America is looking for answers. The Gospel is our only chance. We must teach it to our young. Why won’t somebody say it? Don’t we love our children? We first put this article on our website in 2008, but repeat it as it is still relevant in the light of the US school slaughter. Where was God? Well, actually, politicians like Obama kicked Him out of the schools, banned prayer, forced crosses to be removed from war memorials and taught that there are no absolute truths. Now the nation- like Britain and others- is reaping the inevitable whirlwind.
SEND IN THE CLOWNS by Coach Dave Daubenmire Don't you love farce? My fault I fear. I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry, my dear. But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here. As sung by Judy Collins Circus--a troupe of performers, esp. a traveling troupe, that presents such entertainments, together with officials, other employees, and the company's performing animals, traveling wagons, tents, cages, and equipment. Clowns—“Clowns can be seen just about anywhere, doing just about anything. What ties all clowns together is a keen sense of the absurd, and a willingness to perform.” I always loved to go to the circus. There was an excitement in the pageantry “under the big top.”
The action was daring and quick, designed to keep you on the edge of your seat. From the acrobats, to the animals, the circus was a perfect respite from the pressures of life. The three-ring circus was the best. It was orchestrated with three different areas of action so that the patrons could move from one exciting show to another without missing a beat. While the scenery in one ring was being rigged, our focus bounced to another stage where the performers quickly collected our attention. It was a fast moving, highly captivating experience. And what would a circus be without the clowns?
The purpose of the clowns was to distract the viewer from the rapidly-changing scenery. If, perchance, an animal were to attack his trainer, or the man on the flying trapeze were to miss his grip, the ringmaster would “send in the clowns.” The job of the clowns was to direct your attention away from the tragedy that was unfolding.
Life in America is becoming a circus. Tragedy is everywhere. And in a time when we need some serious answers, they are sending us the clowns. Like a room full of elementary-school boys, our leaders are praying that we all have ADHD. Send in the clowns. Watch and listen as they do their antics and distract us from all directions. We will grow weary, they know, of asking for answers. Everything will be fine, our television tells us. The clowns are in control. Why is it that we are no longer laughing?
Where are America’s leaders? No, not the ones you are thinking of, the ones being force-fed to you by the alphabet networks. They are the clowns, or at least part of the traveling troupe: Jackson, Sharpton, Newt, Giuliani, Obama, Hillary, Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Pelosi, and Bush, are just a few of the jesters sent to distract us from the main event. From Natalie Holloway to Imus, Anna Nicole to Britney, they distract us from the real problems that we face.
My wife and I have a daughter who is a freshman in college. I can’t imagine the grief the parents of the victims of college /school shootings must be enduring. As can be expected, the hue and cry for answers will cascade over the airwaves as the clowns are paraded before us to distract us from the real answers. And what will the clowns tell us? “We need gun control. More tolerance. Fire the president. More metal detectors”...ad infinitum. Like Hans Brinker, the clowns dance around and suggest ways to stick our thumbs in the dike, holding back the deluge until America springs another leak, at which time they will direct us to another hole in need of another thumb. All the while the dam is ready to burst. What a perfect time for the church to be the church. But let’s be honest. Our church leaders are the ones with the biggest thumbs.
America doesn’t need more gun control, we need moral control. Please Lord, send us men who will say that! Instead we get the clowns. Those who will direct us away from the real problem facing society, sin, to a false solution of purpose and prosperity. America is soul sick, and our leaders refuse to call for radical surgery on the heart. I was reading a story yesterday about the slaughter in a college and I was struck by one small throw-away sentence so common in stories like this. “School officials say counselors and ministers will be available to aid the grieving.”
Here come the thumbs. Send in the clowns. I always find it ironic that when tragedy strikes, our schools “officials” are quick to call upon the “ministers” -- those with large thumbs -- to come and help deal with the aftermath of the carnage. Those same “ministers” who were not allowed in school to prevent the death, are now invited to school to explain the death. And what is the message the “officials” send? That religion is only important AFTER one is dead. Thirty-two children are dead, killed not by a gun, but by a young man with rot in his soul. (AF- this referred to a college shooting in 2008)
On what can we blame this blatant intolerance? “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” --Teddy Roosevelt. "Let the children...be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education. The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating [removing] Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools." --Benjamin Rush Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:”
Education is a heart issue. We have made it a head issue. Here is a simple thought. Wasn’t America a better place when we taught Christian values to all of our children? In 1962 the courts stripped God from education. In 1963 they removed His Word. We have been plugging leaks in America ever since. How many more children will die, how many more parents will weep, how many more laws will we pass in an attempt to control the heart of a man?
Let’s face it. America is immersed in a culture of death. No amount of legislation or education will change that. The dam is about to break. 2 Chronicles 7:19-22 “But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. "And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.”
America is looking for answers. The Gospel is our only chance. We must teach it to our young. Why won’t somebody say it? Don’t we love our children? Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain… I’m tired of the clowns. All they do is make my thumbs sore. Send in the King!
