God's Runts Rant

Peace of Mind

2010-10-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

REMEMBER FAMILY TV??

2010-10-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

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This past Saturday, Barbara Billingsley passed away at the age of 94. For those of you scratching your heads but acquainted with 1950s television, Billingsley played the ever-gracious and loving, hearth-and-home mother June Cleaver in the classic sitcom "Leave It to Beaver." The show, a hit that ran from 1957 to 1963, is a true slice of Americana. It entertained audiences with the innocent mischief-making and misadventures of its main character, Theodore Cleaver (played by Jerry Mathers), an endearing boy who went by the nickname “Beaver.” With his mother, June; his brother, Wally (Tony Dow); and his father, Ward (Hugh Beaumont), they were the ideal American family.
And, as Internet postings attest, June Cleaver was the mother so many young fans wanted to have. Always loving, kind, and patient, she was truly the heart of her home.
To Billingsley’s credit, it appears this was more than just an on-screen persona, too. Said her son Glenn Billingsley, “She was every bit as nurturing, classy, and lovely as 'June Cleaver' and we were so proud to share her with the world.” As for her younger on-screen son, now 62-year-old Jerry Mathers, he called her a “dear friend” and said, “Barbara was a patient advisor and teacher. She helped me along this challenging journey through life by showing me the importance of manners and respect for others.”
And, really, it can be said that Leave it to Beaver (LITB) did this for its audience. The show was one of the last examples of what I would call “virtue television,” something that, sadly, has been transformed from the default to dead genre. Unlike today’s sitcom fare, there was no sexual innuendo; the 12-year-old boys still found girls “icky” (as opposed to being little Casanovas); and Hollywood hadn’t yet been overcome by the strange notion that sassy, wise-cracking brats are somehow cute. Why, even the show’s bad boy, the self-serving, unctuous Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond), knew enough to be respectful around adults. (Point of interest: Osmond became a motorcycle cop in Los Angeles in 1970 and was shot three times while trying to apprehend a car thief; he was saved by his bulletproof vest and belt buckle.)
It also was the time before the feminist anti-sex-stereotyping police, when traditional sex roles were still reflexively portrayed and fathers weren’t cast as buffoons (strangely, this consistent attempt to negatively stereotype men is accepted today). Thus, June was the very picture of femininity, and, while I don’t know if everybody really loves Raymond, everyone respected Ward. He was the head of his household and a strong, virtuous father who would often impart life lessons to his sons with well-timed words of wisdom.
It is these qualities, as much as anything else, that explain LITB’s enduring appeal. Billingsley remarked later in life how surprised she was that people would still write and tell her that they watch the show with their children and grandchildren. But it’s no surprise. The show is well-written; Beaver possessed the commodity of cute in copious amounts; he and his brother had genuine chemistry; Haskell was America’s favorite rascal; Billingsley and Beaumont were parents to die for; and, of course, there is the nostalgia factor. Yet all that would mean nothing if LITB were not virtue television. You don’t have to worry about the show molesting your children’s minds. You can watch it and retreat into a simpler, more wholesome time — into the America we left behind.
And some would say an America that never existed. One of these people is Stephen Talbot, who played tow-headed troublemaker Gilbert Bates on the show. Talbot’s character was one who would seduce the gullible Beaver into committing some childish transgression and then sometimes leave his friend holding the bag. And, ironically, it seems Talbot is a troublemaker off-screen as well. He went on to become a long-haired leftist who protested the arrest of Black Panther Bobby Seale in 1970 and today is a short-haired leftist who protests against his old show.
Ashamed and self-conscious about his association with a series that, as Talbot put it, has “obvious white-bread limitations,” he took pains in this Salon piece to let the world know he’s far too enlightened to share the unqualified affection for LITB of many of his fellow baby-boomers. He attributes the show’s popularity partially to boomers being “a narcissistic, self-referential, TV generation,” calls Ward’s fatherly counsel “paternal homilies” and mentions the “rigid sex roles of the '50s.” (I suppose we’re better off today, with boys who want to attend school as girls and use the girls’ bathroom.)
Talbot also says that LITB’s image of suburban prosperity “wasn’t reality.” But while this view is now common, it’s also a silly criticism. Of course it’s not reality — it’s a television show. But is it any less realistic than today’s politically-correct fare, with its masculinized portrayals of women and leftist themes? Or, is so-called “reality television” — in which the “real” people act for the cameras — somehow preferable?
In fact, LITB is certainly preferable to America’s new reality, one in which, as Talbot says himself, parents raise children “in a less secure, divorce-prone, sometimes violent world.” Of course, this is an admission that there was an old reality. It was a time when the family was intact, the out-of-wedlock birthrate was low, and the biggest problems in school were chewing gum and running in the hallways. And, given that this is largely what LITB reflected, how unrealistic was it, really? (Also ask yourself, is there any connection between today’s moral decay and a world view that rejects virtue?)
More significantly, though, artists who lament the “unreality” of virtue television not only know little about reality, they know even less about art. They remind me of those hip-hop-glop apologists who will defend rap music by saying, “They [rappers] are just telling you what’s going on out there” (yippee! It’s realistic!). But this is hardly an excuse for peddling cultural poison. Something whose overriding purpose is to tell you “what’s going on out there” isn’t called art but something else.
News.
Yet art’s sole purpose isn’t merely to entertain, either. After all, this exclusive goal would justify everything from pornography to snuff films to the Roman arena. The truth is that the highest purpose of art is to uplift, a quality that in modern times is known as the possession of “redeeming social value.” And is this disputable? Of what good is art if it titillates but degrades? So many people miss the point: It is not that America completely measured up to LITB’s yardstick of virtue. It is that, once upon a time, America knew that such yardsticks were worth striving for.
Recently I watched a most beautiful example of virtue television, the 1937 film Captains Courageous. It’s a story about love and redemption, and it touches me deeply. And it underlines the power of art. Such works, by modeling virtue and showcasing its beauty, can make us want that beauty ourselves. Just as you now see saggy-bottomed rural teens dressed as gang bangers owing to rap’s influence, art can uplift us, too.
And we could use a lift today. However close we were to Leave it to Beaver in the 1950s, what is for sure is that such an America no longer exists in 2010. So here’s praying that Barbara Billingsley may rest in peace — and that the land she helped portray may rise again.

Oprah's Lost Soul

2010-10-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's a real shame that this woman is headed straight for hell.

THE BRIDGE

2010-09-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

HOW AWESOME IS THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US??

A LETTER FROM YOUR FATHER

2010-09-23T12:40:00.001-07:00

America. . . Are You Listening?

2010-08-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hear this, America...

"Therefore I bring charges against you again," declares the LORD.
"And I will bring charges against your children's children. Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.)

But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.

Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD.

"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." [Jeremiah 2:9-13]

The situation in America today is similar and deteriorating rapidly. Your churches are weak and vacillating - few take seriously the Word of God. You take from Scripture what you feel comfortable with - that which fits your preconceived ideas, and ignore the rest.

But, be warned,
Wherever the Word of God is hidden or ignored, there will be certain destruction.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.
A man reaps what he sows. [Galatians 6:7]

Partly because the priests in Israel had failed to teach God's Word to the people, Israel suffered. There was no faithfulness, no love, and no acknowledgment of God in the land. Rather there was only cursing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery.

Like in ancient Israel, America today is guilty of forsaking God and attempting to create your own paths to heaven with broken cisterns. Few of you know what truth is anymore, replacing fact with feeling on the altar of relativism and ridiculing anyone who claims to have truth. When presented with truth, you naysayers throw up your arms and refuse to even listen anymore.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” [John 3:19-21]

As most Americans are now living in darkness and refuse the truth, their consciences have been seared and like the brazen prostitute; they refuse to blush with shame.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. [Isaiah 5:20]

Silence is NOT Golden

God tells us in Psalm 50 that He will not tolerate hypocrisy and will judge the wicked. There is a day of reckoning coming. When we remain silent about the evil in our society, we are in effect joining the wickedness and are as guilty as the perpetrators of the crime (see v. 18).

But to the wicked, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You speak continually against your brother and slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face. [Psalm 50:16-21]

"Hypocrisy is wickedness, which God will judge. And it is too common, for those who declare the Lord's statutes to others, to live in disobedience to them themselves. This delusion arises from the abuse of God's long-suffering, and a wilful mistake of his character and the intention of his gospel. The sins of sinners will be fully proved on them in the judgment of the great day." [Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary]

When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. [Pslam 50:18 KJV]

If consenting with or agreeing with the thief is wicked, how much more wicked is it to support and defend unbiblical laws?

How can the Christian "give to Caesar what is Caesar’s (income taxes), and withhold from God what is God’s (tithe),” and yet claim to be without sin?
How can the Christian consent to the thieves (U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve, and International Banks) stealing their wealth and the wealth of their children by putting their money in godless banks and using their usurious credit cards to buy things?
How can the Christian continue to accept counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes (your dollars) in violation of Leviticus 19:35-36 and Deuteronomy 25:13 -16, and Article I of the U.S. Constitution and believe they will not suffer poverty?
How can the Christian vote for politicians or support laws that promote same sex marriage and believe they are not equally in violation of God's laws regarding homosexuality?
How can the Christian permit abortion to be provided in their cities and not know they are partakers with murderers?
How can American Christians stand by as our country's Godly heritage is destroyed by godless collectivists and not understand they are being sold into slavery and will suffer the consequences?
How can Christians abide by the 10 Planks of Communism while disregarding the 10 Commandments and not expect the judgement of God?

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. [Romans 1:32]

It is time, indeed past time, for Christians to stand up and resist the satanic tyranny leading many to destruction. You must not remain silent any longer! Neutrality is synonymous with consent and will be judged by God.
The satanic inspired lie of "Tolerance" - where God's Word is not proclaimed because people fear insulting or offending others has so infiltrated America today that few people even recognize the destructive results that inevitably follow.
If you're one who has redefined sin using the tolerance yardstick, I guarantee you won't like what you read here. You will likely be offended by what you believe to be a narrow-minded, hate-filled, and intolerant viewpoint.

Praise God! That means your conscience may still be intact.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. [2 Chronicles 7:14]Bible Prophecy | Christian Apologetics at the Jeremiah Project

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Twas The Night Before Christmas....

2009-12-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Written by Joe Wolverton,II

December 2009

A generation after George Washington’s Christmastime farewell to his troops and to the Congress who commissioned him in 1775, Clement Clarke Moore penned the iconic poem he called “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” but known to most as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

The images described by Moore have become the commonly accepted notion of the symbols of the holiday. However, the reality of Christmas in George Washington’s day was very different. As he sat with his wife in his command tent in Newburgh, New York, the general reluctantly sent her on ahead and promised solemnly that he would be home in time to pour the cordial in her glass. Mrs. Washington knew that her husband genuinely longed for the warmth of the hearth of his Southern home, and she accordingly set out toward their homestead.

For his part, the retiring general faced enduring a month-long sojourn before he could rejoin his wife at Mt. Vernon. If Washington was going to keep his promise to Martha to be by her side on Christmas morning, he had a few important tasks to accomplish. First, he was to accept the transfer of control of New York City from the English; next, he would have to say goodbye to his men; third, he would honor key citizens and supporters by dining and dancing with them in their homes along the way; next, and probably most important in Washington’s mind, he would officially and finally (he thought) resign his commission and give his final report to Congress then meeting in Annapolis, Maryland — and he would do it all in less than one month. The first stop on the road to hearth and home was New York City.

On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was ratified by British negotiators in France, and the wheels of the occupiers’ departure from the newly recognized American Republic were set in motion. British troops still controlled New York City (in fact, it would be a decade before all British armed forces abandoned forts around the Great Lakes) and, as Commander-in-Chief of the victorious American army, overseeing the English evacuation of New York City and the surrounding boroughs was Washington’s responsibility. In truth, there was very little Washington needed to do to secure command of New York City, as the English stationed there were as anxious to get home as he was. The redcoats quit their American barracks and outposts with all reasonable haste and boarded ships bound for their longed-for island home. Washington made requisite appearances at meetings with British officials, but the transfer was peaceful and mostly ceremonial — much to the preoccupied commander’s delight.

While accomplishing his necessary duties in New York, Washington delivered the first of several farewells. This one was to what remained of his cadre of commanders and took place on December 4, 1783, at the popular public house, Fraunces Tavern. Fraunces Tavern in New York City was owned by Samuel “Black Sam” Fraunces and was situated at the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. Its proprietor had named his bar the “Queen’s Head Inn,” in honor of King George III’s consort, Charlotte. Locals disliked the loyalist-sounding name and simply called the establishment by its owner’s surname.

The parties with American dignitaries were finished, the hands of local leaders were shaken, the celebratory fireworks were shot, the last stragglers of the British army had set sail for England, and the city was left in the management of Governor Clinton’s civil government and under the protection of the small American army (about 500 men) as yet under the command of the already heroic and terribly exhausted General George Washington.

Anxious to get some road behind him in the daylight, Washington awoke earlier than usual, and in turn woke his host and asked Fraunces to prepare the Long Room for a luncheon for the general and his officers to be held that day at noon.

Washington entered the Long Room at the stroke of 12:00 and, despite his estimates, found the room packed to capacity by a devoted and admiring corps of officers. Washington was dressed in his best uniform (blue with buff trim and bright brass buttons). He quickly surveyed the faces that in turn focused, each and every one, on the face of their commander and the man universally considered the liberator of a nation. For his part, Washington recognized and rejoiced that all men in attendance were in word and deed officers and gentlemen, for they had all sacrificed to the furthest extent of their means and endured a roster of remarkable hardships together as brothers-in-arms. No exceptions, not even the general himself.

As always, the assembled veterans deferred to their commanding officer, waiting for his signal to begin eating the cold cuts and drinking the brandywine set out dutifully by Fraunces. Washington, feeling himself fill with fraternal affection for his fellow officers, motioned for the men to tuck in to the fare and fill their glasses.

As wine was poured into the last glass, Washington swallowed hard, inclined his head as if simultaneously suppressing tears, and focused his swirling thoughts. Then, with some effort to overcome the emotion, he raised his glass with his right hand, noticeably choked back tears, and offered the following heartfelt toast that was as dignified and inspiring as the speaker himself. “With a heart filled with love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.” The men tried clumsily to clink glasses, as they were overcome with debilitating melancholy at the thought of never seeing their retiring commander again.

Washington’s eyes welled with tears that testified to his genuine emotion, and he asked the congregated soldiers to “come and take me by the hand.” Obediently, one by one beginning with the portly and powerful hero of Ticonderoga, Henry Knox (he being the senior officer), the solemn soldiers approached Washington, clasped his hand, and kissed him on the cheek in an unashamed display of manly filial admiration. The details of this touching tableau were described in a letter by one of the attendees, Lieutenant Colonel Tallmadge of the Second Continentals:

Such a scene of sorrow and weeping I had never before witnessed.... It was too affecting to be of long continuance — for tears of deep sensibility filled every eye — and the heart seemed so full, that it was wont to burst from its wonted abode. The simple thought that we were then about to part from the man who had conducted us through a long and bloody war, and under whose conduct the glory and independence of our country had been achieved, and that we should see his face no more in this world seemed to me utterly unsupportable.

After individually embracing and saluting each of his men, General George Washington turned to exit the Long Room and paused at the door to wave goodbye for the last time. Washington’s plan to leave early was vexed by the tearful and emotionally wrenching farewell gathering at Fraunces Tavern. He would leave that scene, albeit reluctantly, and walk back to the home where he was staying to rest in anticipation of setting out for Philadelphia early the next morning. Time was slipping away, and he would suffer no delay in his appointed course, despite undoubtedly being spent by the poignant events of the day.It was four days from New York City to Philadelphia; Washington traveled most of the way on his horse Nelson, but spent one and a half days rolling along uncomfortably in a carriage. On his way to Philadelphia, Washington passed near the scene of one of his few notable victories, the Christmas night in 1776 when the frostbitten and nearly naked American army, bravely and in defiance of the impediment of inclemency, crossed the Delaware River, surprising the much-feared Hessian mercenaries who were sleeping (or passed out after a night of Christmas cavorting) and completely unaware of the American advance. The skirmish was a rout: 106 Hessians were killed or wounded, with another 900 or so taken prisoner. Miraculously, only four American lives were lost in the battle — two of the deaths were caused by exposure, the men having camped all night without coat or cover and crossed the icy stream in their bare feet.By 1783, seven years after the Yuletide fight, the events, Washington’s bold action, and the extraordinary valor of the men who fought there had already achieved the burnish of legend. It is easy to understand, therefore, why, upon his arrival in Trenton (the town near the battlefield), Washington was hailed as a hero and importuned to recount the details of the near-mythic Christmas clash.Having satisfied his New Jersey admirers’ desire for his company and his anecdotes, Washington resumed his trek toward Philadelphia, crossing the icy Delaware just below Trenton, this time as a lauded hero, not as an uneasy but confident commander of a bedraggled band of cold and courageous patriots.On December 8, Washington and his escorts reached the northern outskirts of Philadelphia, resolutely resigned to endure the parades, parties, and pats on the backs from devotees and dignitaries. Such assemblages were to be expected, as all along the road since his journey began well-wishers would ride out to meet the renowned general and then race back into town proclaiming his imminent arrival.Philadelphia was no exception. On the ninth of the month, the esteemed John Dickinson (called the “Penman of the Revolution” for his authorship of many crucial early documents defending the cause of American liberty) and the state’s Supreme Executive Council issued a statement welcoming Washington to Pennsylvania and praising his service to his country, wishing him that “the best and greatest of Beings, in His good time, bestow upon you the felicities of that to come.”Washington spoke to the General Assembly at the brick State House and thanked Dickinson and the Council for their gracious encomium. He told the gathered state delegates, “I consider the approbation of the representatives of a free and virtuous people as the most enviable reward that can ever be conferred on a public character” — an august and frank response from a fatigued Washington, who, although genuinely appreciative of the tributes, wanted nothing more than to retire to his beloved home and forever cease being a “public character.”Having finally departed Philadelphia on December 15, graciously ignoring the innumerable petitions for audiences, appearances, and lectures, Washington rode on for Annapolis and his supreme appointment with Congress, escorted by John Dickinson on his left hand and the French Minister on his right.As the snow fell and quickly accumulated, Washington’s Philadelphia-based companions turned back toward home for fear of being stranded by roads rendered impassable by tall drifts and blinding blizzards. Washington, with his much-vaunted resolve steadfastly fixed on fulfilling his promise to be home by the 25th, continued on right through the teeth of the winter storm. Washington’s travel weariness was by now nearly debilitating and could only be overcome by uplifting thoughts of his home and wife and the rest and revelry that Christmas would bring.On December 19, the general headed out for Annapolis from Baltimore. Again, his progress was delayed by a steady stream of greeters on horseback approaching his entourage for miles outside of the city limits. The citizens accompanied Washington all the way to his lodgings downtown. After a fretful night’s rest, Washington awoke and penned a brief missive to Thomas Mifflin, the President of the Congress, requesting therein permission to relinquish his command to Mifflin alone or to at most a small committee of Congressmen, instead of suffering through another grand and theatrical “official” reception.Despite his position of unmatched honor and reverence, however, not even George Washington could avoid a thoroughly dramatic surrender of power — a scene that would bolster his widely held reputation as a modern-day Cincinnatus, willingly removing his hand from the sword and gladly returning it to the plow, having eliminated the threat to liberty. Congress and Mifflin informed the disappointed Commander-in-Chief that there would be a public reception with him as the guest of honor on December 22, and Congress’ formal acceptance of his resignation would occur the following day at noon.The program for Washington’s congressional reception was prepared by no less a luminary than his fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson knew that although Washington was honestly desirous of a simple ceremony, he was also a man sensitive to the gravity that historic moments merited and should rightly be afforded. Accordingly, Jefferson expertly choreographed, blocked, and scripted every movement and every utterance of the key characters.According to the script, after everyone was seated in his assigned spot and absolute silence was achieved, Mifflin would rise and address General Washington thusly, “Sir, the United States in Congress assembled are prepared to receive your communication.” Whereupon Washington would deliver his resignation speech and then remain standing while Mifflin replied on behalf of the entire delegation.Before the resignation, though, there was the party. In a custom instituted when independence was declared, 13 toasts were offered at all public meetings. Washington’s Annapolis reception was no exception. Among the toasts were two to France, one to Holland, and one to the king of Sweden, in appreciation for the aid provided by these allies to the cause of American freedom. Among the distinguished party-goers were Jefferson, the Dutch Ambassador, the French Ambassador, and even a few English aristocrats curious about the American commander.Dinner and drinks were enjoyed by all, followed by a ball where a band played reels and minuets and women with “Liberty Curls” (13 curls at the back of the neck in commemoration of the state of the union) danced with nattily dressed men until the wee hours of the morning. Washington, always a gracious guest, is reported to have “danced every set.”In defiance of the sluggishness he may have felt after such a long night of dancing, Washington awoke early on December 23 in order to afford himself enough time to go over one last time the final draft of his speech that was to be delivered at noon. He collected his papers and called his aides, and together they mounted horses and rode to the Maryland State House, his final farewell and the last stop before home.Upon his arrival at the State House and upon entering the room per Jefferson’s stage direction, Washington saw a standing-room-only crowd, anxious to be present at the making of history. The general took his seat, rose at the appropriate cue, and, with the written text of his speech rattling in his nervous hands and a voice undulating with emotion, the “Father of His Country” delivered his momentous resignation declaration. “Mr. President, the great events on which my resignation depended having at length taken place; I have now the honor of offering my sincere Congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the Service of my Country.”After appropriate recognition of those without whose assistance victory would have been impossible, Washington concluded his remarks, “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.” At this, Washington pulled out of his pocket the parchment commission from 1775 and handed it to Mifflin — mission accomplished.This moment in the history of the inchoate American Republic was remarkable in that it was a peaceful and voluntary surrender of power by a general with nearly unassailable popularity and endowed with the unalienable loyalty of an army, into the hands of the duly elected civil government. Washington’s peaceable and uncompelled delivery of his command evinced his dedication to the immutable principles of liberty in spite of offers of a throne and crown.This one act is but a snapshot in a voluminous album of similar scenes that bore witness to Washington’s nobility, humility, unwavering adherence to the immutable principles of republicanism, and possession of all the classical republican virtues. A general no more, George Washington moved hastily toward home and the welcoming arms of his beloved Martha.Washington and company ferried across the Potomac and entered Virginia with the verdant familiar landscapes of home clearly in sight. Washington turned off the main road and onto the mile-long driveway leading to the manor house. Washington’s heart must have leapt to see candles burning in the windows of Mt. Vernon, greeting their tired but triumphant master on his promised arrival on Christmas Eve.Having had his fill of parties and soirees and having endured all the pomp accompanying the performing of his official duties over the past month, George Washington arranged with Martha to have an intimate family Christmas with a meal of turkey, hog, cider, and wine, attended only by step-children, nieces, nephews, and other close kin. In the commercial meccas of New York City and Philadelphia, Washington had purchased presents for everyone. There were a locket and umbrella for Martha; books and spinning toys for the boys; and tea sets, grocer’s stores, and gingerbread toys for the girls. In the company of this tiny but thrilled throng, Washington, content at last, would share stories and a feast worthy of the man enshrined as the “Father of His Country,” but now more happily and proudly serving as no more or less than the father of his family.

Welcome to the APOCOLYPSE... in ...DENVER!!

2009-12-06T21:34:00.000-08:00

An African woman in colorful native garb; a Native American woman who's heritage the airport's art supposedly celebrates; a blonde girl with cupid bow lips, a Star of David on her chest and a bible in her hands. Each lay dead in open coffins for your viewing pleasure. A burning city, children sleeping on piles of bricks, a line of mourning women in rags with dead babies, limp in their arms. A huge, looming military figure in a gas mask brandishes a sword and machine gun. Part of an actual note written by a child interred in a Nazi death camp. Strange words embedded in the floor with no explanation about what they mean. Welcome to Denver International Airport!

That's just the part you see up close, though. What you don't see are 8 sub-basements, low- and high- frequency sounds that make people sick, air vents jutting out of the surrounding barren acres of fenced lots that have barbed wire along their tops - pointing in. Whole buildings that were constructed below ground level and then buried as is, the excuse being they were "built wrong". An entire runway constructed, then buried under a layer of dirt and "forgotten". The layers of workers and companies who were fired so no one would have a Big Picture. And workers even reported seeing Aliens working there. Are you rolling your eyes and going, "Oh sure..Nazis? Aliens, too huh? CRIPES". Well, I have to admit when I got to that part I did, too. But there's a lot of credible stories about a lot of documented things, so we can start there. With the dead babies and buried buildings. As far as Reptilian NWO and Nazis...I'll mention it...ok? As far as the place being something Not Right Under There, I'm convinced. Except you'll have to take my word for some of it because when I re-researched things to update this section..well! It seems they painted over two of the four walls that make up this sick mural and altered part of one that's still there. But of course, I have pics, and so do a lot of others. ...read more by the author of Anomalies Unlimited

You Could Have Heard A Pin Drop

2009-11-11T21:21:00.000-08:00

Image by urtica via Flickr

JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded "Does that include those who are buried here?"

DeGaulle did not respond.

You could have
heard a pin drop

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying,

'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'

You could have
heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:

'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day,
they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have
heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied,

'Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have
heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN
WITH THE ABOVE...

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

The American said,

'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained,

''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

You could have
heard a pin drop.

GOD BLESS OUR VETERANS ON ARMISTICE DAY!

Personal Thoughts About Last Things

2009-11-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

Image by relandee via Flickr

Personal Thoughts About Last Things
Written by Jack Kenny
Monday, 02 November 2009

November is the month of the dead — dead leaves, dead saints, the dear, dead friends and neighbors we like to call the "faithful departed." We can never be absolutely sure of how faithful they were — everybody has his secret or not-so-secret sins, sometimes called "skeletons in the closet." But we do know they are departed. And we know, when we think about it, that in due time so shall we be. Which is why we try to avoid thinking about it as much as possible.

It was at the end of All Saints Day on November 1, which is the eve of All Souls Day, that I happened to meet a gentleman of my acquaintance whom even I may regard as advanced in years. I asked in the usual way, how he was doing.

"Well, I'm still living," he said, cheerfully.

"Yeah, but that can't last," I reminded him.

"Well," he laughed, "I made it to 80." Everyday after that is an added gift, he said.

They are all added gifts, since none of us knows when his time will come. But we do know the time is coming, however adept we are at pushing the thought out of our minds and keeping it out with all sorts of diversions. I recall hearing a priest one Sunday morning quoting to those of us assembled before him, a solemn sentence from the Rule of Saint Benedict: "Remind yourself everyday that you are going to die."

A sobering thought, you might say. But is it? One might be tempted to consider it superfluous. Why would we need to remind ourselves of something so obvious? But the human mind has an uncanny knack for overlooking the obvious. One might even say the beasts of the forest, the pigeons of a rooftop, or the squirrels in our backyard have a greater awareness of the nearness of death than we humans do. For they are constantly taking flight and seeking refuge from every real or apparent danger, while we have forgotten what danger is. Our heads are filled with worrisome headlines about an inadequate supply of vaccine to shield us from the H1N1 virus, which has, at last count, killed roughly 1,000 people in the United States. Yet we think nothing of hopping into our automobiles and venturing out onto the highways where 40 times that many are killed in crashes every year. And most of us do not let danger deter us from climbing aboard an elongated tin can with wings and flying therein across the country or across an ocean. We are fearless. And we feel immortal.

Yet death is ever near and its reminders keep sneaking up on us against our will. We may loathe and fear the Grim Reaper, but he is a member of all our families, being related in some way to Father Time. I hate Father Time. And I don't appreciate hearing about him even from those well-meaning souls who mention him as they pass me, going faster than I. I recall one time going jogging from the YMCA when another runner, who left after I did, came up from behind and asked how I was doing as he was passing me. I don't know what I answered but it couldn't have been too cheerful.

"Well," he said in what was meant to be a word of consolation. "Father Time has a way of catching up to all of us."

"Really?" I said in mock surprise. "I hadn't noticed," I said to his back. I grumbled to myself as he disappeared down the road, "Father Time's been running over me for years."

And I have seen where he is leading me. We have, most of us, had occasion to visit the sick and the dying in hospitals and nursing homes. We have observed not only those we have come to see, but dozens of others, many of them appearing to be wanting not only in strength, but in hope. And there are others who appear so blessedly at peace, calmly and confidently awaiting their time of departure.

"The prospect of being hanged in a fortnight concentrates the mind wonderfully," Dr. Samuel Johnson said in a day when the wheels of justice turned more swiftly than they do today. The prospect of death at any time ought to concentrate our minds at least occasionally on what the theologians of the early church called the Four Last Things: Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell.

Not long ago I had the opportunity to visit on his deathbed a beloved monk whom I had known for some years. After some initial pleasantries, I found myself at a loss for what to say. Foolishly, I filled a lull in the conversation by asking: "Have you been keeping up with the news of the world?" It struck me at once how silly it was to ask that of a monk more than 90 years old as he lay waiting to meet to meet his God and Savior. Yet his answer was one of a marvelous, eloquent simplicity.

"Why bother?" he said. Indeed, he might have said the same thing, twenty, thirty or sixty years earlier while in the bloom of good health. We live in the world and the news of the world is not unimportant. But it is not as important as we often make it out to be. Nor, surely, are the ball games or the movies, soap operas and other diversions with which we fill our minds to the point of crowding out thoughts of death and of life in another world.

"But as it is written, Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love him." (I Corinthians 2:9) Well, now that seems a good deal more encouraging than talk of Father Time. There are, of course, other words in Sacred Scripture that are not so reassuring.

"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof on the Day of Judgment." (Matthew 12:36) Oh-oh! It's going to be a long day.

I sometimes regard that verse as the most troubling in all the Bible. For I know my own frequently intemperate tongue and I recall the story of another man who lay dying, a man who was, to all appearances, not nearly as holy as my dear friend, the monk. He was, I'm afraid, much more like yours truly. As the story goes, a well-meaning young man sat at his bedside and tried to whisper words of consolation.

"The angels are waiting, sir," he said gently. Suddenly the old man regained some of his former strength and started to sit up. "Waiting are they?" he roared. "Waiting are they? Well ... [expletive deleted], let 'em wait!"

Perhaps God, in his tremendous mercy, overlooked that intemperate word. For my sake, and all our sakes, I hope so.

GOD GAVE US CINNAMON AND HONEY

2009-10-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call "crystallizing".

When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water, off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.

~Cinnamon and Honey~

~Bet the drug companies won't like this one getting around~

It is found that a mixture of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also accept honey as a 'Ram Ban' (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases.

Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases.

Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients.

Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada , in its issue dated 17 January,1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by honey and cinnamon as researched by western scientists:

~HEART DISEASES~

Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jelly and jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack.
Also, those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat.
In America and Canada , various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the
arteries and veins.

~ARTHRITIS~

Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a
recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University , it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.

~BLADDER INFECTIONS~

Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.

~CHOLESTEROL~

Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

~COLDS~

Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.

~UPSET STOMACH~

Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.

~GAS~

According to the studies done in India and Japan , it is revealed that if Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

~IMMUNE SYSTEM~

Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found
that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial and viral diseases.

~INDIGESTION~

Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.

~INFLUENZA~

A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural ' Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.

~LONGEVITY~

Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increase and even a 100 year old, starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old.

~PIMPLES~

Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples from the root.

~SKIN INFECTIONS~

Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.

~WEIGHT LOSS~

Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

~CANCER~

Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one month three times a day.

~GOD IS SO GOOD TO US!!~

THE RFID "H1N1" VACCINATION TAG?

2009-10-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

VERICHIP RFID TAGS

There are two glass encapsulated RFID tags pictured above. One is intended for human flesh, the other for the scruff of your pet's neck. Which is which?

Answer: The chip pictured at the top is VeriChip's VeriMed chip that former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson would like to see implanted in all Americans. Directly below the human chip is the animal chip marketed by Schering-Plough under the "Home Again" brand name.

Note: The VeriChip corporation tries to ease consumer fears by referring to the chip as being "about the size of a grain of rice." The rice in the photo above is long-grain rice. As you can see, the VeriChip is much larger.

VeriChip Corp Readies Flu Detecting Microchip For Mass Implantations

http://www.reuters.com/

Shares of VeriChip Corp (CHIP.O) tripled after the company said it had been granted an exclusive license to two patents, which will help it to develop implantable virus detection systems in humans.

The patents, held by VeriChip partner Receptors LLC, relate to biosensors that can detect the H1N1 and other viruses, and biological threats such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, VeriChip said in a statement.

The technology will combine with VeriChip's implantable radio frequency identification devices to develop virus triage detection systems.

The triage system will provide multiple levels of identification -- the first will identify the agent as virus or non-virus, the second level will classify the virus and alert the user to the presence of pandemic threat viruses and the third level will identify the precise pathogen, VeriChip said in a white paper published May 7, 2009. Shares of VeriChip were up 186 percent at $3.28 Monday late afternoon trade on Nasdaq. They had touched a year high of $3.43 earlier in the session.

It Is Going To Be A Rocky Road

2009-09-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

by Chuck Baldwin
September 22, 2009

Let's face it: most Americans live in a world of false security. This is somewhat understandable, given the fact that the majority of the U.S. population was born after 1945. Few remember the dangers and hardships of World War II; fewer still remember the Great Depression. Few Americans know what it's like to not have some sort of "supercenter" nearby with shelves stocked with every kind of food imaginable, twenty-four hours a day. Few know what life was like before there were restaurants of all sizes and types on virtually every street corner in America. And only a handful remembers when most roads were unpaved, or when sports were truly a pastime and not a megabuck obsession.

Modern living within the world's only "superpower" has created a giant unsuspecting, soft, lackadaisical, and lethargic society. We expect the government to keep our streets safe, our roads paved, our stores stocked, our jobs secure, and our enemies at bay. However, in the desire to make government the panacea for all our problems, we have sold not only our independence, but also our virtue.

Where the federal government was contracted (via the U.S. Constitution) to accept limited power for the overall good of both states and people, it has become a monster of gargantuan proportions, claiming authority over virtually every liberty and right known to man. And in the process, it decided it didn't need God, either.

It is no hyperbole to say that the U.S. federal government has been on a "Ban God" bandwagon for the past 50 years. Whether it kicks prayer and Bible reading out of school, bars military chaplains from praying in Jesus' name, burns Bibles in Iraq, removes state supreme court chief justices from their positions for posting the Ten Commandments, or threatens high school principals with jail for asking the blessing, the federal government has invoked the judgment of Heaven upon our country as surely as did Old Testament Israel.

Although the comfortable, sports-crazed, TV addicts probably aren't paying attention, this country is on the verge of an implosion like you cannot believe. For anyone who cares to notice, the signs are everywhere.

First of all, Israel and Iran are on the verge of war. And right now, I'm not concentrating on the "why" or "who's right or wrong" of the equation. I'm simply telling you, war between Israel and Iran could break out at any time. And when it does, the chances that it will not become nuclear and not become global are miniscule. Yes, I am saying it: the prospects for nuclear war have never been greater. The CBS-canceled TV show, JERICHO, could become a reality in these United States in the very near future. (I strongly urge readers to purchase both seasons of JERICHO and watch them, because this could be our future.)

Secondly, America is on the verge of total financial collapse. By the end of this year, America's budget deficit will stand at around $2 trillion. The debt gap is many trillions more than that. But the nail in the coffin for America's fiscal health will be the decision by China to dump the U.S. dollar. Ladies and gentlemen, this will be the death knell for our financial stability (and a painful lesson in sowing and reaping).

It is estimated that China owns around one-third of all U.S. debt. If and when China dumps the U.S. dollar, there would be nothing left to stabilize it, and Weimar Republic/Zimbabwe-style inflation will ensue. America will be thrust into financial chaos. (If one doubts that China is planning to dump the dollar, consider that China is currently purchasing and stockpiling gold at an unprecedented level. This is why gold has suddenly surged to over $1,000 per ounce and why it will continue to rise.)

Third, the paranoia regarding the Swine Flu being demonstrated by both government and media spokesmen begs a giant push for some type of "government solution." If they keep hyping this "pandemic," mass hysteria and fear (created by the government and its lackeys in the media) will result. This would, no doubt, necessitate some form of forced vaccination, quarantine (maybe this is what all those internment camps will be used for), and martial law.

Exactly how and when all of the above will actually materialize is yet to be seen. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that within the next few months, the world that we know today is going to vanish. And most Americans are totally unprepared for what's coming.

If you are able to get out of debt, do it. If you need to scale down your lifestyle in order to be better prepared for difficult days, do it. If you don't have guns and ammo, buy them. If you have not prepared some sort of preserved food pantry, do it. If you don't have some kind of survival plan in place for you and your family, get one. If you are not physically fit, get in shape. If you are able to move to a more secure, out-of-harm's-way location, do it. (During any kind of financial or societal meltdown, urban areas will quickly turn into war zones. Can anyone say, "New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina"?) In other words, get your nose out of the boob tube, get your bottom off the easy chair, and get busy.

Am I worried or discouraged? Absolutely not! (But I am preparing.) The potential good that may result from all of the above is that perhaps God will protect and raise up a remnant of people who would be willing to rebuild a place where Natural Law is respected, constitutional government is revered, and where a ubiquitous, loathsome, overbearing federal government is far, far away. You know, like America's Founding Fathers did 233 years ago.

In the meantime, get ready. It's going to be a rocky road.

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may now be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

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© Chuck Baldwin

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Resurrecting the Black Regiment

2009-09-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Written by Chuck Baldwin
Friday, 04 September 2009 02:41

Most Americans today would probably still recognize the stirring words from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn”: “By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood,/ And fired the shot heard round the world.” Most of us are still aware that those embattled farmers won for us the freedoms we too often take for granted today.

But how many of us are aware of the extent to which faith motivated those farmers to leave their families and homes and risk their lives for a cause that most would have considered hopeless at the time? How many are aware of the extent to which preachers actively participated in our War for Independence — and not just rhetorically from the pulpit, though the great sermons on behalf of the freedom fight provoked many parishioners to action? How many are familiar with the phrase “Black Regiment”?

That phrase encapsulates what Colonial America possessed in its War for Independence that is sadly lacking today.

The Black Regiment is a moniker that was given to the patriot-preachers of Colonial America. They were called the “Black Regiment” owing to the fact that so many of them had a propensity to wear long, black robes in the pulpit.

According to historian/educator Reverend Wayne Sedlak, in his article “The Black Regiment Led the Fight in Our War for Independence”:

It was British sympathizer Peter Oliver, who actually first used the name “Black Regiment.” He complained that such clergymen were invariably at the heart of the revolutionary disturbances. He tied their influence to such colonial leaders as Samuel Adams, James Otis and others of prominence in the cause. He quotes colonial leadership in its quest to gain the voice of the clergy. In one instance, he disparagingly cites a public plea of James Otis who sought the help of the clergy in a particular manner:

“Mr. Otis, understanding the Foibles of human Nature advanced one shrewd position which seldom fails to promote popular Commotions, that ‘it was necessary to secure the black Regiment.’ These were his Words and his meaning was to engage ye dissenting Clergy on his Side.... Where better could he fly for aid than to the Horns of the Altar?... This order of Men … like their Predecessors of 1641 … have been unceasingly sounding the Yell of Rebellion in the Ears of an ignorant and deluded People.”

So influential were the patriot-pulpits of Colonial America that it was said by Prime Minister Horace Walpole in the British Parliament, “Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson.” In fact, America’s War for Independence was often referenced in Parliament as “the Presbyterian Revolt.” And during the Revolutionary War, British troops often made colonial churches military targets. Churches were torched, ransacked, and pillaged.

Legendary Exploits
These patriot-preachers were staunchly patriotic, seriously independent, and steadfastly courageous. They were found in almost all of the various Protestant denominations at the time: Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Anglican, Lutheran, German Reformed, etc. Their Sunday sermons — more than Patrick Henry’s oratory, Sam Adams’ and James Warren’s “Committees of Correspondence,” or Thomas Paine’s “Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots” — inspired, educated, and motivated the colonists to resist the tyranny of the British Crown, and fight for their freedom and independence. Without the Black Regiment, there is absolutely no doubt that we would still be a Crown colony, with no Declaration of Independence, no U.S. Constitution, no Bill of Rights, and little liberty.

The exploits of the Black Regiment are legendary. When General George Washington asked Lutheran pastor John Peter Muhlenberg to raise a regiment of volunteers, Muhlenberg gladly agreed. Before marching off to join Washington’s army, he delivered a powerful sermon from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 that concluded with these words: “The Bible tells us there is a time for all things and there is a time to preach and a time to pray, but the time for me to preach has passed away, and there is a time to fight, and that time has come now. Now is the time to fight! Call for recruits! Sound the drums!”

Then Muhlenberg took off his clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a Virginia colonel. Grabbing his musket from behind the pulpit, he donned his colonel’s hat and marched off to war. And as he did, more than 300 of his male congregants followed him.

Muhlenberg’s brother quotes John Peter as saying, “You may say that as a clergyman nothing can excuse my conduct. I am a clergyman, it is true, but I am a member of society as well as the poorest layman, and my liberty is as dear to me as any man. I am called by my country to its defense. The cause is just and noble. Were I a Bishop … I should obey without hesitation; and as far am I from thinking that I am wrong, I am convinced it is my duty so to do — a duty I owe to my God and my Country.”

Remember, too, it was Pastor Jonas Clark and his congregants at the Church of Lexington who comprised that initial body of brave colonists called Minutemen. These were the men, you will recall, who withstood British troops advancing on Concord to confiscate the colonists’ firearms and arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, and fired “the shot heard round the world.”

The “Supreme Knight” and great martyr of Presbyterianism was Pastor James Caldwell of the Presbyterian church of Elizabethtown (present-day Elizabeth), New Jersey. He was called the “Rebel High Priest” and the “Fighting Chaplain.” He is most famous for the story “Give ’em Watts!” It is said that at the Springfield engagement, when the militia ran out of wadding for their muskets, Parson Caldwell galloped to the Presbyterian church and returned with an armload of hymnbooks, threw them to the ground, and exclaimed, “Now, boys, give ’em Watts! Give ’em Watts!” — a reference to the famous hymn writer, Isaac Watts.

James Caldwell

Not an easy path: Presbyterian minister James Caldwell, who gained fame during the battle of Springfield, New Jersey, when he gathered Watts hymnals from a church for use as rifle wadding and shouted to the troops as he handed them out, “put Watts into them,” was killed in the war, as was his wife.
Caldwell so angered British commanders that they made martyrs of both him and his wife. General Knyphausen’s expedition took Elizabethtown in 1780, burning Caldwell’s church and shooting his wife. Later Caldwell himself was shot. (Source: Humphrey, Nationalism and Religion in America, 1924)

Then there was the Baptist, Joab Houghton, of New Jersey. Houghton was in the Hopewell Baptist Meeting-house at worship when he received the first information of Concord and Lexington, and of the retreat of the British to Boston with heavy losses. His great-grandson gave the following eloquent description of the way he treated the tidings:

Stilling the breathless messenger, he sat quietly through the services, and when they were ended, he passed out, and mounting the great stone block in front of the meeting-house, he beckoned to the people to stop. Men and women paused to hear, curious to know what so unusual a sequel to the service of the day could mean. At the first words a silence, stern as death, fell over all. The Sabbath quiet of the hour and of the place was deepened into a terrible solemnity. He told them all the story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by the royal troops; the heroic vengeance following hard upon it; the retreat of Percy; the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims round the beleaguered hills of Boston. Then pausing, and looking over the silent throng, he said slowly: “Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren of New England! Who follows me to Boston?” And every man of that audience stepped out into line, and answered, “I!” There was not a coward nor a traitor in old Hopewell Baptist Meeting-house that day. [Source: Cathcart, The Baptists and the American Revolution, 1876]

Consider, too, Pastor M’Clanahan, of Culpepper County, Virginia, who raised a military company of Baptists and served in the field, both as a captain and chaplain. Reverend David Barrow “shouldered his musket and showed how fields were won.” Another Baptist, General Scriven, when ordered by a British officer to give up Sunbury, near Savannah, sent back the answer, “Come and get it.” Deacon Mills, of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, “commanded skillfully” 1,000 riflemen at the Battle of Long Island, and for his valor was made a brigadier general. Deacon Loxley of the same church commanded the artillery at the Battle of Germantown with the rank of colonel. (Source: McDaniel, The People Called Baptists, 1925)

A list drawn up by Judge Curwen, an ardent Tory, contained 926 names of British sympathizers living in America — colonial law had already exiled a larger number — but there was “not the name of one Baptist on the list.” Maybe this is why President George Washington, in his letter to the Baptists, paid the following tribute: “I recollect with satisfaction that the religious society of which you are members has been, throughout America, uniformly and almost unanimously, the firm friend to civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glorious Revolution.” Maybe it explains why Thomas Jefferson could write to a Baptist church, saying, “We have acted together from the origin to the end of a memorable Revolution.” (Source: Ibid.)

Faith and Conviction
These were not the acts of wild-eyed fanatics; they were the acts of men of deep and abiding faith and conviction. Their understanding of the principles of both Natural and Revealed Law was so proficient, so thorough, and so sagacious that their conscience would let them do nothing else. Hear the wise counsel of the notable colonial preacher Reverend Samuel West (1730-1807):

Our obligation to promote the public good extends as much to the opposing every exertion of arbitrary power that is injurious to the state as it does to the submitting to good and wholesome laws. No man, therefore, can be a good member of the community that is not as zealous to oppose tyranny, as he is ready to obey magistracy.

Reverend West went on to say:

If magistrates are ministers of God only because the law of God and reason points out the necessity of such an institution for the good of mankind, it follows, that whenever they pursue measures directly destructive of the public good, they cease being God’s ministers, they forfeit their right to obedience from the subject, they become the pests of society, and the community is under the strongest obligation of duty both to God and to its own members, to resist and oppose them, which will be so far from resisting the ordinance of God that it will be strictly obeying his commands.

This was the spirit of 1776; this was the preaching that built a free and independent nation; this is what Colonial America had that, by and large, America does not have today.

David Barrow

Moral underpinnings: Baptist minister David Barrow gave his whole being to causes he joined. He was nearly drowned by vigilantes for preaching as a Baptist in areas dominated by the Church of England, and he took up a gun to fight in the Revolutionary War.
In the thinking and preaching of the Black Regiment, freedom and independence were precious gifts of God, not to be trampled underfoot by men; human authority was limited and subject to proper divine parameters; and the mind of man was never to be enslaved by any master, save Christ Himself.

Membership in the Black Regiment was unofficial and without human oversight. Preachers of the black robes were young and old, loud and soft-spoken, rough and gentle, urban and rural. They differed on secondary doctrines and never surrendered their theological distinctives. Yet they formed an irresistible and indefatigable army that neither King George nor the demons of hell could stop.

As one reads the colonial history of the United States, one must be struck with the observation that the American people, on the whole, seemed to appreciate the courage and independence of their preachers. Even America’s early political leaders shared in this appreciation.

For instance, John Adams once remarked,

It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue? If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions, how muchsoever it may move the gall of Massachusetts?

The problem today is that America’s preachers have taken off the black robes and put on yellow ones. Where is the preaching against prevalent sins? Where is the spiritual, scriptural explanation concerning the rights and duties, or limitations and restrictions of civil magistrates from America’s pulpits today?

The famed 19th-century revivalist Charles G. Finney had some trenchant words on this subject. He said,

If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.

Black Regiment Today
Yes, indeed. It was the patriot-pulpit that delivered America from bondage; and it is the timid pulpit, on the part of those who do or should know, that is helping to deliver America to the brink of destruction and judgment.

It is for this reason that I took on the task of resurrecting the Black Regiment. In July of 2007, I put out my first appeal to help locate a modern-day Black Regiment. (And my appeal echoes other great Americans’, such as Professor David Alan Black and Rev. Wayne Sedlak, who called for a resurrection of the Black Regiment even before I did.) I asked readers to help me locate brave and courageous patriot-pastors in the similitude of the Black Regiment of old. The result of this appeal has been truly exciting.

On my Black Regiment website (www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/blackregiment.php), we now have over 200 pastors and evangelists who have signed up to be included in a modern-day Black Regiment. This was done primarily so that people around the country who hunger to attend a church that has a patriot-pastor in the pulpit can find a place of worship. I extend the invitation to readers of this column to further assist me in locating such patriot-preachers.

I am personally convinced that the only thing necessary for God to send another Great Awakening — along with the accompanying reclamation of liberty and independence — is for God’s men in the pulpits to return to their heritage by becoming the champions of freedom: sounding forth the clarion call to resist tyranny and defend liberty, as did our forebears in the Black Regiment.

Chuck Baldwin is a radio broadcaster, syndicated columnist, and pastor. He was the Constitution Party's nominee for president in 2008.
Paintings: Library of Congress

Has the Church Become Irrelevant?

2009-09-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

Written by Chuck Baldwin

Thursday, 10 September 2009 03:00

America's Christian heritage is both rich and deep. What most historians and educators refuse to acknowledge, our forebears understood clearly: it was mostly Christians and churches that formed and shaped the new land that became known as the United States of America.
For example, when discussing the brave exploits of the passengers on board the Mayflower, people seem to have forgotten that the voyage was mostly the endeavor of a single church congregation. And don't forget that it was Pastor Jonas Clark's male congregates who withstood British troops at Lexington and fired the very first of the shots heard 'round the world. The famous French historian, Alexis De Tocqueville, credited the pulpits and churches of Colonial America with inspiring America's successful War for Independence and subsequent prosperity much more than its institutions of learning, halls of Congress, or industries of invention. From the very beginning, America's Christians and pastors were intricately involved in the establishment and building of this republic.
It is no hyperbole to say that without the influence, sacrifice, dedication, blood, sweat, and tears of America's early Christians, this country would not exist.
But what do we see today? We see pastors and church congregations who are, for the most part, totally ignorant of their own heritage and history. They have little or no understanding of the principles of Natural Law — something America's founders knew almost by second nature (no pun intended). They seem to know next to nothing of the Biblical principles of liberty and government. All they seem to be able to do is regurgitate some mindless interpretation of Romans 13 — an interpretation that could have been written by King George III or even Adolf Hitler. (Read my column regarding Romans 13 at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090715.html.)
Ignoring the great examples and exhortations of both Testaments, today's Christians seem to have lazily latched onto a modern-day "divine right of kings" philosophy, through which they have become the pathetic slaves of arrogant and pompous political wolves dressed (barely) in the sheepskins of legitimacy.
Where are America's watchmen on the wall? Where are the great stories of courage and commitment demonstrated by America's founders that once emanated from church pulpits? How is it that today's Christians know more about sports celebrities than they do America's heroes? How is it that these lying, conniving, con artists called politicians can sucker church members as easily as they do the un-churched? How is it that Christians do not seem to recognize the devilish doctrines of socialism, fascism, elitism, or globalism for what they are? How can they be so easily manipulated? How is it that these corrupt politicians — who vote to kill unborn babies, merge America into internationalist and global entities, strip Americans of their God-given natural right of self defense, promote homosexual marriage, or allow America to lose its identity, culture, and heritage through unbridled illegal immigration — remain in "good standing" with any number of supposed "Christian" churches?
Even though there are more churches in America than anywhere else in the world, the pastors and Christians of this country have, for the most part, become completely irrelevant to preserving "the blessings of liberty" — or even fundamental Biblical principles, for that matter.
Churches used to be respected as lighthouses in communities: places free from the jaundiced juxtaposition of political correctness and avarice. Today's churches are filled with both. Where once churches stood as guardians of truth, they have now become progenitors of error. Where once preachers stood in the similitude of Elijah and John the Baptist, they now grovel in the image of Joel Osteen and Rick Warren. Sunday Schools were once bastions of Bible teaching; today they are glorified coffee shops and playgrounds. The modern Christian home cannot even disciple its own children: how can it then be expected to "make disciples of all nations"?
I repeat: the modern American church has, for the most part, become irrelevant.
It is little wonder that more and more people are losing interest in the organized church. Instead of finding Christian love and kindness, they find the same kind of gossip, slander, petty bickering, favoritism, and selfishness that they might find at any office water cooler. Instead of hearing a prophet of God declare the Word of God, they hear a milquetoast minister meekly musing the latest self-help book.
The complete irrelevance of today's organized church in America to the preservation of Christian liberty and constitutional government is especially disconcerting to those of us who still have freedom's fire burning in our souls. Where do we go for respite and instruction?
I tell you the truth: there are hundreds of thousands of patriotic, freedom-minded Christians all over America who have had it "up to here" with these spineless social clubs called churches! They are tired of petrified pastors groveling before corrupt politicians and businessmen. They hunger for truth, and they are not finding it in most organized churches.
As an example, go to my list of people who have written me to let me know that they are desperately seeking a Black Regiment-type church that they can attend. The list grows by the day. See the list at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/blackregiment.php#Looking
These people are not looking to be entertained or pampered. They do not care about social standing or making "business contacts." They don't care which church has the "most exciting" youth program, or how many softball teams it has. They want a church where the pastor isn't afraid to speak truth to power and take a stand for liberty. And, unfortunately, such churches are getting harder and harder to find.
In fact, I submit that the true church is not "emerging"; it is "submerging." As in totalitarian regimes all over the world, where there are basically two types of churches: the organized State-approved church, where people who worship the State go to put on a religious show; and the underground church, where real Christians go to worship God with honest, like-minded believers.
The "underground" church in America is not totally underground — yet. But the schism is taking place rapidly. Unlike the houses of State Worship, which enjoy large congregations and ornate buildings, underground churches are, for the most part, small and unassuming. Home churches are also mushrooming and must be considered part of the underground church movement. And, of course, Black Regiment churches are springing up all across the country. See the list of Black Regiment churches at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/blackregiment.php
I am convinced that it is through these independent, unaffiliated, unorganized, or underground churches that relevancy will return. It is in these churches where Christians can be taught the Biblical principles of Natural Law, where children who are disciplined and know how to behave are not considered oddities, where pastors aren't afraid to proclaim truth, where people are still committed to constitutional government — and understand the difference between a democracy and a republic — and where self-serving neocons are not regarded as heroes.
So, if you are a Christian and you want to be relevant to the preservation of liberty in this country, you need to get out of these establishment, State-worshipping churches and find yourself an "underground," unaffiliated, or Black Regiment church. And you need to do it quickly!
(This column is archived at http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090825.html)
Dr. Baldwin is the founder and pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. His sermons are LIVE every Sunday morning and people can tune in and watch the sermon at http://crossroadbaptist.net/live.html. He is a prolific writer/columnist whose articles and political commentaries are carried by a host of Internet sites, newspapers, and news magazines. Dr. Baldwin can be heard 49 times each week, on 15 different radio stations in Northwest Florida, lower Alabama, Central Florida, and parts of Virginia, Texas, and Utah. He has written two books, and he was the 2008 Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party.
© Chuck Baldwin

PANDEMIC RESPONSE FOR STATES

2009-09-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

States consider pandemic responses - health authorities to enter homes, detain without warrant, forcefully quarantine, mandatory vaccinations

A "pandemic response bill" currently making its way through the Massachusetts state legislature would allow authorities to forcefully quarantine citizens in the event of a health emergency, compel health providers to vaccinate citizens, authorize forceful entry into private dwellings and destruction of citizen property and impose fines on citizens for noncompliance.

If citizens refuse to comply with isolation or quarantine orders in the event of a health emergency, they may be imprisoned for up to 30 days and fined $1,000 per day that the violation continues.

Massachusetts' pandemic response bill

"Pandemic Response Bill" 2028 was passed by the Massachusetts state Senate on April 28 and is now awaiting approval in the House.

As stated in the bill, upon declaration by the governor that an emergency exists that is considered detrimental to public health or upon declaration of a state of emergency, a local public health authority, with approval of the commissioner, may exercise the following authorities:

to require the owner or occupier of premises to permit entry into and investigation of the premises;
to close, direct, and compel the evacuation of, or to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated any building or facility, and to allow the reopening of the building or facility when the danger has ended;
to decontaminate or cause to be decontaminated, or to destroy any material;
to restrict or prohibit assemblages of persons;
to require a health care facility to provide services or the use of its facility, or to transfer the management and supervision of the health care facility to the department or to a local public health authority;
to control ingress to and egress from any stricken or threatened public area, and the movement of persons and materials within the area;
to adopt and enforce measures to provide for the safe disposal of infectious waste and human remains, provided that religious, cultural, family, and individual beliefs of the deceased person shall be followed to the extent possible when disposing of human remains, whenever that may be done without endangering the public health;
to procure, take immediate possession from any source, store, or distribute any anti-toxins, serums, vaccines, immunizing agents, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical agents or medical supplies located within the commonwealth as may be necessary to respond to the emergency;
to require in-state health care providers to assist in the performance of vaccination, treatment, examination, or testing of any individual as a condition of licensure, authorization, or the ability to continue to function as a health care provider in the commonwealth;
to waive the commonwealth's licensing requirements for health care professionals with a valid license from another state in the United States or whose professional training would otherwise qualify them for an appropriate professional license in the commonwealth;
to allow for the dispensing of controlled substance by appropriate personnel consistent with federal statutes as necessary for the prevention or treatment of illness;
to authorize the chief medical examiner to appoint and prescribe the duties of such emergency assistant medical examiners as may be required for the proper performance of the duties of office;
to collect specimens and perform tests on any animal, living or deceased;
to exercise authority under sections 95 and 96 of chapter 111;
to care for any emerging mental health or crisis counseling needs that individuals may exhibit, with the consent of the individuals
State and local agencies responding to the public health emergency would be required to exercise their powers over transportation routes, communication devices, carriers, public utilities, fuels, food, clothing and shelter, according to the legislation.

Local public health authorities will be required to keep records of reports containing the name and location of all people who have been reported, their disease, injury, or health condition and the name of the person reporting the case. In addition, citizens may be subject to "involuntary transportation."

Line 341 of the bill states, "Law enforcement authorities, upon order of the commissioner or his agent or at the request of a local public health authority pursuant to such order, shall assist emergency medical technicians or other appropriate medical personnel in the involuntary transportation of such person to the tuberculosis treatment center. No law enforcement authority or medical personnel shall be held criminally or civilly liable as a result of an act or omission carried out in good faith in reliance on said order."

Vaccinate or isolate

Whenever the commissioner or a public-health authority decides it is necessary to prevent a serious danger to the public health, they are authorized:

(1) to vaccinate or provide precautionary prophylaxis (preventative procedure) to individuals as protection against communicable disease and to prevent the spread of communicable or possible communicable disease, provided that any vaccine to be administered must not be such as is reasonably likely to lead to serious harm to the affected individual; and
(2) to treat individuals exposed to or infected with disease, provided that treatment must not be such as is reasonably likely to lead to serious harm to the affected individual. An individual who is unable or unwilling to submit to vaccination or treatment shall not be required to submit to such procedures but may be isolated or quarantined … if his or her refusal poses a serious danger to public health or results in uncertainty whether he or she has been exposed to or is infected with a disease or condition that poses a serious danger to public health, as determined by the commissioner, or a local public health authority operating within its jurisdiction. (emphasis added)

Under such circumstances, authorities are also allowed to decontaminate individuals and perform physical examinations, tests and specimen collection to determine whether "an individual presents a risk to public health." If a citizen refuses, he or she may be isolated, quarantined and/or detained "for as long as may be reasonably necessary," the bill states.

Law enforcement authorities are authorized to "arrest without warrant any person whom the officer has probable cause to believe has violated an order for isolation or quarantine and shall use reasonable diligence to enforce such order. Any person who knowingly violates an order for isolation or quarantine shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than 30 days and may be subject to a civil fine of not more than $1,000 per day that the violation continues." (emphasis added)

Other state quarantine orders

Iowa's Facility Quarantine Order

As WND reported, a blank document from the Iowa Department of Public Health has been discovered online, designed to be filled in with the name of an H1N1 virus victim who is required to relocate from his or her home to a quarantine facility.

The form, which began appearing Aug 31 in e-mails and on the Internet, has concerned a confused public already swimming in conflicting reports about the severity of the swine flu and intrusive government measures that many fear may be taken if the disease becomes a pandemic.

The Iowa document, which WND confirmed with state officials is authentic, has done little to calm the public's fears.

"The Iowa Department of Public Health has determined that you have had contact with a person with Novel Influenza A H1N1," the form reads. "The Department has determined that it is necessary to quarantine your movement to a specific facility to prevent further spread of this disease.

"The Department has determined that quarantine in your home and other less restrictive alternatives are not acceptable," the document continues, before listing mandatory provisions of compliance with relocation to a quarantine facility.

According to the CDC, the following states have implemented legal actions in response to the H1N1 virus:

Florida – the Florida surgeon general suspended distribution permit requirements Florida statutes to allow wholesale distribution of Tamiflu and Relenza. The state has also distributed a series of blank quarantine order forms, including a voluntary home quarantine agreement, a quarantine to residence order, a quarantine to residence order (non-compliance), a quarantine to facility order, quarantine detention order, quarantine of facility order, building quarantine closure order and area quarantine closure order.

Iowa – In addition to the facility quarantine order listed above, Iowa has also made available forms for voluntary home confinement, home quarantine and home isolation.

Massachusetts – Massachusetts lists its own procedures for isolation and quarantine.

North Carolina – The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released a draft isolation order that would provide for imprisonment for up to two years and pretrial detention without bail for any citizen who fails to comply with an isolation order.

Washington – Washington grants authority to local health officers to issue emergency detention orders causing citizens to be immediately and involuntarily isolated or quarantined for up to 10 days.

In addition, governors and health commissioners in the following states have declared a state of emergency since April following concerns about the H1N1 virus: California, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Next step: Mandatory swine flu vaccines?

According to the White House, "Since the novel 2009-H1N1 flu virus emerged in the United States during the third week of April, the president has received regular briefings and asked his Cabinet to spare no effort in addressing this national security challenge."

The White House also lists as a priority, "Preparing for a voluntary, but strongly recommended, H1N1 flu shot program to be available to all Americans that wish to participate over a period of time."

Barbara Loe Fischer, president of the National Vaccine Information Center, referenced the controversial Massachusetts bill in her commentary, "Swine flu vaccine: Will we have a choice?"

Fischer said, "Public health doctors have persuaded legislators to pass pandemic influenza legislation that will allow state officials to enter homes and businesses without the consent of occupants, to investigate and quarantine individuals without their consent, to require licensed health-care providers to give citizens vaccines and to ban the free assembly of citizens in the state."

She said World Health Organization doctors "immediately went into high gear" within days of identifying the new swine flu virus emerging out of Mexico and declared a public-health emergency. Now, Fischer says, the CDC is taking the opportunity to exercise unprecedented power.

"Whenever the CDC now declares a public-health emergency, that declaration allows the Food and Drug Administration to permit emergency-use authorization for drug companies to fast-track creation of experimental drugs and vaccines that do not have to be tested as thoroughly as vaccines that go through the normal FDA-licensing process.

"In this case, Congress responded to the public health emergency declaration by giving a group of drug companies $1 billion to fast-track experimental swine flu vaccines that may include whole, live or killed, or genetically engineered human and animal viruses, chemicals and potentially reactive oil-based adjuvants that manipulate the immune system to boost the vaccine's potency. People who already have sensitive immune systems, such as those with allergy and autoimmune disorders, may be at special risk."

Furthermore, Fischer said 80 percent of all flu-like illness in a normal flu season is not caused by type A and B strains of influenza contained in annual flu shots.

While Fischer argues that citizens should be given the opportunity to voluntarily submit to flu vaccinations, she said, "Vaccine-acquired immunity is temporary while immunity gained after recovering from influenza is longer lasting."

She said people born before 1957 may be naturally protected and at lower risk of being infected because they have long-lasting antibodies working against the virus and helping them resist infection.

"Will health officials allow our children and grandchildren to get the same kind of natural, longer-lasting protective antibodies to type A and B influenza, including the new swine flu?" she asked. "It looks like few choices will be allowed."

Cure more deadly than disease?

Although White House science advisers have warned that up to 90,000 Americans might die from H1N1 during the coming flu season, the head of the CDC responded by telling the public to ignore such a high mortality estimate, saying the current H1N1 couldn't kill that many people without mutating.

Use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 resulted in 25 people suffering from severe paralysis and dying from respiratory failure after being injected with the vaccine – more than the number of lives claimed from the virus itself.

Additionally, the vaccine is said to contain thimerosal, a preservative ingredient composed of mercury that has been linked to autism in young children.

The FDA states, "Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine."

Thimerosal has also been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS – a serious disorder that occurs when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the nervous system and may result in death.

In 1976, health officials found nearly 500 cases of GBS, and the vaccine was withdrawn 10 weeks after the link with GBS was suspected. Following the 1976 vaccination against swine flu in the U.S., a retrospective study found a likely eight-fold increase in the incidence of GBS.

Now that the nation is preparing for another round of H1N1 flu shots, the Oregonian reported that the federal government is urging neurologists to keep a close watch for new cases of GBS.

In a study conducted at the University of Hong Kong, the British Medical Journal reported that less than half of 8,500 doctors and nurses in public hospitals will accept vaccination against the swine flu – even following increases in the World Health Organization's pandemic alert level.

The study revealed, "The major barriers identified were fear of side effects and doubts about efficacy."

According to the following report by Russia Today, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen revealed that even scientists who helped develop a vaccine for small pox are saying they will not take the vaccine and urging friends and family to refrain from taking the injection as well:

Nonetheless, federal authorities are preparing to launch a nationwide campaign to convince Americans to get the swine flu vaccine, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Government officials have expressed concern that public demand for immunization will not be high enough.

"Many parents (in focus groups) expressed a lot of concerns about 2009 H1N1 vaccine. Those concerns were centered around the fact that it was new and it was being developed quickly," said Kris Sheedy, a communications director with the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "There were comments such as 'this is new and I don't want my child to be a guinea pig.'"

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the government will spend "about $16 million on outreach to convince people of the need to get the swine flu vaccine."

As WND reported, alarmist language over possible outbreaks of swine flu as well as a series of moves by the federal government are fueling fears federal agents will soon be forcing citizens to be vaccinated – prompting the Constitution Party to launch a pre-emptive defense against any such effort.

Fischer warned that Americans must become educated about vaccination, influenza, vaccine risks and public health laws in their states.

"Every pharmaceutical drug, including vaccines, carries a risk. And those risks are greater for some than others," she said. "In this time of fear, we can't let that fear take away our freedom to make voluntary health decisions. The human right to informed consent to medical risk taking gives citizens the power to make sure that the cure is not more dangerous than the disease."

Tha Ant and The Contact Lens

2009-08-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff.

She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during

this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope

snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens.

'Great', she thought. 'Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet

from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight

is blurry.' She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on

the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed

for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got

to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it

was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was

saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She

thought of the bible verse 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the

whole earth.'

She thought, 'Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone

and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help

me.'

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they

met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff.

One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?'

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it?

An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she

told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact

lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption,

'Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and

it's awfully heavy.. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it

for You.'

I think it would do all of us some good to say, 'God, I don't know why You

want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy.

But, if You want me to carry it, I will.'

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior.

He keeps me functioning each and every day. Without Him, I am nothing, but with

Him...I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

2009-08-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness.

Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight."

Edward Gibbon – The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

After ruling much of the known world for centuries, Rome fell due to a number of factors that, historians believe, would not have been fatal in isolation, but that proved terminal in combination. Military overspending and overreach, an untenable economic system, and currency debasement all played a role. As has been well documented, the Roman emperors attempted to distract the populace from the increasingly dire reality of their situation by providing bread and circuses. But entertainments could not stop the nation-state from yielding to the pressure of its own weight.

There are numerous parallels between the end of the Roman Empire and the path the 226-year-old American republic is now on. One difference in these fast-moving times is that empires can rise more rapidly, but are also likely to decline more rapidly.

Conquest & Overreach

"The decay of trade and industry was not a cause of Rome's fall. There was a decline in agriculture and land was withdrawn from cultivation, in some cases on a very large scale, sometimes as a direct result of barbarian invasions. However, the chief cause of the agricultural decline was high taxation on the marginal land, driving it out of cultivation. Taxation was spurred by the huge military budget and was thus 'indirectly' the result of the barbarian invasion." Arthur Ferrill – The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation

The Roman Empire's economy was based on the plunder of conquered territories. As the empire expanded, it installed remote military garrisons to maintain control and increasingly relied on Germanic mercenaries to man those garrisons.

Ultimately, as its territorial expansion waned and began to contract, less and less booty became available to support the empire's widespread ambitions and domestic economy. The outsourcing of the military and the cultural dilution from the bloated empire led to lethargy, complacency, and decadence amongst the formerly self-reliant and hard-working Roman citizenry.

In the modern context, as the only major power whose productive capacity was not destroyed during World War II, the American Empire emerged from the ashes of that conflict.

The parallels with Rome do not repeat, but they do rhyme.

Rather than plunder, the U.S. used its unique status to dictate terms that made the U.S. dollar the world's de facto reserve currency and positioned its robust new manufacturing sector to supply the world with the cars, machinery, appliances, and electronics it so desperately needed. The U.S. trade surplus with the nations of the world led to escalating U.S. wealth and prosperity.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military, about which I'll have more to say in a moment, was increasingly asked by the nation's politicians to take on the role of the world's policeman, leading to action in dozens of conflicts. And even where no direct military role was taken, the U.S. has shown a keen willingness to exert coercive power – including threats, sanctions, and even assassinations – if it was seen to advance American interests.

Simply, in the 20th century, the U.S. became an empire in all but name.

Bread and Circuses

"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses." Roman Poet Juvenal – 77 AD

British historian Andrew J. Toynbee convincingly argues that the Roman Empire had a rotten economic system from its inception and its institutions steadily decayed over time.

The government didn't have proper budgetary systems, and so it squandered resources maintaining the empire while producing little of value. When the spoils from conquered territories were no longer sufficient to cover its many expenses, it turned to higher taxes, in effect shifting the burden of the immense military structure onto the back of the citizenry. The higher taxes forced many small farmers to let their land go barren. To distract its citizens from the worsening conditions, Roman politicians played the populist card by providing free wheat to the poor and entertaining them with circuses, chariot races, and other entertainments.

The American Empire has reached the point where it now faces similar structural imbalances, but to pay its bills, it has largely chosen to borrow from foreign countries in recent years. And the bills are large.

The $765 billion of annual military expenditures by the United States equals the military expenditures of the rest of the world combined.

The social safety net put in place over the decades by politicians attempting to get reelected has resulted in a large number of Americans now almost totally dependent upon the almighty state for their well-being. Threatening to rip apart the country's social fabric, the "new American" will vote for anyone who promises to sustain his dependency even as the nation increasingly struggles under the weight of $56 trillion of unfunded liabilities.

The non-farm workforce in the United States totals 133 million people. Of that number, the government directly employs 22.5 million. Millions more are employed by industries heavily dependent on government spending, such as defense, construction, and healthcare. The annual maintenance cost of the country's safety net now costs American taxpayers hundreds of billions.

· Medicare and Medicaid annual spending $682 billion
· Social Security annual spending $612 billion
· Food stamps & other food programs $60 billion
· Federal unemployment payments $45 billion

America has evolved from a nation of savers to a nation of consumers with a throw-away mentality and driven by little more than the desire for instant gratification. Worse, large segments of our society are convinced that they are owed something. To most, civic duty has become a quaint, outmoded concept. Happy to accommodate – in exchange for a reliable vote come election time – the government keeps the public satiated and sedated by providing them with an ever-increasing list of "public services."

Roman poet Juvenal described how the Roman citizens abdicated their duties to the state and turned to bread and circuses. The programs listed above represent just some of the bread that American citizens now feel entitled to.

Here in America, we know how to provide circuses on a grand scale. Roman citizens were satisfied with a good chariot race. In these modern times, Americans can find entertainment and distraction with 24-hour-a-day cable TV, the Internet, iPhones, iPods, Blackberries, 1.1 million retail stores, 1,100 malls, 17,000 golf courses, Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian, Housewives of Orange County, New York, Atlanta, and New Jersey, American Idol, Survivor, Rock of Love, Flip That House, 660 stations with nothing on, Las Vegas, Disney World, MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, WWF, porn, and mega-churches all competing to fill the void in people's lives.

There isn't enough time in the day to take in all of the circuses, but with what little spare time we have available, we are now able to check our email anywhere on Earth and stay in constant contact with the office even in the middle of the night or, more typically these days, in the middle of dinner. And we can text and twitter our every thought to our circle of friends and followers, providing next to no lasting purpose or benefit to anyone.

Approximately 12% of the U.S. population (36 million people) is considered poor, and many of them are totally dependent upon the state. Yet that term seems out of sync with the fact that many of those individuals have cell phones ($500/yr.), cable TV ($900/yr.), Internet access ($500/yr.), cars ($5,000/yr. lease), houses ($6,000/yr.), eat fast food ($1,000/yr.), and can smoke a pack a day ($1,500/yr.).

How can this be?

For the answer, look no further than Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and the Federal Reserve, in cahoots with the financial geniuses on Wall Street, who made it standard practice to create money out of thin air and encourage anyone with a heartbeat to avail themselves of it in the form of low-cost loans – no proof of income or assets required.

The arrangement worked just fine until the banks could no longer hide the bad debt or sell it to the greater fool. Now it has collapsed onto the backs of American taxpayers.

Debasement

"The supply of foodstuffs in the cities declined. The people in the cities were forced to go back to the country and to return to agricultural life. Consequently, the emperors made laws against this movement. There were laws preventing the city dweller from moving to the country, but such laws were ineffective. As the people did not have anything to eat in the city, as they were starving, no law could keep them from leaving the city and going back into agriculture. The city dweller could no longer work in the processing industries of the cities as an artisan. And, with the loss of the markets in the cities, no one could buy anything there anymore." Ludwig von Mises – Human Action

Economist Ludwig von Mises argued that flawed economic policies played a key role in the impoverishment and decay of the Roman Empire. He contended that interventionist economic policies, including price controls that resulted in prices substantially below their free-market equilibrium levels, ultimately led to inflation.

Further, Rome was spending more than it could afford. The free food rations for the poor of Rome and Constantinople – as well as the many entertainments – were costing a fortune. The purchasing of exotic spices, silks, and other luxuries from the Orient bled Rome of its gold… gold that didn't return. Soon Rome didn't have enough gold to produce coins. And so it debased its coins with lesser metals until there was no gold left.

To cover the trillions it is spending each year propping up its empire, the U.S. government is now increasingly forced to rely on printing and borrowing the funds to do so, steadily debasing the currency in the process.

But the nation's currency debasement is nothing new. Rather, it began in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve. It accelerated when FDR confiscated all the gold in the country in the 1930s. When Richard Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971, the show really got on the road, as that freed the Federal Reserve to print unlimited amounts of dollars. As a result, the dollar has lost 93% of its value versus gold since 1970.

The Military Complex

Lessons from ancient Rome regarding the cost of maintaining a far-flung empire have been ignored. Today, U.S. boots stomp on the ground of over 117 countries. Even the use of mercenaries, in the form of thousands of Blackwater guards and other private contractors filling roles formerly left to the military, has become commonplace.

Using military assets to pursue political goals, as is the norm in empire building, has led to unintended consequences and wasted opportunities.

One of the most egregious of those lost opportunities came following the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet Union. The United States had won the Cold War, but failed to recognize the cautionary signs on the path ahead.

As the only remaining superpower on earth, America fell into the same trap that has befallen previous empires. Instead of concentrating on proactively confronting domestic challenges, such as unfunded Social Security and Medicare liabilities, and developing a comprehensive energy plan to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, we continued to intervene in costly foreign adventures.

Including, among many others, supplying both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein with weapons and money during their fights against our enemies, leading to unintended consequences we live with to this day.

Seeking to maintain its widespread interests and to defend itself from the many enemies created by building and protecting those interests, the American military complex has grown to the point where it now spends an amount equal to 44% of all taxes collected from its citizens.

Since 1991 alone, the U.S. has interceded in Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others. In no case has Congress fulfilled its obligation of declaring war. Instead, it has delegated sole responsibility for waging war to the president, weakening the structure of our three-branch government. Over that period of time, the U.S. has spent $7 trillion on defense.

The National Debt in 1991 was $3.2 trillion. Today, it is $11.6 trillion, a 360% increase in eighteen years. In 2001, spending on defense was 17% of the government budget. In 2008, defense, Homeland Security, and war spending accounted for 26% of government spending.

Collapse

Economic history books will likely mark 1980 as the year that the rapid phase of the decline of the American Empire began. That's when the first wave of the Baby Boomer generation reached the age of 35 and turned its attention to living the American dream – on borrowed money. Since that year, household debt has surged from $1 trillion to $14 trillion, while the savings rate has plunged from 12% to below 0%.

There are many ways to use credit, some quite intelligent and practical. Rotating credit card debt to buy the latest non-necessity does not fall into that category. Today in America, there are $956 billion of credit card debt outstanding, or $9,000 per household. The average American has nine credit cards. A credit card allows every person to live above their means for awhile... just as did the home equity loans taken against artificially elevated house prices anchored on mortgages people couldn't afford.

This is where reality and fantasy meet. People can only borrow and spend if the Federal Reserve and bankers provide the funds to do so, and without asking a lot of questions about suitability. By creating money out of thin air and handing it out to people with no legitimate means of repaying it, the financial elite and their friends in Washington have played an essential role in bringing the U.S. and even the global economy to its knees.

Yet, for all the evidence, a large swath of Americans still believes the nation hasn't gone off course. These people consider borrowing in order to live beyond their means a rational choice. They expect the government to save them when they get into trouble and think that taxing the rich to pay for a bigger and bigger safety net is a reasonable idea.

In a truly free-market society, this sizable segment of the public would have already learned a brutal lesson they'd remember for the rest of their lives. Instead, the brutal lesson is being learned by people who played by the rules and didn't take ridiculous risks, but who are now being coerced by the government to pay for the misdeeds of the over-indebted fools who did.

The crushing levels of debt resulting from decades of excess; the far-reaching military presence; the politically motivated social safety net and other popular but unaffordable programs have now reached the point that the economic decline of the American Empire is a foregone conclusion.

The current downturn is not going to be like previous recessions that lasted on average 16 months. Even as the government responds by trying to borrow and spend the country back to prosperity, there is no ignoring that the economic base has been gutted and the future social program liabilities have essentially bankrupted the country.

As was the case in the final stages of the Roman Empire, the unsustainable military, social, and political excesses have reached the point that, in combination, they are now likely to prove catastrophic.

A Final Thought

"For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph – a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting." George C. Scott as Patton [emphasis added]

Which begs the question, who is now standing behind the current political leadership, reminding them that their elevated positions are temporal? Unfortunately, the excesses they have created, and the dislocations caused by those excesses, will be with this country for generations.

Minister Joe Wright's Prayer

2009-08-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

Minister Joe Wright's Prayer
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual politically-correct generalities, but what they heard instead was a stirring prayer, passionately calling our country to repentance and righteousness. The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, the Central Christian Church had logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of the prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired the prayer on The Rest of the Story on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired!!

THE PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe on those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We confess that:

We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.

We have worshiped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called is self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn children and called it choice.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

* * * * *

What awesome insight!!! With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called a Christian nation that fears the Lord.

Ellen Little

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Revolutionary Virtue

2009-07-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

Image by catface3 via Flickr

Revolutionary Virtue

Written by Becky Akers

March 2009

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people," John Adams famously announced in 1798. "It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
He was paraphrasing a line he'd written in 1776 — "The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue" — when the new nation was but a dangerous dream. Three years later, cousin Sam observed, "While the People are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their Virtue they will be ready to surrender their Liberties to the first external or internal Invader.... If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslavd [sic]."

Only the Virtuous Can Live Free

The Adamses were echoing an idea so common among the Founding Fathers it was almost a cliché: only a virtuous people can live free. However they phrased it, whatever synonyms they used for "liberty" (including, impossibly enough, "government") and "virtue" (including, logically enough, "Christianity"), the Founders insisted that liberty requires virtue. They were equally adamant that political slavery punishes immorality.

"Virtue" has a quaint ring to it, as 18th-century as "mobcap" or "syllabub." And Americans then obsessed about nourishing it as much as their descendants do about starving themselves into tight jeans.

Easy job, some might think. Who could be anything but virtuous in an age without MySpace and half-clothed Hollywood hussies?

Things were simpler then. You'll hear that same reasoning applied to the War on Terror: pundits often claim it's rendered the Bill of Rights obsolete. After all, muskets and bayonets were about as scary as it got in the 1700s; if the Founders had to worry about hijacked planes hitting skyscrapers, they'd have empowered government to whack bad guys instead of fretting over habeas corpus. But Redcoats with muskets seemed as deadly then as terrorists with box-cutters do now. Meanwhile, future generations, facing weapons we can't conceive, will laugh at our fears while envying our more innocent times.

Revolutionary Americans hoped their young country would light the world's way to liberty and righteousness. To that end, each man should school himself in virtue: a free, virtuous country is merely a collection of free, virtuous individuals.

Many turned the task into an art. Young Ben Franklin not only listed 13 disciplines he considered essential ("Temperance, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Moderation, Industry, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Silence, Sincerity, Justice, Chastity, Humility"), he charted his daily progress in practicing each. And almost every Founding Father, from George Washington ("Can it be," he asked in his Farewell Address, "that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue?") to Benjamin Rush ("Without [religion] there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty," averred this physician from Pennsylvania and Signer of the Declaration of Independence), testified at one time or another to the link between liberty and virtue.

So virtue was as fashionable then as ridiculing it is now. What trendy Founders to connect it with freedom! Or were they espousing an eternal truth? If so, why does liberty depend on virtuous citizens? What exactly is "virtue," and are all virtues created equal? For example, is chastity or courage as essential for liberty as honesty? And how do these characteristics produce freedom? Does their rejection truly guarantee tyranny, or were the Founders just trying to scare us into behaving?

Necessity of Morality

Dictionaries define "virtue" as "the quality of being morally good or righteous; moral excellence." Morals determine how we interact with others. The moral man doesn't lie, doesn't steal, doesn't murder. He follows the Ten Commandments and the Christian shorthand for them, the Golden Rule. He doesn't compel others to do his will, nor does he manipulate them, in part because he wouldn't want them to treat him that way. He understands that people don't exist to fulfill his dreams or even his needs, nor to make him feel important and powerful. Rather, they are souls in their own right, competent and capable, created in the image of God with inalienable rights. This entitles them to the virtuous man's respect — a respect that doesn't arrogantly assume they need his help any more than it whines for theirs.

Unless someone physically attacks the virtuous man, force never distorts his dealings with others. Obviously, he doesn't compel anyone to hand him money, i.e., he doesn't steal. But he also doesn't push himself on folks who don't want to deal with him — whether they are bigots who despise anyone different from themselves, or landlords who don't rent to tenants with children. The virtuous man doesn't hide behind a superior power that does the forcing for him, either.

Contrast that with the masses who live according to expediency, whim, or pleasure. They like compulsion and bending others to their will, whether they work directly for the government or whether they harness it to their interests. They confuse "legal" with "moral" and figure anything that doesn't get them arrested is kosher. They won't hold up the guy next door because that might send them to prison, but they eagerly accept all the money the state taxes from him on their behalf — and often clamor for more. They won't bulldoze his house, either, when it exceeds the size of theirs; that's the job of the zoning commissioners to whom they complain.

The Founders warned about the results should citizens abandon virtue. In his Defense of the American Constitutions of 1787, John Adams cautioned, "If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free." In these times of widespread socialism, when governments at all levels dangle other people's money before us, when the worst thieves never see the inside of a jail but are instead reelected to office, when citizens expect and receive ever larger shares of the plunder, only men strong in virtue will resist. Indeed, "virtue" descends from the Latin "virtus," meaning "strength, valor, bravery, manliness, manhood, virility, excellence, virtue,"; "virtus," in turn, comes from "vir," Latin for "man" (with a secondary meaning of "hero"; make of that what you will).

Tom Paine speculated in Common Sense that if we could "take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace [government and its officials] to their first rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners of preeminence in subtlety obtained him the title of chief among plunderers; and who by increasing in power, and extending his depredations, overawed the quiet and defenseless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions."

Ever since it hatched, the state has sought to neutralize morality with a series of logical fallacies. Government and most of its victims credit "the nation" — something that doesn't exist apart from the individuals comprising it — with privileges not a one of those individuals has. No man may invade another's home and make off with a percentage of what he finds there. But let him don a government uniform while claiming to represent "the nation," let him call what he steals a "tax," and suddenly his theft is no longer immoral — at least to people who spurn virtue. They never understand that what's wrong for an individual acting alone doesn't become right when he's part of a group, even one calling itself "government."

Citizens who demand their fair share of the government's spoils receive its control as well. Students expect the State to rescue them from the horrors of paying full tuition, so they agitate for subsidies, below-market loans, scholarships — even though politicians and bureaucrats then set the curriculum. In 2006, 300 colleges offered majors in "homeland security," thanks to $50 million in grants from the eponymous Cabinet department. Yet decades of federal accreditation have so dulled sensibilities that USA Today reported this story without mentioning or even hinting at the word "propaganda."

Alas, grandparents can be just as greedy. They demand that taxpayers buy their medicines regardless of the power government then wields over the pharmaceutical industry.

Virtue and Liberty

What virtues are necessary for freedom? John Adams listed some: "the principles of humanity and general benevolences, public and private charity, industry, frugality, honesty, and punctuality in their dealings." Certainly, "courage" belongs in the catalog, too, since history proves Thomas Jefferson's adage that "the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." Citizens serious about liberty are constantly on guard against their government, however limited or constitutional. When they spot the first tumors of tyranny, they summon not only bravery but wisdom and perseverance to excise the cancer.

Such patriots also prize strong families, so they're loyal and chaste. The family — autonomous, loving, inviolate — undergirds freedom. It counterbalances the State, providing privacy and a refuge from the public square. No wonder governments attack it. Sometimes the assault is as obvious as coaxing, bribing, or torturing subjects to rat out relatives — tactics everyone from American Drug Warriors to Chinese communists use. More subtly, socialist empires trivialize the family with their cradle-to-grave caretaking. Who needs children to support his old age when Social Security does? Why sacrifice to educate kids when public schools do it for "free"?

Virtuous people rely on themselves, their families, and friends, not the State. Their virtue strengthens their family, which in turn strengthens them. Meanwhile, virtue neither leads astray nor shames its practitioner later. Disaster may strike, but it strikes in spite of the virtuous man, not because of him. Economist Friedrich Hayek observed that "morals are concerned with effects in the long run — effects beyond our possible perception [at the time]."

Contrast that with the backpedaling and excuses for George W. Bush. The Washington Times tried to explain away Americans' contempt for him: "Bush's unpopularity stems from the credit crisis and declining economy; the war in Iraq; and the federal government's performance in handling Hurricane Katrina.... [But t]he credit crisis had many fathers, [including] laws and policies passed in Democratic administrations.... Katrina was an unprecedented disaster.... Iraq had actually used WMDs in its war against Iran.... In context, Monday morning quarterbacking in these areas is somewhat unfair." Bosh. Bush eviscerated the Constitution, not only in these three instances but in almost every official act. Had he virtuously honored his oath of office instead, he wouldn't be dodging international calls to try him as a war criminal.

Religion: The Wellspring of Virtue

The Founders insisted that virtue sprang from religion — and by "religion," they meant Biblical Christianity. Noah Webster, whose primers educated millions of Americans from the 1780s on, thought that "the moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.... All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."

George Washington knew something about defending liberty. And in his Farewell Address, he urged that we "with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." His nuanced "with caution" allows for the fact that some people who never darken a church's doors behave like angels while others who attend weekly rival the Devil himself for wickedness. Hypocrites abound in this fallen world: politicians moan about the plight of the poor while raising taxes; labor unions supposedly fight for the working man while threatening "scabs" who take jobs without permission. Still, frauds seem to congregate disproportionately in the church, and that allows the reckless to dispute Washington's wisdom. They often argue that virtue can be grounded in reason alone. Human reason is egregiously flawed. Two Pure Reasoners starting from the same premise can respectively arrive at a virtuous precept and one so evil even the most pragmatic politicians blanch. For instance, Pure Reasoners usually maintain that each person owns himself. From here, they could — and many do — reason their way to euthanasia and abortion.

Pure Reasoners must also deny history since it teaches that on the whole, a population preaching and practicing historic Christianity murders far fewer victims than an atheistic one. Compare the American and French revolutions: both occurred in the last quarter of the 18th century; both claimed liberty as a goal; they even included some of the same participants. But while America's rebels relied on Divine Providence, France's vehemently rejected Christianity and God Himself. Ditto for every communist regime since. Their atrocities shock the world as they systematically torture and slaughter their own people. And why not? Without an omniscient, righteous Judge and an afterlife in which He punishes sin, why practice virtue when wickedness affords so much more power? Besides, without a Creator endowing liberty, inalienable rights suddenly become alienable: governments that bestow rights can also revoke them.

Unfortunately, far too many Americans still haven't learned their lesson two centuries after the Revolution. That makes Dr. Rush's observation as true today as then: "The war is over: but this is far from being the case with the American revolution.... It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government; and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens."
Becky Akers is an expert on the American Revolution.

The Prejudice of Atheists

2009-07-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

The Prejudice of Atheists

Written by Selwyn Duke
July 2009

Ever since the separation-of-church-and-state ruling in 1947, there has been an ever-intensifying effort to denude our public sphere of religious symbols and sentiments. The latest attack is a lawsuit to prevent "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance from being engraved on the newly-built Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

Filed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the suit claims that the mere presence of such engravings is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. FoxNews.com reports on the story, telling us that the House and Senate passed resolutions earlier this month authorizing the engraving "in response to critics who complained Congress spent $621 million on the new three-story underground center without paying respect to the nation's religious heritage."

So now the other side is speaking. The question is, do they really believe what they're saying? I ask because their position on establishment strains credulity. The relevant part of the First Amendment simply states, "Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion." It says nothing about the "separation of church and state"; in fact, the principle is found nowhere in the Constitution. Sure, the phrase had been mentioned during the founders' time — such as in Thomas Jefferson's famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 — yet many things were mentioned but never enshrined in the Constitution. And, like them, the separation of church and state never "made the cut." Why? Because it was a minority view when our nation was born.

Moreover, we should understand why Jefferson used the phrase. He was simply trying to reassure the Danbury Baptists that, should he ascend to the presidency, he wouldn't use federal power to impose his very unorthodox brand of Christianity on them. Jefferson's "wall" was a one-way filtration system. It kept government out of religion; it had nothing to do with keeping religion out of government.

Yet no amount of historical and legal argumentation can thwart the will of those bent on revising history and creatively "interpreting" law, and such sleight-of-hand will work if citizens consider suppressing public displays of religion a moral imperative. And people today do believe this for a simple reason: prejudice.

To understand this, consider the following example. Let's say that I'm obsessed with eliminating the many American Indian names dotting our map. And let's say that the cultural climate is conducive to this endeavor and I can thus find support and a legal basis for such a cultural rending. So I scour the nation looking for "offenses" and file lawsuits against Chappaqua, N.Y., Alabama, Illinois, and Kentucky as part of a long crusade. Would a clear-thinking person find this normal? Or, would he perhaps say I had a hang-up? In point of fact, it would be right to suspect that something very ugly, very secret — perhaps even sinister — drives me.

Now, if this would strike us as the ugliest of prejudice if the target were American Indian symbols and sentiments — or if it were Spanish or black symbols and sentiments — why don't we register the same revulsion when religion is placed in these crosshairs?

"Ah," says the critic, "But this is religion, not culture." Yes, and the Indian is a red man, not a white man. So? This is precisely the prejudice of which I speak. I'll illustrate my point.

I would ask atheist critics the following: if religious ideas really are handed down by the Creator of the Universe, the author of all, don't we have a duty to infuse our public square with them? Aren't we obligated to instill children with them in school?

Of course, we know atheists will respond with eye-rolling as they say, "Well, you may believe these ideas are divine, but we don't agree. They are just man-made." And from here checkmate is easy. Simply retort, "Okay, but if they're man-made, why do you discriminate against them? Why do you say that man-made ideas we happen to call "secular" may be in the public square, but man-made ideas we happen to call "religious" may not be? If they're all man's handiwork, good fellow, wherein lies the difference?

The point is, unthinkingly subjecting something to discrimination simply because it's labeled "religious" is no different than unthinkingly subjecting a group to discrimination because of its basic skin color. Sure, there can be legitimate discrimination, such as favoring 25-year-olds over 60-year-olds when hiring police or disallowing the false religious practice of human sacrifice in deference to the valid religious injunction, "Thou shalt do no murder." But the obsession with pushing religion to the back of the bus is nothing but blind prejudice. If you want to make a logical case for this bias, go ahead. If you want to play Christopher Hitchens' tune and say that "religion poisons everything," present your evidence. If you want to explain why man, a creature who has believed in gods for millennia, should suddenly make atheism the public default, marshal your arguments. Let's have the debate. But don't simply cite constitutional principles (illusory or not), as legality doesn't determine morality. And don't expect me to accept second-class status based on being the wrong philosophical "color."

Really, part of the problem is that militant secularists have so long heard the separation-of-church-and-state mantra that they've come to believe their anti-theistic prejudice is justifiable. In fact, they fancy it a virtue. It's much like a man who is raised believing that those of a given race are second class and have no right voicing their beliefs. He may feel quite righteous about stilling their tongues, but the fact remains he has a hang-up, an obsession with no basis in reality.

This prejudice is evident in the Freedom from Religion Foundation's lawsuit. Their position is, Fox writes, that "engraving them [the religious sentiments] at the entrance to the U.S. Capitol would discriminate against those who do not practice religion and unfairly promote a Judeo-Christian perspective."

Nonsense. Government institutions will always reflect certain values and ideas; it's just a question of what they will be. For example, most atheists have no problem indoctrinating children in school with multiculturalism, feminism, and environmentalism, which all involve values. Moreover, on what basis do secularists advocate them? If they would cite divine law, it would violate their own church/state separation principle. Yet, if these ideologies are just "man-made," why should we pay them any mind? It's a bit of a catch 22, isn't it?

In reality, value neutrality is a myth. And we won't determine what values are actually moral by denying the only one who could possibly be a credible author of morality: God. The Founding Fathers understood this, that only God can ordain with credibility. It's why, for example, they emphasized that people's rights are "endowed by their creator."

It's also why they had no problem with religious elements in government. What would have outraged them are the very things most atheists support, today's secular "isms," high taxation and liberty-robbing laws. And given that the founders launched a revolution over King George III's far milder trespasses, what do you think they'd tell us to do with our secular tyrants? I think I know, and they'd wish us Godspeed in our efforts.

Dear Bobby. . .

2009-07-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Image by relandee via Flickr

Reland1
10/21/2008 10:06 AM PT

Bobby, so very glad to hear feedback and I hope to have you as a friend! In all sincerity, I am not "religious"...but do have a personal relationship with Jesus. By reading other chapters of the journal, you will see that coming to this relationship was very difficult.

God did not give man the nature "to murder pillage and rape ourselves out of existence ". If He had, we would have already done so! God gave us the gift of free will. Thus, against his good advice, Adam and Eve chose to introduce a "sinful nature" to their lineage.

Would a loving, all-knowing, benevolent God have created man without the ability to choose? This is the question all men must answer. Even a squirrel chooses to cross a road at the wrong time. Right?

God did not want robots to do "His will". He created us to be intelligent, thoughtful, and loving people. A people to live and interact with Him for eternity, able to make mistakes and learn from our flawed characters. He sent His perfect Son as an example of what we can be.

God, in the body of Jesus, had all the flaws and weaknesses known to mankind. He was tempted, scorned, and abused, as we are. But, He overcame all, to show us it can be done. Mankind must learn that every action taken, every word spoken, receives a reaction in kind. Those who learn that His will . . ."will be done", will enjoy everlasting life with the Father.

Are we perfect? No. Will we be perfected? Yes. Someday. We will have eternity to learn. We will rule and reign with Christ, having learned from the mistakes of the rulers of our past.

It is my sincere hope that your search for peace leads you through the straight and narrow gate to our Savior, Jesus Christ. This world we are in is indeed wicked, but it will not always be so.

May God always be with you my friend,

Reland

"P" and Me . . .

2009-06-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

"P" and Me . . .

We recall those daunting essays in junior high school; the “What I Did Last Summer”, or “My Favorite Pet” stories. Two-hundred words or more about nothing when punctuation and spelling actually counted was a pretty tough assignment, even back then. I remember being assaulted by waves of cybernetic tummy toxins invariably arriving the evening before the assigned paper was due. Racking the brain, staring at a few pitiful words flagrantly scrawled across the mostly void sheet of loose leaf, all of my gray matter would be focused on “How to Be Sick Tomorrow.”

For many years my maxim in life has been “one should never do today what one can delay until tomorrow.” And my old buddy, “Procrastination” has always backed me up; one hundred percent of the time. Ah…yes! Slumming with the “Big P” is mastering the art and science of self-rescue by haphazardly mapping the shortest escape route; being routinely assisted by dogmatic selection processes within a selfish society which offers the spurious safety of disproportionate self-esteem. This society freely and without reserve, distributes its own politically correct assessment of one’s work.

My most dependable buddy “P” and I have hidden under a bushel basket of lame excuses while hugging memory ravaging delays as we smooched the cold cheek of our own impotence. Somewhere between the bloom and harvest I fell in love with the idea of wasting time. “P” and I have spent most of our time peeling another day, slicing through another month, and sectioning another year from the fruit of “my life.”

Until this day . . . Of course, you don’t know if it really is today, do you? Only “P” and I know that for sure!

Today, I send my old friend dawdling off whichever way he decides to go. I will use the dividing knife of time to prepare for you, a “real life” story; a beggarly buffet for public consumption. I intend to skin, slice, and bare my inner core in a wholly communal manner before my entire yield of fruit, seed and all, is devoured by “shouldn’t, couldn’t, can’t,” or “won’t”. Let the juice splash where it may!

It is my conviction, that even the slightest therapeutic value of spilling the contents of one’s anemic soul, of dumping one’s tiny puddle of tears and laughter into the immense polluted river of jettisoned journals and orphaned opinions must be reason enough to consider launching a pig. I invite you who may have fallen too soon, or maybe too far from the tree; some who may be bruised, slightly soft in places; those whom have observed the firmest more colorful and tasty fruit being chosen, while inadvertently you fell to the bottom of the barrel, please join me as I catapult from the author’s launch pad! I just have to see if this piglet will fly!

All of us have or will suffer tragedy in our lifetimes. The way in which we accept or refuse to accept these moments will determine the fullness of each of our lives. Will we struggle with anger, bitterness and hatred? Or will those we love, those we encounter see the larger picture of love, charity and forgiveness that is possible?

Casting “P” aside, my hope is that some will embrace this story as it is intended “a help in time of need”.

"PIGS FLYING ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH"

book coming soon!

Much Given . . . Much Required

2009-03-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

“Duliece, if there was one thing you could change in your life . . . what would it be?”

Always missing the presence of two children, and both parents; considering the tragedy and brutality of their deaths and how difficult those times had been . . . recalling the sinful life led in my youth . . . I carefully answered : “I would change nothing.”

My boss looked at me in disbelief, shook his head . . . and walked away. Inwardly smiling, I thought of the many, many blessings I had received in my lifetime. I silently thanked God for giving me the correct, but no doubt confounding answer. To the materialistic, secular mind and heart, God's answers sound foolish. But one must consider all the facts, causes and effects, and possible outcomes, to even think about altering the history of one life. I would not assume the responsibility of changing a single moment in time.

Without loss . . . there can be no gain . . . without failure . . . no success. Without giving . . . none can receive . . . without forgiving . . . there is no forgiveness. For every action, there is a reaction . . . this is an undisputed, universal rule that applies in every circumstance and in every life. Reflection on the past is prudent, if one is to acquire wisdom for the future . . . else there is no future . . . only constant repetition of the past. To relive the past is useless.

The most important laws of life can be the simplest ones to follow. These are great truths often overlooked in moments of grief or trauma, and in excitement or pleasure. The simple code that God instituted in His great Creation . . . the equations spoken into existence at the beginning of time . . . are universal laws that enable survival, one day at a time. These timeless rules can be absorbed and used in our race through this life; or they can be rejected and cast aside, leaving us at the starting line . . . always jumping the gun . . . repeatedly starting over . . . never reaching a destination . . . eternally seeking to finish and rest.

Realizing that the Word of God are not just vacant words written to baffle and confuse the ardent student of life, is a great joyful revelation. People really do reap what they sow. All things really do work for the good of them that love the Lord and seek His guidance. He will always make a way of escape, when we find ourselves in unbearable situations. We can forgive them that cause us great harm, just as He forgave us our trespasses against Him. God really does raise up a standard before us, when the enemy comes in like a flood. He will never leave us or forsake us, nor can anything or anyone separate us from Him, or His love.

God allowed the apple of His eye, His perfect Son, to be shamefully ridiculed and to suffer the agony and mutilation of His precious Body. He solemnly watched, as His only Child died in the most horrible, deprecatory manner as Jesus sacrificed Himself for the very people who hated and murdered Him. There is a reason why God chose this manner to pay the price for the sins of humanity. To take a childs place in suffering is the natural instinct of a parent. We would die for our own children in a heartbeat. To willingly hand over your own beloved child to those who would do them harm is an unnatural act. To let that child suffer humiliation and great agony, as you willingly stand by watching? This kind of love is completely foreign to us . . . an act beyond our comprehension. It is a wondrous thing, God’s solution for our sinful condition. He, Himself. . . perfection . . . was the price. So God willingly gave His Son, and His Son willingly gave His Life, for you and me ....so we could be with Him for Eternity.

Could I have knowingly, willingly handed over my only firstborn son, Robert, to the people who murdered him so brutally? Whomever took the life of my beautiful, young son and his friend . . . more than likely a person who never spent one moment wondering about the enormous pain and sorrow he caused; could I, with a sincere heart, ask God to forgive him? Could I hand over my perfect little Tina to be tormented, tortured, and murdered, then forgive the perpetrators who caused the death of that innocent, precious baby? We, as earthly beings cannot fathom the kind of love required to make such a selfless sacrifice. And what about Reba, the woman that killed my father? Could I refuse her entrance to heaven?

What if their salvation were left up to me? What if their salvation depended on my forgiveness? Could I deny a man the same grace that God has shown me? Could I question his right to salvation and negate his place in Heaven? As a true believer in the God given Word . . . I cannot. I cannot judge them . . . I cannot reject them. By His grace, I not only must, but do forgive the woman that murdered my dad . . . I do forgive the man that murdered my son. Through Him . . . I can do what is required of me . . . what He expects me to do. I forgive them in His Name, just as He forgave me. It is the desire of my heart that they will be saved and come into His presence with thanksgiving and praise, even as I do.

God pardoned much, when He pardoned me. His priceless Gift of Grace, prepared from the beginning of time, cost Him everything . . . and to whom much is given . . . much is required.

THIS IS THE TRUTH

2009-01-17T16:34:00.000-08:00

Please listen, read along, all the way through!

Step Overboard!

2009-01-03T22:12:00.000-08:00

I am going to assume here…that all of our kids will testify to the truth in the following discourse. They may argue about “who” was worse…or “who” felt worse…but they will all agree with the premise that “life as a step” can really be tormenting almost every “step” of the way!

I have always detested, the phrases “step-dad”, “step-mom”, and “step-children”. Being any one of these people is very perplexing, and can at times be the source of major distress. Have you ever read a story with good “step” characters in it? Me neither.

Immediately, upon becoming a “step” person, one automatically receives a large zero….complete with strike-through….branded squarely in the middle of their forehead. This “badge of dishonor” is glaringly visible to anyone having some predisposed aversion to “step” persons or any person who may find out about the horrendous “step” condition …… For some unknown reason, “step” suggests, “Guilt”. The title, alone, is disparaging… and destructive .. and destabilizing … in my opinion.

The normal emotions that stir in parents for their natural children (and vice-versa) are usually highly suspect if applied to “step” children.. Unconstrained familiarity is often just downright unacceptable for “step” people. Consequently, one begins the relationship as a presupposed adversary ….. at least several “steps” behind in the caring and charisma category. It is a step-parent’s, and a step-child’s, woeful misfortune to be constantly surveyed, scrutinized, suspected, and supervised …. a very annoying predicament, indeed.

“Step” can be defined as the “part touching the ground”….. Lord have mercy! What kind of message does that send? Sweet little kids become “step” children! One doesn’t, however, become a “step” husband or “step” wife …. and mercifully one doesn’t acquire “step” dogs and “step” cats. But, all in all, everyone involved in a “step” family, inadvertently feels they are being “stepped” on … at least to some degree.

“I’d like you to meet my step-mom”… or, “this is my step-son”…… who on God’s green earth, conjured up this troublesome state of existence? Maybe, some very miserable “step” person with some interminable vendetta against all “step” people? Oh no….could it have been Cinderella that started it all?

“Steps” ought to receive some special social status … be declared a minority… or possibly a special needs person. Maybe we could receive some unique tax break, or even a “step” parking placard……Better yet, a designated toilet facility for “steps” only! Yeah, I’d like that!

As step-parents, James and I both felt the same pressures, applied by each other and by the kids. All of the kids were overwhelmed by feelings of loyalty or disloyalty….fairness seemed nonexistent to any of them. If some specialty item was needed by one of them…they all had to have it….whether they needed it or not. They hated taking turns going to the store…they were mad if it wasn’t their turn to sit up front in the car…..would argue about who rode shotgun last…….everything had to be fair. I began to hate the word, fair! What was fair to one, was considered unfair to the other four. A couple of the kids would create arguments about everything…the other three would hold off until “it was their turn”…James was right, I was wrong…I was right, James was wrong….and on …and on.. and on! I guess they all thought of me as a nagging, double-crossing snitch! I had finally arrived…I was living up to my initial calling in life!

I would yell,“ Hold it! This is NOT a democracy..this is a dictatorship….and guess who I am?"

Or, “ No. N. O. Neg-a-tory. Negative. Do you know what NO means? Not, Nix, Never!” One of the simplest, yet most difficult to understand word in the English language!

And everybody’s favorite…. “You just wait till I tell your Dad!”

I tried my level best, over the years, to sort through this dilemma, to come to terms with the “step factor” impinging on our family ties ….. with only small success.. I have found though, when small seeds of genuine affection and trust are perfectly planted, closely cultured, and delicately nurtured in the rich soil of brokenhearted people, they can blossom into beautiful creations….. “steps” can become very close and loving friends…. for life.

So, our “step” family began our lengthy journey, occasionally treading on the toes of one another… exploring.... each seeking one tiny slice of acceptance ….. a minuscule rest stop… that special little niche carved into the heart of one another which we could claim as our own. Haphazardly drifting the ocean of life for several years, we rode the waves with no particular direction or destination in mind, constantly working to patch up tattered rigging, never even considering what our vessel really required, was a secure anchor in a safe harbor. We were all seeking refuge in each other….and not one of us could provide that safe harbor.

Procrastination. . . .

2009-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

"You oughta write a book"

Yeah . . . right . . .

"No, no . . .I mean it! You should write one."

Yeah . . .ok . . . OK . . .I'll write . . . I'll write . . . a BOOK!

Most of us at sometime or another have felt the impulse to jot down a few profound thoughts or were prompted by a fellow salad-bar survivor to do so. In the minority are those that truly consider such a specious suggestion as being an actual possibility. If the thought is pondered more than a second or two the audacity of such a monumental task will often cause failure from the gitgo.

We recall those daunting essays in junior high school…the “What I Did Last Summer”... or... “My Favorite Pet”... stories. Two-hundred words or more about nothing when punctuation and spelling actually counted, was a pretty tough assignment, even then. I remember being assaulted by waves of cybernetic tummy toxins invariably arriving the evening before the assigned paper was due. Racking the brain, staring at a few pitiful words flagrantly scrawled across the mostly void sheet of loose leaf, all of my gray matter would be focused on “How To Be Sick Tomorrow.”

For many years my maxim in life has been “one should never do today what one can delay until tomorrow.” And my old buddy, “Procrastination” has always backed me up…. 100% of the time. Ahh…yes! Slumming with the “Big P"... mastering the art and science of self-rescue by haphazardly mapping the shortest escape route. Routinely assisted by dogmatic selection processes of a selfish society and the spurious safety of disproportionate self-esteem, the same hypocritical clique freely distributes assessments without reserve.

My most dependable buddy “P” and I have hidden under a bushel basket of lame excuses while hugging memory ravaging delays as we smooched the cold cheek of our own impotence. Somewhere between the bloom and harvest I fell in love with the idea of wasting time. So me and “P” spent most of our time peeling another day, slicing through another month, and sectioning another year from the fruit of “my life.”

Until this day……. (Of course, you don’t know if it really is today, do you? Only “P” and me know that for sure! Gotcha!)

Today, I send my old friend dawdling off whichever way he decides to go. I will use the dividing knife of time to prepare for you, a “real life” story; a beggarly buffet for public consumption. I intend to skin, slice, and bare my inner core in a wholly communal manner before my entire yield of fruit, seed and all, are devoured by “shouldn’t, couldn’t, can’t,”... or... “won’t”. Let the juice splash where it may!

It is my conviction, that even the slightest therapeutic value of spilling the contents of one’s anemic soul, of dumping one’s tiny puddle of tears and laughter into the immense polluted river of jettisoned journals and orphaned opinions must be reason enough to consider launching a pig. I invite you who may have fallen too soon...or maybe too far from the tree; some who may be bruised, slightly soft in places; those whom have observed the firmest more colorful and tasty fruit being chosen... while inadvertently you fell to the bottom of the barrel….please join me as I catapult from the author’s launch pad!

. . .SO STAY TUNED . . . IT COULD HAPPEN . . . MAYBE . . . SOON!

Reland Duliece Melton
ccl2007

2008-12-23T20:51:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Story

St. Luke 2: 1 – 14

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David)

To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them at the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

2008-12-16T15:55:00.000-08:00

Here I am To Worship

2008-12-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

Are You Watching?

2008-12-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

My Redeemer Lives!

2008-11-30T12:41:00.000-08:00

Rapture is Imminent

2008-11-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

by Todd Strandberg

The pretribulation rapture is the only view that allows for the rapture to be imminent in its timing. All the other views require a number of prophetic occurrences to take place before the rapture can be declared imminent. To be looking for the imminent return of Christ, you have to believe in a pre-trib rapture.

Jesus repeatedly said that His return for the Church would be a surprise. The Lord even went beyond that by saying He would return “as a thief” when believers generally won't be expecting Him to come for them.

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" (Matthew 24:36).
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing" (Matthew 24:42-46 KJV).
"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 25:13).
"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Acts 1:7).

Because we have no way to refute the fact that we will not know the timing of our Lord's return, the tribulation is a barrier to the rapture. More by Todd Strandberg

For Mom and Dad

2008-11-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

The Apology

If there were time to speak the words that now are on my mind

I'd make things right between us

for so often I was unkind.

So many worries, troubles, caused to those who truly cared.

A father and a mothers love,

neglected and despaired.

Quick hellos, hurried goodbyes

they never seemed to notice;

I love yous' spewed in rapid fire; guilty downcast eyes,

my special tool avoidance.

Sorrow is so hard to bear alone; guilt even harder

To know of your forgiveness

would make the long nights better.

Another day, a week, is gone and soon another year

But still the heart remains impaired

by my mistakes, I fear.

Orphans often have regrets, the world upon their shoulder.

The weight increases day by day

while we continue growing older.

This humbled heart still pines for you

as it waits to feel the presence

of the patient love you had for me;

That love, now truly I know too.

I pray that God is just with you, for He has pardoned me.

I pray to hold you close again

in Heaven, for Eternity..

For Dad and Mom
Flagle Ernest 1917-1980
Dorothy Gwendolyn 1918-1979

Psalms 27:10 When thy mother and father forsake thee, the Lord will take you up.

Raising God's Kids

2008-11-15T14:14:00.001-08:00

Now we know why it is so hard to raise kids.... Read on.

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to his own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.

And the first thing he said was 'DON'T!'

'Don't what?' Adam replied.

'Don't eat the forbidden fruit.' God said.
'Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit!

'No Way!'
'Yes way!'
'Do NOT eat the fruit!' said God.

'Why?'
'Because I am your Father and I said so,' God replied, wondering why he hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw his children having an apple break and he was angry.
'Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?' God asked.

'Uh huh,' Adam replied.
'Then why did you?' said the Father.
'I don't know,' said Eve.
'She started it!' Adam said.
'Did not!'
'Did too!'
'DID NOT!'

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own.
Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself.

If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?

Things to think about:

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

Advice for the day:

Be nice to your kids.
They will choose your nursing home one day.

And finally:

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

'TAKE TWO ASPIRIN' AND 'KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN'!!!!!

God Bless Our Veterans

2008-11-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

In Memory of Cody Phelps

2008-11-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Watching the rider mount the steed
with a heart that held no fear
The King knew in the blink of an eye
the rider would join Him there

Waiting on the Staircase
for the rider to arrive
He had readied up the Mansion
where the rider would Abide.

Family, Friends, and Heroes
so many had Come before,
All gathered in expectation
as the rider neared The Door.

The Finish Line was clearly marked
for all of those Above.
The rider though, could see it not,
but he surely felt the Love.

No pain, nor fear of tragedy
were on the rider's mind.
God's arms opened and welcomed him;
the Rider had arrived on time.

The Rider blinked his eyes just once
then clearly he could See
the Glory of Heaven that awaits us all;
God's love for you and me.

For Cody's Family and friends
By Duliece Melton
November 1,2008

God's way?. . . NO way! ! !

2008-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

Image by relandee via Flickr
Today's Christians: No Hope in God's Way

By Chuck Baldwin
July 9, 2008

I ask the indulgence of my non-churched readers, as this column is specifically designed to challenge the hearts and minds of professing believers.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah faced a generation that is very similar to the one we face today, I am afraid. Political and corporate leaders had given themselves over to corruption and duplicity. The fundamental underpinnings that founded and supported the nation were being dismantled. And the spiritual leaders seemed to be powerless to do anything about it.

Accordingly, Jehovah God told Jeremiah to give this message to the people of Israel:

"At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

"If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

"And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

"If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

"Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

"And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart." (Jeremiah 18:7-12 KJV)

When these Hebrews said, "There is no hope," they were not saying, "It's all over. We are all doomed. It is helpless." No, they were not saying that at all. What they were saying was, "Doing it God's way offers no hope. We will do it our way. We will rely upon our own devices, wisdom, and strength. We can get ourselves out of this mess." That is the spirit these people possessed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit that this is exactly the same spirit that many professing Christians display today.

Most everyone, including Christian people, realize that our country is in a mess. They readily agree that a divine healing is needed. They even use the great stories and examples of the Bible to teach our boys and girls how to obey and trust God. They extol the examples of Daniel, the three Hebrew children, Simon Peter and the Apostles, etc. They use these stories to illustrate the importance of putting obedience to God and God's principles above the machinations and demands of men.

When it comes to voting for and supporting candidates who have proven themselves to be unfaithful to the fundamental principles of liberty and good government, however, these same Christians suddenly become enamored with "the lesser of two evils," and pragmatism. Doing right gives way to being "practical," and standing for principle gives way to "not throwing my vote away."

Had Daniel been "practical," he would have stopped praying for a few weeks and stayed out of the lions' den. Had the three Hebrew children been "pragmatic," they would have given a symbolic bow to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. And I can just hear Christians living in the First Century talking about how they would vote for Nero over Caligula, as he would be "the lesser of two evils."

And from our own history, had America's Founding Fathers heeded the advice of the "experts" and pundits, they would never have signed the Declaration of Independence and fought a war for independence. Absolutely no one gave those brave patriots any chance--any chance--of victory.

Yet, both secular and sacred history are replete with the examples of brave men and women who were willing to defy the conventional wisdom and understanding of their times to stand boldly and courageously for the principles of truth and freedom. In fact, people who dared to defy the accepted wisdom of their age almost always accomplished the truly great exploits of history. Christians, among all people, should know this best.

How has it happened, then, that Christians cannot find the courage and resolve to support principle above political partisanship? How is it that we have come to embrace "the lesser of two evils" as a legitimate philosophy of voting? How is it that our spiritual leaders seem to be more concerned about being politically correct than they are about being Biblically correct?

I believe that God is waiting for His people in America to do what He told Jeremiah's generation to do: live and act according to His principles and trust Him with the result. Instead, many of us seem to be doing exactly what Jeremiah's generation did: we want to be pragmatic and wise in our own eyes and do it our way.

Think what God might do in our land today if every Christian, every God-fearing man and woman in America, would simply vote their principles every time they walked into a voting booth, even if the candidate had "no chance" of winning and whether he or she was told they would be "wasting" their vote or not. I wonder what God might do? (Besides, when we vote for evil, what exactly have we "won," even if they are victorious?)

I am reminded of one of my all-time favorite quotes spoken by John Quincy Adams. He said, "Duty is ours; results are God's."

When people--especially Christian people--start doing their duty and standing for truth and principle, whether it is considered politically incorrect, or unpopular, or "naïve," or anything else; then, and only then, will God give us the results that will bring healing and restoration of our land.

So, how many of us will determine to do our duty? Or, how many of us will say, "There is no hope in doing it God's way; I will rely upon men's devices and do it their way"? The way we answer that question will largely determine America's future--for good or for bad.

Chuck Baldwin is Founder-Pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. In 1985 the church was recognized by President Ronald Reagan for its unusual growth and influence.

Dr. Baldwin is the host of a lively, hard-hitting syndicated radio talk show on the Genesis Communications Network called, "Chuck Baldwin Live" This is a daily, one hour long call-in show in which Dr. Baldwin addresses current event topics from a conservative Christian point of view. Pastor Baldwin writes weekly articles on the internet http://www.ChuckBaldwinLive.com and newspapers.

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The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

Minister Joe Wright's Prayer

Revolutionary Virtue

The Prejudice of Atheists

Dear Bobby. . .

"P" and Me . . .

Much Given . . . Much Required

THIS IS THE TRUTH

Step Overboard!

Procrastination. . . .

The Christmas Story

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Here I am To Worship

Are You Watching?

My Redeemer Lives!

Rapture is Imminent

by Todd Strandberg

For Mom and Dad

Raising God's Kids

God Bless Our Veterans

In Memory of Cody Phelps

God's way?. . . NO way! ! !