Should Americans Pay Reparations?

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties met virtually on Wednesday to discuss legislation regarding reparations for black Americans.

President Biden is said to be open to reparations.

Is this newly energized interest in paying blacks money to atone for slavery an act of sincere virtue, or another ploy of bait and switch by the left---mere virtue signaling? 

A closer look gives a clear answer.

Be informed, not misled.

On a personal note, this column was not published and our live daily radio program slipped into reruns Monday through Thursday this week due to some extreme localized winter storm events near our studio causing power outages. We're back. Thanks for your continuing interest and support.

Should Americans pay blacks money to atone for what is often referred to as "America's original sin"---slavery?

First introduced in 1989 by the late Rep. John Conyers, H.R. 40  was reintroduced in January by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee with the support of 162 Democrats. The move toward legislation is getting traction.

There is a move among Democrats and the Christian Left to start writing checks.

President Biden says he is interested. 

Two black witnesses spoke to the committee on Wednesday. Both told them what they didn't want to hear.

Salem radio host Larry Elder and former NFL legend Herschel Walker dismantled the committee's attempt to pay pennants for past sins.

Elder said black people have historically survived and thrived despite difficult circumstances of racism, slavery, and Jim Crow.

He said, "Black people have overcome to the point now that only 20% of black people are below the federally defined level of poverty---still too high---but in 1940 that number was 87% and 20 years later that number had been reduced to 47%---a 40% drop in 20 years."

He noted that it is "the greatest 20-year period of economic expansion for the history of black Americans." And he noted "that all came before the Brown vs The Board of Education decision that came before the Civil Rights bills of 1964, 1965"---so "despite racism and prejudice, black people overcame."

He also noted that prior to President Obama being elected for two terms, a Gallup survey that asked Americans if they would vote for a black person for president also asked if they would vote for a woman, a Mormon, or someone in their 70s---referring to several candidates at the time. Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, and John McCain were running for president at that time.

Elder told the Democrats who are wanting to begin writing checks of atonement that the survey found only 5% said they wouldn't vote for a black person, 11% wouldn't vote for a female, 24% wouldn't vote for a Mormon, and 42% were opposed to voting for a person as old as McCain would have been when he entered office.

Elder said, "Obama, as a black person, had a smaller barrier than these three white politicians. So conversations right now when racism has never been a less significant problem in America is mind-boggling."

In 1964 Martin Luther King told BBC that when a black person becomes President of the United States, we'll know we have reached a point where people are evaluated based on the content of their character, rather than the color of their sin.

But the Left seems to be committed to the struggle for equality, rather than equality itself.

When MLK made these remarks, he predicted that a black could become president within the next 40 years. That was almost exactly 40 years from the election of Barack Obama.

Elder reminded the politicians of something his dad told him: 

"Hard work wins, you get out of life what you put into it, you cannot control the outcome but you are 100% in control of the effort, and before you complain, go to the nearest mirror and say to yourself, 'What could I have done to change the outcome'?"

And his father also said this: 

"The Democrat Party was always trying to give people 'something for nothing' but when that happens, you almost always end up getting 'nothing for something'."

He's right. The Left has always claimed their virtue is rooted in helping minorities. "The stranger" as Jim Wallis and his Sojourners always refer to. 

They, the so-called Christian Left--- believe they and they alone are the voice advocating for the minorities. And their voice of virtue is the arbiter of what is morally right and morally wrong.

However, the outcome of so-called progressive thinking has led to the suppression of minorities.

The 'nothing for something' Larry Elder's father spoke of was promises for votes. Big promises, a bloated welfare state, and bondage for those who became dependent on the state. Neither freedom or choice. The Left's ideology is a different kind of slavery, but slavery it is.

Herschel Walker gives the politicians some straight talk.

Walker told the commission, "We use black power to create white guilt. My approach is biblical: how can I ask my heavenly Father to forgive me if I can't forgive my brother?"

He spoke about his love for America and the opportunity it offers for anyone and everyone.

He said, "Many have died trying to get into America. No one has died trying to get out."

Herschel asked, "Where does the money come from? Does it come from all the other races except the black taxpayers? Who is black? What percentage of black must you be to receive reparations?"

He said prior to appearing before the committee, he asked his mother, who is in her mid-80s, what she thought about reparations.

Her words: "I do not believe in reparations. Who is the money gonna go to? Has anyone thought about paying the families who lost someone in the Civil War, who fought for their freedom?"

Herschel says she compared it to giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to fish.

He said, "Reparation is only feeding you for a day. It is removing a sign 'for whites only' and replacing it with the sign 'no education here'."

Takeaway.

Democrats have been comfortable for the past number of years being known as the political party that wasn't religious. But now, since the mid-term elections can be extremely difficult for the party in power, they are searching for ways to convince voting biblical Christians that Jesus would look more like a liberal or socialist---a progressive, than a conservative.

In order for progressive ideology to gain a stronger foothold among the masses, Biden and his political party are trying to co-opt the biblical conservative Christian by doing two things: 

1. Create animosity toward conservatives and traditionalists who hold to biblical values and principles, while calling for unity.
2. Create a sense of moral superiority by growing an elite group of people---specifically the so-called Christen left.

They have successfully convinced too many Christians that government-run universal healthcare, climate change, and open borders are all a Christian response to the needs of people. The moral and virtuous thing to do.

The Religious Left progressives are masters of deception.

The deception looks like this: For example, the very word "progressive" sounds good, yet it assumes some kind of moral progress. Progress toward what? An ultimate standard of goodness?

If so-called progressive Christianity is truly progressing toward God's standard---the biblical standard---why do they continually support and vote for people who advocate policy positions that are clearly contrary to God's standards?

The Christian Left, using moralistic sounding words to sell the new moral standard become what the Bible calls "angels of light" as they deceive the uninformed masses.

That standard can only exist if God exists---otherwise, people in power are constantly deciding what is morally wrong and what is morally right---and the end of that is always destruction.

Progressivism is the path to destruction because everything is reduced to mere human opinion. And political activism.

The Christian Left is trying to hijack the Christian faith for their own political purposes.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.