By Steve Woodward
A powerful message was delivered from the pulpit of The Village Chapel on Sunday last by Rev. John Jacobs. Citizens of a nation founded and thriving under God should contemplate what is expected of us.
“We’re on a journey of faith; a hero’s quest. Because, regardless of our own inadequacies, I believe God really sees us as heroes. And that’s what this world needs — real heroes. Real heroes like (those) we’ve been witnessing as first responders to the storms in Louisiana, the fires in California, and those responding to the anarchy unleashed in the streets of our cities. Real heroes, willing to step outside of their comfortable and safe sanctuaries. Real heroes with the courage to hope and overcome, not ignoring reality but imagining a better reality. Heroes for Christ, who may be ignored and ridiculed by this world but exalted in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
With our nation at a crossroads as consequential as any to which we have arrived in our past, efforts less than heroic, untethered to courage, will find us falling short and losing our country to the radical Left and to a once unimaginable tide of Marxism.
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board advises that defiant Americans should stand down in the cities where anarchy has been unleashed, and Rev. Jacobs describes it accurately by using that word. This is not organic upheaval, or run of the mill “unrest”. These are armies unleashing fury with no regard for collateral damage such as a sitting U.S. Senator and his wife.
It is patriotic to form watercraft parades on lakes, rivers and coastal waterways, and these gatherings of banner waving Americans are inspiring. But this is not heroism. It is on the other hand heroic to assemble on the streets of Chicago, Kenosha, Wis., Oakland, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore., to resist the Black Lives Matter anarchists, paid soldiers led by invisible commanders. It is heroism, not vigilantism, that will cause ordinary Americans to rise up in support of overwhelmed police officers and to protect business owners, churches and sacred monuments. Heroes contemplate victory, never failure.
The furious mobs have demonstrated in a few places that they soon might turn their wrath on suburban neighborhoods, where the people the mobs despise most tend to live. The heroes in these places, like the couple defending their private property in suburban St. Louis (Patricia and Mark McCloskey), will confront the unruly anarchists and stand their ground, at any cost. We know intuitively that unionized cops are soft targets compared to rural, everyday folks who carry two forms of ID at all times, a drivers license and a gun permit.
It is heroism that compels teachers to return to classrooms to fulfill their obligations and to spare children far reaching psychological damage caused by unconstitutional lockdowns imposed by politically motivated Democrat governors, mayors and city council members. It is heroism that will inspire parents to demand that students are in class five days a week, knowing that hysterical, fear mongering friends and neighbors may rebuke them, may actually accuse them of not taking seriously enough the Wuhan Virus.
It is heroism that keeps bar and restaurant owners going in the face of insurmountable odds. Just earlier, the governor of New Jersey finally green lighted the re-opening of restaurants for sit-down dining, but he’s no hero. They will be limited to 25% capacity (compared to 50% in North Carolina and most states), which means for many it will make zero economic sense to re-open at all. But these owners will fight to keep the lights on, to keep their employees from enduring joblessness and to give their communities a glimmer of hope.
“Inevitably,” an August 31 Journal editorial observes, “average citizens will move to defend themselves if elected officials won’t protect them. The proper place to do that is at the ballot box, however, not in the streets with guns.”
This presumes that ballot boxes will be widely available (states such as Oregon are leveraging virus hysteria to remove them). But more curiously the Journal seems to miscalculate the American spirit, which already has been under assault for months by those who believe we must act as sheep to ensure 100% “safety”.
Many average citizens are, indeed, sheep. But there are heroes all around us inspired by the average citizens who founded our nation and risked life and treasure, who ignored warnings to return to their “proper place” as subjects.
Real heroes are imperfect, deeply flawed people most of the time. But God continues to stick with them, cheering them on to be heroic when their time comes. We know this to be a proven phenomenon. We have seen a bombastic, iconoclast New York business mogul, warts and all, forsake comfort and sanctuary to become our President. We know that if all others shrink from their hero’s quest, there will be one still standing in the White House.