In the Words of the President

In case you or your calendar publisher missed it, today is Presidents’ Day.  And in case you were wondering “what’s that all about?” I thought this little snippet from the History Channel’s website was helpful:

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other figures, Presidents’ Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents past and present.

No matter what your party affiliation, every American ought to be able to concede that there isn’t a more stressful job than the presidency of the United States. As comedian Brian Regan has put it, there’s nothing like being awakened every morning to: “Problems. All kinds of problems!” And while they are often ambitious folk, these remarkable individuals give up 4 years (maybe 8, or even 12 if you’re FDR) of their lives (in the case of 4, literally), their privacy, and their public reputations to do their very best in leading our country. A lonely post in the best of times, few leave office without the indicators of the wear and tear the intensity of the presidency leaves.  Each one has left a unique legacy, a mark on American history. And each one deserves the gratitude and respect of the American people.

With that in mind, I’m proud to present to you ABB’s second “In the Words of the President” quiz! Below are ten quotations from our presidents, with three choices as to which president the quote originated from. Take a few minutes to take the quiz (without using Google for a reference!) and submit your answers via the comment section by March 5. The reader who gets the most questions correct will receive an inspiring book from ABB! The Printer will have one more question in store in case of a tie.

And so, without further adieu, I give you the Presidents of the United States of America, in their own words!

1)“No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

 Abraham Lincoln

 John Quincy Adams

 George Washington

2)“[A] wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Thomas Jefferson

Martin Van Buren

3) “I pity the creature who doesn’t work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being. The law of worthy work well done is the law of successful American life.”

Theodore Roosevelt

William Jefferson Clinton

Franklin Pierce

4) “Our government was made by patriotic, unselfish, sominded men for the control or protection of a patriotic, unselfish and sober-minded people. It is suited to such a people; but for those who are selfish, corrupt and unpatriotic it is the worst government on earth.”

John F. Kennedy

Grover Cleveland     

Donald Trump

     

5) “American citizenship is a high estate. He who holds it is the peer of kings. It has been secured by untold toil and effort. It will be maintained by no other method. It demands the best that men and women have to give. But it likewise awards to its partakers the best that there is on earth.”

Calvin Coolidge

Andrew Jackson

Chester Alan Arthur

6) “[T]he same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

Richard Nixon

John F. Kennedy 

Dwight Eisenhower

7) “It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to persevere in that justice and good will toward other nations which invite a return of these sentiments toward the United States; to cherish institutions which guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious; and to combine with a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the national advantages and a protection and extension of the independent resources of our highly favored and happy country.”

John Tyler

James Madison

William Taft

 8) “[I]t is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed who God is the Lord.”

Abraham Lincoln

James Monroe

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt

9) “[Fatherhood is] giving one’s all, from the break of day to its end, on the job, in the house, but most of all in the heart.”

Barrack Obama

Ronald Reagan

Lyndon Johnson

10) “There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord.”

John Adams

George H.W. Bush

Ulysses  Grant

Speaking the Mind of Christ

“What’s the big deal?”

“Can’t you just let this go?”

“Why can’t you  leave well enough alone?”

Rachael Denhollander probably heard all of those questions—a lot. Denhollander has lately become a genuine hero for having the courage and stamina to speak the truth about the sexual abuse she and a host of other young women suffered at the hands of Olympic physician Larry Nassar. A previous Olympic gymnast, and now a mother of three, as well as an attorney, Denhollander is properly receiving kudos for having the hutzpah to shine light on the corruption in the USA Gymnastics organization and at Michigan State University.

Dehollander joins a great company of Christians through the ages who have taken flak for “making a stink” over what their societies deemed acceptable reality. “Why can’t you just sacrifice to the Emperor and pray to Jesus?” the Romans asked first century believers. “Why do you have to be so vocal about your criticisms of the Church?” reformers like John Wycliffe and Martin Luther were asked. “Why can’t you forget about the slave trade, and support the greater good of your country?” heard abolitionists like William Wilberforce. “Can’t you just let slavery die a natural death?” said the moderates to the voices of American abolition. “What are the Jews to us?” said most of the German Church to Christians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Certainly Christians aren’t the only ones to take on the social injustices of the day, but that we do is because of who we are. In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Denhollander explained how her faith motivated her actions: “In terms of how my faith played a part in making that decision [to go public with her own experience], God is the God of justice, these things are evil, and it is biblical, right, and godly to pursue justice. I had to make a decision to do what was right no matter what the cost was.”

And a cost there was. In addition to the opposition she faced from USA Gymnastics and MSU, she also had to grapple with criticism from an unlikely source: her own church. Denhollander explained that before she went public with the Nassar story, she had already experienced opposition from other Christians because of her advocacy for sexual abuse victims within a particular sector of the evangelical church. “When I did come forward as an abuse victim, this part of my past was wielded like a weapon by some of the elders to further discredit my concern, essentially saying that I was imposing my own perspective or that my judgment was too clouded. One of them accused me of sitting around reading angry blog posts all day, which is not the way I do research. That’s never been the way I do research. But my status as a victim was used against my advocacy.”

That Denhollander experienced that type of hostility from fellow believers is a grave reminder that reluctance to admit the truth, and even flat-out resistance to it, is the norm. Let’s not forget that Jesus Himself faced the stoutest opposition from the leaders of His faith community.

So what does any of this have to do with “speaking the mind of Christ?” I Corinthians 2:14-16 tells us that those who are not believers do not have the capacity to discern things from a spiritual vantage point. In contrast, believers have been given that ability because of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the Word of God.  As redeemed people, we have been given “the mind of Christ” and we evaluate everything from Christ’s viewpoint. That means seeing the difference between good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong. And it also means seeing things in their totality and extending God’s grace and forgiveness, even while declaring the truth, as Denhollander did to Larry Nasser.

But we’re also warned in that passage that those of us who are “spiritual,” (i.e. seeing things from Christ’s perspective) will never be “rightly judged” by those who are seeing things from a “natural” perspective. We’ll be misunderstood, mocked, even martyred for speaking the mind of Christ to our culture. Even family and friends may question our judgement or misunderstand our motives. But it’s because we’ve been given this special privilege that we speak anyway—because if we don’t, who will?

“Obedience [to Jesus Christ],” says Denhollander, “means that you pursue justice and you stand up for the oppressed and you stand up for the victimized…It means that you will have to speak out against your own community. It will cost to stand up for the oppressed, and it should. If we’re not speaking out when it costs, then it doesn’t matter to us enough.”