Dear Young Activists of the World,
This past week I have been subjected to the angry faces and angry attitudes of your generation who have the unmitigated gall to lecture me and the older generation — who actually worked for a living, grew up and assumed family responsibilities; saved for your education; tried to protect you from people and movements that were suspicious and did not have your best interests at heart; took you to playgrounds and parks to have a thing called FUN; took you to birthday parties, school and places of worship; saved to buy you the clothes and essential items you needed to have a life free from lack; fed you when you were hungry; wiped your bottoms; changed your diapers; and by sheer love and compassion for your well-being, let you live in a house that had running water, lights, air conditioning and heating, food in the refrigerator, cleaned up your room, sat up with you and took care of you when you were sick, and tried to teach you right from wrong — that we are to blame for the planet’s assumed “climate crisis”?
I, for one, am in no way in support of your latest cause; and I say with all the tenderness and counsel I can give you, both as a parent and minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, that basically you don’t know a blessed thing, and you have no anchor in reality except what you allegedly perceive and can fit in your limited scope of life.
I talked about your bunch in a recent article, both in the world and, unfortunately, in the church, who seem to have this bizarre idea that we have to think and act exactly as you do; otherwise, we’re “enemies of the earth,” “racist,” or, well, name your insult. It doesn’t matter to me one bit. I’ve got news for you, dear hearts, and that is you are not in any way, shape, or form the center of all creation or of the entire concept of being. None of you, save for a few, impress me or have given me a valid reason to change my mind on an issue simply because you march for it or stage a rally which you conveniently forget to clean up afterwards.
Anger, emotion, and radicalism of any kind turns me off and gives me plenty of reasons to ignore your diatribes and not waste my time with you. Your alleged outrages at us – who built this country, fought for it, prayed for it, and did our best in taking care of it – really don’t change anything except to put yourself in a long line of doomsday “prophets” who, starting almost fifty years ago, warned us that we were doomed if we didn’t take drastic steps to “save the Earth.” This is nothing new, just the same old song and dance except now with different players.
This propaganda was in the cartoons I watched on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. I remember an episode of “Archie and Friends” where they sang a song lamenting the seemingly uncaring factory owners who were poisoning the air and the kids would soon die. This struck me as outlandish. I lived in a city on the Louisiana coast that was surrounded by oil refineries and petrochemical plants that spewed out smoke, steam, sulfur gases, and the occasional ammonia leak into the lake that was a source of recreation as well as our water supply. Good times.
Both of my parents smoked cigarettes like chimneys with the windows rolled up in the car as we were going down the road, and I wasn’t restrained by a seat belt. I rode my bike without a helmet, and I got a broken arm by falling off the “monkey bars” that had a concrete foundation on the school playground; and my Mom didn’t sue anyone. You see, we lived in a time when things like accidents happened and you took care of it, either with bandages and rubbing alcohol, or a stitch from the doctor that didn’t require insurance to pay for it.
Yes, our lake got polluted over the years, but we didn’t need an EPA study to figure that out. Our local government and the businesses got together and developed a clean-up plan that restored the lake and surrounding area back to a clean and productive area without the Federal Government getting its nose involved. We didn’t march, gripe, protest, or appear before a bunch of deadheads at the United Nations to shame our parents into radical action. You see, we possessed something that, quite frankly, you seem to have a lack of; and that happens to be a trait called common sense. We saw a wrong or abuse, and we took it upon ourselves to get it straightened out without whining or throwing a tantrum before the world.
What I see with this new crop of young skulls full of opinions, progressivism, drummed-up fear, hatred, anger, lack of discernment, and a godless attitude is a recipe for disaster with no one assuming control of the situation.
Your teachers have filled your head with everything except a sound education based on rational thought, logic, analysis, objectivity, morals and ethics.
You’ve been subjected to accepting lifestyles and behaviors that not too long ago were seen as vulgar, perverse, obscene, and pornographic, fit for the sewer.
You’re being made to worship things and causes and have been turned away from the concept and reality of the Sovereign God who created you, loves you, and has a plan and purpose for you.
Your teachers probably belong to a union that champions the butchery of unborn children in the womb, and you’re being encouraged by them, your textbooks, magazines, television programs, social media, and peer pressure to approve and support this procedure. Never mind the fact that you could have been subject by your own parents to be pulled apart by forceps, or burned by a saline solution, or have a surgical instrument pierce your skull and rip out your brains as you were being born, all in the name of “choice” or “rights.”
Think on that a moment. What was left of you afterwards could have been sold to laboratories or simply put in a garbage bag and thrown into the dumpster behind the clinic. Your choice to live and grow would’ve been rendered nonessential; and maybe in the course of time, your parents may have a momentary cringe of guilt. But solid citizens like Oprah, Alyssa Milano, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Madonna, most of Hollywood, the politicians, and the ladies on “The View” would have told them not to worry, because you were only a “blob of tissue” and nothing more.
Forget those losers. Get away from your peers and phones for a few moments and ask yourself, if there is a God (despite what you’ve been told) and He is real, does He approve of what is happening in this world and the behaviors people have towards one another? Is this the way the world was supposed to be?
Think, please. Why do so many people around you get angry or hateful when they hear the name of Jesus Christ, while Mohammed and Islam seem to get more positive attention (never mind the fact that Muslims killed 3,000 people on September 11, 2001)? Why do those who call themselves Christians get all the hassle and slander? Why do businesses such as Chick-Fil-A get protested and boycotted by the gay community simply because there is a difference of opinion on what defines marriage in this country? Why do groups like ISIS butcher and kill Christians, and nobody seems to care? There must be something to Jesus; otherwise, there wouldn’t be so much hate.
Why are there some of your peers still mad about the 2016 election and won’t let it go?
Oh, also go back and look on the internet at the warnings that so-called “experts” like our former brilliant Vice-President Albert Gore and others screamed at us for years, telling us that if we didn’t perform a certain action, that the sea levels would rise and put countries underwater, or that there would be no ice left in the Arctic (still there), or that the polar bears would suffer (never mind the fact that they eat environmentalists who get too close to them and their cubs), and that we would suffer with years of drought (if I recall, all of the rain we’ve had in this country over this year has taken us out of this predicament), all the animals would die, and that this world would be dead by the year 2000 if not earlier.
Why did Barack Obama buy a seaside mansion if he believed that it would be underwater in a matter of years?
Something’s not right, and deep down you know it.
Now, allow me to get more serious and somber concerning you and where you stand in the scheme of things:
All of the chastisement and sarcasm I’ve thrown at you is not to demean or render what you or what you stand for is without merit, but you have to face the hard truth that there are a lot more people out in the world who would just as soon use you for less than noble purposes, allow you to demonstrate to promote their cause as a part of an evil plan, and then toss you aside and leave you to rot. There are adults out there who will tell you to keep on protesting and demanding action who do not care about you one bit except to use you as a sexual plaything, political pawn, or victim of unspeakable evil. You’re just a tool for them to use in establishing a world where they are the rulers and will not give you one solitary right or privilege except what they tell you.
Your freedom to protest ends when their goal is complete, and that is to usher in a one-world government with your rights as a citizen of a free nation such as the United States taken away, and all of the “free stuff” that some politicians promise will be taken away, too. You’ll be a prisoner and no one will care about your opinions, safe spaces, trigger warnings, or feelings one bit; and you’ll be fortunate if the powers in charge allow you to live.
Life will be rendered meaningless, and without the assurance that there is more to what we see here on Earth; everything you believed in and were taught will turn into bitter thoughts and the gnawing feeling that maybe there was something to what some of your peers and parents told you about the reality of God and the fact that Jesus Christ is not a mere religious symbol, but is who He claimed to be, the Lord and Savior of His crown jewel of creation, namely you and me.
Despite what you may think, at the age you are now, you are still prone to gullibility, easily swayed by opinions and emotions, naïve, often too trusting and not checking things out. You’re open to the words of certain authority figures and celebrities whose moral character and behavior resembles the product found on used toilet paper, and you’re terribly subject to peer pressure and what others think.
I’ve been where you are right now. I was once a teenager and young adult full of fire and vinegar, ready to show the world how to get things done. Then reality hit like a rock upside my stupid head. Bear with me and let me share some lessons from life with you before you go and get yourself arrested or worse:
I became a follower of Jesus Christ, not because my parents made me do it or because I was a “good kid.” I was not “brainwashed” by the “intolerant,” “homophobic,” “right wing” “hate groups” that many of you tend to associate us with in your limited observation of religion as a whole.
Growing up when I did, going to church on Sunday was a part of American life, and all businesses closed on Sundays; so church really was the only game in town. That was, and is not enough to make you, or me in any way right with God. Whatever you might consider “good works” won’t cut it either. You don’t come to God on your own terms and at your convenience. He didn’t make many paths to Him, no matter what you might have read, thought, or heard. If He is anything, He is precise and specific in matters that involve how you are made right with Him.
Jesus Christ, His Son, God in the flesh (not merely a good teacher, prophet, role model, or ideal person) who truly lived in history (verified by extra-biblical sources such as Josephus, Suetonius, Pliny the Elder, and other Roman officials, the Babylonian Talmud, the Midrash, archaeological evidence, biblical manuscript evidence, the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection mentioned in Paul’s letter to the church in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, and other sources) came to this world to rescue us from our evil behavior and life by voluntarily allowing Himself to be the sacrifice for our sins by taking all of them upon Himself on the cross and dying on our place, allowing Himself to receive the punishment that we deserve for our rebellion against God. By doing this, He became our Savior.
We become followers of Christ by admitting that we are sinners unable of redeeming ourselves, repenting of our sins, and asking Jesus to have our lives and direct our lives according to His will; and we will belong to Him for all time, at peace with God and free from sin in a new heaven and a new earth.
Now, you can accept this or reject it and go back to your protests and marches. Just do me a favor and quit letting others do your thinking for you.
You dwell on this for a while and talk to God about everything. He’s always there to listen. Despite the rough words I’ve given you at first, I do understand the concerns you have; but in terms of eternity, it’s eternal peace with God through Jesus Christ that matters. And when, at the end of your life, you see Him face to face in the new heavens and the new earth for all time, the protests that took up your time here will be just a dim memory.
If you’d like to talk further, I can be reached at: drwhitchard@aol.com and at www.donaldwhitchard.com. Also check out www.peacewithgod.net.
Don’t put this off. Eternity is a long time for regrets. Hell is full of protesters, but nothing will ever be accomplished there. Just saying.