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Faith
& Freedom Radio Listeners
Callers and listeners
tell us that an unusually broad group of people are listening to our
show. They are intrigued by our approach to
addressing the issues of the day. We have confirmed that people
are
listening on-line from all across country. The broadcast area goes well
beyond the theoretical
minimum predicted by mathematical models.
I
called the district office of a Congressman in Orlando, Florida, to
arrange an interview. When I tried to
explain who I was, the staff intern told me that he knew who I was. He
heard
me on the radio after his friends from high school told him about my
show.
We get calls from listeners in Orlando, Tampa, and Gainsville though
they are all beyond the energy propagation loss
prediction map. We are beginning to get
people’s attention.
Carmichael Ministers-In-Training Update
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Bethany had a thrilling ministry adventure while on staff at Biblical
Worldview
Ministry camps this summer. She traveled to camps in seven states
over nine weeks. It is an experience she  will
never forget. She made friends that may last a life-time and she
had a
strong positive impact on many dozens of young people. With only
a few days of rest at home prior to
returning to school, I put Bethany to
work for our Faith & Freedom show. She conducted research
about the story of the two
journalists jailed in North Korea. Bethany
co-hosted our Faith &Freedom show on August 4th. She told us
about human trafficking between China
and North Korea.
- Instead of
attending the
Restoration Church youth camp this summer, Jesse Carmichael was a staff
member
running the camp with Montreat Colleges Training and Leadership Course
program. He seized the job opportunity
to increase his qualifications to facilitate challenge courses.
After a short break at home, Jesse took on
the Rocky Mountain Challenge of the Navigators Ministry at their Eagle
Lake
facility outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. 
It was a grueling challenge where Jesse 'calisthenicked', climbed,
swam,
tunneled, ran, and problem-solved. He
and his group were taken to the end of physical limits. They
lived out of their backpacks, in record
breaking July cold where the day-time high for a couple of days was
about 50
degrees. They even got to bask in an
overnight snow. It did not help that
Jesse started and finished the course with flu symptoms. His
twelve-day course culminated in a twelve
mile run, up hill, at about an 8,000 foot elevation. With a
one-night sleep at home, followed by
the next night without any sleep, Jesse was back at Montreat College
heading up
into the woods again to live out of his backpack again to knock-off
more
requirements for his Environmental Field Studies and Outdoor Education
dual majors.
-
Bethany and Jesse are transitioning from ministry
students to practitioners.
Freedom
Ministries Huge Immediate Need
- Three years of
college costs for both Bethany and Jesse
are now behind us but we still have no idea how to produce the funds
for
Bethany's Senior year that just started, and Jesse's next two years to
accomplish his dual major.
- We have
160 ounces of old silver coins for
which we are trying to find a buyer.
They will pay for about one month of tuition costs
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Retribution - Is It Fair or Just?
(Read
the article below or listen by mp3 audio file on-line)
One of
the issues of
the day that we have talked about on our radio show is the scrutiny
applied to Judge Sonia Sotomayor to her nomination to become a U.S.
Supreme Court Justice. An infamous job discrimination case
that she ruled upon, Ricci v. DeStefano, 530 F.3d 87 (29 June 2009),
was used as an
example to challenge her competency. The U.S. Supreme Court
overturned Sonia Sotomayor's decision where she upheld a lower court
ruling. Essentially, Judge Sotomayor's Court indicated the
promotion of a fireman who is descended from a light-skinned Italian
lineage could be denied promotion in order to give preference to people
descended from darker-skinned people groups because of past injustices
to dark-skinned people groups over the last several hundred years.
Fireman Ricci complained when his
promotion was denied despite his achieving the requisite experience and
qualifications. Fireman Ricci suffers from dyslexia and has had a
difficult time passing written examinations in the past. To
overcome this obstacle to his promotion, he invested thousands of
dollars and hundreds of hours to prepare himself to pass a written
examination. Other firefighters took the same promotion
examination but did not shoulder the same investment to prepare for the
promotion exam.
Mr. Ricci, passed the promotion exam to qualify for promotion but the
government arbitrarily invalidated the test after they discovered that
no dark-skinned firemen met the test threshold required for
promotion. The government feared that they would be subject to a
law suit from the firemen who were descended from a dark-skinned people
group. Sonia Sotomayor's Court determined that the government
could invalidate the promotion test to uphold fairness toward classes
of people whose predecessors had been disadvantaged. The U.S.
Supreme Court indicated that Judge Sotomayor's court unjustly failed to
apply the guiding principles of law that would protect Mr. Ricci from
reverse discrimination.
What should our opinion be on this
matter? Should we try to determine what is fair? The
Federal District Court in New York came to a conclusion to what was
fair. The panel of judges on the
Federal Second Circuit Court with Judge Sotomayor came to a conclusion
of what was fair. Should we do that which is fair, or that which
is just? How can we know what is just?
The Holy Bible says that "Evil men do
not understand justice." Jesus said, “Wide is
the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many go
thereby.” (Matthew 7:13); If most men are evil, do not
understand justice and are heading down the road to destruction, then
odds are that men with the job title of “Justice” would tend to render
decisions
that are not just but are rather destructive. How
then can a Judge rightly determine what is fair and rule that which is
just? The simple answer is, left to themselves, it is impossible for
mere men to know and do that which is
just.
There is hope, none-the-less,
that justice can be served but it takes divine intervention. The
Lord has already divinely intervened. Sir William Blackstone, in
his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1766), said,
“…upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of
revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should
be suffered to contradict these.” With
regard to this “law of revelation” that Blackstone spoke about, he
said, “… the doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine
law, and they are to
be
found only in the holy scriptures.” (Sir
William Blackstones Commentaries on the Laws of England, Introduction,
§2, p. 42) Thus,
men can discern
that which is just, but it can “…be found only in the holy scriptures.”
Should all men, descended from
light-skinned people, make reparation to men descended from
dark-skinned people, for the sins and wounds of their
predecessors? Is it in the interest of fairness or justice that
such an idea would be contemplated? Is it fair that dark-skinned
people descendants statistically are born to parents who were born to
parents who did not have a significant amount of wealth compared to
their lighter-skinned contemporaries? Is it fair that men
descended from lighter-skinned people should be penalized for misdeeds
of some light-skinned men who preceded them in history? What is the
fair
thing to do in order to achieve justice? Is it possible that the just
thing ought to
be done in order to achieve that which is fair. Is there a
reference
that we can use to guide us in this determination? Has it been
revealed or are we left to our degenerate reasoning?
The Lord revealed this in the Bible, "For
I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and
fourth
generations of those who hate Me,
but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My
commandments. (Exodus 20:5-6) Does that mean that it is just, and
therefore fair, to hold the children to the third
and fourth generation accountable for the sins of their predecessors?
How do we reconcile the scripture that says,
“Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall
children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to
death for his own sin."
(Deuteronomy 24:16)?
The
pudding is in the proof and our freedom comes in
proportion to our faith. If we would be willing to have faith in
the Lord, His directives, and the authority of His Holy Bible, we will
then be able to orient our thoughts so that we can know and do that
which is just and fair. Stealing from Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Ours is
not to reason why, it is but to do and die." (The
Charge of the Light Brigade) It is the Lord who has the
responsibility of determining, or reasoning, that which is just. Ours
is
merely to do that which He has revealed.
Notice that in Exodus
20:5-6, it says, it is "I, the LORD your
God,..." who is the one who may visit the iniquity of the fathers on
their posterity. In Deuteronomy 24:16, we see that the Lord has
reserved the right to Him alone to do mercy or retribution to a sinful
man's posterity. For us however, he restricts our actions. This
scripture shows that we have no authority to take retribution upon
one for another man's sins, not even to his next generation. "You
shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of
your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am
the LORD." (Leviticus 19:18)
A court of man holding
this generation accountable for sins of previous
generations cannot be fair because it cannot be just. It cannot
be just because man has no authority to hold one man accountable for
another man's sins. Such retribution or mercy is reserved to the
Lord by the Lord. This biblical 'just' principle is reflected in
the U.S Constitution that says, "'...no attainder of treason shall work
corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the
person attained." This "corruption of blood" was the taking
of property from the heirs of one convicted of treason. Punitive
measures were restricted to the man committing the crime and could not
be exacted upon the liberty or property rights of his posterity.
The law of the Lord shows itself in the
codified laws of men. Yet sadly, evil men who do not understand
justice, cannot rightly apply law unless the correct biblical principle
is brought to bear on the issue. "From His mouth come knowledge
and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a
shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of
justice, and preserves the way of His saints. (Proverbs 2:
6-8) On the basis of scripture then,
it is unjust to favor one man or people group at the expense of another
on the basis of the sins of a predecessors man or people
group. On this biblical basis, the U.S. Supreme Court in
the Ricci v. DeStefano case appears to have rightly applied the
law to the facts and merits of the case. I conclude that not on
the basis of my reason, but because my reason is committed to the
benchmark of the Bible.
On our Weekday Faith and Freedom show, we
challenge our listeners to examine the basis of their opinions and
their actions. We introduce them to a biblical perspective.
We believe that they will reap long-term rewards for approaching the
crises of our day from a biblical
perspective. We also hope that they will begin to see that there
is an Author of ultimate truth. We remind them that Jesus said,
"If you abide in my words, you are my disciples indeed. And you
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. (John
8:31-32) www.faithfreedoms.org
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