Tim Wildmon
AFA president
June 1997 – “American by birth, Southern by the grace of God,” read the T-shirt I saw on a fellow coming out of Wal-Mart in my hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, the other day. I chuckled. I wonder if in Los Angeles they wear T-shorts that say, “American by birth, West Coast dude by the grace of God.” I don’t think so. What about in Chicago, do folks have T-shirts that read, “American by birth, Midwestern Cubs fan by the grace of God?” I doubt it. Especially with the way the Cubs are playing this season. And in New York City, do the young boys out playing stickball on the streets of Brooklyn wear T-shirts that read, “American by birth, New Yorker by the grace of God?” Possibly, although again, I doubt it. The T-shirt NYC is famous for is the one with the bir red apple and heart as in, “I love New York.”
However, you can go anywhere in this great land of ours and people are proud of their communities, towns, cities, and states. That’s the way it should be. People in Oregon take pride in their beautiful state and great people. The same is true of Michigan, Arizona, and Maine. There are good and bad people everywhere. One of the benefits of my work and travel is meeting so many brothers and sisters in Christ all over America. One such brother is Brandt Gustavson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters. Brandt, a refined Yankee of many years mostly spent in Chicargo (real southern English), is always ribbing me about my roots. “Hey Tim, now just where is Tupelo anyway?” he likes to say in front of others. I tell him it’s right below one below. Now there’s a knee-slapper. It’s a good thing most southerners have a sense of humor when it comes to all the regional jokes, or we’d be fighting all the time. We already tried that once and didn’t fare all that well as best I recall my history.
But there’s something different, southerners would argue special, about how we so-called rednecks see ourselves. Maybe it’s because we’ve been looked down upon by the rest of the country for some of our “backward” ways. “Oh they still do that in the Bible belt,” I heard a political commentator say in a condescending way the other day on CNN. Yes, there have been some serious problems associated with our region of the country over the years, no question about that. But some recent events that have transpired here have made me proud of this “Bible belt” land of catfish and grits I call home. And when we have opportunity to crow, we backwards folks can crow with the best of them. So allow me to brag on my neighbors to the east for a few moments.
To the direct east of Mississippi is, of course, the great state of Alabama. We have a lot of learnin’ here in the South and that’s how I know these things. I could go ahead and tell you the state t the east of Alabama, but my guess is you’re already impressed enough with what geography I’ve already laid out. “The Heard of Dixie” the Alabama car tags read. Recently, Alison and I loaded up our van and crossed the state line on U.S. 78 headed to Birmingham and then turned south down I-65 to Montgomery, the state capital, to attend a historic rally in support of religious freedom and America’s Christian heritage. It rained all the way from Tupelo to Montgomery.
The people God is using in Alabama – among several – to carry this banner, to fight this fight for the First Amendment include Judge Roy Moore and Gov. Fob James.
Judge Moore, whom I had the great privilege of meeting and shaking hands with, is a Circuit Judge in Etowah County who was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for having the Ten Commandments on his courtroom wall and opening his sessions with prayer. Yes, the ACLU again. As Alabama’s own Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle) would say, “Surprise! surprise! surprise!” Judge Moore was ordered by a federal judge in Alabama to cease the prayers and take down the Ten Commandments. He said no, he wouldn’t do it, citing many evidences of America’s rich Christian heritage including the fact that these same Ten Commandments are in fact on both the doors and the wall of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. When and it this case ever makes its way up to the august group of nine justices, I wonder if five of them will decide it’s time to take the doors off their hinges and sandblast the wall above their heads? I’ve seen these Ten Commandments with my own eyes, ladies and gentlemen.
Gov. James and the Attorney General of Alabama have both demonstrated that they are standing with Judge Moore. Many of you, AFA supporters, have written Judge Moore and the governor and said you too are standing with them in prayer and thought. Some of you have even contributed to his legal defense fund. Gov. James’ office called the other day and said thank you for the more than 40,000 cards and letters he had received from AFA supporters alone. All three men spoke at the rally my family and I attended on the capital steps where we were joined by 25,000 other God-Fearing Americans, some of whom traveled from as far away as Minnesota and California to show support for these gentlemen and, more importantly, the Constitution of the United States of America.
It was a great and glorious day. I took the opportunity to share with my three young children, Wriley Hope (9), Wesley (7), and Walker (3), why we were there and, as best I could, what it was all about. There is much I could say. (Please read Dad’s column here.) The rains that had poured down from the heavens for the previous 24 hours halted and the skies began to clear just an hour or so before the rally. Perhaps it was God telling us that although the headlines don’t look good for our blessed republic these days, maybe with people like Gov. James and Judge Moore there is hope after all. I like to think so anyway.
As I got in the driver’s seat of our van late that afternoon and started back to my beloved Magnolia state, the van unusually quiet as Alison and the kids drifted off to sleep, I thought to myself, You know what Tim? There’s a lot to be said about the Bible-belt region of the country where God and country still mean something.
Yes, we have our problems like anywhere else, but it’s nice to know that there are still places in America where officials at the highest level of government are willing to stand up to the ACLU and others who would erase our Godly heritage. Maybe I’ll have me a new T-shirt made. Yeah, that’s what I need to do. It’ll read: American by birth, backwards by the grace of God. 
