The Case For a Creator; Lee Strobel

Amazing Evidence of Design and Purpose in Nature


"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." -- Psalm 19:1-3

Ch. 2. | Ch. 3. | Ch. 4. | Ch. 5. | Ch. 6. | Ch. 7. | Ch. 8. | Ch. 9. |
Ch. 10. [click to view].

THYME Magazine American Renewal Issue V

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue XXVI

The Divine Plan for Our Redemption

"If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." -- 2 Chronicles 7:14

The Great Depression of the 1930's in America...


What does redemption really look like? "The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph" -- Mr. Mendez.

"What this world needs is a little Wonder!" -- Mr Mendez

The Great Depression of Modern America...

Politicians won't save us. Economic vitality won't save us. Indeed we have seen conditions in our nation move ever more from difficult to impossible. The great nation that nurtured us in my youth appears to be disappearing forever. Another election was approaching a few weeks ago. My depression over the situation was obvious. I'd gone to the September 12, 2009 rally on the National Mall and come away hopeful back then. The 2010 elections seemed to indicate that the wind was shifting. Solid principles would once again govern us. In 2011 I cautiously laid foundations for my little architectural visualization business to grow again.

But as 2012 rolled along, the work dried up. One of my clients simply stopped paying me for work already performed and I was living off of my 'second job' and some part-time teaching. The 2012 elections brought many of our worst fears to a depressing reality. The country was being 'fundamentally transformed,' and many of us saw that transformation taking us away from our foundations and into dystopia. 2013, whatever the experts said, saw a stagnation I don't think any of us could imagine. Our parents talked of the Great Depression and what I saw in my own business life seemed to be a revisiting of that dark era.

Those who had railed at the much lower unemployment statistics of the previous administration seemed all to content with the "new normal." Unemployment was far higher, but the figures did not even include situations like mine -- still technically 'at my desk' but seeing only a trickle of small jobs, if that. The nation that put men on the Moon couldn't even keep the shuttle flying. The victory in Iraq that stablized the Middle-East for a time was being squandered as the administration pursued an unclear course in Afghanistan. Debt soared to 17 Trillion dollars as government spending was the ONLY sector of the economy that was growing.

Eventually required payments such as Social Security and other entitlements would be squeezed by debt service to the point that there would be not enough money to meet these required obligations. Meanwhile, the administration moved decisively to block energy production on our public lands and a vital pipeline that would have helped us wean ourselves of foreign oil. A bleak picture was being painted. When Ted Cruz did what he was elected to do, represent the PEOPLE in the Senate, he was chastized by his own party! When Congress dared to defy the President by funding everything but the so-called "Affordable Care Act," the national media painted THEM as extreme... even though the "Affordable Care Act" would soon prove to be anything but.

But as the administration had its way and launched their $500 Billion Healthcare Marketplace Website, created in an extreme and blatant example of crony capitalism, the fall of that house was disasterous. People who create secure marketplace sites for the commercial marketplace have criticized the website's shoddy design and security lapses. A designer who was a guest on Sean Hannity's show said he could have produced a working site in several months (as opposed to six years), adequately tested it in a month and would have been embarrassed if he asked more than a million dollars for his efforts.

Awarded in a no-bid contract to a Montreal company, CGI Federal, which had bought a subsidiary "beltway bandit" firm in Virginia, turned out to be run by an old college friend of the First Lady! Many are shaking their heads at the blatent sloppiness, not only of the website, but the process. Are these people really to be trusted with one-sixth of the country's economy as they rewrite healthcare?

So, going into Viginia's Gubernatorial election, the media narrative was criticizing Attorney General Cuccinelli for OPPOSING THIS MONSTROSITY by mounting the first challenge to the mandates of the "Affordable Care Act." His opponent in the Governor's race -- a Democrat FUNDRAISER, was painted as the 'reasonable' candidate. Though Cuccinelli is being proved right as people actually 'see what's in it:' (the 'affordable Care Act') , vindication moves slowly in the mainstream media. An ever growing population of government-dependent Northern Virginians stood ready to steamroll the electorial process. Virginia has NO Conservative representation in the United States Senate. Were we about to lose the Executive Branch of our own state as well?

Healing for Our Land... Where Will it Come From?

It is days like these that make me think moving to Belize would be a better option than staying put and watching the decline. I wish for the days of the Texas Republic. Was I born in the wrong Century? Some of the great heroes of Texas came from Rockbridge County and were lovers of liberty in their own right. Our nation barely survived the revolution that spun it free from England. What led men to pledge their lives and sacred honor instead of cower in the hopes of "security?" A lot of young people seem all to happy to "take the free stuff" and vote for the "fundamental transformation" that provides it. What's the point in fighting it?

And so I faced the prospect of the upcoming election with some depression. But G-d has a way of breaking through that sort of thing. The young lady who had been my assistant in the studio during the optomistic days of 2011 proudly announced her support for Cuccinelli on Facebook, sharing this sentiment with her fellow college students! Another young man about my son's age did the same. I felt the baton being passed. There is indeed another lap in this race! But this race will not be won by merely prevailing in elections. It will be won by the method revealed in 2 Chronicles 7:14!

Turning G-dward! First of all, we must not be ashamed to call ourselves G-d's. Psalm 91:2 says: "I will SAY of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my G-d; in Him will I trust." Someday they may indeed sandblast the words "LAUS DEO" or "Praise G-d" from the cap of the Washington Monument, but they cannot remove them from my heart! Indeed, I am called by His Name. No amount of politically correct legislation can change my identity... and who I shall identify myself with. Though I am weak, HE is unwavering! My identity in the Lord places me on a firm foundation. Though I bend with the wind, the Rock I stand upon cannot be moved.

Then we must come to our Creator in all humility. Yes, we face situations bigger than our abilities to solve. In Centuries before us others did too. When we seek the face of G-d, we will of necessity check our hubris at the door. He is Lord. He is, as C. C. Lewis says: "Not a TAME Lion!" Our Redeemer is Dangerous! We must acknowledge... I MUST ACKNOWLEDGE... EVIL! Not just some distant evil, like a Hitler or a Terrorist, but that evil that lurks in my own heart. Yes, that evil must be acknowledged and put off. A man alone may deceive himself into thinking he is doing just fine, a man in intentional community knows better. We must learn: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let us esteem each other better than ourselves" -- Philippians 2:4 by dying to our own default desires. This can only be done by journeying together.

then G-d says HE will "Hear from Heaven!" HE will forgive! HE will HEAL OUR LAND! Yes, it is the Divine who will save us. Angus Buchan, who's true story inspired the Movie: "Faith Like Potatoes" says: "the condition for a miracle is difficulty. The condition for a GREAT miracle is impossibility!"

Last week, THYME looked at the life of IsamBard Kingdom Brunel [click to read] and how he was used by G-d to bring new economic vitality to Bristol, England in the time of George Müller and Charles Dickens, Victorian England. Indeed, G-d used the vision of Müller to begin the healing of a people. The emergence of Brunel must be seen as part of that healing as well. History has much to teach us about faith and perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds... and the great miracles that have come in the face of just such times of adversity. History, you see, is not some obscure set of facts to be memorized or dates to be organized; Rather, it is a map to be followed. The paths of others who have walked where we are about to walk are described in its pages.

Learning from the Example of Previous Generations

We are in need of a Great Miracle today. Other generations have faced times like this as well. In previous times of national peril, our LEADERS called for prayer. Today it is necessary for people of faith everywhere to pick up that fallen standard and lift it high. If we will prepare our own hearts, like soil for the planting, HE will plant the seed. If we will cultivate what G-d plants, nurturing it to maturity, HE will provide the bountiful harvest. If we will prepare the land, G-d promises to HEAL it. History (REAL history, that is) is filled with stories of just such promise being realized in the lives of ordinary men and women.

But to participate in promise requires a relationship. G-d is not some abstract concept, but rather He is the Author/Creator of the Universe. He has a NAME... a Name so Holy as not to be uttered lightly on Earth, but a Name, to be KNOWN by. And how shall I find this G-d? There are men and women in this world who converse with Him in prayer. It is through relationship with THEM that we may be introduced to the Magnificent One, the G-d of Redemption. I am at best a poor disciple of His, but I am His disciple. You should not be introduced to Him by some formula in the writings of man, but rather in the Inspired Words of His Own Testimony. That is why I, and many more of His disciples stand ready to open the Holy Scriptures WITH YOU. In them you will find the Life and Light I speak of. The Food Channel cannot actually nourish you. You must step into the room where the meals are served.

An Earthly author cannot see the 'Great Miracle' that you, the reader, desparately need. But we CAN go together to the Master, who indeed knows what will nourish each of us. It is highly likely that you know someone who knows the Master, who can take you to the place where He can meet you with healing and nourishment. As I write this I pray that that person might indeed come to mind. Before I came to faith I was keenly aware that there was a certain brightness and clarity about the lives of certain people I knew. Later I realized that some of them had indeed been praying for me. Yet, you might be reading this and G-d's Holy Spirit may be speaking to you and you are not sure who to go to. If you would like to know G-d as Reedemer,  watch Defining Moments [click to view], or you may contact me at bobsjourneyblog@gmail.com for more information. Your inquiry will be in complete privacy. It is my desire that you be able to find the 'Living Water' that you so deeply desire. A life transformed by G-d is but a heartfelt prayer away:

Dear Heavenly Father, I know that I’m a sinner. And I ask for your forgiveness. I believe your son, Jesus, died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins. I repent of my sins. I invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen

The greatest miracle is not the parting of the sea or the feeding of thousands, it is the transformation of the human heart. That is the miracle that gives us access to G-d. It is in knowing G-d that we will find far more than we were looking for in the first place! A G-d who can part the Red Sea, Create worlds and has power over death is pretty much to be respected. A G-d who changes human lives in intimate communion with his Creation is amazing.


A Caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Nature itself suggests the possibility of miraculous transformation and new life! Rice Paper Butterfly, or Paper Kite Butterfly, Idea leuconoe.
Illustration © 2013, by Kristina Elaine Riley for HOPE Publications, Pvt. ltd.

Virginia's Jack Jouett Rode Through the Night

His Warning Saved Jefferson and Virginia's Officials


This silhouette of Jack Jouett by his son Matthew is the only known image of the Revolutionary War hero.

On the night of June 3, 1781, Jack Jouett learned of an impending surprise attack on Charlottesville by British Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton's "Whitecoat" Regiment. Jouett was at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, bedded down on the tavern's lawn according to some accounts. When he learned of the advancing Tarlton, he quickly mounted his horse and rapidly traveled along back roads and old trails to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature at Monticello.

Legend has it that in his urgency to get to Charlottesville, Jouett was permenantly scarred by the branches he rode through. He rested briefly at Lousia Courthouse before proceeding on to Monticello. Arriving around four in the morning, he hastily awoke Jefferson and his guests, who enjoyed breakfast before they fled while Jefferson checked periodically with his telescope for signs of Tarlton, Monticello literally sitting on its own "little mountain."

The government of Virginia evacuated to Staunton, across the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the legislature reconvened and elected Thomas Nelson to be Virginia's next governor as Jefferson's term had officially expired. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized Paul Revere, but it wasn't until 1909 that a similar tribute was published by Charlottesville's newspaper:

"Hearken good people: awhile abide
And hear of stout Jack Jouett's ride;
How he rushed his steed, nor stopped nor stayed
Till he warned the people of Tarleton's raid.

The moment his warning note was rehearsed
The State Assembly was quickly dispersed.
In their haste to escape, they did not stop
Until they had crossed the mountain top.
And upon the other side come down.
To resume their sessions in Staunton Town.

His parting steed he spurred,
In haste to carry the warning
To that greatest statesman of any age,
The Immortal Monticello Sage.

Here goes to thee, Jack Jouett!
Lord keep thy memory green;
You made the greatest ride, sir,
That ever yet was seen."

--Charlottesville Daily Progress, October 26, 1909

A Musical Taste of Saint Petersburg

Friday Concert at Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton


St. Petersburg. State Department Photo.

Friday, November 22 - 7:00 P.M. at Christ Lutheran Church in Staunton, VA.
St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble (Russia)

The St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble is an independent group founded in 2003. This groups repertoire encompasses various epochs and styles - from ancient Russian chants and chorals of Western European to modern music. Since one of the tasks of the ensemble is the popularization of preeminently Russian music, our program allows to most fully elucidating and introducing our audience to Russian folk songs, secular and ecclesiastic compositions, as well as modern composers and transporsitions of popular melodies. The concert is free and open to the public. A love offering will be taken.


The St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble.

THYME Magazine American Renewal Issue IV

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue XXV

Isambard Kingdom Brunel
What a Nineteenth Century Innovator Can Teach Us Now
© 2013 The Kirchman Studio, All rights reserved.

“They say that the condition for a miracle is difficulty, but the condition for a great miracle is impossibility” -- Angus Buchan, “G-d's Farmer”

When William Wilberforce [1.] had ended the slave trade in the British Empire, he had thrown the city of Bristol, England into economic depression. The port there was heavily devoted to that wretched business and suffered heavily when it was brought to a sudden halt. The unintended consequence had been a rise in children condemned to a life of poverty. Ending the vile business of enslaving Africa's children had resulting in England's society spurning the needs of her own. Into this world came George Müller [2.], who, relying on faith in G-d alone, provided redemption for thousands of orphans. Many of these children were cast-offs of a society in economic despair.

George Müller [3.] had seen the wretched street urchins most people despised as jewels to be polished. Muller, relying solely on Divine provision, built five large houses for Orphans at Ashley Downs in Bristol, England. He trained the girls to be nurses, teachers, clerical workers and domestics. He apprenticed all the boys in various trades. He was excoriated for training these unwanted children "above their station." He ignored the critics.

Müller looked to G-d alone, but Bristol needed an outfowing of Divine provision to provide for her children. G-d's provision for Bristol was to come in the form of inspiration and innovation, embodied in the work of a young pioneer of civil engineering. He also ignored his critics.


Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge became the symbol of the City of Bristol.


Building the Great Western Railway.

In 1831, 24 year old Isambard Kingdom Brunel [4.] was awarded a contract to bridge the Avon Gorge. It was the dream of a prosperous wine merchant who provided the initial funding. The completed bridge would become the symbol of the city, but lack of funding dogged the project. It took thirty years to complete it. For years only the towers stood completed. In 1833 Brunel began work on the Great Western Railway, which would become the instrument of Bristol's economic revitalization. The nicknames: "Great Way Round" and "G-d's Wonderful Railway" seem to describe well Brunel's great work.

Brunel was an innovator. He probably experienced as many failures as successes in his short lifetime. Born on April 9, 1806, the son of Sir Marc Brunel, he assisted his father in building a tunnel under the Thames. He would later become the resident engineer of that project. At twenty years of age, he designed a suspension bridge to cross the Avon river. A modified version of his plan was actually constructed.

At 26, Brunel was building the Great Western Railway, commissioned to maintain Bristol's importance as a port and position her for  trade with America. This wide-gauge railroad linked Bristol and Western regions of England to London. Bristol's prosperity as a port was assured and the work of Müller created solid citizens with strong spiritual foundations to benefit.

But Brunel was not content to simply build a better railway. He looked across the Atlantic, envisioning fleets of ocean greyhounds -- great steamships that would complete the linking of his Great Western Railway to America! The S. S. Great Britain was his creation. It was the first metal-hulled propeller-driven ocean ship and became the prototype for modern ocean liners.

Building the South Devon Railway as a spur to the Great Western, Brunel experimented with an alternative to steam engines -- Vacuum tube powered trains. Stationary vacuum plants evacuated tubes laid along the center of the track that powered the movement of trains.


Brunel's 'Atmospheric Railway.'

"The technology required the use of leather flaps to seal the vacuum pipes. The natural oils were drawn out of the leather by the vacuum, making the leather vulnerable to water, rotting it and breaking the fibres when it froze. It had to be kept supple with tallow, which is attractive to rats. The flaps were eaten, and vacuum operation lasted less than a year, from 1847 (experimental service began in September; operations from February 1848) to 10 September 1848.[45] It has been suggested that the whole project was an expensive flop. In Brunel's favour, it has been noted that he had the courage to call a halt to the venture instead of struggling on with it at greater cost." -- Wikipedia

Like alternative transportation prototypes of our day, the vacuum tube system was more expensive. The accounts of the SDR for 1848 show that atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d (three shillings and one penny) per mile compared to 1s 4d/mile for conventional steam power.Though considered a failure at the time, vacuum powered trains may have been a distant precursor to Evacuated Tube Technology [5.] which is now being developed to move entire transport capsules through large tubes -- essentially powered in the same way as Brunel's South Devon train. Brunel was simply two Centuries before his time on this.

What can we learn from Brunel today? Plenty! Inspiration and innovation are needed now as they were needed then. Brunel teaches us valuable lessons about expanding vision with proven technologies and wisely exploring alternatives (and abandoning them when they do not work as planned).

Praying people see the diaconate role of economic development as an integral part of G-d's provision. In “Resources for Deacons, Love Expressed Through Mercy Ministries,” [6.] Tim Keller states his belief in three “levels” of mercy in diaconal ministry:

The first Level Is Simple Relief: That is taking care of the immediate need.

The Second Level Is Economic Development: That is teaching the poor how to get out of poverty by teaching them how to handle money, property, etc. and furnishing them with the means to do so. “Not handouts, but ownership is the way to break the cycle of poverty.”

The Third Level Is Social Reform: Christians should be involved in the culture in an effort to change the social structure.

We see it very localized in a place like Zambia, where people of faith instruct widows to become seamstresses (and people in America gift them with sewing machines). But, can we believe G-d for ever greater inspiration? What vision would G-d give us for our family, our company of employment, our city and county... and beyond? Müller said "the age of miracles is not past." Angus Buchan [7.], in the turmoil of Zambia and South Africa, looked to G-d for inspiration. G-d met him in a corn field where he learned the power of prayer!

Buchan had packed his family up during the unrest in Zambia in the late 'seventies and moved them to South Africa. A successful farmer in Zambia, he felt that he would be happy if he could acquire another farm in South Africa. It didn't. Experiencing deep depression, Buchan was angry and confused. Wandering into a lay-witness Sunday at the local Methodist Church, Angus heard builders, tradesmen and fellow farmers tell of what Jesus meant in their lives. For the first time he saw men crying, he wept unashamedly himself as he responded to an altar call. He took the Lord seriously about the changed life promise.

Buchan went back to his farm and learned to pray in his own corn field. Then he sought to minister to his Zulu workers. His farm manager, Simeon Bhengu, told him: "that's women's religion..." But G-d met Angus and spoke through his friendship with Simeon. Today the men are brothers in faith and brothers in every way. "My children are his and his are mine." Angus says of his Zulu brother. Angus expanded his farming operations and G-d's miraculous provision was seen at every turn. The movie "Faith like Potatoes" is the true story of Angus Buchan and it is quite inspiring! Buchan used machinery but avoided totally mechanizing the farm, looking to provide steady employment to his Zulu neighbors.

In the early 1980's Buchan became aware of a new tragic development. AIDS was ravaging families and creating untold numbers of orphans. Buchan reached out to these orphans but had no place to house them. A local school had temporary classrooms they were going to demolish and Angus received permission to take them apart and reassemble them at Shalom, which he had named his complex at the farm. At first the children lived in dormitories but gradually Angus was able to create "houses" where one "mother" cared for a smaller number.

South Africa in her recent history has experienced much uncertainty and Buchan's experience is instructive as we look to address the turmoil in our own country today. Isambard Kingdom Brunel should serve as an inspiration as well.

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." -- 1 Timothy 4:12

His Simple Faith Gave Hope to Street Children


George Müller changed the way those around him saw the plight of orphans.

Next Week in THYME: Metamorphosis
Bob Kirchman writes on: "Transforming a Culture... One Person at a Time"

Kaylor Knob Trail, Massanutten Mountain

A Walk Along the Rim of Massanutten's Kettle


The evening sun lights trees along Kaylor Knob Trail on the rim of Massanutten's 'Kettle.'

Veterans' Day Weekend View of Washington

Looking Across the Potomac from Arlington Cemetery


The view across Arlington National Cemetery towards Washington. An Airplane approaches Reagan National Airport . The Washington Monument and the Capitol are visible as are the headstones of American soldiers.




The Old Post Chapel at Fort Meyer, next to Arlington National Cemetery.

Franklin Graham:Go Around the World Digitally

My Hope America with Billy Graham


A challenge from Franklin Graham

I’d like to challenge you with the following verse and thought:

Matt 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, (people) …“

How would you like to obey this command once in your life? You can on Thursday through email, Facebook, Twitter and all of your social media resources.

You can contact all your friends, family and neighbors, and invite them to watch “The Cross” with Billy Graham. And invite all your contacts to share this message with all their friends: “Watch 'The Cross.'"

Just think, if you and everyone you know did this, you could be part of millions of people hearing the Gospel and being saved.

If you were ever going to obey this Great Commission of our Lord, please do it now.

Click Here to find out more about "The Cross," including where to watch it, how to order the DVD or how to download the video. Find local and national TV listings Here. Or watch on YouTube Here.

-- Franklin Graham

Watch the video here.

THYME Magazine American Renewal Issue III

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue XXIV

A Great Preacher's Message for America 

Tonight on many networks, the Reverend Billy Graham presents: My Hope, America, combining the impact of video programs with the power of personal relationships. Christians across America will open their homes tonight to share the Gospel message with friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors using one of several new evangelistic programs featuring life-changing testimonies and; powerful messages from Billy Graham. Station Listing [click to read].

Watch Defining Moments [click to view], a superb video with testimonies of changed lives!


Afternoon sunlight streams through the trees at Trinity Episcopal Church, Staunton, Virginia.

How Socialism Gains Hold of a Society
By Donna Lou Shickel - © 2013 Donna Lou Shickel Publishing Co. Distribute freely with permission

Why would anyone be in favor of promoting socialism which without exception has always led to outright revolution and mass murders on its inevitable path to communism? History has proven that the free society of a Christian Judeo nation brings out the best in all people. From earliest times, Christian societies have proven to be so prosperous and generous that they have been attacked and plundered by foreign pagan armies seeking to take that freedom and prosperity under their own control. It isn’t this prosperity that has made America great, but her Christian Judeo faith and values. But in the last half a century, much has changed in America. And who do we blame for that?

Socialists and Communists have no hidden agendas. They are wide out in the open. But without knowledge of these agendas, the Christian Judeo populace can be easily led to cooperate with their goals under the guise of social justice. All ideologies that compromise God’s Way to elevate man by man’s way, only succeed by devaluing other human beings and destroying everyone in their way! Today, here on A Place of Grace, I bring you part four in the series, “God or Government” on the destruction of capitalism according to Communist goals.

Friends, we’ve all been aware of the attacks against our Christian faith in America and the decline in morality and individuals freedoms and the looming, unsustainable economic collapse, despite lower gas prices or interest rates to keep us from panicking, other countries are already pulling out of the U.S. dollar and as the value declines, there’ll be a bigger run on the dollar and then it’s worthless. Revelation 6 and a day’s wages for a measure of wheat, which is one serving, harkens us back to Joseph in Egypt during the famine. Will we be like Joseph, hearing God’s voice in how to prepare for crisis, or be like those who starved? We won’t recognize God’s voice during a crisis if we haven’t been intimately connected before, so know Jesus eagerly awaits your call. Even from us Church-goers who rationalize and debate God’s Word and decide that God’s way just isn’t working. And now, our enemies of God’s Way are chastening us, with a DELIBERATE and strategic effort to destroy our very Christian faith, the number one enemy to the goals specifically outlined in the Communist Manifesto and offshoot groups. One necessary step in socialism is the transfer of power and wealth from the private sector to the public sector, and then from the public sector to the rising world government. And our free market system FOUNDED upon the Golden Rule of Christianity is one of the major obstacles to ushering in this new world order of big government, who under a socialized system, would be the Robin Hood who would take from the rich and give to the poor.

Dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro all came to power by promising such “change” to make life and the world better for all people by doing just that: taking things by force from one person to give it to another. And they began by promoting divisions and prejudices among the people. An entire generation has been taught that capitalism is a dirty word. They’ve been taught that all business owners are greedy, selfish people who care nothing for their neighbor. And of course, we know there are the Bernie Madoff’s. But a vast number of American businesses were started by families, Mom and Pop businesses, providing for their families in unity and reaching out in service to their communities. The great American Dream has been realized by many coming to America who were denied our freedom and privilege under their oppressive governments.

But today, all business owners are demonized and characterized as “the wealthy, the greedy,” and we’ll like you when you’re small, but get too successful? We’ll covet what you have, ‘cause now you’re the enemy! All while government touts itself to be the real hero and savior. Corporate greed has been blamed for our economic crisis, and while there is greed, the looming economic disaster we are approaching, come to find out, has been part of the plan outlined in the 1930’s, 60’s and updated in 1992 by socialist communist groups. They state that to destroy the free market system, you simply overload the economy with so many entitlements and benefits, and in the process it collapses and government rushes in to take care of everybody. And history shows how they take care of everybody, but in order to get to that stage, they have to dis-unify the country and further generational cycles of poverty so that lawlessness and economic fears bring the people to cry out for bigger government, and hand over those weapons to protect our family’s food supply. They call it “The Crisis Strategy,” and the people eventually revolt, and the government responds with mass murders and famines. And this has always been part of their plan, because they know people fear economic insecurity and chaos so much, they will turn a blind eye to the demise of others, especially the unseen and unborn, as long as WE’RE OK. Destroy faith, family, law, productivity, prosperity, life and liberty and degrade the culture. Infiltrate education and the media and call it political correctness. And the most politically correct movement they have openly targeted as the very tool that will bring down capitalism, our free market system, is the environmental movement - which places the planet above people.

Up front, the agenda looks like a good thing. God wants us to be good stewards of creation. But God also told man to guard the Garden. But since Genesis, we see that the best lies are mostly truth. The devil used God’s own Word to tempt Adam and Eve in the garden, and Jesus in the desert. Jesus warned us about the leaven in the dough. The devil knows it only takes a small amount to compromise God’s Word and He uses God’s Word to deceive us. Just a few small compromises and we call it forbearance, turning the other cheek. But turning the other cheek was taught by Jesus to the Jews who were living under Roman rule and oppression. It was intended as the Christ-like response by a people who were not free to come and go as they pleased, and even though physically abused, would hold fast to their trust in God and demonstrate even love of enemy without compromising God’s Laws. It was the Pharisees and tax collectors who compromised with the Roman oppressors, calling it the lesser of two evils and failing to raise their children with God as their all-in-all. We point fingers while most of our children don’t know the Biblical passages I referenced. The Bible says that’s the job of parents, grandparents and the older generations. Not the pastor, Sunday school teacher, but us. But we’ve been led to have a greater friendship with the world than with God and call it compromise, turning our children’s cheeks to deal with our sin, while checking off church attendance. Notice these radical groups are full of young people? We’re created to give our lives to a cause, and if we don’t reach them, someone else always does and they’re destroyed. Our Lord never tolerated cooperation with anything that even begins to compromise His Word, let alone using His Word to justify it. But turning the other cheek to soldiers who strike us will be just where we will find ourselves if we continue to support the agendas of those we know have no friendship with God for the sake of our personal economic benefit. So what are these goals in destroying our free market system and how have they made their way into our government?

In 1992 the Communist party USA split over differences in how to take America down. One side wanted outright revolution. But the other side recognized that all of those efforts throughout history have failed and that the best plan was to infiltrate and subvert America from the inside. A people united in faith in God and in sacrificial love of their fellow citizens could not be brought down and ruled by government no matter how often you strike them on the cheek. But if you destroy the human will to work for what you have, if you work to rot away morality and the sacrificial life of those who would give their lives for the greater good, then there will be such chaos and crisis they will beg you to rule and reign. Precipitate and actually create crisis and the Nanny State can step in. The more this happens, the more dependency on big government you can create, the more quickly people will compromise their God-given values as we have done. If you look up the Communist Party USA, which exists in every state, once you read past their opening mission statements of helping the poor and disenfranchised, you will easily discover that their agenda consists of something entirely different, outrageously evil, and very successful. I previously discussed the book written in 1958 by Cleon Scalcon outlining the 45 Communist goals which are promoted in Saul Alinsky’s books “Reveille for Radicals” and then in his best known book and impetus for today’s radical progressives, the 1971 “Rules for Radicals.” Alinsky is often credited with laying the foundation in Chicago for the grassroots political organizing that dominated the country in the 1960s and was embraced and taught by those who are now in power in every major American institution and government. A follower of Antonio Gramche, Saul Alinsky was a member of the Communist Party in Chicago in the 1930’s and after realizing the revolution wasn’t coming as he had hoped, in the 1960’s he recognized the value in the tactics outlined by Gramche. He saw that these were the tactics Hitler used to dis-unify Germany: raise up community organizers to promote class division and outright hatred (have against the have-nots, young against old, minorities against whites, religious against atheists, etc.). In 1992, when the Communist Party split, the majority who worked to infiltrate American leadership finally had their first real golden ticket to destroy business: the environmental movement.

They said that the environmental movement would be the very thing to unite all countries in succeeding in once and for all, bringing down western capitalism, the free market system. By using fear of exhausting natural resources and the population explosion, both of which if you research, they’ve admitted on paper and on video have been myth, and by demonizing American businesses, the voters would get behind their candidates to usher in the brave new world. If you take a look at our children’s text books, you will find that in place of teachings on civics and our Founding Fathers and documents like the Federalist Papers, they now learn about the globalism agenda. Where children were once were taught that God calls us to be good stewards of creation which He intended for our benefit, now the planet is the priority over people. Maybe you’ve heard about the “Global Pledge” intended to replace our Pledge of Allegiance, first used by students in Superior, Wisconsin then in some schools in California, and on from there. The new pledge goes like this: I pledge allegiance, to the world, to care for earth, sea and air. To honor every living thing, with peace and justice everywhere.” Many of our schools have just revoked any pledge altogether. And thanks to the Father of American Education, John Dewey, our children have had little training on economics.

John Dewey, in addition to publicly declaring “there is no God, there is no soul,” said, “Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society” also wrote and had taught in our schools that capitalism imposed a restriction on freedom, and “socialized industry and finance” would be the vehicle by which people would reach their full potential. But remember the “Crisis Strategy” which says never fail to capitalize on a crisis, like gun violence as an excuse to get firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens so criminals can’t get their hands on them (?). And people believe them when they say that, we’re so anxious to do something in times of violence. Our recent Occupy movement was led by radical progressives with the same goals to bring America closer to the necessary crises and chaos to take by force from the rich to give to the poor. You thought it was spontaneous? Comments by a former major D.C. Amalgamated Transit Union boss, Mike Golash were recorded in a video at an Occupy movement. Golash who organized transit workers to protest spoke for Occupy leaders when he said at one of their meetings: “Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization. Its objective is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism.”

Mike Golash said he and his “comrades” are “trying to learn something from the historical revolutions of the past: the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the revolutions in Cuba and Eastern Europe.” And with a disciplined organization made up (not of a few people but) of millions and millions of people, [we] can bring down capitalism.” Just go to the Amalgamated Transit website. But back in 1992 the environmental movement was modest and actually brought some much-needed attention to how carelessly we use much of our resources and the results it has on our human beings and creation. But the progressives as they’ve come to call themselves felt it was the perfect vehicle to create enough regulations and red tape to discourage business growth. I remember warnings about this, but I think the fact that they were labeled “wackos” led some of us not to take them very seriously. Big mistake. They promoted in their agendas under the discipleship of Saul Alinsky that to destroy business and the free markets, you demonize business owners as “the wealthy and privileged” and promote the UN environmental movement.

I pointed out in a previous show that business majors at JMU along with other schools have been singled out to pay thousands more in tuition than other majors – not future biochemists, engineers, or teachers - no, communist needs those, but with government in control of industry and agriculture, they’ll need to discourage even majoring in business. But since they end up making the most money, which isn’t true, and since business owners are all so “greedy and they all trample on the poor,” there was no uproar. And aren’t they the one’s taking advantage of the roads built by the government? Not with tax dollars of hard working business owners, just by our government! Ingrates! Opportunists! Capitalists! Yea, slowly you make Government the savior. And then you can transfer all that wealth and power to the UN, because you have some grand delusion that they’re going to give you a key leadership role. Not true either, history shows they kill each other at this level. But if you’re among those educated starting in the sixties, you won’t know much about the history of Communism and it’s predicable and always repeated pattern. Another agenda item of radical environmentalism is to convince us that government should be in control of the distribution of the use of energy by promoting irrational and unfounded fears over the use of nuclear energy, on and off-shore drilling for oil, fossil fuels, coal and natural gas by using the global warming scare.

We’re not scientists, so we trust the experts. But you may recall the 2009 Climate-Gate Scandal as it was called. The server at the Climatic Research Unit was hacked and just weeks before the Copenhagen Summit on climate change, thousands of emails exchanged between all the players in this global warming scare were released. These emails revealed the numerous scientists and agencies who kept denying the reports by environmental groups throughout the world claiming that human activity, namely industry, caused a climate change. These scientists revealed the names and groups that had manipulated climate data and with media’s cooperation, suppressed the findings of anyone opposing them. These documents proved that global warming was a scientific conspiracy led by those making millions of dollars from the movement backed by left wing radical groups touting social justice, but the mainstream media only reported it all as “negotiations” over climate change and only aired interviews of the scientists who said it was just a “smear campaign” intended to undermine the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen.

The co-founder of Greenpeace with a PhD in Ecology, Patrick Moore, resigned from Greenpeace in protest when he discovered that the green movement was led by radical progressives set on destroying capitalism. “We do not have any scientific proof that we are the cause of the global warming that has occurred in the last 200 years…The alarmism is driving us through scare tactics to adopt energy policies that are going to create a huge amount of energy poverty among the poor people. It’s not good for people and its not good for the environment…In a warmer world we can produce more food.” Moore contends that for the environmental movement "most of the really serious problems have been dealt with," and they’re seeking now to "invent doom and gloom scenarios". And then we have Al Gore. Did anyone read his book, “Earth in the Balance – Ecology and the Human Spirit” and catch the last chapter called “A Global Marshal Plan” that requires a one world government? It follows perfectly in line with what William Z. Foster, General Secretary of the American Communist Party in the thirties, forties and fifties, who ran for US president three times, wrote in his book, “Toward Soviet America”: Not Christianity but Communism will bring peace on earth.

A Communist world will be a unified, organized world. The economic system will be one great organization, based upon the principle of planning now dawning in the U.S.S.R. The American Soviet government will be an important section in this world organization. In such a society there will be no tariffs or the many other barriers erected by capitalism against a free world interchange of goods. The raw material supplies of the world will be at the disposition of the peoples of the world. This communist’s vision is now becoming reality with UN Agenda 21, which you can find if you just pull up Agenda 21 United Nations. It was actually begun with the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm in 1972. and was introduced at “the Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992 and adopted by most world governments as a blueprint for the protection of our planet and its sustainable development. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) was created and is “the world’s “leading” environmental agency, with many spurious scientists with communist ties from communist countries leading this on our behalf. Sensible sustainable development is a good and necessary thing. But in Agenda 21, you’ll find something different. If you read the plan you’ll see it’s intended to create world government. Chapter 7 is entitled PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE HUMAN SETTLEMENT DEVELOPMENT which outlines an end to national sovereignty, the end of private property, the restructure of the family unit and increasing restrictions and limitations on mobility and individual opportunity. What’s not acceptable includes private property, fossil fuels, resorts, consumerism, irrigation, farmlands, agriculture, and grazing of livestock, and the traditional family.

Back in 1992, George Bush, Sr. endorsed it on America’s behalf and brought it home; then without Congressional review, Clinton established the President’s Council for Sustainable Development. Railroads are being bought up by our government for commuter lines to support the regional sustainable living units for the new world order. Critics have said such reports are extremist, right wing, sky-is-falling smear campaign. But on June 9, 2011, our President issued executive order number 13575 for a White House Rural Council that seems to lay the groundwork in the US for UN Agenda 21. It exerts broad municipal powers over the food, fiber, and energy production of Rural America. Section 1 addresses 16 percent of our population in rural areas. Executive Order number 13575 ties together capital necessary for economic growth, healthcare and education and says the US Council will probably be populated by experts in the various fields that might prove helpful to the people who live and work outside of rural areas. The heads of all the Cabinets have been appointed and it leaves open the authority to appoint anyone else, oh boy more czars, as is deemed necessary. Part B states that non-governmental organizations are key to Agenda 21 in “Managing the population in both urban and rural areas with a focus on controlling open spaces.” D – Identify and facilitate rural economic opportunities associated with energy development and other outdoor recreation activities.

Every plan associated with UN Agenda 21 dictates the control of the activity of every person in the world with this broad language to control our occupations, location and movement. I always look up the supporters websites, and they promise they’re not going to overreach. But this again sets the stage for another dictator even if you do trust our current leaders. These proposals would all be overseen, ultimately, not by our Country’s leaders, but by the Secretary General of the UN. A global biodiversity assessment by the UN. 1041 pages, section 13 deals with government control over protected areas including wilderness areas surrounded by buffer zones, dictated by government organizations. Human population is to be resettled into the remaining 25% of the land into FEMA Camps that are described as sustainable communities. The Wild Lands project says “we must convert at least 50% of the land area of North America to wilderness, off limits to human beings.” Taking control over our food and energy, to make sure we’re working to strengthen rural communities and promote economic growth, so expect to see new government assistance with strings attached poured into agriculture. It’s all part of the plan. But wait, there’s more! The president created a White House task force on Eco-System Management policy that will ensure cooperation with federal enforcement despite some states barring Agenda 21 for violating the Constitution which was written to give States rights so that no dictator could ever take control of federal government.

We have lots of EO’s, they’re nothing new, but it’s the nature of these Executive orders, even a new one that allows our President to take control over elections. But one of the most frightening of these is number 13603 on “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” issued in March of 2012. This executive order is far-reaching in its scope, explicitly declaring that the president and his designated Cabinet and agency heads have authority to commandeer and control: all water, all human and animal food, all transportation, all energy, all construction materials, all “health resources,” all farm equipment, all fertilizers, all fuels, … and much more. It doesn’t just claim these powers during war time or during a “national emergency,” but repeatedly states that these apply “in peacetime and in times of national emergency.” Again, this all reveals a long-term plan in effect. Our President is just a pawn in a scheme older than he is. So before we blame him, as we conveniently do, we need to remember - Our battle is not against human beings. Ephesians, the Book on Christian Unity says in 6:12-13: "For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." And before we can stand firm, we need to be on our knees.

Beloved, I’d much prefer to be studying the Bible than this stuff. But you’ve overwhelmingly asked for more and said this is what we need to hear. So I’ll continue to stand with you for Christ and the Christian faith that has been the reason for our free market system, and for our free gift of salvation, through our Lord, Jesus Christ.


Morning light fills my "tree cathedral."

Next Week in THYME: The Road Back
Bob Kirchman writes on: "What a Nineteenth Century Innovator Can Teach Us Now."

A Clear Choice for Virginia's Future

Your Vote Today is a Vote that Matters


Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain are a clear choice for integrity in Virginia's government.

As Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli mounted the first challenge of the unworkable "Affordable Care Act," which has indeed proved to be... UNWORKABLE! He's also a champion of real women's health, fighting for regulations to ensure safety in abortion providers' facilities. Kermit Gosnell shows us that that is quite reasonable. Indeed, it is the experience of the candidates that matters. Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain all have practical experience in leadership.

Contrast that with a man who's primary experience is FUNDRAISING, who's stellar business successes include Greentech Automotive, who's Mississippi plant has yet to produce an actual car [1.] Didn't Preston Tucker get indicted for running a factory that supposedly didn't make cars?; (Tucker actually hand-built fifty). Meanwhile, Greentech's new factory actually appeared in ORDOS, a town in CHINA. A beautiful rendering [2.] (produced by a CHINESE renderer) shows the actual production facility which creates NO American jobs. Another McAuliffe project, a pellet plant in Franklin, Virginia, has a similar abysmal record.

Today Virginians have a choice. We can vote for proven leaders who will represent our interests, or those who are beholden to big money interests that do not have our Commonwealth's best interests at heart. Vote today for Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain.

THYME Magazine American Renewal Issue II

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume VI, Issue XXIII

The Hijacking of Activism
By Donna Lou Shickel - © 2013 Donna Lou Shickel Publishing Co. Distribute freely with permission

After the West won the Cold War, waged by atheist communists, we let our guard down. We have failed to “guard the garden” of the greatest Country in the history of the world, by compromising with those who make the fruit forbidden by God look like a good and necessary concession. And in the process, successfully plant seeds of doubt in the sovereignty, wisdom and goodness of our Creator, Almighty God – Whose very precepts this Country was founded upon. Now we are close to losing the ‘Culture War’, waged by more of the same, godless deceivers, who recognized that utter destruction of our Christian Judeo values would not come with outright revolution. THEY, at least, pay attention to history. No, the complete demise could only come by undermining and subverting the values and ideals of the Christian Judeo society and deceiving her citizens to become silent, unwitting partners in their sinister schemes. So have we traveled too far down this road of destruction to turn things around? Welcome to A Place of Grace, I’m your host, Donna Lou. If you look at history, the answer to that question, beloved, is up to us. But let’s not forget: the very fact that those working to further this out-in-the-open, communist, socialist agenda see our Christian Judeo traditional faith and values as their number one obstacle to achieving their goals validates the power WE possess over such evil. We only need to choose to exercise it.

Friends, just as we see in the Garden in Genesis, the enemy’s attack is on God’s sovereignty first, THROUGH the family by sowing seeds of doubt in God’s Will in favor of human sovereignty. And deceiving mankind into believing the two can coincide for the accomplishment of a good and utopian state. This utopian vision, of course, is achieved by those who knowingly or unwittingly follow the same deceiver, to persuade, manipulate, or coerce well-intentioned followers to entrust their every need and right into the hands of totalitarian leaders who promise a better world than God could ever offer. Are we on that path? A century ago, Democrats were a little left of center, and Republicans a little right. But today both parties have moved much further to the left. Completely left means total government control and no individual rights, and completely right is anarchy, no government which historically is barbarism. But groups who move far left favor more and more government. Those who favor totalitarian government openly state that they must achieve their power and authority by removing God’s. And ironically, they promote their open agendas by convincing citizens to cooperate with their work, which they claim is all about social justice. So how did we move so far from our Founding Father’s vision of a government by the people, for the people? Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who convinced many people throughout the world that true human freedom would only be achieved by accepting that God was dead. Charles Darwin convinced many that human beings were simply evolved animals. Karl Marx took the godless philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Darwin to promote his own philosophy to promote Communism throughout the entire world to . Margaret Sanger used the philosophies of Nietzsche and Darwin to found Planned Parenthood, and her openly stated goal was to prevent African Americans and other minorities and all disabled people from inhabiting the world, the reason most abortion clinics are located in minority communities. Many accounts of couples whose lives have been blessed with a developmentally child tell of an obstetrician who urged them to abort that very baby who taught them the true meaning of sacrificial love.

 But if you follow Nietzsche, Darwin and Sanger, if people are animals, and God is dead and this life is all there is, then what’s the problem with having a superior race of human beings, and slaughtering anyone, born or unborn, to achieve a utopian world for the fittest? No, we cannot compromise with any part of an agenda that opposes God’s plan and our Christian Judeo values. And Communism knows that to succeed, the traditional family must go. Socialism and communism says, my life will be better if certain others do not succeed or exist. Christianity says, I offer my life so that others may live. Communism says there is no eternity, no God. Christianity is the enemy of our objectives. So there is no way to blend the two since they not only have nothing in common but are at completely opposed to each other. We talked last time about what Communism is, and what its openly stated objectives are. But what you and I need to understand is how America has unwittingly cooperated with nearly every one of these goals based on seemingly good and logical reasons. You’ll notice, the socialists or communists are not conceding or compromising with us as Christians. But what we’re seeing is that we as Christians are inclined to abide by God’s laws until economic matters are at stake, or whenever personal standing or belonging are threatened. When it hits home and inconveniences us, when it begins to cost us, we tell our leaders to just fix and we’ll look the other way when you lead us to compromise our God-given values. Regarding ECONOMIC reasons; let me give a current example. The vast majority of Americans opposed the Affordable Care Act and saw it as an absolute disaster for the economy and another means of violating our religious and conscience rights. But when our elected representatives, who represent our values, hold firm against these mandates in the Health Care Mandates, we turn against them and now blame them for the government shutdown. We don’t want unfit people to bring more children into this world – we’ll have to pay for it. So we consent to man’s law over God’s Law, and convince ourselves and others that it is the lesser of two evils. What else can we do, we ask. Many of you wrote after last week’s show to express your support, and I thank you. I was planning to focus today’s discussion on communism’s infiltration of the American education system. But in my studies, I couldn’t help but notice the communist agenda, which is very orderly, before it addresses education designed to dummy-down and indoctrinate our children, first addresses the elimination of our children. So I’ll plan to address the attacks on education and share with you my experience at a Students for a Democratic Society meeting in college.

 But one listener asked me to discuss the women’s liberation movement as the cause of all the problems we have today. The listener wrote, “It always starts with a woman – First in the garden of Eden, and now in America.” Yes, and that’s where we first see the woman blaming the devil, and the man blaming both the woman and God Who gave him this woman. And we’ve blamed each other to hide our own shame over our own failure to totally submit to God’s Will ever since. Well, an important part of America’s history of American women has been wiped out of our school textbooks of today. The early feminists - Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Staunton - fought for women’s right to vote not because of the glass ceiling, but first for the abolition of slavery and later because of forced abortions and child labor practices. They knew if they had the vote, as women of God, they could work to eradicate these social injustices. Without exception, the original feminists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries opposed abortion and sought to address the root causes that forced women to abort. Women were forcibly held down by doctors, husbands and even some pastors to have their child aborted. And many children who came to term were forced into factories. All for economic reasons. These women, called suffragists for good reason, were maligned, beaten, and jailed to set an example for any other women thinking of joining their cause.

 Despite having the image of creating a ruckus, the suffragists staged silent protests at the White House. And as one would be arrested and taken away, another woman would take her place. The ruckus only began when men, including husbands, would intervene, and beat the women while the police looked on. Alice Paul, a young suffragist whom Susan B. Anthony had passed the movement on to, organized the first peaceful protests at the White House. The “silent sentinels,” just stood with signs, dressed in white, asking for the right to vote. In 1917, what the press called “The Night of Horror,” 200 men who had organized showed up and began beating the women while the police looked on. They stood at the White House every day. The women were arrested and taken to the Occoquan, VA workhouse and when one woman was arrested, another would take her place. At the Occoquan Workhouse they were stripped and beaten with the approval of officials and officers who looked on. Lucy Burns was hung by her handcuffs from the ceiling of her cell overnight, bleeding and gasping for air. Jailed leader Alice Paul went on a starvation protest, but eventually she was held her down by prison doctors and jailers and force-fed her through tubes until she vomited. That went on for two weeks until the press got a hold of it. And with all the pressure from publicity over the arrests and brutality of these early feminists, President Woodrow Wilson finally lent his support to the suffrage amendment in January 1918. Congress approved it, and after three years of silent protests and arrests, on August 18, 1920, with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, women achieved the right to vote.

 Don’t you wonder what these women would say if they knew that today, only 25 percent of Christian women in our Country vote? But when the elderly Alice Paul was asked 50 years later of her thoughts on the modern women’s movement and legalization of abortion she replied, “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” So what connection does communism have in the modern feminist movement? Bella Dodd helped organize the Congress of American Women, a forerunner of the modern feminist movement. – Bella Dodd became head of the New York State Teachers Union and was a member of the National Council of the Communist Party U.S.A. until 1949. She testified before a Congressional Committee in 1953 following her Christian conversion that she was only one of hundreds who had successfully implemented communist agendas in US schools and had also personally recruited over one thousand communist sympathizers to infiltrate Church seminaries. She said the Communist Party operates by infiltrating and subverting social institutions like the churches, schools, mass media and government. Its aim was "to create new types of human beings who would conform to the blueprint of the world they confidently expected to control." She said communist groups had been successful in subverting every one of these institutions, including the American education system by taking over the American teacher's unions and learned societies. Only people who accepted their philosophies advanced in education, she testified. Again, I’ll talk more about their plan, largely executed, for education next time. But back to the communist efforts behind the modern feminist movement. Betty Friedan founded NOW, the National Organization for Women and wrote “The Feminist Mistique,” the 1963 best-seller which many historians believe was the impetus for the women’s liberation movement.

But three decades later, after the damage had been done and the economy dictated “no turning back now,” and communists throughout the world praise her to this day, Betty Friedan Goldstein gloated in confessing that by furthering the science of victim-ology onto American women, she was just doing her job as a Communist and a disciple of Joseph Stalin when she wrote her book, “The Feminist Mystique.” That’s right, friends. In the 1990’s it came out that she wasn’t really a frustrated housewife, trying to help other women who were victims of, “a comfortable concentration camp” as she called it, she was just doing her job as a communist to dismantle our American families. She said the Communist party USA celebrated the legalization of oral contraceptives and abortion because they knew these practices would actually enslave, not liberate, the American woman and homemaker, who once was the most privileged class of people in the entire world. Another influential woman for the communist cause, Norma McCorvey, who became Jane Roe of Roe vs Wade, made her case for legalization of abortion by claiming she was a victim of a gang rape when it was just a casual affair. It wasn’t until many years later, again, after the damage was done, that Norma revealed this too was a lie. Her ACLU attorneys needed an extreme case to gain the public’s sympathy. We don’t hear much about her, but since 1995 she’s dedicated her life to overturning Roe v. Wade. She says in her video ad, “I think it’s safe to say that the entire abortion industry is based on a lie…. “I am dedicated to spreading the truth about preserving the dignity of all human life from natural conception to natural death.” When abortion was legalized, it was intended to be safe, legal and rare, as its proponents put it. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, key witness for Roe v. Wade, confessed after his Christian conversion that he had lied when he testified before Congress. It was later revealed that leading abortion proponents knew the statistics were false but considered it to be “useful” in their public relations campaign. Even Planned Parenthood’s own leading statisticians admitted that the official statistics on deaths resulting from illegal abortion in 1972 were 39, not the thousands testified to Congress and the media. Does the media ever report that 400 women are documented by the Center for Disease control as having died from legalized abortions? A figure most believe is understated? Are you sensing a theme here?

When the enemy sets out to attack us from the inside out, the obvious solution is Grace – God living on the inside. We can’t do this without Him. When a young woman has an abortion, she goes back into to the same situation that drove her there. We must get involved with our children, our youth, especially in our churches – which most kids say never even address the issues they’re most confronted with!!! Let it be known you ARE someone they can come to if they are in a crisis, and you will be there for them through it all, and tell them a life of virtue is what they were created for, God wouldn’t command it if it was impractical to carry out, come on beloved! One baby aborted every three seconds in our country – why be appalled at the heinous acts committed by a generation raised under the philosophy of: a better world for one person, if someone else doesn’t exist. And it’s understandable for someone to believe that a baby born into an underprivileged situation could have no future and would be better off to never have lived – if you don’t believe God can and will intervene if we just cooperate with Him instead of the deceiver. Listen, I personally know women, nurses, who are, “in the trenches,” with troubled youth and grieve with them as they abort their babies. They’re hearts break for these girls and they do genuinely care. But they see no other option. Those many groups offering real solutions for at risk pregnancies get no government funding, and no platform in the press. But they’re out there. Just contact your area pregnancy center, and you’ll have plenty of options for your time or donations.

Friends, God is asking us to make sacrifices to help these young people up OUT of the trenches, not to make life more bearable down in there! This war against human life isn’t even logical. We spend nearly thirty billion a year in health costs to save the lives of premature infants who are wanted. Will eliminating thirty million in medical care for preemies be the next “logical” step in saving health care costs? Let’s be candid, we need to bring these discussions out in the open. Many Christian men and women will say, as I myself once did, that abortion is wrong but in the case of rape, it wouldn’t be fair to force that girl, and some say “my daughter”, to give birth to the reminder of that rape. We care, but we don’t always think. As if ending that pregnancy could wipe away such a reminder and persuading the innocent victims of such an act to now become partakers in a different kind of violence would heal that memory! As a humane people we decided that mutilating the rapist was unconscionable, but mutilating both the victims of rape is acceptable! Women who’ve given birth to babies conceived in rape or incest don’t see it that way. Look up their testimonies. They love their child as God’s way of bringing the ultimate blessing out of what was intended as evil. And what about women who’ve divorced because they were abused by their husbands and have a son or daughter who looks just like their father? Will it become understandable, since that child is a constant reminder of the abuser, for them to do away with THAT child? Abortion has played into the hands of the communist activists who promoted stigmas against pregnancy and motherhood, as well as the proven falsehood of the population explosion. They’ve been so successful they’re gloating on all of their blog sites, look them up and read what they are saying. And watch how we speak and joke to or about couples who obey God’s command to be fruitful and multiply and have more than two children! The over-population myth is another lie openly promoted by communists and swallowed by good people - Who’ve forgotten God’s plan in giving us the pro-creative act! Pregnancy resulting from the marital embrace isn’t an unfortunate side effect! Safe sex? What is that? Like safe driving means you get in your car but don’t go anywhere? We say each human being was created in God’s own image. But now we rationalize that life doesn’t really begin until, well until some time later. But was Jesus not God made flesh from the moment the Holy Spirit conceived Him in the womb of the Virgin Mary? Or was Jesus not really Jesus until, what, the second trimester? How many Christian parents have told their children they expect them to, not abstain from sex, but rather ATTAIN to purity and modesty? It’s a virtue, not a curse or a state of deprivation. It’s a gift to one’s self and their future spouse.

The Dad’s on Duck Dynasty aren’t afraid to pass that virtue on to their children, and the Young Life leaders at our son’s schools weren’t afraid to invite the kids to each sign a purity pledge and keep it as daily reminder to combat the daily barrage of sexually immoral messages they receive, another objective on the communists’ open agenda! After my interview with Mercedes Wilson on natural family planning, I heard from many of you, who after checking out the data were asking, “Why doesn’t our government promote natural family planning since, as one listener wrote : “Dear Donna Lou: My wonderful husband and I have been practicing natural family planning since we were married in 1995. There are lots of us out here! NFP is more effective (98 to 99 percent as opposed to 92 percent average for oral contraceptive use), more healthy, (doesn’t lead to infertility, breast cancer and blood clots as those steroids do!), it costs nothing and it promotes romance and unity in our marriage (divorce rate for couples practicing NFP is only one out of fifty verses 25 out of 50. Why doesn’t everybody know about this? Well, any communist would tell you, you answered your own question. It costs nothing and the other means cost you your quality of life. Am I exaggerating?

 In a 2005 press release, the World Health Organization released data from studies of 21 working scientists from 8 countries that declared that oral contraceptives are carcinogenic to humans and named them a class one carcinogen along with arsenic and asbestos. A 2006 release of nearly two dozen studies published by the Mayo Clinic showing that oral contraceptive use is associated with an increased risk (ranging from 26 percent) of breast cancer later in life. And that the biological basis for such a link is the same as the biological basis for an abortion-breast cancer link. One of the authors, Chris Kahlenborn, M.D., aware of high level efforts in government and medical associations to keep these kinds of studies from the public (even the 2005 World Health Organizations findings were covered over in the secular media while we hear all about arsenic TRACES in our rice or apple juice!) stated, "Anyone who is prescribing oral contraceptives has a duty to tell women that 21 of 23 studies showed an increased risk." He added, "As more information comes out, it's going to be increasingly difficult to suppress [the documented evidence from medical studies]. There's a growing sense that it's really just a matter of time before the lid blows on this thing. . . . We will start seeing a new attitude towards the pill, and it will be fueled by lawsuits." Not women’s health, but money will again do the talking.

 The goal to promote immorality through artificial birth control and to normalize disposing of an unwanted child is continuously, openly promoted by the Communist Party USA and the NEA to well-meaning people to eliminate poverty and child abuse, but they knew better. Skyrocketing statistics of our social and economic plagues coincide with the introduction of oral contraceptives and legalized abortion. Now we’re trying to put band-aids on the consequences, or call these evils good. Are there reforms needed? Yes, there always have been and always will be. But subverting God’s way with man’s way has never, ever, ever accomplished anything but a far more disastrous result. We’ve all been lied to, and we’re seeing the fruit of swallowing those lies. Not a single study has ever been published which shows that abortion, for any given reason, actually benefits the physical, emotional, economic, or social health of women, but rather only harms them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Problems that, in the long run, cost us far more than raising a child who most often becomes a tax payer. But all of this information is kept hidden from us, by our own government health agencies, who promote deadly practices as “every woman’s right.” All for economic reasons.

The only people benefiting from legalized abortion are not women, but the abortion industry profiteers and socialist/communist operatives who lie to us to our faces and laugh at us on their blog sites as they boast that we are pawns, Lenin’s “useful idiots” in their work to take America down. Is it too late? Well again, the very fact that they see our Christian Judeo traditional faith and values as their number one obstacle to achieving their goals, validates the power WE possess over such evil. We only need to choose to exercise it. To find the backbone to call evil “evil” again. And stop being like the Rich Man of the Gospel of Luke 16, ignoring the need outside of our own circles. And be what we were created to be: Radicals – it’s radical love of God and neighbor that overcomes evil. Have we traveled too far down this road of destruction to turn things around? The answer to that question is up to you, and me. So let us CHOOSE, this day, Who we will serve . . . and we must believe with our very lives that WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.


The 'real' Lone Ranger, Bass Reeves.

"Who Was That Masked Man," Really?

He was an African-American lawman who lived among Native Americans in Oklahoma. The Story of Bass Reeves [click to read] is far more interesting than the modern portrayal of it. Born in slavery before the Civil War, Reeves found freedom in the midst of that conflict.

"His slave-keeper brought him along as another personal servant when he went off to fight with the Confederate Army, during the Civil War. Reeves took the chaos that ensued during the war to escape for freedom, after beating his “master” within an inch of his life, or according to some sources, to death. Perhaps the most intruiging thing about this escape was that Reeves only beat his enslaver after the latter lost sorely at a game of cards with Reeves and attacked him." -- Political Blindspot.

Fleeing to Oklahoma, Reeves found a home among the people of the Creek and Seminole Nations there. He really did become a U. S. Marshall and he worked alongside a Native American tracker. Like the legend he inspired, he was an expert marksman and is responsible for putting a number of criminals into the Federal Prison in Detroit.


Morning over the Blue Ridge Mountains.


Old Rag Mountain.

Dennis Prager Asks: "Is Evil Rational?"

If So, Can Reason Alone Make a Better World?


From: Prager University [click to read].

Psalm 91 Illustrated

Hope and Promise for Our Troubled Times


Doves. Detail of a Mural by Kristina Elaine Greer and Bob Kirchman

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my G-d; in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Psalm 92 Illustrated

Hope and Promise for Our Troubled Times


Chocolate Flax Unicorn. Detail of a Mural by Kristina Elaine Greer and Bob Kirchman

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High:

To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.

For, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our G-d.

They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

To shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

C. S. Lewis, Why He Matters Today

"When the Pupil is Ready, The Master Will Appear"


"Imagination is the organ of understanding." -- C. S. Lewis


“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” -- C. S. Lewis