8 Facts about Kamala Harris’s Church

As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, more Americans tune in for information about the major candidates.  For spiritually active, governance engaged conservatives, who know firsthand the formative role a church can play, a candidate’s church background is an important issue that often receives little coverage in the mainstream media.  To fill that void, here are eight facts about Vice President Kamala Harris’s church, Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, CA.

1. Third Baptist Church comes across as a traditional black Baptist church with a heavy focus on social engagement.

Third Baptist Church retains the look and feel that have come to be associated with black Baptist churches.  At its most recent service, a church choir and organ led a lively time of worship, and a talented male soloist presented a prepared song. The pastor wore a suit and tie, delivering his remarks in the classic, sing-song style and eliciting the classic exclamations of encouragement from his hearers.

Third Baptist also provides a wide-ranging array of social programs.  The church provides a low-cost weekly lunch for seniors, a free weekly lunch for the homeless and needy, a six-week K-12 summer school, and a music academy for inner-city youth.  It also hosts a Narcotics Anonymous night and has sponsored more than 1,000 resettled refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Haiti.

2. Third Baptist’s longtime lead pastor is the Reverend Amos Brown, Sr.

Third Baptist Church of San Francisco called the Reverend Amos Cleophus Brown, Sr. as its pastor in June 1976, and he remains active there 48 years later.  As its pastor, Brown has shaped the church’s social aspect, its community outreach, and its political engagement for nearly five decades.

Brown’s wife Jane is known as the church’s First Lady and “is widely hailed as the best fundraiser. … Whatever committee she joins or task she assumes will achieve excellence.”  Mrs. Brown chaired the committee for the church’s 150th anniversary gala in 2001, at which President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker.

Brown graduated with a B.A. from Morehouse College in 1964 and with an M.Div. from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1968.  He later earned a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in 1990.

As a young man, Brown was deeply shaped by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.  He grew up in Mississippi only an hour away from Emmett Till, a black teenager about Brown’s age who was lynched and murdered in 1955 after he was accused of offending a white woman.  Brown “served as National Chairman of the Youth and College Division of the NAACP” in 1959 and as “Youth Field Secretary for the NAACP in the South” from 1962-1964.  “In 1962, he led a ‘kneeling’ demonstration which resulted in the desegregation of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia,” according to Third Baptist’s website. During the Civil Rights movement, Brown interacted with Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Mitchell, Medgar Evers, and Jesse Jackson.

Brown’s experience with racial segregation and civil rights activism still influences him today.  Just recently, while preaching about Paul’s Macedonian call and Lydia’s conversion from Acts 16, Brown spoke at length about how his great-great-grandfather endured the evils of slavery in America and then later told the story of a KKK ambush against a young black pastor.

“I know America.  America is a racist country,” Brown complained in a 2021 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.  He accused San Francisco of ongoing racism, saying the city “does not deserve the brand and image that it has of being liberal and progressive.”  He said black people are being “pushed out” of the city, declaring that a decline in the city’s black population from 16% in the 1970s to 4% today “didn’t happen by accident and it wasn’t just economics. It happened because of public policy.”

Brown’s perspective on contemporary political issues has been shaped for decades by his Civil-Rights-Era experiences.

3. Brown opposed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

In 1991, Brown served as chair of the Social Justice Commission of the National Baptist Convention.  According to the church’s website, he “was successful … in unifying” the entire black Baptist convention against Thomas’ nomination.

Brown testified against Thomas before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  His testimony criticized Thomas’s stances against minimum wage laws and welfare, which were based on Thomas’s convictions that these policies hindered black advancement more than they helped.  “At best,” Brown said, “what he has produced is a barrage of speeches and writings in support of the right-wing conservative ideology.”

When Brown finished his remarks, the committee chairman replied, “Reverend Brown, I must say that is the most concise, explicit, and damning bill of particulars against Judge Thomas I have heard, and somewhat convincing,” a fact repeated in his church biography.  That chairman was then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden.

4. Brown criticized U.S. for leaving an anti-Semitic conference.

In September 2001, Brown represented the NAACP at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, where apartheid ended only 11 years earlier.  When the conference devolved into attacks against Israel, the American and Israeli delegations left in protest. “South Africa rushed tonight to convene emergency meetings to redraft the declaration and program of action in the hope of averting other walkouts,” The New York Times reported. The Canadian delegation stayed only to register a complaint.

Later that month, after the 9/11 terror attacks, Brown criticized the U.S. walkout while speaking at a memorial service for 9/11 victims, implying that the U.S. bore moral culpability for provoking the attacks.  “America, America, what did you do — either intentionally or unintentionally — in the world order, in Central America, in Africa where bombs are still blasting?” he said.  “America, what did you do in the global warming conference when you did not embrace the smaller nations?  America, what did you do two weeks ago when I stood at the world conference on racism, when you wouldn’t show up?”

According to the San Francisco Gate, Brown’s remarks pleased the crowd but shocked the politicians in attendance.  The late Senator Dianne Feinstein and CA Governor Gray Davis both got up and walked out.  Then-Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-D), who spoke later in the service, rebuked Brown, “With all due respect to some of the sentiments that were earlier expressed — some of which I agree with — make no mistake (about it) ... the act of terrorism on September 11 put those people outside the order of civilized behavior, and we will not take responsibility for that.”

Far from being embarrassed by the dust-up, Third Baptist still proudly records this speech in Rev. Brown’s biography.

5. Brown opposed Proposition 8 and actively promotes same-sex marriage.

In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, a ballot measure that defined marriage as a union of one man and one woman.  Rev. Brown was a leading opponent of the ballot measure, even to the point of publicly breaking with other black ministers who participated in the San Francisco branch of the NAACP.

Same-sex marriage “was coming,” said Brown, “and I was one of the persons who for years have pushed for us to face this matter.  He explained his reasoning, “it would’ve been hypocritical for us in the face of these debates … to have, in the past, stood for the rights and equality of opportunity for blacks … and then to turn around and [not stood with] other people who are marginalized for whatever reason.”

In response to those who based their objections to same-sex marriage on the Bible, Brown responded, “Even though Jesus did, out of his faith tradition, say that the man, you know, should forsake his father and mother and cleave to his wife and all that … people need to look at in context that … Jesus did not say anything about gays, did not say anything negative about people who had different social orientation.”

In a 2021 interview, Brown said, “There should be no restrictions on persons on how they express their sexuality.”

When Proposition 8 was challenged in court, then-Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to defend it. The case dragged on in court for years.  In 2011, Jerry Brown became governor, and he was succeeded as attorney general by Kamala Harris, who also refused to defend Proposition 8.

6. Brown endorsed monetary reparations for black Americans.

Brown served on San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which last summer issued a report calling on the city “to provide any adult who has identified as black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years and has lived in San Francisco for at least 10 years with reparations,” The Christian Post’s Ryan Foley reported.  The Committee demanded $5 million from the city, as well as financial services, debt forgiveness, guaranteed insurance, business discounts, and tuition assistance for eligible residents.

7. Brown introduced a pulpit exchange program with rabbis.

“Rev. Brown introduced a pulpit exchange program,” the church website states, “bringing Rabbis to speak at Third Baptist and Black Pastors to speak in synagogues.”  As part of the pulpit exchange program, which has continued annually since 1987, Jewish rabbis would preach at Third Baptist, and a Third Baptist preacher would preach at Congregation Emanuel.

“This is what the world needs to see.  There’s too much division, too much hate, too much war,” said Brown.  “This dichotomous thinking of them against us and us against them has to stop.  And we need to master that little pronoun ‘We.’ This is a ‘we’ thing tonight.”

The Jewish apostle John wrote, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2).

8. Brown supports Harris’s candidacy for president.

During his August 4 sermon, Rev. Brown alluded to the current presidential campaign and made the following remarks: “We better stop this culture war that’s going on in America, about whether or not a woman can lead this nation,” he said.  “This has got to stop, this culture war about where the woman belongs. For I heard Sojourner Truth said, a long time ago, ‘Ain’t I a woman?  I can pick up a pail of water.  I can move a log.  I can do anything a man can do.’”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

10 Things to Look for in This Week’s Democratic Party Convention

As the Democratic National Convention (DNC) meets this week, Kamala Harris hopes it will be an opportunity to recast herself as a moderate.  Harris has launched “a highly choreographed effort to define herself — in some cases, redefine herself — as a different kind of Democrat,” insiders have told Axios. “Harris won’t say it this bluntly in public, but her advisers do so privately: She wants to break with Biden on issues on which he’s unpopular.”

Last month, the Democratic Party released a draft of its 2024 platform which, like all platforms, reflects a political party’s long-term aspirational plans to reshape the nation.  The 2024 platform contains numerous extreme policies that should concern Americans of all backgrounds, especially people of faith.  The real test of the vice president’s would-be transformation comes down to a simple question: Can she stand up against her party on these issues?

1. Will Harris ‘Protect’ Transgender Surgeries for Minors and Place Boys in Girls’ Showers?

The draft of the 2024 Democratic Party platform touts the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts “to address discriminatory legislative attacks against LGBTQI+ children” and “safeguard health care.”  It contrasts this to President Donald Trump’s “extreme plan to punish doctors who treat transgender youth and to ban gender-affirming care” for kids.

This refers to roughly half of all U.S. states which have passed versions of the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.  These commonsense protections shield minors from potentially-sterilizing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries that remove the healthy breasts and reproductive organs of minors.  While the White House has suddenly backed away from surgeries for minors during this campaign season, at least publicly, the Democratic Party remains committed to giving Planned Parenthood and other pillars of the multi-billion-dollar transgender industry the green light to carry out so-called “gender-affirming care,” with all its permanent and irreversible effects, on minors whose brains have not yet fully developed — minors whom the law bars from getting a tattoo or smoking a cigarette, because they do not understand the long-term implications of those choices.

Strong majorities oppose transgender procedures for adolescents.  A total of 55% of Americans believe “changing one’s gender” is immoral, according to a 2023 Gallup poll.  A majority of multiracial (53%), Hispanic (52%), and white Americans (51%), as well as half of black Americans (50%) oppose placing males of any age in areas where females disrobe.

The platform also promises to “prioritize the investigation of hate crimes against trans and non-binary people.”  All crime is hate crime, rooted in a hatred of a God-given order that upholds the right to life. Yet prosecuting alleged “hate crimes” threatens free speech and serves as another avenue for the government to weaponize federal agencies against American citizens who uphold biblical morality.

The platform also vows to “ban so-called ‘conversion therapy.’”  Despite the scare wording, “conversion therapy” consists of compassionate conversations aimed at helping people (many of whom were molested) fulfill their desire to embrace their birth gender.  Respecting medical professionals’ freedom of speech to enable children to live happier lives should be easy for a campaign that has oriented itself around “joy” and “freedom.”

2. Will Harris Stop ‘Fighting’ Parents Trying to Keep Porn out of Schools?

If Kamala Harris wishes to appear as a centrist, she could begin by standing up against her party’s war on parents.  In addition to transgender surgeries, the Democratic platform dedicates the full resources of the federal government to “fighting book bans that censor LGBTQI+ content.”  President Donald Trump and his “MAGA allies are ripping away our bedrock personal freedoms, dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love,” says the first page of the 80-page document.  These alleged “book bans” simply seek to place books with graphic sexual content in an age-restricted portion of the library.  Many of these books contain graphic, cartoon-like depictions of sodomy, as well as wistfully-positive descriptions and depictions of child molestation.

3. Will Harris Stop Backing Taxpayer-Funded Abortion until Birth?

The draft platform promises to nationalize taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.  “With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again,” states the platform.  “We will repeal the Hyde Amendment,” the federal law dating back to the mid-1970s that protects pro-life Americans from seeing their salaries pay for most abortions.

Democrats promise a national abortion expansion, funded by pro-life taxpayers. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of U.S. voters oppose funding abortion in the United States, such as the $1.89 billion abortion businesses received from taxpayers over just three years, according to a Marist poll.  Wouldn’t a moderate want to appeal to two-thirds of voters?

4. Will Harris Crush Christians’ Conscience Rights?

The Democratic Party draft platform threatens Christian conscience rights in one small sentence: “Democrats will pass the Equality Act to codify protections for LGBTQI+ Americans.”  The Equality Act would force Christian businesses to hire people who identify as LGBTQIA2S+ by adding sexual orientation (and in some drafts, gender identity) to civil rights legislation.  It could potentially impose a quota for such hiring practices, despite the owners’ biblical moral convictions.  Heavy fines and federal prosecution such as the kind suffered by Masterpieces Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, would follow.

5. Will Harris Oppose Taxpayer-Funded Transgenderism in Prison?

The 2024 draft platform states, “We will guarantee access to medical care in prison.”  Since the federal government already provides health care in prisons, the platform means the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitments to furnishing taxpayer-funded transgender hormones and surgeries to prisoners — and the administration has committed to housing inmates who identify as transgender in the opposite sex’s prisons, triggering an atmosphere of rape, sexual assault, intimidation, and physical abuse.  This seems particularly relevant in a platform that touts the “National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.”

6. Will Harris Add Up to Six States to the United States?

“We unequivocally support statehood for D.C.,” reads the platform.  “Democrats support self-determination for Puerto Rico. … Democrats also support self-determination for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.  We will create a Congressional task force to study equal voting rights and House representation.”

Unable to win elective office or pass sweeping national legislation, self-styled progressives have turned to remaking the electorate, changing constitutional offices, and fundamentally transforming America.  In addition to remaking the Supreme Court and granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, some propose adding new states to the union.  These liberal-leaning states would each add two new U.S. senators and at least one representative to Congress, tilting the balance in a socialistic direction.

7. Will Harris Double Down on Open Borders?

The Biden-Harris Administration has presided over a historic number of illegal entries at the southern border, fueled by promises that they may receive “free” health care and the most valued benefit: U.S. citizenship.  Yet the draft platform promises to “provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and others,” boasts of Biden-Harris actions to “expand legal pathways to citizenship,” and commits to “supporting a pathway for long-term undocumented individuals.”  It brags that the administration “has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients.”  Lest the point be missed, the platform demands, “Congress must pass legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, farmworkers, careworkers, and other long-term undocumented individuals.”

The platform poses as tough on crime, stating agents have “arrested more individuals for fentanyl-related crimes in the last two years than in the previous five years combined.”  That may indicate increased enforcement; it may also indicate a massive increase in fentanyl trafficking, crimes and overdoses under Harris’s watch.  As it turns out, the Biden-Harris Administration clarifies which it is: “fentanyl seizures have increased more than 860% from fiscal years 2019-2023, and fentanyl seizures nearly doubled from fiscal years 2022-2023,” reports the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

It also vows to increase competition for U.S. jobs.  “Congress must act to increase the number of family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant visas that are available each fiscal year so that people aren’t forced to wait decades,” it states.

8. The Democratic Party Promises to Literally Ban Speech.

The draft 2024 Democratic platform contains an odd proposal that would literally ban speech.  “We will also ban voice impersonations,” states the platform in its section on artificial intelligence.  It is not clear how this would square with the First Amendment.

The section adds that, since “AI can deepen discrimination,” the platform commits to “combating algorithmic discrimination.”  The clearest example of such discrimination came when Google’s AI platform depicted George Washington and other Founding Fathers exclusively as black men.

9. Is ‘Nothing More Important’ than Climate Change?

“There is nothing more important than addressing the climate crisis,” states the platform.

10. Will Harris End the Lies and Incitement about President Donald Trump?

In a fallen world, lies are the lingua franca of politics.  Yet the 2024 draft platform distinguishes itself in this regard.  “Trump called members of the military who died in war ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’  He disparages the brave men and women who wear our uniform and protect our democracy and national security,” it says.  The platform recycles the “suckers” and “losers” lie twice.  “He called white supremacist and openly-antisemitic Charlottesville protesters ‘very fine people.’”

The platform continues to present potentially inciting language against the president:

“Trump is a greater danger to democracy than ever. ... After years undermining public faith and confidence in our elections, he has warned of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses now. … He has vowed to weaponize our government to go after his enemies and benefit his allies. … And to silence his critics, he suggested the ‘termination’ of our Constitution.  There is no more profound threat to the soul of our nation.”

The draft platform was released on July 13 — the same day that Thomas Matthew Crooks came within a fraction of an inch of assassinating President Donald Trump.  Yet the Harris campaign has doubled down on the issue.  “To a crowd of 12,000 in Las Vegas, Harris says Trump is a threat to democracy,” reported NPR.  At a campaign stop earlier this month in Eau Claire, WI, the vice president continued to beat the drum and “pointed to his vow to be a dictator ‘on day one’, his threats to weaponize the Justice Department against his political enemies and his 2022 comment demanding the ‘termination’ of constitutional provisions over his 2020 election defeat.”

If Harris hopes to remake herself as a moderate, she should pivot on all of these issues.  Even fellow Democrats know that whether voters will buy her distancing from her own positions of years past, and her administration’s accomplishments, is another story.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Biden-Harris Continues Convicting and Sentencing Pro-Lifers

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has sentenced three more pro-life Americans for defending the unborn.

Last week, James Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and Paul Place were sentenced to 90 days of home detention and three years of probation for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, according to ABC News.  The trio, along with Eva Edl, were convicted by a federal magistrate judge of misdemeanor FACE Act violations in April, relating to a 2021 peaceful protest outside a Nashville-area abortion facility.

Six other pro-lifers were convicted in January on FACE Act violations related to the same protest.  Four of them were sentenced earlier in July.  Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green were sentenced to three years of supervised release, Coleman Boyd was fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years of probation, and protest organizer Calvin Zastrow was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of supervised release.  Prosecutors with the Biden-Harris Administration’s DOJ had requested significantly more severe sentences, but U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger cited the motivation of the pro-lifers’ sincerely-held religious beliefs and their “good works in the community” in her sentencing.

Defendant Caroline Davis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor FACE Act violations last year and was sentenced earlier this year to three years of probation.  Sentencing has been postponed for Heather Idoni, Chester Gallagher, and 89-year-old Eva Eld, who all face a trial this month in Michigan on similar charges related to pro-life protests.  Edl, who survived imprisonment in a communist prison camp in Yugoslavia after World War II, told The Daily Signal in an interview that she does not expect to survive prison after having been convicted of FACE Act violations.  “When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there,” she said in April.  “There’s no guarantee that I survive it.”

Prosecution of pro-lifers has become a standard for the DOJ under Biden-Harris.  Last year, nine pro-life activists with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) group were convicted of FACE Act violations for protesting outside an abortion facility in the Washington, D.C. area and were immediately jailed prior to sentencing.  U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly commented at the time that she deemed FACE Act violations to be “crime[s] of violence.” PAAU Activism Director Lauren Handy was eventually sentenced to nearly five years in prison.

Catholic father Mark Houck was indicted in 2022 on alleged violations of the FACE Act outside a Philadelphia-area abortion facility.  Although Houck agreed to cooperate with prosecutors if charges were brought, the DOJ instead sent a team of approximately two dozen FBI agents armed with automatic rifles and riot gear to raid Houck’s home and arrest him in front of his wife and children.  Houck was acquitted at trial, but maintains that the raid on his home and subsequent prosecution are part of a broader effort by Biden’s DOJ to silence and intimidate pro-life Americans.  According to a lawsuit filed in May, Houck’s children were traumatized by the FBI raid on their home.  Houck’s is the only FACE Act prosecution case that the Biden Administration has lost since taking power in 2021.

Last year, an FBI whistleblower reported that the agency had applied a special “threat tag,” originally intended to address threats against U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justices after Roe v. Wade was overturned, to pro-life Americans.  According to DOJ data obtained by The Daily Caller, the Biden Administration “is using a novel application of an 1870 statute to enhance the sentences of peaceful abortion protesters.”  The DOJ has reportedly added “Conspiracy Against Rights” charges to FACE Act violation charges, ensuring that pro-lifers convicted of FACE Act violations face up to 10 years in prison. Additionally, 97% of FACE Act prosecutions since the law was enacted in 1994 have been against pro-life Americans, even though the law also protects churches and pregnancy resource centers.

“Once again, we see the Biden Administration intent on making pro-life activists pay a high price for their attempts to protect unborn life,” said Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, in comments to The Washington Stand.  “This is upsetting for the pro-lifers who received their sentence, but it is also indicative of a leftist-run DOJ that prioritizes targeting ideological opponents while ignoring attacks on churches, for example.”

According to an FRC report Del Turco authored, attacks against churches in the U.S. have increased by 800% since 2018.  Between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2023, there were over 700 vandalism attacks, 135 arson-related attacks, over 30 bomb threats, over 20 gun-related incidents, and a myriad of other attacks, assaults, and threats — all against churches.  CatholicVote’s “Violence Tracker” reports that nearly 300 Catholic churches have been attacked since May of 2022, shortly before the SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade.

Erin Hawley, vice president of the Center for Life and Regulatory Practice at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), noted that, at least over the course of 2022, no prosecutions were made against those who attacked churches or pregnancy resource centers, although 26 pro-life Americans were targeted with FACE Act prosecutions that year. Since Biden took office in 2021, there have been 55 FACE Act prosecutions, only five of which involved violent attacks against pregnancy resource centers.  In total, the Biden Administration’s FACE Act prosecutions over the course of less than four years accounts for a quarter of all FACE Act prosecutions over the past 30 years.

“This is particularly relevant now as the election season ramps up,” Del Turco observed, pointing to V.P. Harris’ complicity in the administration’s targeting of pro-life Americans. She recalled that Harris aggressively prosecuted reporter David Daleiden when he published video evidence that “Planned Parenthood was selling the body parts of aborted babies.”  Del Turco pointed out that Planned Parenthood was donating to Harris’ senate campaign at the time.  “If Harris is elected president, we can expect the attacks on pro-lifers that we’ve seen over the last four years to continue, or perhaps worsen,” Del Turco concluded.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

What Does the Wife of J.D. Vance Say Is Most Important to Him?

For those who care deeply about faith, family, and freedom, it’s important to know where presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates stand on public policies that particularly impact families — such as the child tax credit, parental rights, school choice, religious freedom, and the sanctity of human life.

Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice presidential candidate and Senator J.D. Vance (OH-R), has brought attention in recent weeks to the fact that family is of utmost importance to her husband.  In her moving speech before the delegates at the Republican National Convention in July, Vance described her husband as the most determined person she knows “with one overriding ambition: to become a husband and a father and to build the kind of tight-knit family that he had longed for as a child.”  She explained, “His goals in this new role are the same that he has pursued for our family — to keep people safe, to create opportunities to build a better life, and to solve problems with an open mind.”

Vance and his wife first gained national attention from his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was released in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller.  In 2020, it became a movie which has received renewed attention on Netflix since former President Trump chose Vance to be his running mate.  In “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance writes about his family’s struggle with poverty, family violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

In an interview with Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt last week, Usha Vance said about her husband, “There is nothing that he cares about more than being there for his kids. He wakes up after a really late night of travel … at 6 a.m. to make sure that they have an elaborate breakfast the next day.  He is just determined to be there for them.”  Vance went on to say that her husband is thankful for role models such as his grandmother, aunt, and his uncle who currently lives with them now.  Usha herself grew up in a loving family with both of her parents and her sister.  She said their family means everything to them and keeps them well-grounded.

Usha told Earhardt that what her husband “really cares about” is “the people he grew up around.  There are a lot of people that just haven’t had the opportunity to wake up every day and know that their kids are going to have a better life than they had themselves, and I just think that J.D. is not afraid to push the boundaries and to shake things up in the way that will allow more people to wake up … to know that they’re giving their kids a better life and that it’s possible.”

When Earhardt asked Vance about her husband’s controversial words that he used in a 2021 interview, referring to some liberal policymakers as “childless cat ladies,”  Usha said she wished people would go back and take a look at the context in which he used those words. She explained, “What he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.  And we should be asking ourselves, ‘Why is that true?  What is it about our leadership and the way that they think about the world that makes it so hard sometimes for parents?’  And that’s the conversation that I really think we should have, and I understand why he was saying that.”

Earhardt asked, “What do you say to the women who were offended or were hurt by that?”

Usha replied, “I think I would say, first of all, that J.D. absolutely at the time and today would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family who really was struggling with that.  He made that clear at the time.  He has made that clear today. And we have lots of friends who have been in that position.  It is challenging and never ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of.  I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good.  I think what I would say is, let’s try to look at the real conversation he is trying to have and engage with it and understand for those of us who do have families, for the many of us who want to have families and for whom it’s really hard, what can we do to make it better? What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?”

Earhardt then asked Vance to explain the importance of family and society to her husband. Usha answered, “I think it comes from his background.  It comes from the fact that he knows that he would not be anywhere near where he is today if he hadn’t had family members looking out for him every stretch of the way.  I think it comes from seeing my family and knowing that the stability and calm that I provide in our family life comes from all of the support that I had, just the faith that things would be okay because I had people behind me.  I think that J.D. needs family to thrive.”

In a speech in Atlanta recently, the OH senator highlighted some of the family-friendly policies he cares so deeply about — which Democrats in Congress and the White House vehemently oppose.  He pointed out, “Barack Obama said we cling to God and guns; remember that Hillary Clinton called us ‘deplorables’; and now Kamala Harris says we’re ‘weird.’  Well, Kamala, I’m glad you brought that up.  Let’s talk about some things that are weird.  We think it’s weird that Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.  We think it’s weird that the far Left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing, and we think it’s weird for a presidential candidate to bail convicted rapists and murderers out of prison, and that’s what Kamala Harris did.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Conservatives React to Harris-Walz Ticket

Conservative leaders and elected officials are warning that V.P. Harris and Gov. Walz (MN-D) represent the most far-left presidential ticket in American history.

“This is the most Radical Left duo in American history.  There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again.  Crazy Kamabla is, indeed, CRAZY,” declared former President Trump on Truth Social, in response to Harris selecting Walz as her running mate.  Trump joked that the Harris-Walz ticket is so extreme that “THERE IS A BIG MOVEMENT TO ‘BRING BACK CROOKED JOE.’”

“I would say my reaction is I can’t believe it, I never thought he was going to be the one that was picked,” Trump told Fox News in a last week morning interview.  “He’s a very, very liberal man, and he’s a shocking pick.”  The former president added that he’s “thrilled” to be competing against such a stark contrast in November’s election, pledging to focus on Harris’s and Walz’s “radical” records.  “He’s a smarter version of her,” Trump quipped, referring to the Democratic duo’s left-wing policies.  He continued, “There’s never been a ticket like this.  This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. … He’s very heavy into transgender — anything transgender he thinks is great.  And he’s not where the country is on anything.”  He added, “This is a really bad decision for the country. Ultimately, I want the country to have good decisions because, ultimately, what we want is for the country to do well.  The country can’t do well with these two people.”

Trump’s own running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (OH-R), took a similar approach, saying that Harris’s selection of Walz “just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is…”  He continued, “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail.  So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris.”  He noted, “She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy.  And most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”

An U.S. Marine Corps veteran himself, Vance also criticized Walz for lying about his military record at a campaign event last week.  “As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it.  I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” Vance said. He continued, “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”  The senator added, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”

FL’s Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also blasted the Harris-Walz ticket, quipping the pair’s campaign slogan might be “Make America Burn Again.”  At a press event, DeSantis noted the involvement of both Harris and Walz in 2020s Black Lives Matter riots, saying, “Those were riots that Harris egged on and raised money to bail out the rioters with Minnesota Bail Fund, and they’re riots that Tim Walz as governor sat back and let happen.  He sat back and let the city of Minneapolis burn.  That city has been gutted as a result of those riots.”  He continued, “This is a ticket that really represents the spirit of those 2020 BLM riots.  You have a very vapid San Francisco Democrat and then you’ve got an Ilhan Omar-style leftist, Tim Walz, who has the same policies as his fellow Minnesotan Ilhan Omar,” referring to pro-Hamas “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-D).  The FL governor added, “We do not need an America that represents the failed policies of San Francisco or the failed policies of Minneapolis.  We do not need to see poop on the street and cities burning down.  That is not a prescription for America to work its way back.”

DeSantis also observed that, in 2021, “Minnesotans were roughly five times more likely to move to Florida than vice versa.  They were fleeing a state that, under Gov. Tim Walz, turned its back on law and order, increased taxes, and imposed unscientific coronavirus restrictions, harming children and destroying businesses.”  He reiterated, “Walz is an unbridled leftist, an Ilhan Omar-style Democrat that puts ideology above all else.”

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of the Lone Star State branded Harris and Walz “the most radical and dangerous administration in modern history.”  He stated, “Tim Walz will be a rubberstamp for Kamala Harris’ deadly open border policies, refusing to admit there is a border crisis, opposing border wall funding, and supporting sanctuary cities.”

“As Governor of Minnesota, Walz’s policies endangered the lives of those he was elected to protect — and we can only expect more of the same as Vice President,” Abbott continued. “Like Harris, Walz endorsed defunding the police, and under his watch, vehicle theft, aggravated assault, and even murder rates have gone up in Minnesota. And while Minneapolis was burning as riots overtook the city in 2020, Walz refused to call in the National Guard for three days.”

“Walz is also a climate radical who wants to destroy American energy independence and completely eliminate fossil fuels, killing hundreds of thousands of good-paying oil and gas jobs in Texas and across the country,” the TX governor added.  He concluded, “Tim Walz is in lockstep with Kamala Harris’ dangerous open border, anti-energy, soft-on-crime agenda that will hurt Americans and the future of our country.”

Christian organizations have also sounded the alarm over Walz’s extremism.  Robert Ketterling, founding pastor of the River Valley Church in MN, and Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, issued a joint statement condemning the Harris-Walz pairing.  “Walz has signed laws restricting free speech for pastors, made derogatory comments about conservatives, and embraced socialism — all of which make him an unappealing choice for those in the political center,” the pastors observed.  They continued, “His lack of likability, often coming across as angry and on the edge of violence, only exacerbates his inability to connect with a broader electorate. … [Walz’s] liberal policies, ineffective crisis management, divisive rhetoric, and failure to appeal to independent and moderate voters make him a liability rather than an asset.”

The conservative Catholic League said in a statement that Walz’s “policies on religious liberty and sexual issues mirror” Harris’s.  The Catholic League noted that, in addition to the MN governor’s unabashed abortion and LGBT advocacy, he stripped religious liberty protections from Christians in 2023, barred Christian colleges and universities with statements of faith from participating in the state’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program, and forced churches to remain closed during COVID-19 while he allowed retail stores, liquor shops, bars, casinos, and shopping malls to reopen.  “Tim Walz is no friend of religious liberty, the rights of the unborn, and the welfare of young people.  There will be no tension between him and Harris on any of these issues,” the Catholic League concluded.

Harris announced Walz as her running mate at a campaign event in Philadelphia last week. The V.P. has faced criticism over her own far-left record, which includes abortion advocacy, LGBT activism, climate hysteria, an ongoing illegal immigration crisis, skyrocketing crime rates, rampant inflation, the aggressive prosecution of American Christians, and the cover-up of President Biden’s cognitive decline, among others.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

States Bringing Bible and God’s Law Back Into Schools

In a growing sign of pushback against anti-Christian indoctrination of children funded by coercive taxation imposed on Christians, multiple states are moving to restore biblical truth and the Ten Commandments to their once-central role in education.  The godless, the pagans, and even some Christians, however, are up in arms.

For centuries, the Bible was the primary textbook for Americans.  Education without the Bible would have been inconceivable, if not an oxymoron, to most of the population. Even the primers that young Americans used to learn how to read for hundreds of years were saturated with biblical wisdom and theology.

However, following several generations of government “education,” the U.S. Supreme Court banished prayer and God’s Word from classrooms in 1962 and 1963.  “Refusal to permit religious exercises thus is seen, not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism,” wrote Justice Potter Stewart in his dissent.

The fruit of that establishment of “secularism” (or humanism) via judicial fiat is now clear to see: rampant immorality, crime, fornication, gender confusion, crumbling families, hatred, division, abortion, drug addiction, cities that look like Third World wastelands, surging suicide rates among children, gang violence, and more.

But it appears the nation’s tolerance for it is finally coming to an end.  In June, lawmakers in Louisiana approved a law that requires all government-school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” starting next year.  The statute says they are “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

“When the Supreme Court meets, the doors of the Supreme Court on the backside have the Ten Commandments,” explained Louisiana Governor Jeff (R) Landry, in responding to backlash and hate from the far left.  “Moses faces the U.S. Speaker of the House in the House chamber.  He is the original giver of law.”  Governor Landry noted that the legal system in the United States and the Western world is based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments given by God.  As such, he said it was hard to understand why anti-Christian groups were so upset at the prospect of giving children an opportunity to learn basic morals that are at the foundation of Western civilization.

Following in Louisiana’s footsteps, Oklahoma recently mandated instruction on the Bible in all government schools across the state.  “Every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom,” explained State Superintendent Ryan Walters in a statement.  In a memo, Walters said the state expected “immediate and strict compliance” with the new directive, which builds on state standards requiring basic Bible knowledge.  The goal, he said, will be “to ensure that this historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.”

President Donald Trump weighed in on the controversy in remarks at the Faith and Freedom as well as in a post on Truth Social, calling it a potential first step in a “revival of religion” in America.  “I love the Ten Commandments in public schools, private schools, and many other places for that matter,” he said.  “Read it.  How can we as a nation go wrong?”  Citing some of the commandments such as “thou shalt not steal,” Trump called the divine laws “incredible stuff.  Urging Christians to go vote in November, the Republican contender blasted those who sought to suppress God’s moral laws and keep them out of public places.  “It’s a crazy world,” he said.

As expected, an array of anti-Christian organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation vowed to file lawsuits.  “The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the groups said in a joint statement.  “The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government,” the statement continued without explaining how the Ten Commandments in classrooms would violate the First Amendment.  “Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools.”

Officials suggested the far-left anti-Christian groups were falling right into the trap, hoping that the case will end up at the Supreme Court and it will reverse its previous unconstitutional rulings.  “I can’t wait to be sued,” said Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry before signing the bill.  Walters in Oklahoma also sounded enthusiastic about a legal battle.  “If we get sued and we get challenged, we will be victorious, because the Supreme Court justices [Trump] appointed actually are originalists that look at the Constitution and not what some left-wing professor said about the Constitution,” he said. “The separation of church and state appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution.”

As The Newman Report has documented extensively over a period of many years, every false religion imaginable is welcomed with open arms into the government schools.  In California, the state board of education even voted unanimously for an “ethnic studies model curriculum” forcing children to chant to the Aztec deities of cannibalism and war.

Bills like those in Louisiana and Oklahoma have been introduced in dozens of states. And across the country, efforts to bring biblical truth, prayer, and true morality back into tax-funded schools are proliferating.  However, for the most part, the Bible lessons treat the text as merely historical or of literary value rather than the inspired Word of God.

While the news out of Oklahoma and Louisiana may be an encouraging sign for some Christians, parents should understand that government schools are still not a safe place. In fact, the anti-Christian worldview still reigns supreme in government “education” — even in both states that recently brought some truth back.  Nowhere does God delegate authority over education to civil government.  Adding a Ten Commandments poster or a few lessons on the Bible to unbiblical and even pagan institutions will not fix them.  It may be a small step in the right direction.  But ultimately, the only biblical solution is a total separation of school and state.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Global Outrage after Olympics Blaspheme Jesus and the Last Supper

The opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics mocked the sacred Last Supper of Jesus Christ with a blasphemous drag queen presentation, fueling global outrage that finally forced Olympics organizers to issue a partial apology.  

Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps claimed, “Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group ... If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”

Christians around the world were stunned by the disturbing image of seeing a sexualized recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “The Last Supper” painting.  From the Speaker of the House to billionaire Elon Musk to evangelist Franklin Graham, condemnation was swift and severe.  Graham warned, “Even more than being disrespectful to Christians, I would be concerned about being disrespectful to God.  His Word tells us, ‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked’ (Galatians 6:7).  Whether you’re Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, or Protestant, it is offensive.”  SpaceX, Tesla and X owner Musk called it “extremely disrespectful to Christians.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-R) posted, “Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.  The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today.  But we know that truth and virtue will always prevail.  ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (John 1:5).”  Even Christian Actress Candace Cameron Bure felt compelled to comment on the monumental mockery of the faith. “I didn’t really want to weigh in on the Olympics opening ceremony publicly because I always risk becoming a headline,” she said in an Instagram post.  “But it felt too important not to.”  “The Olympic Games have always brought me so much joy.  It’s the best of the best athletes in the world competing for the title,” she said.  “So to watch such an incredible and wonderful event that’s going to take place over the next two weeks and see the opening ceremonies completely blaspheme and mock the Christian faith with their interpretations of the Last Supper was disgusting.  And it made me so sad.”  But she went on to add a positive twist, sharing, “God loves each and every one of you and His desire is for you to know Him.  I won’t stop praying and calling on Jesus’ name.  Share the Gospel message.  Let this be an encouragement to be bold in your faith.  Let us rend our hearts back to God, father of Abraham.  Let us pray.  And pray for the Christian athletes to shine their light for the glory of God.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

A New ‘Jesus Revolution’ Event

Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in CA is celebrating another massive baptism turnout at Pirates Cove.  It’s the latest sign that the nationwide move of God that kicked into high gear with the Asbury awakening of 2023 isn’t over yet.  This latest Pirates Cove baptism comes on the heels of the annual Harvest Crusade held by Pastor Laurie at a fully packed Angel Stadium in Anaheim.  The stadium was at capacity with 50,000 souls while more people gathered in the parking lot and online to participate. Pastor Laurie spoke about “The Sinner’s Prayer,” and 3,500 people walked down on the field to give their lives to Christ.  He says the fire marshal wouldn’t allow any additional people to go down to the field, so hundreds more people were backed up into the aisles. He reports another 1,500 people prayed to receive Christ online.  As a result of those 5,000+ salvations at the Harvest event, 2,000 people showed up to get baptized over the weekend at Pirates Cove in Orange County.

Last year, Pirates Cove was the site where 4,500 people were baptized by Laurie and his team in a single day.  “In twelve months, we baptized 6,500 people,” Laurie exclaimed while telling the testimony during his Sunday sermon this past weekend.  “I see that God is working. As you know the last great spiritual awakening, the Jesus Movement, happened in California, and we’re praying, ‘Lord, do it again,’” he said.  He also explained the historical significance of the baptism site as well.  “This is where we used to baptize people during the Jesus Movement days.  Cathe and I were baptized there too.  This is where we also shot the scenes for the Jesus Revolution film,” he posted.  

Last year’s epic baptism of 4,500 was just one of several stunning baptism events in California, which have been seen as more evidence that the U.S. is experiencing a revival movement or spiritual awakening.  And that awakening has continued this year with thousands making history in May by joining the Baptize California movement at beaches and church sites around the state.  Roughly 12,000 people took the plunge in the largest baptism in U.S. history in a coordinated event of biblical proportions.  “I baptized one family that had 17 people, between kids, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles – everyone getting baptized – crying, hugging.  I mean it felt like a book of Acts page,” Pastor Mark Francey told CBN.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Documents Show Rochester MN Schools Inculcate Staff

Scores of documents obtained by a parents’ rights organization show that staff of Rochester Public Schools (MN) have undergone indoctrination in gender and social justice ideology and imply that some teachers have been trained to keep gender transitions hidden from parents.

Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and obtained numerous documents, including presentations from staff trainings on LGBTQ issues.

One presentation from December 10, 2020, featured a school’s “Equity Team,” which describes the “district’s strategic plan to ‘increase all students’ access to effective, culturally responsive educators,’” and includes the rainbow flag and “COEXIST” imagery. Another presentation from November 22, 2023, included a land acknowledgement featuring a video of Native Americans using one word descriptions such as “lies, colonization, horror,” and “massacre” to describe Thanksgiving.

Other presentations given to staff included one from the AMAZEworks organization which offers “Pride resources.”  Along with a “Land and Labor Acknowledgement,” the presentation included an activity called the “Social Justice Stretch.”  The exercise directs participants to “reach down to get power from the grassroots” and to “reach up to the sky, to the ancestors for inspiration.”  The exercise then directs stretchers to “shake off dominant western culture expectations of individualism, productivity, and perfectionism, move with the winds of change,” and “shine your superpowers into the world.”

Another training was focused on the topic of “exploring microaggressions,” which included discussion of “microassaults,” “microinvalidation,” and “microinsults.”

Beyond staff exercises, which also included helping “staff understand the concept of implicit and explicit bias,” other presentations outlined actions to be taken on gender identity.  One presentation specifically instructed teachers that “someone’s gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation are not behaviors [for] you to ‘report’ to other staff or parents.”

Additionally, the presentation advised teachers that when “contacting parents of a trans student make sure to use the student’s name and pronouns as it is displayed in Skyward,” unless “the student has expressed to you that it is okay to use their preferred name and pronoun with their parents or guardians” or if the “parent is using the student’s preferred pronoun and name in communication with you.”

Alpha News reached out to Rochester Public Schools for comment on the nature of the documents, as well as the $15,000 charged for the public records request.  Mamisoa Knutson, director of communications, replied that “all the examples of presentations Parents Defending Education published today were of staff training sessions, decided on at a school level.” 

“The fee we charged is allowed under Minnesota law and was applied because fulfilling this was a diversion of staff time from teaching and learning to complete a complex data request. The data request was not a simple keyword search; dozens of staff at the district and school levels had to look through multiple years of their materials to find items that fell within the themes Parents Defending Education requested,” Knutson added.

The emergence of this information comes as the school board prepares to vote on a controversial policy on gender issues.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Life Is Not a ‘State’ Issue

Regarding the Atlantic slave trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, it has been estimated that some 12.5 million captured men, women, and children were put on ships in Africa, and that approximately 10.7 million arrived in the United States of America.  At this time, the Atlantic slave trade was easily the costliest, in terms of human life, of all the global migrations businesses.

In 1800s America, slavery was legal and fully and boldly embraced by the southern states. While slavery existed in the North and the South, by 1860, it has been estimated that 95% of Black Americans lived (primarily as slaves) in the southern states.  Clearly, slavery had become a “state” issue.

In the South, slavery put food on the table, built banks, governments, businesses, homes, and cities.  Slavery was easily the leading and most financially profitable economic model of its time.  And by the time the Civil War started between the North and South in 1860, there was no doubt that slavery was a “state” issue.

Frederick Douglass, a Republican who publicly and boldly expressed his hatred of slavery, did not make excuses for Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the time.  In Frederick Douglass’ mind, Abraham Lincoln was not anti-slavery enough.  However, because it was a choice between Abraham Lincoln and radically pro-slavery candidates, Douglass voted for Abraham Lincoln.  Nevertheless, he maintained his moral convictions and ultimately pushed Abraham Lincoln towards his biblically-based and biblically-clear objections to slavery.  Still, in 1864, Frederick Douglass voted for Civil War General John C. Fremont, who was nominated by the Republicans.

While Fremont and many prominent abolitionists were highly and rightfully critical of Abraham Lincoln and his failure to fully embrace the aims of the anti-slavery abolitionists, Fremont eventually had to drop out of the race for the Republican Party’s nomination for president.  As such, Douglass threw his support, however reluctantly, behind Abraham Lincoln.

Is this piece of history ringing any bells?

Douglass never stopped publicly speaking, and unapologetically so, about the evils of slavery and the need for the leader of the Republican Party to embrace the preamble to the United States’ Declaration of Independence, which states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In 1865, the Civil War was won by the northern states and the 13th Amendment (1865), which ended slavery in the U.S., the 14th Amendment (1868), which says no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, and the 15thAmendment (1870), which gives every U.S. citizen the right to vote, are now a part of the Constitution of the United States.

As such, in the United States of America, by way of the Constitution:

Slavery is no longer a state issue.

“Life and Liberty” are no longer state issues.

Voting is no longer a state issue.

The Constitution of the United States makes it clear that:

No human being can be a slave.

No human being can be put to death without due process of law.

Only citizens of the United States have the right to vote.

The idiom “history repeats itself” is especially applicable here, after the Republican National Committee (RNC) removed the Human Life Amendment from its party platform, claiming that abortion is now a “state” issue.  However, just like slavery is no longer a state issue, neither is the right to life and liberty a state issue.

As such, the RNC’s decision to remove the Human Life Amendment from its 2024 party platform, because they claim abortion is now a state issue, is no different from the efforts of the southern states to keep slavery a state issue.

The Republican Party Platform has taken a giant step in the wrong direction.

As American citizens, we must fully embrace the Constitution and what it stands for.  The 14th Amendment of the Constitution is clear.  In America, every human being is endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and at every stage of our humanity — in the womb or out of the womb — every human being has an unalienable right to life and liberty.

I believe we all must work hard — as hard as we can — wherever God has placed us, to restore this language from the 2016 and 2020 Republican Party Platforms to the current Republican Party platform.  It should read: “We support a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and endorse legislation to make it clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to all human beings inside or outside the womb of their mothers.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

The Leftist Media and Plot to Demonize Christians in Politics

Two weeks ago, we witnessed the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.  The attempted assassination didn’t necessarily come as any surprise considering the radical left have been demonizing Trump for some time.  However, it is still shocking to see rhetoric turn into violent action.  There remain many unanswered questions regarding the event, and we will watch with interest to see if they are fully investigated.

In the meantime, what was also predictable was the response by the leftist media who claim that Christian nationalism will become a worsening problem between now and the US election.  Soon after the attempt on Trump’s life, USA Today ran with the headline: “Failed Trump assassination attempt may embolden supporters who see him as chosen by God.”  In the article itself, one paragraph read: “The messaging could embolden Christian nationalist discourse that the former president and his allies have used to portray Trump as a Messiah-like figure on the campaign trail.”  Later in the same article, Dennis Jacobson, founding pastor of Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope said that privileging Christianity would “destroy our multicultural democracy and kill the dream of a beloved community for which so many people are striving.”  He further said, “If white Christian nationalism prevails, you may soon know what it’s like to live in an authoritarian society.”

For years, what we have seen throughout Western nations, and their media conglomerates, is the use of language to introduce a three-step program to demonize, mobilize, and marginalize.  They demonize Christianity to mobilize opponents to it in the hopes of marginalizing those who are the salt and light of the nations in which they live, therefore diminishing their impact throughout their communities.  Although you may be tempted to believe this is a recent strategy, it is taken from the Communist playbook.  In 1943, Communist party headquarters sent a directive to their American followers which read this: “When certain obstructionists become too irritating, label them after suitable buildups as fascist or Nazi or anti-Semitic and use the prestige of anti-fascist and tolerance organizations to discredit them.  In the public mind, constantly associate those who oppose us with those names which already have a bad smell.  The association will after enough repetition become fact in the public mind.”

You see, the salt and light of Christianity has stung the darkened eyes of the Communists, the Marxists, the atheists and the secular humanists and they are doing whatever they can to rinse it out— even using fabrication and violence to do it.  One commentator claimed that Christian nationalism was the “gasping, dying breath of the older generation in America that is afraid that Christians are going to be replaced.”

The hope amongst politicians and the media is that by equating Christians with fanatics and conspiracy theorists, Christians will be sidelined from participating in the political process in their respective nations.  So, by utilizing the term “Christian nationalism,” they want to imply that Christian political engagement is somehow nefarious, subversive, and violent.  As a result of this strategy, many Christians then shrink back from their faith or, worse, soften their convictions and beliefs to appear non-threatening. 

Now more than ever, we need to be speaking the truth in love.  Because let me remind you that the State is not there to shape our understanding of who we are or how we are to behave in this world— we have the Word of God and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to do that for us.  In many ways, what the wicked in our society are doing is trying to push Christianity out of the public square to protect the new religion which has been established in Western nations— a religion based on secular humanism.

You see, Christians have been fooled into believing the lie that there should be neutrality in the public square.  That is simply a tactic to keep believers out of it.  But, despite the views of the secular world, it is not wrong to stand for Christian truth in public.  Yet, many believers have simply accepted it as wrong because the government has told us so.

As Fulton J Sheen once rightly remarked: “A religion that doesn’t interfere with the secular order will soon discover that the secular order will not refrain from interfering with it.”  The State has been extremely adept at seemingly protecting religious liberty while simultaneously undermining our faith with its army of social power, most often unleashed through the power of media (particularly social media).  In fact, the State’s claim that it must uphold diversity and neutrality provides perfect cover for its insidious goal to undermine and control the mind and activities of Christians.  In so doing, what the State really demands is that Christians operating in civil life must adopt either a secularist or non-threatening religious posture.  Because what the State wants is to ensure that Christianity is either rendered harmless to it or that it can be harnessed by it to be helpful to the State’s goals.

Socialists and globalists are leveraging bitterness towards patriotism and nationalism to advance their own agenda by convincing the secular world that Christianity is intolerant of global ideas.  They have turned our principles of love for God and respect for country into something that is shameful, wrong, and dangerous— all so that they are able to convince the population that the globalist/socialist agenda is the right way forward and that Christian principles have no place in ruling government.

Western nations are moving into a dangerous and unstable phase.  In the days, weeks and months ahead, believers must be fervent in prayer, zealous for God’s truth, and steadfast in faith.  1 Corinthians 16:13 is an appropriate closing exhortation: “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.  Let all that you do be done with love.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

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

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel