Remember Pat Tillman

Click to read anArticle written by Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother and veteran as well.
Do you remember Pat Tillman? Pat Tillman thought he was doing the right thing, the patriotic thing, when he gave up his professional football career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist (that’s right enlist) with his brother in the United States Army to be Rangers. It was a true American story of the spirit that made America great. A promising safety in the NFL turned down a $3.6 million dollar - three year contract to enlist in the U.S. Army. Enlist! Think about it. A millionaire consciously decided to take a pay cut, a lifetime opportunity kind of pay cut, to a poverty level to be enlisted in the Army. Check out how much lower enlisted receives for base pay (ok so Tillman would rake in an additional $110 a month jump pay, woo wee).

Pat’s brother gave up a similar future in baseball for the same reason. They did it together. They both carried out their goal, doing what some of us have done, completing basic training, AIT, Jump School, Ranger Indoctrination and eventually Ranger School all in order to accomplish being all they could be.

What’s wrong with this story? After he and his brother served with second battalion 75th Ranger Regiment in the invasion of Iraq, Pat was killed in action after redeployment to Afghanistan. If you remember Pat was killed, supposedly in a firefight with enemy combatants. Then it came out that there were no enemy involved. Pat was killed by friendly fire. The family was immediately informed of the death of Pat Tillman but not that it was by friendly fire. His brother, in the same unit but not at the location at the time of Pat’s death, wasn’t even informed that it was friendly fire for over a month. Since it all started the family of Pat Tillman has had a horrible time getting answers (click to read all about it.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman

Happy Memorial Day, patriots

I am thankful for those who have sacrificed for our liberties today, both the living and the dead. I will wear my KIA bracelet all day bearing the name of Ranger PFC Roy Brown Jr. who was killed on 20 Dec 1989 during Op. “Just Cause” in Panama. I also helped carry Spc. Manriquelozano (Manrique) of D company 2/504 to a medi-vac helicopter who later died during that invasion. I pray for their loved ones today. I have no doubt these men believed they were doing what was right by their country. But I also want to remember true liberty itself today because it has been a casualty of our wars since at least World War II. I could write volumes myself on this but these two articles cover “patriotism” very well:
“Mindless patriotism is a destructive force. It is the sworn enemy of biblical Christianity” - Steve Wilkins.
“Christian Patriotism” - chalcedon.edu
“The Danger of False Patriotism” - Steve Wilkins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

The Bogeyman is gone… or is he?

Believers: I understand the desire to rejoice at the death of a bad guy and in this case a bad guy that we Americans have been strongly encouraged to hate… a lot. But the satisfaction many are getting from this is based on fear, not truth or love. I’m reluctant to get into all of the problems with the timing of the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death or even the history of him as it relates to our country or the fact that, although he was the FBI’s most wanted terrorist at one time, he was never officially wanted by the FBI for 9- 11 because they had “no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9- 11” those are the words of the FBI. 9- 11 was not even listed on his FBI wanted webpage. I won’t get into the protected charter flight of Bin Laden family members out of the US while all other commercial aircraft were grounded the days after 9- 11 or any of the other anomalies that are Osama Bin Laden. I’ll just say that the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death does not hurt the Administration’s (and the war’s) approval ratings, especially with neo-conservatives… I suspect the mass’ support for ongoing war and restrictions at home are being rejuvenated…

…One of the issues I have with the whole thing: The president indicated he learned of Bin Laden’s location LAST YEAR yet he waited (nine months) until confirming the intel to “take action”, yet I can remember on many occasions during this almost 10 years of “war on terror” when we have bombed or attacked entire weddings, funerals, houses and shacks, killing hundreds, if not thousands of innocents (including women and children) in several countries, in order to get ONE bad guy lower down on the “score card” or the Iraqi “deck of playing cards” or not even a top tier enemy combatant.. And many times with much less intel that was hastily vetted, often immediately… sometimes to learn it was the wrong location or the wrong guy. Oh well, that’s war, right? Collateral damage? This has become open military policy. Do We the People really approve of that? I’ve been in war, so please don’t give me the typical tunnel vision of” love of country” or “doing my duty” whoopla. And before it’s brought up, I know firsthand that the troops are often put in a spot because we are fighting to survive and we are trained to not question orders. But our military oaths place defense of the constitution (summarize “truth”) from enemies “foreign and domestic” and allegiance to it above following orders, even up to the president himself. We vets need to go back and read the oath we swore again, in the order it was proclaimed before God himself, and understand what we swore to…

…But while our focus is on the feeding frenzy that is now supposed to be a corpse at the bottom of the ocean, our government continues to hurl us deeper into debt to foreign banks (to the tune of trillions) and deeper into an Orwellian controlled society in the name of security and safety. A society that is becoming increasingly intolerant of only the religion of Christianity, of doing what is right and even of spreading of the Gospel truth. This is what we will leave our children if the Lord tarries, and he just might. Will they be able to end this “war” with the “impressive” intel they have captured from UBL’s computers? Will we now relax the Patriot Acts that were supposed to sunset, that have about as much to do with patriotism and security as the communist manifesto but that keep being re-authorized? We are already being told that retaliation is likely to come to America from the death of UBL. If that is the case, I want my money back for the last ten years because the War on Terror has been an obvious failure. Get ready for more control here at home, more hassles when you try to fly somewhere. And Pakistan better brace themselves, they could be next in the parade of Middle Eastern “democracies” to be built by us and paid for by our future generations. Let’s begin to pray, the whole church, to pray for revival to begin in the church and then spread like the fire of liberty; Real revival where sinners like us repent and God heals the hearts and then our land. …Revival where absolute truth once again matters. …Revival where we rejoice over truth and Jesus our king more than the announcement of the hasty killing and disposal of a mere mortal bad guy. If this happens, I believe there is hope for America; otherwise we will continue to live in a society of fear because there is always going to be another bogeyman.

The Sin of Silence

This is a message to American pastors and their congregations delivered September 6, 2000 at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, MO by Dr. Laurence White, Senior pastor, Our Savior Lutheran Church - Houston, Texas
Click to listen to - The Sin Of Silence
print version: Sin of Silence
Excerpt:

"...God called us to proclaim His Word, to be vigilant watchmen standing high upon the walls of Zion, sounding forth the clear clarion call of the trumpet, calling out God’s people to war against the host of evil advancing all around us. We as the Christians of America, we as the pastors of America, have failed in this responsibility before God, and our country is paying a dire price for that failure. Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, we are responsible.

The great reformer Martin Luther once declared that the preacher who does not rebuke the sins of the rulers through God’s Word spoken publically, boldly and honestly, strengthens the sins of the tyrants, and becomes a partaker in them, and bears responsibility for them.

Now note carefully Luther’s words. They ought to sear the conscience of every pastor in America today. The preacher who does not speak out becomes a participant in the wickedness of the tyrants and bears responsibility for it. We cannot shift that responsibility to anyone else today. We cannot blame the liberal media, or the corrupt politicians, or the apathetic public for that which has overtaken America. This is our fault, for we are the ones whom God placed here at this moment in our nation’s history to be the stinging salt and the shining light. We are responsible for what has happened to America. In this year of our Lord, 2000, there is no Pontius Pilot’s basin that can cleanse the hands of America’s pastors from the guilty stain of innocent blood..."
by Laurence White



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Sin Of Silence

The Sin of Silence A Defining Moment

Address given at Midwestern Seminary, Kansas City.

September 6, 2000

It is a joy to be with you here today in a place where God has done great things, in a place where,

once again, you stand for the truth of God’s Word, for the verbal inspiration of Scripture, for the

inerrancy of that which God has written from the first chapter of the book of Genesis to the 22nd

chapter of the book of Revelation, and I applaud you for that stand, and I stand with you in that

faith.

And on the basis of that word, today we confront that which is happening in our culture. Now,

I’m a Lutheran Christian, and that means that my historical and theological roots go back to

Germany. And I find a context for what is happening in America today in that which took place

in that great homeland of the Reformation in the 1930’s and the 1940’s.

Let me begin with a story about an incident that took place a few years ago as a prominent

evangelical pastor was invited to a Christian university on the east coast to address the student

body. Upon his arrival on the campus, he was greeted by the president of that institution, a

distinguished looking older gentleman with upswept white hair who spoke with a decided

German accent. As they walked to the chapel that day, the president requested permission to say

a few words to the students before the service itself began, and of course, you don’t say no to the

president of his own campus, so that permission was granted.

After the student body had gathered, the old gentleman walked to the rostrum with a ramrod

straightness that only a German has, and he looked out over the students assembled there, the

picture of dignity and composure. Gazing intently into the eyes of the young people in front of

him, he began. “For you, “ he said, “today is a day like any other day, but it is an extremely

important and painful day for me.” Silence fell over the room. The students noticed that as the

old gentleman spoke, tears streamed down his face. This uncharacteristic display of emotion

stunned the student body and riveted their attention. “Today is November the 9th,” he continued,

“the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the ‘night of the broken glass.’ On this day in 1938, Nazi

thugs moved through the cities of Germany, smashing the windows of Jewish homes and shops,

burning the synagogues. Innocent people--men, women and children--were beaten and killed

simply because they were Jews.

I was there as a young man,” he sobbed, “and I can still hear the sound of the shattering glass.

There were many of us who were Christians then, and we did nothing. We looked the other way,

and we did nothing. That was the beginning of the Holocaust, because the “Jew-haters” knew

then that no one would stop them. No one would stand in their way.”

The old man went on to quote the words now inscribed in the Auschwitz memorial in Poland, the

place where so many died. “Never again!” he pleaded. “Christian young people we must never let

it happen again!”

My friends, it is happening again. It is happening again today in our beautiful America, so richly

and abundantly blessed by a gracious God.

• It is happening today as the innocents are slaughtered in a 27-year holocaust that has seen nearly

40 million little boys and girls brutally done to death.

• It is happening again, as families are fractured and marriages are broken while self-obsessed

people pursue the immediate gratification of their every desire.

• It is happening again as militant homosexuals pursue absolute approval, complete acceptance

and preferential legal treatment for their perversion.

• It is happening again as our young people lose their way and often their lives in a maze of

alcohol and drugs

and the corridors and classrooms of our land are littered with the bodies of murdered teenagers.

• It is happening again as the nation’s leaders wallow in decadence and deceit while the people

look on in apathetic indifference.

It is happening again.

For while the killing goes on, and the nation is led down the path of destruction, the Church and

her pastors stand silent and afraid. This country that we love, our America, is fighting for her

life--not against the military power of a foreign enemy, but against the principalities and powers

of this dark age. You and I, as sons and daughters of the Lord Jesus Christ, but even more so,

those of you here today who are pastors of the church of Jesus Christ, are being called upon to

take a stand in this moment of crisis, and let there be no one among us who doubts the urgency of

this hour.

To compare what is happening in America today to Nazi Germany is no mere flight of rhetorical

exaggeration. This nation is heedlessly stumbling toward third millennium darkness. Look

around you and read the signs of the times. Look beyond the walls of our beautiful sanctuaries

and the comfort of our padded pews to see the chaos, the corruption and the confusion, that

reigns throughout our culture. We live in a society where passions are riderless horses,

uncontrolled and uncontrollable, in which there is a desolation of decency, in which love has

become a jungle emotion, lust exalted to lordship, sin elevated to sovereignty, Satan adored as a

saint, and man magnified above his Maker.

Americans have come to dwell in an Alice in Wonderland world of fantasy, of self-delusion.

Everything has been turned upside down and inside out in our America. Right is wrong, and

wrong is right. Good is bad and bad is good. Normal is abnormal, and abnormal is normal, true is

false and false is true. We are fast degenerating into a decadent culture obsessed with selfishness

and sin, death and destruction.

In the face of this relentless onslaught of evil, the church of Jesus Christ has grown timid and

afraid. We have abandoned the truth of God’s word, compromised the stern demands of His law,

tailored our message to meet the felt needs of sinful men (as if sinful men ever knew what they

actually needed) and prostituted ourselves and the Gospel that we profess to proclaim, for

worldly popularity and success. We as Christian pastors seem to have forgotten that God did not

call us to be popular or successful. God called us to be faithful.

Faithful preaching never comes in the form of safely vague pious platitudes. Faithful preaching

must identify and denounce the false gods of this world that call upon our people to bow down

before them every day. God did not call us to be successful CEO’s protecting institutional peace

and tranquillity, bringing in the bodies and the bucks by avoiding controversy and telling

everybody what they wanted to hear. God called us to proclaim His word, to be vigilant

watchmen standing high upon the walls of Zion, sounding forth the clear, clarion call of the

trumpet, calling out God’s people for war against the hosts of evil advancing all around us. We as

the Christians of America, we as the pastors of America, have failed in this responsibility before

God. And our country is paying a dire price for that failure. Make no mistake about it, brothers

and sisters, we are responsible.

The great reformer Martin Luther once declared that “the preacher who does not rebuke the sins

of the rulers through God’s word spoken publicly, boldly, and honestly, strengthens the sins of

the tyrants, and becomes a partaker in them and bears responsibility for them.”

Now note carefully Luther’s words. They ought to sear the conscience of every pastor in America

today. The preacher who does not speak out becomes a participant in the wickedness of the

tyrants and bears responsibility for it. We cannot shift that responsibility to anyone else today.

We cannot blame the liberal media or the corrupt politicians or the apathetic public for that

which has overtaken America. This is our fault, for we are the ones whom God placed here at

this moment in our nation’s history to be the stinging salt and the shining light.

We are responsible for what has happened to America. In the year of our Lord 2000, there is no

Pontius Pilate’s basin that can cleanse the hands of American pastors from the guilty stain of

innocent blood.

When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he scornfully dismissed the Church and

her pastors as an irrelevant force which posed no threat to the Nazi agenda for that great nation.

“I promise you," he boasted to his inner circle, “that if I wish to, I could destroy the Church in

just a few years. It is hollow, it is rotten and false through and through. One push, and the whole

structure would collapse. We should trap the preachers," he said, “ by their notorious greed and

self-indulgence. We shall thus be able to settle everything with them in perfect peace and

harmony. I shall give them a few years’ reprieve. Why should we quarrel? They will swallow

anything in order to keep their material advantage. The parsons will be made to dig their own

graves; they will betray their God for us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable

jobs and incomes.”

The dictator’s words proved to be tragically accurate. The great majority of Christians in

Germany looked the other way and minded their own business. They kept their religion and their

politics strictly separate from one another and refused to vote on the basis of single issues which

would have set them apart from the rest of the electorate. They blended in and they went along

and they followed the path of least resistance. They did that which was expedient and practical

and safe, while their country was dragged down into a swirling maelstrom of barbarism and

death. Only a few lonely voices were raised in protest.

In 1940 Nazi Germany was near her zenith, the nation’s power, prestige, prosperity unparalleled

in history, her armies invincible on every front. The Jews had been systematically excluded from

the life of the nation, deprived of the protection of the law and citizenship, gradually

disappearing into a spreading network of concentration camps. In that year 1940, at the height of

Hitler’s power and popularity, a courageous young pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer denounced

the church’s failure to speak out against the evil. In 1940 that lonely voice of truth proclaimed,

“We the Church must confess that we have not proclaimed often or clearly enough the message

of the one God, who has revealed Himself for all time in Christ Jesus and Who will tolerate no

other gods beside Himself. She must confess her timidity, her cowardice, her evasiveness and her

dangerous concessions. She was silent when she should have cried out, because the blood of the

innocent was crying aloud to heaven. The Church must confess that she has witnessed the

lawless application of brutal force, the physical and spiritual suffering of countless innocent

people, oppression, hatred, and murder, and that she has not raised her voice on behalf of the

victims and has not found ways to hasten to their aid. The Church is guilty of the deaths of the

weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ. The Church must confess that she has

desired security and peace, quiet, possessions and honor, to which she has no right. She has not

borne witness to the truth of God. And by her silence, she has rendered herself guilty because of

her unwillingness to suffer for what she knows to be right.”

Bonhoeffer’s warning went unheeded. He was dismissed by most of his colleagues as a

single-issue fanatic. In less than 5 years, he was dead, hung naked from a piano-wire noose in

Flossenberg concentration camp. Germany lay in ruins, her great cities bombed out of existence,

cathedrals that had stood for a thousand years reduced to piles of broken brick and rubble.

In the face of monstrous evil, he who keeps silent fails in his responsibility before God and

shares in the guilt. The moral meltdown that has overtaken America has been met with a

deafening silence from the pulpits of America and the people-pleasing preachers who presume to

stand in them. This desolation of decency could not have occurred if the pulpits of this land were

once again aflame with righteousness, to use Alexis de Tocqueville's famous words. By our

apathy, by our acquiescence and by our ignorance, the church of Jesus Christ has consigned itself

to irrelevance and impotence in the ongoing struggle for the soul of America.

Our political leaders deal in trivialities and superficial nonsense, practicing the feel-good politics

of deliberate ambiguity, while the destruction of our families, the perversion of our most basic

moral principles, and the murder of innocent unborn children goes on and on and on. Those

candidates in the Presidential primaries who denounced the evils of abortion and stood

unequivocally for moral values against the corruption of our times never rose out of single digits

in the polls and therefore they were never considered serious contenders in this election cycle,

and the moral issues for which they stood were pushed aside in favor of more practical

considerations. We have come to this sorry state because Christian voters were more concerned

about electability than about integrity. The result, to use the words of former president Gerald

Ford, is “we have an election in which candidates without ideas hire consultants without

convictions to carry out campaigns without content.”

Throughout the mind-boggling series of scandals that has gushed out of Washington like filth

from a sewer in recent years, the endless refrain of the beltway establishment and the media elite

has been, “We’ve got to get on with the nation’s business.” Well, folks, there was a time not too

long ago when righteousness and decency and justice were the nation’s business. And unless that

time comes again soon, this nation will not endure.

John Adams once warned that the problem with democracy is that you get the leaders you

deserve. This sad spectacle ought to remind us that a people who cannot control themselves

cannot govern themselves. It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s the morality, stupid.

The issue before us as Christians and as Christian pastors is faithfulness to the word of God and

submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To speak to the great moral issues of our day is an

integral and essential part of that God-given responsibility. To fail to do so is nothing less than a

denial of the Lordship of Jesus.

Pastor Martin Niemöller was yet another of that lonely band of Christian heroes that stood

against the tide of evil in Nazi Germany. He was arrested by the Gestapo for faithfully preaching

the word of God. Now Niemöller was what we would today call a celebrity; he was a national

hero. He had been a U-boat commander highly decorated in the First World War, and only then

after the war did he enter the ministry. His congregation in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem was one

of the wealthiest and most influential evangelical churches in the land, its membership made up

of high government officials, generals, and so on. And the arrest of this pastor from that church

was highly controversial. The judge before whom he was arraigned on charges of sedition

seemed genuinely puzzled why a patriot like Martin Niemöller would criticize Adolf Hitler, the

man whom the German people hailed as their Fuhrer, an absolute leader, to whom unquestioned

obedience was owed. The magistrate pleaded with the minister to end his attacks upon the Nazi

regime and upon the Fuhrer. He promised Niemöller immediate release and the opportunity to

return to his pulpit "today," if only he would agree to do so. Niemöller’s reply was steadfast:

“I cannot and I will not be silent, because God is my Fuhrer.”

Our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ must take precedence over any other loyalty in every part

of our lives. If the Lord Jesus is truly our Lord, then we must serve Him. If the Lord Jesus is truly

our Lord, then He cannot be safely compartmentalized to one place, one time, one day of the

week, with one group of people, while we live like the heathen the rest of the time. If the Lord

Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, He cannot be left outside the ballot box like an unneeded umbrella

when we go in to vote. We must serve Him in all that we do. We must participate in this

democracy that He has given us, not as “rock-ribbed Republicans” or “yellow-dog Democrats,”

not as liberals or conservatives, not as men or women, not as labor or management, not as senior

citizens who want to protect Social Security or as wage-earners who want their taxes lower, not

as whites or blacks or Asians or Hispanics, but as sons and daughters of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must participate in this democracy as Christians, for only then will America turn from the

path of destruction.

But as we participate, we must be careful to maintain our theological and moral integrity. God

has not called us to be social agitators or reformers. He has called us to be faithful spokesmen for

His word. Politics is the art of the possible. Christianity is the art of the impossible. The

politician always has his eye on the next election. The Christian pastor must always have his eye

on eternity. There is only one Savior, and His name will not be appearing on any election ballot

in this particular cycle or any other. We dare never labor under the illusion that the Kingdom of

God is about to arrive aboard Air Force One. Nor may we ever allow the church of Jesus Christ

to be reduced to the status of a sanctimonious shill for a political candidate, party or philosopher.

The Roman statesman/historian Pliny the Younger once observed,

“The common people find all religions to be true.

The philosophers find all religions to be false.

The politicians find all religions to be useful.”

When we as Christian pastors participate in this democracy, our participation must be prophetic,

not political. We must summon this nation and its leaders to repentance as we relentlessly

proclaim the truth of God. What America needs, essentially, is not merely a change of

administration. What America needs is a spiritual re-birth…. Where God’s will does speak, on

the fundamental issues of life, morality and family, there God’s pastors must address the issues,

on the basis of Scripture, without equivocation and without hesitation.

God may not have endorsed a particular method for Tax Reform, but of this one thing we can be

absolutely certain: The Lord God Almighty hates the murder of innocent unborn children. God is

not the mascot of the Republican or the Democratic parties. But let there be no doubt whatsoever

about this: The Creator instituted holy marriage as the life-long union of a man and a woman.

Any other combination, no matter how modern, innovative or politically correct is a perversion

of the divine intent. That prophetic witness will not be welcomed by those politicians on either

side of the aisle who seek only to preserve their own position and power. We who profess to

speak for God must proclaim the truth in a political world of diplomatic double-talk and

deliberate evasion. Once again, that won’t make us popular, but God did not call us to be

popular. He called us to be faithful, and we as His spokesmen must be willing to pay the high

personal price that that faithfulness requires.

The morning after Pastor Martin Niemöller was arrested, the Lutheran chaplain was making his

rounds in the city jail and as he was making his rounds, he was astounded and dismayed to find

his fellow clergyman sitting there under arrest.

“My brother!" he exclaimed. “What did you do? Why are you here?”

Niemöller, never at a loss for words, immediately reacted. “My brother, given what’s happened

in our country, why aren't you here?”

Those days have not yet come in America, but they are coming soon. We have already seen the

ominous beginnings of attempts to muzzle Christian witness on radio and television, to label

Christian objections to abortion and homosexuality as “hate speech.” In Europe and Canada

significant steps have already been taken in that direction, and if present trends continue,

America will not be far behind. Gentlemen and ladies, it is only a short step from prohibiting that

which is politically incorrect as “hate speech" in the media to prohibiting it in the pulpits of every

church in America. My brothers, given what is happening in our country, why aren't you here?

The saddest and most tragic feature of the Christian experience in Germany was the bitter

expression of regret that came from so many afterwards, who realized their failure only too late.

One such man was a university professor and diplomat named Albrecht Haushoeffer. He was a

quiet, gentle man who wrote poetry in his spare time. As gradually he came to recognize the

enormity of the evil of Nazism, he was drawn into the resistance and arrested in 1944 after the

failure of the Stauffenberg plot to assassinate Hitler.

In the final days of the war, as the Russian tanks moved through the outskirts of the city of Berlin

and the dictator hid in the Fuhrer bunker like a rat trapped in his hole, the SS guards at the city

prison were given a list of those who were not to be allowed to survive the downfall of Nazism

because they knew too much. Albrecht Hausshoeffer’s name was included on that death list. A

group of 7 or 8 prisoners was taken out of their cells that morning. They were told they were

about to be released. Each of the prisoners was assigned an SS guard. They were led out of the

jail into the nearby Tiergarten, the great park in the center of the city of Berlin. And as they came

to the center of that park, out of sight from anyone else, each guard stepped up behind the

prisoner assigned to him and shot him in the back of the head. The bodies were abandoned there

in the snow and the mud of the ruined city.

Some time later Albrecht’s brother heard rumors of what had happened, and he hurried into the

park to search for his brother’s body. When he found it, there clutched in his hand was a

bloodstained sheaf of paper. Written on that paper was a poem that Hausshoeffer had composed

just a few hours before his execution. It was entitled "Schuldig Bin Ich" ( “I Am Guilty.”)

“The burden of my guilt,” the condemned man wrote,

“before the law weighs light on my shoulders.

To plot and conspire was my duty to the people.

I would have been a criminal had I not.

I am guilty, although not in the way that you think.

I should have done my duty sooner. I was wrong.

I should have called the evil more clearly by its name.

I hesitated to condemn for far too long.

I now accuse myself within my own heart.

I have betrayed my conscience for far too long.

I have deceived myself and my fellow man.

I knew the course of evil from its start.

My warning was not loud enough or clear enough.

Today as I die, I know what I am guilty of.”

We, too, have known the evil from its start. In this great nation, where for 27 long years the

innocent unborn have been slaughtered, we have grown accustomed to the killing and have gone

on with our business, with our lives and our ministries while the little ones have perished every

day, 4,500 a day. This is what we have come to in America. The Supreme Court of our land

sanctions the horror of partial birth abortion, this most barbaric and grotesque killing of a child in

the midst of its birth. And yet, even in the face of this abomination, the churches of America, the

pastors of America, are silent. Where is the cry of outrage? Where is the indignation of the

people of God? We, too, have known the evil from its start. Dumpsters full of ravaged infant

bodies stand in mute testimony to our failure and to our guilt.

The Christians of Germany realized only too late how much had been at stake and how much

they had lost. But we may still have a chance. It’s not too late yet for our America. The righteous

judgment of God has not yet come upon us. The New Testament speaks of unique moments of

divine destiny, when God confronts His people with a challenge and offers them an opportunity.

The Greek word for such a moment of divine destiny is “kairos.” I believe that the Church in

America has come to such a time, a biblical kairos, a moment of divine destiny. If we fail to meet

this challenge and rise to this opportunity, our nation will not survive. It is as simple and as stark

as that.

This is our moment, my friends. Our time of testing. I pray that we may be equal to the challenge

of these days, that we may seize this precious opportunity from God, that we may be within this

dying culture the stinging salt that stops the decay of death, the shining light that dispels the

darkness of doubt and despair, that America may once again be the gleaming city set high upon a

hill that shines as a beacon light of life and hope for this nation and to every nation. I pray that

we may serve the Lord Jesus Christ with courage and with honor, for the glory of His name, that

we may snatch our country back from the brink of destruction and preserve this legacy of faith

and freedom for those who will come after us. This is our moment of divine destiny, our kairos.

In the winter of 1943, a group of university students in Munich, calling themselves The White

Rose, began a desperate effort to awaken the young people of that nation to the malignant evil

that had engulfed their country. Led by a 25-year old student named Hans Scholl, they distributed

leaflets across the campus in a doomed effort to provoke resistance to the Hitler regime. Six

leaflets were written. Number Four in the series included this desperate plea, a plea which could

have been written today, a plea which could have been addressed to us. Scholl wrote,

“Everywhere, at all times of greatest trial, men have appeared, prophets and saints, who

cherished their freedom, who preached the one God and who with His help brought the people to

a reversal of their downward course. I ask you now, as a Christian, wrestling for the preservation

of your greatest treasure: Why do you hesitate? Why are you inclined toward intrigue, calculation

and procrastination? Are you hoping that someone else will raise his arm in your defense? God

has given you the strength! God has given you the will to fight! We must attack the evil now,

where it is strongest!”

Their valiant effort was crushed after only a few weeks. Scholl and his young comrades were

beheaded by the Gestapo. They died for their faith, but their words reverberate down across the

years to us in America today, to a nation that has been blessed more richly than any other nation

in the history of mankind. Their words come to us:

“Why do you hesitate? God has given you the strength! God has given you the will to fight! We

must attack the evil now where it is strongest.”

Christians of America, this is our kairos, our moment of divine destiny. God has given us this

time. Let us use it to His glory. To that end, may our gracious God bless you, and may God bless

our America. Thank you.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - God and Guns

Happy Independence Day...Believer...

Happy Independence Day...Believer...

As modern Americans, we suffer various handicaps when it comes to the vigilance required to maintain the liberty and freedom which we have been entrusted with. Generations of educational and intellectual erosion have washed away a historic American identity. Into that void of collective memory loss has been poured a national lifestyle and dependency that necessitates a reliance on Government that is not just dangerous but ultimately destructive. We were born in the twentieth century missing a memory of our country's most basic life support requirement. Vigilance!

"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." -John Philpot Curran - 1790

That is another way of saying the ones willing to participate or act will rule the ones that are either not willing or too busy to do so. I'm afraid we may have to do more than show up to vote once a year if we hope for America to change direction.

This is what prompted Benjamin Franklin to remark that the Founding Fathers had given us "A republic, if you can keep it."

The fertile ground of liberty has given way to every imaginable restriction requiring all manner of sanctioned licenses, permits and registrations. The more than 300 million American citizens are now by default, scrutinized, spied on and cataloged in the name of "safety and security" because there may be those wanting to harm us among us. So Americans are treated like subjects while a criminal banking elite wreaks havoc on the country in broad daylight and with the permission of elected officials. The few are constructing a police state around themselves while the rest of America remains vulnerable.

There is no security nor safety in the disregard of freedoms.

But having been born into a condition only a little better than the present one, most living Americans are willing to tolerate all manner of "evils", as long as they are "sufferable". As long as those "evils" do not interrupt Sunday ball games and summer vacations. American believers have additional mental hurdles to clear before getting in the game of securing their own country's future from within. After all, It could be God's will that our beloved Republic deteriorates into ungodly socialistic ground for our "end time" church to thrive.

Thank God some of the founding generation used their faith as the reason to do what was right instead of an excuse to allow what was wrong!

On this 233rd anniversary of our great festival, Independence Day, let us remember at least some of those words of reasoning and ordained thought from our Declaration of Independence...

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

We are well beyond "transient causes". Yet it seems that we still "are more disposed to suffer," Because apparently the current "evils are sufferable". That is sort of like choosing the lesser evil isn't it? This is precisely our current mode of national existence. Most of us Americans are too busy making the mortgage payment, putting food on the table or manicuring our lawns to concern ourselves with providing "Guards for our future security". Perhaps a future generation, our children or grand children will find the time and desire to reverse the trend. Unfortunately, that will probably be too late.

We still have hope to accomplish this necessary function if we will just realize the need and respond to the responsibility, especially followers of Christ. The mechanisms still exist within the Constitution of the United States to accomplish this. The answers and vehicle are there for us to right the country but it cannot wait for future generations. We must realize this as American believers. We are rapidly heading towards the day when not only will the Constitution be ignored by elected officials but we will no longer have the ability to even point that fact out, let alone remedy it.

We have to begin to care and begin to educate ourselves and one another on the God given rights and responsibilities that the Founding Fathers attempted to hardwire into our system of government. The effective means of correcting our predicament still exist but are by and large forgotten. Let's start remembering. It still begins with the Declaration of Independence , the Constitution including the Bill of Rights.

Remember what it is about... Happy Independence Day!
Eternal vigilance!

Please read the article "Is the Constitution Dead?" By Dr. Edwin Vieira http://www.newswithviews.com/Vieira/edwin36.htm
Please read the article "Independence Now and Forever" By Pastor Chuck Baldwin http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin518.htm

Watch the Declaration of Independence Performance Video

An Urgent Plea to my Fellow Believers... Change is Here

Wow, it's time to take a break from politics... Think again.

I am of course very concerned by the election of Barack Obama primarily because he has refused to (easily) produce a certified copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate for some reason (along with keeping many documents sealed from Harvard, University of Illinois, his wife's thesis, etc.). Perhaps because of his paternal grandmother's claim that she ...was in the delivery room in [Mombosa,] Kenya (making him not qualified to be President), when he was born Aug. 4, 1961. But I will be following that more in the future. See the latest about this situation in the article: Obama and our Coming Constitutional Crisis by Ellis Washington (professor of law and political science at Savannah State University)http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80435. Also see the latest on the lawsuit at: www.obamacrimes.com. Understand, this truly is a big deal.

But I want to deal a little with our overall situation in this country and what our responsibility is to God and future generations of Americans.

Involve yourself in politics at the local level and you will quickly realize why most people have no interest in pursuing it as an occupation or a hobby. It takes at least three things that most of us are in short supply of; time, money and thought.

There is a fourth thing that I have come to realize it takes and it is the one thing I believe we've been missing. It's also the one thing that will keep me involved beyond today and probably at a whole new level of conviction. Care. Care is the fourth thing that can trump the other three things it takes to involve yourself in politics. Call it love for others if you want. Call it love for your country or like in my case all of that plus more importantly love for my family's future... concern for my children and their children's country. For of all the things I have come to realize over the past two years of campaigning and working within the party politics, this one thing is true: I believe that if I (and everyone else) do not remain involved between elections, our country is lost. If we just vote and wait for the next election, we will keep getting progressively worse candidates, guaranteed. Do you want that? I don't.

Now if you are one of those that believe that it really doesn't matter or that God is through with our country, stop reading and move on. All others consider a few things please.

It is true: God is in control and He raises, removes and controls leaders. However, most Americans, (especially Christians) have not been taught that the ultimate "authority" in the American Republic was "We the People" based on our Constitution. This was intended by the founding fathers expressly because of the evil nature of man and Satan's working through people down through history. It was also not the founder's intent that Americans only concern themselves with politics at election time. The one thing that the founding fathers were certain of was that power placed in the hands of men and left unchecked for any amount of time would always lead to despotism. It always has in every society throughout history. Yet today's Americans, including the church in America seem to believe that men can be trusted after we elect them. After all, isn't Roman's 13 permission to not question government? It's almost as if many believers think we live in some extension of the Roman Empire of Paul's time. This lack of historical context is why America and America's churches are where they are and headed where they're headed. We go to church and we go to work, maybe vote once every couple of years and then we let the "rulers" rule us... and we complain about it because "if you vote you have a right to complain."

The founders with the support of the minister's of the time gave us the gift of self government born out of resistance and ultimately rebellion to tyranny. They truly believed that they "must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29) and that meant that there was a point at which you must stand up to human "authorities".

More importantly we still have the responsibility and ability to influence and correct our government and policies. America is alone in history and in the world as the one time and place where Christians have and still do enjoy liberty and freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom to spread the Word. But that is being slowly eroded generation after generation in such a way that few have recognized the complacency that allowed it. We vote and feel empowered while America is squandered by corrupted politicians that we elect as the "lesser of two evils". That is the choice only because we refuse to be involved as a body continuously between elections.

It's time for God's people to realized their birthright in America and reclaim it through participation BETWEEN elections. It is our right and responsibility to vote but it is even more our responsibility to confine our government to the Constitutional constraints placed on it to ensure that our Republic remains the light on the hill of the world. That light has all but gone out and If we cannot get other Christians to educate themselves and realize this, and to realize that we can do something in addition to pray and wait for the rapture, America could be the foundation for an Antichrist system like the world has never seen. If that happens, I believe a century of Christians are at least partly to blame because of our actions and inaction that has contributed to the slide into despotism. We must act according to what we understand God's character is, not what we think the "end time" time line is.

That all being said, Christians are the only Americans that truly have the hope to offer the world. But that "right" and responsibility is very close to being lost. If it is taken it is our own fault believers. Liberty and freedom are at much greater risk of being lost from within than from a foreign threat. We can use our unique position and authority over our government to recreate the free republic that the founders gave us or we can allow it to fade into tyranny like all civilizations before. This hope is what should give us the resolve to pick up the pieces and rebuild our country for God. There is ultimate hope in Christ but we must share it and defend it for the world as the salt and light that we have been called to be. But Jesus said if the salt loses its flavor... it is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. That is where we are today.

Please get involved now in local politics where you are at some level. That is the only way to fix things in America. If you do not know what to do, ask me and I will be more than happy to tell how you can join the fight for our nation.

For the Republic and in Jesus blessed name,

Troy Perkins

Ron Paul, The Revolution, and Ending Abuses and Usurpations

by Michael Scheuer

Congressman Ron Paul’s new book, The Revolution, is an unusual presidential campaign book in that the candidate – Dr. Paul – is almost entirely absent. This is not to say that his presence is not felt; indeed, Dr. Paul is with the reader every step of the way and writes in a clear and very direct style. But the reader will find that Dr. Paul is not offering the audacity of hope or chanting change; he does not argue that it takes a village or having slept with a former president; and he surely does not hold up his military service as a reason why he should be elected. Instead, Dr. Paul politely, laconically, but frankly lays it on the line for his countrymen: America is in significant and potentially catastrophic trouble economically, financially, and militarily; the country’s political class is homogenous, gutless, and ill-educated; its two major parties do not offer a nickel’s worth of difference on important issues, especially foreign policy [pp. 2, 26, 163]; and our leaders are consciously negating parts of the Constitution, compromising America’s national sovereignty, and circumscribing the liberties of Americans. But then, astoundingly and correctly, Dr. Paul does not say "Only I can fix this mess" – as have Senators Clinton, Obama, and McCain – he says: "Only you, the American people, can fix this mess." Dr. Paul confronts Americans with a reality that ought to both chill and inspire them.

Ours is not a fated existence, for nowhere is our destiny etched in stone. In the final analysis, the last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on needless wars, destroys the value of their dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would be without it, there is no force that can stop them. If freedom is what we want, it is ours for the taking. [p. 167]

[more...]

From Wikipedia - Michael F. Scheuer is a former CIA employee. In his 22-year career, he served as the Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station (aka "Alec Station"), from 1996 to 1999, the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center. He then worked again as Special Advisor to the Chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004...

Ron Paul on CNN Larry King Live - UnAired

This is the interview that apparently has not aired on Larry King Live, as of yet...

Media Coverage of Mall Shooting Fails to Reveal Mall's Gun-Free-Zone Status

The horrible tragedy at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb. received a lot of attention Wednesday and Thursday. It should have. Eight people were killed, and five were wounded.

A Google news search using the phrase "Omaha Mall Shooting" finds an incredible 2,794 news stories worldwide for the last day. From India and Taiwan to Britain and Austria, there are probably few people in the world who haven’t heard about this tragedy.

But despite the massive news coverage, none of the media coverage, at least by 10 a.m. Thursday, mentioned this central fact: Yet another attack occurred in a gun-free zone.

Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn’t one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises?

Nebraska allows people to carry permitted concealed handguns, but it allows property owners, such as the Westroads Mall, to post signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property.

The same was true for the attack at the Trolley Square Mall in Utah in February (a copy of the sign at the mall can be seen here). But again the media coverage ignored this fact. Possibly the ban there was even more noteworthy because the off-duty police officer who stopped the attack fortunately violated the ban by taking his gun in with him when he went shopping.

Yet even then, the officer "was at the opposite end and on a different floor of the convoluted Trolley Square complex when the shooting began. By the time he became aware of the shooting and managed to track down and confront Talovic [the killer], three minutes had elapsed."

There are plenty of cases every year where permit holders stop what would have been multiple victim shootings every year, but they rarely receive any news coverage. Take a case this year in Memphis, where WBIR-TV reported a gunman started "firing a pistol beside a busy city street" and was stopped by two permit holders before anyone was harmed.

When will part of the media coverage on these multiple-victim public shootings be whether guns were banned where the attack occurred? While the media has begun to cover whether teachers can have guns at school or the almost 8,000 college students across the country who protested gun-free zones on their campuses, the media haven’t started checking what are the rules where these attacks occur.

Surely, the news stories carry detailed information on the weapon used (in this case, a rifle) and the number of ammunition clips (apparently, two). But if these aspects of the story are deemed important for understanding what happened, why isn’t it also important that the attack occurred where guns were banned? Isn’t it important to know why all the victims were disarmed?

Few know that Dylan Klebold, one of the two Columbine killers, closely was following Colorado legislation that would have allowed citizens to carry a concealed handgun. Klebold strongly opposed the legislation and openly talked about it.

No wonder, as the bill being debated would have allowed permitted guns to be carried on school property. It is quite a coincidence that he attacked the Columbine High School the very day the legislature was scheduled to vote on the bill.

Despite the lack of news coverage, people are beginning to notice what research has shown for years: Multiple-victim public shootings keep occurring in places where guns already are banned. Forty states have broad right-to-carry laws, but even within these states it is the "gun-free zones," not other public places, where the attacks happen.

People know the list: Virginia Tech saw 32 murdered earlier this year; the Columbine High School shooting left 13 murdered in 1999; Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, had 23 who were fatally shot by a deranged man in 1991; and a McDonald's in Southern California had 21 people shot dead by an unemployed security guard in 1984.

All these attacks — indeed, all attacks involving more than a small number of people being killed — happened in gun-free zones.

In recent years, similar attacks have occurred across the world, including in Australia, France, Germany and Britain. Do all these countries lack enough gun-control laws? Hardly. The reverse is more accurate.

The law-abiding, not criminals, are obeying the rules. Disarming the victims simply means that the killers have less to fear. As Wednesday's attack demonstrated yet again, police are important, but they almost always arrive at the crime scene after the crime has occurred.

The longer it takes for someone to arrive on the scene with a gun, the more people who will be harmed by such an attack.

Most people understand that guns deter criminals. If a killer were stalking your family, would you feel safer putting a sign out front announcing, "This Home Is a Gun-Free Zone"? But that is what the Westroads Mall did.

John Lott is the author of Freedomnomics, upon which this piece draws, and a senior research scholar at the University of Maryland.

Ron Paul Letter From a Soldier

I joined the Army in the early months of 2001; my patriotism led me to the recruiter’s office. I had grown up in awe of my grandfathers and their stories of World War II, and their reminiscing became my dreams. When I got to basic training I did not talk about missing home like the other recruits around me, I felt at home in ways I never had before.

The weeks after 9/11 found me in Kosovo, part of C co 3/7 Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division, patrolling the border with Macedonia as part of our duties. We had ammunition to defend ourselves with and the authority to apprehend anyone crossing the border illegally. I will get back to why these details are important later.

Fast forward to 2003, I am rolling across the desert in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle, part of the spearhead into Iraq. Other than those first three weeks of “Shock and Awe” what I remember most about Iraq was the people. Crowds of kids wanting to know about Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, open-minded adults wanted to know about our social freedoms, and ninety some percent of Iraqis just wanted to raise their families in peace and did not hesitate to tell us. I really fell in love with the Iraqi people. My platoon and I played soccer with some of those crowds of kids, we had dinner and shared food with families in their homes, we even went to a few house parties, and my lieutenant and I spent one very memorable afternoon swimming in an irrigation ditch with five young women. It is all of them I think of when anyone tells me we need to turn the Middle East into a sheet of glass or that all Muslims are our enemies.

I remember thinking on this briefly when I was there, but more so since I’ve returned, usually when I’m day dreaming behind the wheel of my van, but what we were doing when we were doing our jobs, patrolling the streets, conducting road blocks, vehicle searches, bodily searching individuals, and searching houses, couldn’t be helping our long range plans for winning hearts and minds. I really have to wonder, how long would it take me to move from a position of thanks for my despotic government being removed, to feeling like I lived in a conquered and occupied country if I saw foreign troops on the streets of my hometown Tallahassee everyday? Add to this our having bases and troops in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, ( I may have missed a few, we have approximately 700 bases in 130 countries ) some of them for decades, our Navy of their coast, our fighter jets in their sky’s , the CIA in business with monarchs, dictators and thugs, and our State Department treating their leaders like irresponsible children, it’s no wonder moderate Muslims takes to the streets shouting “ Death to America” and a minority takes action against us. I would expect we would be doing the same thing if say, China had bases on our soil, and her Navy patrolled our coastline and Chinese fighter jets streaked across our sky. In short, this is all hard to admit, but our actions do have consequences.

Fast forward again to the present day, I am out of active duty, and in the Army Reserves. (I wanted to stay active duty, but my wife said I would be single, so we had a compromise.) To be honest the reserves has bored me to tears and I haven’t felt like I’m giving anything back to my country, so I looked into getting attached to a National Guard unit on our border with Mexico for a tour or two. However, when I learned they don’t have the authority to apprehend illegal border crossers and can only call up our overworked and over-stretched border patrol when they spot illegal activity, I got myself in trouble again by thinking - about what I had done in Kosovo and about what I knew our military had done to our own people in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina (disarmed law abiding civilians only trying to protect themselves when the police had failed to do so).

To add insult to injury, our Guardsmen and women on our own border don’t have ammunition and have on several documented occasions actually had to retreat when facing fire from Mexican paramilitary groups. Now why would I want to sign up for that? To be witness to the violation of America’s sovereignty? No one in the Executive branch of our government is doing anything about it, and it makes me wonder why I am even in the Army at all.

Why are we the world's policeman when our own country is being openly violated? Why are we borrowing money hand over fist from nations not exactly our friends, just to spend it on our out-of-control foreign policy? I am starting to feel like the powers that be do not have America’s interests in mind at all. It’s starting to feel like our ruin is their objective. From our factories closing and moving overseas, to the plunging value of our dollar, America is crumbling. Yet I love her far to much to watch her fall apart.

This is why I am taking my personal revolution and joining forces with Dr. Ron Paul’s revolution. His “bring all the troops home” non-intervention foreign policy and plans to put America first again are just what we need at this time in our history. I don’t expect you to agree with everything he says, but I do hope we can all put our differences aside and join him in seeing that ALL the troops come home, the Republic is restored and America saved.

Thank you and God Bless.
Zakery Carter

exclusivelyamericanmade@yahoo.com
read this, share it, spread it around.

An Open Letter to the Protestant Community in Behalf of Ron Paul

by Laurence M. Vance

Member of Congress and Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul is the premier advocate for political and religious liberty in politics today. He is the most pro-life, pro-family, pro-property, pro-Constitution politician in history. If it is possible to be more Jeffersonian than Jefferson, then Ron Paul is the man.

On issues that are dear to the vast majority of Protestant Christians, Ron Paul stands head and shoulders above the other candidates. Consider just a few.

The Issues

Abortion: Ron Paul is a physician who has delivered more than 4,000 babies. He not only opposes federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and partial-birth abortion, he is against abortion itself. As he himself has said:

In 40 years of medical practice, I never once considered performing an abortion, nor did I ever find abortion necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. In Congress, I have authored legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception, H.R. 1094. I am also the prime sponsor of H.R. 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life. This is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic and has caused the deaths of 45 million of the unborn. I have also authored H.R. 1095, which prevents federal funds to be used for so-called "population control." Many talk about being pro-life. I have taken and will continue to advocate direct action to restore protection for the unborn.

Religion: Ron Paul has issued a statement of his personal faith that should satisfy Protestant Christians of any persuasion:

I have never been one who is comfortable talking about my faith in the political arena. In fact, the pandering that typically occurs in the election season I find to be distasteful. But for those who have asked, I freely confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and that I seek His guidance in all that I do. I know, as you do, that our freedoms come not from man, but from God. My record of public service reflects my reverence for the Natural Rights with which we have been endowed by a loving Creator.

The reason we do not find very many references to religion in his writings and speeches is because, unlike President Bush, Dr. Paul does not cloak his political proposals with religious rhetoric in hopes of beguiling Christians.

Family values: Ron Paul lives his family values. Unlike Christian "leaders" like prophecy guru Hal Lindsey, who is on his fourth wife, and adulterous Republican politicians like the thrice-married Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Paul has been married to the same woman for fifty years, and has five children and seventeen grandchildren. He also opposes same-sex marriage, and has voted to prohibit federal funding for the joint adoption of a child between individuals who are not related by blood or marriage.

Gun control: Ron Paul is the gun owners’ best friend. Not only has he consistently opposed the expansion of federal gun control laws, he has introduced in Congress the Second Amendment Protection Act to repeal unconstitutional federal laws that allow bureaucrats to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners. Dr. Paul opposes waiting periods, instant background checks, and government databases of gun owners.

Illegal immigration: Ron Paul is opposed to "open borders." He believes that the U.S. government should fight terrorism by first securing its own borders. Because he believes that true citizenship requires cultural connections and an allegiance to the United States, he favors an end to birthright citizenship. And because he believes that it insults legal immigrants, he does not favor amnesty for illegal immigrants in any form. But Dr. Paul is not anti-immigrant in any sense of the word. He believes that the immigration problem fundamentally is a welfare state problem. He joins the vast majority of Americans who welcome immigrants who want to come here, work hard, and build a better life. He opposes welfare state subsidies for illegal immigrants that alienate taxpayers and breed suspicion of immigrants. Dr. Paul also believes that all federal government business should be conducted in English.

American Sovereignty: Ron Paul is against any form of a world government or a new world order. Because he believes that the United Nations is a corrupt organization that was designed to undermine sovereignty and representative government, he has introduced legislation to withdraw the United States from the UN. Dr. Paul likewise opposes the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SSP), the NAFTA Super Highway, and any form of a North American Union. He believes that these plans are the result of an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and government officials. Rather than resulting from the demands of the free market, they are an extension of government-managed trade schemes that benefit politically-connected interests. Dr. Paul also opposes foreign aid since it is generally nothing more than U.S. taxpayer dollars given away to corrupt foreign governments.

The Questions

So what gives? Why aren’t Protestant Christians lining up in droves behind Ron Paul?

It turns out that because Ron Paul opposes constitutional amendments banning abortion, same-sex marriage, and flag burning, some Protestants have been led to believe that he is not a real Republican. Some Christians think it inconsistent that Dr. Paul can oppose abortion but also oppose a constitutional amendment banning abortion, oppose same-sex marriage but also oppose a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman, and oppose flag burning but also oppose a constitutional amendment outlawing flag burning.

Because Ron Paul ran for president in 1988 as a libertarian and opposes the war on drugs, foreign aid to Israel, and the war in Iraq, other Protestants have come to the conclusion that he is not a genuine conservative. They assert:

• Ron Paul is a libertarian so he must be a libertine, or at least an advocate of alternative lifestyles.
• Ron Paul opposes the war on drugs so he must support drug use.
• Ron Paul opposes giving foreign aid to Israel so he must be either pro-Palestinian or anti-Semitic.
• Ron Paul opposes the Iraq war so he must not support the troops.

These are false assertions.

The Answers

But if anyone is a real Republican and a genuine conservative it is Ron Paul. He has been elected to Congress ten times as a Republican. He is the former honorary chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus. He consistently scores a perfect 100 on the conservative New American magazine’s "Freedom Index."

Unlike many in Congress who call themselves Republicans or conservatives, Ron Paul actually believes in strictly following the Constitution. Representative Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution – even if it means courageously casting the lone "no" vote. He has consistently voted to lower or abolish federal taxes, spending, and regulation. He has actively promoted the return of government to its proper constitutional levels. He is recognized as the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He has also received many awards and honors during his career in Congress from organizations such as the National Taxpayers Union, Citizens Against Government Waste, Council for a Competitive Economy, and Young Americans for Freedom.

It is because Ron Paul adheres to the Constitution that he opposes the Patriot Act, domestic surveillance programs, warrantless searches, restrictions on freedom of speech, national ID cards, federal information databases, and what he calls the Homeland Security monstrosity. His congressional website lists "The Ron Paul Freedom Principles":

• Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
• Property should be owned by people, not government.
• All voluntary associations should be permissible – economic and social.
• The government’s monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary unit, not participate in fraud.
• Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.
• The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government’s.

Ron Paul believes that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided because abortion is simply not a constitutional issue. He doesn’t think there is any serious argument based on the text of the Constitution that there exists a federal "right to abortion." He maintains that the federalization of abortion law is not based on constitutional principles, but on a social and political construct created out of thin air by the Supreme Court. Since the federal government has no authority to involve itself in the abortion issue, a federal law banning abortion in the states would be just as wrong as Roe v. Wade.

Ron Paul believes that marriage is first and foremost a religious matter, not a government matter. He does not think social problems can be solved by constitutional amendments or government edicts. Taken to its logical conclusion, the turning of regulation of domestic family relations over to the federal government means that presumably anything can be federalized. Because the federal government has only been granted limited, enumerated powers by the Constitution, Dr. Paul maintains that it has no role whatsoever regarding marriage law. Although the states should enforce marriage contracts and settle divorces, they too should otherwise stay out of the marriage business. It should also be pointed out that Representative Paul was a cosponsor of the Marriage Protection Act, which would have removed challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act from federal courts’ jurisdiction. The Defense of Marriage Act (PL 104-99) was passed to ensure that no state would be forced to recognize a same-sex marriage, even if the said marriage occurred in another state. Although Dr. Paul was not in Congress at the time the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, he has stated that he would have voted for it.

Like all patriotic Americans, Ron Paul despises flag burning. He believes that the offensive conduct of a few does not justify making an exception to the First Amendment protections of political speech that the majority considers to be offensive. Because he believes that freedom of speech and freedom of expression depend on property, Dr. Paul considers making flag burning a federal crime to be an attack on private property. However, he does support overriding the Supreme Court case that overturned State laws prohibiting flag burning.

Ron Paul is against constitutional amendments banning abortion, same-sex marriage, and flag burning precisely because he is following the Constitution he swore allegiance to. Another reason he opposes these amendments is because he is an advocate of that forgotten constitutional principle of federalism. He considers the division of power between the federal government and the states to be one of the virtues of the American political system. To alter this balance would endanger self-government and individual liberty. Dr. Paul is in favor of letting state legislatures decide social policy because federalism was established to allow decentralized, local decision-making. Following the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, he favors all authority over matters not specifically addressed in the Constitution remaining with state legislatures.

Although some Protestant Christians think that because Ron Paul holds to many libertarian ideals that he is also a libertine, nothing could be further from the truth. The essence of libertarianism is that it is wrong to threaten or initiate violence against a person or his property. Force is justified only in self-defense. Libertarianism, as explained by Murray Rothbard, the twentieth century’s greatest proponent of it, is a political philosophy that

holds that the only proper role of violence is to defend person and property against violence, that any use of violence that goes beyond such just defense is itself aggressive, unjust, and criminal. Libertarianism, therefore, is a theory which states that everyone should be free of violent invasion, should be free to do as he sees fit except invade the person or property of another.

Libertinism is a way of life that might be considered hedonistic or sympathetic to "alternative lifestyles." A libertine might be a libertarian, a liberal, a conservative, a socialist, a progressive, or an anarchist. He might be a member of the Libertarian Party, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, some lesser-known third party, or no political party. One does not have to be a Christian to oppose libertinism, as Walter Block has superbly shown. Conservative Republicans are not immune from libertine behavior, as we can see from the recent scandals in Congress.

Other Christians falsely believe that since Ron Paul opposes the war on drugs that he supports drug use. As a physician, Dr. Paul knows firsthand the harmful effects of mind-altering narcotics. He believes that drug addiction is a social problem, not a crime. He has pointed out that for the first 140 years of our country’s history we had no federal drug war yet far fewer problems with drug addiction and crime. Dr. Paul opposes the drug war because it encourages violence, has led to the unnecessary prison overpopulation, has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money, has been used as an excuse to attack our civil liberties and personal privacy, has been an excuse to undermine our financial privacy, has promoted illegal searches and seizures resulting in innocent people losing their lives and property, criminalizes the actions of legitimate physicians who act in good faith when prescribing pain relief drugs, threatens the effective treatment of chronic pain, and corrupts our police, the military, border guards and the judicial system.

Some Protestants who consider themselves evangelicals have wrongly concluded that since Ron Paul opposes giving foreign aid to Israel he is pro-Palestinian or anti-Semitic. Congressman Paul is opposed to giving foreign aid to Israel for the simple reason that he opposes giving foreign aid to any country. Foreign aid is, after all, money that has been taken from American taxpayers – money that most of them would not voluntarily send overseas if they had a choice. Any individual American who desires to assist someone in another country is perfectly free to do so. Dr. Paul’s perspective is that of the Founding Fathers: America should not intervene in the internal affairs of other nations. He believes that our meddling in the Middle East has only intensified strife, conflict, and violence. Both sides have more military weapons as a result of our foolish and unconstitutional foreign aid. Some of our foreign aid even winds up in the hands of terrorists. For more on Ron Paul and the question of foreign aid to Israel, see Walter Block’s "An Open Letter to the Jewish Community in Behalf of Ron Paul."

Ron Paul opposes the Iraq war precisely because he supports the troops. He is a patriot in every sense of the word. He opposes federal court jurisdiction over the question of whether the phrase "under God" should be included in the pledge of allegiance. And unlike many in the Bush administration who avoided military service, he served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam conflict. Because Dr. Paul loves this country and all of its people, he is opposed to endangering the life of U.S. soldiers in unnecessary foreign wars that only enrich federal contractors. He is therefore pro-life in an absolute sense. He believes that the best way we can support the troops is to bring them home, not just from Iraq, but from all of the countries in which the United States has troops stationed. Then Americans can proudly serve in the military knowing that they are engaged in real national defense.

It is conservative Republicans who support pre-emptive war, bloated defense and intelligence budgets, secret military tribunals, torture of "enemy combatants," extraordinary renditions, an increasingly militarized society, the violation of basic civil liberties, undue government secrecy, and domestic spying programs who are neither real nor genuine.

The Answer

Protestant Christians who love liberty, respect the Constitution, and believe in the freedom to live their live and practice their religion without the heavy hand of government hanging over their heads should be drawn to Ron Paul like a magnet.

As a Baptist myself, I realize that some Baptists don’t consider themselves Protestants. In this article I am using the term Protestant in its broadest sense. Therefore, this open letter is addressed to them as well. But religion or no religion, if your creed is liberty, then Ron Paul is the man.

November 14, 2007

Laurence M. Vance [send him mail] writes from Pensacola, FL. He is the author of Christianity and War and Other Essays Against the Warfare State. His latest publication is War, Foreign Policy, and the Church. Visit his website.