Ivy Scarborough

Such irony, here in America—the bastion and cradle of man’s quest for true freedom—history-ignorant, gullible, and shallow fools trifle with our freedoms, naively believing government can be benign, paternalistic, and protective of individual rights, while poor souls in Hong Kong, who have direct knowledge of the folly of such thinking, are risking their freedom and lives to secure meager rights for themselves!

Ours is a pampered and indulged society. Such an environment breeds and propagates concepts and thinking that are far removed from the realities of life and our world.

Early in the movie “Platoon,” the young white soldier named Chris, who is the central figure, expresses his rather idealistic thinking to King, a black soldier from a hardscrabble background, who responds approximately thus, “You must be rich! You have to be rich to think that way.”

We are rich, too rich for our own good. Only a rich, self-indulgent society could breed such fools as those who extol the virtues of socialism and communism! The books have been written—the history books, not ancient tomes but pages upon which the ink is barely dry detailing 20th Century events. Tough-minded realists, like the modern prophet Alexander Solzhenitsyn—who, in his youth, had been persuasively immersed in the propaganda of socialism and communism—explained in graphic, poignant, and tragic terms the impact of these lies on individual human beings.

Where we can, let’s help the poor—the freedom poor—by any means at our disposal including prayer.

There is another consideration, one that involves our own self-interest. It is literally in our long-term strategic interest that China be pressured into making an accommodation with Hong Kong. If China overcomes the protesters or, worse yet, uses force to do so—Tiananmen Square revisited—the U.S. will take no retaliatory action painful for China enough to act as a future deterrent. China will then be emboldened further. Having used force to quash the advocates for freedom and without significant consequences, the use of force will be seen by the Chinese government as an instrument of internal and foreign policy.

The Chinese are dangerous. I wrote in Into the Night that, though Iran is our most immediate threat, China is our greatest threat long term (with various nemeses, like Russia, in between).

There is a panoply of incipient issues—such as the new “islands” China has created and their intent to control maritime traffic in the South China Sea through which 1/3 of all the world’s shipping must pass—that will become new areas of testing of American resolve.

If a Democrat wins the White House in 2020, we will lose the argument. If Trump remains President he will be severely constrained in what he can do. As time passes, our options will narrow further and further.

It is always strategically wisest to confront, stunt, stifle and oppose evil early in its depredations. Evil gains strength when not forcefully opposed.

Thus, to actively support and encourage Hong Kong is not only morally the right choice and a “witness” before our allies and potential allies, it literally could save the world from a later confrontation of the most dangerous species between two great world powers.

In studying world history, I have repeatedly been struck by the realization that the “right” thing to do is synonymous with the wise thing to do strategically. God’s law over-arches everything and is not severable from what man considers separate and apart—the pragmatic. It is always pragmatic as well as moral, to obey our Creator.

This is why freedom loving Americans should be praying and preaching in support of the courageous people of Hong Kong. In our country, socialists are contending for the White House supported by millions of naïve young zealots whose profound ignorance of history gives them the weak intellectual “standing” to imagine a rosy picture of benefits from socialism.

In Hong Kong there are graduates from the university of Realism who hold advanced degrees in Experience pressing with all their might in the opposite direction. They are risking their lives and freedom in their struggle. Our young American socialists are risking nothing while lounging on the couch of decadence surrounded on all sides by the surfeit of a society that has sold its soul to materialism and self-indulgence. Their only real risk is in what their foolish advocacy and choices will do to their children and grandchildren’s lives.

Their youthful naiveté, ignorance, and hotheaded self-centeredness are blinding them to the torturous history of socialism and the inevitably painful privations they will foist on America and Europe.

Few in America recognize the significance of this juxtaposition of struggles. Yet it embodies great importance symbolically and historically. It also presents an opportunity to chasten the Chinese government and discourage heavy handedness in the future, which is also critical to America’s national security. If the western world would unite in condemning the Chinese oppression and intervention in Hong Kong in violation of their treaty with Britain, the Chinese government may at least temporarily back off and may also moderate their ambitions in the South China Sea and throughout the world where they are speedily expanding their commercial and political leverage.

The book of James tells us “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17) I urge those of you that have a passion for freedom and that care about your Christian brethren throughout the world, to take at least the following actions, which we are still privileged to do with little or no risk:

1. Ask your pastor to bring the Hong Kong freedom struggle before your church body as a matter of activism and prayer.

2. Contact your local media and ask them to focus in depth on the Chinese government’s aggression in Hong Kong and its well-timed significance within China’s long-term agenda.

3. Contact your senators and congressmen urging them to:

· Pass a resolution in support of the courageous Hong Kong citizens, and

· take any further actions to discourage the Chinese government from further oppression including coalescing western nations to pressure China to show civilized restraint and at least respect their 1984 agreement to the 50-year term of noninterference in Hong Kong.