The moral battles of this country.

[Mike Vande]

History has always held a fascination for me. I suppose it is the gossip in me. History is made up of stories of the past, which is really just gossip, if you look at it a certain way.
Wyatt Earp, the movie with Kevin Costner, was on TV today. I caught the tail end of it, and decided to lookup what the web had to say about Doc Holliday. That led me to look into Western outlaws, eventually winding up looking at the grave of Cole Younger, which is in the Lee's Summit Historical Cometary, maybe 20 miles as the crow flies from where I sit in Mission Kansas.

It seems that most of the guys who would up heading west and becoming outlaws were Civil War vets. The ones around this area, the James brothers, the Youngers, the Daltons and Doolins, and a lot of others, rode with the infamous Quantrill's Irregulars, and the Bloody Bill Anderson's guerrilla force.

The war that formed them into the vicious killers they were was, in the public mind, a moral war, and both sides felt they had the moral high ground. There were economic reasons the war was fought, and other less worthy reasons than the morality of slavery and/or the autonomy of state's rights. As is always true in such circumstances, venal opportunists made fortunes. But those who did the fighting and dying in battles went to uphold their idea of right.

It was a war that was a long time in coming. The argument over State's Rights verses the Union's authority over the States was in debate literally from the Declaration of Independence, and the morality of slavery was the bottom line of the debate from the beginning. It was a question that actually shaped the growth of this nation; "Free or Slave" became a major consideration in whether or not a state would be admitted into the Union. lest one side have more votes in Congress and pass laws that support one side over the other, and tear the country apart.

We stand in a similar place now as in those days. The Supreme Court is the battleground, and both sides have some fear of tearing the country apart by appointing any judge who will upset the balance between liberal and conservative ideology on the bench. I wonder what will cause the next Civil War? I am positive it will happen, when I don't know. But the division between ideologies is too sharp to continue indefinitely. Who will be the John Brown that upsets the applecart next time, and which side will he espouse?

[Full Quiver]

good post Mike

[Shellie]

My son's middle name is Cole...named after Cole Younger.

[Poimen]

I concur, both on your sentiments regarding the nature of the War between the States and the evidence pointing toward such a confrotation happening again.

Ulitmately the Cause of Christ comes first. Next to that I desire a rebirth of either the Confederacy OR a return to the pre-Civil War understandning of the nature of the "union." However, if there was land to be had I would even favor a the possibility of a completely new nation, formed in the American tradition but openly and purposefully on Christian principles.

[Steve]

...a completely new nation, formed in the American tradition but openly and purposefully on Christian principles.

I know you are well aware of this, but it's already been tried, and look where we are now.

[Mike Vande]

...I desire a rebirth of either the Confederacy OR a return to the pre-Civil War understandning of the nature of the "union."

The pre-war understanding of the Union by the Confederacy was "we have then right to do whatever we want, up to and beyond seceding from the Union if we don't like what the majority of it's members say". Frankly, that's a little too much like"women have the right to do with their bodies whatever they want, up to and beyond cutting an unborn baby out of it" for me to endorse.

There is a responsibility that comes with being a part of a "majority rules" society that means you can just flounce off and start over, "just a little further west", when you don't agree with what's going on. Christians have abrogated their responsibility to be salt and light in this culture so many times that there should be no question about what shame it has brought to us all. Instead, we keep trying to find a way out of this culture and our responsibility to it, a way to separate ourselves from it, and establish a "Christian" nation with "Christian" government. That was tried in Rome and Europe from the time of Constantine, and it led to the Protestant Reformation. It totally corrupted the church, and it will every time the Church tries to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth by legislation.

[Mike Vande]

My son's middle name is Cole...named after Cole Younger.

Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger was a cold-blooded murderer and thief who tried to excuse his crimes by saying they were done for the sake of family and the Confederacy. Why would you name your son after him?