Memorial Day: It isn’t about the government. It’s not about a President, or a Party. It’s about “Them”; They who have preceded us, and inspire us to
measure up. To Them.
The endless rows of white stones and mausoleums command the heights of former battlefields and sprawl across the rolling course of green, under the cobalt space which beckons the occupants, and comforts those eyes who behold the wonder and contemplation of a grateful and humble people.
Those who fail to simply stand for a few minutes in the presence of self sacrifice, and listen, and feel, the proud and reverent spirit that hovers over and among these places of hallowed memorial, who never feel the moist fog rise up in the eye, will never know what it truly means to be an American.
I salute thee, Oh valiant Ones, who ‘saw the elephant’, felled the giants, charged into the Angle, bled on the Poppy Fields, drowned in the icey Seas, scaled the jagged Cliffs under enfilade fire, and plunged into darkness unknown.
Never shall I forget Ye who sweated and bled in the Jungles, choked in the Desert Sands, froze in the Chosin, watched as Saigon fell behind you, served your shipmates in death rites, and were felled by the sniper’s round at Fallujah.
Nor will I ever forget you, who survived the battle, carried those scenes your entire life, sharing only a few, and finally found rest after a lifetime of continued service to your country and those around you.
After 2 weeks of Protests on college campuses around the country, the movement continues to grow. There are signs that the protests are not “copy-cat” or coincidence, but a concerted and well planned effort by a revolutionary element yet to be positively identified. Incuded in this article is a first hand report from inside one Student Senate meeting this last week which will reveal much of what is taking place on universities around America.
Notice the clenched fist symbol used in Communist revolutionary expression since the Bolsheviks.
Beginning at University of Missouri in early November, that protest finally culminated on November 16th with the resignation of President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor Bowen, over lack of response to alleged racial concerns in U of M. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon followed this with a statement that it was “necessary step toward healing and reconciliation”.
In quick succession, protests were felt in major universities across the United States:
Occidental College in Los Angeles – Student protestors occupy an administration building for a week. 14 demands are made by a student group called “Oxy United for Black Liberation”. Demand #9 is that campus police immediately discontinue wearing bullet proof vests. # 10 is “Immediate removal of LAPD’s presence on campus”. President Veitch says there is no way all their demands can be met. Protestors call for his resignation and he agreed to do so.
Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York – Organizers “People of Color” call for “radical/transformative change in governance and structure at Ithaca College” and demand the resignation of President Tom Rochon. On Nov. 10th Rochon announced a new position of Chief Diversity Officer, a position which Oxy obviously already has.
Amherst College – As a response to the UM protests some students held signs that lamented the “death of free speech” and “All Lives Matter”. That was simply so harsh that a group known as the “Amherst Uprising” listed 11 demands, among which requires President Biddy Martin issue a statement saying that Amherst does “not tolerate the actions of student(s) who posted the ‘All Lives Matter’ posters, and the ‘Free Speech’ posters.” In addition, the “Uprising” demands the people behind the “free speech” fliers be required to go through a disciplinary process as well as “extensive training for racial and cultural competency.” After all, we can’t actually have students thinking they have freedom of speech on college campuses now can we?
Yale – Students protest an alleged “White girls only” fraternity party. The party is under investigation but evidence is not substantive enough to confirm any “racial profiling” by the frat brothers, although it is suspected they were screening for attractiveness, no matter the race or ethnicity (imagine college boys doing that).
One Yale faculty member was “protested” due to a failure to remember someone’s name and an email that his wife had sent to the dorm where they serve as “Masters”. Nicholas Christakis was surrounded by students calling for his resignation and screaming, “Why the f*** did you accept the position?” The email questioned why there was a need to warn and protect students from culturally insensitive Halloween costumes—a response to a set of guidelines sent by Yale’s Intercultural Affairs Committee.
“If you don’t like a costume someone is wearing, look away, or tell them you are offended. Talk to each other. Free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society,” Mrs. Christakis wrote. My sentiments exactly!
But not to the modern “Revolutionary” on American college campuses.
Claremont McKenna College – Junior class President Kris Brackman resigns her office after a photo of her and other students in Halloween costumes was circulated and posted by someone taking offense at the “racially insensitive” costumes of two of the girls in the picture with Brackman. (Wearing ponchos, sombreros and fake mustaches). In her resignation letter Brackman accepts full responsibility for her “offense”:
“As a bystander I did not assertively speak out against the costumes, despite knowing that they were disrespectful,” she wrote. “Even worse, I associated myself with the offensive message by willingly standing in a photo with the costumes … I am regretfully sorry to have been associated with this harmful incident, and after thoughtful consideration I have decided to leave my position as the Junior Class President.”
This wasnt’ enough and the College Dean, Mary Spellman also stepped down after 6 years.
University of Kansas – All four state universities in Kansas- Wichita State, Emporia State, Kansas State, and University of Kansas have all experienced some form of protest in the last few days. We will take a closer look at “Rock Chalk Invisible Hawk”(RCIH), the group protesting at KU.
The protests at KU erupted on Nov 11 when the Chancellor held a townhall meeting to discuss the University of Missouri events. RCIH interrupted the forum, taking the stage holding signs supporting Mizzou and protesting various issues, including at least one which read “Black Lives Matter”. The crowd reportedly became caustic, at times yelling over Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, in the packed out Student Union. RCIH also carried signs which enumerated 15 demands, some of which Kansas University has no jurisdiction over, such as re-opening an investigation into a homicide from 1970 of a 19 year old Black student. Another demand included increasing the number of “undocumented students” on campus. (My head is beginning to hurt).
RCIH took note of two students, the Student Body President and Vice President, when they did not stand to show unity with the protestors. That failed action singled them out for brutal social media coverage and accusations of racism and insensitivity. Yes, they are white. President Jessie Pringle, VP Zach George, and a third student, Chief of Staff Adam Moon may face impeachment proceedings now, as they refuse to resign, even after they signed a written statement formalizing support for “Black Lives Matter”.
“Rhetorical Terrorism”
A few days ago a friend attended the Student Senate meeting at KU on November 18th. She is a professional, and took meticulous notes, and has been releasing related materials ever since. The following commentaries are excerpts from her report:
People don’t realize how far this social justice/political correctness agenda has gone. I didn’t realize it until last night! I am frightened in a way I haven’t been before. And nobody is offering me a “safe space” where I can “breathe” and have “my humanity affirmed“. [Italicized are recurring terms which are often mentioned in these meetings.]
There was talk about ally vs accomplice. Those white students who spoke in support of RockChalkInvisibleHawk (RCIH) could be called an “ally” but only if persons of color (more than one) granted them that status. That comes directly from KU OMA (office of multicultural affairs) which previously had a workshop on how to be an ally.
I was disappointed in the responses of the three officers who didn’t resign and are now under the impeachment process. It was sheer self-flagellation. Profuse apologies for not giving multicultural students what they need and ruining their experience at KU (which experience is to provide “learning, self-exploration and above all enjoyment“). The officers want everyone to come together, to restructure the senate, additional appointed senate seats, mandatory “cultural competency training“, cap election spending (and possibly minority coalition subsidies), address the retention rate,…
Changes will include international students and gender neutral language. Adam Moon had said something about the “normal freshman experience’ and a representative of the International Students Association got up and asked why he “called international students abnormal. You said normal freshman…why are we abnormal?” When [Moon] denied that he called them abnormal, she told him he needed “to watch his rhetoric“.
Someone asked if requiring “students of color” be on the election commission and that was affirmed as a possibility. In other words, quotas.
There was a lot of questions about how to make sure those who have gone through cultural competency training are actually competent and if not deemed competent, how they could be removed. Stephon Alcorn (black senator) said that “all students have a right to inclusion and success“.
“Rhetorical terrorism” — as in, what you said just made me feel unsafe; therefore, you have terrorized me with your words.
If there was something said or a question asked that they didn’t like, they would say “Impact”. If the speaker would say, that’s not my intent, the response was “I don’t care what your intent was, you have impacted me.”
Dr. Andrea Quenette Asst Professor of Communications used “rhetorical terrorism” and denied institutional racism. RCIH has published an open letter calling for her resignation based on insensitive and racist remarks in a classroom discussing the current issues. She insists that her motives were not discriminatory and now fears for her job, because she voiced that she doesn’t see racism on the KU campus and used the “n-word” in a frank discussion about race, stating she has never seen that word spray painted on the walls.
Intimidation was strong. The meeting chair (who did a great job) kept having to take a motion to extend the speakers’ time. The first couple of times the votes were “Yay” and a few “Nays” until Omar (RCIH student) got up and exclaimed that if you don’t want to have questions and allow them to speak “then there’s the door”. After that, all extensions of time were unanimous. At one point, while the RCIH were standing up front talking about their demands, they said “and if you don’t like this or vote against it”, “We see you. Don’t think we don’t see you“.
Folks, this type of intimidation tactics are classic Saul Alinsky style, “ridicule is man’s most potent weapon”, “pick the target, freeze it and personalize it”. Also, “power is not what you have, it’s what the enemy thinks you have”. These people have been trained. It is concerted and highly organized. These few colleges are not the entirety of this effort. It is nationwide.
The following short video is a great illustration of what we are seeing take place on our universities across the country, right now. Watch this, Please!
When I was a kid, if I said something about God, people would ask me if I wanted to be a missionary. A neighbor friend once told me I should be a nun. That unsolicited advise puzzled me then, but now I understand it: Relegate the ‘religious’ to a profession so they stay put in a tidy place where ‘normal’ people don’t have to bother with the “Thees, Thy’s and Therefore’s” of dealing with a Presumed Presence from Whom we would rather keep a comfortable distance unless we need something. Let the religious do their bit while the rest of us live in the real world. The Real World. And what, pray tell, is that exactly?
I didn’t know it then but I had been subtly introduced to dualism—the assumed disparity between the seen and the unseen, between faith and reason–a kind of mental construct that assigns categories to our efforts to grasp Reality. Life assumptions—like dualism can go undetected until a conflict, or irony opens them for full view.
Recently I read an article about a movement in Australia to call the world to pray for America. The press release from the National Day of Prayer, Australia read:
“We in Australia believe it is our turn to bless the nation of America and pray for healing for the USA through prayer and fasting according to II Chronicles 7:14. We in Australia are grateful for the protection that America gave Australia and the nations of the free world during World War II.”
About the same time, a friend loaned us a copy of a self-published compilation of Kingdom Stories; The Life and Labors of Rev. G.V. Albertson (Copyright 1935 by Ruth Hill, Boston Ma). A cowboy turn preacher is a fascinating coming-of-age account that gives color and context to the territory days in ‘Bleeding Kansas’ and early settlements in Oklahoma. It is a personal narrative that reveals the hardness of life that forged the characters of our mid western fore bearers. From one chapter, “ Ill shoot the Preacher”, the author writes,
Many of this generation, hearing the gospel from fine cushioned pews, and enjoying most conventional up-to-date services, could scarcely be made to comprehend the hard beginnings of many of our churches a generation ago and particularly of some of the 2200 that have been founded by Sunday School Missionaries on the frontier . . . Good people who had taken homes there had to be most watchful for property and life; . . . all manner of crimes were being enacted. With those who stood for law and order, the Sunday School Missionary under took to build up a church. (p. 68)
While I work with our son on the renovation of a tiny house in East Lawrence, my husband oversees the building of a school in Africa as a volunteer. Continents apart, our very real worlds could not be more different. I order tile from a warehouse; a contractor measures for kitchen cabinets with special compartments for spices, trash and recycle. Meanwhile Ed admires African workers who pat down the hand-mixed pavers into the earth for the classroom floor; a wall shelf is a luxury and an unexpected convenience. The slow and steady work of missionaries is opening new opportunities and casting doubt on the efficacy of witch doctors for relief from sickness or demons. Demons–now there is a worldview indicator word!
Whether on another continent or during an earlier era, what determines this fundamental difference, besides geography and genetics? In these three cases a Judeo/Christian worldview has taken root or is taking effect; the result permeates every aspect of society—family, economy, and the judicial system. Justice in the Wild West was settled in the streets until law and order was established by a Biblical moral code. African villages under the tribal influence of ancestral loyalties and Islamic customs in some places are yielding to the good news of the God of the Bible. Industry replaces dependency so the disinherited wives and children have a livelihood; education is made affordable and opens doors to new futures for the young. America’s foundation was firmly Judeo/Christian. The unprecedented prosperity that resulted propelled prosperity else where, like Australia.
Ironically, it is not the foreign fields at risk now—it is the homeland of America. Our dualism has finally dealt us a dilemma. We have politely excised our religion out of our public square and left chards where once there was a vibrant fountain. Thankfully the mission fields in Africa and Australia and church plants of yesterday are now returning the favor by praying for America. So what does that say of our maturity, our supposed progress? It sounds more like a civilization in its dotage than its vigor. There is something very full circle or ironic about the pairing of these accounts– this frontier account of fledgling churches that became the root system of communities for generations while the fruit of their labor spread into foreign fields now offering solace to our morally bereft nation.
You have to wonder how did we get here. Critical thinking and self-examination are casualties of a culture that prefers delusions for now then simply pass the nonsense on to the next generation as they observe it practiced by us. And practice it we have. And do. Our dualism is so perfected we stay on cue, going from church to club to work to party to home and hearth and never realize how compartmentalized we have become. Split.
What is it if not schizophrenic to assert “In God We Trust” but refuse to acknowledge Him publicly or privately as the Giver of all of our Nation’s bounty? Or refuse to recognize that the Founders were devoutly determined to invoke God’s favor and did everything necessary to set their lives in agreement with His revealed Word. Divorcing sacred from secular by insisting that politics and religion cannot co-exist does not alter reality. It does however reveal the modern fault line in the American mind. However, I do believe that this split in consciousness is amendable. Where there is a will to examine one’s belief systems and make changes where necessary.
Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote, “All things appear as in a distorted mirror, if they are not seen and recognized in God.”
In Jesus Christ the reality of God has entered into the reality of this world. The place where the questions about the reality of God and about the reality of the world are answered at the same time is characterized solely by the name: Jesus Christ. God and the world are enclosed in this name . . . we cannot speak rightly of either God or the world without speaking of Jesus Christ. All concepts of reality that ignore Jesus Christ are abstractions. As long as Christ and the world are conceived as two realms bumping against and repelling each other re, we are left with only the following options. Giving up on reality as a whole, either we place ourselves in one of the two realms, wanting Christ without the world or the world without Christ—and both cases we deceive ourselves . . . There are not two realities, but only one reality, and that is God’s reality revealed in Christ in the reality of the world. Partaking in Christ, we stand at the same time in the reality of God and in the reality of the world the reality of Christ embraces the reality of the world in itself. The world has no reality of its own independent of Gods’ revelation in Christ . . . [T]he theme of two realms, which has dominated the history of the church again and again, is foreign to the New Testament. (Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas, pg469)
Biblical support is easy to find. Colossians 1:15-20.
What governs moral law whether in remote villages, the Old West or ‘progressive’ American cities? Whether codified or not, what places a schematic in place that explains the cause and effect of human behavior within the known universe? The worldview of the inhabitants. But dualism renders it blurry.
It is time as a nation to realize that the foundation of our county and the subsequent buildings upon it are grossly incongruent. Never before has it been as obvious. There is nothing faulty with the foundation. It is brilliant. But over time we have allowed slip shod construction and derelict leaders to occupy prominence, preeminence over our Constitution and our conscience until our national contract is in shreds.
Wherever there is a virtue, there is a counterfeit.
Socialism pretends to correct American individualism with collectivism, which of course has been tried and failed and yet under the current administration has been resurrected with new meanings to our lexicon of trusted words like ‘Hope’ and Transformation, all of which peddle the deranged ideology of Saul Alinsky, exalted to czar status empowering governmental mandates from every agency; all substitutes for what God had in mind:
“Love God with all your heart and strength and mind and your neighbor as yourself.” It has been called the Golden Rule but it is much more than that because it is predicated on self-love. That only happens by first acknowledging God the Creator, Sustainer and Giver of life thus giving Him the proper honor. Then in gratitude we live as stewards of a world we did not make and do not own. Agenda 21 is the pretender of this virtue as it doesn’t recognize the proper created order and seeks to demonize ‘Man’ as the persecutor of the Earth and all the species in it. For sustainability, only an “all- wise world order” would be able to control the evil capitalists who seek profit at the expense of undeveloped counties. The problem is— who gets to make the rules in the New World Order? I hope no one I see on the world stage. No person, because human nature is not trustworthy. Government was instituted to keep human nature in check. The bigger government gets, the more humans can mess it up. It becomes a god and functions like a tyrant. God, not government rights all relationships. Self-governance precedes generosity and ethics.
It has always been about worldview, which asks the big philosophical questions of the individual and society: What is the nature of Reality? (Metaphysics), How can we know it? (Epistemology) How then shall we live? (Ethics) You would think in a university town the residents would have the tools for critical thinking but when slow cooked in the toad water of liberalism, it has fallen prey to a ploy of social justice and redistribution. Of course justice matters. But defining justice is a prerequisite to a workable solution. Muslims and Christians are worldviews apart on definitions of that word. Let’s not pretend.
In an America that is being ‘fundamentally transformed, reduced to the diminished and awkward role of a “Post-America World” player, I have dusted off my textbooks on Western Civilization which is clearly out of vogue as the current President was photographed carrying a book with that title to and from Air Force One—his free ride. Recently published textbooks enhance the view of Islam and minimize Christianity as a persecutor of all things Islamic; our universities are substituting Western Civilization with Middle Eastern Studies. To appeal the Middle Eastern dollars of course and sell our soil and soul! There is nothing more important now than a coherent worldview and to be able to articulate it. Right now we are not a melting pot, we are a cacophony of chaos due to implode.
The Judeo/Christian worldview was fundamental to the shaping of our government. Man, left to himself will corrupt, pervert and mask his intention to do so as long as possible to hold power until tyranny is inevitable. Education cannot redeem– government doesn’t succor the soul. It is not the socialist worldview nor is it the Islamist worldview that founded this country—it was the Biblical worldview.
Not long ago I was asked, “Has the Douglas County Republican Party become too religious? ”
I love the question. A perfectly legitimate one and deserves a well-reasoned answer. But before that, I need to ask questions.
What is meant by the word “religious”? The term usually has connotations of the moralistic. So if by the question they intend to ask, is it proper for a political party to assert that we live in a moral universe? I reply, Yes. And is that assertion necessary to the scope of the Republican Platform? Again I say, Yes.
If by ‘religious’ they are asking, are we promoting one religion over others, I would ask which religion is foundational to our Republic? Is it Hindu, Islam, Rastafarian Atheism, Secularism? None of the above. Only the Judeo/Christian Bible is quoted more than any other source in our founding documents. Judaism gave us the Law; Christianity gives us the only One who was able to keep it, revealing the true nature of God and paid the penalty we deserve. The Founders celebrated this. Allusions and overt references in their writings are unmistakable to the literate. Therefore when George Washington pens words like:
“… Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties move men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. What ever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
(George Washington excerpted from Farewell Address 1796)
I would ask, are we then being too religious to recall, to recite and to seek to reinstitute them? I think not. In fact I would go so far as to say, we utterly fail without them. John Adams says it better than I:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
(John Adams, in a letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, on October 11, 1798)
The question itself is very revealing about the American mind—it is incredibly dualistic. When we assert a belief but subvert it in word or in practice that mind is divided and integrity is at risk. If faith does not permeate all of life it is infantile at best. The unexamined mind leads to unexamined groupthink and so goes society. The only remedy is the entrance of an objective Truth and the hard work of self-examination for a unity of mind and spirit. But that of course begs the question of a spiritual dimension to our existence.
So I would ask, if the questioner is a Republican by affiliation? If so, how do they ignore the fundamental premises of the Republican Platform? If the questioner is of the Democrat party, then I understand the disassociation from God. It is systemic. Sporting a collage of contradictory worldviews is not open-minded liberalism –it is maniacal schizophrenia. We are way past resuming the integrity of our thought, word and deed as a Nation. We must exhume rather than resume.
The confusion I have felt for the better part of 8 years is how to invest my life energy, how to live faithfully when every system in our society is teetering toward collapse. I have chosen to stand squarely on the Republican platform admitting no contradiction to my worldview. I have chosen to stand in a political field erstwhile it questions the viability and relevance of faith; I have chosen Christianity while that faith field in practice often dismisses the immediate or ultimate benefit of the political endeavor. I must somehow find those contradictions illogical as did Dietrich Bonheoffer, whose integrity inspires me in these days.
In the meantime, the Judeo Christian worldview is on the public scaffold. Adherents may follow. However, the God of all Time and all nations will not be mocked and laughs at the derision of Man. Psalms 2. He would shepherd the fatherless and the widow at the very end of all time, and draw nearest to the broken-hearted. Psalms 145. Eventually we will no longer see darkly through the dust of dilemmas but clearly when we see Him face to face. II Corinthians 13:12, Psalms 17:15.
Most news stories have a dateline which includes the date, location, and today the news service which first published the story (Reuters, AP, ect.)
Most important is the publishing date and the location. This story has several locations, but only one eventful date. Well, technically two dates exactly a hundred years apart.
November 14, 2014
Islamic State Dinar design, 2014 via WSJ
This date passed most Americans by with nothing more than a “TGIF”. But Islam was celebrating. Just as it did exactly 100 years prior, on November 14, 1914. First we’ll look at a few “insignificant” stories that (barely) made the news, all on 11/14/14:
Dateline Iraq: Islamic State leader, “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announces plans for IS (Islamic State) to begin minting its own official Dinari coinage in various denominations for use across the newly established, and Sharia governed “Caliphate”.
This announcement came within 24 hours of a speech released by al-Baghdadi, wherein he vowed to press on in establishing the Caliphate and fight “to the last man” in order to fulfill Allah’s directive, calling on Muslims everywhere to join the Jihad. This following rumors that he had been wounded in a coalition force bombing.
According to this USA Today story, the coins carry the words in Arabic: “The Islamic State / A Caliphate Based on the Doctrine of the Prophet.” Nothing Islamic about that, Mr. Obama.
Dateline Washington DC: The United States House of Representatives was re-convened by praises given to Allah in the official opening prayer by a New Jersey Imam, Hamad Ahmad Chebli of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey with these words:
“In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful,” he began. “Praise be to Allah, the cherisher, the sustainer of the world, the most gracious, the most merciful master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship and thine do we seek.”
“Guide us to the safe path,” Chebli continued. “The god of the prophets and the messenger says in the Koran [that] he does not place a responsibility on you greater than you can bear. Everyone will receive the good they have earned and vice versa.”
He then asked that Allah bless and guide Congress. [Courtesy JewsNews]
No, this was not the first time that a Muslim opened Congress in prayer, but it was the first time the name of Allah was invoked, and the first time Quran was quoted in that prayer. I wonder, when was the last time even a Christian prayer was allowed to invoke the name of Jesus Christ in the US Congress?
Dateline Nigeria: Boko Haram, the Islamic Terrorist organization who kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a single town, has now seized control of that town of Chibok, as well as Hong and Gombi as it continues its Jihad to establish Nigeria as an Islamic State.
Dateline Washington: One hundred and two years ago (1912) the first services were held in Bethlehem Chapel, the first completed portion of the National Cathedral, which incidentally has been the longest construction project in US history, spanning 83 years with the cornerstone laid in the
National Cathedral, Washington DC via Wikipedia
presence of President Theodore Roosevelt (bearing the scripture “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) and the final “finial” placed in 1990 in the presence of President George H W Bush. The National Cathedral quickly became the center of services of prayer, thanksgiving, memorials and funerals of Presidents and other state dignitaries, as well as national prayer services such as the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks on the US. It has been designated by the United States Congress as a National House of Prayer.
Friday, November 14, 2014 the National House of Prayer became a mosque. The administrators rearranged furnishings and laid prayer rugs for the 200 Muslim attendees in a fashion where they faced Mecca and did not have to view any Christian icons or symbols while praying to Allah. How nice. I am continuing to wait with bated breath the day when a Christian Pastor is invited into a Mosque to preach the Gospel and pray in the name of Jesus Christ!
The service was officiated by South Africa’s ambassador to the US, and Muslim scholar, Ibrahim Rasool.
Dates are not coincidental when it comes to Islam. Symbolism of events and dates in history are very important and are used often to make a statement. Take for instance, this date, 11/14/14.
Dateline Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, November 14, 1914: The Caliph, Sheikh Ul Islam declares Jihad and urges Muslims to take up arms against the European Allies in World War One in its own alliance with Germany. When the Caliph Mehmet II entered Constantinople in conquest in 1453, after 3 days of butchery, pillage and destruction, he rode to the Hagia Sophia, the greatest church of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and halted its defacement. He immediately called for dedicatory prayers and as the Adhan was echoing off the interior walls of the church, it was transformed into a Mosque, as a sign of conquest. This has historically been the pattern, especially concerning any church of importance or grandeur, to take possession of and declare it a waqf (Islamic possession), which is forthwith and forever Islamic property. The Grand Mosque of Mecca (The Kaabah), the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the Great Cordoba Mosque are all historical examples of this.
Armenian girls crucified by Turks, 1915
In that Fatwa, or declaration of Jihad, the Turkish Caliph Mehmet Ul Islam, outlined the Quranic rules for jihad which were instructions to “take no friends of the Jews or Christians” and “kill them wherever you find them”, driving the infidels from the Land.
In 1914, Turkey was home to about 2 million Armenian Christians, 1.8 million Greeks, and 750K Assyrian (or Syriac Christians). By 1923, a million Greeks, 300K Syriac’s, and 1.5 million Armenian Christians had been slaughtered by Turkish and Ottoman Kurdish forces. Most of the survivors had been displaced, running for their lives, or in deportation pogroms.
Ottoman Interior Minister Mehmet Talat Pasha is on record ordering, “Kill every Armenian man, woman, and child without concern.”
Yet, even today Turkey’s government refuses to recognize the holocaust perpetrated by its early 20th century governments, initiating the bloodiest century in world history. The Turkish government has banned books discussing the matter and continues its denial, with PM Recip Tayyip Erdogen calling for “an impartial study by historians” as to the fate of the Armenian People during WW1. Maybe we could loan him a few of our “historians” who have revised our own American History for today’s consumption.
While the Pogroms, the “death marches” and the extermination orders began to be fulfilled in 1915, November 14, 1914 was the date of issuance of this official Fatwa which gave not only official authority, but moral prejudicial purpose according to the tenets of Islam, as directed in the Quran and Hadith composing the legal basis of Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia). It was modeled after the last words of the Prophet Muhammad himself, “O Lord, perish the Jews and the Christians. They made churches of the graves of their Prophets. Beware, there should be no two faiths in Arabia. (Hadith – Muwatta Imam Malik, p. 371) Stands to reason that the Turkish Caliph would emulate that Prophet above all Prophets, and seek to eliminate all faiths in Turkey, except Islam.
As far as genocides go, the Armenians don’t get much press. We all have heard of the Jewish Holocaust. We’ve heard of the short-lived Rwanda genocide where 800,000 were killed in just a couple of months in 1994. We know of the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia in the late ’70’s when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge wiped out over 2 million ethnic minorities and anyone who was a threat to the Communist ideology. Maybe you’ve even heard of the Ukrainian genocide when Stalin starved or executed 7 million, mostly farmers who refused to “Collectivize” after the Communist Revolution formed the USSR, although he was responsible for several genocides that never made Western attention.
But the Armenian genocide continues to resonate for the United States and other Western nations who are increasingly faced with Islamic infiltration and confrontation. It is amazing how the Turkish Delegation continues to work effectively in statehouses around the United States, with little or no resistance. Turkey’s “cold war” on Armenia continues, even though Armenia has been relegated to a small sliver of mostly mountainous country less than 12,000 sq miles sandwiched between Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan, with Georgia on the north in a region which was part of the old Soviet Union, and had been unstable for several years following USSR’s dissolution. Modern Armenia, population 3 million, has good foreign relations with pretty much everyone other than its Turkic neighbors (Turkey and Azerbaijan) who have blockaded the Armenians for 20 years following a hot war, and has a security relationship with Russia for protection against its two hostile neighbors.
Meanwhile, the Turks are busy conducting public relations programs across the United States, working to win the “hearts and minds” of American civil servants at all levels, from local city councils and police and fire departments, to state Legislators, Sheriffs offices, and local FBI offices. They extend an invitation to an awards dinner, then present the targeted individual or group with some award concerning community relations. They normally operate through a local Turkish organization such as Raindrop Turkish House or other TCAE (Turqoise Council of American Eurasians) affiliates. Most, if not all these organizations are associated with Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish Imam who lives in Pennsylvania. They have a growing number of Turkish Charter Schools around the USA, and continue to expand that movement, lobbying state legislators. Every legislative session these groups will host a “Legislative Reception” where elected officials are enticed with Turkish food, culture and entertainment. They are then encouraged to join the hosts for a “trip of a lifetime” to their home country of Turkey, usually about 10 days, expenses paid of course. These Turkish emissaries then continue to bring resolution after resolution into legislatures of many states which either praise Azerbaijan or condemn Armenia, or seek to expand current relations with the Turkish government itself. Check your state legislature and most likely you’ll find them there.
The Kansas Legislature has dealt with a couple of these resolutions. The first was a blatant attempt to deceive lawmakers into passing a “Turkish-Kansas Friendship Resolution” which was fraught with false claims of Turkey’s great human rights policies. That was an embarrassment to our Turkish “friends” in attendance, being refused before it even came to a vote, so the next attempt was to get a Representative to carry a pro-Azerbaijan resolution the next year.
[Now Kansas has a long-standing mutually beneficial relationship with Armenia. In 2003, The Republic of Armenia signed a bilateral affairs agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense and the state of Kansas establishing the Kansas-Armenia State Partnership Program, which includes services and training in a number of security and strategic defense issues including counter-terrorism. Armenian troops have also served in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the international Coalition Forces against Islamic Terrorism.]
Off floor debate and discussion became quite controversial once again, and one Kansas Democrat Representative who had just recently returned from one of those junkets to Azerbaijan and sponsored the resolution was overheard saying of the Armenians, “Those people don’t matter and their land is just desert”! The Turks and the Azerbaijani’s had done their job well, but the resolution failed to accomplish the desired outcome, prompting two of the same sponsors to bring a pro-Armenian Resolution immediately.
The Armenians are a tough, resilient people. For centuries they have been the subject of pogroms, genocide, persecution and wars. They are a Christian culture on the border between atheism and Islam. They are an ancient people with a proud heritage and an uncertain future in a part of the world where nothing is taken for granted. Today they face the additional threat of the Islamic State, or the latest Caliphate, who has already targeted Armenians in Iraq and Syria. American politics notwithstanding, the Armenian people will likely remain when the American people are scattered.
I have attached a short video of one Armenian-American family’s story. Please take a look and reflect. The world is not what it seems. Coincidence, or political statement?
Friday afternoon, May 25, Governor Sam Brownback took a proactive step to secure Constitutional rights for all Kansans. A bill that has been in process for about two years finally came to rest on the Governor’s desk after passing both houses of the Kansas Legislature in mid May.
The hardest fought battle was in the Senate after Committee leadership failed several attempts to stonewall and block the progression of the bill. This law was actually dead three times during the process. Each attempt to stop it was met by a series of courageous individuals who stepped up and carried it on in the face of opposition from tenured committee leadership and media critics. In a previous post, Kansas Passes American Laws for American Courts I detailed some of that process.
American Laws for American Courts (ALAC) underscores the American ideal of “all equal before the Law”. It is the reinforcing of the promises of government to guard and protect the individual rights and freedoms as granted under the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Kansas regardless of country or culture of origin, race, or religion. It gives statutory direction to the Courts, which at times, without such laws to refer to, may use arbitrary means to reach a decision.
The HAMAS linked CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations), a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, had mounted its expected attack on Kansas. They mounted a national campaign for Muslims to contact Governor Brownback and tell him to veto the bill.
Since the Legislature had adjourned (sine die) prior to the end of the usual waiting period, the Governor had to sign SB 79 in order for it to become law. That might have been the more politically expedient action for him to take; allow it to expire without his signature.
Nonetheless, in spite of the mis-information, and sensationalist and even international campaign waged by CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood affiliates, along with some uninformed citizens to marginalize the bill, proponents of the bill, the Governor and the overwhelming majority of the Kansas Legislature and Kansas citizens, the Governor chose to step up and make a public statement for individual liberties for every citizen, regardless of gender, religion, or cultural background. Brownback will, no doubt, receive a tongue lashing from the media, left wingers everywhere, and pro-Islamist groups around the country and the globe. He is not a newcomer to politics and to coin a phrase, that took some guts.
CAIR’s call to action lambasted the Kansas Legislature, and Kansas citizens, as Islamophobic, Muslim hating bigots, and that this law will forbid free exercise of Islamic religious beliefs.
Well, if your free exercise of your religious beliefs goes contrary to the Constitution, and existing Kansas and American Law, then I suppose that would apply. Things like polygamy, slavery, inequity in legal status, stoning, suppression of the rights of other individuals (Muslim or non-Muslim), misogyny, yes, these things are contrary to our laws.
It’s sort of like driving the wrong way on a one way street. It’s against the law, no matter who you are, or why you do it! Now if you get caught you can’t hide behind your religion, no matter what it is.
If your religious beliefs lead you to action that is legal under American or Kansas Law, such as your choice of diet, abstaining from alcohol or tobacco, pray 5 times a day (not blocking traffic), adhere to a dress code, go to church on Sunday, synagogue on Saturday, mosque on Friday, or any other religious expression which complies with the law, and does not infringe on the rights of others, knock yourself out!
Over two years ago I was honored to become part of the team to present ALAC to the Kansas Legislature. It has been a long hard battle, and my first real inside look at how the political process works. Oh, I have pretty much always been active and interested, but never on such a personal and crucial level. It has been a roller coaster ride that I will not soon forget and unless you’ve actually been involved close up, there is no way to understand it, let alone explain it! Human nature is vividly revealed in this arena, and character is exposed for all to see! I was proud of the team I have been involved with and they have become very close and dear to my heart; all brothers and sisters in Christ, and all men and women of high character and humility.
I still am reeling from the shock that the Kansas Senate passed ALAC, 33-3!!
There were more opposing speeches given than opposing votes! Vicious lies were spewed about the contents and intents of SB 79 during debate by Senate Committee Leaders. At least 4 Senate Leaders testified against the bill; one Senator changing his mind from supporting in Committee to opposing, along with the Senate Judiciary Chair, who still doesn’t even know why he signed on in Committee!! I Do!!
Great support was given by many Senators, and when the dust settled 33 had voted for and 3 against. This in a Senate Chamber that has been run by liberal Republican leadership and have basically smacked down nearly every conservative legislation that has appeared in its chambers. Most of these bills were going down by narrow margins of 3 to 6 votes.
On Wednesday, we had such a huge setback! The brother of a Muslim woman in Wichita (court case pending) had asked for a press Conference with the Center for Security Policy, who were the chief engineers of ALAC on the national level. We held a press conference in Topeka and this guy backed out, and essentially the wheels fell off our wagon. I really expected the press to crucify us but it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. Amid the confusion of all the other fights and melee in the Capital that day, our deal was not so big.
One of our team members had made a comment Wednesday after our disaster that Jesus did not turn the water into wine until they had run out of wine. Well said my friend! We were totally out of the fight when He moved and showed us all! We had to be totally removed from having any part in what God was about to do! He chose one young faithful Senator to accomplish the impossible, and it was incredible to behold the events as they unfolded. For over an hour debate ensued, and by the end of the second hour the vote was tallied. Everyone was asking each other if those numbers where correct. What just happened? Is this for real? How can that be? God just revived a bill which had died 3 times in the past year!
This event could very well be the dynamite that breaks the logjam in the Kansas Legislature. This event is already a defining moment in the coming elections! It may be the defining moment in the future of Kansas!
If you know anything about the history of the United States, you know Kansas has played a major part in events that have shaken the Nation to its very core. From the Kansas-Nebraska Act which sparked the Civil War, to Brown v Board of Education, Kansas has a long history at the tip of the spear of moral and spiritual battles in our country. For over 7 years prior to the Civil War, there were buckets of blood soaking into Kansas soil while struggling to establish the American ideal of “All men equal under the Law” that had been written into the Constitution. Kansas motto is “Ad Astra Per Aspra”, Latin for “To the Stars through Difficulty”. She wanted to come into that field of blue on the American Flag, a Free State where all men are considered equal under protection of the law of the Land.
American Laws for American Courts underscores that ideal. It is the reinforcing of the promises of government to guard and protect the individual rights and freedoms as granted under the United States Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Kansas regardless of country or culture of origin, race, or religion. It gives statutory direction to the Courts, which at times, without such laws to refer to, may use arbitrary means to reach a decision.
A reporter asked me if I didn’t think it redundant to pass a law that does the same thing as the Constitution? Considering that many Judges, lawyers, and citizens in general do not read, abide by, understand, or even think about the Constitution anymore…my answer?
“Yes.”
UPDATE: The HAMAS linked CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations), a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, has mounted its expected attack on Kansas. They have mounted a national campaign for Muslims to contact Governor Sam Brownback and tell him not to sign the bill. CAIR’s call to action lambasts Kansas Legislature, and Kansas citizens, as “Islamophobic, Muslim hating bigots, and that this law will forbid free exercise of Islamic religious beliefs.
Well, if your free exercise of your religious beliefs goes contrary to the Constitution, and existing Kansas and American Law, then I suppose that would apply. Things like polygamy, slavery, inequity in legal status, stoning, suppression of the rights of other individuals (Muslim or non-Muslim), yes, these things are contrary to our laws. It’s sort of like driving the wrong way on a one way street. It’s against the law, no matter who you are, or why you do it!
If your religious beliefs lead you to action that is legal under American or Kansas Law, such as your choice of diet, abstaining from alcohol or tobacco, pray 5 times a day (not blocking traffic), adhere to a dress code, or any other religious expression which complies with the law, knock yourself out!
This is a departure from my current theme, however since I have seen nothing concerning this story in major or mainstream media, including the Topeka, Kansas newspaper (Topeka Capital Journal) I thought my readers deserve to know.
Forty one Kansas State Legislators recently received emails from a Pakistani (illegal) immigrant inviting them to convert to Islam. My district Representative began to forward them to me as she received them, asking for my thoughts. There were numerous Islamic doctrinal statements and books attached to these emails. They began almost the same day that a group of Muslims visited the State Capital in order to improve relations between Turkey and Kansas (TCAE) based out of Houston, Tx. It should be noted I have not found a connection to this group.
I advised my Representative as well as several others that this could be a sign of an impending attack on the Capital or Legislators. It turns out Kansas was not the only Legislature targeted by these emails. At the least, Oklahoma had received the same kind of “invitation”, and there may have been others.
The emails were sent by Javid Kamal, living in Dallas, and with just a bit of “googling” I found he was from Pakistan, and had listed anti-Israel/anti-Western comments on a pro-Iranian website. I didn’t realize he was in America illegally until after his arrest by FBI on Friday, March 26. He has been deported back to Pakistan. At least that is what I have been told.
According to Islam, there are three options for a “kafur” (unbeliever/infidel). Convert, Submit, or Die. If you convert to Islam, you are welcomed into Dar-al-Islam (House of Islam) as a brother. If you don’t convert, you have two options: Submit or Die. If you choose to submit, you can live under Islamic rule as a second class citizen (dhimmi) with the obligation to yield to Muslims in everything and pay the jizya tax (protection money). Don’t choose to convert, or submit, you must die. This is the ideology of the Fundamentalist Muslim and the directive of Islam. Islam by the way translates “Submission”. World wide conquest is the fundamental goal of Islam, either by conversion or conquest, but Islam must dominate the world. This is not my opinion, this is what Islamic Books say (Koran, Hadith, etc).
We in America fail to understand this very basic concept of what we are dealing with. If you do not belong to Dar Al Islam then you are in Dar Al Harb, “House of War”. It’s pretty self explanatory.
Muslims are required by Koran and Hadith to give “invitation” to accept Islam prior to committing a violent jihad.
Mr. Kamal’s last letter of Sunday March 21 was indicated as his “final notice” to the Kansas officials. When the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) showed up in Dallas, he was not to be found at home or work, and not even his family knew where he was.
However, the fact remains that news media remains silent on this story.
>end<
***RELATED POST***
TCAE has an affiliate in Lenexa, Ks. (Kansas City) called “Raindrop Turkish House” (google it) whose mission is to “promote and encourage continuing good relationship and create an opportunity to further enrich our cultural understanding by bringing together the leaders of the State [of] Kansas and the members from Turkish parliament.”
Several Kansas dignitaries have taken “junkets” to Turkey funded by this organization, which hosts social events for government organizations and officials ranging from Legislators, to Fire Department Chiefs, city mayors, to the local FBI division.
Turkey’s desire is to play the role of a bridge between East and West.
Discussing the Soul of America and her Colonization by Islam
Investigative Project on Terrorism
ReligionofPeace.com
BLACKFIVE
BrigitteGabriel
KoomeMinistries
THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION US
THE UNITED WEST
Defining the Narrative 