Stephen Jones

Looking back from our “more enlightened” age at our founding fathers and the birth of America as a new nation gives a loft sense of giddy superiority. What were they thinking by continuing to allow slavery when they wrote the Constitution?

And this, folks, is how easy it is to feel some kind of moral superiority to those poor, ignorant, miscreants (aka scumbags) who practiced slavery, the ultimate cruelty perpetrated by man against another human being.

Funny how the use of the phrase “more enlightened” just rolls off the tongue as if it’s self-evident that we are so advanced and superior these days. I actually wrote this with a tinge of sarcasm because I believe a case could be made for the opposite. We may have many technological advancements but we can’t truthfully say we ended slavery.

That’s right. Slavery is alive and well in the world. It’s even alive and well in the good old USA. You can pretend you didn’t know all you like but it’s just called something else these days: human trafficking, or sex slave trade. Some of the trafficked victims actually end up doing manual labor against their will.

Back in colonial America, before we gained our independence, the tradition and practice of slavery was imported from Europe. I’m not suggesting its origin as some excuse. And there were many different kinds of slavery. Securing passage to the New World from Europe was costly, and out of reach for any but the very wealthy. That’s why many would voluntarily offer themselves up as indentured servants as payment in order to get to America. For many, this became a necessity to escape persecution for religious beliefs. For others, this was the prospect of claiming real estate and finding gold.

Acceptable and Commonplace

The reason for my question at hand goes at the very heart of the abortion issue. In those days slavery had become so commonplace that people eventually came to regard the practice as acceptable, even a right. They saw their station in life as an accident of birth so it wasn’t anyone’s fault that they were wealthy enough to have slaves and the slaves were grateful to find a benevolent, rich master able to afford to hire them.

In these <ahem> “enlightened” times we have come to see abortion as one of the many options when it comes to planned parenthood. After all, a woman has right to autonomy over her own body. In fact, to even suggest that she not be permitted to have an abortion seems an injustice on par with rape. She never gave assent to becoming impregnated and now, how dare anyone suggest she be forced to bear the offspring of such a violation. And, even when there is no rape, shouldn’t the mother be able to choose whether to “keep” the baby.

My point is that the practice of abortion is as commonplace as getting a tattoo, a piercing, a nose job, a chin lift, or a gastronomic bypass. It’s just a procedure and the problem goes away. It’s not expensive and many clinics offer the service free of charge. In fact, just regard it as another form of birth control. Bottom line, no painful delivery, no labor, and no postpartum responsibilities of raising the child. And, heaven forbid we ever go back to the days of back alley abortions.

All Objections Are Silent

When slavery was the law of the land, the disparity of class meant the slaves had no rights and were unequal to their masters. None of the slaves could stand up and say to their master “I don’t have to take this abuse. I’m out of here.” There were runaway slaves but most of them were caught and either put back into servitude or killed as an example and deterrent to others who might be like-minded. The slaves had no liberty because they were less than human: they were just property to be sold, traded, purchased, or disposed of. Not only were they without rights, they had no representation. They weren’t even considered citizens. You might even say they weren’t even regarded as human.

It has become customary to refer to the unborn child as a “fetus” from the Latin, meaning “offspring, young animal” which has led some to regard it as mass of tissue, not a child, and definitely less than human. This seems strange to me because with any other mammal we have no problem recognizing that what is inside the mother is the infant offspring of said mammal. A pregnant cow most obviously has a baby calf inside. I think the reason some have so much trouble equating “fetus” with “unborn child” has to do with the implications of what abortion means.

What is abortion? According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, abortion is “induced termination of a pregnancy with destruction of the embryo or fetus.” It would seem less egregious if this were just a removal of some tissue, similar to removing a tumor. I’m pretty sure that’s what most people think of when they think abortion.

Let’s just ask ourselves a simple question: “What if abortion was actual infanticide?” There was a time just asking this question was horrific and unthinkable. Now, there is a new breed of abortion activist that believes it is the mother’s right to kill her baby (infanticide) so it’s a waste of time coming to terms with what is actually going on. This position, though very recent, is more commonplace than you might imagine. No longer is the argument that the fetus is an unborn child, so it’s murder. The mask is off and it’s ugly. There is now a big movement that says it’s within the right of a mother to kill her baby, no matter how late term, even after the baby has been born. To me this is horrifying.

Even though the slave was powerless, he/she could cry out and be heard in their suffering. Not so with the unborn. When babies are being killed in the womb there is none but God to hear their silent cries of pain and anguish. Their death isn’t instantaneous. We now have scientific proof that they can feel pain and suffer an agonizing death as they are ripped apart or burned with chemicals.

In Conclusion

As with slavery, abortion these days has become acceptable and we have yet to reach a point in our culture where it has become as widely regarded as an injustice. Maybe it was easier to see slavery as wrong because we could see, hear, and read of the cruelty and inhuman treatment they had to suffer. The slaughter of the unborn through abortions is a modern day holocaust but nobody can hear their screams and no one is forced to even see their ordeal.

My biggest sorrow is that none of the abortion advocates, whether Pro-Choice or Pro-Abortion, will even assent to the proposition we should have less abortions. They love to kill their babies and heaven help anyone who tries to stop them. I’m not sure criminalizing mothers having abortions or doctors performing them is the solution. Neither am I favor of outlawing abortions which will again lead to women dying from botched back alley abortions. What we need is a dialog and more enlightenment so, as a society, we can eventually say it’s wrong so we’re not going to do it anymore. The next generation may very well look back at this time and marvel at our inhumane practice of abortion the same way we look back when slavery was the law of the land. Maybe one day there will be a procedure to transplant the unborn child successfully from an unwilling mother to one who wants the child. i know, I’m a dreamer. But what other choice do I have? Color me silly, but I care about every life, no matter how small or defenseless. Are you with me?

Most of the focus in this recent election has been on who to vote for. Many are under the impression that both campaigns were personality driven, yet it may come as a surprise that we on the right kept waiting to hear what the Harris / Walz platform was other than not to vote for Trump. And, there was plenty of misinformation being heralded by the media about what a Trump presidency would be like. Kamala, Biden, Obama, and pretty much every other well known politician on the left warned that Trump is the biggest threat to our democracy.

Ok, friends, I’m going to ask you put all of that aside for the rest of this blog, because I’m not here to write about that. Instead, I’m going to try to explain what I voted for and not who.

We voted for the same thing

I know you are going to find this hard to swallow, but I voted for everything the left said it was voting for: individual liberty; women’s rights; the right to believe what I want; the right to not have the government dictate what I can or cannot do (unless it violates someone else’s rights); equal protection under the law; no bullying or discrimination over ethnicity, sex, belief, or sexual preference; the right for women to be able to compete with women; the right to privacy; a secure border; freedom from overregulation and federal overreach; the right to earn a living; and a government that puts the interests of its citizens first.

As a Christian I share many beliefs with those of other faiths. I strongly believe that we should love one another. I believe we need to get rid of our anger and put aside our differences so that we can work together for all the things we have in common. In spite of the efforts of some, all of us — I mean every American — have more in common than our differences and we can live together without having to agree on everything. Your citizenship does not require you to have the same beliefs, wants, tastes, or ideas. In the Declaration of Independence, we read that “all men are created equal.” That equality only applies to our worth and rights to equal justice. It is not a guarantee of equal outcome and does not deny us differences in appearance, preference, taste, belief, station in life, ability, aptitude, intelligence, talent, role, etc. Life itself is diverse, of many colors and hues, multifaceted, and full of variety. All snowflakes are snowflakes yet each is unique. All fingerprints are fingerprints yet each is unique. You might look like someone else and you might have a lot in common with many other people but you are unique. Even identical twins are different people.

None of our differences need ever be a cause for separation unless that difference involves actions that cause or threatens harm to another. We believe in freedom of religion but that doesn’t mean we allow human sacrifice. We believe in the sanctity of life and the right to life, which includes the right to self defense and defense of others. We also believe to deprive someone of their life must always be a last resort. We understand the need for law enforcement because not everyone follows the law. We also believe that those given the authority to enforce the law have a responsibility and obligation to discharge their duties responsibly, without bias or prejudice, and should have to answer for their actions whenever they abuse that authority. That being said, we need to support and assist those who are serving on our behalf, putting themselves in dangers way on a regular basis.

We believe in civility and showing respect of others. We oppose bullying and depriving any one of their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We also believe that citizenship is privilege not freely given to everyone, but granted according to our immigration laws. This is not only in respect for those born here and those who have obtained their citizenship, but also for anyone seeking to become a citizen. There is value in being a citizen and there is a proper means to becoming one. It is our right as sovereign individuals this be so.

We believe in charitable giving and helping those in need. As a believer, I strongly believe this must be something given freely and personally, not under duress, by force, or using someone else’s money. As a nation we have been more than generous and regularly give enormous amounts of money in aid to many nations, including our enemies. Whenever there is any disaster, we are the first to give as we can. There is a mistaken notion that the government should have the right to take money from us against our will as long as it’s for a good cause. This is Machiavellian thinking and the biggest problem with it is the lack of transparency. Doing wrong is never right or justified because a bigger power is doing it. We are aware that there are practices in our government that violate this principle but that doesn’t make the principle itself invalid.

In summary, no matter your party or political affiliation, we are all in this together. We may have our differences, but in the end of the day we share a common heritage and a common hope that we can better ourselves and be that shining city on a hill that our forefathers envisioned. Here in El Paso we have an expression, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait awhile and it will change.” No matter who wins our elections, it serves all of us to have such a form of representative government. If we don’t like who gets elected we will have the chance to elect someone else the next election. Our government doesn’t allow anyone to so radically change our government to ever change that. What’s more important is that we never abandon our principles, the ones that have eternal merit, and that we continue to live together as fellow Americans to see our dream come true.

While it may be debatable how much autonomy (free will) any of us have, there is sufficient evidence to establish free will exists.

Having and making choices is one of our responsibilities as an adult. Even children make choices but their options are necessarily limited by their parent(s) or guardian(s). Sometimes our choices are less evident and sometimes we even forget we have a choice.

As a believer and a philosopher, I believe there is a strong case for the importance of free will to our Creator. To demonstrate this, I ask you to consider soulful, romantic love.

Love that is forced upon us, that is imposed on us against our will, may be many things (including rape) but it isn’t true love. This has always been the case, even if historically many marriages were for reasons other than love. Even in arranged marriages, there wasn’t any pretense that it was for anything other than class, and material concerns.

The tradition of marriage, from time immemorial, has always included (in some for) consent by means of a question, and vows as declaration of will. Even arranged marriages were between people who chose to accept the arrangement.

Consent, or permission, is a part of free will. The best form of consent is informed consent, in which there is transparency about what is being accepted. This is the reason the traditional vows have that peculiar directive: “If anyone knows any reason why these two shouldn’t be joined together in holy matrimony, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.”

In scripture we learn that God is love. It is His nature. Furthermore, we read about the account of creation, where a loving God created man. Quintessential in the creation story is the instruction God gave Adam (and Eve): “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

In being given this commandment, Adam and Eve were presented with a choice: to eat or not to eat. God expressed His desire that they not eat. They chose to eat, an act of free will, and that choice resulted in death. God could have created man without any free will, in which case they never would have disobeyed God. Somehow, and I believe this to be very important, it was by the express will and design of God that man should have free will.

We also learn in scripture that God has and exercise His will. We don’t know about all the heavenly hosts, but we do know angels and archangels also have free will. When Lucifer fell, if we accept this account, he chose to rebel against God and many angels who joined him were cast out.

Let’s stop here and consider the implications of free will as applied to love and worship. I believe this is evidence given to us to know that God is good and loving. God doesn’t just tell us He is loving. He shows us by loving us enough to allow us to make choices. Because of how much Adam’s choice cost the human race, and because of how much God loves us, God himself chose to live as human and die in our place, thus making the ultimate sacrifice and paying for us the cost of our redemption, or salvation.

While the politics of man pale in comparison to the authority of the Kingdom of God, I believe we have been given knowledge useful in making intelligent choices when it comes to the government of man on earth.

While no perfect form of earthly government exists, we have plenty of data to give informed consent where the choice is available to us. By and large, we are limited to those choices provided to us. For some, there is no choice. To rebel against the status quo could mean imprisonment or death. Do you remember the Soviet Gulag Archipelago? Do you remember reading about life under the control of the Third Reich? Under Stalin?

Because God has placed so much importance on free will, I propose that the form of government that provides the most liberty, even if those choices lead to less than perfect circumstances, is the lesser of evils, being compared to other governments, where there is such a level of control, that its subjects are not free, and are deprived of liberty.

I’ll even go one step further and submit that throughout history, it is the forms of government we describe as tyrannical, where liberty is deprived from its subjects, that life and the pursuit of happiness is also up the whim of those in control. Life given or taken was determined by the upward or downward gesture of a thumb.

Think of the forms of government we see around the world today and I believe there is but one that is a shining city on a hill. Even though it is not purely in the same form as when it was born, it was unique experiment in the governance of man. Namely, the United States of America. Not a pure democracy, and definitely not a monarchy, socialist, or communist state, but a constitutional Republic with democratic elements. Whether or not it is supreme, that is not my argument. I’ll leave you to decide. But, it is definitely unique, even considering there are some governments that have a similar form.

In conclusion, I’ll put it this way: No form of government on earth is without its flaws. There is no perfect government where it depends on men, who are not angels, but sinners. Yet, the liberty enshrined the USA, as blueprinted by our Constitution, allows us a remedy should tyranny ever raise its ugly head. Such a remedy is out of reach in other governments where liberty has been denied. Just look at how many are trying to immigrate here compared to those trying to leave communist countries.

The Farce of Masks and Lockdowns: A Comedy of Errors

Let’s be honest: if you thought the pandemic was going to teach us something meaningful about public health, you might want to adjust your expectations. Remember when we were told that masks are our magical shields? According to the latest studies, the effectiveness of wearing masks during the Covid pandemic seems to have been dressed up in a monolithic narrative more fitting for a Saturday Night Live skit than serious health policy. Sure, let’s cling to the idea that fabric over our faces was the doomsday prevention method we all needed.

Lockdowns? Ah, the great experiment that had us all practicing the fine art of sourdough baking while wondering if our lives were just a giant episode of “Survivor”. As cases surged, so did the skepticism. Did we really believe that shoving everyone indoors would somehow contain a virus known for its stealthy spread? Now, as we sit on the other side of this mess, our collective open eyes should prompt us to ask: will we be gullible enough to repeat similar policies for the next epidemic? Spoiler alert: probably.

The Vaccination Dilemma: When Data Becomes Censored

Let’s dive into the database of regrets, shall we? The idea of mass vaccination arose as a beacon of hope, but recent data has some alarming details that we can’t afford to ignore. It appears that while the vaccine has its benefits, adverse effects exist—yes, that’s right, folks. It’s not all rainbows and sunshine. We need to wake up and face the fact that if we blindly follow mandates without questioning the consequences, we might just end up playing a sad game of “Russian roulette” with our health.

But here’s the zinger: with monkeys howling about the Monkey Pox now chomping at our heels, is there any room for individual choice? Will we be backed into another corner, told that getting vaccinated is the only path to salvation—while eventually losing our jobs if we dare to dissent? We’ve witnessed not just censorship of dissenting voices, but deplatforming of individuals who bothered to raise legitimate queries. Let’s ask ourselves, are we truly committed to learning from past mistakes, or are we destined to repeat them as if on a broken record?

Accountability: Who Will Face the Music?

As we stand amid the cacophony of authority figures, will anyone be held accountable for the decisions made during the pandemic? It’s easy to point fingers and shout “You were wrong!” from the sidelines, but accountability shouldn’t be a luxury reserved for the few. With all the lives affected—some tragically lost—by the rigid lockstep policies, we ought to be demanding answers. Isn’t it time for those who pushed the narrative to take a good, hard look in the mirror?

The World Health Organization and the medical authorities may want to take notes on humility. It’s vital that we shake off the complacency that silenced critical thinking and innovation. Instead of letting the next infectious disease dictate our policies, how about we come together and foster genuine dialogue? The lessons we learned during the Covid pandemic should serve as catalysts for better practices down the line, not shackles holding us back.