Judge Napolitano On Lincoln

[KiwiChristian]

Hollywood, too, adores Lincoln (witness the recent movie they made about him). When Hollywood loves someone, that's all the more reason to be suspicious of them.

 

As a New Zealander, I'm fairly neutral when it comes to who was "right" in the North-South conflict. But I did live in the United States for a couple of years in the 1980s, in Bethesda Maryland, right on the Mason-Dixon Line pretty much. Visited many Civil War battlefields while there, including Manassas and Gettysburg. Maryland of course was a northern state, while nearby Virginia was a southern one.

 

Basically while there, I was taught "North good, South bad", so Lincoln was extolled as a pretty great guy. I am therefore finding this alternative view of him quite interesting.

 

About a month ago I heard part of a sermon (I forget who by) where it was said that the South was quite Christian and Bible-oriented while the North was pretty liberal, and that then as now, the North tended to mock the South for that. The speaker reckoned that was part of a reason for the conflict - not something I'd ever heard before either.

[swathdiver]

Basically while there, I was taught "North good, South bad", so Lincoln was extolled as a pretty great guy. I am therefore finding this alternative view of him quite interesting.

 

About a month ago I heard part of a sermon (I forget who by) where it was said that the South was quite Christian and Bible-oriented while the North was pretty liberal, and that then as now, the North tended to mock the South for that. The speaker reckoned that was part of a reason for the conflict - not something I'd ever heard before either.

 

 

The victor gets to write the history books.

 

Yes, the North was more worldly and hostile to God, the Union Army had many communists and communist generals that fled Europe and Lincoln's army was all too happy to welcome them in.

 

The Yankees turned many a southern church into stables for their horses.  There were however, many God-fearing Yanks though that loved the Lord, they were just on the wrong side!

[KiwiChristian]

The victor gets to write the history books.

 

True enough!

 

I have now found that sermon I referred to in my previous post. It's by John Weaver and is called "The South Must Rise Again". He has a lot of material in SermonAudio, including some other stuff about the South and Civil War. It's quite eye-opening (although I don't necessarily agree that the South should rise again and start another civil war). The basic view of the Civil War that you get in the northern States is that the South wanted the right to keep slaves and mainly seceded for that, so the North, led by "Honest Abe", had to fight them to free the slaves and keep the United States as "one nation under God". This is also pretty much how Hollywood paints it, I think.

 

The negative view of the South prevails in a lot of TV shows. How are southerners generally portrayed in many TV shows and movies? Very often, as bigoted and somewhat crazy rednecks with a Bible in one hand and a KKK hood in the other. And let's not forget backward and probably inbred. But should we really be surprised that liberal, anti-God Hollywood portrays the largely Christian and conservative South in this way?

 

Not that the South is perfect by any means. There was some pretty bad racism there in the middle of last century, and the Jim Crow laws weren't exactly its proudest moment. I have an aunt (related by marriage) from Alabama who is very anti-black. So the South has its sin issues like everywhere else. But in general it probably is more Christian than much of the rest of America and the history of the secession and Civil War is clearly nowhere near as black and white as many Americans (and folks like me who have lived there) are led to believe.

[KiwiChristian]

I just listened to this hard-hitting sermon by Jason Cooley about paganism and patriotism:

 

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=7713194376

 

Southern people will particularly enjoy the second half of this sermon in which he talks about The Battle Hymn of the Republic and how it's not a Christian song at all but was war propaganda. Although a "Yankee" (I think Cooley is a Minnesota native), he declares that the South was right, that Lincoln had slaves, that only the slaves in the South were freed by his Emancipation Proclamation but slaves in the North were not, and that the reason Lincoln is so beloved today is because he had a good propaganda machine. He also says that no part of the United States has had more Christian revivals than the South.

 

So I think he would definitely agree with the sentiments of many on this thread! Enjoy!

[ThePilgrim]

Not a disagreement, but how many of us have wondered what would have become of the country had the south seceeded,(sp?), and we had become 2 countries, rather than one? Would we have been immediately attacked by England? Or some other country? There were plenty of counties out there hoping the country would fall, who were, in fact, backing the South, to make it happen. Why? To weaken them? The Confederates lost because they had nothing backing their money-much like the country today. had they succeeded in seceeding, they would not have continued long, particularly with any sanctions and official separation that would have been in place from the North.  

 

Again, I don't dispute the truth of this, and have heard it before, but what would have become of America? Certainly we are pretty much non-existent today, but might there have been a violent takeover, had the country officially split? Would the one have brought about more splits? Would this country have become numerous small countries, like Latin America or Europe? Some good leaders, with dictators right next door, continually warring against one another? Where would each of those small countries been once WW1 or WW2 came about? A quick take-over, split by the Soviets and the Nazis or Japan?

 

Just not sure the alternet possibilities would have been any better.

Such questions as these are why authors write fiction books about alternative history.  Anyone can guess, but only God knows.  I myself believe that any course man takes using his own mind and thought processes will end in disaster.  "Monumental" decisions are made every day by the godless in positions of power and they all eventually lead in a downward direction.  I think it's called entropy.  Unfortunate for the common man but that is just the way it is.  Pray and trust in God for the future because the past is gone.

 

God bless,

Larry