{"id":20427,"date":"2019-04-14T14:37:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T14:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=20427"},"modified":"2019-04-14T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T14:59:09","slug":"setting-the-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=20427","title":{"rendered":"Setting the record straight……."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’ve been watching the news, too much news! \u00a0It has had a very profound and terrible affect on me. What have I learned from this activity; \u00a0I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, so; I’m a smelly Walmart person, I am one of those idiots from the middle of America that is still clinging to my guns, God and Bible. I’m in the “Basket of Deplorables”! \u00a0I’m a white, straight, Christian, therefore; I’m a racist, nationalist, messagenist, homophobic, Nazi. \u00a0I’m stupid, and should be hated because of my beliefs and my 2016 vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For the record, the only part of that, that is accurate is I do like my guns, love my God and believe in the Bible. I shower every day and wear clean clothes, I was born white as were both of my parents. \u00a0I’m straight but not homophobic, I have lots of<\/span> friends of color, I am proud to be an American and love<\/span><\/span> my country, so if that is a nationalist, guilty as charged, though I don’t think that is a bad thing. I’ve been married to the same woman for almost 50 years and still am madly in love with her,<\/span>\u00a0and have been faithful to her all 49 years of our lives together! \u00a0I had family members who died in World War II fighting the Third Reich, so I doubt I’m leaning Nazi!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

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So I’ve been lied about, called ugly names, disparaged, and verbally spat on. \u00a0What has my reaction been? \u00a0Satan has had his way with me. \u00a0I’ve developed a hatred towards those that hurl those insults, that have unjustly attacked me. That have reported false news and hurled insults on my President. \u00a0I was just about ready to start wearing MAGA hat and punch out anyone that even look cross eyed at me!!!! \u00a0I was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Then I went church this morning……..<\/span><\/p>\n

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My pastor preached on the day that Jesus was crucified. \u00a0They beat Him, spat on Him, made Him carry his own cross to the hill where He was nailed to that cross and hung Him up to die. \u00a0He was not guilty of any crimes. The crowd jeered at Him and said if you are the king of Jews, save yourself. \u00a0The soldiers that had driven nails through his wrists and feet gambled for his only possession, his robe. \u00a0After all this with blood running down his face from a crown of thorns driven into his scalp, how did he react? \u00a0He could have called down lightening from the skies and struck them all down, but he didn’t. \u00a0He said, “Father forgive them for know not what they are doing.” \u00a0At the remembrance of those words I went down to the alter and wept and asked God to forgive me for hating those that have persecuted me. \u00a0I asked Him to help me forgive them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this season of Easter, I pray that we all find a way to love one another and stop abusing each other, and work together for the common good of our country. \u00a0This confession of my own sins is my start.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/span><\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been watching the news, too much news! \u00a0It has had a very profound and terrible affect on me. What have I learned from this activity; \u00a0I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, so; I’m a smelly Walmart person, I am one of those idiots from the middle of America that is still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20427"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20435,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20427\/revisions\/20435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}