Consort For Life: A Tribute to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

 

 The announcement Buckingham Palace of April 9, 2021 was brief and to-the-point:

It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle,Further announcements will be made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss.

Just two months shy of his 100th birthday, HRH Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, Baron Greenwich of Greenwich in the Country of London. Knights of the Garter, quietly passed away at Windsor CastleThough his death was hardly a surprise, yet it still came as a shock for the Royal Family, the nation, and the commonwealth. After all, this was the man who had been a constant in the life of the Queen and for all her realms for over seven decades. He was so strong, robust, and consistent, it was as if he would be here forever. When his mortality finally took hold, the shock and sorrow followed quickly thereafter.

Prince Philip’s Life

By any measure, Prince Philip was a remarkable man. Though he married royalty, he was also royal by birth himself. He was part of the Greek and Danish royal families, though exiled from his native Greece at the age of 18 months. He did not live a stable two-parent family. Philip went to school in the UK, Germany, and France. At the age of 17, he joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and had a distinguished career.

He served on a variety of ships, either protecting Australian convoys in the Indian Ocean, or serving on the Mediterranean fleet. He fought in the battles of Crete and Cape Matapan. For his efforts he received the Greek War Cross. Appointed to the HMS Wallace, he was involved in the Allied invasion of Sicily. As the second-in-command, he saved this ship from a night bomber attack. Philip moved to the HMS Whelp and the British Pacific fleet. To top off his war-time military career, he was present at Tokyo Bay when Japan surrendered in September 1945.

Philip Mountbatten first met Princess Elizabeth when she was eight years old in 1934. Their correspondence began five years later. The dashing naval officer asked her father, King George VI, for her hand in marriage, which occurred on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey. The wedding service was broadcast by radio worldwide as 200 million people listened in. Philip and Elizabeth had four children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Philip had hoped to pursue a naval career well until his middle age. His goal may have been to follow his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten and become First Sea Lord. However, his chain-smoking father-in-law died at the age of 56 and his 25 year old wife became Queen. Thus, at the age of 30, Philip Mountbatten had to immediately resign from the Navy and became the ‘consort-for-life.’ Though no longer in the military, he was given honorary roles like Marshall of the Royal Air Force, Field Marshal, andAdmiral of the Fleet.

For over 70 years Prince Philip dedicated his life to public service. In 1956, he opened the Melbourne Olympics – the friendly games – and also established the Duke of Edinburgh Award, seeking to help young people to foster a sense of responsibility to self and community. He was a founder of the World Wildlife Fund. Patron to 800 organisations, president to many others, and chancellor of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Salford and Wales university, Prince Philip plunged himself into a life of extensive and exemplary public service. Solo engagements over the decades totalled 22,219 – an extraordinary record.

The duke was a talented man in his own right who could command a ship, fly a plane, play sport, paint with excellence, and engage in deep thinking. Science was one of his great loves.

In 2011, at his 90th birthday, Prince Philip announced that he would scale back his royal duties since he had already ‘done his bit.’ At the age of 96 in 2017, he fully retired from royal work.

Regarding death, HRH got two of his wishes. He did not want ‘any fuss’ with his funeral arrangements; thanks to Covid restrictions, his televised funeral will be small. Nor did he want to live to be 100 – he had ‘no desire whatsoever’ to cross that milestone and quipped that, ‘bits of me are falling off already.’

Of course, like everyone, the prince had his faults: at times impatient, abrupt, and could be gaffe-prone. Yet, in his own way, he knew people often were intimidated by meeting a royal and wanted to help them relax by being jocular and natural. There was talk about how he, in his younger days as a handsome man, was in the company of beautiful younger women. Historian A.N. Nelson said: ’Not once in his life did any woman claim to have slept with him. There was never any scandal.’ Nelson concludes that either the Prince remained totally faithful to the Queen or if there was an affair, it was discreet enough to cause no harm to family life or the monarchy.[1]

Prince Philip’s Legacy

While the nation, commonwealth, and world will miss seeing him as the ever-present companion at the side of the Queen, there is more. Prince Philip connected the Victorian era with our time. A living link to history, here is a man who knew Churchill, Eisenhower, Menzies, and dozens of world leaders throughout the decades. He embodied cherished values which are in serious decline today. These include courtesy, devotion to duty, good manners, self-sacrifice, unpretentiousness, charm, and kindness. Endued with rock solid fortitude, Prince Philip maintained unswerving dedication to Queen, family, and country. His longevity and resilience, in life, marriage, family, duty, and service, will be sorely missed. Part of our sorrow and is this: Will we ever see the likes of the Duke of Edinburgh again?

     Though a sailor and fighter, he also knew how to submit and flow with royal life;

     A leader in his own right, Prince Philip became a model servant in a supporting role.

     By being the ‘strength and stay’ of his wife, the Queen, this alpha male inadvertently became a great, ‘unintended feminist’ – in the best sense of the word.

     Though squeezed into regimented royal protocol, he never lost his robust sense of life and adventure.

     The father of four became the unofficial father, grandfather, and great-grandfather of the nation and commonwealth.

     A highly gifted man, Philip, in partnership with the Queen, accomplished far more together than either of them could have done alone.

The ‘Consort-for-life’ lived a grand life and left a grander legacy.

Photo courtesy of Allan Warren, GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

 

 



[1] A.N. Nelson The Least Likely … The Most Triumphant, The Daily Mail, April 10, 2021, page 33

Harry & Meghan’s Oprah Interview: The Bigger Picture – Part 02

Call it a coincidence: A dashing British prince marries an American divorcee and, viola, exits on the royal stage. It happened in 2020 with ‘Megxit,’ and it also happened in 1936, when King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson. While both events look superficially similar, Megxit poses a far greater threat than the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Many have written about Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, who did a ‘tell all interview’ with Oprah Winfrey, aired on March 7 – 8, 2021. Up to 50 million people watched it worldwide. Markle’s husband, Prince Harry, joined the interview later.

Before we proceed, it should be said: ‘Tell all’ interviews do not bring peace, unity, reconciliation, and forgiveness’ and usually do more harm than good, including to the persons being interviewed.

The purpose of this second and final article is not to examine the details of the interview but to view the bigger picture issues it spawned. These can be divided into three parts:

1.        How the interview blended into the on-going and intensified culture war.

2.        The frontal attack on the British monarchy.

3.        Perhaps, the most important issue of all which was overlooked by many – the role of the family.

Culture War in Cameo

Last month, we focused on a couple of key aspects of the culture war brought to light in the Oprah interview: ‘woke’and ‘identity politics.’ To this we add the following:

Cultural Marxism: Every thinking and concerned citizen needs to know about this theory. It is the notion of privilege, systemic racism, woke-ism, all are part of the larger picture. This ideology was birthed in the 1930s by the Marxist educators at the Frankfurt School. Key luminaries included Antonio Gramsci of the Italian Communist Party and Herbert Marcuse from Frankfurt. The goal was to undermine the values and infrastructure of Judaeo-Christian West and replace it with a Marxist utopia of equality, tolerance, and license. Faith and family were also in the cross-hairs of cultural Marxists, since they inhibit allegiance to big daddy government.

Gramsci taught that to undermine the West, you have to undermine western (Biblical) morality. Marcuse advocated a Marxist revolution based not on economics, since the proletariat just weren’t cooperating with the communist revolution. No, Marcuse’s Marxism was based on culture, race, identity and morals. Women, ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities are oppressed and white males are the oppressors; by infiltrating the cultural institutions, changing the vocabulary, and globally synchronised activism, the tables can turn and the Marxist paradise will dawn. Today’s ‘woke’ social justice warriors, with their activism, rioting, and cancel culture, resemble Mao’s red guard students during his 1960s Cultural Revolution; China was torn apart as a result.

The 1960s student unrest, fanned by this teaching, went underground, but now after half of century it has resurfaced again, stoked by decades of cultural Marxist curriculum in the education system. Even the church has been influenced by it.

Cultural Marxism spawns a victim mindset that was on full-display during the Oprah interview. Victims are free to tell ‘their truth,’ regardless of how subjective it might be. Their truth must be received uncritically, substantiation is not required, and the notion of ‘two sides to every story’ does not apply.

Meghan is left-wing, feminist who wanted to move monarchy in a ‘progressive’ manner. This was explicitly said in their first ‘Megxit’ statement. Fitting in with the royal family’s public stance of political neutrality was always going to be difficult for the duchess.

Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald says: With all the suffering and deprivation and real persecution in the world, it is utterly astonishing how often coddled, well-paid, highly privileged, coiffed, insulated, protected US elites posture as the world’s most oppressed class. It’s quite sickening and offensive.’

https://www.turleytalks.com/videos/tucker-carlson-ignites-media-civil-war-as-woke-meghan-markle-interview-backfires

With history being revised to buttress this narrative, students today are not learning about some of the anti-racist, pro-civil rights achievements of the ‘wealthy, white, western world.’ What about the following:

1.       Abolition of the slave trade by William Wilberforce;

2.       Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863;

3.       The abolition of slavery in the United States via the 13th and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution;

4.       The successful civil rights movement and the celebrated work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior (1929-1968). King was no cultural Marxist; he did not wanted to destroy America. He believed in the American system: Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and Bill of Rights. His goal was to help African-Americans have a seat at the great American banquet table;

5.       The Voting Rights Act 1965;

6.       The Civil Rights Act 1964;

7.       War on poverty,

8.       Affirmative action.

9.       High achievers among African-Americans in sport, business, entertainment, US Supreme Court, including the ‘rags to riches’ success story of Oprah herself, a billionaire and one of the most influential women in the world.

The Monarchy & Western Civilisation

The Oprah interview can be seen for many things but one aspect major point was Meghan and Harry attack the monarchy, and the British press, as a racist, deceptive institution. Indeed, this is the main reason they left the United Kingdom. These are serious charges, but are they true? The palace was not given the right of reply.

While Harry and Meghan spoke positively of the Queen herself, attacking the monarchy is an attack on the monarch. They are inseparable. Elizabeth II represents many things: sterling dedication to duty and service, a living link to history and heritage, a symbol of the constitutional arrangement, the benefits of an apolitical head of state, which provides a stable form of governance. Perhaps her finest achievement is as the titular head of the Commonwealth of Nations, a cause to which she has devoted her life. No one is more respected, loved, and admired than her.

To equate the Crown and Commonwealth with racism is a serious, yet spurious accusation. Don’t confuse the Commonwealth with the British Empire, as Prince Harry did in a broadcast in 2020. The latter was colonial, hierarchical, and incorporated lands and people involuntarily. The Commonwealth, which comprises 54 sovereign nations, is a voluntary relationship on an equal footing. Citizens of member nations come from a variety of different races, and are celebrated as such. It is a big multi-ethnic family.

The monarchy has been and will continue to be attacked by those who despise western civilisation, of which the Crown is a potent symbol. Globalists and cultural Marxists have no time for it; they are the chiefest of republicans.

Yet spare a thought for the Queen, and her recently deceased husband Prince Philip, both in their nineties. They served with distinction the kingdom and Commonwealth for seven decades. The Duke of Edinburgh was in hospital during the Oprah interview and this, no doubt, weighed heavily on the Queen regarding her husband of 73 years. Imagine what it was like, at such a trying moment, the added indignity of having your grandchildren speak to an international audience of tens of millions and equating your life’s work with racism and deception.  Something about this scenario was not right.

American civil rights warrior Bob Woodson, in his article ‘The Civil Rights Movement I was a Part of has been Betrayed by a Twisted Progressive Ideology says:

The left has today weaponized race not for the purpose of healing wounds but for

gaining power. We see this same pattern of weaponizing race emerging throughout our elite institutions. From Hollywood to major corporations and government agencies, unfounded and often life-altering allegations of racism from the relatively privileged get more attention than the myriad of challenges facing low-income and working-class Americans of every race.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/civil-rights-movement-betrayed-progressive-ideology

Single-Most Important Issue: The Family

‘Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee’ Exodus 20:12 (the 6th Commandment)

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind Proverbs 29:11

Family is God-ordained and sacred. None are perfect but we need to honour and respect it, as we would Almighty God. It is God’s command. If there is a problem, settle it within the family. Don’t broadcast it for the whole world to hear.

Prince Harry, who did less talking than Meghan, still managed to speak negatively about his immediate family, especially his father Prince Charles. ‘He won’t take my calls.’ ‘He cut us off financially.’ ‘I feel so let down.’ His strong and supportive brother William also was criticised. Harry called the post-interview reconciliation phone calls with Charles and William ‘unproductive.’ Does Britain and the world need to know this?

International television is not the place to air family grievances. Imagine the heartache for Charles, William, and the rest of the family, as the laundry was hung out before millions? Harry was much loved as a person and also for his work, both in royal duties or as a soldier in Afghanistan. His father, brother, his grandparents, and other near relatives have always been supportive of him. Is this the thanks they get for their investment of love? Do they not deserve better?

Unfortunately, Prince Charles did exactly the same thing in another famous ‘tell-all’ interview with Johnathan Dimbleby back in 1994. While admitting infidelity after the breakdown of his marriage to Princess Diana, he went on to say his mother the Queen was distant emotionally. His father Prince Philip was accused of being ‘harsh’ and ‘hectoring.’ Of course,  the royal couple were deeply upset by these words, aired in public; Prince Philip’s response was that he and his wife the Queen did the best they could. No doubt.

There is a maxim: if the person or persons are not part of the problem or the solution, don’t involve them. Very sound advice. For all the verbal hand grenades that were calmly lobbed during the interview, this public airing of family disagreement was actually the most serious result of all. Remember that the royals cannot respond in public – and better that they don’t. The Queen’s wise motto: Never complain and never explain.’

It would be appropriate to pray for the Queen and Royal Family, including Harry and Meghan. God can and will bring great good out of it all.

Photo courtesy of: Northern Ireland Office, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Seventh Commandment – Part 03: Adultery & the Strong Words of Jesus

Adultery & the Strong Words of Jesus

 The Ten Commandments are the bedrock of a moral, ethical, and righteous society. 

The seventh commandment, which prohibits adultery, is a clarion call to personal purity. Here are some more insights of this important commandment from the words of Jesus. 

Warning: Be prepared for some strong undiluted statements from the Lord Himself.

 

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hellMatthew 5:29-30

 

  Right eye and right hand: Hard to believe but true, Jesus advocates removing a bodily member that causes you to sin, rather than keeping it and going to hell. Exceptionally robust words, indeed. Since we are not aware of anyone in the New Testament, or church history, taking such extreme action, what are we to make of His quote? Sin, especially sexual sin, should be viewed with the utmost seriousness. It is not a game, a joke, trend or a movie plot, but a death trap. If we had a life-threatening disease, we would submit to life-saving surgery that would cut out the offending growth? In the case of lust and sexual sin, the options include cut off the offending bodily member, though that is unlikely and undesirable. The demonstrably better way, in every way, is to repent, confess sin, be set free by God’s Spirit and truth, then go and sin no more. Simple principle, but how to implement it practically? Sometimes sin does not easily go away. If the sin is particularly stubborn and resistant, do not hesitate to work with a spiritually mature person for support and accountability. Other helpful practices include Scripture memorisation, meditation, and confession, prayer in the Spirit, and anointed worship. Remember the power of the cross of Jesus to deliver you from the sin-dominated self-life. Romans 6 describes this in glorious detail.

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery Matthew 5:31-32

  Marriage & Adultery: If you thought the previous verses were heavy-duty, what about these? Moses apparently gave the Israelites an easy track to divorce – just write a bill of divorcement and send your spouse away. Jesus tightens the rules, saying Moses allowed this because of the hardness of their hearts (Matthew 19:7-8), but it was not God’s original intent in the created order. To divorce one’s wife is to cause her to commit adultery – if she remarries – and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Or, to divorce one’s wife without a cause in order to marry someone else is adultery. Wow. Even the twelve apostles choked when they heard these words; better to not marry at all (Matthew 19:10). Is there any way forward? Or is this in the ‘too hard basket.’

  Exception clause: No, not every person who divorces and remarries has to wear the ‘scarlet A’ around their neck. Like a traffic accident, divorce is something you do everything in your power to avoid. Yet, it can happen. Are there ever any cases where divorce and remarriage are allowed by the church and the Bible? Many Biblically-based churches hold a high view of the sanctity of marriage, but believe the New Testament does allow for limited exceptions to divorce and remarry. These include sexual immorality (Matthew 5:32); desertion (1 Corinthians 7:15); and proven physical abuse (Ephesians 5:28-33). In addition, some denominations will remarry a person if their divorce occurred before they came to faith in Christ. Let it be said that you are well-advised to speak to your pastor and find out your church or denomination’s position on divorce and remarriage, what is allowed and what is not.

In our fourth and final part of The Seventh Commandment, we will look at the New Testament view on sexuality and adultery. See you next month. 

TO BE CONTINUED

 

Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock