Christian Family Sued to Stop Religious Activities on Their Farm

The owners of a Pennsylvania farm have been ordered by the Sewickley Heights Borough (near Pittsburgh) to cease and desist holding Bible studies on their private property.  Borough leaders accused Scott and Terri Fetterolf of improperly using their 35-acre farm as a place of worship, a place of assembly and as a commercial venue. 

They were served a cease-and-desist order in October 2017, the Post-Gazette reported.

The Independence Law Center (ILC) filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the farmers against the borough alleging an egregious violation of the U.S. Constitution.

According to the lawsuit, the Fetterolfs were threatened with fines of $500 per day plus court costs for having Bible studies at their home, having meetings where religious songs are sung, conducting any religious retreats for church leaders or seminary students or conducting any religious fundraisers.

The property’s previous owner, Nancy Doyle Chalfant, who is one of the founders of the nonprofit Verland, “opened her home, and her beloved Dundee Farm, to church retreats, seminary picnics, youth groups and many other organizations she supported … for many decades,” quoting from her 2012 obituary.  The Fetterolfs, who attended church with Chalfant, bought the property in 2003, “to carry on the traditions started by Chalfant,” the lawsuit states.

“The borough has no business overseeing a group of people reading and discussing a book together on private property — even if that book is the Bible,” Randall Wenger chief counsel for ILC said in a statement.  The lawsuit accuses the government leaders of violating religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and equal protection.

“Government should not target religious activities for punishment, particularly when similar secular activities are permitted,” Jeremy Samek senior counsel for ILC said.  “In America, no government can categorically ban people from assembling to worship on one’s property.”

Todd Starnes of FoxNews says, “To that point, the lawsuit alleges the borough allows other activities and gatherings — ranging from political rallies to a Harry Potter event.  So if government leaders allow muggles to cavort in Sewickley Heights Borough, they should afford the same rights to Christians gathering for Bible study on private property.”

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Turkey Moving Brunson From Prison to House Arrest Isn’t Good Enough

American Pastor Andrew Brunson has been moved out of prison and put under house arrest in Turkey.  It’s the first sign of hope for the pastor who had been imprisoned by the Turkish regime for nearly 2-years.

Brunson faces up to 15-years in prison on charges of “committing crimes on behalf of terror groups.”  The 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, NC strongly denies the accusations.  He wrote earlier this year that he’s in prison not for anything he’s done wrong, but because he’s a Christian pastor.

With international outrage rising against Turkey for holding Brunson hostage, some observers had thought Brunson might be released by Turkey at a recent hearing earlier this month.  But the court did no such thing.

Aykan Erdemir, a former member of Turkish Parliament and now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, talked about the development on Twitter.  “The prosecution, however, disappointed the optimists by bringing additional witnesses to the court, who presented unsubstantiated claims and hearsay.  Meanwhile, Turkey’s pro-government media continued to smear the pastor, denying him any possibility of a fair trial,” Erdemir says.

President Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson’s release and US lawmakers like Sen. Thom Tillis (NC-Republican) have rallied with over 60-senators signing a letter to the Turkish administration calling for Brunson’s release.  “I’m convinced that this is a risk to every single American,” Tillis said back in April on the Senate floor.  “Pastor Brunson needs to know that he has the backing of the US Senate.”

Let’s pray for Pastor Brunson’s soon release and return to his home in the U.S.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Dems Don’t Fear Kavanaugh, but the Constitution

Some of the anger aimed at President Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is partisan bluster meant to appease the activist base.

Fact is: The liberal Democrats were going to get hysterical about any pick; because any conservative Republican pick was going to take the Constitution far too literally for their liking.  For those who rely on the administrative state and coercion as a policy tool – forcing people to join political organizations, forcing them to support abortion, forcing them to subsidize socially progressive sacraments, forcing them to create products that undermine their faith, and so on – that’s a big problem.

Some, such as former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, indulged in the dramatic rhetoric we’ve come to expect in the Trump era, claiming that Kavanaugh would “threaten the lives of millions of Americans for decades to come.”  But almost none of the objections coming from leading Democrats have been even superficially about Kavanaugh’s qualifications as a jurist or – for that matter – his interpretation of the Constitution.

“Specifically,” prospective Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris argued, “as a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy, his nomination presents an existential threat to the health care of hundreds of millions of Americans.”  Surely, the former attorney general of California comprehends that “health care” is not a constitutional right but rather a policy concern whose contours are still being debated by lawmakers – and probably will be for decades.  What Harris probably meant is that Kavanaugh is an existential threat to the practice of forcing Americans to buy products in the private marketplace against their will. [Incidentally, Kavanaugh, upheld Obamacare as an appellate judge for jurisdictional reasons even though it displeased him on policy grounds.  He wrote that the law is without “principled limit.”  He did this because he has far more reverence for the law than Harris does.]

Leading Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders, whose collectivist doctrine clashes directly with the Constitution’s goal of restraining the state and empowering the individual, worries about “workers’ rights, health care, climate change, environmental protection and gun safety.”  He should.  Kavanaugh (with Justice Neil Gorsuch) is a critic of Chevron deference – the practice that allows administrative agencies to ignore their legal charge and have free rein to interpret statutory authority in virtually any way they please.  Few things undermine the socialist agenda more than limiting our regulatory agencies’ ability to lord over the economic decisions of Americans.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, another potential presidential hopeful, said Kavanaugh “can’t be trusted to safeguard rights for women, workers or to end the flow of corporate money to campaigns.”  To “safeguard” the rights of women, liberals mean keeping abortion legal on the federal level – without any genuine restrictions.  For Gillibrand and others, invented rights are sacramental; whereas other precedents, such as stopping the “flow of corporate money” – which is to say, the right of free expression codified by the Citizens United decision – should be conveniently discarded.  There is absolutely no guiding principle to any of this other than political preference.

With another originalist justice in Kavanaugh, we inch closer to a time when the majority of the left will simply dismiss the SCOTUS as an antiquated impediment to progress.  We already see this happening – not only from progressives but from supposed moderates. It’s why flip-flopping partisans such as Ezra Klein are now lamenting the “anti-democratic” position of the court.  By “anti-democratic,” he doesn’t mean the SCOTUS legalized abortion or same-sex marriage without the consent of states; he means it has recently stopped the federal government from compelling individuals to act in ways he and many others approve of.

Normalizing the idea that the Constitution should be subservient to the fleeting will of politics and progressive conceptions of “justice” goes back to Barack Obama, who promised in 2008 to nominate justices sharing “one’s deepest values, one’s core concerns, one’s broader perspectives on how the world works and the depth and breadth of one’s empathy.”  The left hailed this position as proof of a thoughtful and moral temperament, when in reality it’s an ideological position that allows judges to arbitrarily create law and subordinate their constitutional duty to their personal worldview.

Of course, there are a number of legitimate debates about how we should interpret the Constitution.  And all justices aren’t political on all issues; nor are all conservatives pure. But it’s the left that now embraces relativistic arguments about the intent and purpose of the Constitution.

As much as we might wish the SCOTUS to be less important, right now, it’s one of the only institutions preserving constitutional order … and that’s why the left is going nuts over this nomination.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Fact Is: Public Opposes What Roe v. Wade Did

If you tuned in to the mainstream media outlets, most reporters would lead you to believe that the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) means the legal loss of a woman’s right to abortion as ruled in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.  This is absolutely false – Fake News!

While 61% of the public agree with Roe, they don’t really understand what Roe did.

For instance, Roe prohibited states from passing abortion laws aimed at protecting unborn babies before 24-weeks.  A recent Quinnipiac poll shows about 50-60% of the country would support a state or federal law barring abortion after 20-weeks.

On the constitutional matter, voters seem to reject Roe as well.  Roe, again, took the matter of abortion totally out of the democratic process.  [There are some matters where our Constitution does that … such as states not permitted to institute slavery.]  But only through absurd linguistic, philosophical, and legal contortions was the Roe court able to detect – emanating from the penumbras of the Bill of Rights – a right to abortion.

Most legal scholars who have spoken up on Roe contend it is horrific legal thinking.  “As a matter of constitutional interpretation,” wrote Harry Blackmun’s clerk, Edward Lazarus, “even most liberal juris prudes — if you administer truth serum — will tell you it is basically indefensible.”

And the public thinks state legislatures, not 9-justices, should set abortion policy.

The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List polled voters in 5-states with competitive Senate races — Florida, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, and West Virginia — and asked them who should make the law.  Voters in Florida, for instance, were asked, “Do you think that the U.S. Supreme Court should decide abortion policy for Florida, or do you think abortion policy should be decided by the people of Florida through their elected officials?”  In all states, including the swing state of Florida, voters preferred letting their own legislatures handle the issue.  In North Dakota, the ratio was two to one.  Voters, then, seem to reject Roe’s expansive view of abortion rights and Roe’s removal of abortion from the democratic process.  In short, most voters don’t support what Roe does in any regard.

If the Senate confirms Kavanaugh, and then if the conservative majority of the SCOTUS overturns Roe, it will in fact be arranging abortion policy — legally and constitutionally — as most people seem to prefer.

For these reasons, the Democrats are treading lightly in the opposition to Kavanaugh regarding overturning Roe v. Wade for fear the public might find out what Roe actually did.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

What Is the Kingdom of God?

Suppose someone asked you the question: What is the kingdom of God?  How would you respond?  The easy answer would be to note that a kingdom is that territory over which a king reigns.  Since we understand that God is the Creator of all things, the extent of His realm must be the whole world.  Manifestly, then, the kingdom of God is wherever God reigns, and since He reigns everywhere, the kingdom of God is everywhere.

We see this when John the Baptist comes out of the wilderness with his urgent announcement: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  We see it again when Jesus appears on the scene with the same pronouncement.  If the kingdom of God consists of all of the universe over which God reigns, why would anyone announce that the kingdom of God was near or about to come to pass.  Obviously, John the Baptist and Jesus meant something more about this concept of the kingdom of God.

At the heart of this theme is the idea of God’s messianic kingdom.  It is a kingdom that will be ruled by God’s appointed Messiah, who will be not just the Redeemer of His people, but their King.  So when John speaks of the radical nearness of this breakthrough, the intrusion of the kingdom of God, he’s speaking of this kingdom of the Messiah.

At the end of Jesus’ life, just as He was about to depart from this earth, His disciples had the opportunity to ask Him one last question.  They asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6b).  He said: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority… But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).  What did He mean?  What was He getting at?

When Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” was He indicating that His kingdom was something spiritual that takes place in our hearts or was He speaking of something else?  The whole Old Testament called attention not to a kingdom that would simply appear in people’s hearts, but to a kingdom that would break through into this world, a kingdom that would be ruled by God’s anointed Messiah.  For this reason, during His earthly ministry, Jesus made comments such as, “If I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20).  Similarly, when Jesus sent out seventy disciples on a preaching mission, He instructed them to tell impenitent cities that “The kingdom of God has come near you” (Luke 10:11b).  How could the kingdom be upon the people or near them?  The kingdom of God was near to them because the King of the kingdom was there.  When He came, Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom.  He didn’t consummate it, but He started it.  And when He ascended into heaven, He went there for His coronation, for His investiture as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

So Jesus’ kingship is not something that remains in the future.  Christ is King right this minute.  He is in the seat of the highest cosmic authority.  All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to God’s anointed Son (Matthew 28:18).

When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray, He said, “Your kingdom come.”  What does this mean?  What are we praying for when we speak this petition?  Each of the petitions is connected to the others.  The first petition Jesus taught us was, “Hallowed be Your name,” which is a plea that the name of God would be regarded as holy.  Manifestly, unless and until the name of God is regarded as holy, His kingdom will not and cannot come to this world.  But we who do regard His name as holy then have the responsibility to make the kingdom of God manifest.

John Calvin said it is the task of the church to make the invisible kingdom visible.  We do that by living in such a way that we bear witness to the reality of the kingship of Christ in our jobs, our families, our schools, and even our checkbooks, because God in Christ is King over every one of these spheres of life.  The only way the kingdom of God is going to be manifest in this world before Christ comes is if we manifest it by the way we live as citizens of heaven and subjects of the King.

Note: The content of this posting is largely attributed to the scholarly work of R.C. Sproul in his article entitled, “What Is the Kingdom of God?” dated June 25, 2018.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Warring Against False Prophets With the Truth

The spiritual war often involves taking on forces outside the church; however, there is another front – opposing enemies inside the church.  It is this aspect of the fight which the apostle Paul highlights in his writing to a young preacher.  After noting in Titus chapter 1 the qualifications for those who would be bishops or elders, Paul warns Titus (vs. 10-11) with respect to false prophets.  Paul identifies these false prophets as “many rebellious men”— those who are disorderly, unruly, and uncontrolled.  He also writes that they are “empty talkers and deceivers.”  The idea of “empty talkers” is that of “vain talkers”— those who do not preach properly.  They disguise the Word rather than preach it plainly.  They are deceivers.  They flatter men with regard to their sins— tickling the ears of sinners. These false prophets suppress the truth rather than exposing corruption.

Paul goes on to describe the activities of these false prophets.  He says that they were “teaching things which they should not.”  This is a general description of false teaching.  It can include anything which takes away from the glory of God, which undermines the truth, and which promotes loose morals.  Paul also says that these false teachers were “upsetting [or overturning or bringing ruin to] whole houses.”  The verb connotes the raging of the sea which causes the filth and mire at the bottom to float to the top.  This stirring up of matters was causing destruction to whole households.  

But notice that there is a particular reason for these actions by false prophets— it is “for the sake of filthy lucre.”  Religion, power, and money is quite intoxicating.  This is one of the reasons why honest preachers must be content with their wages.  If you are in the ministry for the money, you have the wrong motivation and most likely the wrong doctrine. Those who teach falsehood are greedy.  2 Peter 2:3 declares: “By covetousness they [false prophets] will exploit you with deceptive words.” Philippians 3:19 says that those teachers who are enemies of the cross of Christ are those who “set their mind on earthly things.”  2 Corinthians 2:17 condemns those who were “peddling the word of God.”

Paul concludes this section by instructing Titus as to the action to be taken regarding these false prophets: “it is necessary to silence” them.  It is necessary to shut their mouths.

Of course, this silencing is not to be done via physical means.  Rather, the true man of God engages in spiritual warfare— “pulling down strongholds” and “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).  To silence the false prophets, one must meet their arguments head-on.  And the way to be successful in this intellectual warfare is to read expansively, to think carefully, to write clearly, and to speak persuasively.  He proclaims the heavenly reign of King Jesus; he protects the people; and he neutralizes the opposition.  And all of the members of the church are to support the church and her ministers in this prophetic enterprise.

But in addition to proclamation of the truth in order to silence the opponents, there is another way by which to render them ineffective, and that is through church discipline. Those who refuse to repent are to be cut off—that is, excommunicated—by the leadership of the church if they persist in their error.  But even then, the aim of discipline is always the recovering of those who are in error.  Spiritual warfare is never merely intellectual, but must always be fought by those who are humble and loving— humbled by God’s grace and willing to love.  The silencing of those who oppose the truth is with the hope that they, too, can be saved.

Pastors are engaged in a life-and-death battle— it’s a matter of eternal life or eternal death.  Pastors proclaim the gospel as the only way of salvation, and Jesus as the only Savior, and faith as the only means of salvation.  Opposition must be fought, and enemies must be silenced.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

A Gun Has Not Fired For Nearly 1-Year

The American Left and its allies in the media have long insisted that it is guns, and not people, that commit acts of violence.  Pieces at Psychology Today, The Nation, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, and even the editorial board of the Journal of the American Medical Association have all supported the alleged accuracy of this notion.

Given this conclusion, it is nothing short of a miracle that 2ndVote’s GunCam video has recorded zero deaths and zero crimes committed by a gun which we have closely observed for nearly a year.  Don’t take my word for it!  Check out the live stream video below: https://2ndvote.com/guncam/

Perhaps this is being unfair to those who believe inanimate objects can choose to kill human beings.  That’s why 2ndVote is carefully scrutinizing GunCam.  Will this pistol suddenly jump up and run away?  Will it pivot and target the video camera by which it is being observed?  We doubt it.  

And like several companies which have recently separated from Dick’s Sporting Goods over its anti-Second Amendment corporate decisions, I know that millions of Americans safely use guns — many to defend themselves and their families.

Then again, Enterprise seems to disagree; and so do dozens of other companies.  Who is right — 2ndVote and America’s Founders, or these companies’ leaders who are afraid of anti-gun zealots?

Perhaps the verdict is still unknown.  So let 2ndVote continue their careful scrutiny of GunCam to ascertain the answer!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

In Three Years: From Tolerance to Totalitarianism

Three years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled that marriage must constitutionally be expanded to include people in same-sex sexual relationships.  Back then, LGBT activists said they simply wanted “equality” through the expansion of legal rights; but the marriage debate has quickly spring-boarded the left to a new assault on conservative principles.

Now it is Christians who are fighting for the basic American values of religious liberty and free speech.  With the passing of so-called “LGBT Pride Month” (June), I want you to be aware of the corporations which stand behind the LGBT movement’s totalitarianism. 

Probably the most important corporate backers of LGBT activism are those which stand behind the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).  2ndVote provides you this list of corporations literally rewarding efforts to crush religious liberty http://2ndvote.com/human-rights-campaign/

Four corporations which don’t deserve your dollars are Target, Starbucks, PayPal, and Apple — all of which provide financial and other support to radical LGBT activism.  These corporations aren’t just supporting the HRC’s redefinition of marriage; they are standing behind this totalitarian organization’s bullying of North Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana over common-sense measures to protect businesses, religious organizations, and women in restrooms.  [PayPal and Apple hopped onto the HRC’s effort to declare that baker Jack Phillips shouldn’t have the right to bring his religious views into his own business practices.]

So called “equality” and “tolerance” have been replaced with government enforcement of LGBT ideology.  It’s also notable that three years ago, LGBT activists said they just wanted same-sex couples to be given marital recognition and equal benefits afforded traditional marriages.  Now, they declare that anyone who believes heterosexual relationships is normal … despite how a person feels … is nothing short of a bigot.

Listen: Not spending your dollars on these corporations sends a strong warning to other corporations that Americans don’t want corporations using government to enforce radical LGBT totalitarianism.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Sweet Smell of Justice for a Baker & Florist @ SCOTUS

Colorado baker – Jack Phillips – won a modest victory at the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) the other week.  SCOTUS justices ruled that officials who prosecuted Phillips for alleged customer discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation did so in a way that unconstitutionally targeted his religious beliefs.

Now, Washington State florist – Barronelle Stutzman – may get her chance at regaining religious liberty.  SCOTUS justices sent her case back to the state’s Supreme Court, ordering that Stutzman’s guilt under the state’s so-called “non-discrimination” law be reconsidered.  According to Stutzman’s attorney, the elderly florist was treated similarly to Phillips because State Attorney General Bob Ferguson critiqued Stutzman’s beliefs and sued her personally.

I’ve written extensively in the past what these cases.  They represent a violation of the American Dream and the American traditions of religious tolerance and liberty.  Stutzman and Phillips are doing their part in the courts; now you must do yours in the market place.

I urge you to help the likes of Phillips and Stutzman by refusing to buy from corporations that back leftist bigots at the Human Rights Campaign and corporations which don’t want you to be able to live out your religious beliefs.  2ndVote provides you a list of corporations to boycott at http://2ndvote.com/human-rights-campaign/

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Abortion Funding GE & BoA Lose @ SCOTUS

Pro-life pregnancy resource centers won an enormous victory at the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) the other week.  The pro-abortion left — especially NARAL — convinced California lawmakers that forcing these centers to refer for state-funded abortions was sound public policy.

Well, SCOTUS disagreed: “The licensed notice is a content-based regulation.  By compelling petitioners to speak a particular message, it ‘alters the content of [their] speech,’ Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the Court’s decision.  “For example, one of the state sponsored services that the licensed notice requires petitioners to advertise is abortion—the very practice that petitioners are devoted to opposing.”

So, what is a pro-life pregnancy resource center?  They are generally small non-profits with little money … but lots of love and volunteers.  Most of them don’t take government money, unlike Planned Parenthood (PP).  And unlike abortion profiteers, pro-life centers have nothing to do with abortion or contraception.  They provide tremendous help to women in crisis pregnancies — such as counseling, ultrasounds, diapers, clothes, educational support, maternity care and housing, and even adoption assistance.

None of this was good for Big Abortion.  They don’t want competition to their deadly business.  Regretfully, many corporations are backing what has been a years-long national campaign to shut down pro-life centers.

Two prominent examples are General Electric and Bank of America.  Research shows, these companies back not only PP — America’s biggest abortion company — but also NARAL, which wrote California’s law targeting pro-life centers.  And they stand behind the work of the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) – a legal group which pushes abortion throughout the world.  CRR was not pleased with SCOTUS ruling.

Listen: Let these corporations know that it is unacceptable for their money to support an organization which is so dedicated to killing the unborn that it refuses to allow women the choice of pro-life.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Washington’s Prayer for America

At the close of the Revolutionary War in 1783, George Washington wrote to the thirteen governors to disband the army and send his troops home.  He included a prayer that God would “dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy” and love one another.  This foundational prayer by our nation’s first leader for his soldiers and his people is worth remembering as we honor their costly sacrifices for the independence of our country.

Here is the full version of his letter to the Governors requesting that his troops be sent home:

Circular Letter Addressed to the Governors of all the States on the Disbanding of the Army, June 14, 1783

“I have thus freely declared what I wished to make known, before I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me.  The task is now accomplished.  I now bid adieu to your Excellency, as the chief magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of office and all the employments of public life.

It remains, then, to be my final and only request that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered the legacy of one, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the Divine benediction on it.

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in His holy protection; that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”

-- General George Washington

As we draw to a close another year of celebrating America’s independence, I thought it only fitting that we remember these largely lost words of our first President – George Washington.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

I Am the Nation

I was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed.  I am many things, and many people.

I am the nation.

I am 213 million living souls— and the ghost of millions who have lived and died for me.

I am Nathan Hale and Paul Revere.  I stood at Lexington and fired the shot heard around the world.

I am Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

I am John Paul Jones, the Green Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett.

I am Lee and Grant and Abe Lincoln.

I remember the Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor.

When freedom called I answered and stayed until it was over, over there.  I left my heroic dead in Flanders Fields, on the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak slopes of Korea and in the steaming jungle of Vietnam.

I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas and the granite hills of Vermont.

I am the coalfields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania, the fertile lands of the West, the Golden Gate and the Grand Canyon.

I am Independence Hall, the Monitor and the Merrimac.

I am big.  I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific … my arms reach out to embrace Alaska and Hawaii … 3 million square miles throbbing with industry.

I am more than 5 million farms.

I am forest, field, mountain and desert.

I am quiet villages— and cities that never sleep.

You can look at me and see Ben Franklin walking down the streets of Philadelphia with his breadloaf under his arm.

You can see Betsy Ross with her needle.

You can see the lights of Christmas, and hear the strains of “Auld Lang Syne” as the calendar turns.

I am Babe Ruth and the World Series.

I am 110,000 schools and colleges, and 330,000 churches where my people worship God as they think best.

I am a ballot dropped in a box, the roar of a crowd in a stadium and the voice of a choir in a cathedral.  

I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to a Congressman.

I am Eli Whitney and Stephen Foster.

I am Tom Edison, Albert Einstein and Billy Graham.

I am Horace Greeley, Will Rogers and the Wright brothers.

I am George Washington Carver, Jonas Salk, and Martin Luther King.

I am Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Thomas Paine.

Yes, I am the nation, and these are the things that I am.  I was conceived in freedom and, God willing, in freedom I will spend the rest of my days.

May I possess always the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the world.

This is my wish, my goal, my prayer in this year of 1976— two hundred years after I was born.

ATTRIBUTION: OTTO WHITTAKER, “I Am the Nation,” Norfolk and Western Railway Company Magazine, January 15, 1976, front cover.  This was originally written in 1955 as a public relations advertisement for the Norfolk and Western Railway, now the Norfolk Southern Corporation, and did not contain the phrase, “the steaming jungle of Vietnam.”  It has been widely reprinted, generally without attribution, has been set to music, is reprinted by some newspapers every Independence Day, and has been read into the Congressional Record several times.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Old Guy with a Bucket of Shrimp

This is a wonderful story and it is true.  You will be pleased that you read it, and I believe you will pass it on.  It is an important piece of American history.

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.  Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.  Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp.  Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself.  The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.  Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach.  

Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts ... and his bucket of shrimp.  Before long, however, he is no longer alone.  Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.  Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him; their wings fluttering and flapping wildly.  Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, “Thank you.  Thank you.”  In a few short minutes the bucket is empty.  But Ed doesn’t leave.  He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.  When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away.  And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say.  Or, to onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.  To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty.  They can seem altogether unimportant ... maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.  Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida ... That’s too bad.  They’d do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker.  He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII.  On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down.  Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun.  They fought sharks.  Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst.  By the eighth day their rations ran out.  No food.  No water.  They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive.  

Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive.  The men adrift needed a miracle.  That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.  They tried to nap.  Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose.  Time dragged on.  All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft ... Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.  It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move.  With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men.  Then they used the intestines for bait.  With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait … and the cycle continued.  With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull ... And he never stopped saying, “Thank you.”  That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines.  Before WWI he was race car driver.  In WWI he was a pilot and became America’s first ace.  In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots.  

Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero.  And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.

Source: Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm” – pages.221, 225-226

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel