Last Saturday, July 4th, I attended a "tea party" in Huntsville, and thought I would write a short summary of my observations. As you might know, a grass-roots movement has sprung up around America objecting to the truly unimaginable spending spree that our current congress and president has embarked upon. These objections have crystallized in locally organized political rallies called "tea parties" in honor of the original Boston Tea Party 236 years ago.

The Huntsville Tea Party (HTP) was scheduled for 7 pm adjacent to the baseball stadium where the fireworks would be set off at 9pm. So we piled the kids, blankets and some folding chairs in the car and drove to the site. A well organized parking committee was directing us to park in rows at the fairgrounds, and we gathered our stuff and hiked over to the concession stands and platform that had been hung with banners. Some Revolutionary War-era flags were flying, including the "Don't Tread on Me" yellow flag, which along with some tri-corner hats, gave a nice touch to the rally. Placards were out, and someone was handing out "fair-tax" pamphlets.

I found a clear spot and set up my chairs. A backup rock band was warming up the crowd. Lots of other people were setting up their chairs, and I estimated 1500 people. The MC gave an estimate of 3000-5000 later in the evening, perhaps he could see more than I. After a half-hour, the Boy Scouts paraded in with the American flag and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Then the main speaker got up and introduced the topic and several local politicians as well as some also-rans. As far as I could tell, all the politicians were Republicans, though the crowd meticulously avoided labels for either party.

The speeches were a little short of inspirational, but revealed a bubbling anger over taxation, socialized medicine, and eminent domain actions of the city. But underneath this resentment was an unspoken fear. When speakers mentioned "freedom", there was a feeling that they actually were afraid of losing it. Some of the speakers tried to work the crowd, but it was clear that they were new to the game and not yet proficient. There was an attempt at diversity, with a Jamaican and an Afro-American among the dozen on the platform. A Russian talked about the effects of socialized medicine in his own country. Of course the speeches went on past the 9pm closing, so the fireworks display behind distracted me from the last 2 speeches.

If I were a Democratic president or congressman, this tea party would not lose any sleep. No one captured the audience the way a good demagogue should. The anger that brought them was still a disorganized, raw emotion, and no greater clarity was obtained at the meeting. The number who came, while significant and building solidarity was still a mere 1-2% of the 150,000 in the city. Even the quality of the speakers indicated that little if any professional organization was involved.

But for a Republican, the tea party should cause sleepless nights. For the lack of direction was evident in the various placards displayed. Some wanted to get rid of the IRS, others feared socialized medicine. Still others hated the corruption of the Democratic party and its president. A few mentioned the importance of freedom. But none had a plan. Oh sure, the fair tax contingent was well-organized and had detailed plans for everything except politics, and in fact, seemed to think that their plan was a-political. But at the bottom, "toss the bums out" is not really much of a plan, anymore than it would be a plan on the Titanic. Nor is the paeon to freedom much of a solution either, seeing the Orwellian sloganeering to which freedom has been subjected.

No one wanted to take the blame for the current unhappy state of affairs. Lots of blame shifting. Lots of anger. No calm assessments of the situation. None of the politicians wanted to project 3 or 7 years into the future, as if they were too afraid to state the obvious consequences of our present course.

At my Wednesday morning "men's bible study" I took an informal poll of those that attended the tea party. To my surprise, I was the only one. Now this is a church where one of the elders had just run for a Congressional seat and been narrowly defeated by a Democrat. One would have thought that the collection of businessmen, retired engineers, managers, doctors and lawyers that attend would be actively involved in politics. But if they were, they didn't show it. And indeed, despite running rather aggressive radio ads, our candidate was never mentioned by name in either sermons or corporate prayers or announcements.

"Maybe it's fear of the IRS" I opined to a fellow at my table. "But whatever it is, we are responsible for the current mess in Washington. For too long we have loved our income, our IRA's, our security more than our freedom."

"Do you know what I fear more than our loss of liberty?" my friend replied.

"Nuclear war?" I guessed.

"Worse." he said. "Civil war."

"I don't see it", I said. "I think we'd have to deserve a lot more punishment before this country descends to that. We'd have to ignore the whole reason for the current state of affairs. We'd have to earn God's disfavor by actively rejecting His discipline."

My wife put it more simply. "We need to repent."