So, It's February
What event first comes to your mind when you think of February--other than family birthdays? Probably Valentines Day. That's a good one. There's also, in my opinion, a bad one. But that doesn't mean I think we should forget it.
On the contrary, February marks what I believe to be one of the most significant and world-changing events of the 20th century. For the millions of families living in post-War Eastern Europe and elsewhere, it was the most significant. It was the 1945 Yalta Conference, where Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin (AP photo) met in the Crimea to determine the post-war fate of war-torn nations.
My purpose here is not to expect your agreement, although I do. My purpose is to keep alive a memory that powerfully informs our behavior in 2011. The decisions of those in power are, in a real sense, matters of life and death. As the followers of Christ and as the teachers of children, we have an undeniable responsibility to remember, to learn, to apply.
Look up one of those famous photo ops from the Yalta Conference. There sit Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, seemingly yukking it up and looking forward to dinner and a movie that night. Oddly enough, Prime Minister Churchill does look to be the outsider. He was--even though he caved.
To refresh your memory, those three men, humanly speaking, were pretty much in charge of the world at that moment. What a shame. For what they did was shame itself. Roosevelt, in his own words, had already decided that to encourage Stalin to be a friend of the free world, he would "give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return."
Under the united pressure of Roosevelt and Lenin, the three Allied leaders agreed to hand over to the Soviets strategic but devastated Poland (already a victim of joint Soviet/Nazi invasion early in the war), half of Germany, and the rest of the Eastern Bloc nations.
And if that wasn't shame enough, Stalin was entreated to enter the Pacific Theater against the Japanese. As a follow-up to his cooperation, he would later be given Manchuria--primarily through the influence of the United States. That, of course, would pave the way for the Soviet-sponsored crushing of China by Mao's Communist Party.
I call Yalta "a shame." It was worse than that for the many millions who suffered for generations because of it and for the many millions (without exaggeration) who were eventually slaughtered by the communists. The Soviets made Hitler look like Mr. Rogers--although for some reason the liberal American media and U.S. public schools and universities, in my view, like to pretend it didn't happen.
So, why did I bring up our behavior in 2011? Please allow me briefly to mention a couple of things piquing my own concerns right now.
First, I have been reading a masterful, poetic, disturbing, historical (and, I believe, historic) novel by Michael O'Brien called Island of the World. With a subtle and profound Christian worldview it unfolds a heart-wrenching picture of the world in post-War Croatia that should be required reading for every history teacher, surely for every Christian school history teacher.
Island of the World has stirred my resolve to encourage fellow believers not to forget truth in this world of revisionist "history."
Last May marked the 65th anniversary of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day. For the first time ever, U.S. troops marched in a parade in Red Square, Moscow. It hit me hard and still does.
Proverbs says, "A discerning man keeps wisdom in view." In other words, wisdom is needed for making right choices.
For a long time, the United States has been called "the leader of the free world." But sometimes that title is too flattering. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be much wisdom in view. Without wisdom, even leaders of a nation like the United States won't understand what "the free world" stands for.
And one more current event "piquing my own concerns right now"--the city council of our very liberal and "diverse" community is developing a plan to recognize the "right" of homosexual couples to enjoy the official benefits of married couples. I expect a yes vote, considering the makeup of our city council. One of the members, for example, has been an escort at our only local abortion business, ushering victims past those narrow-minded Christians praying out on the sidewalk.
Sometimes, I fear, we are tempted to use the fact of God's eternal sovereignty as an excuse for our own laziness as warriors in his army. Please join me in stamping out that excuse as we do our best to teach our children how to serve him in real time.
-- Norm Bomer
No comments:
Post a Comment