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One of the ads during the Super Bowl has drawn a lot of attention for a variety of reasons.
It's the one that featured rock star Bruce Springsteen narrating his visit to the "exact middle" of America---while driving a Jeep.
The ad was supposed to be about the Jeep, but Springsteen was making a strong appeal to America to socially and spiritually come to the little chapel that stands in the "geographic middle" of our country---a chapel he says is always open.
But what would Springsteen's "middle" really look like?
Some thoughts on that.
And today on our live radio program, we'll talk about the latest on the Trump trial.
Be informed, not misled.
The Washington Post said says,
"This Super Bowl looked different from years past in many ways, but there were still the star-studded commercials. Ranging from funny to somber, they always strike up conversation outside of the big game."
The Post says, "One car advertisement struck a new chord by tapping rock star Bruce Springsteen" who "makes a plea for unity to a politically divided nation---from an understated road stop in Chiefs country."
The ad begins with Springsteen's voice over a visual of a long straight road reaching out across middle America:
"There's a chapel in Kansas, standing on the exact center in the lower 48. It never closes. All are more than welcome to come meet here, in the middle. It's no secret the middle has been a hard place to get to lately."
About the "middle."
The little chapel sits there exactly as Springsteen says, but it's not actually "in the middle."
Road Trip says the monument and the chapel were originally placed there on a trailer in 1941 and it isn't exactly in the middle of America. The exact "middle" is in a field adjacent to the chapel and the marker, but the farmer who owns the field said he didn't want people trampling around in his field.
And the chapel has been destroyed as well. A few years ago on June 1, they say, "our little chapel was destroyed when someone traveling at a high speed was not able to turn at the T at the end of K-191 highway and totally demolished it on impact."
"The new chapel," one traveler says "now is a new building that sits on a solid foundation."
Kansas's tourism board told the Post, "What an impactful commercial that resonated with so many Americans. We are pleased when Kansas is featured in a positive and inspiring manner."
The tourism board website says: "Call it spiritual or call it Patriotic---whatever reason---the people [are] fascinated by the idea of standing exactly in the center of the country."
Springsteen is counting on that.
His ad concludes with:
"Our light has always found its way through the darkness" and as the picture fades, he says, calling for a "Re-United" States of America---"And there's hope on the road up ahead."
Too many well-meaning Americans believe that unity is the goal---and unity is found in the "middle."
But the "middle" is not where the radical so-called-progressive left says it is.
Springsteen's "middle."
Springsteen says in the ad, "It's no secret, the middle has been a hard place to get to lately. Between red and blue. Between servant and citizen. Between our freedom and our fear."
He says, "We can make it to the mountaintop, through the desert, and we will cross the divide..."
Despite his call for Americans to meet in the middle, Springsteen himself has repeatedly endorsed and supported left-wing causes such as allowing transgender "women" (biological males) into girls' bathrooms.
He is an outspoken advocate for abortion on demand.
At an Obama rally in 2012, he claimed he was grateful for "universal healthcare" (socialized medicine), a more regulated Wall Street, and he added, "I'm concerned about women's rights and women's health issues around the world."
The "Boss," as his fans call him, said: "I don't have to tell you the danger of Roe v Wade" and "I'm concerned about the growing disparity of wealth between our best-off citizens and our everyday citizens."
His personal net worth is $340 million.
In 2016 Springsteen canceled a show in Greensboro, NC because the state passed a Public Facilities Privacy Act, which designated bathroom use based on a person's biological sex and prohibited transgender "women" (biological men) from using actual women's restrooms.
He apologized to his NC fans for canceling his show saying he was sorry they had to face such a burden. "To my mind," he said, "it's an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the rights of all our citizens to overturn that progress."
He said, "Taking all this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters."
In Michigan, he warned fans he would boycott their state as well if a similar "bathroom bill" was passed.
Just before the 2020 election, Springsteen called for "an exorcism in our nation's capital" as dark music played on his radio show.
He told Australians he would leave the United States and move there if Trump was re-elected.
He expressed similar feelings toward President Reagan.
There's more, but you get what he means by "the middle"---the "common ground."
The takeaway.
One could think his "middle" would be halfway between traditional biblical values and his far-left ideas. Some well-meaning people---including Christians-- have, in their attempt to create "unity," moved toward the left---"it's the right thing to do," they say, as they identify as the "religious" or "Christian" left.
Is it?
Where is the marker of the moral middle? Well, it keeps moving, changing, and evolving as we make so-called progress.
There is no middle in the mind of the far-left radical "progressive." It's all or nothing.
Jesus did not teach middle ground and He did not teach compromise. So when He said in Mark 3:24-25: "And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand, And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand," he meant exactly that.
Abraham Lincoln concluded, as we must, that because that is true, a government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free... "It will become all one thing or all the other."
In Revelation Jesus tells the Laodicean church "because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth."
Don't be misled by Springsteen's siren call. Christians compromising their faith in the name of unity is not about being a good citizen, or a good Christian--- it's about being deceived.
And deception is defining our times.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.