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Guilty of preaching religious liberty in England, Roger Williams fled to Boston, FEBRUARY 5, 1631. He pastored briefly before being banished by Puritan John Cotton, who himself had been persecuted by Anglicans in England. Roger Williams befriended the Narragansett Indians, who gave him land for Providence Plantation, Rhode Island-the first place where church government was not controlled by the state government. In 1639, Williams organized the first Baptist Church in America. His “notorious disagreements” with Cotton led to his publishing “Mr. Cotton’s Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered,” 1644, in which Roger Williams wrote: “The church of the Jews under the Old Testament in the type, and the church of the Christians under the New Testament in the anti-type, were both separate from the world; and when they opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broken down the wall…therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world.” In 1802, Jefferson referred to Roger Williams’ “wall of separation” in his letter to the Danbury Baptists.

Ah ha! ‘wall of separation’ has NOTHING to do with its current usage…

Without wanting to sound needlessly critical, as I look back over three decades, I think we were asked to answer the wrong question. What we want to do is not nearly as important as what we want to be. And the longer I live the more significant that becomes. It’s possible to do lots of things yet be zilch as a person.

Doing is usually connected with a vocation or career, how we make a living. Being is much deeper. It relates to character, who we are, and how we make a life. Doing is tied in closely with activity, accomplishments, and tangible things—like salary, prestige, involvements, roles, and trophies. Being, on the other hand, has more to do with intangibles, the kind of people we become down inside, much of which can’t be measured by objective yardsticks and impressive awards. But of the two, being will ultimately outdistance doing every time. It may take half a lifetime to perfect . . . but hands down, it’s far more valuable. And lasting. And inspiring.

 Jimmy Carter, in his book Sources of Strength, 1997, wrote: “Rev. Niebuhr urged Dietrich Bonhoeffer to remain in America for his own safety. Bonhoeffer refused. He felt he had to be among the other Christians persecuted in Germany. So he returned home, and…in resistance to Hitler…preached publicly against Nazism, racism, and anti-Semitism…Bonhoeffer was finally arrested and imprisoned. Born FEBRUARY 4, 1906, he died April 9, 1945, just a few days before the allied armies liberated Germany. He was executed on orders of Heinrich Himmler. He died a disciple and a martyr.” Jimmy Carter concluded: “The same Holy Spirit…that gave Bonhoeffer the strength to stand up against Nazi tyranny is available to us today.” On February 16, 2002, Dr. James Dobson told the National Religious Broadcasters: “Those of you who feel that the church has no responsibility in the cultural area…What if it were 1943 and you were in Nazi Germany and you knew what Hitler was doing to the Jews…Would you say, ‘We’re not political-that’s somebody else’s problem’?” Dobson concluded: “I thank God Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not give that answer, and he was arrested by the Nazis and hanged in 1945, naked and alone because he said, ‘This is not right.’”

I think this is the first time in his life that there’s not a professor around to turn his C into an A or to write the law review article for him that he can’t write. He’s totally exposed. There’s nobody to make it better. I think he’s been covered for all of his life. The fact that his agenda has totally failed this year is the best thing that could have happened to this country. I thank God every day that this is going down the tubes, that that Massachusetts election happened. Not that God had anything to do with it. That’s just the person I thank.

Hear, hear…

So Obama says he’s not a Bolshevik but, folks, the Communist Party USA loves Obama.  Here are just some sample headlines.  “CPUSA and Obama Platforms are Identical.”  August 8th, 2008: “Forget for the moment about Bill Ayers and Obama’s other Communist friends and mentors of the distant past,” and they go on to cite how his agenda and theirs are platforms, Obama’s and the CPUSA, are identical.