August 16, 2023
I can’t tell you how much I enjoy writing this blog and recording the podcast. Here is what I am doing, and why, and how to keep it going.
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The weekly format
I publish three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Each is released at 6:00 AM central time, and each podcast is targeted to run 15 minutes, which for many of us is a drive-time commute.
Monday is The Alligator Interview Series, bringing you “interesting people doing interesting things.” It launched with two episodes about the LAUNCH homeschool in Laredo, Texas, featuring Charity and Lisa, and then moved to sessions with Russ, the guy who edited my book, Alligator Wrestling in the Cancer Ward.
Turns out that Russ is much more than merely a book editor.
Other interviews are planned. The point is both entertainment and enlightenment.
Wednesday is Alligator Considerations, a catch-all category where I can do some long-form (2,000 word) essays mostly on historical events with the occasional foray into other topics that interest me, and hopefully you. My interests are American history, military history and politics & culture. I have a preference for the American Revolution, Civil War, WW2, and non-fiction stories of the sea.
Generally I include “Theological Contemplations”: Biblical insights that make the subject relevant and applicable to the Christian in 21st century America.
Considerations comes as both an audio podcast and a text blog, which includes hypertext links for sources.
Friday is The Alligator News Roundup, a review of current events that highlight our nation’s obvious slide into moral depravity. I take great pleasure in making fun of what I see are really bad ideas that have taken root in popular wisdom and lead many people to the edge of harm. The climate crisis and transgenderism spring immediately to mind.
The way to devalue something is to make it a target of mockery. Evidence the devaluation of fatherhood and the nuclear family. We moved from My Three Sons to Homer Simpson in about two decades.
Thus, I mock the trends I see as destructive. Sarcasm and dark humor are my tools.
The News Roundup is the candy that attracts many of you, and it’s over-the-top fun to write. But it is not without its purpose.
Like Considerations, News Roundup is offered both as a podcast and as a written blog. Some of the audio goes by pretty fast, and the text is there for you to peruse. (It’s also there for me to dictate… it’s harder to do this off the cuff.)
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What's it matter?
It does not take great insight to see that our culture is spinning out of control: Family breakup, LGBTQ+ agenda, unsustainable national debt, Bible illiteracy, short attention spans, woke public education, weakened national defense… the list goes on.
Couple this with brazen and unaccountable political actors who morph institutions intended to serve the people into weapons to oppress the people and you have a situation that is not only discouraging, but dangerous.
The suppression of free speech is particularly dangerous. It is becoming “Put him in prison” dangerous.
I believe this cultural demolition is rooted in a fundamental rejection of traditional Judeo-Christian faith. This is not a new phenomenon, but may be new to our generation.
An oft-repeated statement by John Adams, POTUS #2, is a favorite of evangelicals: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
We chafe under the constraint of that earlier wisdom and want to throw off that stricture from an old, dead, straight white guy. What we need is to start our own country in a way more to our liking. We need to find a new continent richly endowed with natural resources, virtually uninhabited, and build our own society on our own terms.
Trouble is, there aren’t any.
That’s why Reagan called the United States “the last, best hope of man on earth.”
That statement comes from his speech, A Time for Choosing, when he nominated Barry Goldwater for the presidency in 1964. Reagan himself simply called it “The Speech,” and it is worth reading in its entirety. A mouse click makes it happen.
Back to Adams. So either we run this country in the only way this unique nation can possibly succeed — by adhering to Adams’ traditional “moral and religious” values — or we see it torn to pieces.
That latter way lies disillusionment, poverty, oppression and quite likely civil war before it’s done.
In 600 BC, the prophet Jeremiah urged the people: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. (Jeremiah 6:16)
Their response? We will not walk in it.
Simple, direct… and suicidal.
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Keep it going
I have concluded that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the defining issue of our time. Or of any other time, for that matter. There is no other historical figure who ever said, Unless you believe that I am He [the Son of God], you will die in your sins. (John 8:23)
That categorical, black-and-white claim, without qualification or waffling, accounts for the hostility we see toward the Gospel. We must either reject that statement and everything Jesus’ ministry was about, or we must capitulate and acknowledge Him as “My Lord and my God”, to borrow Thomas’ confession in John 20:28.
Recall C.S. Lewis’ trilemma, speaking of Jesus, and repeated here from John MacArthur: “He is either a lunatic, on the level of somebody who thinks he’s a poached egg; or He is a liar, at such a calculated and clever and extreme level as to probably be unequaled as a purveyor of deception; or He is Lord. But,” said Lewis, “forget the patronizing nonsense that He’s a good teacher; that’s not an option.”
How does this translate to an America worth living in? Not everyone is going to accept that Gospel on a personal level and they should not be compelled or coerced to do so. That’s been tried before.
Each one who arrives at the Gospel does so as he or she is drawn.
In another place, Lewis suggested that, while many cultures have disagreed about how many wives a man may have, no culture has ever said that a man may have another man’s wife. His point was that some elements of natural morality are hard-wired.
A common agreement on accepted norms of “morality and religion” is essential to our national survival. You may or may not buy into all that represents, but the common agreement is the thing.
Amos put it succinctly: Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)
Most of us are frankly dismayed by how quickly the anti-Christian worldview has spread to every corner of our society.
In history (think the French Revolution), there has been a natural progression of immorality: First comes curiosity, then acceptance, then celebration.
For those who refuse to celebrate, it ends with capital punishment. For more on this, see Lord of the Flies (Golding), 1984 (Orwell), or Darkness at Noon (Koestler).
A particular Old Testament reference is the motivation for this blog, and the more I review it, the more relevant it becomes. Malachi, writing that last tiny entry in the left half of the Book, spoke of a time when morality seemed to be finished, the national government was in disarray, the people faced foreign domination and slavery, and all were terrified of what the future held.
Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. (Malachi 3:16)
So, that’s my deal. I think many of us feel that altering our big cultural anti-God trends is too tall a hill to climb, and maybe it is. It was for those ancient Israelites. But some who were so inclined “talked with each other”, and the Lord “listened and heard”.
And He remembered them.
We each operate in our own sphere of influence. Mine is The Alligator Blog, and it’s a place for that talk to happen. It may be that God will be gracious to listen, and to remember us.
As most of you know, the blog came about from my Leukemia Summer Surprise Tour in 2022. On multiple occasions I was not expected to survive, a result that might have been easier for me (and perhaps for many of you), but that wasn’t the path.
It comes out the way it comes out.
Once given the gift of a renewed life (for how long, only God knows, and He ain’t tellin’) I contemplated what one should do with such a gift. Cyberspace seemed a logical direction for one of my limited skill set.
The blog takes time and effort. Its a labor of love, but the fact is that great chunks of my schedule and my mental energy are poured into this space.
If you believe this should keep going, I would ask you to step up to a paid subscription.
At this point, it’s all mostly free if you want to remain an unpaid subscriber. You may do so. The only items paywalled right now are the archives and your comments, along with my responses.
I plan to add other features oriented toward essential topics of Christian living in our life and times — family, health, money and others. Some of that may be paywalled as well.
But if you find the conversation relevant and compelling, add your name and your cash to the list of supporters.
At $50 a year, it’s about like buying one foo-foo cappuccino a month. And the blog is probably healthier.
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I will leave you with Daniel 11:32. But the people who know their God will be strong and take action.
Thank you for reading, and thanks for your support! Have a good week! Curt
Alligator Considerations: Special Bulletin #1