the Soil Bank. It was the first program Roosevelt formed to get us out of the Great Depression. They all checked the Democrat block on the ballot and got through fast since it was a Party Vote each time. Our favorite political tease question with Granddaddy was: "If Willy B (the famous gorilla at the Atlanta Zoo) ran on the Democratic ticket, would you vote for him?" YES SIR was his quick answer ALWAYS!

    Then came the great migration South of northern Republicans and things changed from the 1950's to the present.

    The current Republican Party uses the word "Conservative" with a passion and now we see the renewal of racial hate as well as immigrant hate in the South particularly. I call the most recent political scene THE POLITICS OF HATE from all sides. The Tea Party Republicans are full of such and threaten their own party members if they should vote against that segment of the Republican Party in Congress. Another aspect of the politics of hate is the claim that America is a Christian Nation and the Founding Fathers were all white Christians. Anyone with a little research discovers the Founding Fathers were Deists (believed in God) but far from the White Christians used today by Conservatives in their attempts to change the Constitution.

    Maybe we need the "Great Pumpkin outlook" of Charlie Brown to come back. What that means is to ignore minor differences so that a new Unity in Sprit might come back to America. Our current focus from Vietnam to today is an obsession with WAR.

    I believe our focus on HATE is the one thing which will destroy "Liberty and Justice for All" along with the OPPORTUNITY for all to rise from the low social status of the Old World our ancestors left with smiles on faces. . . It is the same world Immigrants leave for better pay and opportunity in America.
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Comments

( October 6th, 2015 @ 5:20 am )
 
I skim your articles, Ted McD. For me they are the political cartoons of BCN. Maybe you need to give me the Cliff Notes Ancestry and Family research.
( October 5th, 2015 @ 2:27 pm )
 
My Methodist parents did not ruin us with extreme religion. Many Preacher's kids are traumatized. B.T. Brother Harpo is Bubbles dad. She dates my son T.Mc Jr. You obviously do not read my articles.
( October 5th, 2015 @ 11:42 am )
 
Bubbles needs to find a boyfriend. I suggest Bobby Tony! He seems a bit feisty these days and could benefit from some good loving in the back row of some entertainment or drinking venue . . .
Bubbles said:
( September 23rd, 2015 @ 3:18 pm )
 
T.Mc assigned me to comment on articles where BT talks to himself.
Do you want me to add you to this assignment?
( September 14th, 2015 @ 7:24 am )
 
The weekend reviews of the political campaigns show Ben Carson making some good headway. Trump is in bad trouble with women who don't like him. Hillary's email issue is ending with her apology and admission she could have done it better. Sanders is drawing bigger-than-trump crowds, Biden is still trying to make up his mind and could enter the Democratic Primary race.

I can't ever remember when this much politics and this serious was going more than a year prior to the November 2016 Election. I predict many surprises along the way in NC and National politics.

Just remember, the most important politics is ALWAYS LOCAL . . .
( September 12th, 2015 @ 5:41 am )
 
I recently ran into an interesting couple on the Bayview Ferry. They were from Denmark and gave me some insights as to how America is viewed in that part of Europe. They perceive us as a "pretense of freedom" nation over there.

They have a good medical system somewhat similar to our new one so all are covered and protected in Denmark. The relative they are visiting in Beaufort County raises herbs here and lives without hate being fostered by Conservatives these days. They don't understand why American cannot get along and welcome immigrants to our big old nation with plenty of opportunities for all . . .
( September 11th, 2015 @ 6:53 am )
 
What happened to this article on Politics and Peanuts --- up one day / gone the next??



Jones Calls on Corps of Engineers to Follow the Law Far Left of Center, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics NCGA: Nelson STILL ain't happy. (But movie incentives are BACK!)

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