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

If the Church Will Not Teach the Truth About Israel, Someone Else Will Teach the Next Generation a Lie

There is a spiritual battle raging today over one nation unlike any other in history.  That nation is Israel.  It seems everyone has an opinion about Israel—politicians, journalists, influencers, podcasters, celebrities, and social media personalities.  Sadly, one of the few places where many Christians are not hearing about Israel is from the pulpit.  That silence has come at a tremendous cost.

The issue of Israel has become a dividing line in the Church.  Entire denominations, Bible colleges, seminaries, pastors, and Christian influencers are abandoning the biblical view of Israel and replacing it with theological systems that deny Israel’s future.  As a result, millions of Christians are confused about God’s plan for the Jewish people, while younger generations are increasingly adopting anti-Israel narratives from secular voices rather than biblical truth.

At the heart of the confusion is Replacement Theology.  Replacement Theology teaches that God has permanently rejected Israel as His chosen nation and replaced her with the Church. According to this view, the Church has inherited Israel’s covenants, promises, and prophetic destiny, while the Jewish people forfeited their unique role in God’s redemptive plan by rejecting Jesus as their Messiah.

To reach this conclusion, Replacement Theology must allegorize or spiritualize the plain, literal promises God made to Israel and reinterpret them as promises to the Church.  The Church becomes the “New Israel” or the “True Israel,” while ethnic Israel supposedly no longer has a distinct future in God’s program.

But this is not merely a theological disagreement.  It has had enormous historical consequences.  By teaching that the Jewish people lost their covenant standing before God, Replacement Theology has provided a theological basis for hostility toward the Jews.  It portrays Jewish suffering as evidence of God’s rejection rather than recognizing that God has preserved Israel for her future restoration according to His unconditional promises.

Now, to be clear, many Christians who hold to Replacement Theology are not personally antisemitic.  Many sincerely love Jewish people and desire to see them come to faith in Christ. But the theological system itself is structurally harmful because it denies Israel’s God-given identity, covenant promises, and prophetic future.

Wrong theology always produces wrong thinking—and wrong thinking often produces wrong behavior.  History bears this out.  Throughout much of Christian Europe, this theological framework helped justify discrimination, forced conversions, expulsions, and persecution of the Jewish people.  While the Holocaust was driven primarily by Nazi racial ideology rather than Christian theology, centuries of anti-Jewish teaching influenced by Replacement Theology helped create a culture in which such hatred found fertile soil.

Biblical scholar Thomas Ice rightly observed: “Wherever Replacement Theology has flourished, the Jews have had to run for cover.  Wherever such a view has gone it has always led to anti-Semitism.”

Likewise, Dr. Gary Hedrick writes: “Replacement Theology has provided the basis for all sorts of mischief, persecution, and atrocities against the Jewish people throughout Christian history.”

Ultimately, this debate is about far more than Israel; it is about the character of God.  If God can permanently revoke His unconditional covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the nation of Israel, then His promises are no longer unconditional.  Yet Paul declares that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).  God’s faithfulness to Israel demonstrates His faithfulness to every believer.

Unfortunately, many churches have stopped teaching on Israel altogether.  Whether because of Replacement Theology, the Church Growth Movement, the Seeker-Friendly Movement, the Purpose Driven Movement, or simply the fear of offending people, countless pastors avoid the subject completely. 

When pastors stop teaching, someone else fills the vacuum.

That is exactly what has happened.  Today, millions of Millennials and Generation Z are forming their opinions about Israel not from Scripture but from internet personalities, political commentators, podcasters, and social media influencers.  Names such as Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, the Tate brothers, Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Stew Peters, Kanye West, Jake Shields, Shawn Ryan, Dave Smith, and countless others now shape the conversation about Israel for an entire generation.  Whether these voices come from the political right or the political left is beside the point.  The church abandoned the conversation.  The culture stepped in.  And now young Christians are being discipled more by YouTube than by the Bible.

That should deeply concern every pastor.

Even if someone rejected the biblical reasons for supporting Israel, the strategic case is overwhelming.  Israeli Ambassador Yoram Ettinger on several occasions, and one point he repeatedly makes is impossible to ignore: “Israel is not America’s charity case.  Israel is one of America’s greatest strategic investments.  Having Israel as an ally in the middle east is like the United States having a permanent aircraft carrier or one of the largest military bases in the middle east.”

The annual $3.8 billion that critics label as “foreign aid” produces an extraordinary return on investment for the United States.  Israel serves as America’s permanent strategic ally in the most volatile region on earth without requiring America to permanently station massive numbers of troops there.

Ask yourself a simple question: Who would you rather have confronting Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, ISIS, and other radical Islamic terrorist organizations?  American soldiers?  Or the Israeli Defense Forces?

Every missile intercepted by Israel … Every terrorist network dismantled … Every Iranian weapons system exposed … is one less threat American troops may someday have to confront.  Israel fights on the front lines so America doesn’t have to.

The benefits go even further, according to Yoram Ettinger.  Unlike nations that simply purchase American weapons, Israel actually fights wars with them and then provides invaluable battlefield feedback directly to the U.S. military and America’s defense contractors.

Israel’s operational experience with the F-35 helped identify hardware and software issues years before they otherwise would have been discovered, potentially saving America 10 to 20 years of research and development and billions of dollars.

Joint development of Arrow missile defense systems and David’s Sling has strengthened American missile defense technology, including THAAD and Patriot systems.

Israel’s real-world combat experience against Iran and the Houthis has provided battlefield testing that no peacetime military exercise could ever duplicate, resulting in improved American weapons and billions of dollars in new defense contracts.

As Ambassador Ettinger has pointed out, Israel functions as America’s largest battle-tested research and development center.  That benefits not only America’s military but its economy as well.

Israel also hosts more than 250 research and development centers for American companies such as Intel, NVIDIA, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Cisco, IBM, Dell, and many others.

The US-Israel relationship is not a one-way street.  It is one of the most mutually beneficial strategic alliances America has ever had, according to Ettinger.

As important as those strategic benefits are, Christians support Israel for a far greater reason. We support Israel because God has spoken.  The foundation of our support rests upon God’s four unconditional covenants with Israel:

1. The Abrahamic Covenant guarantees Israel’s election.

2. The Land Covenant guarantees Israel’s permanent possession of the land.

3. The Davidic Covenant guarantees that Messiah will reign from David’s throne over Israel forever.

4. The New Covenant guarantees Israel’s future national salvation and spiritual restoration.

None of these covenants has ever been revoked.  None has been transferred to the Church. Paul explains this beautifully in Romans 11.  Gentile believers have been graciously grafted into the spiritual blessings that flow through Israel’s covenants.  We are partakers.  We are not overtakers.  The Church has not replaced Israel.  God still has a glorious future for the nation He chose through Abraham.

The Church must wake up.  If pastors continue to remain silent, the next generation will continue receiving its theology from influencers instead of Scripture.  The Church must once again teach the critical role Israel plays in Bible prophecy.  Pastors must explain why the modern rebirth of Israel matters.  They must teach the Abrahamic, Land, Davidic, and New Covenants.  They must preach Romans 9–11 instead of explaining it away.  They must show their congregations that God keeps His promises exactly as He made them.

Unfortunately, churches committed to Replacement Theology are not likely to stand with us in this spiritual battle.  In many cases, they have already embraced a theological framework that naturally produces indifference—or at times even hostility—toward Israel and the Jewish people.

Now, to be fair, there are exceptions.  There are sincere pastors and believers who hold to Replacement Theology who nevertheless support Israel’s democracy, appreciate her strategic value, love the Jewish people, and long to see them come to faith in Jesus Christ.  But they are the exception—not the rule.

The overall trajectory of Replacement Theology has consistently been to reinterpret God’s promises, minimize Israel’s prophetic future, and weaken the Church’s resolve to stand with God’s covenant nation.

This is not simply a debate over theological systems.  It is a debate over whether God’s Word means what it says.  Will God keep the unconditional promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the nation of Israel?  Or will He reinterpret those promises after the fact and give them to someone else?  The answer determines far more than your view of Israel.  It determines whether God’s promises faithfulness can be trusted.

The Church can no longer afford to remain silent.  Israel is not a side issue.  Israel is at the center of God’s prophetic program.  And if the Church will not teach the truth about Israel, someone else will gladly teach the next generation a lie.

 

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

As Students Head for College, How Many Will be Taken Captive by the False Prophets of Democratic Socialism?

This week, hundreds of thousands of young adults in America are heading off for their first semester in college.  How many do you think will be taught that socialism – despite its 100% record of failure – is both practically and morally superior to capitalism? Probably around 90% – despite the fact that America’s institutions of higher learning would be nonexistent without the economic firepower unleashed by our free market economy.

With the takeover of the Democratic Party by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), socialism and even communism – long the preserve of radical university faculties – are reentering the mainstream as unironic calls to action.  Not content with warping the critical faculties of the young, these zealots have moved beyond the quads and into state and national politics, exploiting legitimate concerns about issues like affordability to peddle a politics of grievance and expropriation.

For my generation, this is perplexing.  We came of age at the end of the Cold War, when Soviet communism collapsed and its utter practical and moral bankruptcy was laid bare.  Communism was the most destructive ideology in global history – responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, and the imprisonment and immiseration of millions more.  The idea of its rehabilitation should be unthinkable.

But nearly two generations later, those lessons appear to have faded from memory, while our educational system has instead promoted ahistorical leftist propaganda in place of a solid understanding of history and the capacity for critical thinking.  That deficit is being taken advantage of by the socialists taking control of so many of our institutions, including the Democratic Party.

Of the young people I know, they are hungry for truth; but are all too often being fed lies – especially by the false prophets of democratic socialism.

It’s been said that socialism only works in heaven, where it’s not needed, and hell, where they already have it.  But that aphorism doesn’t quite capture the flaw at the very heart of socialism, which derives from the fundamentally immoral claim to the fruits of another person’s labor, and the inherently coercive apparatus that makes that system possible. Socialism necessarily entails granting more power to the state, and in doing so, creates the conditions for tyranny.  It also necessarily inhibits the human flourishing that only participation in a free-market economy can produce.  It thus not only fails to produce the material benefits its advocates promise, but also leads to the abrogation of liberty and human potential.

Milton Friedman once said, “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”  America has prospered because of that recognition.  We must help our young people to resist the siren’s song of those who seek to reverse it.

 

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

Borders, Faith, and Common Sense: But the Midterms Could Put All Those Gains in Jeopardy

With the November midterm elections less than three months away, let’s take a broad look at where we are as a nation under President Trump.  Amid all the mainstream media’s left-wing bias and doom and gloom, it can be easy to forget just how far we have come over the past 19 months.

For starters, America’s southern border is more secure now than at any time in our history. We saw a literal invasion at the border during the Biden years when at least 15 million people from all over the world swarmed into our country illegally.  That invasion ended from practically the moment President Trump took office in January 2025.

Thousands of hardened criminals, murderers, rapists, and child molesters who entered under Biden are being deported back to their countries of origin.  The Trump Administration has also revoked the visas of some 175,000 people, mostly for criminal activity.  At the same time, murder rates in the United States are at historic lows that we haven’t seen in over 100 years.

The Trump Administration is not only making the country safer, it’s also restoring sanity and common sense.  Wokeness is on the retreat.  Gender madness and the transitioning of children are now condemned and marginalized—and rightfully so—rather than celebrated.

DEI programs that favor race and gender identity are being dismantled.  Our government is no longer targeting Christianity as a threat.  Instead, we now have a faith office in the White House, and a commander-in-chief in the Oval Office who held a massive event back in May in D.C., rededicating the nation to God.

This is the faith-friendly administration.  Only good things can come from that.  As God told the prophet Samuel, “those who honor me, I will honor.”

That’s on the home front.

When we look at the global stage, the United States, under President Trump, is once again unquestionably the leader of the free world, from the daring operation to extract Maduro from Venezuela and reclaiming America’s leadership in our hemisphere, to holding communist China accountable, standing with Israel and destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program.  It has been a foreign policy driven by a peace-through-strength mindset.

Moral clarity has returned on the economic front.  Affordability is the media buzzword they are using to bash Trump, but here’s something to consider—During Joe Biden’s four years in office, inflation was up over 21%, with food up nearly 24%, gas up close to 33%, and electricity up 31%.

Those numbers are staggering, and that was less than two years ago.  Between digging out of that mess and the catastrophe that COVID had on our economy, the Trump numbers in just 19 months are pretty impressive.

Inflation was at just 3.4% for the month of July, and gas prices fell almost 3%—and that is with an ongoing war in the Middle East!

With a little more time and once the dust settles in Iran, the economy is primed to soar, and the American people will benefit from the trade deals the president and his team have struck with a variety of nations.

I hope this is a helpful reminder.  All of these incredible gains are in jeopardy if patriotic, common-sense Americans don’t turn out and vote against the radical collection of Islamists, socialists, and outright communists running in November’s midterm elections.

 

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

Witchcraft Courses Rapidly Expand Across University Campuses

This fall, Arizona State University (ASU) is offering eight courses with words like witchcraft, magic, or the occult in the title.  Meanwhile, one course will cover the bedrock faith of Western Civilization.

“Think about that for a moment,” writes Owen Anderson, who teaches philosophy and religion at the university, at The Blaze.  “At one of the largest public universities in the country, students can choose from a small festival of courses on witchcraft, while Christianity receives [only] a single titled course.”

A quick web search reveals other major universities across the country are offering similar classes.

ASU might argue the courses fall under the classification of history and do not promote witchcraft and the occult.  But at least one course syllabus does not bear that out.  For example, the syllabus for “Witchcraft and Heresy in Europe” says the class will examine how the identity of the heretic and the witch was constructed against its binary opposite, the “orthodox” Christian.  It then turns to “religious Othering,” especially “the female as Other,” and asks students to explain how centuries-old witch persecutions continue to shape their own lives.

“A student scrolling through the catalog may think, Witchcraft?  That sounds like an interesting history class,” Anderson says.  “What the description does not announce plainly is that the course has already selected its moral and political framework before the first reading begins.”

In addition to history, courses in witchcraft approach the topic through anthropology, religion, literature, and media.  The University of New Mexico offers “Legacy of Witchcraft in Popular Culture.”  Duke University offers “Neopaganism and Witchcraft” as part of its religious studies. Universities in the U.K. are also offering classes on the occult.  The University of Exeter features a dedicated master of arts degree program focused entirely on magic and occult sciences.

The fact that these courses are showing up in university studies is a reminder that secular is not neutral, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis noted in a 2024 article.  “As our culture abandons its once Christianized foundation, it doesn’t become some kind of neutral space with a nebulous worldview divorced from spirituality and grounded in ‘science’ and ‘reason,’” Ham wrote.  “That’s because, contrary to the naturalistic view, we are not mere biological beings.  We are a body and a soul.  God created us to yearn for Him and to desire meaning and purpose—things the naturalistic, atheistic worldview cannot provide.”

Jac Marino, a former self-described sorceress who practiced magic for decades until she met Jesus, says that while she doesn’t expect secular universities to hold to the same standards as Christian ones, she is concerned about the message universities are sending through these classes.   “These courses present the lure or bait (which is often that you have the power inside of you to be like God, and that this power can be unlocked through embracing forbidden knowledge) while hiding the hook (these practices that God forbids lead to our destruction),” Marino told Decision.  “The Bible makes clear that ‘each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death’” (James 1:14-15).

Ham refers to the things of the occult world as “broken cisterns” that don’t satisfy.  “Anyone who goes to the waters of witchcraft, shamanism, divination, psychic readings, and so on will be thirsty again,” Ham said.  “Those ‘broken cisterns’ don’t satisfy.  But Jesus does.  He is the water of life that will never leave you thirsty.  He is the bread of life that lasts forever.  He gives meaning and purpose for now and eternity.”

 

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