Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

• 2 Corinthians 10:1-6

This post is coming out at an odd time, since I try to stay ahead of schedule.  That makes current events something hard in which to respond.

But there were riots in Los Angeles, as if within my lifetime that is something new.  I remember the riots many years ago when one of the black ladies was interviewed and she asked the reporter, “Why are they looting and burning down our own stores?  Why can’t they go to the white neighborhood and burn down their stores?”  Yeah, Los Angeles is like many cities.  They have their share of riots.

But why was there a riot?  The rioters were against the federal government deporting illegal aliens who were criminals.  They waved flags of the other countries, not USA flags.  It was as if they were starting a rebellion.  What was worse, the California governor agreed with the rioters.  There are ways to agree with the idea, but you cannot agree with preventing federal officials in doing their job, property destruction, and the risk to the people of the city.

So, the president called in federal troops.  He had the right to do so.

Then the media was up in arms about how the president outreached his authority.  The Defense Secretary had to go before a committee on capitol hill to defend the decision.

And now in protest of the protest, the riots are spreading to several other cities in the USA.

I know the silent Christians are praying, but I remember another time in history where the president and a governor battled.  I did not understand it at the time, but I studied it ten years later, and JFK was brilliant and well within his rights.

It was the early 60s, and I was playing football during recess in a playground between the elementary school and the highway between Tupelo, MS and Oxford, MS.  We had seen the news reports about a riot at the University of Mississippi, but we were kids.  We thought nothing of it.  But when the National Guard Convoy from Tupelo to Oxford drove down the road, the pass from the quarterback to an open receiver hit the ground.  We all stopped to watch the convoy.  Suddenly, what was going on in Oxford, something we did not understand, became very real and very scary.

The facts:

• James Meredith enrolled as a transfer student to the University of Mississippi.
• The University denied his application because he was black.
• The governor of Mississippi backed the university.
• Liquored up redneck frat boys (mostly) started causing trouble.
• JFK, the president of the USA, called in U.S. Marshalls to protect James Meredith as he successfully enrolled and attended class.
• The trouble became a riot.
• The governor called in the National Guard to stop the riot and prevent James Meredith from attending class.
• JFK did something within his power to do.  He federalized the National Guard of Mississippi.  Now they reported to him and not the governor.
• James Meredith went to class with guards watching, but the riot stopped.  All was well.
• Two people died.  Neither homicide was solved.  It seemed both deaths were in dark alleys, away from the points of the rioting disturbance.

Ten years later, roughly, I was studying that case in military history in ROTC.  We were studying how the president could do what he did.  Just imagine that you castled your king in a game of chess, and then the pawns and rook that make up the castle turn to the other color and your goose is cooked.  The move by president Kennedy was brilliant.  But behind the scenes, one of the frat boys who had been arrested was released to tell the rioters to put their sticks and stones down and go back to class.  That had more of an effect on the riot ending.

So, as I see the riots and insanity over the last several years, especially since 2020, we have no middle ground.  There is nowhere to go if there is no middle ground.  Paul’s explanation to the Corinthians of what weapons a Christian has does not work if no one listens with a mind that there can be a ground in which to agree.  Maybe not agree joyously, but a ground in which we can live with the decision.

But to argue who has the right to do this or that is stupid.  No one questioned John F. Kennedy.  All concerned had read the law and they understood.  A little elementary student watching the convoy did not understand, and if I had heard the media screaming “foul!” I would have probably believed the media and the riots would get worse due to misreporting the news.

Maybe the media should learn what they are reporting before they report.  Maybe they should be in favor of law and order instead of chaos.  And I would like to know what person or persons is behind this chaos.  How do they profit?  After all, it is almost always a case of following the money.

My prayer:

Lord, forgive us from turning from your ways.  You lay out the way to understanding and peace and we run away from it.  We have leaders within our nation and states that refuse to accept your authority, and when new leaders come in and pray, the one’s praying are the bad guys.  Forgive us.  Help us to realize we are just destroying when we riot.  We get injured.  We get arrested.  And nothing really changes.  But one thing does change.  People become frightened, and they either find refuge in you or they do stupid things, sometimes making things worse.  We need to repent as a nation and turn back to You, while there is still time.  Please, Lord, only You can fix this.  The evil one’s poison has filled too many on both sides of the political spectrum.  And Peace, Love, and Hope are not political things.  They are God things.  Unless we realize that, we are lost as a nation.
In Your precious name I pray. Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.