Make Disciples of All Generations

In Psalm 83, David voices a personal conflict raging inside.  Perplexing things he does not understand are occurring around and within him.  He can’t seem to get the right perspective, and in frustration, he cries out to God:

“How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? … Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes” (Psalms 13:2-3).

According to a poll recently conducted in 2019 by the Barna Group, many young adults today, both inside and outside the Church, feel the same way.  And sadly, it appears that the Church is doing little to provide young adults with the answers they need.

For the rising generation, 47% of those with a Christian background find that the church is unable to “answer their questions.”  This includes not just daily issues in the world around them but even their own “spiritual doubts” as well.

This inability to “consider and answer” (using David’s words) the questions of younger generations is producing higher levels of apprehension.  Forty percent report they are anxious about any sort of large decisions, uncertain about the future, and harbor a significant fear of failure.  And 34% have intense feelings of loneliness, with 38% feeling disconnected from the world and society.

The result is that among those who grew up in faith, 58% no longer attend church or identify as Christian, with three in four confessing that the church seems “out of touch with reality.” They see Christians as judgmental (81%), not being useful to those around them, and even failing in the simple Biblical directive to help the poor (~60%).  Only one in seven young adults (ages 18 to 35) “attends church regularly, engages with the faith community beyond just attending worship services, trusts firmly in the authority of the Bible, is committed to Jesus personally, and expresses a desire for their faith to impact their actions.”

The Church and Christians should remember the mandate Jesus issued in Matthew 28:18-20: to go and make disciples of all people, teaching them to follow everything He taught.  This certainly includes what He said about salvation, heaven, and hell, but it also includes His teachings on economics (Luke 19), employer and employee relationships (Matthew 20), definitions of marriage and gender (Matthew 19), legal issues such as due process (John 8), and so much else.

We must share these teachings in the collective setting of the Church, but it is also our individual responsibility as Christians to communicate these teachings to others in one-to-one settings.  Each of us should find another person to teach and mentor—as Philip did with the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:16-40), Peter with the Roman Centurion (Acts 10:1-11:18), Ananias with Saul/Paul (Acts 9:10-19), Jesus with the woman at the well (John 4:4-16), and so forth.

Every Christian must accept the responsibility of forming personal relationships with those around them and then teach and disciple others on an individual basis.  Without this, the Bible (not to mention the church) will continue to seem increasingly irrelevant to rising generations.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Stand Fast in the Face of Apostasy

The Bible instructs believers that:

“We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14).

And elsewhere Christians are similarly encouraged to “stand fast in the faith” (1 Corinthians 16:13) as well as to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

If these exhortations to faithfulness were not enough, the Bible also warns believers in no uncertain words about abandoning the faith, explaining that:

“It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:4-6).

In 2019, Joshua Harris, a well-known pastor and the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye (a book that led to a nationwide Biblical sexual purity movement among millennials), divorced his wife of many years and decided to publicly renounce his faith, declaring:

“By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian … I regret standing against marriage equality … and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry.”

Other so-called “ex-vangelicals” (those who also renounced their Christian faith) used the occasion as a welcome opportunity to deride Biblical sexuality as “patriarchal ideology”—that is, as ancient, outdated, and out of touch.

Additionally, Marty Sampson, one of the leading song writers and musicians for the massively famous and influential Hillsong worship group, recently made a similar confession.  Taking to Instagram for “some real talk,” the author of songs to which millions of Christians have worshiped proudly wrote:

“I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me.  Like, what bothers me now is nothing.  I am so happy now … it’s not for me … I’ve never been about living my life for others.”

To be “happy” about losing one’s faith and belief in God obviously contradicts the commands of the Scripture.  Let believers in the Church never forget “the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12), and always, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard … in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13).

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Let’s Continue to Talk Turkey

Throughout the Bible we are encouraged to count our blessings:

“I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart;

I will tell of all Your wonders” (Psalm 9:1 NASB).

As Americans, we have more reasons than most to be thankful.  Yet even though we are blessed to live in the greatest country, anxiety seems to be more common than thankfulness:

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.

Social media is frequently credited with the current rise in anxiety and depression:

Among teens who use social media the most (more than five hours a day), the study showed a 50% increase in depressive symptoms among girls (35% among boys) when their symptoms were compared with those who only use social media for 1-3 hours per day.

In fact, a Pew Research study found “One-in-five teenage girls—or nearly 2.4 million—had experienced at least one major depressive episode.”

Why is anxiety reaching epic proportions?  Because rather than find out why God made each of us and then seeking to fulfill that specific purpose, too many are busy comparing their own lives to those of others.  As one 21-year-old college student bemoaned: “I feel like I need to measure up to some kind of standard that's like Instagram-worthy.”

In fact, posting on Instagram has become “surrounded by so much angst” that one user candidly acknowledged: “I miss posting things I love and care about that just don’t bring in the likes that my other photos bring in.”

In an effort to combat this comparison anxiety, Instagram announced it would begin hiding from public view the “like counts.”  But not surprisingly, a new study found this new approach isn’t improving self-esteem.

We don’t need to hire consultants or conduct polls and studies to find the real solution: Thankfulness.  As the Scriptures urge: “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NASB).

Thanksgiving Day is a good start, but Americans should be thankful for more than just one day a year.  As the Apostle Paul reminded us, this should be our way of life: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Colossians 3:15 NASB).

Now that Thanksgiving Day has passed, remember to keep saying thanks for all that God has blessed us with.

“I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness

And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High” (Psalm 7:17 NASB).

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

God’s Reality in A World of Confusion

In Matthew 24:6, it says, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

While there is scholarly and denominational disagreement about how to interpret this “apocalyptic” Bible verse, one thing is agreed upon by almost everyone: This verse assures believers that, although trouble will come, God’s kingdom will eventually reign on earth.

Although every century has its own problems, the ones of the 21st century feel more acute because of the spread of cross-continental information and the 24-hour news cycle.  Even if this is just the result of magnification, it does not change the difficulty of the situation or the fact that action must be taken.

If there is one thing that can be said for our current socio-political climate it is this: Members of our society no longer look to shared sources of authority on news, science, religion, or politics.

We read different news websites, believe different scientific authorities, follow mutually exclusive belief systems (including atheism), and trust politically opposed leaders.  As one meta-analysis noted, studies using data tracing have found that social media users are prone to mainly see posts and content with which they agree.  In other words, people experience a social media “echo chamber” that leads them to believe more people agree with their opinions than they actually do.

This fact is more concerning when read in light of Pew Research Center’s data indicating that 55% of Americans received at least some of their news from social media.  

In yet another example, on September 15, 2021, World Net Daily and CNN, two news sites on opposite ends of the political spectrum, ran the following contradictory headlines:

“Florida vaccine advocate loses 6 unvaccinated family members to Covid-19 within 3 weeks” and “News station gets flooded with vaccine horror stories: Startling turn after reporter sought to shame the unvaccinated.”

Who is to say which story is more true than false?  For an average person, being a moderate is no longer an option.  Sides have to be picked and lines drawn in the sand, especially when it comes to the issue of the COVID-19 vaccine.

From a religious perspective, there is less religious commonality among believers, even as the number of atheistic “nones” grows in our society.

In 2015, a professor of Greek history sought to swerve out of his academic lane by publishing a book titled Battling the Gods in which he claimed that atheism can be found in ancient Greece and is possibly as natural to humanity as religion.

Although the faithful know from Psalm 19:1 that the truth of this religiosity is obvious (“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands”) even secular neurological research contradicts this history teacher’s conjectures about human nature, suggesting that the human mind actually is hardwired to believe in religious experiences!

To top it all off, political polarization on matters like voting access has reached new heights as the distance between Republican and Democrat perceptions of the issues continues to increase.

What is a Christian to make of this mess?  An answer is found in the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:43-45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Our only hope is to act in good faith, praying for our “enemies,” lest our nation tear itself apart. We know that our salvation is assured.  However, we also have a duty to reduce the suffering experienced by our society in the course of this life.

Salvation was made for all, not just the people we currently like.  If it is true that humanity is hardwired toward religion and faith, then we know that we at least share that point of commonality.

We can change our social media accounts, our news sources, our churches, our party affiliation, but we can never change the reality of God.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Christian Difference

It seems that in their bid to treat people fair and with love, many Christians have been swooped up into religious pluralism without even being aware of it.  We are so careful not to step on the toes of our friends or co-workers that we have washed away the essentials of our own faith.

What is religious pluralism and why do some embrace it?  Basically, it is the yellow brick road. Follow it and you will reach the wizard—God … as it were.  No matter how you walk the road or what you believe about the “wizard” you are still all getting there and that’s what counts.  To expand, let’s say that you are Dorothy the Christian.  You have received information that God can be found by following the yellow brick road.  Your Bible is your friend, Toto.  You bring it along in your basket.  Along the way, you encounter a Tin man.  He also wants to follow the road and find the wizard.  He brings along his axe which is the Koran.  He seems harmless enough.  You are both on the yellow brick road, so, it must be alright.  Along comes the Cowardly Lion.  The lion is very unsure of himself and cannot decide any belief, so he comes along with his emotions on his sleeve, but a big heart.  The scarecrow carries the five Pillars of Islam and is sure that his path to the wizard will ultimately prove to be the only path. Dorothy desires to build relationships with her companions.  She does not want to be judged, even though she knows in her heart that Jesus is the only way.  She believes Christianity teaches that God is three persons in one.  She chooses not to argue with her compatriots. Who is she to know what is truly the one path to God for each of them?

Is Dorothy tolerant?  Is religious pluralism tolerant and accepting?  Not really.  Its very nature is to prove that its own way is the right way and therefore boastful.  This isn’t tolerance; it’s a power play.  When asserting all religions lead to God, the distinctive and very different views of God and how to reach the divine in Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam are brushed aside in one powerful swoop.

Jesus Himself was humble and accepting of others.  However, He never wavered from the message of “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The Christian difference might be summed up with these three components.  First, other religions teach that a follower must earn their way to God.  Romans 5:8 reveals that we are still sinners and Christ died for us.  Next, some religions have numerous rules to follow to find their way to God.  Christianity fulfills our desires and saves if we believe and have faith in the fact that Jesus died for our sins.  And, last but surely not least, we have the cross and the resurrection.  The empty tomb speaks for itself of the difference.

The belief that religious pluralism is the GPS on the yellow brick road will surely not lead to God.  Christians, we are called to lead the way.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Feminism Shouldn’t Terrorize Men

Christians are called to be united by their shared faith, not divided by their physical differences.

The Apostle Paul staunchly denies superficial identity-based distinctions, explaining that, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)  For Christians, our spiritual identity is what defines us and trumps any factional barriers.

Unfortunately, America stands divided.  The divisive voices of identity politics have needlessly increased tension and animosity.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the surge of third-wave feminism which actively strives not for equality with men, but supremacy over them (most especially white men).

This attitude has become so pervasive that even self-proclaiming Christians will ignore the Bible if contradicts their agenda.  For example, some time ago a progressive woman theologian announced on Twitter in response to the laws protecting babies from abortion: “My thoughts on the abortion bills: men truly hate women.  The misogyny is breathtaking.”

Of course, she is ignoring the millions of pro-life women, and the fact that the vast majority of babies aborted are girls.  This means that when men stand against abortion, they actually defend millions of women.  In fact, gender-based abortions are so prevalent that in terms of its sheer toll in human numbers, sex-selective abortion has assumed a scale tantamount to a global war against baby girls.

Another vitriolic vein of “feminism” is presented by a female author employed by the Huffington Post who tweeted that her New Year’s resolutions were to: “1. Cultivate female friendships [and] 2. Band together to kill all men.”  Although she quickly deleted her post it reflects the boundless contempt often exhibited towards men.  As Jesus explains, “From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)

Similarly, that hatred for men has become a corrupting influence within other movements, including those that might have begun with good intentions.  For example, the #MeToo movement has rightfully exposed the terrible actions perpetrated by many powerful men, but soon that movement led to #BelieveAllWomen which advocated for the blind acceptance of any and all accusations (especially when it is politically beneficial for them such as in the Kavanaugh hearings).

Comments like those above, along with the many instances of high-profile false accusations, have caused increasing divisions between men and women.  In a study published by Harvard Business Review, approximately 21% of male employers report that they “are reluctant to hire women for jobs involving close interpersonal interactions with men,” largely due to fears of being falsely accused.

Some men have even begun speaking out against this new form of anti-man discrimination such as Monty Python actor Terry Gilliam. He explained: “I understand that men have had more power longer, but I’m tired, as a white male, of being blamed for everything that is wrong with the world.”

Gilliam is hardly the only one who has noticed this drastic increase in hostility.  While certainly men must not be misogynists, neither is it acceptable for women to be misandrists.

Like all issues in life, the Bible provides us the way to reduce this swelling enmity between men and women, instructing us to: “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Life Should Not Be a Divisive Issue

In the Bible, the prophet Jeremiah protested the role God was calling him to, complaining “I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.” (Jeremiah 1:6)  But God explained to Jeremiah that his value and worth was in the fact he was created by God, not in what he could do: “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5 NASB)

Each year, numerous events across America celebrate the fact that God is the Author of all human life and that it should therefore be protected and respected.  Perhaps the most notable of these events is the March for Life in Washington, D.C.  

On January 24, 2020, the march was historic in that for the first time since Roe v. Wade “legalized” abortion on demand 47 years earlier, the gathering was addressed in person by the President of the United States.  Trump told the tens of thousands: “We’re here for a very simple reason: to defend the right of every child, born and unborn, to fulfill their God-given potential.”

Such a statement should not have been controversial, for the Declaration of Independence promises that the protection of life is one of the inalienable rights to be solemnly guarded by the government.  Yet social media and news outlets found the President’s simple statement to be so appalling that they felt it needed to be censored. So, among broadcast media not only did CNN and MSNBC refuse to air the event but CNN’s national correspondent snidely observed: “Trump, by speaking here today, has really become the face of the anti-abortion movement...There is a reason that no other president in the last 47 years has come here.”

But that was kind compared to what Twitter did.  It flagged a video showing children calling on Americans “to build a culture that cherishes innocent life” as unacceptable, labeling it “sensitive material”—a designation usually reserved for particularly graphic images or hate-filled content.

By these standards, even Psalm 139 and its declaration that unborn life is from God would be censored.

Being pro-life isn’t just a political position, it is a Biblical one.  But to stand for unborn life today is now considered as launching an “assault on women,” which, of course, ignores the thousands of women in the group who marched with signs such as:

“Conceived in rape.  I love my life.”

“By choosing his life, I chose mine too.”

“I regret my abortion.  Ask me why.”

While opponents falsely claim that protecting unborn life is to “hate women” and “care about controlling women’s bodies,” it is our God-given responsibility as Christians to “defend the weak and the fatherless, and uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed..” (Psalm 82:3)

Even if the world forgets that “children are a gift from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3), God will not, saying: “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, but I will not forget you, behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.” (Isaiah 49:15-16)

May our endeavors every day for the remainder of this year be part of a March for Life.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

For the Love of God…Respect Men!

Modern culture has a definite tendency to separate people into groups based on outward characteristics, with some groups receiving more legal rights than others.  In fact, women today often enjoy a preferential legal status that men do not enjoy.  But the Bible teaches that all human lives, both male and female, are equally valuable and therefore to be equally protected:

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

“Do we not all have one Father?  Did not one God create us?” (Malachi 2:10)

“God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Modern feminism often does not seek this equality but instead demands that men be demeaned, degraded, and punished.  The common narrative is that men are part of a nefarious patriarchy designed to keep women down—that they practice “toxic masculinity” and “misogyny” (which means an ingrained prejudice against women).  Yet, those most active in pushing this narrative may themselves be guilty of “misandry,” which is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against men (i.e. the male sex).”

Interestingly, while sexual assault is generally considered to be a crime largely committed by men against women, feminist researcher Lara Stemple analyzed several national surveys on sexual violence and found that when using forced sex as the standard, “the rates of nonconsensual sexual contact between men and women were basically equal.”  Nonetheless, modern feminists ignore those facts that contradict their one-sided narrative.

Legally speaking, white males are probably the only group in American politics today with no special legal standing.  The problem created by our identity-conscious culture was explained by a father in a recent blog post:

“My middle son is about to make his college choice.  He’s got some great schools that have accepted him.  He has some great ones that did not.  His dream school was Duke.  He also really liked Northwestern, Dartmouth, and UCLA.  He has a 4.05 GPA on a 4.0 scale (honors classes give you an additional GPA) and a 31 on his ACT (97th percentile of all kids taking this test).  He had the grades and test scores to get into all of those schools.  What he didn’t have was something else…Basically, he falls into this no-man’s land of what colleges and universities don’t want these days.  Male and White.”

As Christians, we should embrace the Bible’s teachings of equality and therefore teach our daughters to be respectful of men just as much as we teach our sons to be respectful of women.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Homeschooling Asylum Seekers Receive One-Year Deportation Reprieve

A Christian family who fled Germany in 2008 to homeschool their five children and who have been seeking asylum in the United States ever since have been granted a one-year reprieve from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being suddenly told their deferred status had been revoked and they had four weeks to leave the country.

The Home School Legal Defense Association applauded ICE's decision to delay the deportation of the Romeike family, of Morristown, Tennessee, according to The Tennessean US Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) who praised ICE's decision on social media.  In her post, she noted that many East Tennesseans were among the 100,000 Americans who petitioned support for the family.  Harshbarger has introduced legislation to grant the Romeikes permanent residency.

As CBN News has reported, Germany has some of the harshest punishments for homeschooling in the world.  So, when Uwe and Hannelore Romeike decided in 2006 that God was calling them to home-school their five children, the German government levied fines greater than the family's income, and the parents risked losing custody of their children.  But the Romeikes could see that German public school was damaging their children.  

Uwe told CBN News there were “fights at school, pressure, bullying, Lydia had stomach and headaches and Daniel was all withdrawn after just one year of being at public school.  So that was already reason enough for us to start homeschooling.”

After fleeing Germany 15 years ago for the US, the family fought a series of legal battles after which their asylum request was denied.  But in 2013, the Obama Administration granted them “indefinite deferred action status,” meaning they could stay in the US. They settled in eastern Tennessee, where Uwe works as a piano teacher, piano tuner, and an accompanist at a local university.

Then, on Sept. 6 of this year, the Romeikes were told their deferred status had been revoked, and they had four weeks to obtain German passports and leave their home in America.  They had no warning of the deportation order, and were offered no explanation, except that there had been a “change of orders.”

In the past 15 years, the Romeikes have become a thoroughly American family.  Two of their children were born in the US and are therefore American citizens.  Two older children have married Americans, and they have a grandchild.  Uwe told us, “I don’t identify myself much as a German anymore.”

CBN News asked ICE who ordered the deportation and why.  They did not give us an answer but, in a general statement, said that ICE “...conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)...and reviews each case as appropriate.”

The Romeike family knows that the matter is in the Lord’s hands.  But whatever happens, the family will stick together.  Hannelore says, “His Word is steady and a rock, and we can stand on it.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Homosexual Activists Nervous Over Texas Judge Who Refused to Officiate Same-Sex Weddings

A county judge who refused to recognize same-sex wedding ceremonies in Texas, and was punished for doing so, is awaiting her legal fate after defending her First Amendment rights before the Texas Supreme Court.

Judge Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco, TX, was warned by a state commission in 2019 when it learned she was refusing to officiate same-sex weddings. She appealed her punishment last week before the state court.

Hensley is being represented by First Liberty Institute, where Hiram Sasser is an attorney and defended his client before the state justices.  “The argument went really well from our perspective,” Sasser tells American Family News (AFN).  

For a religious person such as Hensley, the Obergefell ruling in 2015 created a huge moral conflict because the U.S. Supreme Court said two men, or two women, must be legally recognized as a married couple.  That legal precedent conflicts with thousands of years of biblical teachings about marriage and sexuality, however, and overnight many people such as Hensley were told to accept a wedding ceremony they viewed as immoral.

According to The Texas Tribune, a liberal newspaper, Hensley filed a lawsuit against the state commission accusing it of violating her free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.  A lower-court tribunal dismissed the lawsuit but the Texas Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal, the newspaper reported in a story published before last week's hearing.  Liberal legal analysts and homosexual rights activists told the Tribune they are alarmed Hensley was citing a second U.S. Supreme Court ruling, 302 Creative LLC v Enis, to defend her religious rights. That landmark ruling, which was handed down earlier this summer, defended the First Amendment rights of a business owner who refused to use her creative talents as a website designer to recognize same-sex weddings.  

The homosexual activists expressed alarm because Hensley’s legal fight, if successful, could expand the 302 Creative case to include public officials, not just business owners. “The law of the land is marriage equality,” a homosexual activist told the Tribune.  “If judges and justices of the peace were empowered to only enforce the laws that they agreed with, we would quickly descend into anarchy.”

A second homosexual activist told the Tribune that Hensley winning her lawsuit would “basically gut a good portion of marriage equality that we got,” referring to the Obergefell ruling.  

“302 Creative affirmed that religious liberty is not a second-class right in America,” Justin Butterfield, a second First Liberty attorney, told the Tribune before last week’s hearing. “We look forward to vindicating Judge Hensley’s rights in the Texas Supreme Court.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Biden Administration Fines Christian University

The largest Christian university in the USA is being fined $37.7 million by the federal government amid accusations that it misled students about the cost of its graduate programs.

Grand Canyon University, which has more than 100,000 students mostly in online programs, faces the largest fine of its kind ever dealt by the U.S. Education Department. The university previously denied any wrongdoing and says it’s being unfairly targeted in retaliation for an ongoing lawsuit.

An Education Department investigation found that Grand Canyon lied to more than 7,500 current and former students about the cost of doctoral programs.  As far back as 2017, the university said its doctoral programs would cost between $40,000 and $49,000.  The department found that less than 2% of graduates completed programs within the range, with 78% paying an additional $10,000 to $12,000.  The additional cost came from “continuation courses” that were needed to finish dissertation requirements, the department said.

The fine drew a quick response from the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In a letter recently sent by the Chamber, the group called on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to end his department’s unfair treatment and scrutiny of the University.  The Chamber's letter says, “The ongoing dispute between the U.S. Department of Education and GCU stems from the university’s transition from a for-profit to a non-profit status in 2018.”  The letter says that change is “recognized by various regulatory bodies, including the IRS, Higher Learning Commission, and state authorities.  However, it is perplexing that the Department of Education refuses to acknowledge this transition.”

As far as the government’s claim of misleading the students about the cost of graduate programs, the Chamber says in a newsletter that the Department of Education’s arguments against GCU are “flimsy” and “borderline preposterous.”  The Chamber says, “For example, the government says that GCU’s estimates of the cost of finishing a doctoral program weren’t sufficiently transparent.  But GCU provides prospective doctoral students with far more information on costs than ever required by the federal government.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel 

Say “Thank You for Your Service”

Jesus performed many miracles that transformed and saved lives, yet it seems that few recipients of His kindness took time to thank Him for what He personally did for them. The Bible records one of those rare occasions:

“Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him.  And he was a Samaritan.  Then Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed?  But the nine—where are they?’” (Luke 17:15-17 NASB).

Thankfulness is a personal virtue each of us should possess and practice.  The Apostle Paul, throughout his epistles, vocalized gratitude— as when he closed the book of Romans by saying: “Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you ... Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord.  Greet Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord” (Romans 16:6,12 NASB).

When was the last time we thanked those who “work hard” for us?  Gratitude should unite us not just as people of faith but also as a country.  When a country stops saying “Thank You!” to those who uphold our laws and defend our liberties, freedom is in jeopardy— because liberty and safety are being taken for granted.

Most of us probably don’t have a specific experience where we owe our lives to uniformed persons, but we all should nevertheless say “Thank You!” for the countless ways our police officers, veterans, and firefighters have protected us in times of danger.

In short: Be thankful— and express that gratefulness to those who defend our constitutional freedoms and blessings.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Quit Blaming. Start Praying!

“An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression” (Proverbs 29:22 NASB).

It seems that in the wake of every shooting in America, many are looking for a scapegoat. They look for someone to blame for these tragedies, and it rarely ends up being the culprit who actually pulled the trigger.

I would submit to you that a call to prayer is an appropriate action at any time, especially during times of difficulty and tragedy.  As Abraham Lincoln reminded Americans during the Civil War:

“[I]t is the duty of nations as well … and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord [Psalm 33:12].  But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace—too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

We should call on God.  We should also make the culprits who pulled the trigger the object of our outrage— they should be the ones on whom we place blame.  As God affirms:

“The person who sins will die … the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20 NASB).

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10 NASB).

We should start blaming the real culprits.  Better yet, let’s quit blaming and instead come together and start praying.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel