Pro-Life Legislation in IN

Indiana’s Republican Governor Eric Holcomb recently signed legislation empowering prosecutors to recognize pre-born babies as second victims in the murder of their mothers.  He also signed legislation strengthening scrutiny of abortion facilities.

Senate Enrolled Act 203 (SEA 203) gives prosecutors the discretion to charge individuals with murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter against a pre-born baby if they did so in the course of committing the same crime against a pregnant woman.  The law applies to babies “in any stage of development,” and it does not require the offender to have known the victim was pregnant or to have specifically intended the baby’s death. The second homicide can add anywhere from 6-20-years’ to a convict’s prison sentence.  However, the law includes language clarifying that it does not apply to legal abortions, or to women who induce their own abortions.

Republican State Senators Aaron Freeman (Indianapolis) and Jean Leising (Oldenburg) wrote SEA 203.  In January, Freeman replied to pro-abortion critics of the bill by downplaying any connection between it and the broader abortion debate.  “I want to make it very clear that this is not an abortion bill,” Freeman said, according to the Indianapolis Star.  “I am just trying to give the prosecutors another avenue to prosecute folks […] There’s nothing else being intended here.”

Meanwhile, Senate Enrolled Act 340 (SEA 340) requires that all doctors in the state annually report any treatment of 26-different conditions known to be potential abortion complications.  These conditions include perforation of the uterus or cervix, infections, hemorrhaging, blood clots, cardiac or respiratory arrest, and emotional or psychological conditions.  SEA 340 also mandates annual inspections of abortion facilities, requires that those applying for abortion facility licenses disclose any prior history of medical or legal problems at past abortion facilities, and authorizes fire departments to act as “safe havens” where mothers can anonymously give their babies up for adoption.  “The only way that truly informed consent is possible is if we know accurate complication rates of the procedures and medications that we’re recommending,” American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists president Dr. Christina Francis said January in support of the law.  “In order to allow women to make a truly informed choice, we must have accurate information to give them.”

In 2016, Gov. Holcomb won the governorship as a pro-life candidate to succeed Vice President Mike Pence.  Last April, Holcomb also signed legislation strengthening Indiana’s parental consent requirements for minors seeking abortions.

Both bills will begin taking effect on July 1st.

Those of us who are pro-life, let us rejoice in ‘Godly’ government when it takes a stand for life!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Techniques Liberals Use to Silence Conservatives

Free speech has become a conservative idea (by default) because liberals don’t believe in it any more.  Liberals have given up on the idea of coming up with the best argument and now work tirelessly to silence their opposition so they can win the argument by default.  Liberals need to do this because their ideas don’t work very well in the real world; and if their ideas are tested and evaluated logically, they will be rejected by most people.  So, how do they get around that?  John Hawkins of Townhall.com offers this explanation:

1) Libsplaining: For every guy out there mansplaining, there are probably 500 liberals libsplaining what some conservative supposedly ‘really meant’ at exactly the same time. If you’re conservative, pretty much anything you say will be reinterpreted by liberals to mean something totally different.  If you are against welfare … because you think it encourages people not to work … you must hate black people.  If you think we need to cut wasteful government programs … you despise poor people.  If you weren’t in love with Trump, but really didn’t like Hillary, so you voted for him … you obviously want to turn America into Nazi Germany and you hate women.  None of this would be more than an annoyance except for the fact that liberals then take their completely nonsensical interpretation of what conservatives say and present it to the world as reality.  Liberals seem to be practically incapable of taking common conservative beliefs at face value because that could lead them to intellectually engage in a debate about the best way to handle a problem … which could lead them away from liberal doctrine.

2) Violence: Why are the liberal fascists in ANTIFA violently protesting?  They’re violently protesting that people they disagree with are allowed to speak at all.  Incidentally, “people they disagree with” runs the gamut from Nazis to mainstream conservatives.  Ultimately, the liberals who send death and rape threats to conservative women like Dana Loesch and Michelle Malkin have the same goal as ANTIFA – They want to use the threat of violence to convince them to quit and to intimidate other women who agree with them.  The limits on it are determined in large part by what they believe they can escape punishment for doing.  Not every liberal will get violent, but violent groups like ANTIFA would be nothing without friendly police departments and college campuses that turn a blind eye to their activities.  When they think they can get away with it, liberals are perfectly comfortable with using violence to silence their political opponents.  Keep that in mind when they demand that you give up your guns.

3) De-Platforming: If a conservative puts his opinion out there, but no one is allowed to hear it, does it really matter?  Liberals have worked hard to take over newspapers, Hollywood and the schools … not just to indoctrinate people with their views … but to make sure conservative views can’t get out.  You’re now starting to see that same philosophy become more public at Twitter, Facebook, Google and YouTube (Owned by Google) as those social media giants become increasingly unfriendly ground for conservatives.  If liberals can control whom you’re allowed to hear, they can control your thinking.

4) Political Correctness / Safe Spaces / Microaggressions: Safe spaces and microaggressions are the little sisters of political correctness; but they all serve the same purpose.  They’re designed to silence people who say things liberals don’t like … because – “Shut up, that’s why!”  You saw a great example of this with James Damore at Google who used an open forum there to make scientifically supported arguments that liberals didn’t like about women in STEM and then was fired for it.  That’s the perfect world for liberals.  They win by default without having to defend their arguments at all because the other side isn’t allowed to say anything except liberal-approved talking points.

5) Liberal Fakes: Besides Fox News and a few conservative newspapers and radio stations, it’s rare to see a genuine conservative presence in the mainstream media.  The vast majority of people who bring you the “conservative” point of view in the MSM are weak-kneed moderates at best and liberals at worst.  The role of these conservatives, who seldom have any real support on the Right, is to agree with liberals about how terrible Republicans are while occasionally making watered-down arguments about issues that won’t offend the Left too much.

6) False Labeling: In America, there are certain groups that the vast majority of us simply ignore.  We don’t pay any attention to their arguments because nobody much cares what an actual white supremacist, Nazi, Fascist or racist has to say.  So naturally, if you listen to liberals, other than them, pretty much everyone is a white supremacist, Nazi, fascist or racist.  They go on about it so much that you’d think we were simultaneously in the pre-Civil War Years, Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy … all at the same time.  Typically, the evidence for this Nazi renaissance in America is little more than the fact that there are people who disagree with liberal policies along with comments that would be shrugged off or ignored if a liberal had said them.

7) The Ventriloquist Dummy: Liberals love to find someone you’re not supposed to criticize to stick up front when there’s a hot political issue.  The latest ones are David Hogg and the other Parkland kids they’re putting on TV as much as possible to push for gun control.  They make their arguments and … you’re not supposed to respond because other kids who may not have agreed with them at all, were killed.  Meanwhile, David Hogg and company are paraded on TV and repeat the same boring talking points every other liberal does.  Despite the fact he was President, liberals even tried to do this with Barack Obama.  Conservatives are opposing Obama’s gun control?  Well, what do you expect since it was proposed by a black man?  Obama shouldn’t let ISIS run wild in Iraq.  Of course you’re saying that since Obama is a black man.  Liberals treat being black like a get-out-of-criticism free card unless the black American in question is conservative.  Then, the liberal knives come out.  Otherwise, it’s shut up, shut up, shut up.

Thank you, John Hawkins, for freely speaking your observations.  I couldn’t have said it better!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Mississippi: 1st State to Ban Abortion at 15-wks

With a stroke of a pen, Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the nation’s toughest restrictive abortion ban last week.  Bryant has frequently said he wants Mississippi to be the “safest place in America for an unborn child.”

The new law is effective immediately in the Magnolia State.  Several states ban abortion at 20-weeks, but Mississippi’s new law is the first in the nation to ban abortion at 15-weeks.  The only exceptions to the measure are if a fetus or the mother has health problems and their lives are threatened.  Pregnancies resulting from rape and incest aren’t exempted from the new law.

House Speaker Philip Gunn, who witnessed Bryant’s signing ceremony, told The Associated Press he is proud Mississippi is taking steps to protect “the most vulnerable of human life: the unborn.”  “The winners are those babies that are in the womb, first and foremost,” Gunn said.  “Those are the ones we’re trying to protect.”

Abortion rights advocates say the law is unconstitutional because it limits abortion before fetuses can live outside the womb.

There’s only one abortion clinic in Mississippi and the owner has promised to sue the state.

However, legal analysts have argued that the law will probably not be changed due to the current number of conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Several conservative groups, including the Mississippi Center for Public Policy (MCPP), were consulted when the measure was being written.  “U.S. abortion policy is very radical. Most of the world, more than 90 percent of countries, limit abortion after the first trimester. Mississippi is recognizing the international medical and scientific consensus on this issue.  We believe this law should be a model for the rest of the country because it’s the same standard used by the rest of the world,” MCPP acting president Dr. Jameson Taylor said in a statement.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Churches Beware of the Church Bullies

Our society has put a ‘full-court press’ on bullies in schools and on the playground.  Well let me tell you – they are in the church as well.  

One pastor wrote: “I am currently encountering a bully church member.  He wants me fired.  I didn’t see it coming.”  And let me add from my own experience of these bullies, they often will tell you to your face – “I love you pastor, but …” 

Thom Rainer [https://thomrainer.com/] has written about bully church members … focusing on the damage they do and the problems they create.  The article resonated with many church leaders; but some of those leaders told him the article was too little too late. The damage was done.

So Rainer wrote another article providing the early warning signs so pastors aren’t blindsided.  Here are his eight warning signs:

1.    They are among the first in the church to tell you how much they love you.  And they will continue to love you as long as you do everything exactly the way they want it done every single day.

2.    They have strong personalities.  They tend to be boisterous.  They speak up frequently in meetings.  They can be loud.  They like to dominate conversations.

3.    They are highly opinionated.  And if you ever disagree with them, you become their next target.

4.    They are terrible listeners.  They want you to listen to them; they don’t want to listen to you.

5.    They build unhealthy alliances.  The bully in one church built an alliance with two weak staff members.  The three of them spoke in secret to the personnel committee about the pastor.  The pastor was fired without even being asked his side of the story.  Watch carefully those the bully befriends.

6.    They murmur and gossip.  Most of their words are negative.  They are the anti-Barnabas.

7.    They do most of their toxic work in darkness.  They let other people become the fall persons for their nefarious deeds.  They meet with them behind closed doors and then slither away.

8.    They have been to several churches.  Bullies tend to move around.  They do their damage at one church and then leave.  They are sometimes asked to leave.

Do all churches have bullies?  Of course, not; but many churches do have bullies.  Be careful when you encounter them.  Be very careful.  Their intentions are less than Godly; they are evil.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

A Lenten Brainteaser

Jesus said to His disciples – “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (St. Mark 8:34-38 ESV)

With these words Jesus has issued a call to discipleship — “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”  Jesus is not looking for mere believers, though belief is the first command.  Christ has called for those who believe in Him to serve and follow and obey Him … even to take up our own cross as His disciples.  Christ also told us – “The servant is not greater than his master.” (St. John 13:16)

Christ has issued a call to put everything on the line for the sake of following Him, and to follow Him with the logic of discipleship, not the logic of this world.  

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?  For what can a man give in return for his life?”  These questions can be asked (and answered) only in light of the gospel, only in the light of Christ.

Listen: Follow Christ with all your heart for the length of your days.  Lose your life to save it.  Take up your cross in the name of the One who died on a cross for you.  Be not ashamed of Christ, and He will be unashamed of you.  Live every day in anticipation of the coming of the Son of Man in the glory of His Father and with the holy angels.

As Christ Himself has reminded us all — What do you have to lose?  For the sake of Christ, count it all gain … count it all joy.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

When Diversity Dictates Cultural Constructs

Will Rogers used to say when opening his vaudeville act, “All I know is what I read in the papers.”

In that spirit, here are two items in the news that shed light on our current culture:

In a full-page newspaper ad that ran during the Winter Olympics, Edward W. Stack, chairman of DICK’s Sporting Goods, basically paraphrased Rodney King’s admonition to the Los Angeles rioters in 1992: “Can we all get along?”  Under the headline – “United in Sport,” the ad deplores that “our world, our country, even our communities are as divided as they have ever been.”  Yet, we did get through the American Civil War, the World Wars, and the Cold War.  Mr. Stack is spot on when he laments that, “no one seems to have time or tolerance for anyone with an opinion differing from their own.  Turn on the news or flip through your phone and it seems as though someone or something is trying to drive us apart.”  He goes on more hopefully: “Those forces will not succeed because you can’t break the human spirit, which at its core is indivisible.”  [To this, author Robert Knight appropriately say, “Given human nature, I never thought of the human spirit as indivisible.”]  The ad goes on to show the power of political correctness: “Sport shows us that the similarities that bind us are infinitely stronger than the differences that divide us. It is the diversity of race, religion and gender that truly moves us forward together.”  So, which is it?  Unity or diversity?  Are we E pluribus unum (“out of many, one”) or, as Al Gore once misspoke, “out of one, many”?  When calling for unity, you’d better wave the diversity flag or face charges of racism, homophobia, xenophobia or transphobia.  

Here’s the second item, which reveals the new cultural imperatives.  A federal appeals court recently sided with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in its lawsuit against a Detroit area funeral home for firing (in 2013) a male funeral director who was transitioning to female.  A U.S. district court judge had dismissed the suit against the R.G. & G.R. Funeral Home in Garden City, but the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the funeral home had discriminated and ordered the case sent back to the district court.  The judges pronounced that, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, “discrimination against employees, either because of their failure to conform to sex stereotypes or their transgender and transitioning status, is illegal.”  So let me get this straight [no pun intended]: Guys dressing as guys is no longer normal, expected behavior. Instead, it’s conforming to “sex stereotypes,” which sounds oppressive.  The judges’ expansion of Title VII is yet another court-created “right” that was not even a thought in the imaginations of legislators who crafted the law in 1964 to cover “race, color, religion, sex and national origin.”  Listen: If this ruling stands, every business in America will be at the mercy of employees who switch sexual identities after being hired.  While kindness toward all is a good thing, it’s not compassionate to encourage delusional behavior … especially among minors.  Studies cited by the American College of Pediatricians show that the vast majority of kids with gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction eventually grow into a normal birth sex identity – if no one tampers with them.  Yet, the State of Delaware Education Department’s proposed Regulation 225 would allow educators to steer gender-dysphoric children to trans-counseling and even puberty-delaying hormones – without telling their parents.

I understand that the American public is pretty much “live and let live.”  “Whatever feels good, do it.”  Most people don’t want to know what floats someone else’s boat.  My heart goes out to people who reject their birth sex.  I know God loves them just as He loves me and you … with all our flaws.  But listen: God wants the best for everyone, and it has everything to do with His incomparable design for sex and marriage.

In the name of diversity, how about we stop rigging the law to punish folks who just want to go about their lives as if reality matters?

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

PA Increases Payments to Terrorists to $403M

The Palestinian Authority (PA) increased its payments to terrorists and their families in 2018 by nearly $56M, according to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Avi Dichter.

Dichter pointed out that Mahmoud Abbas (President of the State of Palestine and Palestinian National Authority) authorized the 2018 PA budget, and that there is a PA law that says 7% of each budget must go to paying terrorists, or to their families, if they’re killed in the act.

The increase “means that the PA will employ more terrorists as PA workers,” Dichter said.  “Except that the terrorists who work for the PA have a special quality – they are employed both as dead and living terrorists.”  Dichter added, “Murderers like the ones who killed the Fogel family [two Palestinians killed five out of eight members of the family in Itamar, including a three-month old, in 2011] are heroes to the PA.  This is not a whim. It’s in the PA’s constitution.”

The PA paid terrorists and their families more than $347M in 2017.  Terrorists who have been sentenced to 3 to 5-years in Israeli prisons receive the average income of a Palestinian, about $580 per month.  The families of those who committed more severe crimes and were involved in killing Israelis receive 5-times that each month for the rest of their lives.  Terrorists receive more from the PA if they are married, for each child they have, if they live in Jerusalem or if they’re an Israeli citizen.

A bill that passed a first reading – proposed by Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern and Dichter – would require the Israeli government to deduct the amount the PA paid to terrorists and their families from the taxes and tariffs Israel collects for the PA.  The proposal was inspired by the Taylor Force Act, a US bill named after an American victim of Palestinian terrorism, which would cut all US aid to the PA until the terrorist payments are stopped.  Stern said when he presented the bill to the Knesset that “there is no opposition or coalition” on the matter.  “In the current situation, there is an incentive for terrorism, which only pushes away peace,” Stern said.  “This bill is not only meant to promote the security of citizens and residents of the State of Israel, but to promote peace.”

According to Stern, Palestinians have said when they were interrogated that they continued terrorism in order to go to jail and get more money.  “We can pay back money, but we can’t bring back human lives taken by terrorism,” said Stern. 

According to Youssef Jabareen, the payments to terrorists and their families are similar to National Insurance payments: “Their goal is to help the families so they don’t starve.”

Aida Touma-Sliman, called the bill theft.  “The proposal says to ‘deduct,’ but really it means to steal,” she said.  “This is the condescending attitude which suits occupiers who think they can continue lashing out at another nation and not admit that the occupation is the source of all injustice.”

Mossi Raz of Meretz argued that the bill would be a violation of the Oslo Accords, in which Israel agreed to collect the tax money for the PA.

The bill passed 52-10.  There is a second version of the legislation, drafted by the Defense Ministry, which the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is holding up, because it opposes an article in the proposal that would grant the security cabinet the option of not deducting the funds.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Standing With Israel Results in Blessings

In January 2017, clergy from over one-hundred congregations in North-Central Ohio sent an apology letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the position the Obama Administration took in not blocking a United Nations Resolution # 2334.  This anti-Semitic resolution called Israel’s sovereignty of the Promised Land “an international crime.”

Ten days after the apology letter was sent by the Ohio clergymen, a massive natural gas pipeline was approved for construction thru north central Ohio after the project was held up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  The Rover Pipeline Project is more than twice the size of the controversial Keystone Pipeline.  With its approval, the 713-mile pipeline brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to the stagnated local economy at a time when energy projects often go contested.

According to Benjamin Mutti, Coordinator of the Richland Community Prayer Network, he believes weeks following the Biblical stand, tangible effects from the clergy collaboration could be seen upon the land.  “According to Department of Agriculture numbers, the spring turkey harvest in Richland County saw a dramatic twenty-four percent increase from last year, whitetail deer harvested was the best in four years, and the cow herd in Richland County, which is estimated in late winter, is now at its largest number in over thirty years, which is utterly amazing!”

Mutti points out that there is no such thing in Hebrew as the word “coincidence.”  The blessings the area experienced from the apology letter aftermath provoked forty-two area clergymen to also request the County Treasurer to invest taxpayer dollars in Israeli bonds.  “The day the County Treasurer announced that the county government would invest in Israeli bonds, was the same meeting that half a million dollars in unexpected revenue was reportedly discovered to alleviate a budget shortfall!  This clergy apology letter had a snowball effect and sends shivers down your spine to think that the Blessing of Abraham still impacts our generation ... even today.”

God said in His Word: “I will bless those who bless you [Abraham], and the one who curses you [Abraham] I will curse, and in you [Abraham] all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Dem’s Litmus Test for Judicial Nominees

Leah Vukmir, a Wisconsin Republican running for Senate, wants a fair hearing for Gordon Giampietro, nominated by President Trump to fill a federal district court seat.

                      

A recent BuzzFeed article highlighted a few of Giampietro’s supposedly controversial remarks about gay marriage, Obamacare and birth control.

Incumbent Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin’s staff is quoted in the piece questioning his nomination in the context of these comments.  “These extremely troubling statements were not provided to the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission when it considered candidates for this vacancy,” the spokesman wrote.  “Both what was said, and the fact that it was not disclosed to the Commission, raise serious questions about whether this nominee would be able to serve as a fair and impartial judge on a federal court.”

Giampietro did not disclose his past comments in his application to the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission.

In an attempt at transparency, Giampietro released his application last week, but Baldwin’s team remains skeptical he will able to serve in an “impartial” manner.

Vukmir explained why this is wholly unfair to the nominee: “As a Greek Orthodox woman, it is alarming that senators like Tammy Baldwin would be willing to block judicial nominees because of their faith.”  She went on to rightly point out, “America was built on the principle that people of faith can abide by their conscience while serving the interest of the public.  Senator Baldwin should be ashamed of her willingness to let politics get in the way of filling vacant seats on the court.”

Vukmir went into detail in her direct appeal to Baldwin to keep her own “radical views” out of it.  “As a Christian, I am writing to ask you to drop your opposition to Gordon Giampietro to be a judge on the district court.  Most recently, the Catholic Bishops of Wisconsin asked you to give Mr. Giampietro a fair hearing and not to discriminate against him based upon his deeply held religious beliefs.  Senator Baldwin, you should not block a highly qualified judge to serve this country and administer justice simply because they have faith and a strongly held belief about the rule of law and the Constitution.  You were elected to the Senate not to impose your own radical views of the judiciary on this nation, but to ensure qualified nominees sit on our judiciary.  The founders never intended for senators to act on anti-Christian bigotry when determining if a judicial nominee is qualified to serve.  Your opposition to him on this basis sends a terrible message to people of faith across Wisconsin and sets a terrible precedent.  I hope you will reconsider your position and allow Mr. Giampietro to be considered by the full Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Giampietro is not the only Trump judicial nominee who faced Democratic obstruction for his or her religious beliefs.  Amy Coney Barrett was interrogated by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) last year for publishing papers that contained pro-life language.  “"The dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein declared, while her colleagues had the gall to ask Barrett if she was an “orthodox Catholic.”

Barrett was ultimately confirmed to the 7th Circuit Court.

Even Neil Gorsuch, when he was still a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, was grilled by Feinstein over the abortion issue.  Feinstein informed him at one point that Roe v. Wade is “super precedent.”  He kindly explained that he would defer to the Constitution in the cases he considers, not his personal convictions.

It has also been noted that some Democrats are blocking Trump nominees due to the color of their skin.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Cause/Effect of Expelling God From Public Schools

With every school shooting, many people clamor for more gun control … as if that would solve the problem.  That’s an odd solution when you consider guns use to be at schools … long before there were school shootings.

Rev. Paul Blair, a Baptist minister in Oklahoma recently wrote an article talking about guns in his own public school background.  Blair said, “In the school parking lot, every fourth car was a pickup truck, most of which had a rifle rack in the back window, a deer rifle hung on the rack and the windows rolled down.  We never heard of such a thing as a school shooting.  We knew right from wrong.  We knew morality.  Most of the students went to church as did most of our teachers.”

Of course, guns in the wrong hands can cause many problems.  But the real issue isn’t more gun control, but the sinful heart of people.

Dr. D. James Kennedy and Dr. Jerry Newcombe wrote a book entitled – “What If The Bible Had Never Been Written?”  In this 1998 book, they noted, “Many of the humanists’ goals have been realized in the public school arena.  They have managed to throw the Bible out of the schools.  But the result has not been what they imagined.  By every conceivable criterion, our public schools are a mess, and the banishing of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage in the schools has everything to do with it.”  [Note: This was before school shootings began.]

Others have said we need heart control, as opposed to gun control.  One man, E. Keith Easter, wrote: “Take the guns, planes, subways, knives, cars, trucks, hammers, axes and drugs away and unless we as a people have a heart change, more and more people will find something to use as a weapon.”

Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pastor emeritus of the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, wrote “Exploding the Myths That Could Destroy America.”  In this book he said on the absence of religion and its impact on morality: “An atheist’s logic tells him that he is of no more value than a baboon or a grain of sand, yet his life contradicts such a conclusion.  He may provide for his wife and family, and if you were to steal his car he would want you to be punished – all this because he is created in the image of God.”  Then Lutzer makes a chilling prediction in this 1986 book: “We have not yet seen the full result of humanism in the United States.  We are still coasting on the values derived from our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.”

William McGuffey, the 19th century author of the best-selling “McGuffey Readers,” predicted: “Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man … Virtue, duty, principle, would be mocked and spurned as unmeaning sounds.  A sordid self-interest would supplant every other feeling; and man would become, in fact, what the theory of atheism declares him to be – a companion for brutes.”

We hear the growing call for more and more laws … as though a thicker book of regulations could solve the problem.  Yet we’ve seen that even the current laws and protocols are not properly enforced.

Founding Father, John Adams, noted that a free society must be a virtuous society, writing, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our public schools have been turned into zones where Judeo-Christian morality is generally not allowed.  We need to earnestly pray for a spiritual awakening across this nation.  We are reaping what we have sown by essentially expelling God in our public schools.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Enough of These Outside Atheist Groups Making Demands in Local Communities

An atheist activist group is demanding the city of Findlay, Ohio, remove a Bible-themed mural from a municipal building.  But local officials are fighting back.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a cease-and-desist letter to “Flag City, USA,” on February 1st, threatening to sue the city of Findlay, Ohio over the “unconstitutional” wall art that “conveys government support for religion.”  The mural, painted in 2011 by a group of local artists to symbolize protection for the community, features a reference to Psalm 91, reading – “Under His wings shall you find refuge.”  Cathy Schock, the local artist who directed the project, told FoxNews she hoped the mural would have brought the community together, not cause a rift.

While the FFRF said it received a complaint from a “concerned citizen,” city officials said they’ve never heard any objection to the Christian art.  Nevertheless, the FFRF wants the mural removed because it’s on public property.  “The city needs to remove it,” Rebecca Markert, the legal director for the FFRF, said.  “This is government property, and it doesn’t belong there.”

But Findlay Mayor Lydia Mihalik is fighting back against the FFRF’s demands: “Maybe the Atheist Club in Madison, Wisconsin, has nothing better to worry about but our mural in Findlay.  But our community is strong because we have belief.  We believe in a power greater than ourselves that promises a brighter day is ahead despite our individual struggles.  In our community we have many people who practice many faiths and believe many things.  I celebrate those elements of my community and refuse to apologize for it.”  Mihalik said the city would only remove the mural if someone with legal authority tells it to take it down.

The time has long passed for people of faith to stand up to these atheist ‘bullies’ who use the same old tactics in twisting the 1st amendment of the Constitution.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Truth of Powers & Principalities in Public Schools Needs to be Called Out

The Florida House of Representatives has passed a bill 97-10 requiring public schools to display the state’s and country’s motto – “In God We Trust” in “a conspicuous place.”

The horrific shooting at a Florida high school on Ash Wednesday (February 14th) has raised questions about the culture that fosters such attacks.  Rep. Kimberly Daniels (a Democrat), introduced the bill because “our schools need light in them like never before.”  Daniels, who is also an evangelist and writer, posted on Facebook, “God blessed me to pass two bills on the floor at Session today.”

“I think it’s marvelous,” Father Michael Orsi, a Naples, Florida-based Catholic priest and the host of Action for Life TV, told LifeSiteNews.  “It’s quite obvious [that] ever since God has been thrown out of schools, there has been a deterioration in society,” said Orsi – noting the public school system is largely run by a “secularized liberal cabal.”  Bringing God back into the picture is “the beginning of a solution to cast evil out,” said Orsi.

He explained Satan wants “to destroy the image of God in human beings.  What do you do when you kill people?  You are destroying the image of God.”  And school shootings aren’t the only way Satan works to destroy the image of God, he said.  “If life can be taken legally at a very, very early stage … what happens to the sanctity of life?” asked Orsi – wondering what impact knowing it’s legal to kill tiny humans has on the “emotionally disturbed or young people who have let evil into their lives.”

Orsi predicted if the bill makes it through the Florida Senate, Governor Rick Scott will sign it.

The bill has angered atheist groups that oppose the expression of religion in schools.  “Even though the phrase is, disgracefully, both the national motto and the Florida state motto, there is no question of this bill’s religious intent,” complained the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  “This bill comes at a particularly awful time in the wake of the shooting at the Florida public school.”

“With God’s help, we can remain strong and resolute to resist evil in all its manifestations,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said after the shooting.  “May God heal the broken hearted and comfort the sorrowing as we once again face as a nation another act of senseless violence and horrifying evil.”

Orsi said that after evil things happen, sometimes secularists will ask “where was God?” … to try to get people to abandon their faith.  “The fact is that God is there.  And people forget that,” he said.  “He was with that phys-ed teacher who took the bullets for those kids.  God was there at Calvary when Christ died on the cross a painful death.”  He continued: “God sees the horror.  God sees the sin.  God sees the murder.  God sees the evil.  But the end of the story is the Resurrection.”

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Well Done, Billy! Welcome Home!

On this day of Billy Graham’s funeral, I want to encourage you to witness the celebration of his life and ministry.

Go to this website https://memorial.billygraham.org/ to watch it LIVE.  Coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Friday, March 2nd.  The funeral is scheduled for 12-noon (ET).

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel