The Reformation Affected Our World in No Less Than Six Ways

When Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses (October 31, 1517) on Wittenberg’s Castle Church door, his hope was to spark a theological conversation about repentance.  Instead, the German monk unleashed a revolution — ideas that transformed Western Europe and eventually the world. Christians (not only Protestants) are still living with the changes wrought by the Reformation he started.

Luther was not the first person to call for reform in the Roman Catholic Church.  But you might say he was the first to go viral via the printing press.  It spread his ideas far beyond the university town of Wittenberg.  At one point, an estimated 20% of the texts published in Europe had Luther as author.

According to Heather Hahn, here are 6-developments we have today thanks to that fateful All Hallows’ Eve 500-years ago:

1. An Expanded Priesthood

Among Luther’s influential works are 3-treatises from 1520 that argued both lay and clergy shared in the priesthood of Jesus.  This marked the beginning of the doctrine known as the “priesthood of all believers” … meaning all baptized have direct access to God without a human mediator.  This equalizing idea shaped much of what followed.

2. The Bible in Everyday Language

If all baptized are priests, they all should have ready access to God’s Word.  That premise led Luther to what was perhaps his most momentous work — a translation of the Bible into vernacular German.  He wasn’t the first to translate the Old and New Testaments into a language other than Latin.  However, Luther was the first to look to the original Hebrew and Greek in his work (rather than Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.  Among the people influenced by Luther’s translation was the English reformer William Tyndale, who likewise wanted to produce a Bible in his people’s language.  Tyndale’s efforts ultimately led to his martyrdom, but not before he completed the translation that would help shape the Geneva Bible used by William Shakespeare, the Pilgrims and the translators of the King James Version.  Luther’s impact is felt whenever people encounter the Bible in words they can understand.

3. New Ways of Worship

Luther did not stop with Scripture; he also translated the Latin Mass into everyday language.  That in turn influenced the creation of England’s Book of Common Prayer, which John Wesley would later adapt for his Methodist movement.  We can also thank Luther for making congregational singing a regular part of worship.  Luther also encouraged Christians to pray together in daily services.  “He believed gathering frequently for prayer was important in encouraging people’s understanding of themselves as part of the priesthood of God,” says professor of preaching Lucy Lind Hogan at United Methodist Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington.  Luther’s love of singing lingers in the choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Felix Mendelssohn.

4. Mass Education

The Reformation benefited from rising literacy that began in the 1450s with Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.  But reformers broadened literacy and educational opportunities still further.  “Protestants built new schools and wrote new catechisms, ushering in an era of lay education,” said Anna M. Johnson, a professor of Reformation Church History at United Methodist Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary near Chicago.

5. Reminder of Repentance

The Reformation wasn’t all about empowered laity and joyful chorales.  There was a definite dark side to the revolution and to Luther himself.  For one thing, the Reformation marked a splintering of denominations that Christians still live with today.  Luther did not set out to form a break-away movement, but once Catholic hierarchy declared him a heretic, he opposed his former church home with fervor.  He also was frequently at odds with other reformers.  Debates over doctrine soon exploded into bloody wars that would cause death and destruction off-and-on for the better part of a century.  As venomous as Luther was about Catholics, he was even more vicious in his late-in-life writings about his Jewish neighbors.  His anti-Semitic rhetoric would echo in the brutality of Nazi Germany.  Jonathan Strom, a Candler professor, said observing the Reformation’s anniversary should also be a time of repentance.  “It’s not just, ‘Yay, we’re Protestants,’” said Strom, who is Lutheran.  He suggested today’s Christians heed the first proposition in Luther’s 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Matthew 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

6. Lady Liberty

Luther took on the power structures of his day when he refused to recant even in the face of excommunication and possible execution.  His challenge to church authority also ignited other uprisings he did not anticipate.  He denounced the peasants who, inspired by reforming zeal, rose up against the oppression of nobles and landlords.  Nevertheless, Luther could not stop the calls for freedom that stretch from the Peasants’ War to human-rights movements today.  If people believe they should have a say in church, it’s not a huge leap to believe they should have a say in their governance.  “Lady Liberty owes a great debt to Martin Luther,” said David Teems, author of Godspeed: Voices of the Reformation.  “Does the pope set up laws?” Luther wrote in a 1520 treatise.  “Let him set them up for himself, and keep hands off my liberty, or I will take it by stealth!”  Teems called Luther “a true champion of the conscience.”  Inspired by that spirit of defiance, a Baptist pastor named Michael King reportedly decided to change his name and that of his young son to that of the reformer’s.  The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. went on to champion freedom and justice in his own way.

Needless to say, we owe much to the Reformation of 500-years ago.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Atheist Didn’t Have a Prayer in Stopping Prayers in Congress

The U.S. House of Representatives can continue to open its sessions in prayer, a U.S. District Court recently ruled.

The practice was challenged by Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) Co-President Dan Barker last year after he was told he could not deliver a secular invocation.  He sued U.S. House Chaplain Patrick Conroy for “violating his rights” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the U.S. Constitution.  The FFRF filed the lawsuit on the National Day of Prayer.

Not only is Congress banning non-believers from participating, the FFRF argues, but they are spending $800,000 in taxpayer resources for opening prayers.  Barker, the group said, submitted all necessary documentation and even offered a draft of his prepared remarks.

Yet, the District Court has ruled on the side of prayer.

House Speaker Paul Ryan applauded the court’s decision, especially in context of Rep. Steve Scalise’s (LA-R) miraculous recovery after being shot at a congressional baseball practice over the summer.  “Since the first session of the Continental Congress, our nation’s legislature has opened with a prayer to God.  Today, that tradition was upheld and the freedom to exercise religion was vindicated.  The court rightfully dismissed the claims of an atheist that he had the right to deliver a secular invocation in place of the opening prayer.  Recently, especially following the return of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, this institution has been reminded about the power of prayer. I commend the District Court for its decision, and I am grateful that the People’s House can continue to begin its work each day as we have for centuries: taking a moment to pray to God.”

Upon his return to Capitol Hill, Scalise shared with his colleagues how his faith pulled him through the most frightening moments of his life.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Former Abortion Workers Are ‘Planned Murderhood’s’ Greatest Threat

While the national media narrative of abortion focuses on the women, babies, protestors, and the vast political peripheral impacts of defunding Planned Parenthood (PP), contraception mandates, and the U.S. Supreme Court, there is one group of individuals consistently left completely out of the conversation: the abortion workers themselves.

Sometimes abortionists will snatch the spotlight, often not in positive stories … like late-term abortionists Kermit Gosnell.  But what about the unseen nurses, counselors, secretaries, managers, and janitors – all of whom make their living at abortion clinics around the nation?  What of their stories?

There are an estimated 3,200 abortion workers currently in the United States.  That’s not a huge number for the nearly 1-million abortions performed each year.  Each of these workers has a story as to why they ended up working in the abortion industry … none of whom saw themselves doing this line-of-work as a child contemplating a career.

At And Then There Were None, over 380 abortion workers have been helped in leaving their jobs – quit the industry that had become the source of nightmares – and starting over financial, spiritual, and emotional.

Abby Johnson worked as a manager of a busy PP in Texas for 8-years.  “I was even noticed for the good job I was doing by the national leaders with employee recognition awards.  But it wasn’t enough, and one day, I walked out and never returned,” said Johnson.  She went on to say, “It was the love and constant, kind contact from the pro-life community that ultimately helped me to walk out.  And I’ve been telling my story.  There are many others like me, others who have finally walked away from a job that was killing them, from the lies they were forced to tell women to the unimaginable horror they saw every day at their jobs.”

It’s these workers that are frequently left out of the national narrative.  Yet, what if these workers got to tell their stories?  The secrets of their former lives as abortion workers are devastating to the abortion industry.

The abortion industry builds its reputation on claiming to care for women in their most vulnerable time, when they are facing an unplanned pregnancy with no support.  They claim to invest in modern and safe facilities and build themselves up as heroes to women who have no place else to turn.  But when former abortion workers get a chance to tell all, to unmask the abortion industry, the building blocks of these so-called advocates for women come crumbling down.

Abortion workers are the ones in the operating rooms that see instruments left uncleaned, tables stained, bodies unceremoniously handled, sensitive medical documents discarded, and mistreatment of women.  They are the ones that have witnessed women being pushed to choose abortion and parents left out of important decisions.  Their voices are missing in the national conversation.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Why Late-Term Abortion Legislation in U.S. Must Pass

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Rep. Trent Franks’ (AZ-R) Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion after 20-weeks, with limited exceptions.  [read my blog posting of October 9 – “Time to Break the Blockade to Pro-Life Legislation”]  The bill passed 237-189, and has already been introduced in the U.S. Senate.

The House has voted on Franks’ legislation numerous times, though now it actually looks to have a chance of passing.  The science hasn’t changed, but remains the same in that unborn children at 20-weeks have been human persons since conception, and that they can feel pain.  The difference is, a pro-life President Trump is now in office, and had made it a campaign promise to sign such legislation if it came across his desk.  The Trump Administration released a statement signaling his support and willingness to sign.

In announcing the bill’s vote late last month over Facebook, Franks wrote that “We can all agree a 20-week-old fetus who feels the torturous pain of being slashed, or cut in two, should not be killed.”  While all unborn children are worthy of protection, Franks acknowledges that “this is the bare minimum.”

Babies born way before the typical 40-weeks have survived, as was the case for a child named Micah, who appeared with Franks and was born at just 22-weeks.  For the sake of Micah, and all others who have been born early, as well as those who could still be saved, it’s crucial that this bill passes the Senate and is signed into law.

Doctors have not only testified that unborn children feel pain by 20-weeks, with more recent research suggesting as early as the first trimester, but that they feel pain more intensely than adults because of development of their neurological mechanisms.  Franks was being truthful in referencing babies who experience “the torturous pain of being slashed, or cut in two.”

Late-term abortions at this gestation may involve a saline abortion, which burns the unborn child.  Another method, commonly referred to as a D&E abortion, which dismembers the child.  Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, explains further in the Abortion Procedures series by Live Action.

Numerous polls show that a majority of Americans are in favor of such abortion limitations, including women and those who identify as pro-choice.  If the bill becomes law, it will apply to all 50-states.  Meanwhile, such legislation has passed in 21-states, and is in effect in most of those.

A cut-off on most abortions after 20-weeks would not only follow a trend of many states, but for the rest of the world as well.  The United States is only one of 7-nations which allows for elective abortions past 20-weeks, which puts us in league with countries like China and North Korea.

A recent example of this came out of Germany.  Chancellor Angela Merkel supports abortion, but also mandating counseling for families considering aborting their children diagnosed with Down Syndrome in utero.  She shared this during an exchange with Natalie Dedreux, an 18-year old who has Down Syndrome, and advocates for those with disabilities.

Opponents of this abortion ban claim that such abortions are performed because of the life or health of the mother, or that of the unborn child.  Studies show, however, including those reported by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, that most women have these abortions for socioeconomic reasons, as they do for earlier abortions.

Even if a child were to be diagnosed with a serious complication, there are resources available beyond abortion.  Regardless of abilities, all unborn children are human persons worthy of protection, and ought not to be targeted for ‘eradication,’ as they are in other parts of the world.

Doctors and tests may not always be right, either.  Such was the case with countless children, such as comedienne’s Lynn Ferguson’s.

Late-term abortions are not only tragic for pain-capable children, but often end badly for the mother as well.  These women tend to be younger and have repeat late-term abortions … which means they go through the risks of the procedure all over again.  Medical risks increase to at least 50% for late-term abortions, and can include physical and psychological effects.  Some women have even died from their late-term abortions.

The United States may be far behind the rest of the world when it comes to protecting the unborn, our most defenseless and vulnerable citizens.  We are better than such a status, however.  The time is now to pass a 20-week abortion ban, not only to catch up with the international community, but to do right by innocent child and ourselves.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

One Small Step for Religious Freedom, One Giant Step for the Constitution

Having previously written condemnation about the Obama Administration’s disrespect for constitutional religious liberty, I must now commend the Trump Administration.  Arguing for the protection of religious freedom, the Trump Administration has opened the door for employers to withdraw from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandate requiring them to provide birth control coverage … at no cost to employees.

Under new rules issued by Department of Health and Human Services, religiously affiliated institutions that find the requirement opposed to their religious principles, or non-religious employers who find it morally objectionable, can stop providing this coverage. 

The birth control mandate when first issued under the ACA exempted only houses of worship.  This provoked a host of lawsuits among which was that of Hobby Lobby – a closely held business controlled by an evangelical Christian family.  That lawsuit made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted an exemption to these kinds of “closely held” businesses.

We now have, in this new blanket release for employers with religious and moral objections, an important and meaningful step toward reviving and restoring the integrity of our precious religious freedom … that was under siege during the 8-year Obama Administration.

Lawsuits against the Trump Administration are now starting to flow.  The American Civil Liberties Union claims, “The Trump Administration is forcing women to pay for their boss’s religious beliefs ... the government cannot authorize discrimination against women in the name of religion or otherwise.”

The total disinterest of those on the Left regarding the ideals toward which our U.S. Constitution aspires, and their readiness to rewrite it all in the service of their own narrow Liberal-Leftist agenda, never ceases to amaze.

The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution says that the point of the whole effort is “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Is there anyone that could possibly believe that among these “blessings of liberty” is government mandating employers to buy birth control devices and pills for their employees?  And that if they don’t, women are forced “to pay for their boss’s religious beliefs?”

It is absurd that these same feminists and Left-wing activists insist that the government stay out of their bedrooms … while they are more than glad for government to force employers into their bedrooms as long as they show up with their checkbook.

Birth control that the ACA required, included Plan B One-Step® … considered by some in the medical community as abortifacients – an abortion-inducing pills.  It really doesn’t matter that there are differences of opinion regarding exactly how these pills operate.  The fact that there are credible medical sources that see these pills as abortifacients is sufficient to understand and respect the religious sensibilities here.

Increasing infringement on religious freedom comes part and parcel with the massive expansion of government.  Thank God for this step toward religious freedom.  Keep it up, Mr. President, keep it up!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

With This Site, SPLC is Profanely SOL

Write this site down [http://splcexposed.com/] and visit it often.  It reveals how the radical Left is trying to destroy organizations and individuals who are working to defend America’s families and our civil society.

Splcexposed.com specifically reveals the agenda of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an extreme Leftist operation that is swimming in money and deception.  Masquerading as a benevolent organization, the SPLC has adopted the intelligence and vocabulary of the big bully on the playground who engages in name-calling in order to isolate and intimidate anyone who won’t join his wicked little sect.

The Liberal-Left always resort to the “nanny, nanny boo boo” strategy when they know they can’t win a debate on the merits.  They scream – “Sexist!  Racist!  Bigot!  HATER!”

SPLC has institutionalized the practice of name-calling and now is known for its well-publicized list of so-called “haters.”  

But listen: It is much more dangerous than the childish bully as they increasingly use mob-like tactics to blacklist and vilify those on [in] the Right who are among the most successful at preserving and protecting Judeo-Christian values and the U.S. Constitution.

The SPLC’s inflammatory tactics have spawned at least two acts of shocking violence:

• The most recent being the attempt to mow down Republican congressmen on a baseball field, critically wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise … whom the SPLC had profiled on its website.
• Previously, a radical Leftist gunman entered the building of the Christian ministry Family Research Council (FRC) and shot the receptionist who miraculously still succeeded in disarming the thug before he could massacre members of the FRC staff.  Now in prison, the domestic terrorist admitted that he targeted this Christian ministry because the SPLC had listed FRC as a hate group.

Founded in 1971, supposedly to fight evil organizations like the KKK, the SPLC marched ever further to the Left and figured out over the years that it only had to do one simple thing to defeat legitimate organizations and silence debate – List their political enemies as “haters.”

This is the strategy of the SPLC today.  But now you have a website that you can check where the SPLC is exposed to the “light” of truth.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Dems Don’t Care

After every mass shooting, the Liberal-Left always invites us to join them in their insanity to participate in yet another circular argument about gun control.  Let’s be clear: It’s not because they care … for if they truly cared, they would think before they speak after tragedies.

Shortly after the Las Vegas shooting, now-fired CBS top legal executive, Hayley Geftman-Gold wrote, “I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun-toters.”

Atheist Richard Dawkins tweeted his sentiments, obviously mocking southerners: “Durn tootin’, great shootin’.  Cool dude sertin’ he’s 2nd Memdment rahts.  Hell yeah!”

CNN was true to form.  Senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny reminded everyone: “Something else, I think to keep in mind, a lot of these country music supporters are likely Trump supporters.”

If they really cared, Democrats would look in the mirror and stop pointing fingers.  It’s okay to be enraged that Stephen Paddock [the shooter] transformed semi-automatics into quasi-machine guns using a bump stock device; but it’s not okay to blame it on the Republicans.  Let’s remember, back in 2010 when Democrats controlled Washington, Obama’s ATF legalized the bump stocks the Las Vegas shooter used.

If Democrats cared, they would quit throwing National Rifle Association (NRA) daggers across the aisle.  After the Las Vegas shooting, Hillary Clinton (and many others) insinuated that GOP leaders are puppets of the NRA.  Their basis for that nonsense is that the NRA donated around $3.6-million to Congress members (on both sides of the aisle) – over a 20-year period.  Even if NRA donations were for GOP candidates alone, compare that to what Planned Parenthood (PP) affiliates spent for the 2016 election cycle alone.  The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics reports PP spent $4,044,378 in contributions, $1,368,408 in lobbying and $15,041,417 in outside spending.  So, who is puppeteering whom?

During a recent Senate Floor speech, Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY-D) spoke for the dead in Las Vegas, suggesting if they could speak, they would tell President Trump to “do something” about the NRA … which is responsible for zero deaths.

While it’s common knowledge that dead people tend to vote for Democrats, I’m not sure if Schumer is the right spokesperson, given his party supports abortion … which is responsible for the almost 60-million pre-born baby deaths in the U.S. since the U.S. Supreme Court Roe v Wade (1973) decision legalizing abortion on demand.

If Democrats really cared about gun violence and deaths, they would find real solutions.  It’s clear that very restrictive gun laws have done little to curtail the gun violence in Chicago … where the Las Vegas death toll is just another month on the calendar.  The Chicago Tribune reports that in 2016, Chicago had 4,368 shootings.  The city also had 761 murders.  Where were Jimmy Kimmel’s tears for the 761 people murdered in Chicago last year?  Where’s the outcry from Democrats that 4,368 people were shot in 2016?  Those lives matter too.

If Democrats cared, they would stop pounding away on the Second Amendment with their proverbial sledgehammers after mass shootings.

Obviously, not everyone who lives in this nation appreciates that America was founded on Judeo-Christian values and is governed by the U.S. Constitution.  Chipping-away at it inch-by-inch brings us closer to the goal of breaching the foundation to make America fall.

Listen: Chip away Democrats, but the only thing certain to crumble is your ideology; based on a lie that you do what you do because you care.  Not!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Power of Prayer Makes History

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) always begins its new term on the first Monday of October.  While some say the nine justices are the highest authority in the land, millions of prayer warriors believe every time they intercede for their nation, they’re calling out to a much higher authority — One who rules the whole universe.

One such group of intercessors, who can often be seen outside the SCOTUS, is the Justice House of Prayer (JHOP).  For 13-years, the people at JHOP have been praying right on Capitol Hill, just a matter of feet away from the law-makers and the judges of those laws.  “There’s a lot of energy right now in the Kingdom of God,” JHOP Executive Director Matt Lockett told CBN News.  “The way we’re seeing prayer affect the nation — the nations of the earth — and the way we’re seeing it impact culture, I think that now’s the best time to be alive — now is the best time to be praying.”

David Kubal, Intercessors for America (IFA) CEO, stated, “Without a doubt, God accelerates His activity on the face of this earth through prayer.  Otherwise, why else would He give us prayer?”  IFA is constantly webbing vast numbers of prayer warriors together via the internet, and asks them to fast and pray on the first Friday of the month.  “To pray specifically for the nation,” Kubal explained.  “Obviously, 1 Timothy 2 is our mandate: that we should pray for kings and all who are in authority.”

But when praying about government and politics, JHOP Lockett suggested one of the toughest things is to see past your own prejudices and preferences so you can pray for God’s will, not your will.  Lockett said of the Lord, “We’re not talking about an elephant or a donkey. We’re talking about a lamb.  And God has His own agenda.  We have to find that.”  Lockett shared, “There are certain policy positions that we take in the prayer room.  And that might sound controversial to some, but there are policy positions that we take because the Lord has shared His heart with us.  I think that’s important for intercessors — to get to a level of maturity where you know the difference between your own bias and the heart of the Lord.”  He added, “Then we get the privilege to pray into it and see God’s will made manifest in the earth.”

At the other end of the Washington Mall, there is a White House wide open to prayer.  “I know he’s not a perfect man, and he definitely needs our prayers,” IFA Kubal said, “but he is a man, I believe, who cares about spiritual things … who is inviting prayer into his administration and encourages those around him to pray.”  Kubal pointed out, “There’s a Bible study among Cabinet members on a weekly basis.  That is amazing.  I don’t remember in recent history when that has been the case.”  Giving intercessors a slap on the back, Kubal suggested, “The opportunity we have today with this new administration is, I believe, a result of prayer.  For years and years, intercessors poured into the spiritual realm, into the heavenlies to see this opportunity provided for us.”

Meanwhile, JHOP is concentrating on the SCOTUS.  Because battling abortion is a top priority for them, as they regularly pray in front of the high court, many wear tape across their mouths that say “LIFE.”  That symbolizes the unborn babies who can’t speak out for their own lives to be spared.  But they pray about many issues because almost every issue sooner or later ends up before the 9-justices.  “All roads lead back to the Supreme Court,” JHOP  Lockett said.  “Whether we’re talking about abortion or whether we’re talking about marriage or any number of cultural issues that are important to the Church, all roads lead back to the Court.”

One thing these intercessors have learned is that God moves in mysterious ways.  They see that as the Holy Spirit often moves them to pray in ways or for things they don’t understand at first, but which make stunning sense later.  Take for instance what JHOP people see as an amazing show of God’s hand at work involving the new SCOTUS Justice Neil Gorsuch.  It began with that extremely painful day for fans of Justice Antonin Scalia when that conservative lion of the Court died in February of 2016.  “We loved him.  He was great,” JHOP Lockett stated.  “It pierced my heart.  I don’t know how the rest of the prayer movement felt, I know it was a blow to us and I’m sure many of us.”  There was fear President Obama would replace Scalia with a liberal and tilt the SCOTUS decidedly leftward.  But that fear made the prayer warriors realize they were putting too much faith in man.  Robbi Harvell helps Lockett run JHOP.  She remembered, “The Lord immediately turned it and it was like ‘where is your hope, where is your trust?’”  “We really got confronted in those days,” Lockett recalled, “Do we trust in man or do we trust in God?  That was the big lesson of Scalia passing from the Court, is that we had to learn to trust God,” Lockett said.  Then came a crucial moment, just hours after Scalia died, when famed prayer warrior Cindy Jacobs prophesied over Lockett.  “The word was that God has a champion that He’s ready to bring up to this empty seat,” the JHOP leader recalled.  Harvell added, “And that we’re to hold the fort in the place of prayer, that we’re not to fall into hopelessness, but that we’re to contend in faith and to hold the fort and to see God bring this champion to the bench.”  Lockett explained, “That was sliding into the election when everyone was 99 percent certain that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election. So you can imagine the pressure in the prayer room to hold onto a promise and to pray that into being.”  “And we didn’t know anything else except that God had a champion,” Harvell said.  Then came Trump’s victory and his new administration narrowing Trump’s list of 21 possible nominees down to three.  Lockett recalled of that week, “One of the guys on our team just felt inspired one day to look and see what are the names of these three and what do their names mean?”  Harvell explained, “We’d been asking God to speak to us about a specific name to begin praying.”  Lockett said the man doing the name-research came to him with an amazing revelation for the JHOP people praying all those months for the prophesied “champion.”  “And there was a guy on the list named Neil Gorsuch.  And he looks and the meaning of ‘Neil’ is ‘champion.’  Well, you can imagine, our faith exploded in that moment,” Lockett said.  Harvell stated what this said to all of them: “God had actually spoken to us who the next justice was going to be a year prior and that we had been praying for him by name.”  Jared Olsen is another full-time JHOP warrior who was on-hand for this revelation that “Neil” was the “champion” recalled, “We were completely astonished.  But it’s one of those things where it fills you with confidence.  That God — He’s not just hearing our prayers, but He’s actually moving in the earth, and He’s actually moving in situations.”  “We knew from that moment on, Neil Gorsuch is God’s choice for the empty seat,” Lockett stated.

All these intercessors believe they’re seeing God answering their prayers and invading the news.  Lockett said of the young people at JHOP, “I teach them to not just read the headlines, but make the headlines.”  Olsen added, “We’ll be praying then watch the headlines using words we were just praying about.  And we’re like ‘this is incredible! God’s actually answering our prayers!’”  “I can tell you so many stories where we’ve gone into the prayer room, brought our requests before God, and then the next day we see answers to the prayers in the headlines,” Lockett stated.

IFA’s Kubal suggested if God is bringing a new or renewed urgency into your heart to intercede for the nation, go with it.  “There are men and women by the tens of thousands in this moment in time that God is putting a call on their life to be an intercessor for America,” Kubal shared.  “And that gives me great hope because I know God is going to do something great.”

Lockett concluded, “I encourage our young people that this is how history is made, that history belongs to the intercessor.”  Kubal said of God, “Any time He puts His people to praying, He’s going to do something exciting.  So watch out!”

Amen! and Amen!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Dear NFL Protesting Players: Get the Hard Facts – Not Hallow Fictions

The FBI just released its official crime tally for 2016, and the data flies in the face of the rhetoric that professional athletes rehearsed in revived Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests.

Nearly 900 additional blacks were killed in 2016 compared with 2015, bringing the black homicide victim total to 7,881.  Those 7,881 “black bodies,” in the parlance of Ta-Nehisi Coates, are 1,305 more than the number of white victims (which in this case includes most Hispanics) for the same period, though blacks are only 13% of the nation’s population.

The increase in black homicide deaths last year comes on top of a previous 900-victim increase between 2014 and 2015.

Who is killing these black victims?  It’s not whites, and it’s not the police; it’s other blacks.  In 2016, the police fatally shot 233 blacks – the vast majority armed and dangerous, according to the Washington Post (WP).  The WP categorized only 16 black male victims of police shootings as “unarmed.”  That classification masks assaults against officers and violent resistance to arrest.

Contrary to the BLM narrative, the police have much more to fear from black males than black males have to fear from the police.  In 2015, a police officer was 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male was to be killed by a police officer.  Black males have made up 42% of all cop-killers over the last decade, though they are only 6% of the population.

That 18.5 ratio undoubtedly worsened in 2016, in light of the 53% increase in gun murders of officers — committed vastly and disproportionately by black males.  Among all homicide suspects whose race was known, white killers of blacks numbered only 243.

Violent crime has now risen by a significant amount for two consecutive years.  The total number of violent crimes rose 4.1% in 2016, and estimated homicides rose 8.6%.  In 2015, violent crime rose by nearly 4% and estimated homicides by nearly 11%.  The last time violence rose two years in a row was 2005-06.  The reason for the current increase is what I have called the Ferguson Effect.  Cops are backing off of proactive policing in high-crime minority neighborhoods, and criminals are becoming emboldened.  Having been told incessantly by politicians, the media, and BLM activists that they are bigoted for getting out of their cars and questioning someone loitering on a known drug corner at 2 a.m., many officers are instead just driving by.  Such stops are discretionary; cops don’t have to make them.  And when political elites demonize the police for just such proactive policing, we shouldn’t be surprised when cops get the message and do less of it.  72% of the nation’s officers say that they and their colleagues are now less willing to stop and question suspicious persons, according to a Pew Research poll released in January 2017. The reason is the persistent anti-cop climate.

Four studies came out in 2016 alone rebutting the charge that police shootings are racially biased.  If there is a bias in police shootings, it works in favor of blacks and against whites.  That truth has not stopped the ongoing demonization of the police — including, now, by many of the country’s ignorant professional athletes.  

The toll will be felt, as always, in the inner city, by the thousands of law-abiding people there who desperately want more police protection.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Time to Break the Blockade to Pro-Life Legislation

The U.S. Congress has an opportunity to provide further protection for preborn babies; but the legislation faces some major hurdles before it can get to the president’s desk for signing into law.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already taken the first step to putting the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36) on the desk of President Donald Trump.

Rob Chambers, Vice President of American Family Action (AFA), explains what it would accomplish for the preborn.  “This bill will instruct abortion providers to not provide any abortion or any type of abortion services on a child who is at 20-weeks old in gestation,” he tells OneNewsNow.

Although pro-abortion groups deny it, science proves the babies can feel excruciating pain as they are dismembered in the womb until they bleed to death.  “This should be something that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents should agree on,” says Chambers.  “Our culture, our country is vastly pro-life and it’s time for Congress to do something meaningful in terms of passing pro-life legislation.”

The simple majority in the House has sent the bill to the Senate where its fate is uncertain because it will require 60-votes just to consider it, then to pass it as well.  President Trump has already stated that he will sign it if it reaches his desk.

AFA is urging its supporters to contact members of the Senate to support passage.  It is expected that Democrats will filibuster the measure to prevent it from being voted on – and it is further suspected that many ‘establishment’ Republicans will continue to refuse to do away with the filibuster rule … saying they want to “hide behind the rule so they won’t have to make the hard vote and live up to the GOP pro-life platform.”

Although the filibuster rule is not in the U.S. Constitution, Democrats routinely use it block GOP sponsored legislation.  No doubt, the Republican leadership in the Senate will blame the Democrats for blocking the measure.  While that is technically true, what the GOP leadership refuses to admit is that they have the votes to set aside the 60-vote rule in favor of a simple majority vote.

But here’s how the political ‘swamp’ works: Republican representatives get credit for voting in favor of pro-life legislation.  Meanwhile, Republican senators blame their Democratic colleagues when the legislation finally fails.  

Listen: The time has long since come (and gone) to protect unborn babies.  If they don’t pass H.R. 36, it’s time to drain the swamp of Republicans who give but mere lip service to the GOP pro-life platform.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Chinese Government Bans Kids From Participation in Churches

Chinese authorities have banned children from joining religious groups in its effort to crack down on religious practices, according to reports.  The ban also prohibits minors from attending religious sermons and from participating in religious activities, reports the Daily Mail citing Chinese media.

The effort to exert more control began several years ago when churches in Zhejiang province were ordered to remove crosses from the buildings.

More recently, in early August, more than one hundred churches in Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, reportedly received notices from government officials informing them that children will be banned from entering.  The churches were also told that they were no longer allowed to organize youth summer camps.  It is unclear how widespread the ban on minors attending church has spread in China, but it is already affecting several provinces across the country.

Amnesty International researcher William Nee told the Daily Mail that the reports are “alarming” because they “seem to be coming in from fairly diverse areas.”  China is under a “religious revival” under President Xi Jinping, Nee said.  “The current government seems concerned that religion could be a means through which foreign values may ‘penetrate’ into China and ultimately affect political stability,” Nee said.

The ban also informs churches that government officials will investigate both government-approved churches and underground congregations who operate the tightly controlled Catholic and Protestant churches, Asian Catholic news site, reports UCA News (independent Catholic news).

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

UK’s BSU Rejects Transgender Research to Keep Progressive Reputation Over Academic Excellence

United Kingdom (UK) Bath Spa University (BSU) has refused a student’s request to research the regret experienced by people – who transitioned back to their original birth sex – after undergoing gender reassignment surgery.  The reasoning behind BSU’s ban on the study had nothing to do with academics … and everything to do with campus politics.

“[The proposed study] may be detrimental to the reputation of the institution,” the university stated, according to a report.  In other words, the fear of being labeled “politically incorrect” was of greater concern to BSU.  [Perhaps BSU should more correctly stand for B_ll Sh_ t University.]  Clearly, this UK university is more concerned for its progressive reputation than its pursuit for academic excellence.

Psychotherapist, James Caspian, was denied permission to conduct his proposed study to complete his master’s degree in counseling and psychotherapy.  Caspian told The Sunday Times, “[Bath Spa University is violating] the most basic tenets of academic and intellectual freedom of inquiry.”

A backlash on the Internet – especially social media – was feared by BSU which seeks to protect its Leftist reputation and pro-LGBT image.

Caspian – who specializes in therapy for transgender people – merely sought to enlighten the medical community about the possible pitfalls of transgender surgery, which can do irreparable physical and psychological damage to patients.

“Caspian’s proposal was initially approved by BSU, but he couldn’t find people willing to take part in it,” The Christian Post (CP) reported.  “He then asked if he could change the proposal to include women who had transitioned to men and reverted to living as women without reversing their surgery.  The university told Caspian that he would need to write a new proposal to its ethics sub-committee, which rejected the request.”  “Engaging in a potentially ‘politically incorrect’ piece of research carries a risk to the university,” the rejection slip issued to Caspian reads, according to CP.

The 58-year-old counselor lamented over the fact that BSU is too intent on not offending others to take its academics seriously.  “The fundamental reason given was that it might cause criticism of the research on social media and criticism of the research would be criticism of the university and they also added it was better not to offend people,” Caspian told BBC Radio 4, according to the Independent.  “I was astonished at that decision.  I think a university exists to encourage discussion, research, dissent even – challenging ideas that are out of date or not particularly useful.”

The veteran counselor of 16-years was upset that BSU is getting away with violating his educational rights.  “Where would the reputation of a university stand that cannot follow the most basic tenets of academic and intellectual freedom of inquiry?” Caspian posed to Breitbart London.

Stories circulating around London also indicate that the transgender movement is purposely manipulating and pressuring children to adopt a gender-confused lifestyle that they will eventually grow out of, as was displayed in a series of tweets.

Over time, the world is seeing more and more transgenders who return to their natural gender.  “[Caspian] pointed out that studies of the percentage of people regretting ‘transitioning’ their gender ranged from a couple of percent to 20 percent, and said new research was needed as attitudes changed and practitioners observed a rise in those reversing surgery.”

Today, violence is often witnessed in the transgender community, which has been reported on by Breitbart.  The Leftist movement is reportedly turning to violent demonstrations to push their worldview on others, especially when confronting those who disagree.  “Opponents of transgender ideology have claimed the transgender lobby is aggressive – and even violent – in its attempts to promote transgenderism and silence criticism, and some feminist campaigners have been physically attacked by trans activists,” Breitbart London’s Liam Deacon pointed out.

Caspian does not know what the BSU fears would happen by allowing his research, which he insists would only help – not hinder – patients.  “It’s ridiculous,” he asserted, according to Breitbart London.  “I’m in my late 50s, I’m an expert in my field and I’m not even on social media.  I’m not frightened at all.  Asking questions is not a hate crime.”

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel