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"Pappy" Boyington; A Lesson in Reality, Freedom and Truth
Everyone who cares about such things is aware of the storm brewing over Col. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington at the University of Washington.
A university student wanted to erect a small memorial statue of the Colonel on the campus because he was a University of Washington alumnus and because he had a very distinguished military record in defending our country during WWII. He became famous as a result of the TV series “Black Sheep Squadron,” based on his autobiography which focused on his experiences in the war. He was indeed a war hero.
But no! The University Student Senate would have none of this. One member of the senate questioned whether it was “appropriate to honor a person who killed other people and whether a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person the UW wanted to produce.” Another student senate member suggested, “Many monuments at UW already commemorate rich, white men,” apparently missing the well-known fact that Boyington was actually Native American.
While this philosophy does not represent all the students of UW, it certainly represents a trend that exists not only at UW but most colleges and universities across America. Philosophically, they have moved away from both truth and reality.
It was Abraham Lincoln who said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
Since the early 1960’s there has been a growing assault on the Judeo-Christian values that made America great. During this last forty years, a vocal minority has challenged the principles upon which this country was built.
Theodore Roosevelt said, “To educate a man in mind and not morals is to educate a menace to society.”
A minority of students in our colleges and universities, aided by extremely liberal, secularists professors, have moved so far to the left that they have actually moved beyond some of those roll models whom they hold in high esteem.
The liberals often quote Albert Einstein who said, “The pioneers of a warless world are the men and women who refuse military service.” While it is true that he made that statement, it is also true that he sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1930 to warn him that, “Nazi Germany was likely building an atomic bomb and that the U.S. had better get on the stick.”
But most telling was this statement by none other than liberal, pacifist Albert Einstein. “Being a lover of freedom, when the [Nazi] revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom: but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign of suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to concede that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly.”
I doubt that you’ll see that quote on a bumper sticker.
The church is the Bulwark of both truth and freedom in our society. This is why the church must speak to the issues of today.
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Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom
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