I Did It My Way

Acapulco is one of my favorite places in the world. The last time I was there, Queen Elizabeth also made her appearance there. She proceeded up the Pacific Coast to spend some time at President Reagan’s ranch. Out on a boat in Acapulco Bay, my guide said “Up on that cliff is the magnificent home of Frank Sinatra.“ Of course, he knew I couldn’t see, but he described the house for me. Once, in Jerusalem, staying at the Hilton Hotel, I was talking with the late Totie Fields and her husband.  Totie was already in a wheelchair at that time and this was probably her last trip. Sinatra passed by in his golfing clothes and, of course, said hello to Totie.  One of my employees accompanied Sinatra from his plane at the airport to the university auditorium here when he performed some years ago. He said, “You know he is a very old man and he acts like an old man until he gets on stage. But when he was on stage he was totally different from the man I brought from the plane and took back to the plane.” When my lawyer was finishing some paper work on my estate, he said, “I’m going to put the Sinatra clause in your papers, that if anyone challenges your estate they will get nothing.”  He said, “Sinatra made sure his heirs would not quibble over his property.”

Sinatra made the song famous that all people will sing on their way to Hell, “ I Did It My Way.” The Garden of Eden was a paradise, Adam and Eve had everything they needed plus the companionship of God. But, as is always the case when things are going well, Satan has a way of making his appearance, and the scripture says “He beguiled Eve” and Eve, instead of saying to Satan “ I’ll let you talk to my husband,” she tried to handle things herself and brought on the humanity of the world all the problems which we face everyday. And, the first hen-pecked man on earth, Adam, blamed everything on his wife.

Pride precedes every sin and Eve had enough pride to think she could handle Satan. Sin is always beautiful and pleasant for a season, but always costs more than it's worth.  There is always some pleasure in sin for a time, the forbidden fruit was beautiful, tasty, very desirable. The forbidden fruits in our lives are always attractive and we feel do no harm.

I was a college freshman when I saw my first television set. Living way out in the country, we were fortunate to have a radio. At Chapel Hill, some boys in the dormitory said, “We can go to a furniture store down on Franklin Street and watch Carolina play Notre Dame at the Polo Grounds in New York, that store has a new television set.”  Years later, speaking before a youth conference at a Baptist meeting, I said, “if Satan had desired to invent something to make people just as mean as possible, he would have designed and invented a television set.” I had no idea how prophetic my words were at that time. This one electric instrument has become the idol of the American home. The average child watches five hours a day.  Most adults spend more time than that with their television set. The modern television set has channels for everything.  One of my employees, who also worked for a television repair shop, said, “there is more pornography watched on television than anything else.”

I remember my first experience at a “dirty book” store. I was in Copenhagen, Denmark at the famous Grand Railroad Station in the City Center, the station seen in so many WWII movies.  A friend with me said, “The porno section of the city is over to the right of the station” and so like Eve, beguiled by the serpent, I walked over there with him and saw stall after stall of pornographic magazines and pictures.

Years later, I saw the same type of thing in Greenwich Village in New York City and some years later, on the back streets of this “Bible Belt” Southern city in which I have lived most of my life.  But, today, the dirty book stores have all moved inside your own house.  There is no pornography known in Hollywood, Copenhagen, New York City that cannot be found just by pushing a few buttons on your own personal computer.  It is addictive.  I have had grown men, taxi cab drivers and such, reveal to me just how much time they spend watching pornography.  And, it is not just a male addiction, in a recent poll, 30% of all females admitted that they watch pornography.

You are just as capable as me in researching the number of divorces in this country, births to unwed mothers in this country, rape and molestation statistics in this country, the number of men in prison (that you are supporting at the rate of $45,000 per year) for rape, molestation and even murder in the name of lust, mostly brought on by pornography. Every lustful, sexual, sinful thought starts in the mind often with the enabling effect of alcohol or some other drug. A female or male will yield to the temptation of illegal sexual behavior, without considering the consequences.  We must consider this, when we consider the 3,500 babies aborted each day in this country (1,400 black babies) and the fact that although the black population is only 13% of the total, 52% of all abortions are black babies and 70% of all prison inmates are black males, to say nothing of the 70% of Black females who have STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).

One of my friends, a prominent Black physician, a medical officer in the Army with me, said to me recently, “The black race is being eradicated by AIDs and abortion.”  Most new cases of HIV Aids are black male and female.  These are the facts and we might as well face the truth.  The truth is the truth whether anyone wants to hear it or not.  Those who practice sexual promiscuity can sing, “I Did It My Way.”

In Trafalgar Square in London there is a tremendous monument to Lord Nelson, leader of the British Navy. Perhaps his greatest naval battle led to the defeat of Napoleon. The word swept through England that Nelson had defeated Napoleon. But a point of great tourist interest in Paris is the Tomb of Napoleon, both of these great minds knew victory and defeat. Every human experience results in either victory or defeat.  You become a victor over your emotions or you can become a victim of your emotions. In sexual promiscuity your defeat often results in the hurt of so many others. Proud parents of both male and female children rejoice in the union of purity knowing they had the discipline to wait until marriage instead of running the risk of pregnancy, and the hurt of producing a child out of wedlock. God was not joking when he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5)

Some years ago, an attractive young woman worked for me, very capable of doing her job, who had three children at home, all by different fathers, and she had never been married to a man. I told her one day, “If you think your children will forget your life style when they are older, you are very wrong.” This developed after a news account of one child’s father firing a weapon at another child’s father when they were checking on their children at her house and she was busy in a back bedroom with another, newer boyfriend. Another secretary told me that she never wanted to see her biological mother, that “as a child, she would often come home from school and her mother would be entertaining a man in the house and she was told to go and stay at a neighbor’s house.” She said, “I did not want to go to the neighbor’s house and they did not want me.” Can you imagine such a tramp for a mother? You see, these women decided to “Do it ‘their’ way”, to the degradation of their own children.  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

I do not believe Thomas Jefferson, the second President of the United States, was a Christian, but he had a great appreciation for God’s Word as long as he, perhaps our most brilliant President, agreed with His Word. We have all heard about Jefferson’s Bible. Jefferson with a blade, excised all the scripture out of his Bible with which he did not agree. Often, radio commentators and even ministers of the Gospel will say, referring to the Bible, I do not think this or that or, I do not agree with this. It does not matter what you think or with what scripture you agree, the Holy Word of God is inerrant, omnipotent, omniscient.“Thy word is forever settled in Heaven.”(Psalm 119:89)

The broad way that leads to eternal destruction, and many are on it including all the liars and those who support the liars and the abortionists, the thieves and the hypocrites in and out of government will sing, all the way to Hell, “I Did It My Way.” Those in Sodom, were probably singing that tune when the city was forever erased from the earth.