Chances are, you have not given a second thought to the all the nonsense going on in Washington D.C. No, I don’t mean that nonsense. That nonsense is affecting our lives on a daily basis. I am not referring to the foolish behavior of our elected officials. I am referring to the nonsense that is going on that will become a real issue in the next few years, but right now is just a sideshow. I am talking about the Washington Redskins.

          What, you may ask, does a football team in D.C. have to with us now or in the future? You would be wrong to ask that precise question. The Washington Redskins no longer exists. Caving under pressure, the owner of the team discarded the old name and is now considering a new name. In the meantime, the team formally called the Redskins is being called the Washington Football Team. Extremely catchy, I think. Actually, over the last 30 years, I have gone from being a diehard fan to someone who wouldn’t care if the whole NFL went out of business. I don’t care if the Colts become the Indianapolis Football Team or if the Lions become the Detroit Football Team. Doesn’t matter to me. But it does matter to me that the Cleveland Indians might discard their name for the same reason Washington discarded their name. Political correctness. (If the Indians change their name, I will be done with pro sports, period.)

          Ah, but these are just names and are offensive to some people. So what if they change the names? And how will that affect anyone down the road?

          I hope you realize that Indiana is just the word ‘Indian’ with an ‘a’ at the end. There were some major battles fought here involving Native Americans. The name of the state was likely made to honor the Native Americans for their bravery and boldness in battle. No one could possibly be offended by a state’s name given in honor of a group of people. But the Washington’s team name was given in honor of the warrior spirit and the Cleveland team name was in honor of a star player on the team who was Native American when the team was called the Spiders. Ownership decided Spiders was a lousy name for a baseball team, so after they went through several other names, they asked the local sportswriters for something better and they came up with Indians, after former star player and Native American Louis Sockalexis. This was around 1919, so they have been the Indians a long time. But it doesn’t matter that the name was in honor of Native Americans. Someone got their feelings hurt. Some years ago, my brother in law and I went to Opening Day. It was advertised that a large demonstration was going to take place against the name. When we got there we saw the demonstration. Two people who claimed to be Native Americans and who were wearing Hollywood Indian type clothes and about twenty people dressed like they were taking a long lunch from the office carrying signs and chanting. ABC, CBS and NBC were there interviewing the people dressed like Tonto, but they wouldn’t even point the cameras at the people in suits and dresses.

          So, what happens when the few who get offended turn their attention toward Indiana? Does the state cave? What about Indianapolis? That name means City of Indians. Surely that is a racial slur. Oklahoma means Red Men. Defiantly a racial slur. In fact, at least 21 states are named after Indian tribes or leaders. Such a slap in the face. It reeks of racism. But wait! There’s more! Wabash is a Native American word. Wabash, Indiana was the first city in the world to have nighttime electrical lighting. Could it be that the name would be changed to Sparks, Indiana (or whatever the state’s name is changed too) and the citizens be called Sparkys? You couldn’t very well call the Wabash River the Sparks River. That would sound dangerous. And where would it flow too? Now it flows to the Ohio River, but that is a Native American word, so that would have to be changed. Then, the Ohio flows into the Mississippi River, but Mississippi is a Native American word. And then the Mississippi flows to the Gulf of Mexico, but that name would have to be changed, too, because using the name Mexico in such a blatantly racist way would offend the Mexicans living here, particularly the illegal Mexicans. It would represent the effort to send them back to their homeland.

          And it really is just a few people who are offended, and most of them are not Native American! Just so you know, I think the Native Americans were not treated well by the early settlers and pioneers, and certainly not by the American government. If the various Native American tribes could have quit fighting each other and have banded together in the early days of settlements by Europeans, it would now be a land of Native Americans with very few European types. But they had their own political differences. In fact, I believe that Native Americans were treated worse than African Americans. This was the Native American home. In some cases, they were systematically slaughtered. War was waged on them. None of that was true among the African Americans.

          I cannot think of a single instance where the use of an Indian word is to demean Native Americans. The former logo of the Cleveland Indians, Chief Wahoo, was demeaning, but only in the sense that Notre Dame’s logo is demeaning to Irish folk. No big deal. But a few seek to change everything to fit their world view. And the rest of us cave because we become convinced that if we do not then we are the ones who are racist.

          We see all this unfolding and it brings to mind an interesting side note to me. In Acts 11:26 we see the first use in the Bible of the word ‘Christians.’ The word is only used three times in Scripture. (A special prize to the first person who gets back to me on the other two places in Scripture.) From historical documents we know that the first use of the word was intended to be mocking. It was expected that when the early practitioners of the faith died out, the faith would die out. The believers (which they were called at the time), or the faithful, embraced the mocking name and made it their very own. Now, again, after almost 2000 years later, the name is being used in this country in a mocking way. Christians are viewed as hatemongers and racists. Churches and whole denominations are distancing themselves away from the Word of God and are making Christ a weakened caricature of what He really is in the Bible. And this all started because a few people didn’t want to hear about a powerful Savior. They want nothing more powerful than they themselves.

          DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME WEAK! If you want to stand up for the name of your state or your favorite fishing hole or a favored team, do it. Do not let the few rewrite history. BUT MOST IMPORTANT, DECIDE RIGHT NOW THAT YOU ARE GOING TO STAND FOR JESUS, FOR THE BIBLE AND FOR THE HOLY GOD. Just because you don’t see it around you just yet doesn’t mean it isn’t coming.

          A quick story, all true. In Ohio, near us when we were there, a nearby church had finally had enough of their denomination. They decided they were not honoring God by staying with the denomination. So, they announced their intention of pulling out. The denomination countered with the fact that they actually owned the building and grounds. If the congregation pulled out, they lost the building and grounds. In the case of most wishy-washy Christians, that would be enough to keep the church in place. However, these people went ahead and left their denomination. The denomination had no real desire to place another congregation there, but they saw the building, which the congregation had lovingly cared for, and the property as being a money maker for them. They sought to sell it all. When the denomination announced they were going to sell all of it off, a local newspaper reporter contacted them with a question; if they were going to sell it, would they consider selling it back to the congregation that had just left? The answer that the denominational representative gave the reporter was, “We would rather sell it to a brothel than back to them.” Think about that for a moment. That is not Christianity, but that attitude is hiding in the bushes.

          Stand up for the Lord at all costs.