Why All the Anger?

Some of y’all already know, that the day after the Orlando murders, I remarked to our little congregation that the shooting would surely be blamed upon me.

Sure as rain, within the week, the director of Islamic Studies at Duke University blamed Southerners; the ACLU blamed Christians; liberals in Congress blamed conservatives; a feminist writer at Salon blamed men; and the New York Daily News had blamed gun owners. As you can see, I was guilty on multiple counts.

All of this in spite of the fact that the murders were carried out by an Islamic jihadist, who pledged allegiance to ISIS; who was a registered Democrat; who had said that he was voting for Hillary Clinton; and who, according to several sources, was himself a practicing Sodomite. Incidentally, he had also passed numerous government background checks and was working as armed security for a company on contract with the Department of Homeland Security. Still it was somehow the fault of folks like me. Yes, I had anticipated these bizarre and nebulous charges from the political left.

But I really did not expect the phone call I received from our resident radical leftist, carpetbagging, militant  atheist -- the leader of our local chapter of  the American Atheists, headquartered in Cranford, New Jersey.

This altruistic yankee made it very clear that he hates the good Southern people of Levy County, Florida; he hates their culture; he hates their morals; he hates their faith; and he hates virtually everything else about them. Nevertheless, he has deigned to live among us and to save us from ourselves.

After confirming that he was indeed speaking to Pastor Greg Wilson, he informed me that I was personally responsible for the deaths in Orlando. To be honest, I first thought he was a like-minded compatriot, mocking the lunatic lefties and their bizarre charges; I even played along with what I thought was his little charade -- but then it became clear that I was actually speaking with one of those lunatic cultural marxists.

The caller’s vocabulary was as expansive as his intelligence, limited primarily to a handful of words and phrases. Words beginning with the letter “F” or with the letter “S”; mixed with frequent calls upon God (whom he claims does not exist) to damn all manner of things and individuals.

He informed me, time and again, that “this was not going to happen anymore” or that “this was going to stop”, etc. He, and his little band of yankee misfits, were going to stop us from celebrating our culture and way of life and from sounding forth Biblical truths. Indeed, the so-called “Williston Atheists” have long attempted to have the Ten Commandments monument removed from the County Court House and prayers eliminated from School Board and County Commission meetings. To date, they have met with no success here in rural, conservative Levy County. I have no doubt, however, that at some future date a liberal Federal judge will order the residents of Levy County to conform to the wishes of this angry little band of interlopers. I have, in the past, and will in the future, encourage our local leaders to stand up and say “no”;  to interpose themselves between the federal tyrants and their constituents; and to refuse to comply with immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional edicts from whatever source.

I was also informed that since I was a Christian and a pastor, I was of necessity, a liar and a thief. Additionally, I was responsible for all manner of evil since the foundation of the world. I really could not keep track of it all.

Honestly, I have seldom heard such anger and such vile and intemperate language -- and I was in the Marine Corps for eight years. The more I maintained my composure and the more I assured him of our prayers -- the more irate he became. All this anger vented primarily against a God that he claims does not even exist. A bit strange that.

Eventually he informed me that he was writing a letter to the Chiefland Citizen, a local paper which recently published one my letters, and which evidently was the fuse that set off this most recent tirade.

I’m actually hoping the paper publishes his letter. It will only serve to open more eyes and cause more of the good Southern folk of Levy County to stand up for their culture and their birthright.

I rather doubt that this is the end of the story; I’ll pass on more should it develop.

On a related topic, I would like to note that not everyone who moves to Florida from the north is a carpetbagger or a yankee interloper. Many embrace our culture, our history and our way of life. They are grafted-in and become Southerners. I would consider my own dear wife a Southern Belle, though she was born and raised in Ohio. At our last Free Florida First meeting the majority of our attendees were not born in Florida or even the South, yet many of them are some of the most dedicated Southern Partisans you will ever meet; folks from New York, Ohio, Indiana, New Hampshire and Maine.

I will go further and say that I have a friend who self-identifies as an atheist, who has come to generally identify with Dixie and will stand with us on most issues. He has not embraced our Saviour -- that is a work of God alone – he does, however, respect our faith and way of life.

Many not born among us embrace Dixie and become one with us.

Don’t come among us and attempt to make us over in the yankee image. If you can live with us in peace and respect our way of life, perhaps even embrace it, you are welcome -- otherwise just stay home in yankeedom.

Deo Vindice!

TRUST GOD!

STAY IN THE FIGHT!

NEVER GIVE UP!

NEVER QUIT!

CLICK HERE to view a PDF of our weekly paper.

CLICK HERE to be added to our email list.