We are living in a time of revealing. Christians, Conservatives, Libertarians, Patriots, and other freedom and liberty-minded people, should take the time to rejoice. There are many reasons to rejoice today but here is one that some may be missing – we should rejoice because the God-haters, the America-haters, the freedom-haters, the liberty-haters, in short, the satanic, demonic, Leftists among us are finally being exposed on a scale and at a depth never before seen in American history.
Leftists, Marxists, Communists, Democrats, America-haters, and God-haters, all have one thing in common – they serve a demonic master who has completely destroyed their innate ability to reason for the common good. I and many others have said for many years that Leftist politics, whether Marxist or Globalist, is a mental disorder. We are seeing that truth verified like never before.
“…we
must understand that the only road to peace and social justice is
socialism…With the exploiting classes there will never be peace.”[1]
“…it
is necessary to understand that every modern theory of social justice is
ideological. No matter how reasonable or rational it may be, every modern
theory of social justice is the rationalization of the interests of a
particular group or class.”[2]
He
has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to
do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah
6:8[3]
Justice for all! This statement is a great sound bite but
little more than that. Indeed, as it is used today, it is superfluous on the
surface and vacuous once a brief examination is undertaken. However, given that
Americans have been conditioned to respond to sound bite journalism and
half-truths and worse masquerading as fact-based news, this mantra has become a
dangerous, misleading, although effective ploy utilized by those bent on
destroying America.
For justice to be realized by all, at least two things are necessary foundationally: there must be a standard or system of justice available to all that is objective, that is, it is beyond the frailties and double-mindedness of man, and all parties interested in justice for all must recognize this objective standard as guiding principles for determining when justice has been exhibited. In other words, there must be law and the rule of law must prevail over all well-intentioned and/or misguided arguments based on emotions, feelings, or the ideology-du-jour.
In order for true justice to prevail and guide any people
in their shared lives, justice must be impartial, proportionally related to
behavior so that each individual receives his or her due, whether that due is
reward or punishment. This must be in accord with the objective standard agreed
upon as the guiding principles mentioned above.
America was founded upon Christian principles. Therefore, God’s moral law has undergirded the guiding principles of this republic even before the American Revolution. The Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of English settlers to America makes this clear. The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the US Constitution and Bill of Rights follow suit in recognizing the God of the Christian Bible as Creator, Sustainer, Lord, and Law Giver. His immutable and timeless law is recognized as the foundation for America’s laws.
John Locke said, “The end of law is not to abolish or
restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.” President John F. Kennedy
recognized that truth when he stated during his inaugural address that: “The rights of man come not
from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.” Sir William Blackstone, the
acclaimed English jurist and scholar of jurisprudence, wrote that:
“Man … must
necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator…This will of his Maker is
called the law of nature…This law of nature…is of course superior to any
other…No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of
them as are valid derive all their force…from this original.”[4]
Additionally, justice has many different applications and
therefore must be understood within several different contexts, among them: commercial,
vindictive, retributive, punitive, and remedial justice.[5]
Commercial justice defines voluntary relationships, while vindictive,
retributive, punitive, and remedial justice defines involuntary relationships.
Theologian and Philosopher E. Calvin Beisner, offers this explanation:
Commercial justice requires
that if we desire what another has, we must offer something he prefers in
exchange for it, not acquire it by force or fraud – whether directly (picking
his pocket) or indirectly (using a law to take from him and give to ourselves
or others). Violations of commercial justice by fraud, theft, or violence bring
punitive and vindictive justice into play as correctives.
When one person violates
another’s rights (which are defined by justice), the injury is to be redressed
by vindictive, retributive, and punitive justice. Vindictive justice judges the victim right in his cause (1 Kings
8:32; Deuteronomy 25:1). Retributive justice
(from the Latin re, or “back,” and tribuere, “to pay”) requires the
offender to restore the victim to his status before the offense (Exodus
22:1-15). Punitive justice applies a
penalty to the offender as punishment for violating the law (Romans 13:4). In
crimes against property (theft or destruction), punitive and retributive
justice combine in the offender’s restoring what was taken or destroyed
(retribution, also called restitution) plus some additional amount
(punishment).
Sometimes someone harms
another accidently. Then, remedial
justice requires the one who caused the harm to share the cost equally with
the victim (Exodus 21:35) but adds no penalty. But if he is negligent, he must
be punished by bearing the whole loss (Exodus 21:33-34, 36), restoring the
victim fully to his former state at his own expense.[6]
In the current climate of identity politics, gender
dysphoria, and Marxian and Critical Theories run amok, these requirements for
justice appear to be out of reach. That leaves us with a bare naked power grab
by certain people, or cast in Darwinian terms, a fight for the survival of the
strongest, where might makes right. In America today that means political power
financed by globalists who espouse anti-American ideologies. The ability to
force people to comply against their wishes and of the common good has defined
tyranny throughout the ages. Sadly, much of the American Protestant church has
been deceived and is supporting the multi-pronged Luciferian lunacy of the
leftists and other assorted God haters.
Aiding
and Abetting the Perversion of Justice
Recently the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) abdicated
their responsibility to proclaim God’s truth by adopting Critical Theory and
Intersectionality as guiding principles. Critical Theory and especially Critical
Race Theory assume what they set out to prove. It is at best, circular
reasoning on steroids. What it is at worse is a system for justifying racism
against whites. If that statement makes you nervous, you are probably
influenced by the now non-stop drumbeat of the white supremacy, white privilege
nonsense perpetrated by Critical Theory race baiters embedded in the Southern
Baptist Convention as well as many other denominations.
Critical Theory has already conquered numerous universities
as evidenced by the growing number of white privilege courses being offered to
students. The reason there is no uproar over this insanity is because college
freshman have already been indoctrinated with the socialist, leftist, Marxist
global citizenship lies such that by the time they enter college they have
become victims of mass mind control that makes the CIA blush over its
effectiveness.
Alex Newman, writing in the February 4, 2019 edition of the
New American says:
More than 20 years ago,
Hillary Clinton published a book called It
Takes a Village. The key takeaway from the book is that the raising of
children needs to be viewed as a collective responsibility, and that the
government must take a much more active role. More recently, MSNBC host Melissa
Harris-Perry did a segment going even further. “We have to break through our
private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their
families, and recognize that kids belong to the whole community…Of course that
idea is not new. In 1932, American Communist Party leader William Z. Foster, in
his book Toward Soviet America, outlined
similar goals. “Among the elementary measures the American Soviet government
will adopt to further the cultural revolution are the following: the schools,
colleges and universities will be coordinated and grouped under the National
Department of Education and its state and local branches,” he wrote. “The
studies will be revolutionized, being cleansed of religious, patriotic and
other features of bourgeois ideology. The students will be taught on the basis
of Marxian dialectic materialism, internationalism and the general ethics of
the new Socialist society…Indeed dictators have long understood that shaping
the minds of children is the surest method of keeping power. As Nationalist
Socialist (Nazi) tyrant Adolph Hitler put it, “He alone, who owns the youth,
gains the future”…Education, it turns out, is the secret weapon of those
seeking to build what they frequently refer to in public as a New World Order.
And they not only admit it, they boast of it in public. The very future of the
United States as a free and self-governing republic hinges on the outcome of
this battle.[7]
According to the Socialists-Communists in the U.S. Senate
and House, as well as Socialists-Communists in every level of government and
even in the U.S. Judiciary, American’s who believe in the rule of law, in the
God-given rights of Americans, in liberty and freedom, in limited government,
and State’s rights to tell the U.S. Government to “take a hike,” are prime
candidates for re-education. That means many Americans must be indoctrinated
with an ideology that sees religion, by which is meant true Christianity, and
patriotism, by which is meant nationalism, as “bourgeois.”
The questions I have for all those Protestant and SBC
leaders and the growing number of confessing Socialist-Communist Evangelicals
such as Tim Keller and David Platt, is this: How do you legitimately espouse
such demonic nonsense and think you are being true to the gospel of Jesus
Christ? How can you adopt Critical Theory, Critical Race Theory,
Intersectionality, Social Justice, homosexual and even transgender propaganda
and believe you are remaining faithful to the Scriptures? What people who hide
behind and fly the flag of “inclusion” are really doing is waving the white
flag of surrender to culture and the demonic hordes that have carefully crafted
American culture for the last one hundred plus years. People who believe they
are Christians and who see no conflict with their support of Critical Theory,
Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, Big Gay, and every other interest that
sets itself against the truth of God, have become useful idiots for the enemies
of Christ and of the freedom and liberties we enjoy as Americans.
Founding
Father John Adams was right when he wrote in a letter to the Massachusetts
Third Division in 1798, that: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people, it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This
explains why the Socialist-Communists in our governments, their allies in the
media, and Big Gay hate the rule of law and hate any reference to the Founding
Fathers and our governing documents: they are not a moral people and they will
not abide by any moral code that calls their behavior immoral, wicked, and
evil.
I encourage
every freedom loving American to begin to tell the people described above that
we will not tolerate their continued attack upon this nation’s principles and
follow that up with action. What is happening in your local community will
determine the necessary action items for you. I also suggest you utilize your
network of people to grow an organization of resistance to the creeping
Socialism-Communism in our governments and in our churches. If you will not
stand up and fight back now it may be too late in the very near future.
[1] Celia Hart, The Flag of Coyoacan, edited by Walter Lippmann in August 2004.
Repreinted in Marxist.org Cited in Carl Teichrib, Forcing Change, Volume 4, Issue 8, p. 1.
[2] William E. Murnion, “The Ideology of
Social Justice in Economic Justice For All,”
Journal of Business Ethics, p. 848, 1989. Cited in Teichrib, p. 1.
[3] All Bible references are taken from The
New American Standard translation (Lockman Foundation, 1995).
[7] Alex Newman, The New American, Rescuing Our Children, February 4, 2019, p.7.
Mike Spaulding was ordained to the ministry in 1998. Since then he has planted two Calvary Chapel churches – Calvary Christian Fellowship, St. Marys, Ohio, in 1998, and Calvary Chapel of Lima, Ohio, in 2005, where he currently serves as pastor.
Mike holds a B.A. in Organizational Management, a M.T.S., and a Ph.D. in apologetics. He is the author of #MTPGA (Make the Pulpit Great Again): 12 Things Christians Can Do Right Now; Random Thoughts From a Disciple of Jesus Christ: Commentary on America’s “Hot Button” Issues; Matthew: A Commentary for the Remnant Body of Jesus Christ, Volume 1; and Mark: A Commentary for the Remnant Body of Jesus Christ, Volume 1. He is a contributing author to Social Injustice; The Evangelical Dictionary of World Religions; and Daily Devotions with Calvary Chapel Pastors. Mike is a frequent conference speaker and has appeared on broadcasts including Worldview Weekend Radio with Brannon Howse, The Hagmann Report, Caravan to Midnight and Ark Midnight with John B. Wells, and Five In Ten on Skywatch TV.
Mike is the host of Soaring Eagle Radio (www.soaringeagleradio.com), Dr. Mike Live (www.drmikelive.com), and cohosts The Kingdom War Room with Dr. Michael Lake (www.kingdomintelligencebriefing.com) .
His teaching ministry is featured on the radio program “The Transforming Word,” heard on radio stations throughout the Midwest United States.
Mike has been married to his lovely wife Kathy for over 36 years and together they have four daughters and six grandchildren.
You may contact Mike via email – pastormike@cclohio.org or by writing him at the address below. You may follow him on Twitter – @ccpastormike
Dr. Mike Spaulding P.O. Box 3007 Elida, Ohio 45807
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In one of the apostle Paul’s last letters — the one he wrote to Timothy — he gave some vitally important words of caution and warning. 2nd Timothy 4, starting at verse 2: “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.”
Then, he added, “But watch thou, in all things, endure
afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
I have been working in full time ministry for nearly 20 years now. I remember when I began, I was astonished at the many churches that were no longer enduring sound doctrine. The “seeker friendly” movement, which morphed into the “Emergent Church” movement was on a “fast track.” Mega churches were springing up with massive buildings. So large, in fact, they call them “campuses.” And many of these mega-churches have MULTIPLE campuses in various areas of their cities, because one building will not hold all those who want the feel-good, false “love gospel” message that is preached there.
I was saddened in
those early days of this work, to see so many formerly rock solid, Bible-based,
Scripturally sound churches DEvolve into nothing more than “happy fun
time.” A “feel-good experience,” where
one could go and see a show, lift their hands in mock reverence to God, dance
and sway, while being promised all manner of prosperity, health, wealth, and a
life of abundance. “Your BEST life
NOW.” This is just SO contradictory to
everything God’s Word says about the Christian life. Sin is no longer a word allowed to be spoken
of in many churches, and if it IS spoken of, it’s only to say that once we
simply say a prayer or walk an aisle (or worse yet, just raise our hand “with
all eyes closed and all heads bowed”); we are “good” with God.
We can then go
about our normal lives as usual. Except
now, we are told, we are assured of heaven… just because we repeated a few
words and sheepishly raised our hand while no one was looking. COME ON folks! Talk about biblical illiteracy. Talk about wolves in sheep’s clothing….
HIRELINGS lulling fat and happy fools into a false sense of eternal
security. This is so sad.
But you know, we
cannot put all the blame on the pastors.
They’re just giving the people what they want. Look again at the Scripture from 2nd
Timothy: it says THE PEOPLE will not
put up with sound doctrine any longer, and so THE PEOPLE heap up for themselves
teachers to tell them what they want to hear, to soothe their itching ears.
It is the great
apostasy, the great “falling away.” And
I have watched it begin as a tiny sprout many years ago, and I’ve watched it
grow, blossom, flower and then re-seed itself many times over the years… Today it is so prevalent in Christendom that
one is hard-pressed to find a faithful congregation of true believers
anywhere. I guess that’s why God’s Word
says there will only be a small “remnant” that stand firm to the end.
During my time in
ministry, I have seen the old timers, the pastors who were faithful in teaching
the WHOLE counsel of God’s Word grow older and retire from the ministry… or
in many cases, be FORCED OUT of their ministry by church boards and elders —
only to be replaced by somebody younger, more “hip,” more “in step” with the
culture and times we are living in. In
other words, a more CARNAL “pastor.”
These “cool” new pastors often use Hollywood films on their big
projection TV screens to illustrate their sermons… they make off-color jokes
from the pulpits. They wear t shirts and
ripped blue jeans as they speak, to appeal to the average “Joe six-pack” in the
audience. They have a “hot” worship
team, complete with electric guitars, drums, smoke and mirrors and in some
cases even laser light shows. “It’s all about the EXPERIENCE,” they
say.
Friends, I’m not
some old fashioned stick in the mud.
I’ve been around. And I can tell
you, this ain’t “church.” At least not a
biblical church. It MAY be a “synagogue
of Satan.” But it’s not church, and it
most certainly is not God-honoring.
There is NO reverence for Him; no fear of God there at all. I have seen youth leaders take their group
of kids to R-rated movies as their Youth Group “activity” for the week; I have seen pastors hold community events
called a “car smash,” which apparently the kids love… they get an old car,
put it in the middle of their parking lot, and let the kids destroy it with
baseball bats, spray paint, and tire irons.
This is their “entertainment” for the evening — a way to get kids to
“come to church.”
I’ve seen pastors
dress up like Hollywood movie characters, or the Easter Bunny or Santa
Claus. I’ve seen the bounce houses and
carnival games and rock concerts… nowadays, they will do ANYTHING to get kids
— AND ADULTS — to come to church, and KEEP coming to church… KEEP RIGHT ON
filling those collection plates. Just
don’t DARE tell them what the Bible REALLY says…. are you KIDDING? That’s MUCH too harsh. That’s no fun. Who would want to hear THAT?!
So when it comes to
doing things of any real significance; when it comes to being SALT AND LIGHT
and IMPACTING our society and culture with what our society and culture is
in DESPERATE NEED OF — the TRUTH, for heaven’s sake — they are all
AWOL… oh NO! They CAN’T “go there!” People don’t want to hear about sin and evil,
or the consequences of sin and evil in their lives. They don’t want to be CONVICTED in their
hearts. They want to be COMFORTED and
entertained. And they call this “going
to church.” Preach the WORD? Are you kidding? Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all LONGSUFFERING
and DOCTRINE? WHO in the world wants
THAT?! Endure afflictions for the sake
of the Gospel? “NO, thank you. I’ll take a
large coffee, please, and if it’s not too much trouble, please make sure the
service is over with by noon, because we need to get home to watch the game.”
If you want to know
why our world is the way it is, it’s because professing Christians have given
up. It began at least a generation or
two ago — and maybe longer. But at some
point, we stopped taking God and His Word seriously. And the Great falling away began. Instead of serving CHRIST and HIS KINGDOM, we
began seeking after things we perceived to be “good, fun, enjoyable,
entertaining.” Instead of afflicting the
comfortable and comforting the afflicted, we BECAME the comfortable,
…and we like it that way. So as for
those old time preachers who just want to preach the “hard stuff,” “hit the road, Jack, we’ve decided to go a
different direction.” Yes, indeed,
they have.
Over the years I
have known countless faithful men of God who have been run out of town by these
congregations that no longer wish to hear the truth. I, myself, have been “disinvited” from more
churches than I can count. But let me
tell you about a friend of mine who has recently experienced this at his church
in California. His name is Pastor Justin
Hoke, and he is a faithful truth-teller, a watchman on the wall. He doesn’t allow political correctness to
dictate his message. He speaks the WHOLE
counsel of God’s Word — out of love for the lost, and to inform those who
profess Christ of the spiritual culture war we are SUPPOSED to be fighting
— as we stand our ground against the enemy and his demons.
He recently put a
message on his church sign stating common sense, simply TRUTH. The sign read: “Bruce Jenner is still a man.
Homosexuality is still sin. The
culture may change. The Bible does not.” According to a news story by
PulpitAndPen.org, LGBT activists swarmed the church recently, claiming the sign
was “hateful.” They later vandalized the
sign. And less than a week later, Pastor
Hoke made the following announcement on his Facebook page:
“As of today, I am no longer the pastor of
Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church. After
much prayer and counsel, I have decided that it is best to briefly communicate
what has taken place. 1) I was informed by our other elder that he
felt he could no longer follow my lead as pastor. 2) I
was informed that essentially all but one couple in membership would leave the
church if I continued as pastor. 3) Our
other elder and the couple felt that those who left would likely return if
I would leave.”
Pulpit And Pen
commented, “Apparently, the public
outrage was enough to cause discontent within the local congregation, which
appears to value the opinion of men more than the Word of God. May it not be said of us.” I should note that this came after the pastor
gave one of the most powerful sermons I’ve heard in a long time, entitled “Love Warns.” In his sermon, Pastor Hoke noted that to
“accept and affirm” what the culture embraces, but which God’s Word calls
abomination is NOT to love those trapped in sin; but rather WARNING the
wicked of their need for repentance and forgiveness by the shed blood of Christ
is the definition of truly LOVING your neighbor. It was an incredibly powerful message he
gave. And then he was immediately
tossed out of his role as pastor. For
simply telling the TRUTH, straight from God’s Word.
I’m reminded of the
prophet Jeremiah, known as the “weeping prophet,” because he wept for the
nation of Israel. God sent him to
declare His Word and Truth to the people, and sound the warning regarding all
their iniquities. But the people did NOT
want to hear. Instead they demanded, “Jeremiah, tell us something GOOD for once…
tell us what we want to hear!”
Let’s read just a
little bit from chapter 7 as God explains things to Jeremiah: “But
this command I gave them: ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall
be My people. And walk in all the ways
that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear,
but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and
went backward and not forward. From the
day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have
persistently sent all My servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline
their ear, but stiffened their necks. They did worse than their fathers.”
And so God
continued, “So you shall speak all these
words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but
they will not answer you. And you shall
say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their
God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from
their lips.”
Does that not sound
like America today? Truth has
perished. It’s DEAD! Evil is called “good” and good is called
“evil” and we LIKE it that way.
And anyone who DARES defy the celebration of sodomy or speak TRUTH on
this matter is virtually crucified by all — even those you would THINK would be
on your side — the “church” people.
Indeed, we are at a place and time now where even those who profess to
be people of God will no longer endure sound doctrine. Instead, they heap up for themselves teachers
who tell them what they prefer to hear.
I can tell you,
from PERSONAL experience, being a watchman on the wall puts a target on your
back — for Satan to aim at, AND, sadly today, for many church-goers to aim at
as well. You WILL be persecuted for
speaking truth. It is SO SAD realizing
just how many — I dare say, the VAST MAJORITY of regular church-goers today —
have NO IDEA what the Scriptures actually say; nor do they have any intention
of finding out, of “studying to show themselves approved.” They would rather just attend the weekly
meetings at their local “Religious Service Provider” … as long as it’s a
message that makes them feel good about THEMSELVES.
In the Gospel of
John, Jesus said, “IF YOU HOLD TO MY
TEACHING, you are really My disciples.
THEN you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” You see,
every church-goer claims to want to follow Jesus — until they find out
where He’s taking them. If the truth be
told, they don’t really want Jesus, nor do they want His TRUTH. They just want the benefits. They just want to feel good. But apart from Jesus you can’t even know the truth… and unless you HOLD to His teaching,
you are not His disciples at all. So if
you’re not serious about being His disciple, then by calling yourself a
“Christian” — you are actually taking the Lord’s name in vain. So stop it.
America is in the midst of serious judgment. We are a nation of depraved minds. God has sent strong delusion upon our people
because we refused to hear and heed His Word.
If you want to know WHY the world is in such a mess, I can tell you. We have deserted our Heavenly Father, and shunned His Son. America will never be great again, unless we turn back to God, — who promises if we do, THEN He will heal our hearts and our minds, and our land. America needs Jesus. And men and women of true faith and courage, willing to preach the Word — in season and out. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with all longsuffering and SOUND doctrine. Unfortunately, in our world today, TRUTH sounds like HATE, because our people hate the truth…
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler ofthe demons.” Matthew 12:24
If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. Jesus Christ in Matthew 12:27
A recent article posted at The Huffington Post by religion reporter Carol Kuruvilla announced the group Vote Common Good (VCG), was beginning a bus tour to selected cities in America to challenge conservative evangelical Christian support for President Trump.
Who and what is Vote Common Good and what issues do they see as problematic for Christians supporting President Trump specifically and the Republican Party generally? Not surprisingly the “who” of Vote Common Good reads like a progressive, leftist, Marxist list of who’s who. The Executive Director of VCG is Doug Pagitt, he of the once dubbed Emerging Church movement, and author of An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, among other books.
Now it’s Nike the social justice warrior crowd has set ablaze. Plus, various items from hither and yon.
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” That’s the caption attached to a gritty, black and white picture of Colin Kaepernick in the publicity marquee of Nike’s new marketing campaign announced Friday, a corporate branding decision which will be studied in business schools for decades along with New Coke and the Edsel as What Not To Do.
Nike’s decision to turn Kaepernick, the National Anthem-defiling, skills-atrophying, cellar-dwelling Social Justice Warrior ex-quarterback who last played NFL football with the then 2-14 San Francisco 49ers in 2016, into its latest corporate product pitch man was announced over the Labor Day weekend, and on Tuesday when the New York Stock Exchange got its first opportunity to weigh in on it the results weren’t good. Nike’s stock closed Tuesday at $79.60, though it did rise a bit in after-hours trading. That was a pretty serious bath from the $82.20 at which the stock closed on Friday before word leaked of Kaepernick’s contract — a loss of 3.16 percent of its value, or more than $3.5 BILLION in market capitalization.
There’s a great, though underrated, Cameron Crowe movie from 2005 named Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom as a Portland athletic shoe designer whose big idea results in a marketing disaster which nearly wipes out the multinational company he works for. Bloom’s character is not-unsurprisingly fired at the beginning of the movie, and what follows is his soulful journey back from the personal brink. The guess here is Elizabethtown is likely going to be a hot rental in Portland over the coming weeks as many of the marketing geniuses responsible for flying Kaepernick’s stupid social justice warrior standard atop Nike’s flagpole get a similar treatment to Bloom’s Drew Baylor in the movie.
How can it be otherwise? Kaepernick has already laid waste to one American corporate giant’s market share, almost single-handedly tubing the NFL’s TV ratings by double-digits through his idiotic kneeling histrionics during the national anthem, and though he’s been out of the league for more than a year now many of those fans are not rushing back. It could well be that Kaepernick has done significant permanent damage to a brand many thought indestructible before he came along.
And Nike has now embraced that contagion. And why? After all, Nike’s brand was made through affiliation with the best of the world’s athletes — Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, and many more at the top of their games. Now? Nike’s brand will be Shoes For Losers.
After all, Kaepernick’s fall from status as one of the NFL’s top young quarterbacks to that of whiny political poseur incapable of winning football games and losing focus on his craft has made him toxic to NFL owners, who can’t justify the distraction he presents against the upside that he might offer as a backup quarterback — and because of that he’ll not likely play in the league again. But let’s not consider him any sort of martyr, because he most certainly isn’t. It should be remembered that Kaepernick wasn’t blackballed by the NFL, as he’s alleging in his new lawsuit against the league. Both San Francisco and the Denver Broncos offered him contracts as a backup quarterback last year and he turned them down. That isn’t sacrifice; it’s arrogance. He made himself toxic as the face of a franchise, and he furthermore didn’t pursue the opportunity to play in the Canadian Football League, where he could have reclaimed his promise as a top-level quarterback (particularly given the style of play north of the border).
In other words, Kaepernick is a loser as a pro athlete — because he lacks the focus of the other greats on whose success the Nike brand is built. As Jordan famously said when asked about his apolitical stance as an athlete and product pitchman, “Republicans buy basketball shoes, too.” Williams, Woods, and so many others built their personal athletic brands on being soft-spoken on matters political, which is one reason Nike grew to such immense popularity and market share. That’s all gone with this decision.
It’s the kind of action no good businessperson would ever take. But it most certainly is the kind of thing the social justice warrior crowd who increasingly populate the decision-making positions in corporate America can be expected to do.
Again, why? The answer is something we said in our last entry in this space: because the Left is a political movement made up by and for people incapable of doing a good job at honest work.
And because of that, when you allow the social justice crowd a foot in the door they will soon destroy the entire institution. If they can take down the Catholic Church, after all, how hard is it for them to wipe out Nike?
While Nike’s stock was tanking on Tuesday, so was any semblance of decorum in the Senate, as the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee — including the potential 2020 presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who apparently achieved her position largely on the strength of her reputed former status as Willie Brown’s “side piece” — followed through on a planned attempt to disrupt Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. And the Democrats’ foot soldiers in the audience proceeded to show their collective derrières with a cacophony of heckling, sign-holding, and farcical costume displays.
Exactly how this is supposed to affect Kavanaugh’s confirmation beyond making the Republican majority more resolute in passing his nomination to the Senate floor is a mystery. One has the strong feeling all political activism in America now, and particularly on the Democrat side, can be reduced to the simple acting-out of children.
But when children act out, typically they are punished. We’ll see if the voters are turned off enough by the anti-Kavanaugh idiocy Tuesday to deliver approbation on Election Day in November.
