QUARANTINE BLOG # 177

September 23, 2020

For several months now, Bonnie and I have been driving to Crawfordville, GA on the first and third Sundays of each month to share in worship with the believers at Crawfordville UMC.  As I’ve told you in earlier blogs, the Sunday services include a dozen people, including Bonnie and I.  As is sadly typical for a congregation that size, they had been without a preacher for many months.  My non-cruise schedule gives me the opportunity to share with them.  And as you know I’ve started sharing a sermon on these blogs.

Well, there is a point to all of this rambling.  This past Sunday after the service, instead of heading for home, we drove around to check out the downtown area just to see what is there.

Here is the way Crawfordville looked in Kenny Rogers’ movie, The Coward of the County.  I’ve edited a 58 second clip to show the town dressed up for the film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYy31F6UATs.  And more than a dozen films have been shot there.

Here is Crawfordville today.  Almost all of the downtown is empty store fronts.  The collapse of the cotton industry, and then the collapse of the lumber industry has left the town small and struggling, with a population, at the last count, of 504.

The Taliaferro (pronounced “Tolliver”) County Courthouse was built in 1901–1902 on the site of the first Taliaferro County Courthouse (1828) which had been demolished to make way for it.

Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederate States of America, was born at Crawfordville in 1812.  He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1843, and purchased Liberty Hall plantation in 1845.

Stephens was named Vice President of the Confederacy in February of 1862.  Sent to a Northern prison for five months after the war concluded, Stephens ultimately returned home to Crawfordville where he lived out the rest of his life, serving again in the U.S. Congress and finally being elected to a term as Governor of Georgia.

Harry and Eliza Stephens, were born into slavery – as was typical of the era, they took on their owner’s name – but stayed on to care for the former vice president after the slaves of his farm were liberated in 1865.  They lived out their lives at Liberty Hall and were well cared for in Stephens’ will. They are buried in a small cemetery on the property.

Stephens resided in the home from 1839 until his death in 1883.

👉  Another quote from Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation.

Gene Glick was a combat infantryman with the Army’s 45th Division, fighting in Alsace-Lorraine during the big push toward Germany, late in the fall of 1944.  He says, “I’ll never forget November 11th 1944, at 11 a.m.  I dove into a slit trench.  You dig a slit trench when you don’t have time to dig a foxhole.  It’s about the size of your body – about two feet deep.  There was a thin layer of ice.  The shells were exploding all around.  The ground shakes.  You think that at any moment you’re going to be killed or maimed for life.  I remember thinking, Wouldn’t it be wonderful if World War II ended the way World War I did – on November 11th?  To this day, November 11th, 11 a.m. is like a guiding star.  When things don’t go right, when people disappoint me and projects don’t work out, I think, Hey, Glick, November 11th, 1944.  No problem!”

👉  An editorial in the Wall Street Journal supports President Trump’s right to nominate a replacement for the seat Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  “Don’t Give In to Democrats’ Supreme Court Extortion” states that the media – which is always on the anti-Trump side (my comment, not WSJ) – ignores Ginsburg’s own 2016 comments in favor of approving an election-year nominee, and her refusal to retire in 2015 when President Obama could have appointed her replacement. 

Quoting now: [The idea that] “presidential elections should be national referendums on the high court is of a piece with liberal judicial philosophy in that it is at odds with the Constitution.  If Republicans give in to Democratic extortion, it will never end, and they will forfeit the authority to govern – along with the support of the voters who make up their electoral base.”

The writer, Bobby Jindal, former governor of Louisiana and 2016 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, concludes, “The best way to reduce the intensity of fights over judicial nominations is for the other branches of government to reclaim their constitutional powers.  Liberal judges have assumed too much power; they want to write the laws, not just interpret them.  Society’s most intense debates over the limits on individual autonomy and the proper role of government should not be decided by five unelected jurists, but rather by political leaders accountable to the voters.”  Amen!

👉  USAToday says, “The game is pleasantly afoot yet again, with a new super-sleuth worthy of her forebears.”  The rave is about a new adventure series “Enola Holmes,” the teenage sister of world famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes.  I hope the show is as good as the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=1d0Zf9sXlHk&feature=emb_logo.

👉  For your viewing pleasure – a trio of unusual wedding pictures:

👉  Today’s close is by Joyce Meyer.

We all have different times in our lives where we feel like we’re getting “out of our depth” or “in over our heads.”  These moments are usually when we’re facing big problems: a job is lost, someone dies, there’s strife in the family, or a bad report comes from the doctor.  When things like this happen, it’s easy to panic because we feel like we’ve lost control.

But think about it for a minute: The truth is, we’ve never been in control when it comes to life’s hardest moments.  The only thing that holds us up – and the thing we can be most grateful for – is the grace and love of God, our Father, which is fixed, stable and unchanging.

The good news is that God is never caught off guard or out of His depth, so if you’re in life’s “deep end,” know that He’s ready and willing to carry you through it.  When you come to Him for help, He’ll hold you up in the hardest times.

“I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I confidently trust!” (Psalm 91:2 AMPC).

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