The Judeo/Christian/Constitutional message
The first post with this title is here.
Here’s some more of the overheated blather in Bradley Dean Smith’s epistle to the “American people”:
As we ponder the awful price of freedom, let me ask you, America, why do you allow these supposed reporters to encourage disarray and an anarchy attitude? The state-run media is being used to promulgate propaganda - the new immoral way instead of the old righteous way (Jeremiah 6:16). They have it backwards and they are guilty of attempting to sink their own boat. In truth, they are enemies to their own people and country.
Instead of them looking to this ministry’s Judeo/Christian/Constitutional message as a lighthouse for safety and solidification, they stay out in the dangerous and tempestuous sea, only to destroy themselves and take down as many as they can with them when the ship goes down.
If you want to see if you are helping the boat (your country) stay afloat or if you are guilty of attempting to sink it, simply read the Bible and your founding documents. You will see the clear correlation so you can know for yourselves where you stand or fall. Then and only then can you make the distinction between those who are lying to you and those who are telling you the truth. Although truth does divide for righteousness’ sake, let that truth and that alone unite us as “We the People,” for it is truth and light that gives us distinction throughout the world. Forget it not. God bless.
You will remember if you read the first installment that Smith does not mean really all of the American people when he says “America.” Rather, he has a very special subset of citizens in mind:
What defines an American anyway? Just because you were born here does not make you an “American.” To be an American is to line up with who we are as a people and as a nation. A true American’s job is to uphold, preserve, and defend the Constitutional Republic that our forefathers gave us. That is what our president, our representatives, and our military swear (on the Bible) when they take their oaths of office. George Washington said, "Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society." We are to fight to uphold our pillars as a nation, not tear them down.
Americans are to look out for one another; to watch each other’s backs; and to love one another enough to hold each other to the truth. How foreign this is to those who don’t uphold American values, and you know who they are by the things they write, say, and do, whether ignorantly or intentionally. Are these reporters writing to unite or to divide the American cause?
One of the “supposed reporters” is almost certainly Karl Bremer, who has been looking into the tax-exempt status of Smith’s “ministry.” The “ministry’s” treasurer made a complaint to the Washington County Sheriff (Karl’s blog is Ripple in Stillwater) about the disclosure of public information about YCR on the blog. Andy Birkey is one of the other “supposed reporters” who has been doing likewise; the news organization Andy works for received a letter from YCR’s lawyer reciting a self-serving version of the “facts” concerning “Glen Stole,” a non-profit tax fraud scheme promoter and YCR’s business relationship with “Stole.” After reciting his version of events, the YCR attorney lets Andy and Co. off with a warning:
In other words, accept what we say, or we’ll sue for defamation.
However, in America – “big” America, not Smith’s “little” America – there isn’t a news organization (or an individual) out there who must simply accept a version of facts from a politician, public officeholder, law enforcement official, or other public figure – or his or her mouthpiece, for that matter – as the, um, gospel. The real First Amendment, not the one conjured by Smith’s fevered imagination, protects speech based on the investigation, inferences, interviews, and good faith hunches of reporters.
It would be a sorry situation indeed if all reporters could do is read press releases or letters from lawyers and accept them as true.
Since the YCR lawyer holds himself out as the source of facts about Smith, YCR, and Glen “Stole,” and he says that he does so “under penalty of perjury,” he ought be willing to travel to Minnesota and be examined under oath about his assertions. And Smith and YCR should waive the attorney-client privilege to let the truth of his assertions be tested.
If they are unwilling to do that, the letter must be ignored, both in fact and in law.
The photo is from Smith’s Facebook page.
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