Life Is the Condition of Every Other Right

The Declaration of Independence gives us three examples of ‘unalienable’ rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Life is the first of those rights because it is the condition of the others.  It is thus the most foundational of all rights.

Those words come from the opening paragraph of a “Declaration for Life: A Statement from Christian Leaders,” spearheaded by Senator Josh Hawley (MO-R) … releasing the declaration last week after a prayer breakfast with Missouri pastors who traveled to Washington for the occasion.

The Biblically and historically guided statement lays out the reason for the declaration: “The divine image each human being bears was not earned.  It cannot be forfeited.  And it is the first duty of the Church to defend human dignity where it is denied.”

The Declaration says life is foundational because of both America’s founding principles and the Biblical doctrine of the image of God.  But what makes this declaration timely is that it does not stop with the prose of Biblical purpose; it moves to practical application with what has happened since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Roe v. Wade did not end abortion in America.  “Far from it.  More abortions are performed in this country today than when Roe was still the law of the land.”  The reason?  Federal policy governing the abortion drugs, like mifepristone, that now accounts for over two-thirds of the abortions in the United States.  The FDA dropped the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, and the DOJ refuses to enforce federal law that prohibits abortion materials being sent through the mail.  The result? Mailboxes in America have been turned into potential abortion facilities.

From the abortion industry’s own estimates, annual abortions have gone from about 930,000 prior to the overturn of Roe to over 1.1 million — an over 20% increase.  That comes despite the efforts of many states to protect the unborn.

There are Republican members of Congress and state leaders who continue to champion the unborn, but the Republican Party has gone all but silent on the issue of life.  The strong pro-life language that was a part of the GOP platform for decades was removed, and little is said about abortion.

Political parties may change their platforms.  Politicians may change their priorities.  But the responsibility of the church does not change.

Proverbs 31:8-9 says, “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die.  Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

In the context of that passage, it is a call to the king, the civil leader.  But in America, ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  We cannot simply outsource the responsibility for justice to those we elect.

We are called to defend the defenseless and speak for those whose voices have been silenced.  Justice must have an advocate.

And that begins with life.  Because the Declaration for Life gets this fundamental truth exactly right: life is the condition of every other right.  If we will not defend the right that makes every other right possible, we weaken the foundation of justice itself.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

When Israel’s Holy Days Become Opportunities for Her Enemies to Strike

As Jewish people around the world are in the midst of observing their High Holy Days, they do so this year with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.  While these holidays hold great spiritual significance to so many, the Jewish people remember that these days can be mixed with tragedy.

God gave the children of Israel three fall feasts:

• The Feast of Trumpets, or Rosh Hashanah (Tishri 1; Leviticus 23:23–25; Numbers 29:1–6).  This two-day celebration marks the beginning of a new year for the people of Israel.
• The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur (Tishri 10; Leviticus 23:26–32; Numbers 29:7–11).  This day of elaborate ceremony (Leviticus 16:1–34) foreshadowed the forthcoming, final sacrifice of the Messiah to remove our sins forever (Hebrews 9:6–14).
• The Feast of Tabernacles, Booths, or Ingathering, also called Sukkot (Tishri 15–21; Leviticus 23:33–36, 39–43; Numbers 29:12–39; Deuteronomy 16:13–17; Ezekiel 45:25; Zechariah 14:16–19; one of three Pilgrim Feasts requiring the presence of every Israelite man [Deuteronomy 16:16–17]).  This beautiful harvest celebration of thanksgiving was intended for the whole family and the whole nation.

In this year of 2026, the fall feasts take place as follows:

• The Feast of Trumpets: September 11–13
• The Day of Atonement: September 20–21
• The Feast of Tabernacles: September 25–October 2

These feasts were intended to be holy times of celebration.  Even today, they point back to ancient biblical traditions while also foreshadowing major events in the prophetic future. Sadly, however, in at least two major cases, they have become reminders of the most unholy ambitions of Israel’s enemies.

These events happened almost exactly 50 years apart.  The most recent one, in 2023, reshaped the world, including our own United States due to the alliance we share with Israel on so many levels.  It had much the same effect on the people of Israel as September 11, 2001, did on us here in America.

The October 7 Massacre

Hamas savagely kidnapped, raped, and murdered Israelis after infiltrating the nation’s border with Gaza on Saturday, October 7, 2023.  These attacks took place on the Sabbath, which was also Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35), and also Simchat Torah, a rabbinic holiday formulated to encourage rejoicing in the Torah.  This slaughter devastated the people and nation of Israel and continues to play out before us in the news on a daily basis.

The Yom Kippur War

Many believe that the terrorists who carried out these horrific attacks three years ago were hearkening back to the events of October 6, 1973, another Sabbath day, when a coalition of mostly Arab countries, led by Egypt and Syria, carried out a surprise military attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.  The fighting lasted until October 24.  It became a dramatic story of Israel overcoming overwhelming odds.  The United States’ assistance may have spared the world from the potential of a nuclear disaster, but the effects of the Yom Kippur War continue to influence the Middle East today.

It would seem that those who hate Israel have taken particular joy in using their holidays as opportunities to mount these kinds of assaults against them—on days when they might be the least suspecting and least prepared.

Although their rebellion did not take place during a fall holiday, the Jewish people remaining in Poland launched the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising on April 19, 1943, just as Passover began. They engaged the Nazis as a direct response to their scheme to imprison and kill thousands of the residents remaining in Warsaw during that holy spring season.

Throughout history, we see God’s loving and providential care for His Chosen People in spite of the worst ambitions of their adversaries, even on these most holy and meaningful days.  As Christians, we stand with Israel and the Jewish people at such times of deepest need and amidst tragedy.

It would seem reasonable to conjecture that the Antichrist, energized by Satan—who desires to destroy Israel and thwart the Second Coming of their Messiah—might utilize a similar strategy during the Tribulation, possibly at its midpoint.  Perhaps his breaking of his covenant with Israel and his determination to “bring an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9:27), when “he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4), will be undertaken in conjunction with the perversion of one of Israel’s holy biblical feast days.

It is imperative that we as believers in Israel’s Messiah understand and appreciate the significance of these feasts, even as we anticipate their fulfillment in a restored nation of Israel when that Messiah returns.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

America Doesn’t Need ‘Social Justice’ … It Needs Biblical Justice

What is the final bedrock of our country’s foundation?  The early fathers envisioned a land where people thrived because justice prevailed.  In the words of George Washington, “The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.”

Franklin Graham recently said, “The Bible teaches that government is ordained by God to deter evil and defend righteousness.”  Part of this responsibility is establishing and enforcing fair laws.  Peaceful societies rely on clear consequences for injustice—an idea that comes not from human reason but from God’s design.

Our nation’s founders also realized that, while human authorities must carry out justice here on Earth, a Supreme Judge rules from Heaven.  Everyone will someday stand before Him to give an account for their lives.

The Bible teaches in Psalm 96:13, “[The Lord] is coming to judge the earth.  He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth.”  Billy Graham explained, “I believe that one of the reasons for crime, perversion, and the evils of modern mankind is that we have lost belief in the certainty of God being just, holy, and righteous, and that He will judge the world.”

God desires for us to reflect His holiness and justice in all areas of life.  However, people have different answers for what this means.  Harmful policies are often promoted in the name of “social justice” rather than true, Biblical justice—including gay marriage, gender transition, and men in women’s sports.  Instead of fostering equality, fairness, and human rights, these efforts actually harm the very people they’re meant to help.  Biblical justice goes deeper to address the root of human brokenness.

“Our problems in this country are not political, they’re not economic, they’re not social—they are spiritual,” Franklin Graham explained.  “They are a problem of the human heart.”

The source of human corruption is sin, and there is only one remedy—freedom through faith in Jesus Christ.

Acts 4:12 says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

If our focus is merely on social reform without Gospel transformation, then we will miss opportunities for people to discover lasting change.

Only the Good News of salvation in Jesus can restore fallen people and, in turn, our nation. While we can—and should—address the physical, economic, and social needs of this country, we cannot lose sight of the urgency of the Gospel.  The day is coming when everyone will meet the Supreme Judge.  Now is the time for God’s people to share the message of hope and peace found in Jesus Christ alone.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, our Founding Fathers dreamed of life, liberty, and justice for all Americans.  Although earthly governments may fail and human leaders disappoint, a nation built on eternal truth will endure.  America once stood on the pillars of human dignity, God’s sovereignty, moral law, and Biblical justice.  Let’s pray for our nation to again find security in this unshakable foundation.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Since 9/11, U.S. Muslims Are Gaining Political Power

The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks bears witness to a strange phenomenon in American politics: after a quarter century of battling Islamist terror around the globe, America finds Muslim political power growing rapidly here at home.  “The problem is that Americans have been lied to,” argued Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch on “Washington Watch.”  “They have been told that Islam is perfectly benign, [that] it’s a religion like any other, and only racist, bigoted Islamophobes think otherwise.  And so, Americans’ guard is down.”

Spencer suggested the problem began in the immediate aftermath.  “We’ve been lied to for a quarter century now,” he insisted.  “Right after 9/11, six days later, the president of the United States went into a mosque and said, ‘Islam is peace.’  And the fact is, Islam is not peace.  It does not teach peace.  It is the only major religion that has doctrines of warfare and the necessity to fight and gain hegemony over the unbelievers and deny them basic rights.  These things are core elements of Islam.  There’s a 1,400-year record of Muslims acting upon those core teachings of Islam.”

Spencer distinguished between Islamic doctrine and the practice of individual Muslims, who may be far less warlike than their professed religion.  “We are not wanting to stigmatize innocent people here,” he allowed.  “Every individual has a variety of influences, perspectives, priorities, goals, and so on.”  He drew an analogy to Christianity, where not every Christian perfectly upholds Christian teaching in all their actions.  There are nominal Muslims, just as there are nominal Christians, who wear the label as a cultural identity but live lives indistinguishable from the surrounding secular culture.

“But we also have to face the reality,” Spencer argued.  “Islam teaches: kill the unbelievers wherever you find them, kill them or subjugate them; make them pay the special tax, the jizya, and feel their humiliation for having rejected Islam every day.  These things are all in the Quran.  Not every Muslim acts upon them, and there may be a variety of reasons why.”

One reason is rooted in Islamic theology itself.  “When the Muslims, according to Islamic theology, are a small group that is politically powerless, then they teach tolerance,” said Spencer.  “When they gain sufficient numbers, they start to be more aggressive.  We are indeed seeing that in Europe. … [And] we actually are seeing that also in the United States.”

An independent inquiry recently found that gangs in the U.K. primarily comprised of Pakistani Muslims have systematically raped and abused a quarter million British girls.

“It’s one of the oldest attitudes of warfare,” Spencer continued.  “Know your enemy.  And that’s the one thing we have failed to do since 9/11 is know the enemy.  We’ve actually refused to know the enemy and stigmatized those who speak about the ideology of the enemy as Islamophobes.  The whole idea of Islamophobia is a tool to intimidate people into thinking it’s wrong to oppose jihad, violence, and Sharia oppression of women and others.”

One aspect of Islam that Americans have been slow to grasp is that Islam is fundamentally political, Spencer continued.  “Sharia law covers every aspect of life, including the political sphere and the way that the government ought to be organized.  And it does pertain to non-Muslims.  It has very specific rules that deny basic rights to non-Muslims in Sharia-ruled societies.”

Because Islam stipulates its own governmental system, it inherently conflicts with the freedom and representative government provided in the U.S. Constitution.  “In the Islamic world, for 1,400 years, there has never been a free republic,” argued Spencer.  “This is no accident.  This is based on the theology of Islam and the idea of Allah as absolute will, the absolute ruler who’s not even bound by any consistent moral law.”

“You want to see what Sharia is?” he asked.  “Look at the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Look at Saudi Arabia.  Look at Afghanistan.  Does anybody in the United States want to live in any of those countries?  Particularly women should ask themselves that.”

Thus, said Spencer, “you’ve got two forces that hate America and want to bring down the existing order and replace it with a supranational, open borders, authoritarian state.  And that would be socialism and Islam.  They both are fighting against the traditional constitutional order of the United States. … Right now, the socialist aspect is in the ascendancy.  But I think we’re going to see much more of the Islamic aspect as the Muslims in the United States grow in numbers and power.”

In fact, Muslim politicians are already making inroads in the socialist wing of the Democratic Party.  New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) stormed to victory out of nowhere in 2025, and now Democratic nominee Adbul El-Sayed is leading the U.S. Senate race in Michigan, according to some polls.

El-Sayed’s anti-Semitic leanings have raised such concerns that progressive Jewish leaders in the state sent him a petition of “non-negotiables,” pleading for him to moderate his anti-Semitic positions, such as opposition to Jewish self-determination in the nation of Israel.  “American Jews now feel forced to fight for the party they long claimed as their political home, asking its leaders to treat explosive bigotry and violence against our community as the national emergency it is not with platitudes, but with urgency and moral clarity,” the rabbis wrote.

As Spencer suggested, even Muslim politicians on the Left, like Mamdani and El-Sayed, are currently stressing their socialist policies over their Muslim identities.  But the anti-Semitism long seen throughout the Muslim world is now rampant on the socialist Left, as demonstrated by their protests against Israel after Hamas’s October 7 attack in 2023.

This adoption of Muslim sentiments on the Left has occurred because Democratic politicians have provided weak or no resistance to the movement, Spencer reasoned.  “When you’re talking about Democrat politicians in particular [not opposing Sharia], they’re just chasing votes, because the facts are not hard to find,” he said.  “When leftist politicians pretend, as Abdul El-Sayed does, that Sharia is just religious and has nothing to do with non-Muslims, this is something that politicians are repeating because they want votes. … The reality is they want Muslim votes, and they’re willing to sacrifice the freedom of Americans to get them.”

Spencer lamented the fact that “nobody is on this issue.”  He praised a “Sharia-Free Caucus” founded in Congress last year as “the first time in 25 years that people in the political realm are speaking honestly about what Sharia really is.”  But the growing influence of Muslims in U.S. politics suggests that the success of this caucus is not a foregone conclusion.

Thus, America is at a crossroads on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.  Will it continue to hold out open arms to sincere believers in a religion that opposes America’s system of government?  Or will it wake up to the dangers of Sharia?  Will Muslims in America continue to accumulate more power?  Or will they overreach and provoke a backlash just as the transgender movement did?

“We have to deal with what we’re up against.  We have to face the reality of the situation,” urged Spencer.  “If anything comes out of this 25th anniversary, it is that we need to shed all this propaganda and start speaking about this problem realistically.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Our Responsibility Is Not to Flinch as Many Call ‘Evil Good and Good Evil’

Twenty-five years ago, nearly 3,000 innocents were murdered in the deadliest single terrorist attack in human history.  We mourn those we lost in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and we pray for the loved ones they left behind who continue to feel that loss every day of their lives.

Like every American over a certain age, I remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001.  I was on active duty with the Army.  I, like many of you, I watched the horrors of that day unfold on television, and I knew that the country I loved – and the world – had changed forever.

People talk about the unity we felt after the attack, and it’s true: Americans were united in heartbreak for the victims and their families, and in horror that such evil could be perpetrated against our countrymen.  I certainly shared that feeling – but I also felt profound anger.  In the years that followed, conventional liberal opinion held that this was somehow not an appropriate reaction – but that anger was righteous, it was true, and it was clarifying.  It did not, as some would charge, lead us to lash out indiscriminately; but it did force us to confront realities we had closed our eyes to, and to take on the scourge of global terrorism.

The world is a very different place today, but in one sense it is the same as it ever was. Evil still roams the earth in many forms.  Islamist terrorists not only remain committed to the destruction of Western civilization, but are emboldened by the atrocities of October 7 to wage a genocidal war against the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

There’s no question that, on an operational level, we’re in a much better position than we were on September 10, 2001.  The legal barriers preventing intelligence sharing between the FBI and CIA have been torn down, surveillance laws have been updated, and we successfully prevented another large-scale terrorist attack from recurring – an achievement that is taken for granted, but which many would have considered fanciful in the aftermath of 9/11.

But in a very important respect, our country is in a more dangerous place than it was 25 years ago, as moral equivalence and the outright embrace of terrorism and political violence have become normalized by one of our two major political parties.

The divide between the Left and Right at the turn of the last century was real, and the partisan battles were brutal, but Americans across the political spectrum were horrified by 9/11 and shared a deep love for this country.  But today, the Left is being taken over by unapologetically anti-American radicals who have said that America either deserved, or was at least responsible for, 9/11; who spend their energy excusing or even celebrating terrorism; and who want to tear down the values and institutions that make this country great.

This moral rot is an extension of the longstanding takeover of so many of our institutions by anti-American, amoral radicals – perhaps most critically, our public schools and universities. Consider a recent report in the New York Post on a curriculum developed by the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education entitled “Teaching Beyond September 11th.” The document neglects to mention the jihadist motivations of the 9/11 attacks, and focuses instead on the alleged evils of America’s reaction to this unprecedented atrocity. Unsurprisingly, this malevolent nonsense is recommended to public schools by education departments in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Oregon.

We cannot afford to flinch from our responsibility to face and defeat the evils that threaten our way of life, or to indulge in moral equivalence: Not in 2001, and not today. Scripture tells us, “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.” Let us never forget that lesson, and let us remain steadfast in fighting for what is right and just in the face of those who seek to tear our country down.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

POTUS Seeks SCOTUS Backing to Uphold Military Trans Ban

President Donald Trump (POTUS) is asking the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) for its approval to terminate over two dozen transgender-identifying military members from their posts.

This comes 19 months after POTUS signed an executive order to remove transgender-identifying individuals from the military, which Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, swiftly implemented.  But earlier this year, a group of 29 plaintiffs pushed back against Trump’s order in the case U.S. v. Talbott.  ABC News reported that the plaintiffs include transgender-identifying active-duty servicemembers who are reservists and National Guard members as well as an individual who goes by the name of Nicolas Talbott, who brought the case.  Talbott wishes to enlist in the military but has been denied due to her gender dysphoria.

In June 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the District Court’s preliminary injunction, preventing the discharge of the 28 other plaintiffs, and allowing them to continue to serve for the time being.

“The authority of the U.S. military to determine who may serve in the nation’s armed forces is a matter of exceptional importance.  Whether the Constitution prohibits the military from exercising that authority by adopting a policy like the one here is a recurring issue, which has arisen before and will likely arise again absent this Court’s review,” wrote Solicitor General John Sauer in the petition from the White House.  “The Court should thus take this opportunity to address the constitutionality of the Hegseth policy and reverse the decision below, whose reasoning cannot be squared with this Court’s precedents or deference to the military.”

SCOTUS reported that the challengers have one month to respond to the petition.  The SCOTUS justices will also decide if they will hear the case.  If they decline, the 28 plaintiffs will maintain in their posts.

Walt Heyer, a senior fellow at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand that Trump made the correct call.  “It’s my view from having lived eight years of my life identifying as ‘trans’ that they should be fired and removed from federal government agencies because they are obviously ‘mentally compromised’ if they believe they are not who they really are. There is no such thing as ‘transgender’ and no one has ever successfully transitioned.”

The president’s 2025 order “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” states, “It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.  This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

The order went on to explain that gender dysphoria is not the only mental illness that the military considers incompatible with active duty.  The military also bars individuals with bipolar disorder, eating disorders, suicidal behavior, and prior psychiatric hospitalization from serving on active duty.

“In an all-volunteer military, we should strive for meritocracy regarding who is in our military and who is capable of moving up the ladder to the senior ranks,” Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, FRC’s executive vice president, told TWS.  “Anyone that looks at this situation should be able to recognize that this is not an effort to achieve meritocracy.”

In 2021, the Department of War (DoW) reported that it “spent $11,582,262.99 on psychotherapy for service members with gender dysphoria from January 1, 2016 through May 14, 2021.  Within DoW, 637 service members received hormone therapy during the same time frame, at a cost of $340,000, and 243 surgeries were performed at a cost of $3.1 million.”

Since he assumed his cabinet role, Hegseth has stood behind the president’s policy and criticized the former Biden Administration for promoting “transgender” ideology.  During a visit to the Rocket Lab in CA in January, the Secretary of War said, “No more DEI, no more dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, social justice, or political correctness.”

“These individuals have come in and used taxpayer money to try and change their gender, and the question is, ‘What are they giving back?’  It is time for us to wake up and stop the nonsense that we call ‘equality,’” Boykin emphasized.  “I personally applaud the president’s intentions to get our military back to focusing on winning our nation’s wars.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Promise of Socialism: Misery for All

Last week, the House of Representatives voted 220-192 to approve a resolution condemning socialism.  Only eight Democrats joined the Republicans in voting for the measure.

The resolution read in part:

“Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has, time and time again, collapsed into communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and repressive dictatorships … [Socialism] has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 people worldwide.”

It then turns to the rise of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and the DSA policy positions such as voting by noncitizens and incarcerated criminals, abolishing the U.S. Senate, and replacing the two-party system.  It then denounces socialism in all its forms, declaring it incompatible with American values and the Constitution.

Is this a solution in search of a problem?  Hardly.

According to the Brookings Institution, 282 candidates ran with some level of DSA endorsement in the 2026 election cycle; so far, 123 have won their primaries.

The rise in socialist candidates comes as a generation that never saw the Iron Curtain increasingly sees socialism as nothing more than a government-provided safety net.  But history warns that when government becomes powerful enough to guarantee equality, the safety net can become a net from which there is no escape.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. 

Totalitarian systems don’t merely control economic production; eventually they must control information, because people inevitably begin asking why the promised equality has produced scarcity.

To many young Americans, socialism doesn’t mean empty shelves, bread lines, government propaganda, and repression.  It means Social Security, socialized medicine, free college, and a bigger safety net.  But for the government to have the economic power to provide so-called “free stuff,” it must possess the coercive power and authority to impose the promised economic outcomes.  History shows that the equality socialism ultimately provides is equality of misery.

Thirty-seven years ago, people who had lived under socialism came to America and wept when they saw an ordinary grocery store.  Today, a generation with no memory of the repression behind the Iron Curtain increasingly votes for candidates promising socialism.

The problem isn’t that socialism has changed.  The problem is we’ve forgotten what socialism is and where it leads.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Exposing a Culture that has Renamed Evil as ‘Mercy’

The Lindsay Clancy trial is not about whether or not a murderer is on trial.  No, it’s a trial on “mental health,” something entirely different and completely divorced from reality.

Let’s begin with an important fact: There aren’t versions of the truth—”your truth” vs “my truth”—there is just the truth.

Lindsay Clancy is responsible for the death of her children.  End of story.  That’s it.  No one else is responsible.  No one even disputes the fact.  Even her own attorneys don’t dispute that she strangled her three children.  The only question that is being litigated is whether we are still allowed to call it “murder.”

Videos across social media are showing women holding plastic baby dolls, making light of casually harming their own children—moms tossing their fake babies over banisters, bashing their heads into doorposts, and putting them in dryers and dishwashers.  The caption of one of the videos depicting the harming of infants reads: “postpartum depression got me like …”

Needless to say, I’ve never experienced postpartum, and I won’t pretend to understand it.  But one thing I know for sure is that no man would celebrate, make light of, or make excuses for another man murdering his own children.  And yet hundreds of women lined the streets, cheering and wearing pink, as Clancy came into court for the trial—which resulted in a mistrial after the jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.  The female supporters even started a GoFundMe page that has raised nearly $2 million.

What are they saying?  “We are all Lindsay.”  Really?  All of those moms could strangle their own children systematically?

Then what many worried would inevitably happen began: There are now Lindsay Clancy-inspired copycats.  Earlier last week in Frankfurt, IL, a two-year-old boy was found dead in his home, and his mother was trying to harm herself.  “This is just absolutely devastating that this could be another Lindsay Clancy situation in our neighborhood, in our community,” a neighbor said in response.  “You never think it’s going to hit so close to home.”

This is not the only case that surfaced.  In Durham, NC, 41-year-old Andrea Faust has been charged with killing her three-year-old son and trying to kill her two-year-old.  The murder took place in February.  It matters today because her attorney filed that Faust will plead not guilty “by reason of insanity” on August 18th—after the social media frenzy began piling on support for Lindsey Clancy.

In essence, we now have copycats of the Lindsay Clancy murders.

Here’s the question: How did we get here?  How did we get to this place where a TikTok trend is suddenly going viral of moms casually harming their own children?  This isn’t some kind of joke.  Where are the men?  Why are more not condemning this?

I believe it roots back decades.  For more than 50 years, the culture has been preaching that the life of a pre-born child is negotiable.  Fill in the lie that you want.  “It’s just a clump of cells,” they declare—a falsehood that defies biological reality, conveniently ignores the unique DNA sequence of the child, and fails to mention the pre-born baby’s ability to feel pain.

Liberals once argued for abortion up to certain stages of pregnancy; now the left advocates for abortion at all stages of development, for any reason. 

The governor of Massachusetts—the same state as the Clancy trial—signed a death warrant for unborn children last month, surrounded by cheering and clapping women.  It was the jubilation one would expect from a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Chamber of Commerce!

What were men told?  “No womb, no opinion … sit down and shut up.”

What’s worse is that the far left is calling this killing of children “compassionate” and “merciful.” Anne Hathaway, one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, sat down with the ladies of The View a few years ago, and the clip has recently gone viral again.  “When you are a young woman starting out your career, your reproductive destiny matters a great deal,” Hathaway said.  “My own personal experience with abortion—and I don’t think we talk about this enough—abortion can be another word for mercy.”

This is absurd logic.

The same people who spent five decades calling the end of a life in the womb mercy are the ones who are now struggling to explain why that logic stops at the delivery room door.  Former Governor of VA, Ralph Northam, said this on a radio program about “failed” abortions: “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen.  The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable.  The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired.  And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother”

That is murder!  It’s child-sacrifice, and it is entirely evil.

Anne Hathaway, Governor Northam, and other advocates for abortion at any stage in any moment, even after the baby’s been born, have completely warped the meaning of the word “mercy.”

The Hebrew word for mercy is rachamim (רחמים).  In Exodus 34:6, God introduces Himself to Moses, and the first word from God’s mouth in Hebrew is rachamim.  It’s the verse the Hebrew Bible uses and quotes more than any other.

Rachamim is built from the root rechem (רֶחֶם), which means “womb.”  The word mercy, broken down in Hebrew, means “womb-love”—the fierce, protective, deep love that a mother feels for the child that she’s carrying.  That is the picture that God gives us when He introduces Himself to Moses and describes His own heart.

So when Anne Hathaway calls the emptying of a womb “mercy,” she is warping the one word that means a mother’s loving protection—completely flipping it on its head.  It’s not merciful. It’s the total opposite.  And it’s right there in Scripture.

Our society has rejected God and distorted the picture of His mercy.  That’s how we got here. That’s why women, consumed with a “loss of natural affection” and inverted “mercy,” are increasingly celebrating the murder of children.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Legacies of Two Georges Who Laid the Fertile Spiritual Ground for A Nation

The strong faith of two men named George played a key role in shaping the United States of America.  The first was George Whitefield, our spiritual founding father.  He was a British evangelist who came to our shores to preach the gospel.  As a result of his ministry, thousands of colonists came to Christ.  It was the first great spiritual awakening in what would become known as the United States of America.

Between 1740 and 1742, before the United States was even a nation, the Great Awakening had a remarkable impact in New England.  Historians estimate that 25,000 to 50,000 people were added to New England church membership as a result of the revival. With New England’s population only around 300,000 at the time, that means as many as one out of every six people in the region may have been reached in some way by the revival, in which George Whitefield played a leading role.  The evangelistic wildfire left in its wake fertile spiritual ground on which the nation could be built.  The Christian truths and principles that guided the lives of the new converts found their way into the nation’s DNA.  They formed the cornerstone of the United States government.

John Adams, founding father and second president of the United States, wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our nation was forged in the flames of revival started by George Whitefield.

The second George is, of course, George Washington—commander of the Continental Army, first president of the United States, and the father of our country.  Washington was always quick to give the glory to God for his victories.  He never tired of invoking the role of Providence in the formation of the United States of America.  In fact, Washington directed that a special flag be flown by the ships of the U.S. Navy.  The flag depicted a tree with branches stretching upward.  The message of the flag was an appeal to heaven, a reminder that the United States needed to call on God for its success and sustenance.

Unfortunately, that message got lost along the way.  Our nation has drifted away from God and His guidance.  The good news is that it’s not too late to go back to Him.

The apostle Peter preached to the people of Israel, “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.  Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah” (Acts 3:19–20).

That same message is needed in our country today.  Our nation, which was forged in a spiritual revival, needs to go through those flames again.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

MI Residents Denounce Sharia Law’s Influence: ‘Enough Is Enough!’

Following a heated city council meeting in Dearborn, Michigan (MI) the other week, a local pastor and other religious freedom advocates are accusing the Muslim-majority city council of favoring Islamic Sharia Law over pursuing justice for Christian protestors who were attacked during a recent local event.

Dearborn, just west of Detroit, is one of Michigan’s largest cities, and has one of the largest concentrations of Arabs outside the Middle East, according to The Detroit News. The 2020 U.S. Census puts the majority-Arab population at about 54.5%.  The city has five Muslim public prayers a day, in accordance with Sharia Law, and boasts the largest mosque in North America.

The issue of Sharia Law has become part of political rhetoric in recent years and last October was the target of legislation proposed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (AL-R) that would, in effect, ban Sharia Law from the United States.

The issue came to a head in Dearborn during the August 18 city council meeting, when Lorenzo Sewell, pastor of 180 Church in Detroit, demanded that Dearborn City Council members publicly denounce Sharia Law.  The meeting drew hundreds of people to Dearborn’s city offices, many waving flags and chanting “USA!”  The tension-filled meeting, which resulted in 22 arrests, had to relocate to the Henry Ford Centennial Library, according to reporting from The Detroit News.

Sewell pointed to an incident earlier this month where self-described anti-Islamic activist Jake Lang had come to the city to protest Dearborn’s annual Arbaeen of Ashura march, which honors Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.  The march, the largest of its kind in the United States, drew 40,000 people.

According to The Christian Post, opposition to Lang’s presence became physical, with counter protesters chasing him to his car and throwing rocks at him.  Only one person was arrested in connection with the altercation.

Sewell and Lang, who is also a former Florida Republican U.S. Senate candidate and a January 6 Capitol riot defendant, called the police response weak and announced plans to press the city on bending to Sharia Law.

“You are not up under American law,” Sewell told the council.  “You are up under Sharia Law.  That is the reason why you have made no [more] arrests.”

Then he made a broader claim to the entire country: “America, we have lost this city.” And to the council specifically: “You’re only 1% of this nation.  We are not a nation of Muslims. Enough is enough.”

Also attending the August 18 meeting was Pastor Ted Barham, a Dearborn resident and preacher with the Evangelical Plymouth Brethren denomination.  Barham attributes the current tension in Dearborn to a clash he had with City Council at a September 2025, which he attended to express concern over a street sign that bears the name of Osama Siblani, an Arab American leader widely known for praising Hezbollah.

At the 2025 meeting, the mayor reportedly lashed out at Barham, calling him a bigot, a racist and an Islamophobe and demanded he leave the city.  Tension has brewed since, including at least two anti-Islamic protests.  On August 18, Barham expressed his concerns about the city’s overall unrest and support for the Iranian regime, including Hezbollah.

“These are valid concerns,” he told the city council.  “Hezbollah bombed to death hundreds of Americans in Beirut.  That’s not just an isolated incident. … Imams and the biggest mosques in Dearborn praise the Iranian regime, which has caused so much death and destruction.”

In a related interview with The Christian Post, Barham said he prays for the mayor and the city of Dearborn.

“I continue to actually pray for a change of heart for the mayor,” he told The Post.  “Not just for the mayor, but for Dearborn as a whole.”

Barham called on Christians to stand firm in truth while continuing to love their Muslim neighbors.

“The Lord said to love your neighbor,” he said.  “The Lord Jesus was persecuted from the beginning.  The early Christians were persecuted from the beginning.  I encourage Christians to continue to love Muslim people and try to win them over.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

On the Slippery Slope Toward Destruction: A Society that Doesn’t Value Human Life

America has seen many changes over the last 250 years.  Through the tumultuous storms of war and the shifting sands of culture, our country has navigated countless trying times.  While our current struggles suggest that America has lost its way, the foundational values embedded into the fabric of this nation stand the test of time.

The Founding Fathers dreamed of a place where all people could live in true freedom. This could be possible only in a country built upon biblical values. 

Billy Graham once said, “America has probably been the most successful experiment in history.  The American Dream was a glorious attempt.  It was built on a religious foundation. Its earliest concepts came from Holy Scripture.”

The value of human life is one of the core pillars of our nation.  Written into the Declaration of Independence is the concept that all people have inherent worth because they are created by God.

The Bible says that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

While most Americans agree that a nation’s laws should protect human rights, we must return to the understanding of a person’s value based on God’s Word.  If our society truly desires to provide for and guard its people, we must repent and turn back to God’s ways.

Billy Graham said, “Since Jesus Christ walked the earth, the thinking of the world concerning social matters has changed radically.  Because of Him, the world has witnessed a new reverence for human life and learned something of the dignity and worth of man.”

And yet today our nation is largely ignoring the truth He revealed.  The escalating support for abortion, assisted suicide, and gender transition reveals an increasing shift away from traditional biblical values—and its emphasis on the worth of each and every life.  Our culture exalts tolerance as a supreme virtue, but it fails to grasp the deeper meaning.

Franklin Graham explains, “Being tolerant [means] accepting the fact that every person is created in the image of Almighty God and that we each have a soul that will live for eternity.”

A society that does not value human life is on a slippery slope toward destruction.

What’s the answer?  America can be healed only by returning to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  A return to our roots starts with personal revival.  Although humans have inherent worth, we are sinners in need of a Savior.

“As a nation, our sins are so great.  We have increasingly turned our backs on God and His commands, embracing godless secularism.  We need to ask His forgiveness and seek His face,” said Franklin Graham.

There is hope and healing available to all who repent.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

As we continue to celebrate 250 years of freedom, may we embrace our Founding Fathers’ dream to build a country where every person is valued equally as a reflection of God’s image.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The U.S. Constitution Protects Freedom of Religion, Not Freedom from Religion

First Liberty often defends people of faith when their free exercise of religion is attacked. In many of their cases, the hostility comes from opponents who object to seeing a person’s religious faith expressed publicly.  Frequently, they erroneously contend that the First Amendment protects their “freedom from religion.”

Of course, the First Amendment also protects the freedom of speech.  So, following their same logic, that would mean it also protects freedom from speech—so you never have to hear an opinion different from your own.  The First Amendment protects freedom of the press—so does that mean we have freedom from the press, so we never have to see a news story we don’t like?

The same First Amendment that protects a person’s freedom to believe in God and express their faith publicly also protects an atheist’s right to not believe in God and express their beliefs publicly.  That means when an atheist opposes a religious person’s free expression of faith, the atheist is attacking the right that protects their own words at that very moment.  People of faith constantly get criticized when doing observable religious activities outside the walls of a church like praying, baptizing, setting up memorials and monuments, etc.

Nonreligious critics contend that by doing these things in public, people of faith are forcing their beliefs on others.  The critics often say it’s a terrible thing to impose your beliefs on others—but then these same critics do their best to impose that belief on others!  They base it on their supposed “freedom from religion,” which they view as the right to live entirely free from exposure to religious practices and influence in the public square.

When governments decide there’s no power higher than themselves, one authoritarian regime might decide to ban religious practices, while another decides to ban atheism.

Today, there are over a dozen nations worldwide where being an atheist can bring severe punishment, including imprisonment and execution.

America’s Founding Fathers never tried to take away an atheist’s right to believe God doesn’t exist.  America was founded on the cornerstone of religious liberty.  Here’s an example: The same Constitutionally protected right that allowed Bremerton High School Coach Joe Kennedy to pray on the field after games also protected someone else’s right to not pray.  No one was forced to pray who didn’t want to, and nobody was stopped from praying who wanted to pray.

Except, of course, for Joe Kennedy.  He was fired for praying in public; and therefore, supposedly imposing his beliefs on others.  He then had to endure seven years of legal battles before having his constitutional rights affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

America’s Constitution protects freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion. Nowhere does the Constitution guarantee the right to be shielded from ever seeing someone exercise their religious beliefs in public.  But it does protect every American’s freedom, including teachers and government workers, to exercise their religious beliefs—freely and publicly—even if other people might happen to see it.

That’s because religious liberty is the freedom that defines America.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel