Dear, President Trump, and Republican governors,

 Listen very carefully take your phased in reopening plan and stick it. The data shows that the lockdowns are counterproductive in there stated goal of mitigating Covid 19 but deadly in every other way: overall health, mental health, societal wellbeing, economic deprivation, lost freedom, and the destruction of American individualism. You seem to have some delusion that if you steal the bread from my family's table but slowly offer a trail of breadcrumbs back to self-sufficiency I will be grateful, you are wrong. You had no right to shut down my life, no right to encourage the same through CDC guidelines, and you have no right to slowly allow a few of my inalienable rights to trickle back with proper guidelines in place. OPEN UP NOW, completely and without any restrictions on what private citizens can do with their own private property. We will not all die, we can take care of ourselves. As you lift your unconstitutional stay at home orders you should beg our forgiveness for the harm you caused our families and our country, but I won't hold my breath. once this is done, Democrat Tyrants (aka governors) will be faced with such unrest they will have to follow suit and free their people as well.

 

cordially yours, John W Tabler, PO'd farmer

 

5 questions I would ask Donald Trump if I Were a reporter

I am not a reporter; I am a Trump supporter but not a Trump worshiper. When Donald Trump is interviewed he is either asked questions like: do you know you are responsible for millions of deaths because you told people to drink bleach? Or how do you answer your critics who refuse to admit you are right about everything all the time?

I support Donald Trump because I believe he has supported our liberty. When the first ceases to be true the 2^nd will as well. Where I stand right now my support hasn’t been withdrawn but my enthusiasm has waned. There are questions Pres. Trump needs to answer and it’s better to do it now than closer to the election so if I were a reporter these are the questions I would ask:

1)      The declaration of Independence declares We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  So if the primary duty of government is to defend the inalienable rights of men how does your Corona virus achieve that goal?

2)      Dr. Fauci’s position on the Corona virus went from “nothing to worry about” to “we need to completely dismantle western civilization in order to stop it” given these inconsistencies, what made you say this is the guy I need to be the driving force behind our response?

3)      While federalism allows for the individual states to determine their course in matters nor relegated specifically to the Federal government by the constitution the 14th amendment forbids those states from violating the rights of the citizens of their states. You have declared in no uncertain terms your belief that the shutting down of churches is a violation of the constitution, are governors violating other rights and will the Federal government intervene further on the behalf of those citizens? If so how?

4)      There is growing evidence that the lockdown/shutdown policies have been ineffective vs the virus and extremely harmful to every other aspect of society, yet your administration still touts slow phased reopening, would you openly support states reversing course and ending all restrictions without the phases if they choose?

5)      Rugged individualism, personal liberty and individual responsibility are bulwarks of American society yet one could argue that these have been lacking from consideration as the overall response to Covid 19 has been government centered, since new viruses crop up every few years, would you handle, if still in office, the next pandemic the same way or would you choose to fall back on those original principles and give the citizen power to choose what is best for his own health and safey?

 

New Normal?

It has been my instinct to resist the “new normal”, but having given it some more thought perhaps rather than rejecting the new normal we should try to shape it:

We see how easily freedom is threatened so let’s make it normal to restrain all law by the limits of the constitution.

We see how wrong experts can be so let’s make it normal to base our decisions on common sense.

We see how dangerous and destructive centralized power is so let’s normalize the idea that the individual is sovereign over his/her own life.

We see how easily timid people are cowered by an overreaching government so let’s make boldness the new norm.

We see how dangerous it is to be dependent on foreign sources for essential products so let’s make it normal to produce those things domestically.

We see the destruction that results from nonessential businesses being closed so let’s make it normal to respect the property rights as well as the contributions to society of all citizens.

We see how power corrupts even trusted leaders, so let’s make it normal to overthrow incumbents who stray from their trust.

i don't think it is an exaggeration to say what happens in the next months will determine the course of the nation going forward for the foreseeable future and beyond. for too long we have merely sought to stop the worse things the left does but now we need to be the aggressors we need to be bold and set the agenda ourselves not simply react to their agenda.

The progressives have driven the debate since the early 1900's so its our turn, if we make it our turn.

Keep on the firing line.

A Spirit Of Fear?

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1 v 7

 

Isn’t that one of the first Bible verses you ever learned? Right after John 3:16 for most of us. So why ae Christians so afraid during this covid emergency?

I confess that yesterday was the saddest day emotionally that I have had during the last months, every attack on freedom, every bit of news on economic depression and every hairdresser or manicurist Greg Abbot’s order jailed in Texas did not depress me it made me angry, not in a flying off the handle way but in a Godly hatred of injustice kind of way and it motivated me to continue to fight and use my tiny platform to push back. I wrote my opinion on what the church should be doing all the way back in early April in a letter to the president and expanded on those ideas on April 20 in a blog, (http://advicenotaskedfor.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-day-church-was-deemed-nonessential.html)

So why when our church finally opened its doors was I so depressed? Well the conditions under which our Dread Sovereign Jim Justice permitted us to open:  cover your face and stand 6 ft. apart like OT lepers, (minus the shouting of unclean, but let’s not give Charleston any ideas), no contact with anyone outside of your family unit, no lingering in the lobby, no fellowship, no comforting each other, no praying together, no children playing, just gathering in the same building but still consumed by fear.

It was suggested to me that  his majesty the governors guidelines were voluntary but this is the governor who told businesses that were finally permitted to operate that if they wished to stay open they better “follow the f… guidelines” . These guidelines are voluntary unless you don’t follow them to the letter then they are mandatory, that is how authoritarians always operate.

More disturbing to me was something a friends pastor said that this wasn’t about freedom, but safety and spiritual leaders have to find a balance between keeping people safe and having faith. Therein lies the rub, balancing faith with something else is not what I was taught as the key to the Christian life.

for whatever is not from faith is sin.  Romans 14:23b this is the standard that we as Christians are to follow. We cannot walk with the Lord in victory so long as faith is “balanced” with something else.

 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  1John 4:18. I suspect that the church is basing its decisions on fear not faith, what are we afraid of?

Catching a virus? God created all life during the 7 days of creation, when sin entered into the world the harmful effects of the virus was initialized. This means that the virus predates the church by 4,000 years or so. Viruses have never shut down the church before; in fact in times like this the Church has been at the forefront of care and benevolence. The church has always ignored danger and been courageous in its face. What is different now? Is this virus so much worse than any disease ever so that we now must hide under our beds clutching rolls of toilet paper?  No it isn’t, in fact aside from certain vulnerable groups this virus is less dangerous then the flu. The difference is we now lack courage.

Fear of punishment? This is a big one. Most Governors are in full-fledged tyrant mode right now seeking to punish anyone who dares defy their royal decrees. These decrees are unconstitutional and illegal, and by not challenging them we add to their legitimacy. Is this how Christians should behave? And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. ³⁰But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Matt 10:28-31. God hates injustice and for the Christian standing up to it is a matter of faith, and obedience. What would the consequences be? Shelley Luther defied the orders to close her salon and spent some time in jail, she changed Texas for the better caused the prosecution of other Texans to be suspended and the outpouring of support she received means her business will not fail and her employees will not starve.  This is the stand the church should have taken.

Fear that someone will get sick and we’ll get blamed? Probably the biggest and it is certainly possible. Guess what, people are still getting sick. In fact almost 70% of the newly hospitalized patients in NY have been in lockdown stay at home quarantine. This is the tactic of the enemy call evil good and good evil. Accuse those who want to open the economy so that the nation will not be plunged into economic depression of being selfish. Accuse churches who want to do the Lord’s work of being foolish and working against the public health and safety. Health and safety being the enigmatic greater good the communists always claim to serve. Is God a part of our lives, do we trust Him for the practical as well as the spiritual? 11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. They will continue to revile us until the Lord returns so what is the advantage of fearing it?

It is impossible to live by faith and fear. It is impossible to make good decisions as a society based on fear, yet America has based its entire response to the Corona virus on models that were based on nothing but fear, and as data comes out contradicting the models we do not change our response. Power and love and a sound mind would guide us far better than the prevailing spirit of fear in our country, and our Churches.

The answer is not so complex. We are God’s people and we will be here on Sunday. Anyone who wants to stop us can arrest us lock our doors but we will be meeting somewhere. Anyone who is vulnerable and chooses not to come out is loved and supported and prayed for, never judged but God’s people will be here. We have masks if you want one, hand sanitizer if you wish, and gloves aplenty for all who ask but God’s people will be here. The work of the Kingdom goes on. Or at least it should.

An open letter to the Governor of Texas

While I do not live in the state of Texas, I feel it incumbent upon one American to stand up for another regardless of where the other American resides so please indulge this “mountaineer” as I write a few words in defense of on particular “Texas Cowgirl”.

The office of the Governor of the state of Texas was created primarily for the purpose of protecting the constitutional rights of one Ms. Shelley Luther and others like her, not only has that office failed miserably to do so, but it has allowed itself to become the animating force behind the denial of such rights.

Texas is no different than any other state in that the urban areas tend to be more leftist and less free than more rural areas. This divide between self-reliance and government dependency is nothing new ,as Jefferson addressed it in the early days of the Republic. But while the argument that the injustice done to Shelley  Luther falls upon the Dallas authorities and the one particular judge may give you some wiggle room, it does not address the key factor: had you as governor not exceeded your constitutional authority, the city of Dallas would likely not have a leg to stand on.

Like Jim Justice in WV you declared yourself to be the ruler of all, decreed which businesses were essential and not and in so doing decided who was worthy of the privilege of earning a living and who was not. It was your decree that reduced Ms. Luther to the unenviable position of begging for government assistance, starving or violating some pot belly city official’s decree and going to jail. She make the morally right choice and because of the immortality of the governor’s decree she will be punished for it. Make no mistake,  the hands that strike her may be city officials but the hammer they use was put there by Gov. Greg Abbot R, Texas.

I am not versed in Texas law so I don’t know what the governor’s recourse is other than to express concern, nor do I have confidence that you would have the courage to act if you could but consider this: rather panic or bad information or seduction of power caused you to turn against the pledge to uphold the rights of Texans, all the good you have done all the positive policies are of little value now and the week an innocent woman spends behind bars because you in your quest for power deemed her livelihood nonessential will be your legacy for all history.

                                Sincerely,

 John Tabler, Hedgesville WV

I went to Church yesterday. No one else did, just me.

I am a Christian and I am an American and my right to worship as I choose is enshrined forever in the United States Constitution as an inalienable right, so after a month of online nonsense and failure to connect with anyone else who was willing to step out and defy the Governors unconstitutional decree, I decided to do it myself.

I got up and put on church clothes and drove my truck to the church. While I drove I listened to several songs from my music library set to random play the Bishops sang the classic “When Jesus is all That I Have He is All That I Need” which seemed appropriate than it chose the powerful Kingsmen song “God Saw A Cross” (I have a version from YouTube that features the late Ernie Phillips on tenor) and I found myself singing along with the bass line and just as I pulled into the parking lot the phone died and I finished the last note of the song alone. God was speaking to my heart. I had the best parking space in the lot so I walked up to the concrete barrier around the drop-off area and sat down.  It was a beautiful morning warm sun, nice breeze, and I opened my lonely service in prayer. “Praying for those who persecute you and despitefully use you” is one of the Lord’s more difficult commands, I have tried consistently to do so, praying for those in our government who seek to fundamentally change our nation into something it was not meant to be, those who subtly and now blatantly infringe upon our rights and freedoms, but emotionally I don’t always feel it. Something about being at the house of God made it easier to pray those prayers with a fervent faith and the tender reminder that the cross God saw through the ages was for their redemption and a symbol that God truly is not willing that any be lost. I prayed for absent brothers and sisters as we always do, prayed that they would know God’s presence and that His Holy Spirit guide each into His perfect will.

Then I opened the Bible and read 1 Samuel chap 3 and the story of God first speaking to young Samuel and God’s promised judgement on the house of Eli. No reason for the selection other than it is where my personal study was anyway. It is a cautionary tale to be sure to a generation that holds the things of God so loosely.

After I finished some members came by to take care of some business at the parsonage and we had some fellowship time discussing the state of affairs and perhaps I am not as alone in my opinions as I feared, just the only one silly enough to sit in an empty parking lot and have Church by himself.

I don’t think I made any difference to anyone but myself, our church parking lot doesn’t even face the road so the many folks who drove by going hither and yon on more essential errands than going to church, didn’t see me, but it made a difference to me, I went to God’s house and He meant me there. The God who is with me always manifested His presence in a fresh and renewing way. I only regret I was there alone to experience His goodness.

I will go back next week, rather our dread sovereign Jim Justice says we can or not. I will go alone, or with others whose hearts are moved to do the same. I will go until the Church is reopened or until the elders ask me to leave in which case I will go elsewhere. There are after all plenty of empty churches to choose from.

Government can and will abuse any power it has, so don’t give it any more than it needs.

I recently engaged in a debate with a gentleman over the governor’s plan to reopen the Mountain State. My perspective was that a 6 week process to undo something that should not have been done was far too long, the other gentleman contested that to reopen the state too quickly would risk the earlier dire predictions coming true. I argued in favor of liberty and independent thought and he talked about contagion spread ratios. I argued that Jim Justice has no otherworldly wisdom that gives him the ability to direct the lives of 1,792,000 individuals with 1,792,000 individual circumstances, he replied “vote for someone else” and suddenly I got it, we were arguing two different points.

I am taken back in my memory several years to the first time one of those videos and stories emerged from Afghanistan of a women being flogged for wearing pants. As a red blooded American man I was moved to a combination of anger and pity that literally turned my stomach. My liberal friends were of a similar reaction, pity for the woman anger toward the cruelty of the sentence, in fact we seemed to be in perfect agreement, but we weren’t.

The liberal saw the problem as an abuse of power, government using its regulatory authority in a manner that was inappropriate. They disagreed with the regulation against pants, because they liked wearing pants and thought Muslim women might also like pants, etc.

The conservative like me sees the problem differently; the flaw is that government has this power in the first place. The constitution was written to limit the power of government to very specific enumerated powers, each time the government exceeds those enumerated powers we draw closer to tyranny.

Initially the states were left to their own to make and maintain their own bill of rights with the plenary powers of the state limited by the people of the state by means of their own constitution. After the War Between the  States it was added to further defend individual liberty by the 14^th amendment: Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

As west Virginians we also have the state constitution that says: 3-1.  Bill of rights.

     All men are, by nature, equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, namely:  The enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

Can anyone argue that the current policies of the governor respect article one of the state bill of rights?

As more data comes in the damage done at every level of our society, even healthcare, to flatten the Covid-19 curve looks like a doctor amputating a patients leg over an ingrown toenail because it might have gotten infected. But if the government had stayed true to the constitutional restraints and maintained those responses that did not violate the bill of rights than we would have achieved the same positive results without the horrendous damage and threats to the freedom of future generations, but the point is that government only does harm when it exceeds its constitutional restraints, even if there is a virus out there.