Comments on Pro Libertate: Imperial Priorities: Obedience First – Character Last

Outstanding article as always, Mr Grigg. I can...

2011-07-25T00:42:00.628-06:00

Outstanding article as always, Mr Grigg. I can't wait to get your take on the Norway attack. Something very strange is going on there, and things just do not add up based on what has been reported so far.

I also just recently caught your Podcast with lewrockwell -- it was very interesting and worth listening to more than once.

-- Fellow Freedom Zealot from the beginning

William, this is purely tangential to be sure, but...

2011-07-24T21:48:50.768-06:00

William, this is purely tangential to be sure, but it just so happens that I'm going to be doing a new play about Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the Provision Theater Co. in Chicago this Fall. It's called 'Bonhoeffer's Cost' and it focuses on his struggle with the Nazi regime.

Just thought I'd mention it in case you're anywhere near the vicinity of the Windy City at any time from mid-September through the end of October.

I never went to Sunday School. Do they really sin...

2011-07-21T23:00:23.106-06:00

I never went to Sunday School. Do they really sing that Obedience Song?

As usual, another excellent article Mr.Grigg. Alth...

2011-07-21T20:14:17.569-06:00

As usual, another excellent article Mr.Grigg. Although the quoted phrase “quickly and cheerfully carrying out the direction of those who are responsible for me” will cause me indefinite nightmares (who the bloody hell is responsible for me other than me?!?!?!)

As an added bonus, I found the comments by ex-JBS to be very interesting. I will do some more research.

Hello, Mr. Grigg! My name is Sasha Shepherd, a fel...

2011-07-21T06:28:52.338-06:00

Hello, Mr. Grigg! My name is Sasha Shepherd, a fellow lover of human liberty.

I would love to talk to you briefly about something, it shouldn't take long. I couldn't think how to get ahold of you, I guess I could have asked at LRC.

By the way, THANK YOU for all the tremendous work you do. It is just..invaluable, and eye opening. Always the first person I read on LR ;)

Please write me at buddhaflow at yahoo, and let me know how to get in touch. I wanted to discuss something briefly, a possible little partnership, it shouldn't take long. I would be so honored to speak.

God Bless!
Sasha

(Note: This was submitted late last night, but mus...

2011-07-20T21:06:31.183-06:00

(Note: This was submitted late last night, but must have fallen into cyberspace.)

Will, what a tremendous article! Thank you for alerting us all to the dangers of Character First, as it goes about drilling blind obedience into people's heads worldwide. The destruction it probably already has - and will - cause is incalculable.

To think that Christians are behind this perversion is what's really alarming, though. Why is it that 'authority' is always the major stickler in Christian circles? And the fact that those behind Character First believe (like the good Arminians that they are) that character can be 'trained' into people, while totally ignoring the need for regeneration and sanctification, simply boggles the mind.

Today, I've read several of the references you gave as hyperlinks throughout the article and have found Bill Gothard described as a Christian Reconstructionist. How tragic to see that label applied to someone whose distorted and perverted version of that school of thought is so far removed from what was taught by the eminent Christian Reconstructionist Dr. Rousas J. Rushdoony.

I've known some Birchers who were very impressed with Bill Gothard, but I never looked into his program, figuring he was just another in a long list of Zig Zigler-type motivational speakers and/or sleazy TV evangelists.

But the most disturbing eye-opener for me today was finding out that the founder and president of Character First is Tom Hill, who is also presently Chairman of the Board of Kimray Oil and Gas in Oklahoma City. Kimray was always a faithful advertiser in The New American for at least as long as we subscribed to it, and we had always held a high opinion of that company and it's co-founder, Garman Kimmell. Tom Hill is Kimmell's son-in-law, and the interesting thing is that about ten years ago, Mr. Hill and his wife, Kay, came to a meeting of the Dallas Business Chapter of the JBS, so that he could address the group, of which I was a member at that time. He told about how Kimray wanted its employees to succeed, and how they started a program there to motivate them that had worked so well, they were encouraging other companies to do the same. He probably called it by name (Character First), but all I remember was how he said it saved them on Workers Comp payments. The balance of his presentation was about how he loved doing business in China, and this was such a big turnoff for me and a lot of the other Birchers that there was considerable grumbling after Hill's speech ended. The Hills struck me as nice people, but also seemed to be the type who only consider God's love, and overlook His other many attributes, including justice and righteousness.

And now, ten years later, Character First pops up on my radar, thanks to you, Will ... and we see the destruction being wrought by their poorly thought out theological beliefs, topped with a dollop of good intentions, of course!

And Christians say that theology doesn't matter ....

Oh, by the way, Lemuel.... I haven't the sligh...

2011-07-19T16:25:05.623-06:00

Oh, by the way, Lemuel.... I haven't the slightest idea why you consider the Democrats are somehow "becoming" just like the Republicans. That's like saying they're partially pregnant. Those bastards goose-step to the same fascist tune while their eyes glance, ever so slightly, to the left making it appear they're different. They're "blood brothers and sisters" to the core. Just an observation my friend.

There have been "moral" and religious sh...

2011-07-19T16:06:21.367-06:00

There have been "moral" and religious shills for the state going back into antiquity. It hasn't changed one bit because it WORKS! That fact alone should be sobering. I realized we can point out all of the hypocrisy from dawn until dusk, but just like Bonhoeffer, boarding the wrong train doesn't get you to where you want to go. That's what Christians have done for countless decades: bought a ticket to hell from the devil himself and convinced themselves it was a passport to paradise.

Take the initiative, everyone knows what is going ...

2011-07-19T08:01:16.609-06:00

Take the initiative, everyone knows what is going on, it is time to take over. Actually it should already have been done, but the longer the wait the more urgent the need.

Talk talk about what is happening, it is necessary but ultimately nothing more then the music that is played on either train. It has to lead to action and revolution, so get on it already, please.

I enjoyed the article. I came to this blog because...

2011-07-19T05:19:56.777-06:00

I enjoyed the article. I came to this blog because I found a link on the Google News sidebar to a story on "The Illusion of Authority," the article written on that Seattle policeofficer who shot a deaf Native American woodcarver. The blog is great. I just wish that people would see it is not so much the Republicans vs Democrats, but more or less a concurrence of circumstances, a confluence of systems that have come together to make the world the way it is. And what is "it" that I am speaking of? Seems to me that a human being, an individual in this society and in this world, right now, and at each and every moment to come for the foreseeable future is "worth" less than he was a moment ago. The powerlessness of a single person in comparison to our institutions and their hierarchical structure. Nobody is really going to advance up the chain of command without first being vetted, and therefore changed, into the person that perpetuates the system they are in. I am told to just "deal with it." I need to find another job.

The flesh has always fought the spirit. It is no w...

2011-07-19T02:12:28.557-06:00

The flesh has always fought the spirit. It is no wonder the State apparatus seeks at least a minimum of interference from its religious leaders. The question then is what exactly does the State hope to achieve with its stated program.
What America is doing today is not what National Socialist Germany was doing in the 30's.Nor was Positive Christianity similar to the program of Bill Gothard. That the Soviet Communists wanted his program speaks for itself.
You,Mr. Grigg,insinuate a connection between Nazi Germany and present-day America. Does that not make you also a collaborater? What are you doing to destroy the regime in Washington? You will do nothing because it would make you what Bonhoeffer was: a terrorist and traitor. What Bradley Manning did was different than what Bonhoeffer did.
I guess "a population of polite,punctual,dutiful,thrifty,orderly collaboraters" is "evil" to you. Really!? America should be so lucky.
Finally, the quote from Rudolf Hess out of the official transcripts of the Nuremberg Tribunal should be considered suspect. All trancripts from the Nuremberg Tribunal need to be reevaluated as to thier authenticity. If you are not aware, many documents during the Tribunal had been altered or forged and therefore become official. Which does not mean truthful.
Maranatha! Markus

Mr. Grigg, You quote Rudolf Hess: "It is wit...

2011-07-18T19:42:07.184-06:00

Mr. Grigg,
You quote Rudolf Hess:

"It is with pride that we see that one man is kept above all criticism -- the Fuhrer. The reason is that everyone feels and knows he was always right and will always be right. The National Socialism of us all is anchored in the uncritical loyalty, in the devotion to the Fuhrer..."

That quote perfectly describes the attitude of every single person calling themselves "Republican" towards George W. Bush, from 2000 through 2008, at which time the shit finally hit the fan, and Bush's illegal war that he lied us into, finally started to cause pain in America as well as in Iraq.

Well do I remember a devout Christian woman, around 2003, telling me, with tears running down her cheeks, that George W. Bush was a "saint." As I looked at her, I could think of nothing but the movies of vast crowds of German women, circa 1936, waving and weeping ecstatically as Hitler passed in his limousine.

The Republican Prty in America is fascist; it is evil and vile; it is nothing but a rebirth and resurgence of Nazism, Communism, Fascism, and the worst types of totalitarian regimes the world has vomited forth. And, since it has succeeded so well; since it has found such fertile soil; the Democratic Party is rapidly becoming the same. If you cannot beat them, join them.

With the Polizei, the TSA, the NSA, the DHS, the no-fly lists, the navy brigs in which dissidents are held without legal process, for years upon years, Guantanamo, Predator drones, presidentially directed assassinations, ad nauseam; with all that, there is not a hair's breadth of moral daylight between America 2011 and Germany 1936, or Cambodia, or China, or North Korea, or Soviet Russia.

There is no more "Republic." Our national anthem is a meaningless ditty to soothe and stupefy the soul of America. This America is an empty shell; a whited sepulcher which outside is fair to behold, but within is full of dead men's bones. It is a cesspit, which has flower beds and grass growing on the surface where the eye sees, but within is full of stinking feces and corruption where the eye does not see.

Bye, bye, Miss American Pie.... the music has died.

- Lemuel Gulliver.

Authority is the moral power of command. The State...

2011-07-18T19:07:43.323-06:00

Authority is the moral power of command. The State ain't got it. What most people by "authority" is actually its charlatan doppelganger: "obedience to anyone with power, because he has power."