Let me explain why I think Freddy resonates.
Lots of Europeans visit the USA as tourists. They visit New York City, or Washington DC, or Hollywood, or Las Vegas, and if they visit natural beauty too, they go to really crowded places like the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone.
So while they see our cultural and natural icons, they are mostly in blue cities and they therefore also see the decline, the homeless, the drugs, the dirt and the rude, rude Americans.
But Freddy is not doing that. Freddy is driving, and he’s doing it through the heartland, where people are kind and polite, the skies are wide open, and the bounty of Buc-ees and Bass Pro Shops are overwhelming.
Freddy is not seeing fentanyl and decline.
He is seeing the real, hopeful, patriotic, kind America that European tourists rarely traverse.
And he loves it.
That’s why Freddy is a phenomenon.
USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
Exactly
“If you don’t understand this, you will oppose people you should befriend in the political/cultural realm, and you will befriend people you should differentiate from in the church/spiritual realm.”
Christians have not recently been adept political thinkers. So, 2 things on this…
1) We should respect Mormons enough to be honest with them that, by their own self-identification, they are “not creedal Christians” (what Mormons THEMSELVES will say, bc they understand they disagree with many/most of the core doctrines of Christianity that are expressed in the earliest creeds)
2) Christians need to develop the ability to understand there are two overlapping but distinct realms: the church and the state (Jesus, 1 Peter, Augustine)
Therefore, there will be some people that are on a DIFFERENT TEAM spiritually (not Christians), but on the SAME TEAM culturally (aligned in almost all political / cultural goals).
If you don’t understand this, you will oppose people you should befriend in the political/cultural realm, and you will befriend people you should differentiate from in the church/spiritual realm.
Memorial Day isn’t about barbecues or beach days—it’s about those American heroes who gave everything for our freedom.
THIS 70-SECOND VIDEO CAPTURES WHAT THE DAY IS TRULY ABOUT. 🇺🇸
From our country’s beginning, for as long as America has embodied freedom and exceptionalism, the soul of our nation has been rooted in the Christian faith.
Today we gather, as our forefathers did on this day centuries ago, to rededicate our nation to God.
Things I was told Texas Tech could never be great at when @AJ_DonWilliams and I started the Williams and Hyatt Show in 1994.
Track and Field.
Tennis.
Golf.
Softball and Soccer didn't even exist as sports at Texas Tech then....
If you want, you could even throw in Football at a national level...
Things change.
From Here It's Possible, right @TexasTechPres !
WreckEm
Unreal.
@TexasTechSB just completed the greatest comeback in #TexasTech sports history.
Any sport, any time.
Down 8 going B7, Tech ties it then wins it 10-9 in the 8th in NCAA Tournament action in Lubbock.
The setting, the stakes and the historical precedent.... no team trailing by 8 or more had come back to win in 640 games in NCAA Softball Tournament play since 2000. ...
Still can't believe what we just saw.
#WreckEm
When the public school system threw out prayer, Bible readings, creation, and the Ten Commandments, they didn’t throw out religion. They replaced the Christian worldview influence with an atheistic one.
5.0 star review received on https://t.co/szpOecEeJg for Clay Enger Team by Barbara B - When we decided to sell our home, Clay Enger was recommended to us by a family that we have known ...
https://t.co/t5daOy96pq
If, after a fair trial, we applied the death penalty quickly, consistently, and publicly to murderers, the “temperature” would go down real quick.
“Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11
So let me get this straight...
Baylor tells TPUSA we can invite community members (non-students) to our event, but then reverses their decision after some progressive students complained, forcing us to tell 4,500 ticket holders not to come.
Baylor then greenlights a progressive counter-programming event "All Are Neighbors" and decides community members CAN attend that.
The Southern Baptist school's hypocrisy is documented right here in the student newspaper for all to see.
What gives, @Baylor?