Larry Craig

3 yrs

Thoughts on Columbus Day

Now that Columbus Day is over, maybe the discussion and debates over its merits and appropriateness will subside for another year.

I think if Columbus Day is more about celebrating Italian Heritage than Columbus, maybe they should use Joe DiMaggio as their face rather than Columbus. He’s far more popular and comes with less baggage.

I do think that those who object to Christopher Columbus miss the whole point of it. It all comes down to whether you think the entire Western Hemisphere would have been better off if it had been left alone rather than settled by Europeans and if the world would have been better off as well.

Two separate questions.

As for the first, when Columbus sailed from Europe to the New World seeking knowledge and new trading routes, he didn’t pass any ships from the Americas traveling east seeking knowledge and new trading routes. In fact, when he arrived, he didn’t find any merchant ships, harbors, or navies.

He found no major cities, roads, or infrastructure. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t think he found so much as a written language or native literature. When Columbus came to the New World, Europe had already had major universities for hundreds of years. Libraries had been in existence in the Old World for at least several thousands of years. I don’t think he found any when he arrived here.

I venture to say that if Europeans had not settled in the Americas, life in the Americas today would not have advanced beyond what it was before they arrived. Why would we think it would have? What would have sparked a change?

You can decide if the peoples who lived here before Columbus benefitted by the arrival of Europeans or not.

This is not to say that great evils were not committed by Europeans in their dealing with indigenous populations. And vice versa. And among the indigenous peoples themselves. It is called the human condition. Europeans did not invent scalping, and scalping was not an Indian invention in response to European hostilities. And it is common knowledge that the various Indian tribes did not live here in perfect harmony with each other. They often warred with and enslaved other tribes.

The second question is whether the world benefitted by the arrival of Europeans in the New World. Simply put, there would have been no United States of America if Europeans did not have a New World to move to. Europe and everywhere else was ruled by kings, whatever name you might call them. Emperors. There was no ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’ It’s not a stretch to say that freedom was born in America.

If Columbus didn’t ‘discover’ America, somebody else would have.

It’s not an accident of history that many of those who came to
America came to escape persecution. They came wanting freedom. Yes, others came for economic opportunity, but the United States was founded more by those who wanted freedom than those who just wanted economic opportunity.

But jump forward to modern times to get the bigger picture.
The United States, despite all the criticism about a racist founding, historical systemic racism, and inherent racism today, is still the hope of millions of people who move here every year seeking a better life.

And if it has not been for the United States, the world today would be run by either fascists, Nazis, or communists. Or all three. There would be no free nations as we know them. Blacks would still be living primarily in Africa. You can ask them yourself where they would rather be living.

Columbus Day this year has been met by protests and marches calling for Indigenous Peoples Day. Particularly as a replacement for Columbus Day.

I believe this movement is more a movement to erase the memory of Christopher Columbus than a promotion of anything that will benefit indigenous people anywhere.

We in the United States take our history and our freedoms for granted. And with that freedom came an incredible standard of living, even when we have people today trying very hard to ruin it. And we take that standard of living for granted as well.

We are indeed blessed to live in the country we do. And if it wasn’t for Christopher Columbus and those who would have followed if he hadn’t first ventured out, we wouldn’t know what freedom is. We do well to remember and honor those who risked all to sail to unknown places not knowing what they would find.

3 yrs

a letter to the paper

A Tribune letter writer laments that guns “are just too available in the U.S.” (National gun problem, October 6)

I’m guessing the writer doesn’t know that we didn’t always have background checks for guns (1998) or FOID cards for gun ownership (1968). Buying a gun used to be a lot easier than it is today.

It’s not guns that are the problem. It’s people who want to hurt other people. Guns are just a convenient way to do that. You can do it from a distance, and it’s quick.

Sure, the easy availability of guns can help people who want to hurt other people do it more often.

But the Founders thought it was important that the people are armed (Read the Federalist Papers.), such that it is a part of the Bill of Rights to our Constitution. The bigger problem is that we have too many people in our country who want to hurt or kill other people.

I submit that when our country basically declared itself a secular nation back in the 60s, and anything having to do with God was essentially removed from our public schools, the public square, and the public consciousness, our society lost the moral groundings that caused us to value each other.

Plus, the push for diversity and the identity politics of the left have divided our country into all kinds of separate, competing groups, and we have lost everything that used to unite us. We are no longer united states nor a united people. Gun violence is just the symptom of a much deeper problem.

3 yrs

a letter to the paper

I have sympathy for all the people seeking DACA protection. It’s a touch situation to be in.

The Sun-Times spoke recently about their frustrations. (‘There’s a lot of us,’ October 4)

I have two suggestions I would like to make for them:

1) You do understand why it’s so hard to get legislation to help you, right? Immigration used to be a process where people would apply and countries would choose who they would accept, based on what a person had to offer and what we needed as a country.

Now our immigration is based pretty much on whoever shows up, and nobody is counting or cares how many people come in.

A lot of people think that that is no way to run a country.

If you can get Congress to secure the southern border for good, your chances of getting DACA legislation will measurably increase.

2) I think your chances of gaining public favor will increase a lot too if you protested with signs that were written in English. Little things can make a big difference.

3 yrs

Benet Academy, a Catholic prep school, has been in the news lately, because they rescinded a job offer to a coach when they learned she was gay, but then hired her under public pressure.

I wrote several letters to the paper in response.

The Sun-Times editorial (Hold firm, Benet Academy, for LGBTQ rights, October 1) touches on some of the fundamental issues facing our country today.
The issue at hand is whether human rights conflict with each other, how they might conflict, and how we might resolve the conflict.
The free exercise of religion is one of the foundational rights of our country. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to clarify what some of these inalienable rights that God gave to human beings are, and the free exercise of religion was put in the very first Amendment.
But our country has removed God from the public square, our public schools, and the public’s consciousness so that our society now finds higher values than religious ones such that religious ones are now trumped.
Many religions believe that homosexuality is not God’s plan for human beings, and they have a right to teach their adherents what they believe is that plan. Gay people have a right to work. Nobody’s arguing about that
These religions are not teaching that gay people don’t have a right to work, nor are they trying to prevent them from working. They just believe that if they are to teach their values to their students, then everyone who is in a position of teaching should embrace those same values. That’s not too much to ask or expect. And society should respect that and not try to force everybody to conform to the latest enlightened thinking of the day.
_______________
I am not a Roman Catholic, but I feel I need to respond to a letter published in the Times regarding the Catholic Church. (Benet Academy and 21st-century Catholicism, October 4)
Christians are not impressed by the enlightened thinking of the day. We do not believe that everybody who lived before the 21st century was somehow morally and intellectually inferior than people living today.
We believe that this wonderful, magnificent world that we live in was not the result of random and necessary chemical reactions. We do not believe that life, all life, and the human body with all its intricate tiny parts can be explained without an intelligent Being being responsible for it.
We believe that God created human beings in His image, and loving His creation, He gave them the instructions on how to live this life. The owner’s manual, if you will.
We don’t look at opinion polls or read newspapers to decide what to think and believe. Forgive us if we don’t immediately respond to what the public or the media or the elites deem as the enlightened present state of human wisdom. We are not impressed by the latest marches or parades or court rulings. We see truth as eternal and not shaped by public opinions or polls. We believe that the Creator knows best how the creation is supposed to function, and that He revealed this plan to human beings. We do not believe that human beings are left to learn the laws of life by trial and error, but they are informed by the Inventor Himself.
We will never deny any person’s right to work, but please don’t tell us that we should ever hire a person who should be representing our values someone who doesn’t believe in them. You wouldn’t ask that of any other organization.

4 yrs

Matthew 28-18-20 Another Look at the Great Commission
Matthew 28:18–20 (NASB95) 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
After I decided to write this, I realized that some of the points I wanted to talk about are more suited to a seminary classroom than these kinds of articles. That’s all to say that there is a lot more here than most people will realize. But there’s still a lot left.
The Great Commission appears in a slightly different form in Mark. Some people might wonder why. My explanation is that when Jesus gave these great commissions, they were part of a longer conversation, and He probably said both of them as a part of it.
The wise approach here would be to study the two passages together and use the one to explain the other.
For example, each commission has one main command. In Mark it’s to preach the gospel, and Matthew says to make disciples. Mark is looking for people to believe, Matthew for people who keep His commandments.
But if you look earlier in Mark’s gospel, when Jesus first began preaching to the people, He said: Repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15
So believing in the gospel is not just a mental assent, a short prayer; it’s a life commitment to follow Jesus. You can’t believe in the gospel without it changing your life. The good news of the gospel isn’t merely that we can now go to heaven, but that now God comes to reside in us so that we can now live a new life, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew, the command is to make disciples. And how do we do that? We baptize them and teach them.
Notice that baptism is at the beginning of this new life.
Bible scholars differ over the meaning of baptism, how to do it, and who all should get it. I understand that. But there should be no confusion over the fact that baptism is to be at the beginning of this new life and not years down the road. Maybe we scare too many people out of getting baptized, because we make such a public spectacle out of it with the person having to talk before the entire church. Perhaps I should say that the idea of moving baptism down the road started early in church history, because a lot of people who had gotten baptized didn’t stick with it, but then I don’t think this is our call to make.
Then we are to teach them. Teach them what? It seems that Jesus wants a particular emphasis on the things that He taught them.
We often suggest to new believers, or anyone, to read the Book of Proverbs every month, one chapter a day, or the Book of Psalms once a month, 5 psalms a day. I just decided to read at least a chapter of the gospels every day. I want to focus more on things that Jesus actually said and did. I include the book of Acts with this, because Luke and Acts are two volumes of one book.
Jesus didn’t say, teach this new disciple the Bible. He said, teach them what I have taught you, the disciples.
You would think churches would have ongoing classes on the gospels every week, seeing how important this is.
And notice that the new believer is called a disciple. We had discussions in Bible school about whether a person could be a Christian and not be a disciple. Yet in the book of Acts, the word ‘disciple’ is probably how Christians are referred to more than any other name. When you realize that the Book of Acts is actually volume two of the Book of Luke, you need to do a Bible study of Luke to see how he uses the word ‘disciple.’ You will probably be surprised.
Bible teachers will often tell you that the apostles, the twelve disciples, lived under different rules than we do. God wanted them to do miracles and have the power of the Holy Spirit more than believers after their time did.
Except that Jesus’ command in the Great Commission for new believers is to teach them to do everything that God had commanded the disciples. So I find it hard to believe that God expected Christians down through the centuries to live their lives any differently than these twelve did.
Maybe our biggest problem is that both Great Commissions begin with the word ‘Go’, and we don’t know how to go when we are living among the very people we are to go to. We don’t know how to engage our neighbors with the gospel. The apostles seemed to be able to go to new places and immediately begin preaching, and we don’t know how we can do that.
I’ll have to think about that.