"If I Were the Devil..." [ Paul Harvey ]

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com ^ | ? | Paul Harvey

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

"If I Were the Devil..."

by

Paul Harvey

If I were the Prince of Darkness,

I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I would have one-third of the real estate and four-fifths of the population , but I wouldn't be happy until I had the ripest apple on the tree. So I'd set about, however necessary, to take over the United States.

I'd subvert the churches first; I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: "Do as you please."

To the youth I would whisper, "The Bible is a myth."

I would convince them that man made God instead of the other way around.

I would confide that what's bad is good and what's good is "square."

In the ears of the young married I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you.

And to the old I would teach to pray after me: "Our Father, who art in Washington..."

And then I'd get organized; I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that everything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I'd threaten television with dirtier movies and vice versa.

I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could; I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction; I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the Devil I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the Devil I'd encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions: let those run wild. Before you know it, you'd have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every school house door. Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing.

With flattery and promises of power I would get the courts to do what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography.

I'd designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts and I'd get the preachers to say, "She's right." Thus, I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the Houses of Congress.

And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys, girls, and church money.

If I were the Devil I would make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the Devil I'd take from those who have and give it to those who want it, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

What'll you bet that I couldn't get whole States to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

I would caution against extremes: in hard work, in patriotism, and in moral conduct.

I would convince the youth that marriage is old-fashioned, but swinging is more fun; that what you see on television is the way to be; and thus I could undress you in public and I could lure you into bed where there are diseases for which there is no cure.

Then I would separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines and objectors in slave-labor camps.

In other words, if I were the Devil, I'd just keep doing what he's doing.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

And the original

By Paul Harvey

I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world;

I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man's
effort, instead of God's blessings;

I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of
the other way around;

I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue;

I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to
leadership;

I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies;

I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life, and invent
machines to make it convenient;

I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that life of animals are
valued more than human beings;

I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was
grounds for a lawsuit;

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I
would get sports heroes to advertise them;

I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the
minds of every family member for my agenda;

I would attack then family, the backbone of any nation. I would make
divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so
does the nation;

I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and
movies screens, and I would call it art;

I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that their
lifestyles should be accepted and marveled;

I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who
call themselves authorities and refer to their agendas as politically
correct;

I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, the
Bible is for the naive:

I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is
not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional;

I GUESS I WOULD LEAVE THINGS PRETTY MUCH THE WAY THEY ARE!

[stainlessbanner]

bttt

[cars for sale]

and THAT is the rest of the story

[Arpege92]

Definately makes a person think!

[vpintheak]

Always liked that Paul Harvey, Good Day!

[cwb]

The Devil and the Donkey: A match made in Hell.

[Doc On The Bay]

I Heard about JFK's assassination on "Paul Harvey,"--so Many years ago!

WHATEVER the "Topic," Mr Harvey ALWAYS made me THINK!

It Seems the "General Level of Thought" in our Nation has devolved.

Partly, I Think, because our "Public Schools" have Failed to teach our "Furthur Generations" the ESSENCE OF our "Culture!"

I DOUBT that one-in-ten of our Children know WHAT our "Constitution" means--or WHY--or How It Came to Be!!

WE (OUR GENERATION--Those of us BLESSED WITH the "Inheritance of" the MOST ADVANCED, CIVILIZED Society & Government EVER DEVISED by our Benighted Species--have UTTERLY FAILED to teach our "Offspring" WHAT we have Inherited!) have FAILED our Children!

In our UTTER, ABJECT Laziness, we have FAILED to monitor our Childrens' Teachers--& we have FAILED to properly Educate Those who Teach our Children!

I'm NOT SURE we can recover from this level of Neglect.

& I'm NOT SURE our Culture can survive the Lack of Moral Clarity our Oversight has created.

Doc

[Tribune7]

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[mercy]

Yet somehow ... from somewhere we come up with the men and women of the armed forces such as we see serving at this very minute. It ain't over yet and the pendulum swings.

Just gotta keep fighting.

[fishbabe]

well, now i get it...now,i know why things are screwed up,why people are the way they are...the devil is a democrat,and a liberal one at that!!!!!!!

[Think free or die]

"It ain't over yet and the pendulum swings. "

Hear, hear. The youngsters will surprise many people as they grow into adulthood. There are some good kids out there, and some good teachers who haven't swallowed the party line completely.

Our ten-year old son brought to my attention a folder he was using for his school work. It was just an ordinary blue folder with some "Important dates in history" written on the inside. He had the good sense to notice that the list of dates was incomplete. While it noted Paul Revere's ride and MLK's "I have a Dream" speech, it totally missed everything that took place between 1920 and 1963 - no Pearl Harbor, no D-Day, no WWII, no Cold War. We looked at the list together and discovered it was also missing any other reference to the Revolutionary War or 9-11, but it had the Dayton Accords, Paris Peace Conference and Lee's surrender at Appomattox. It gave us a good opportunity to talk about how information can be presented in a biased manner. I was impressed that such a youngster picked up on the unbalanced presentation of this little list.

Kids aren't fools, and neither are young adults. Once this boomer generation clears out of the way, there will be many interesting surprises when the younger generations become heard in larger numbers.

[Indrid Cold]

If I were the devil, I'd send a guy down (or is it up?) to talk about peace and love, and perform a few parlor tricks.

And then I'd find a bunch of politicians to administer the religion, and they would spread it throughout the world by subverting kings and putting non-believing commoners to the sword.

Then I'd cause rifts and schisms among the religious politicians, leading to war.

And everybody would be fighting

Just for me.

[John Will]

Thank you Regan

[Defiant]

If I were the devil, I'd tell a national audience that the President ought to bring our troops home, and let Islamic devil worshipers get strong enough to wipe the shining light of freedom off the face of the earth.

I might also do that if I were Paul Harvey.

[Doc On The Bay]

"God Bless 'Em, Mercy", & THEY are the ONE's who allow us to HOPE!

Somehow--DESPITE the "DUMBING-DOWN" of our children--a "Core" of "Educated Patriots" STILL EXISTS!!

I Believe our Freedom is precarious.

Unless we Teach the next generation WHY AMERICA is SPECIAL, we--HUMANKIND--may loose GENERATIONS of Socio-Political Progress.

We MAY BE "Witnessing" the LAST "Generation" of "Informed American Patriots" attempting to preserve our Culture in the "Iraq War!"

How Many "Seventeen-Year- Olds" do You know who Understand our Constitution--or would be willing to DIE FOR our Freedom??

Doc

[Steve_Seattle]

"If I were the devil, I'd tell a national audience that the President ought to bring our troops home, and let Islamic devil worshipers get strong enough to wipe the shining light of freedom off the face of the earth . . . I might also do that if I were Paul Harvey."

I don't have the opportunity to listen to him very often, but I've gathered that he's not in favor of the war. Now, I support the war, but I think Harvey is just following old-time conservative instinct that it's not good for the USA to be running all over the world trying to change a culture that's 1,400 years old. Even those of us who support the war must admit that it's a bold and risky move. Harvey's a decent man, the country could use more like him, and I'm not going to hold his opposition to the war against him. .

[LiteKeeper]

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[He Rides A White Horse]

....and the devil probably says: "If I were Bill Clinton................................."