By Rev. Mark Creech
Christian Action League
December 3, 2019
Back during the early 1980s, I pastored the First Baptist Church of LaGrange, North Carolina. The late Ed Denmark was a prominent individual in both the church and community, and he was markedly good-humored. He was Chairman of the Board of Deacons and Lenoir County Commissioners. He was also my next-door neighbor.
Decidedly into his senior years, Ed had an ample supply of wisdom he was adept at sharing in a comical way – a way you weren’t likely to forget.
One morning I got into my car to head for the church office, and it wouldn’t crank. That’s when I spied Ed sitting in a rocking chair on his screened porch. While Ed was leisurely reading his newspaper, I walked across the small patch of lawn between our two houses and tapped on his door for attention.
He lowered his newspaper and said, “C’mon in preacher.”
I did and then said to him, “Ed, my car won’t crank, and I was wondering if you have a set of jumper cables I might borrow.”
He replied, “Well, I like to wrap my milk with them.”
I responded, “I’m sorry. I didn’t quite get that. What did you say?”
This time Ed said it demonstrably, “I like to wrap my milk with them!”
At this point, confused and pondering whether my parishioner and friend had possibly suffered a stroke in his old age, I sensitively inquired: “Ed, what on earth do you mean? You say you like to wrap your milk with them?”
“Well, preacher, it’s like this,” said Ed. “When you don’t want to lend something out, one excuse is as good as another.”
Immediately, we both burst into laughter. Good Ole Ed was ribbing me, and quickly afterward got up from his rocker, retrieved his jumper cables and proceeded to help me get my car started.
The lesson that day was one I would always remember: whenever we don’t want to do something, whether it’s giving of our time or resources, one excuse is as good as another.
Recently, I took a glance back through time and noted some of the things the Christian Action League has accomplished over the last two decades.
These achievements weren’t made by making excuses.
- The Christian Action League was a primary proponent for a Safe Haven law that passed in North Carolina. The law allows a desperate mother to leave her newborn with a responsible authority rather than abandon it in a public toilet or dumpster. The law has saved the lives of multiple children in this state, which would have otherwise been left for dead.
- Do you enjoy the absence of second-hand smoke and breathing freely in North Carolina restaurants? If yes, it’s because the Christian Action League helped get critical legislation passed ten years ago that prohibits smoking in public places.
- North Carolina has two “In God We Trust” specialty license plates. Have you ever noticed the one beautifully donned with an American Eagle – the one where the proceeds go to support National Guard families in North Carolina? The League helped get the legislation for this plate through the General Assembly, and the first 300 plates purchased to launch it.
- From the onset, the Christian Action League was in the very vanguard of the fight to get video poker, and sweepstakes gaming banned in North Carolina. Both are now illegal in the state.
- Remember the Marriage Amendment (one man and one woman) that overwhelmingly passed in North Carolina, which rogue federal judges overturned? The League pressed the General Assembly for more than a decade to pass the measure that would put it on the ballot. When lawmakers finally did, the League was at the heart of the state-wide campaign that gave nearly a half-million dollars, almost a third of the campaign’s budget.
- The Christian Action League was the first to spearhead legislation to address human trafficking in the Tar Heel state.
- Although Comprehensive Sex Education is taught in the state’s public schools, North Carolina schools are also required by law to teach Abstinence. It was the League that saved abstinence sex education at a time when anti-abstinence forces controlled both chambers of the General Assembly and the Governor’s mansion.
This is not to mention the dozens of other good bills the League played a role in getting passed into law – pro-life bills, a tax simplification bill for churches, religious liberty bills that uphold the rights of Christian student organizations, as well as a student’s right to discuss faith-related issues or reference their religion via classroom or homework assignments.
Moreover, space doesn’t suffice to speak of all the bad bills the League can legitimately take credit for killing.
Benjamin Franklin once opined, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
We’re living in a time when action is needed – not excuses. The Christian faith and Christian values are nowadays under constant assault in our state and nation. These are wicked and dangerous times. We can place blame and make excuses, but in the end, it is an act of cowardice if we aren’t engaging the culture and attempting to bring light where it’s the darkest.
Giving Tuesday presents an excellent opportunity for doing great good through giving. But unfortunately, it also offers an opportunity for a vast array of excuses for doing nothing.
Won’t you help the Christian Action League? The League needs your generous contribution to continue doing the marvelous work God has called us to in the public square.
To make a secure online donation, please go here.
To send your gift in the mail, send it to:
Christian
Action League of North Carolina, Inc.
6325 Falls of Neuse Rd.
Suite 35-106
Raleigh, NC 27615
Thank you for considering the Christian Action League in your giving. Thank you for praying for the League. And thank you for not making any excuses.
God Bless,
Rev. Mark Creech, Executive Director
Christian Action League