In Memorium

In this Memorial Day blog is one of the most profound writings from America's history and also included is probably one of the poorest attempts at poetry in American history, in between is a short vignette on an American hero. One hundred years and three days prior to John F. Kennedy's assassination, Abraham Lincoln gave America's most famous speech that had been written in the days prior to his visit to Gettysburg and probably finished off at the battlefield site. I started typing the Gettysburg Address from the display on my iPhone but found that memory had me typing and only checking the original for errors, this the result of Catholic grade school education, circa 1963.


Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicated a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world  will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.

The vignette is about Robert Dean Stethem. Does that name sound familiar to you? I visit his grave in Arlington National Cemetery when I go there to visit that of my own father.  After being beaten, tortured and shot by Hezbollah terrorists who had hijacked TWA flight 847, Petty Officer Stethem's body was dumped on the tarmac in Beirut. Today the U.S.S. Stethem patrols the oceans in defense of our liberties. It is now almost 26 years since this young man displayed the courage that severely humbles me as I even try to write about it. So many have died as he in defending our nation against terrorism. So many suffer today from wounds in that defense. So many are in harm's way as I touch these keys. So many at home suffer with the loss of their loved ones.  Every time that our flag ripples in the wind the snap of the cloth should be a call to attention.

Three million Americans showed up at that point of embarkation to Vietnam from California. Over 58,000, capacity attendance in many professional sports stadiums, died there. This poem (?), originally from my May 25th, 2009 blog, is about one of those Americans:

B. D.

Good-byes outside the Federal Building, hearts bursting with pride,
new fiends, for a day or two anyway.
Where you from?
Meal tickets, cough, sign here, raise your hand, get on the bus,
a few hours to digest what just happened.
Here's your bunk, here's you hat. It won't be too small tomorrow.
Lights out...lights on, get up.
Raise you left hand. The foot below that is your left foot.
Milk never tasted so good, nor liver.
Smoke'm if you got'em.
Lights out, shut up. Lights on, get up.
"Hey new guy!" Eight weeks is a lot of seniority here.
March, run, push, carry, salute, stomach in, chest out.
Congratulations, pride, get on the bus.
Seven to three and turn the lights out when you want.
Boston ain't bad but a bald head would be normal today.
Home for the weekend, cab driver not impressed.
Here's your test, here's your test, here's your test.
Congratulations, another stripe, get on the bus.
Farewell party, pack light, good-bye.
White building, no windows, no news, no TV,  just wait for your name, it could be a couple days.
Get on the plane.
Heat, aroma, concertina wire, dust, sun, water buffalo, silk, Pabst Blue Ribbon,
real-to-real, abacus, burn detail, pretty Asian girls, 12 hour days...forever,
pills, mail call, piasters, conical hats, nuoc mam, Mama San, number 10, dinky dow, tuk tuks,
packages from home, good friends. Where's Lubbock, Where's Petaluma?
Maps, files, briefings, frequencies, "they're on the move," sleep, maps, files.
Whistle, incoming!
Bunkers, jokes, heat, siren.
Sand bags, guard duty, Asian Elvis, Buddha, kids, chocolate, Budweiser.
Whistle,
bunkers, no jokes, heat, siren.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July.
Sydney, Kings Cross, money's gone, get on the plane.
Monsoons,
maps, files, briefings, frequencies.
Whistle,
bunkers, slop, siren.
Short time calender, "I  hear they don't like us?" Protests, daydreams, maybe college.
Whistle
I remember you.

The Broken Heart

It was quite a number of years ago that John MacArthur, one of America's preeminent pastor/teachers, offered the free gift of the book Valley Of Vision on his radio broadcast. This book is a compilation of Puritan prayers edited by Arthur Bennett and published by the Banner Of Truth Trust. These Puritan writers lived from the 17th to the 19th centuries. I passed on MacArthur's offer, had second thoughts, and ordered a copy later. It has been a staple in our household since then. I've had a few remarkable experiences with the book but I'll relate just one. I gave a copy to a young seminarian who I had just met and who was passing through our town on his way to Michigan.  Months later I listened to the recorded message on our telephone where he had called simply to say that reading those prayers was the beginning in the change of his theology. I have also been surprised at how many times someone would tell me in conversation that they already had possession of this book. Imagine that...a book of Puritan prayers! Aren't they supposed to be the purveyors of legalism and dreariness? I presume that John MacArthur's intent in giving away this book was more in comparing us with how Christians of the past had prayed than in simply giving a book of prayers to use, although it has been a staple at our dinner table as a daily reminder of my weakness and His strength. I probably have copied at least a dozen or more of these prayers in blogs of the past two and a half years.  Here is my latest offering from that book, Valley Of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett (isbn 9780851512280) and available through any bookstore or Internet book dealer. The title given this particular prayer by the editor is The Broken Heart which may be America's greatest need at his time, to approach God in humility seeking His mercy upon us.

O Lord
No day of my life has passed that has not
proved me guilty in thy sight.
Prayers have been uttered from a
prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in thy appeasing
wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar
above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Thy righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in thee plead my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
to thy throne of boundless grace.
Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:
that by thy stripes I am healed,
that thou wast bruised for my iniquities,
that thou hast been made sin for me
that I might be righteous in thee,
that my grievous sins, my manifold sins,
are all forgiven,
buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
lost, but saved,
wandering, but found,
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to thy cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,
sparkling like crystal,
flowing clear and unsullied
through my wilderness of life.

Seek The Genuine

Every newscast that I saw over the last few days had at least one moment of humor, even giddiness, over the prediction from a radio preacher that the world would come to an end.....or at least the end would begin.....yesterday. Even the commencement speaker at our son's law school graduation began with a joke. My first major interest after coming into the Christian faith 30 years ago was apologetics with a minor in researching the cults. I used to run a personal ad in our local newspaper trying to contact followers of one particular religious cult in order to reason with them from the Scriptures. The man behind this latest false prophesy departed from sound theology quite some time ago, in a number of theological areas, and has marks of a cult-like following. One gentleman spent his entire life savings of well over a hundred thousand dollars on billboards announcing that the end was coming. When interviewed after the failure of the predicted apocalypse he could only mutter that he didn't understand what went wrong with the prediction. My slant on this fiasco is a little bit different.  Bridge On The River Kwai is an excellent film from 1957 that starred William Holden, Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa and Jack Hawkins. Guinness played British Colonel Nicholson whose men were POWs in a Japanese labor camp. His character was the epitome of military discipline and his men loved him for it. The Japanese were going to follow the Geneva Convention and proper military protocol or they would get no quality labor from his men. Even the Japanese camp commander Colonel Saito, played marvelously by Sessue Hayakawa, could only admire the leadership displayed by his counterpart and the effect it had on the British Colonel's men. Colonel Nicholson had his way and work proceeded on a bridge that the Japanese planned for troop movements. Aware of this back at Pacific headquarters, the British knew that something had gone horribly wrong with Colonel Nicholson's powers of reason and developed their own plan to blow up this bridge before it could be used. Colonel Nicholson upon seeing the detonation wires that were meant to destroy this magnificent structure that he believed attested to not only British engineering skill but military discipline and character, and then seeing the familiar faces at the end of those wires, suddenly came to his senses and saw who he was aiding and abetting. He could only utter "What have I done?" There may be a day when average liberal Americans, both your friends and mine, that have fallen for the schemes of the radical Progressives and the Marxists in business suits may only be able to utter those same words "What have I done?" I have had an idiosyncrasy, OK one of many, for quite some time now. When in a worship service my eyes will not depart from the pulpit. I sat in one church for many years without ever even looking into the choir loft that was directly above the pulpit. This emphasis on the authority of the pulpit over the man is the result of having seen so many follow charismatic individuals while leaving their mind behind. I will not acknowledge the walking back and forth with Bible raised, eloquent vocabularies, erudite elocution or any helps meant to get the attention of the congregation but only the authority of the preached Word that can be verified in that written Word, and the pulpit serves to remind me of this. Neither the pastor from that church mentioned nor from our present church would specifically utilize such enhancements but I have regularly experienced it while travelling. This certainly is extreme behavior on my part and I don't recommend it to anyone but it is a result of that cult research both in Christianity and politics for I have seen first hand, many times, how a persuasive personality with a few well chosen tricks can lure a bright mind into a cult or into theological or political error that should otherwise have been identified immediately. From my experience, the most effective thing that one can do to insure that he or she is never drawn into egregious error bordering on a cult is learning the genuine beforehand. One might then ask, "What if the first exposure in an attempt to learn the genuine is from the false prophet or the political propagandist?".  My answer to this is do not burn bridges until you are sure of where you want to go and in order to do this many areas have to be researched. In the Christian faith one has to at least be aware of how the church and its doctrine evolved over the centuries and the people behind this evolving. There have been many attempts over almost two millennia that deviated from sound doctrine and they had been identified, scrutinized by councils from the Scriptures and rejected. Tendencies to deviate can be spotted easily today but only if one is familiar with how we came to where we are. It has been our failure to undertake these first steps and build a defense against the mystic, the usurper and the charlatan that explains much of what is found in the typical Christian book store and on the airwaves. One needs to see the foundation of Christian belief which is Jesus Christ, from the foreshadowing of the Messiah in the Old Testament to inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the writing of His birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension in the New Testament. If one might feel tempted to depart from what has been orthodox doctrine then logic alone should raise a red flag that a false prophet is claiming to know that which everyone before him, or her, has testified to very plainly from Scripture. In politics, one has to see the need for and the writing of our Constitution from those involved. To follow those today who see an entirely different paradigm of interpreting that document as if we ourselves were writing it anew should, at the very least, demand that those proposing this new political philosophy openly admit that the change they proclaim is in the foundation and essence of America itself. Had the Progressives openly admitted this in the election of 2008 we would not have the personnel that we do in the Executive Branch or the two new members of the Supreme Court. Whether it is concerning a Harold Camping or Saul Alinsky, the disciplines are there and if put in place, the false prophet can easily be discerned.

Atlas Shrugged

There are quite a number of Christian books that have been published, and films made, on the topic of the Antichrist. I submit to you that Ayn Rand's character of John Galt is a contender in principle. A few blogs ago I wrote of seeing Atlas Shrugged on a rainy day in Myrtle Beach. I went in knowing little about the novel of which the term cult-like following is inadequate. I came home and picked up the book and began where the film (the first of a trilogy) left off. Ayn Rand provides a savior for us in Atlas Shrugged and it is John Galt. Two thirds of the novel looks ahead for the answer to the question "Who is John Galt?," which is a running theme of the book, as roughly two thirds of the Bible looks ahead to the coming of the Messiah. Described accurately as a distopian United States, the setting of the novel has this Christ-like figure in John Galt who calls certain chosen disciples to himself to go into seclusion and watch the world collapse without them.  Confronted with his wisdom, these chosen disciples drop everything to follow him. He promises a paradise, or more accurately, the instruction of building one and freedom to do so. John Galt's oath, repeated a number of times after his appearance on the scene, is "I swear by my life and love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man nor ask another man to live for the sake of me." These disciples learn from him and fear for him as he exposes his person to the pharisees to confront their enslavement of truth. He is tortured...but lives and his kingdom eventually comes to earth (this nation anyway.) Rand did indeed have the playbook of the Leftist and the Totalitarian, her avowed enemies, in writing Atlas Shrugged for one can see their dangerous ineptitude and propaganda in today's newspapers, even in what will be the headlines of tomorrow's (May 20, 2011,)  but her utopian vision also comes from that same Leftist playbook. John Galt replaced original sin with original righteousness and received the love of man and woman because of it. The self-adulation of man has often been a temptation throughout history and in the hands of Ayn Rand's pen it is most formidable. She may not have thought too highly of Libertarians but they apparently think the world of her. There is high tension today between some Conservatives and some Libertarians who are so close...yet so far away. The news media, in their infinite befuddlement, covers this early skirmishing among Republicans as if the election were next month while drooling on polls that are of very little use, if not useless, at this time. It is my contention that the eventual Republican nominee is not even in the mix as of yet. There are extreme dangers in the Middle East and the world's economy, and malicious intentions of the world's elites that may not even be completely formulated as of now, any of which can alter the best laid schemes of mice and men. Ayn Rand's philosophy which exalts the potential of the mind of man to the exclusion of God is not the answer to our problems but rather a steroid. A consensus is needed between all Conservatives and all Libertarians but it cannot be at the expense of the One who indued our intellects with the very potential to prosper and who will, and has, withdraw it when we exalt ourselves.

Floating Fire Ants

A friend of mine, and politically polar opposite, had pressed me a few times on the question of just what are we to do to get out of this mess of our national debt that now stands at over $14 trillion. He was not happy with my answer that we cannot get out of the mess. His response was what kind of answer is that and implied that I was, in effect, giving up. I think that the number of blogs here over the past two and a half years, and the content of those blogs show that giving up is not and has never been an option. Our national debt cannot be paid. The Leftists in this administration know that. This isn't a concern to them for they have always wanted a new schema of taxation in America to give them the monies for their programs that are intended to guarantee their continued power and cement the dependency of the people at their feet; and a new paradigm for defining "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". This debt is an attempt to do that. Sound economic policy was never their goal. They have succeeded in their real goal to drive us near unto bankruptcy. No, there is no answer for this debt. The closest thing to it would be slowing down the inevitable by reversing course of which we certainly must do.The financial situation is only one arm of this multi-limbed god of destruction. Our culture, as it stands now, can neither support nor sustain any reversal, and our foreign policy is merely an extension of the President's reelection plan. There is indeed an answer but it is not in a financial fix. The answer is in another sphere in the now that we have come to this point, how do we deal with it arena. If we retain carpe diem as our philosophy of life there will eventually be no day to seize. A proverb of Solomon is Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise. There's a report coming out shortly in a scientific journal where it has been determined that the Fire Ants survive floods in the Brazilian rain forests by using air pockets in their bodies and clasping on to one another, in other words forming a living raft upon which they can even save their young and their food. No, we may not be able to stop the flood coming upon us but we can ride atop it, for the Creator of the ant and of man are One and the same. Providing that God should even have mercy on us to survive as a nation, there would be more satisfaction in life living through hard times in acknowledgement of Him than living without Him in what we would falsely consider prosperous times. There is our answer!

The following is the first few lines of a prayer found in the Valley Of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett:

O my forgetful soul
Awake from thy wandering dream
turn from chasing vanities,
look inward, forward, upward,
view thyself,
reflect upon thyself,
who and what thou art, why here,
what thou must soon be,
Thou are a creature of God,
formed and furnished by him,
lodged in a body like a shepherd in his tent,
Dost thou not desire to know God's ways?