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The New York Times published an article about flags this week. The article is a mile long, which indicates it is very important, not as a news item, but as a message they really want the country to get and understand.
From their perspective.
I will summarize it. And include what they are not saying.
The article begins: "Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of [Supreme Court] Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs."
"This time," they say, "it was the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag."
A closer look at the flags.
Be informed, not misled.
These two flags may be "provocative" to the far left who sits in the Oval Office and the New York Times perched in the center of a decaying city, but they are not provocative to everyone, including many millions of Americans.
In commenting on the Times report about the upside-down American flag at his Virginia home in 2021, Justice Alito said that it had been raised by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, during a clash with a neighbor.
The "Appeal To Heaven" Flag.
The "Stop The Steal" campaign is of great concern to the Left. Polls show that large numbers of Americans believe the last election was, to some degree, rigged.
However, of even greater concern is the idea that the "push to remake American government in Christian terms" has had some success.
The heart of the story is that they, the NYT, have caught Justice Alito red-handed, revealing he holds certain, particularly Christian beliefs.
Everyone holds personal beliefs. Does anyone think Joe Biden and his administration don't hold personal beliefs?
The Times notes, "Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google Street View image from late August also shows the flag."
The concern around the flags is, in the mind of the Times writers, I believe, directed to the possibility that Trump will not be adequately punished and banned from office when the dust settles from all the Left's legal attempts to destroy him.
The Times says, "In coming weeks, the justices will rule on the case, which could scuttle some of the charges against Mr. Trump, as well as on whether he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while president. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances at regaining the White House in the next one."
And perhaps even more so, the notion that America may return to our Judeo-Christian roots.
The paper then quotes Matthew Taylor, whom they label as a religion scholar at the Institute of Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies: "Until about a decade ago, the Appeal to Heaven flag was mostly a historical relic. But since then it has been revived to represent “a theological vision of what the United States should be and how it should be governed,” he says.
Matthew also happens to have a new book coming out soon that he and the paper want you to buy.
Taylor and the Times are either unaware of America's founding Judeo-Christian principles, or they are trying to mislead as many people as possible by suggesting that conservative Christians want a theocracy.
We don't. Christians have never wanted a "theocracy." We have always wanted freedom to worship God, not government
That's the lie the Left uses to frighten the uninformed public when Christian principles are infused into the culture.
The Times says, "The highest-ranking elected official known to show the flag is Representative Mike Johnson, who hung it at his office last fall shortly after becoming speaker of the House."
The Left's fear of the flag.
New York's famous paper explains their concern by quoting a historian from Princeton University, "Since its creation during the American Revolution, the flag has carried a message of defiance: The phrase 'appeal to heaven' comes from the 17th-century philosopher John Locke, who wrote of a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule. 'It’s a paraphrase for trial by arms.'”
The Princeton expert says, “The main point is that there’s no appeal, there’s no one else you can ask for help or a judgment.”
The Left is panicky because there are those among us who believe in a higher power than government---the State.
Then the Times comes clean and attacks a person whom they believe is a real threat to our country.
Dutch Sheets has been around for a while and is well known among evangelicals. He is also well-informed regarding the thinking of our Founding Fathers about biblical Truth. And he is a patriot. He loves his country.
The Times goes for his throat:
In 2013, Mr. Sheets, a prominent figure in a far-right evangelical movement that scholars have called the New Apostolic Reformation, discovered the nearly forgotten flag and made it the symbol of his ambitions to steep the country and the government in Christianity, he wrote in a 2015 book also titled “An Appeal to Heaven.”
“Rally to the flag,” he wrote. “God has resurrected it for such a time as this. Wave it outwardly: wear it inwardly. Appeal to heaven daily for a spiritual revolution that will knock out the Goliaths of our day.”
He placed the high court at the center of his mission. In 2015, the court’s ruling that states must allow same-sex marriage had galvanized the movement and helped it to grow. In a speech three years later, he said, “There’s no gate that has allowed more evil to enter our nation than that of the Supreme Court.”
But Mr. Sheets and fellow leaders described Justice Alito, the member of the court most committed to expanding the role of faith in public life, as their great hope: a vocal defender of religious liberty and an opponent of the right to abortion and same-sex marriage.
The Times says, "Last October, soon after the flag was last documented at the Alito beach home, Mr. Sheets devoted a prayer session to the court, this time sounding triumphant. He cited the Dobbs decision, overturning the federal right to abortion, in which the majority decision had been written by Justice Alito."
“We have reached another phase in the process of shifting the Supreme Court,” he announced. Through the justices, he said, “God’s intent for institutions of government can now be fulfilled.”
Takeaway
To the secular progressive, it is near treason for anyone to believe that God should be a consideration in forming a government. That citizens should believe there is a "Higher Power" than government.
Karl Marx believed that. So do the secular progressives of today.
Christians and conservatives recognize there is a "Higher Power." So did our Founding Fathers.
John Jay, our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
Patrick Henry said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
He explained: "For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
These comments were common among the men who founded America. In fact, for the first 100 years or so, there was a Christian consensus in our country.
It was also Patrick Henry who warned us all: "It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains."
Pray for America.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.