Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Loyalty

Somewhere in my past I developed this view of the importance of loyalty. It may stem from my failure to be a loyal friend to someone, who when my 10th summer in Buffalo was boring, befriended me and taught me to play dice baseball. We had fun for weeks until others returned from vacation and I abandoned my newfound friend. It bothers me a little to this day. I went to a Catholic high school in Pittsburgh and although I am a Reformation Protestant now, I'm still proud of that school. I retain allegiance to Pitt although my son went to college elsewhere and is going to another law school. Did you know that they told Joe Paterno to put a "Lion" of their helmets, so he did, he put a "line" on their helmets? I am partial to the Army, to Pittsburgh, the Thunderbolt, my first big roller coaster, to Vincent's Pizza, Coca Cola, to the Buffalo Bills (go figure for I haven't watched a series of downs in professional football in 15 years) and to Jerry West, wherever he may be. There is no former pastor who I am not thankful for, no television evangelist that was used in some capacity to help me and no friend who I may not have seen in 40 years who is not still a friend in my heart. Maybe the most amazing of all, I still admire the Kennedy family although my politics are probably the polar opposite. I guess that I'm a Honda driver now for they sold me a good product and treated me well. The Vietnamese will always have a special place in my heart and it takes more than a socialist upheaval to break the bonds that our fathers had with England and France in the "previous" dark days of World War II. So what does happen when someone or something that you have been bonded with departs from what you knew them as? Pat Robertson is an extraordinary man. He is very smart, very caring and has been a conduit for the gospel to many people including me. His theology has weakened in recent years from one that was weak to begin with. I'm saddened when he says something that is unwise but encouraged somewhat when I get the rare opportunity to tune into the 700 Club. I would vote for Ted Kennedy if he were somehow running against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton and possibly the man who dialed 911 after getting the wrong toppings on his McDonald's hamburger but that's about it, but I still wish him well in his health, his marriage and, hopefully, his retirement. This aspect of loyalty has, I believe, helped me in my dealings with Christian brothers and sisters who hold to doctrines and evangelistic methods that I feel are detrimental, although not null and void, in proclaiming the gospel. I wish I were as loyal to Christ as I am to my Internet provider. Loyalty is not the word to describe how Christ has held on to me through the kicks and gripes, rather promises from a God that cannot fail to keep them. Related to this concept of loyalty, is the remembrance of how I can fail and hurt and disappoint others. I try to see my past in other's present. So where does President Obama come into this? It's a valid point and I should take my own erratic wanderings into consideration but there is a more pressing point in that millions went before us with a determination to build a nation that, in spite of its gross imperfections, was a defender of liberty and a "bulwark never failing," if Martin Luther could forgive me for using such a precious phrase in a temporal setting, against the malignant ideologies of Fascism and Communism. To understand what Fascism was and how it is seeing a resurgence today in what to many would be a surprising way, I highly recommend Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, recently released in paperback. I, personally, can't forget how others sacrificed to build what a few today wish to discard.