Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Successful movements often have a Public Figure who represents the movement as a whole. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King served as the public figure for Civil Rights.

Olaudah Equiano acted as the Public Figure for the British abolition movement. After attaining his freedom, Equiano devoted his life to traveling around England speaking about the realities of the slave trade. His autobiography, which depicted the horrors of slavery, sold thousands of copies. When the British thought about slavery, they thought of this eloquent man who stayed out of politics.

The Public Figure operates in the arena of ideas convincing the people to change their minds. The problem with the pro-life movement is that we have no Dr. Martin Luther King Jr . to represent our cause. Instead we have dozens of somewhat influential people who have only a mediocre following.

Ideally this public figure would be an attractive, eloquent and diplomatic woman. She is the type of person people listen to even when they disagree with her because she is so engaging. When she is on CNN, viewers stop changing the channels to listen to her speak.

I am convinced that a man cannot serve as an effective public figure. Could MLK have led his movement if he were white? Men have less authority to speak about abortion because the ramifications only affect them indirectly. Part of what has hurt the Pro-Life movement is that its primary leaders have been mostly men. I don’t want to discount their heroic accomplishments, but they need to allow a woman to surpass them if we want to reach new heights.

What do you think?

If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment or send me an email. If you would like to comment on any post in particular here they are:

• Introduction
• Public Figure
• Floor Champion
• Hill Agitator
• Public Agitator
• Financial Backer
• Denominational Coordinator
• The Architect & Baby Steps
• Minutemen
• Conclusion
• Full PDF

#1 Regular People Wear Costumes

At SciFi conventions people dress up like emotionless visitors from another world with amazing abilities and power. At GOP conventions people dress up like  amazing visitors from the grass roots with amazing abilities and power. 

The hippies shave their beards and come their hair in the classic political swoosh. In both conventions most people pretend to be something they are not.  Sometimes the dress up to make a point.

George Washington (more…)

What would the pro-life movement look life if William Wilberforce were still alive? History tells of times when radical and sudden political reform rocked the world. If we study world changers we can learn to imitate them.  This is their story. We hope it will be our story too. Several Patriot Academy alumni have worked with me on this strategy including Sarah Coburn, Hannah Hill, Jennifer Lackey and 
Jacque Otto. Download the Full PDF of the Strategy . (more…)

If you look closely you can see me in that video.

Patriot Academy will give you three things: (more…)

From the archive…

In recent years religion has become the whipping boy of society. The left says that organized religion is the root of all evil. The right considers religion a bad word insisting that “being a Christian is all about a relationship and not about religion.” Some Christians even go so far as to pray against the “spirit of religion.”

The Bible disagrees with both of these views.

“If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:26-27)

God has given us a model for what true religion is and yet we de-emphasize it to the point of near extinction. This can allow us to avoid those things that religious people must do. Religion will not get us to heaven but it should govern our earthly actions.

The Biblically religious man must control his tongue. We live in a world spoken into existence and we must be able to control language in order to change the world. Controlling the tongue is not just keeping one’s foot away from one’s mouth. It means that we must learn how to wield the tongue for the kingdom and not against it. If the tongue, like a rudder, can direct a large ship, we must plot a good course for our words or suffer the consequences.

We also must learn to visit and care for widows and orphans. The church in America does this less than almost any other nation. We vote in leaders who take our money away and then give it to widows and orphans in the name of the government, not in the name of Jesus, who they most desperately need. You see, we can feed someone straight into hell. Only Christ can truly save. Virtue cannot exist in the absence of free will.

Good works can be either a bushel hiding the light of the Gospel or a mirror reflecting it far into the distance. The choice comes in how we wield the tongue. When we allow others to visit widows and orphans we silence our tongue and darken our light.

In past when a king became angry he would beat his whipping buy until he felt better. The king that is, the whipping boy rarely felt better after a visit with the king. This abuse didn’t solve any problems, but only made them feel more distant.

As we beat religion we alleviate the felt need of direct service to widows and orphans. We don’t feel that we need to care for our needy because the government does it for us by taking 10-15% of our paycheck before we ever get to see it and before we pay the income tax.

Finally, religious people must keep themselves unspotted from the world. I contend that this means there are things the world does from which we should abstain. This does not just include avoiding sin but also avoiding folly such as debt and short term romantic relationships. We should not walk as fools but as wise.

Remaining unspotted does not mean we should avoid interaction with the world. We must go into the world in order to reach it. But, we must not sprinkle the holy water of evangelism on the dung pile of sin in order to justify our disobedience.

Jesus never went into a prostitute in order to reach her with the Gospel. In that same way we should not err in order to do good. Going to an inappropriate movie just to spend time with a lost friend is not the path of righteousness. The end is only as just as the means to achieve it.

We must stop beating the whipping boy of religion. Instead of praying against the “spirit of religion” we should ask God to raise up religious people once again. We must live in such away so that the definition cannot become tainted with dead works and empty rituals that find no precedent in the scriptures.

As we live religious lives by wisely wielding the tongue, helping widows and orphans and staying unspotted from the world we will see the world around us change for the better.

I once saw a sign that read, “Texas proud.” This got me thinking. Can pride ever be a virtue?

Am I proud of our nation? The fact is there are a lot of things about this nation I am not proud of. I don’t like how we have one of the most permissive abortion laws in the world. Even European nations place limitations on second and third term abortions.We are not a perfect nation, we never have been. But, the past centuries have seen their own evils just as vile as the ones we face today.

I have done little to make our nation better. I have no right to be proud nor should I be even if I had contributed even in some small way. The apostle Paul once asked the Corinthians this question, “who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) I think we Americans can ask ourselves that same question.

Everything we do have has been given to us be God. When I saw that sign I realized that my American pride was a sin. I was robbing God of something that belonged to Him alone. Pride is not a virtue but a sin - a sin that oozes the slime of hatred for God. We need to repent of our American pride and how we look down on those born abroad .

But what about the feelings I have towards this country?

I do feel something. I get goose bumps when I hear Rick Green and David Barton talk about our founding fathers and our godly heritage. I like how free we are (no thanks to the Bush administration or John McCain though). I enjoy our freedom of religion and I savor the fading mist of our freedom of speech even as it fades into memory.

What I feel about this nation and the state of Texas is not pride, not any more. What I feel is thankfulness. What I have as an American I have been given. God endowed us with certain inalienable rights and He rose up men who understood that the just powers of government are not derived through the sword but through the consent of the governed. I thank God for His sovereign intervention to allow our nation to survive these last many years.

I am also thankful to the millions of men who have given their lives to protect our constitution and our lives from enemies abroad. I am thankful for the statesmen who have stood on principle throughout the years to preserve our constitution from her domestic foes. I thank God for sending periodic revivals and great awakenings to keep us following Him. God has blessed us. We have nothing that we have not been given.

No I can’t be proud that I am an American and neither should you. But I thank God that he placed me in this place at this time. I wouldn’t want to be from anywhere else.

Last Saturday I went with some friends to the Texas Rally for Life. Here are some photos and thoughts about the rally.

I had a hard time capturing the thousands of people there in one photo.

Killing an innocent person is unjust. A fetus is an innocent person. Therefore killing the unborn is unjust.

“A threat to justice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

(more…)

The Philosophy of Liberty video is one the best presentations of any set of political principles I have ever seen. This video communicates more in 8 minutes than most 200 page books.

If you plan to vote in the next election or compete in speech and debate I strongly recommend you watch this 8 minute video.

Recently, I watched Gandhi. In that movie, Ganhi said that one hundred thousand British could not rule 300 million Indians unless the Indians allowed them to. I think that statement holds a profound truth. No one can make you do anything you do not choose to do. Two thousand years of Christian martyrs has shown this. No one can make you deny Christ except you.

Sure they can threaten, reward, manipulate and deceive - the tools of Satan and slave owners. But these devices have no power unless the slaves give them power. God endows individuals with certain inalienable rights. He will never take them away and neither will anyone else. They must be given up.

Three hundred years ago as the British colonized North America and they tried to turn the American Indians into slaves. They bought them from the Chiefs and capturing them in battle. But their efforts proved fruitless as the Indians despite floggings and torture refused the yoke of slavery. They would die but they would not work. You could call this laziness but I think they, like Gahndi, knew the truth. There is no such thing as slavery.

The British then turned to the old world where thousands of years of tyranny had trained people that freedom could be taken. Soon the seeds of slavery were planted in America. The weeds from those years still pop up today through racial hatred and distrust. But no amount of weeds can cover up the simple truth that no one can make you do something you don’t choose to do.

Our freedom, contains a challenge. When we stand before God on the Day of Judgment we will be able to offer up no excuses for our choices. The devil didn’t make us sin and neither did God. We choose to sin in full knowledge that what you were doing was wrong.

Through our choices we become slaves to sin. Soon it is all we know. Freedom is easily tossed aside but nearly impossible to regain without death. I can think of no time in history where a people became free without bloodshed. The price of freedom is blood either of peaceful protesters(India) or an army(USA). Someone has to die to relight the torch of freedom.

So while our choices get us into the slavery of sin we cannot through an act of our will become free from sin. Someone has to die. Unfortunately, our freedom allows us go back to the yoke of slavery. We are doing this in America as we pass laws like the Patriot Act and Campaign Finance Reform (both incidentally backed by republicans). And we do this as Christians as we turn back to the detestable practices we once knew.

Paul asked the Galatians why they turned back to the slavery of the law and I must ask Americans why we are turning back to an imperialistic form of government we once so adamantly opposed. Is our goal to become the next British Empire? Have we been eating our national vegetables so that when we grow up we can be like mother England? The sun never set on the British empire. Is this not already the case with our American empire? At what point in the earth’s rotation does the sun not shine on an American soldier occupying a foreign land?

When we give away our liberties we are either killing our children who must die to win them back, or we are forging their chains.

God used Gandhi, a pagan, to humiliate “Christian” England. I can’t help but wonder if he will do the same to us. God is not American and he will never be on our side. But he gives us the ability to choose to join His side. I suggest we should. If you use your liberty to vote, make sure to vote for liberty. Otherwise do the nation a service and use your freedom to stay home.

In my opinion Seth Godin is the top marketing expert in the nation. I read his blog almost every day. He’s a funny bald guy who can help you sell your candidate or product.

Video #1 All Marketers Are Liars (Google 2007)

This is Seth most popular online video. Learn how to tell story to connect with customers.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6909078385965257294

Video #2 Seth Godin on Web 2.0 (2007)

In this video talks about the future of the internet and how marketers can take advantage of it. He disputes the yell at strangers model. Seth explains how to use the web to promote your idea.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-4379407413504809142&hl=en

Video #3 Sliced Bread and Other Marketing Delights (Ted 2003)

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/28

Video #4 This is Broken (Gel 2006)

In this talk Seth looks at products, services and signs that are broken and explains why. Very funny.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4101280286098310645

Video #5 Ideas That Spread, Win

Ideas move and spread in radically different ways today than they did even a decade ago. Seth talks about how we are shifting away from the TV model is not working. You can no longer buy people’s attention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Ch2z5ftwQ

Video #6 Seth Godin On Marketing (Forbes 2007)

How do you cut through the clutter?

http://www.forbes.com/video/?video=fvn/business/sgodin041607_hj&partner=googlevid