Public figures are postured to expose their greatest occasions for it to be concluded their actions or words are foolish. Obviously all of us act foolishly at times.
King Crimson, a 1970’s progressive rock group, sang:
“Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules.
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools.”
Many in our divided nation fear President Obama will enact some unwise policies.
Often ill-considered decisions are enacted by “ardent enthusiast who cannot resist an opportunity to indulge an enthusiasm.”
If persons setting the rules are “ardent enthusiast” of “ill-considered” ideas the rules they make are a travesty when compared with wise and prudent decisions by such men as those who wrote our Constitution.
Persons concerned that the president might try to enact some policies that are ill-considered express confidence that Congress is a firewall that will prevent such action.
Ardent enthusiasts often cleverly devise ways to circumvent the intent of the Constitution and rewrite the rules.
They don’t need to gain Congressional approval or the consent of the governed.
A president can skirt the need of such approval by issuing a presidential directive to a committee, board, or agency.
His purpose is then achieved by those he has appointed to these bodies. This knowledge is “a deadly friend.”
If done, the checks and balances intended by our form of government will have been bypassed. It is a giant step toward an oligarchy, a definition of which is: “rule by a system of governance with a small group of people who share similar interest.”
Few forms of government are worse. An oligarch which King Crimson defined as when “no one sets the rules” is much worse.
Our founders eschewed such types of government and favored the “republic” form to which we pledge allegiance.
The verdict is in. Many policies of the present national administration have not worked. That is not just a personal opinion, the president himself concedes it.
People were deceived or tricked into believing they would be beneficial.
In the recent presidential election it was said if you want four more years of what you have gotten the last four years vote for the incumbent president. Indications are it is not going to be like the last four years. Four years from now the last four years (2008-12) are by comparison likely to look like a conservative era.
“The fate of all mankind...” is in the balance.
Hopefully it will not be seen as having been “in the hands of fools.”
We “the people” elected our president, thus he is my president. I will fulfill the charge given me by Scripture and pray for him.
I did so at midnight on the day of his reelection and intend to continue. Join me in doing so.
The Rev. Dr. Nelson Price is pastor emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church.
The Rev. Dr. Nelson Price is pastor emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church
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I've really gone after some of his columns, especially the ones on science and religion (I teach physics in Fuzhou, China).
His columns on science are absurd and uninformed.
I don't even slightly agree with his column's politics. And I agree with your criticisms of the columns and their relentless non sequitur style. Linking a song lyric to an argument that calls Obama voters fools is...well, it does not follow. These columns are irrational, embarrassing.
But he doesn't seem mean spirited to me, he really doesn't.
Anyway, having wasted my time reading your mean-spirited "column" for the past 6 years or so, I think there is reasonable doubt on the sincerity of your "prayers" for our newly re-elected President. You sir would be well-served to take a long, sober look into the mirror through your crocodile tears and maybe pray with the same sincerity for yourself.
You do neither yourself, nor your column, nor your former congregation, nor the college on whose board you sit any favors by your continued unpatriotic, partisan rage expressed through this column ... showing no measure of grace, humility, or charity to your fellow citizens with whom you simply disagree politically. What a sad, troubled life you must lead. I will pray for you.