Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Bill Whittle on a Tremendous Gift to the French People (Notre Dame Fire)
Who nailed it for this week? After the tragic fire that engulfed one of the world’s great cathedrals, many thoughts and prayers were offered to the French people. But there was one man who had some friendly advice for not only the French people, but for Europe and maybe the world as well.
I’m Joel Fieri, Executive Producer of Christian Podcast Central. And this is “The Best Thing You’ll Hear This Week”
Who nailed it for this week? After the tragic fire that engulfed one of the world’s great cathedrals, many thoughts and prayers were offered to the French people. But there was one man who had some friendly A
for not only the French people, but for Europe and maybe the world as well.
{I’m Joel Fieri, Executive Producer of Christian Podcast Central. And this is “The Best Thing You’ll Hear This Week”}
One of my earliest internet influences has been Bill Whittle. From his early days at PJTV to now on his own web site, he has offered precisely reasoned insights and opinions on his multiple show platforms. He’s another really smart internet presence with a legion of followers. One of the show platforms I mentioned is called “The Firewall”, and last week Whittle produced a timely message to the people of France in the wake of the tragic Notre Dame fire. He was quick and clear in his assertions that his advice was that of a friend, based on the long history of mutual aid the French and US have offered each other’s revolutions and epic battles over the centuries. He was equally quick to reserve judgement on the cause of the fire, accepting the official determination as accidental until proven otherwise. But he then went further to eloquently identify not only the symbolism of the fire that destroyed the roof of the great cathedral, but also the potentially prophetic nature of the event. It was, he says, a GIFT to the French people. I’ve attached a link to the video below for your own viewing and edification.
Full disclosure; I love Notre Dame Cathedral! It’s one of my favorite places on Earth. I’ve only been there twice, once when I was in college and then again just last summer with my family. In my view it’s the most beautiful and interesting building in the world from the outside, and the most impressive and complex space in the world on the inside. A near-perfect testimony to the glory of God from a simpler time when building a structure like Notre Dame represented the absolute best a culture could strive for. I watched helplessly as it burned, with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Seeing that beautiful spire fall into the flames, I was sure that the entire cathedral was lost as well. Turns out it wasn’t, which is the crux of Whittle’s message to the French.
He compares the fire to an experience he had crashing a plane while learning to fly as a young man. His flight instructor told him he had been given the “gift” of “…(having) the living hell scared out of you, and it cost you nothing”. That, Whittle says, is the same gift France has been given (but on a much larger scale). While the Notre Dame fire was apparently an accident, thousands of other fires and acts of vandalism against churches in France recently are not. Nor are the many acts of violence and intimidation against the French people. While the ruling elite in France lack the courage to name the perpetrators of these crime, Whittle does not. Violent radical Muslims, invited into the country by the good will and hearts of the French people, have shown that they want no part of French culture or identity. The burning roof of Notre Dame, along with the undamaged remaining stone structure and priceless artifacts, give a near-perfect word picture of the state of the country, and the continent of Europe and the West as well. Our “roof” is burning. The foundational Judeo-Christian heritage of Western culture is under attack from the inside, threatening the whole structure. But the ancient foundation is still there. Long ignored, forgotten by most (and even being chipped away by too many of our leaders), it’s still able to hold up the structure. But only so long as those who have been handed the heritage of Western Civilization have the will to protect the structure. Do the French people have that will? Does the rest of the Western world?
I assume that, like me, all of us watched the fire consume what we thought was the whole cathedral, only to find out it was just the roof. If that’s the case, then, thanks to the great Bill Whittle, we’ve been given the same precious gift of a “near death experience that cost us nothing”, and we now have a chance to save and protect our foundational heritage. And that’s the best thing you’ll hear this week!