A Selection from Yesterday's Letter-Writing Parties

The quarterly letter-writing parties that Vital Signs Ministries creates took place yesterday. There were only 4 people at the morning party and yet another 7 that evening. That was disappointing. Nevertheless, we turned out 70 letters and cards with a wide variety of recipients. Those recipients included political figures, businesses, pro-life champions, media, judges, and the International Olympic Committee. 

I'm posting here a few samples from those 70 written yesterday. Maybe they will stimulate you to take pen to paper too! 

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,

Just a quick word of encouragement for you to remain fixed and purpose as you do everything possible to defend Israel from her enemies. As an American, I sincerely apologize for the lack of support you have received from the United States in the years of the Biden administration. Indeed, this callous indifference to the needs of Israel has been one of the Biden administration’s most shameful failures. Our prayer is that Republican victories in November will greatly increase military and intelligence support for your nation. However, our frequent and fervent prayers are to a much higher source of help for Israel: namely, the Lord God almighty Who holds Israel in the palm of His hand.

However, Mr. Prime Minister, with all this said, I urge you to not neglect the critically important moral dimension necessary for Israel’s ultimate success and well-being. As God called on His people in the Old Testament to repent from their religious apathy, their following other gods, their being consumed by self-interest and pride, He certainly is calling on Israel now to reject these same sins and to get zealous for such righteous practices as sexual purity, defending the sanctity of all human lives (including preborn boys and girls), and a serious contemplation of just Who it is in history Who offers forgiveness of sins through faith in His atoning death.

Praying daily for the peace and security of Israel…and for the hearts of your people to consider the all-gracious gift of Jesus.

To the Republican National Committee leadership,

It was a monumental mistake to strip the republican platform of some of the most important, most motivating principles of all -- especially those relating to the sanctity of life, marriage, and sexual sanity. In an election season when you most desperately need the enthusiastic support (and votes) of evangelicals and conservative Catholics, this was a terribly foolish sell-out. Please get those planks back in!

To the International Olympic Committee,

I wrote a few months ago urging you to not cave in to the perverse, unscientific, and socially destructive movement to allow men’s participation in women’s sports. Well, I reiterate my concerns about that matter now. However, a second and very important purpose of this card is to register my protest of the profane and needlessly offensive opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympics. It was bizarre and ugly…and the acceptance of that display by the I.O.C. is absolutely intolerable.

Dear Iowa Governor Reynolds,

What steadfast, principled, and winsome leadership you have shown in the fight to protect the fetal heartbeat bill in your state, thus protecting the lives of untold numbers of preborn boys and girls. Way to go, Guv! Over on this side of the Missouri River, we also have an enthusiastic pro-life governor for which we are very grateful, but we remain particularly impressed and appreciative for your good work. Stay the course!

To the Boy Scouts of America,

Oh my, what horror, sadness, and shame would Robert Baden-Powell experience if he knew the bizarre woke policies that the modern scout organizations have embraced. Good grief!  Please get back to your roots quickly. Get back to moral excellence, patriotism, and the development of manly skills and virtues.

To Sandy and the whole team at Nebraska Right to Life,

We write with sincere thanks for the persistent, principled, and skilled leadership you demonstrated regarding the pro-life ballot initiative. I know you took a lot of heat from the abortion zealots and, sadly, you have probably taken heat that handful of from pro-lifers who are being terribly short-sighted and divisive. Know however, that you are on the side of the angels and those Nebraskans who most want to save lives and take the pro-life movement forward are applauding your efforts. Again, thank you!

Dear Justice  -------------

Just a quick word of appreciation for your vote to uphold Nebraska’s limitations on abortion. Pre-born boys and girls will live because of that decision and women will be better able to find the help they need in times of difficulties without having to pay the emotional and physical toll abortion so often requires. Thank you for your wise and steadfast service on Nebraska’s high court.

Dear Walmart,

With the news of your new clothing brands geared to the LGBTQ ++++ and other policies embracing the socially destructive “woke” movement, we have stood decided to stop shopping at Walmart. Sure, that’s a bit inconvenient for us but, under the circumstances you have created,  we are quite pleased to shop elsewhere. Of course, you do not really need our purchases. Doing without us as customers will not hurt your bottom-line very much. Unfortunately for you, however, is that there are many, many, many others just like us. And you’ll soon see, as the word gets out, that the loss of those customers will begin to add up. My goodness; haven’t you learned anything from Target, Bud Light, and Tractor Supply, and others? It’s time for you to “wake up” and see how bad for business is being “woke up.”

To the leadership of the “He Gets Us” campaign,

No cross? No repentance? No act of faith? No proclamation of Jesus’ substitutionary death to pay the cost of man's sin? I do not know what you guys are trying to present…but it certainly isn’t Christianity.

Dear Planet Fitness,

I was looking at various gym services to supplement my bicycling and at-home workouts when I read about your “Judgment Free Zone” which, among other things, freely allows males to share changing areas and showers with females. Good grief! There is a point where the desire to be “progressive” becomes -- from the perspectives of science, morality, and social cohesion --absolute madness. Therefore, it was a quick and oh-so-easy decision to cross Planet Fitness off my list of possibilities. And to make sure I let friends and family know of your foolish, even dangerous, policies.

To the Girl Scouts,

Just a quick reminder that the Americans who are strongly disappointed with the Girl Scouts as they’ve moved further towards feminism, the “woke” mentality, secularism, cooperation with mega-abortion profiteer Planned Parenthood, etc. are growing in number every day. And those are people who will not be donating to the Girl Scouts. Those are people who will not be buying cookies. And those are people who will not be allowing their daughters to join in such a sadly leftist organization.

Dear Ambassador Pantaleon,

Would you please pass along to your government the terrible disappointment felt by American evangelicals, Catholics, and so many, many family members of persons who have struggled with mental illness, to learn that Spain’s Ministry of Health is changing its laws to make “easier access” to life-ending drugs for those suffering with mental and emotional challenges? My, my. In creating a fog of deceitful language and misshapen compassion, you are resorting to policies of gross unfairness, arrogance, and cruelty. Please pass along to your government our hopes that Spain will reverse course in this critical area.

The Images That Break Your Heart

The video clips play on the television and you are strongly tempted to turn away because the topic is so tragic and the images so wrenchingly disturbing. But you watch and your heart is touched; your conscience is informed and challenged. You are seeing into the eyes of the victims -- innocent victims of man’s indifference, neglect, and even cruelty. The narrator urges you to take a good look at those in need and she then urges you to personally, immediately intervene to deliver them from further suffering, even from being destroyed out of a false sense of compassion.

The voice of the narrator, by the way, is a pleasant one for it belongs to a Hollywood celebrity. The sense of moral authority she portrays underscores for you how right and important it is to act in behalf of the innocent, to rescue the would-be victims from danger.  You are told that you can make a huge difference, that you can be a hero and a lifesaver, and that your action will enrich and ennoble your soul.  The video clip is a powerful piece and you are not surprised that the television station plays it often, unafraid of any charges of controversy, offense, or political bias. After all, the message is a critically necessary one; it is a message that the whole culture must heed if it truly aspires to be moral and kind and compassionate.

The video clips I’m talking about, as you might not have guessed, are those created by such groups as the Society for the Protection of Animals, the Humane Society, and so on.  They are run free of charge by television stations under the banner of public service and charity.  They are applauded by progressives of all sorts.

And yet, these same progressives, these same public service committees, these same television stations categorically refuse any announcement that would apply the same methods, the same reasoning, or the same emotional triggers towards action that might save human boys and girls from the wicked cruelty of abortion. Does that make sense?  No.  Is that fair?  No.  Do the so-called progressives not see the horrible irony of treating the plight of animals in shelters to be a greater moral responsibility than the fate of human children scheduled to be torn to pieces or poisoned by abortionists? Sadly, the answer again is, no.

And thus goes the terrible devolution of American culture.

(Postscript -- I have no problems with appeals for kindness to animals. Indeed, men and women are presented with a biblical responsibility to show wisdom and compassion as they serve as God's stewards over all of creation. Remember, for instance, the Sabbath rest that God commanded extended to animals as well as men. My point is a simple but profound one; namely, that Western culture has got its priorities completely turned round. Our refusal to protect preborn children, while yet posing as kind-hearted, is irrational, ugly, and evil.)

Really? Complexity and Order Out of Sheer Chaos?

Check out this super cool video. It’s 6 1/2 minutes but well worth your time. It’s a great “pass along” clip too. A very creative, persuasive, and science-based argument.

The Simple Truth of Creationism

"The fundamental claim of intelligent design is straightforward and easily intelligible: namely, there are natural systems that cannot be adequately explained in terms of undirected natural forces and that exhibit features which in any other circumstance we would attribute to intelligence."  (William A. Dembski)

The Top 5 (July 27)

* "No, Abortion Is Never Medically Necessary" (Ashley Bateman, Federalist)

From the article -- Doctors facing mounting legal and professional pressure to perform abortions post-Dobbs reassert that there are no necessary abortions in medicine. The term “emergency abortion” is a scare tactic...Public ignorance and confusion over a “necessary” abortion continues to permeate political language and Biden’s rule is yet another coercive attempt to install national abortion “must-haves.”

An anonymous Food and Drug Administration committee determines “arbitrary safety standards” and what defines “emergency use” and “necessity,” said John Seeds, former department chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Virginia Commonwealth University, and can then utilize those standards to hide and mislead the public on the point of abortion...

The two primary situations when a pregnancy must be induced before viability to save the life of the mother, first-trimester hemorrhaging and ectopic pregnancy, have clear treatments that do not require an abortion, Bruchalski said. “In [catastrophic uterine bleeding] you’re targeting the placenta and its removal because that is the cause of bleeding, the preborn child is not your target,” Bruchalski said.

In the case of an ectopic pregnancy, an OB-GYN removes the diseased segment of the fallopian tube containing the embryo. “This is intellectually and scientifically not a direct abortion,” Bruchalski said. “The definition and the intent of an elective abortion is to terminate the life of the fetus. The intention and truth matter not only to the profession and the doctor but to the patient.” 

In the vast majority of cases of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, the preborn child has already died due to the disease, Bruchalski said. In either situation, targeting the child is never the intent and is therefore not an abortion, but abortion practitioners deceive physicians and patients by saying ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and elective abortions are all the same.

* "Nebraska Supreme Court upholds pro-life 'Let Them Grow Act'" (NRL News via Nebraska Right to Life)

From the article -- The plaintiff challenging LB574 was Planned Parenthood, represented by ACLU of Nebraska. In a 6-1 ruling, the court rejected Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit that charged that the law passed in the 2023 Legislative session violated Nebraska’s single-subject rule which states no bill shall contain more than one subject, with the subject clearly expressed in the title. LB574 was signed into law by Governor Jim Pillen on May 22, 2023. “After our review of the facts of this case and our historical legal precedent wherein we have rarely found violations … we find no merit to Planned Parenthood’s argument that LB 574 contains more than one subject,” the court ruled.

In a statement, Gov. Pillen said he was “grateful for the court’s thorough and well-reasoned opinion upholding these important protections for life and children in Nebraska.” “We are grateful for the Nebraska Supreme Court’s decision upholding important protections benefiting Nebraska families,” said Sandy Danek, executive director with Nebraska Right to Life.

Nebraska law, prior to the passage of LB574, allowed for abortion up to 20 weeks with passage of its Pain Capable Unborn Children Protection Act—the first law of its kind—passing in 2010.

* "Drag Queens Carry the Olympic Torch in France" (Sarah Holliday, Washington Stand) (See also "Mitt Romney Praises Olympics Opening Ceremony: 'Imaginative, Inventive'" by Elizabeth Weibel over at Breitbart)

From the two articles: Holliday -- Although many are disappointed by the pick of torchbearers, it seems gender politics were already a part of the 2024 Olympics long before the three drag queens got ahold of the Olympic flame. Back in January, infamous trans-identifying swimmer Lia Thomas “secretly” sued World Aquatics and their policy that blocked trans-identifying men from women’s swimming events. And in June, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled to dismiss the challenge presented by Thomas. It was “definitely a step in the right direction,” said Mary Szoch, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Human Dignity.

And it’s that decision, as well as the 2024 Olympics overall, that “should reinvigorate the fight to protect Title IX” — at least, that’s the message Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines are proclaiming. In a joint article published on The Daily Wire, the women wrote, “The war against women is no longer hypothetical, and while Lia Thomas may have lost the battle this time, the Left’s persistence knows no bounds.” Ultimately, “Allowing males to compete against females will be the new norm for Americans competing at every level — including at the 2028 Olympics — if something isn’t done.”

And so, in order to prevent apathy on the issue, they urged readers to “keep up the fight — whether it’s in Washington, in the media, or in the sports arena.” As they emphasized, “Future generations of girls depend on us to preserve the equality that generations before us fought so hard to achieve.”

Weibel -- Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) praised the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris, France, as being “imaginative, inventive and memorable.” The opening ceremony featured an opening dance number that showed women being “flung around on poles,” while another dance number showed three dancers, two men and a woman, who had been dancing through the streets, going up the stairs of a building as they began kissing. The dancers then went into a room and began to kiss some more.

* "Elon Musk is a ‘cultural Christian’. How does that work?" (Michael Cook, Mercator)

From the article -- Musk did not want to be tied down. Ultimately, he subscribes to “the religion of curiosity”, he told Peterson. Despite the vagueness of his theological views, it does seem that admitting that you are a “cultural Christian” is socially acceptable again, after a couple of decades of noisy agitation from the "New Atheists". 

Even the Grand Panjandrum of Atheism, British biologist Richard Dawkins, recently described himself as a “cultural Christian”. After he had spent decades denouncing Christianity, this was a baffling development. Dawkins explained to a bemused interviewer: “I’m not a believer, but there is a distinction between being a believing Christian and a cultural Christian. I love hymns and Christmas carols and I sort of feel at home in the Christian ethos, and I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense.” 

Musk and Dawkins are not the only public figures who come out as cultural Christians. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born defender of free speech, announced that she was a Christian not long ago. Jordan Peterson himself admires Christianity. Tom Holland, the best-selling historian, says that his outlook is Christian but that he is not a churchgoer. This would have been incomprehensible to the builders of England’s glorious cathedrals. In the Middle Ages, there were mediocre Christians, hypocritical Christians, saintly Christians, and Christians double-dyed in wickedness. But the notion of a Christian husk without a Christian core was unknown.

* "Kamala Harris’s Michael Dukakis moment" (James Piereson, The New Criterion)

From the article -- mericans over the age of fifty may remember the 1988 presidential election campaign, when Governor Michael Dukakis surged to a seventeen-point lead over Vice President George H. W. Bush following the Democratic National Convention in mid-July. That was a successful convention for Democrats. They were united and eager to take back the White House after suffering for eight years under the Reagan–Bush administration. Dukakis selected Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate, mimicking JFK’s Massachusetts–Texas alliance from the 1960 campaign. Dukakis delivered an effective speech at the convention that emphasized competence over ideology, thereby suggesting—wrongly—that Bush was in the thrall of right-wing ideology.

That was a high point for Dukakis. His lead began to melt away as soon as Bush portrayed him as an out-of-touch liberal, a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and a soft-on-crime governor who planned to raise taxes and had no foreign-policy experience. By early August, his advantage over Bush had dropped to seven points, according to a Gallup poll. By mid-September, Bush had surged into the lead by seven points (from 49% to 42%), and he proceeded to win the election by eight points. Bush carried forty states and won 426 electoral votes, compared to just 111 electoral votes for Dukakis. No national candidate has won by a larger electoral margin since.

Kamala Harris is now enjoying this kind of moment as she racks up endorsements in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention in August. Democrats and media allies are busy portraying her as a fresh face (she is not) and a youthful candidate (also doubtful) who will electrify the nation, galvanize women and minority voters, and trounce Donald Trump in the fall campaign. Some polls show her running more or less even with Trump, though, in truth, Biden was not doing all that badly in the same polls when he decided to drop out. Harris’s honeymoon will continue until and through the Democratic convention, at which time delegates will put on a show of unity and strength, thereby covering up the large cracks in their coalition that Trump will soon exploit. She and her running mate may come out of the convention even with, or perhaps even slightly ahead of, the Trump-Vance ticket.

The honeymoon will not last very long. Trump will succeed in painting Harris as an out-of-touch San Francisco leftist, much as Bush portrayed Dukakis as a Massachusetts liberal. Trump will find plenty of running room with that campaign, as there is hardly a left-wing cause that she has not embraced.

Caring Enough To Write

Do you think a letter to Tractor Supply thanking them for the recent reversal of their “woke policies” is in order? Yeah, I do too. What about letters of polite but firm protest to the International Olympic Committee regarding the shameful takeover of women’s sports by men pretending to be females? Or letters to the Secret Service about their horrific failures to protect presidential candidate Donald Trump? 

Don’t forget the dire need to inform family, friends, and church members of what’s at stake this fall regarding the extreme pro-abortion amendment that will be on Nebraska’s election ballot. And, finally, would thank-you notes to a few of the champions of the sanctity of life, religious freedom and other crucial, biblically-founded values be of important value? 

The answer, of course, is yes to these questions. And that suggests that an enthusiastic “yes” would be the right answer regarding letters that would share the light of truth, compassion, and justice in many other areas of social life.

This is why, of course, Vital Signs Ministries has been hosting regular letter writing parties ever since we began way back in 1983. It’s why we’re still doing it now -- hosting parties that provide information, motivation, accountability, and practical assistance in this important advocacy and encouragement ministry. Why not plan on joining us for our next letter-writing party? We will have a list of timely issues and relevant recipients for your letters and cards. We will have stationary, envelopes, and stamps. And we will have coffee, tea, cookies, and cakes to sustain you throughout the 90 minutes we use for letter writing!

We know that you will find it an encouraging, helpful and, rewarding time of fellowship and ministry, so please give us the word that you’ll come be a part. For your convenience, we actually provide 2 parties: Tuesday, July 30 at 10 and then that evening at 7, both at our home. We would love to have you join us, so please let us know if you’re interested. 

Dr. Harold Berry Guests at the Next VSM Book Brunch

The next Vital Signs Book Brunch will be at our home on Saturday morning,
September 21 from 10 until noon. And the book under discussion will not only be one “hot off the presses,” it has been written by our old friend and ministry colleague Dr. Harold Berry. At 90 years old, Harold is still researching and writing for Back to the Bible as well as teaching, mentoring, and pursuing a diligent prayer ministry with his newlywed wife, Mary Dee. It’s going to be an important adventure to read Harold Berry’s new book, Genesis: Daily Scriptures to Receive, Reflect, and Respond so don’t miss out.

Oh, did I mention that Harold Berry will be with us in person? That’s right; he will introduce the book, help lead the discussion, and patiently answer questions. Again, don’t miss this unique opportunity.

We are asking for prompt RSVPs in order for us to plan the brunch menu and be thoroughly prepared. For instance, if the gathering exceeds the space limits of our home, we will set up the Book Brunch at another location. So, please, let us know if you will be attending ASAP. There is no charge for the Book Brunch…except the cost of actually reading the book!

By the way, here’s more on the book from the publisher, “Genesis: Receive, Reflect, and Respond unveils profound truths about God, creation, sin, marriage, and the family. It also illuminates the depth of God’s love for humility and the path to salvation. Read with an open mind and ready heart, and be prepared to have God change you spiritually.”

Dr. Harold J. Berry is a former professor of Bible and Greek at Grace University of Omaha. He served for many years as personal assistant to Theodore H. Epp, founder of Back to the Bible. Dr. Berry holds a Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. and a Doctor of Divinity from Grace University.

FYI -- You can get Harold Berry’s Genesis: Receive, Reflect, and Respond through Amazon as either a Kindle version ($10) or a 300-page paperback ($15). 

The Top 5 (July 20)

* "Republicans Need Better Abortion Messaging To Beat Democrats’ Money And Marketing" (Joseph Arlinghaus, Federalist)

From the article -- While we pro-life people have mostly lobbied our friends in legislatures, Democrats have marketed their pro-abortion ideas. Democrats are great at marketing. Us? Not so much. And marketing thrives on big budgets. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street donors have offered almost unlimited amounts for abortion propaganda, and they want to see the official Democrat Party spend even more.

But Republicans have remained scared of abortion, and Republican donors have been told abortion is a loser so many times that they simply refuse to consider there might be a way to beat Democrats at this game. But there is a way to win with pro-life messages...

* "Xi Jinping and China: Running Out of Time, Ready to Strike" (Gordon G. Chang, Gatestone Institute) 

From the article -- I believe that Xi wants war — or at least a ramping up of tensions — to prevent senior Chinese leaders from moving against him. He is not looking to rally the Chinese people with provocative actions or even an attack; he wants to defang political opponents in the Communist Party. Xi may not yet have made the decision to go to war, but he has clearly made the decision to risk war. That means he can strike when we least expect it.

* "The war against the Jews: In Britain, France and America, the left is on the wrong side." (Melanie Phillips,Jewish News Service)

From the article -- We have to face without flinching what is now undeniable: There is a war across the globe raging against the Jewish people. It’s a war not just to destroy their national homeland but to drive them out of people’s heads, their conscience and their world. Led by Muslims and the left, with its base in the universities, this war has extended much further than these circles into professional and commercial life...

Like the Biden administration in America, left-wing parties in Britain and France are displaying hostility to Israel and indifference to Jewish security when Israel is under existential attack, global Jew-hatred has reached stratospheric levels and tyrants everywhere are on a roll because of the West’s refusal to defend itself or even understand the priceless values that it needs to defend. Diaspora Jews ask where they can be safe. The answer is nowhere.

* "Media Cover Up the Jihad on French Churches" (Raymond Ibrahim, The Stream)

From the article is this map and and these comments: Bahl tried to discredit the map any way she could, including through barefaced ad hominem attacks: She described the Observatory of Christianophobia’s publication director as a “far right Catholic activist” (as if that tells us anything about the map’s veracity).

But because it is accurate, the best Bahl could do was to repeatedly and dismissively stress that it’s “outdated,” and therefore in no way representative of the current situation in France.

This is a ludicrous defense: If anything, the age of the map indicates that the situation in France is much worse now than it was five years ago. As Bahl herself stressed, it shows where churches were attacked in just 2018. Although only one year’s worth of church attacks is documented, the map is almost entirely red. How would it look if it showed all the church attacks that took place over the last six years? It would probably be pure red — a bloody war zone.

Churches are under attack all throughout France (once known, rather ironically, as the “Eldest Daughter of the Church”). This is an indisputable fact, irrespective of France 24’s sorry attempts at damage control.

* "Girl, 7, 'Too Young' for First Amendment Rights, Punished for 'Racist' BLM Drawing" (Kevin Downey Jr., PJ Media)

From the article -- The judge agreed that the artist's intentions were innocent, but woke is a joke and commies will gladly punish and humiliate anyone who doesn't fall in line, especially kids as they are easy to brainwash. U.S. Central District Court Judge David Carter ruled the punishment was just and righteous because the pint-sized Mosleyite was "too young to have First Amendment rights." 

'I was immediately angry, I didn't know what had happened, I knew it was wrong fundamentally," B.B.'s mon, Chelsea Boyle, told Fox News. "My daughter's rights were taken away, and I just started reaching out to find out what compelled speech was. I didn't know what it was until I spoke to attorneys." The case, now roughly three years old, will go to an Appeals Court. 

B.B.'s mom had no idea the punishment had taken place until another parent told her roughly a year after the woke nonsense took place. "As a child with ADHD, art is Ms. Boyle's daughter's main emotional outlet," Boyle family lawyer Alexander Haberbush told the press after launching the lawsuit. "The school has deprived her of that, and for what? For having the audacity to draw kids of all races getting along with the words ‘black lives matter,’ ‘any life’ matters."

Speaking of Heroes...

"We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look." (President Ronald Reagan)

"A hero is a man who is afraid to run away." (English proverb)

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer." (Poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary." (Novelist Ernest Hemingway)

"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes." (Astronaut Walter M. Schirra, Sr.)

"Without heroes, we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go." (Novelist Bernard Malamud)

"Celebrities are people who make news, but heroes are people who make history. Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities." (Historian Daniel J. Boorstin)

"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel." (Humanitarian Florence Nightingale)

"The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battlefields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat." (Writer Robert Louis Stevenson)

"Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men." (Historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle)

"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else." (Novelist Umberto Eco)

"The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers." (Theologian and poet Johann Kaspar Lavater)

"Poets and heroes are of the same race, the latter do what the former conceive." (Poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine)

"If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all … why then, perhaps we must stand fast a little--even at the risk of being heroes." (Robert Bolt's character, Sir Thomas More in the play, A Man for All Seasons)

(The hero photos in this section are of, from top to bottom, Neil Armstrong, Edith Cavell, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Thor Heyerdahl, Audie Murphy, Harriet Tubman, and missionary William Carey.)

Oh Monday, Monday

An engaging and memorable Monday began with an early morning coffee at Panera for plans, devotions and journal, and a bit of correspondence using our Colorado cards. Then Claire and I joined Mark and Keith for prayers and our pro-life witness outside the Planned Parenthood abortion business. I was able to speak to several of the workers and our large, winsome signs communicated the pro-life message to many, many people driving by. As we were getting ready to leave, Jim Bates and a few of his colleagues from his church in Columbus showed up for a time of public pro-life proclamation. What a faithful band of brothers they are to come so far.

Next Claire and I each took our vehicles out to the new Costco to gas up and we then stopped at Le Peeps for a late brunch. Claire had breakfast while I had a delicious chicken cranberry salad. We enjoyed both the meal and the break very much. One of the things we did while we were there was each share 10 “highlight entertainment events” from our lives. That was really fun. Claire’s list included a concert by Chicago when she was a teenager, several Omaha Symphony concerts, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap in London, a one-man show with Hal Holbrook portraying Mark Twain, a couple of Andy Williams’ Christmas shows in Branson, and a baseball game in Yankee Stadium. Mine included a performance of Chess on Broadway, performances of the Belarus Bolshoi Ballet in Minsk, Phantom of the Opera in the West End of London, Moses at the Sight & Sound Theater in Branson, and concerts with such stars as Frankie Valli, Harry James, and the Flying W Wranglers. Most of those, of course, were events we had shared and so it was fun to reminisce. 

And then, staying with an entertainment theme, we presented 2 “When Swing Was King” shows in the afternoon. One was at Sterling Ridge and then next at Pacific Springs and. Both went swell -- good attendance, great enthusiasm and appreciation, and some terrific visits with folks before and after. And the evening? After a light dinner, it was Claire doing some housework and me reading Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter. Thank you, Lord for each blessing and each opportunity to serve that we enjoyed yesterday. And so, we pray right now -- and in concert with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ reading this post -- please keep us all walking carefully, obediently, and joyfully in the course you have set for us. Amen.

The Top 5 (Well, Maybe a Bit More This Week) (July 13)

This week has had so many "impact events" resulting in some remarkably insightful reporting (and equipping commentary) that I just couldn't stop at five this week. Indeed, here for this week is a Top 10. Note that it includes 4 articles from Suzanne Bowdey, the Senior Writer for Family Research Council's news outlet, The Washington Stand. Ms. Bowdey explores each angle with insight and skill -- and she outlines several important areas for our prayers, conversations, and correspondence. Don't miss any of them.

And there's yet a fifth article I've linked up for you dealing with that platform failure. It's an interview of Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, by The Stream's John Zmirak. 

Of course, other things were going on too this week. And that's where the other 5 items come in. Like the regular Top 5, I include a brief excerpt from each article to help you decide which ones to read...and to give you a key point or two even if you read only that.

Let's get to it.

* "Led by Trump, 2024 GOP Platform Slashes Decades of Pro-Life Priorities" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Fueling the concerns, of course, were the reports that Donald Trump was trying to gut the platform’s pro-family planks to avoid unnecessary “drama.” Those rumors, to the dismay of millions of conservatives, turned out to be true. The 16-page draft was a shell of its 2016 self in all the ways that mattered. Gone were the calls for protecting life from conception, for opposing taxpayer-funded abortion — at home through the Hyde Amendment or abroad through the Mexico City Policy. There was no insistence on safeguarding children from gender-mutilating surgery, no support for adoption, no demand for a federal role in limiting abortion.

* "GOP Delegates Hit Back on ‘Mockery’ of Platform Process with Rare Minority Report" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

From the article -- By the time the Trump campaign blasted out the GOP’s 2024 platform early Monday afternoon, most people in Milwaukee had to ask themselves: what just happened? For the delegates, who were sideswiped by the unconventional, fast-tracked, secret process, the entire morning felt surreal. The outcome was so pre-determined, so tightly controlled that most of the men and women who traveled from the furthest corners of the country wondered what they were even doing there.

While the RNC’s team and the Trump camp cheered the adoption of a platform they vowed would Make America Great Again, the mood on the ground wasn’t all that celebratory. It wasn’t just the outcome that was disturbing, “Washington Watch” guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice pointed out from Wisconsin, but also “how it all went down.”

* "Picking Up the Pieces after a Lifeless Platform: ‘The Battle Is Not Done’" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Back in Milwaukee, the shock is starting to wear off for the 112 men and women who were steamrolled by the RNC’s Monday heist. More are starting to speak up, including Iowan delegate Tamara Scott who called the whole stunt “heartbreaking.”

“I tell people, my role is to uphold or to preserve our Judeo-Christian foundations as a nation, to protect our constitutional liberties and freedoms, and … to protect our principles as a platform. And so it was heartbreaking,” she lamented. “It was heartbreaking.” Like so many others, she agreed the document “was not terrible” but insisted it “could be stronger, could be better.” In the end, Tamara wanted people to know, “We, as a party, are still pro-life. It’s just not the great language, the distinctive, definitive language that had clarity that we have enjoyed and stood with for 40 years. … It was taken off, as you know, without the ability to really even have a vote or have input as to whether or not it was removed. We were just presented with a brand new document.”

* "Josh Hawley: If Republicans Stop Fighting for Life at the Federal Level, then Dobbs Changed ‘Nothing’" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

From the article -- “Life is a principle that unites Republicans,” he insisted on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch.” “It’s one of the most important things that we have to offer the country in terms of our witness, and particularly for us as Christians.” And listen, he said, “We have been a pro-life party [since 1976]. … And I think at this moment in particular, when we see the right to life return to voters … we need all the more to say to [them], ‘You should support life. Here’s why we should be advocating for life.’ We shouldn’t be silent about it. We shouldn’t be reticent about it. We should be advocating for it. My concern is this platform seems to walk away from that and walk away from traditional marriage as well. And I think both are mistakes.”

* "Are Pro-Lifers Helpless Now, with Nowhere to Go? An interview with Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America" (John Zmirak, Stream)

From the article -- Here’s where the platform falls short: It does not actively address the reality that abortion is a local, state, and federal issue. The platform celebrates the reality that with Roe gone, states can now engage in policy. But given all the tax money, federal agency policy, and prejudice in favor of abortion littered through domestic and international programs, abortion is federal.

[Also] It sloppily includes a shout-out to contraception and IVF without noting some obvious issues. No one is trying to “ban” contraception. But an abortion lobby that gets money from the distribution of contraception, much of it potentially abortifacient, wants to force funding and mandates for more contraception without regard for whether that makes minors vulnerable to predators or violates our conscience rights. Nuns in the past had to go to court to prevent coerced support for contraception. And the statement on IVF ignores the chaos and controversy of an industry that has sloppily contributed to its public relations nightmare. As a business, it creates disposable people as standard operating procedure, commodifying women as surrogates and children as property. What does such “support” mean? That negligent, predatory business can prey on vulnerable women and families.

[Next] It also strips away some of the beautiful language that people loved, all for a rather nebulous goal, that no one requested, of getting a shorter platform.

* "Why The Court’s Murthy Ruling Is Probably The Worst Free Speech Decision In History" (Philip Hamburger, Federalist)

From the article -- A second problem was doctrinal. The Supreme Court has developed doctrine that encourages government to think it “can censor Americans through private entities as long as it is not too coercive.” Accordingly, with painful predictability, the oral argument in Murthy focused on whether or not there had been government coercion.

The implications were not lost on the government. Although it had slowed down its censorship machine during litigation, it revved it up after the court’s hearing emphasized coercion. As put by Matt Taibbi, “the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security reportedly resumed contact with Internet platforms after oral arguments in this case in March led them to expect a favorable ruling.”

The First Amendment, however, says nothing about coercion. On the contrary, it distinguishes between “abridging” the freedom of speech and “prohibiting” the free exercise of religion. As I have explained in great detail, the amendment thereby makes clear that the Constitution’s standard for a speech violation is abridging, that is, reducing, the freedom of speech, not coercion. A mere reduction of the freedom violates the First Amendment.

* "What Is a D & E Abortion? A Former Abortionist Explains...and Illustrates" (Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- This is the 5-minute video narrated by former abortionist Kathi Aultman that is changing minds about abortion. It is particularly important to be viewed by those who maintain a "pro-choice" opinion.

* "Israel is losing the north: A zero-tolerance policy for Hezbollah rockets is the first step to saving the country – and its borders – as we know it" (Michael Oren, The Times of Israel)

From the article -- The situation deteriorates daily, yet Israel desperately wants to avoid an all-out war. Its response to Hezbollah’s assaults has been limited to the elimination of senior commanders and active terrorist cells. Unlike their Israeli counterparts, Lebanese border towns remain largely unscathed and the country is rigorously attracting tourism. Still, as the rocket fire from Lebanon increases, so, too, do the chances of a single missile hitting an army base or a school. Israel would have to respond massively. War would erupt not only with Hezbollah but also with Iran and its proxies. Swaths of Lebanon would be laid to waste.

And the world will once again blame Israel. The international media has almost totally ignored Hezbollah’s aggression or, as in the case of The New York Times, cast it as retaliation for Israeli attacks. Israel, meanwhile, has done little to lay the diplomatic groundwork for large scale military action. When I brought the first-ever delegation of uprooted Israelis to Washington last month, most of the Congressional and federal officials we met were utterly uninformed about the north.

That ignorance, more unconsciously, exists in Israel itself. Few seem aware of the dangerous shortage of medical and firefighting equipment in the border settlements, the dearth of bomb-proof shelters for their defenders, and even fuel for their generators. With much of the nation’s attention understandably focused on Gaza and the hostage crisis, and the government seemingly eager to play down its fear of war, northerners feel that the country has abandoned them. Their plight barely makes the news. They have no indication of when, if at all, the fighting will end or how Hezbollah will be forced to retreat from the border. IDF commanders in the region estimate that as many as 40% of its previous population is unlikely ever to return.

Israel is losing the north, but the loss will not be of land alone.

* "Up, Up and Away...Forever" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- ...I was rather disgruntled at the sudden awakening but since she was so adamant, I stumbled over to the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony, drew open the shades and …wow upon wow…there they were!  About two dozen hot air balloons had come over Loveland Pass and were now moving pretty fast down the valley.  They were colorful.  They were colossal.  And they were close!  We were awestruck at the beauty, the grace, and the sheer uniqueness of the sight – these huge, silent beasts that carried passengers who were waving to us and wishing us good morning.  In various stages of undress, we waved back, feeling a pang of deep regret that we weren’t in one of those baskets with them, sailing through the crisp mountain air to who knows where - Frisco, Leadville, for all we knew, maybe Shangri-La.

Far from being annoyed at Sherry for waking us, we were all extremely grateful to her for giving us this rare and invaluable gift.  It was, in one sense, a fleeting moment.  The balloons moved so quickly that within minutes they were all gone from sight.  But, in another and very real sense, Sherry also gave us a forever moment because the combination of surprise, novelty, color, movement, the soulful longing everyone feels for travel and adventure…and the fact that we experienced it as a family... made that moment something that we will always treasure.  I’m feeling a glow just writing about it now...

* "The land of the freebie, for illegals" (Howie Carr, Boston Globe)

From the article -- Rarely do crimes by illegals make the news anymore. They’re here, they’re criminals, and the illegals know that no matter how heinous their crimes, there will most likely be no consequences because… Democrats. There was a story this week in the Wall Street Journal about increasing lawlessness in the Gaza Strip. It described the “overall breakdown of law and order” because “locking up criminals isn’t an option.”

Sounds like Massachusetts, doesn’t it?

In Middlesex County, an illegal alien welfare-collecting Haitian wasn’t arrested after being accused of raping an underage female at one of the local state-funded flophouses.Instead, a Lyft was called for him, at taxpayer expense, and the accused rapist was chauffeured in style to a different flophouse in a different county where he can continue his lifelong vacation at taxpayer expense.

What could possibly go wrong?

Another illegal-alien Haitian was accused of rape at a Plymouth County foreign flophouse. The Republican district attorney wanted bail set at $25,000. A bleeding-heart judge just cut it to $500, even though the state knows absolutely nothing about this guy, he has no ties to the community and, needless to say, no job.

18-Year Old Country Singer Scores Big with a New Pro-Life Anthem

 A song with a tender pro-life message has reached the top 5 on iTunes’ chart for country music less than three weeks after its release by 18-year old beauty Rachel Holt. 

Check out “I Was Gonna Be” below and then read Oliva Pero's story about the song, songwriter, and singer right here at the Daily Signal.  

 You're gonna' love it. And I sure hope you're gonna' pass it on.  

What Is a D & E Abortion? A Former Abortionist Explains...and Illustrates

This is the 5-minute video narrated by former abortionist Kathi Aultman that is changing minds about abortion. It is particularly important to be viewed by those who maintain a "pro-choice" opinion.

 

Another Very Embarrassing Problem for Darwinians

In continuing this month’s series of posts dealing with evolution, intelligent design, and divine creation, here is a slightly edited note from a Vital Signs Blog post from way back in July of 2008. However, the post’s content is as relevant as ever and even the article I mention at the conclusion is still online. Check it out.

“When a butterfly has to look like a leaf, not only are all the details of a leaf beautifully rendered but markings mimicking grub-bored holes are generously thrown in. ‘Natural Selection,’ in the Darwinian sense, could not explain the miraculous coincidence of imitative aspect and imitative behavior, nor could one appeal to the theory of ‘the struggle for life’ when a protective device was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in excess of a predator’s power of appreciation. I discovered in nature the non-utilitarian delights that I sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and deception.”

The above paragraph was written, not by William Jennings Bryan or Billy Sunday, but by the decidedly irreligious author of Lolita and Pale Fire (and, more importantly for my money, the translator of Pushkin), Vladimir Nabokov.

It turns out that Nabokov served as the curator of lepidoptera (butterflies) at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in the 1940s. In fact, according to his biographer, Nabokov “became the authority on the little-studied blue butterflies (polyommatini) of North and South America” and was “a pioneer in the study of butterflies’ microscopic anatomy, distinguishing otherwise almost identical blues by differences in their genital parts.” And besides his novels and short stories, he published articles in such scientific journals as The Entomologist, The Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, The Lepidopterists' News, and Psyche: A Journal of Entomology.

Of course, this creates a problem of embarrassment in the secular academic circles where Nabokov’s literary work has been so highly regarded. I mean, what’s with a renowned liberal humanist vigorously disputing evolution -- and doing so from the most intricate and informed scientific reasoning?

Richard Dawkins, call your office.

Here’s more from the Discovery Institute.

Up, Up and Away...Forever

(This post originally appeared in June of 2012.)

It was a little before six yesterday morning and I was on my way to Panera’s for my regular Tuesday morning routine – prayerfully planning out the week, clearing up correspondence and enjoying an always stimulating conversation with John Malek – when I saw a lonely but lovely hot air balloon hanging just over the southwest horizon.  It didn’t seem to be drifting at all; indeed, it held the same position the whole time of my drive and at least several minutes after I got my coffee.  But I was then distracted with work and the next time I looked up, maybe 20 minutes later, it was gone.

I wished I had my binoculars with me.  I wished too that Claire had seen it – hot air balloons are pretty rare in our part of the country.  But I especially wished my sister Sherry could have seen it too because she really likes hot air balloons and still cherishes the dream, as yet unfulfilled, of gliding through the air in this colorful, buoyant style.

In fact, gazing at this hot air balloon made me think of three things and the first directly concerned Sherry.  It is a vivid memory of an early morning in the mountains of Colorado sometime back in the late 80’s.  The Hartford clan was having one of its very few family reunions.  Sherry was there with her family, Mom, Claire and I, Ric and his wife, James, and Linda and her family.  We had a wonderful time that week but the highlight of the whole event was Sherry tearing through the place very early one morning (we were all still abed) and yelling at everyone to get up and look out the windows.

I was rather disgruntled at the sudden awakening but since she was so adamant, I stumbled over to the sliding glass door that led out to the balcony, drew open the shades and …wow upon wow…there they were!  About two dozen hot air balloons had come over Loveland Pass and were now moving pretty fast down the valley.  They were colorful.  They were colossal.  And they were close!  We were awestruck at the beauty, the grace, and the sheer uniqueness of the sight – these huge, silent beasts that carried passengers who were waving to us and wishing us good morning.  In various stages of undress, we waved back, feeling a pang of deep regret that we weren’t in one of those baskets with them, sailing through the crisp mountain air to who knows where - Frisco, Leadville, for all we knew, maybe Shangri-La.

Far from being annoyed at Sherry for waking us, we were all extremely grateful to her for giving us this rare and invaluable gift.  It was, in one sense, a fleeting moment.  The balloons moved so quickly that within minutes they were all gone from sight.  But, in another and very real sense, Sherry also gave us a forever moment because the combination of surprise, novelty, color, movement, the soulful longing everyone feels for travel and adventure…and the fact that we experienced it as a family... made that moment something that we will always treasure.  I’m feeling a glow just writing about it now.

But the second train of thought elicited by that balloon yesterday morning was a bit more philosophical for it caused me to also think of the song which Americans of my generation invariably link with hot air balloons; namely, the lilting lyrics of Jimmy Webb’s “Up, Up and Away” as delivered by the Fifth Dimension.  The song is exquisite – nearly every Webb song is – and the incomparable voices of Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis, Jr and the rest of the Fifth Dimension almost guaranteed that it would be one of the most popular songs of the 1960’s.

But it’s not just the sound of “Up, Up and Away” that gave it almost anthem status for the flower children.  It was the sentiment of the song too – the sentiment of escapism.  Sure, love songs and poetry have, throughout the ages, tended towards this theme.  “Make the world go away.  We’ll build a world of our own.  Fly me to the moon.”  And so on.  But there was a particularly pronounced escapism of the 1960’s youth culture that went beyond romance.  For some that involved outright rebellion, the laborious attempt to change what they believed was a restraining status quo. But for many more, the response to the world was just escape. And whether the “drop out” route involved drugs or drink, the intensity of sensual pleasure or immersion in the minutiae of popular entertainment, quadraphonic sound or religious mysticism, the goal was self-absorption.

Many of the Fifth Dimension's songs fit this mood -- “Age of Aquarius,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Paper Cup,” “Sweet Blindness,” and, of course, “Up, Up and Away.” They described the delight of finding a refuge from the harshness of the real world. They weren't songs of rebellion. Those came from harder-edged groups.  No, the Fifth Dimension offered a mellow, more sensual route of escape.  Make love, not war. Harmony and understanding. Party hearty.  Hold a good thought for cosmic convergence.

The lyrics to “Paper Cup” (another Jimmy Webb song, by the way) include these lines:

Here inside my paper cup

Everything is looking up
No one comes in, no one goes out
Nothin' to get hung up about 
I'm free and it's so easy to get by 
Cause I don't try.
Living ain't so bad without a rudder
Life is kind a groovy in the gutter.

Sound familiar? Forget old-world values like work, the integrity of family and tribe, morality, making something out of yourself, changing the world for the better. Instead, make the hippy mantra your reality -- “Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.”

But the lyric that particularly grabbed me yesterday morning was from “Up, Up and Away.” It goes, “The world’s a nicer place in my beautiful balloon; it wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon.”

But the balloon ride doesn't make the world a nicer place. It, in fact, has nothing to do with the world. It's soaring above it, unconnected, uninvolved. And from the balloon one isn't even an effective observer. The spectacle is too distant. The aerial view doesn’t take in the broken-hearted young girl in her bedroom, the angry young thug in the prison cell, the fatherless child in the alley, the lonely widow leafing through the photo album, the worried mother in the doctor's waiting room.  No, the scene from the balloon takes in only color and general contour.  Hidden from sight is the trash and tragedy of real life.  That, no doubt, suggests a world with a “nicer face.” But it’s not the real world at all.

And, of course, even the exhilarating experience of flying through the air must end.  Alas, there is a limit for that beautiful balloon. It does go up and up...but it doesn't really go away. It must, governed as it is by a law of gravity that no amount of yearning can deny, come down to earth. The balloon ride doesn't make an efficient refuge from reality at all. A respite, yes. But not a refuge. For when the balloon inevitably returns, the passengers find themselves once again on the cold, cruel earth, facing all the problems, questions, and challenges they left behind.

But I'm not ending this essay on that note. Oh, no. For there was one more area of thought that the sight of that hot air balloon opened for me yesterday. And it also brought back to me the lyrics of a song, one that I knew long before I heard of the Fifth Dimension...though I must admit I didn't treasure the meaning of those lyrics until it was almost too late.

This song was written in 1929 by Oklahoma musician and hymn writer Albert E. Brumley. And it's lyrics not only describe the “final flight” of the Christian, one who has personally trusted the sacrifice Jesus made to pay for the sins of mankind, they also provide the secret to living joyfully and victoriously on the cold, cruel earth I've mentioned earlier. For though we must face the challenges the real world presents (no escape until our day is done), we do so in the confident expectation that a “nicer world” does exist for the believer in Christ. It is the "new heavens and new earth" prepared expressly for us by Jesus Himself.

The song, as some of you have already guessed, is the most recorded gospel song ever, “I’ll Fly Away.”

Some glad morning when this life is o'er, 
I'll fly away; 
To a home on God's celestial shore, 
I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, Oh glory 
I'll fly away.
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by, 
I'll fly away.

When the shadows of this life have gone, 
I'll fly away; 
Like a bird from prison bars has flown, 
I'll fly away.

Just a few more weary days and then, 
I'll fly away; 
To a land where joy shall never end, 
I'll fly away.

The hot air balloons Sherry awakened to us that Colorado morning were spectacular and I'll never forget the sight of them floating down the valley with the blue of the Rocky Mountains behind them. Nor will I forget the yearning they created in my soul for spiritual flight. But the trip I now have scheduled is not a disconnected, day-trip escape like the one the Fifth Dimension invited me on. I want the real thing. The lasting thing. The final flight that doesn't just take me “up, up and away” but instead takes me to God's celestial shore. Boy, I'm looking forward to it.

By the way, have you booked your flight yet?

Swinging with the July “When Swing Was King”

We had an especially delightful start to our July “When Swing Was King” schedule as Harold and Mary Dee Berry dropped into our first show of the month which was at Legacy Arbors in the Havelock area of north Lincoln. The Berrys then joined us for a late breakfast/early lunch at The Engine House just a few blocks away. As always, we had a super time with them -- what a terrific couple of God’s people!

And the “When Swing Was King” show? Well, I know I say this every month but…it is one of our very best! But don’t just take my word for it. You go through the song list below and see if you don’t agree. And, as you peruse these grand old songs, know that you too are always welcome to sit in on one of our shows. Just check out the Vital Signs Ministries website for each month’s schedule.

We always start the program with something from the Glenn Miller Orchestra and this month’s selection is a real honey; namely, the band’s theme song recorded in 1939, “Moonlight Serenade.” And then…

2) Benny Goodman Orchestra with Helen Ward as vocalist -- “You Turned the Tables on Me” (1936)

3) Lena Horne (backed by the Lou Bring Orchestra) -- “Where or When” (1948)

4) Frank Sinatra (backed by an Axel Stordahl studio band) -- “Begin the Beguine” (1945)

5) Russ Morgan Orchestra --“With the Wind and the Rain In Her Hair” (1940)

6) Artie Shaw Orchestra (Helen Forrest as vocalist) – “Deep Purple” (1938)

7) Lawrence Welk Orchestra (featuring Henry Cuesta on clarinet) -- “La Mer” (1976)

8) Vaughn Monroe Orchestra (with VM as vocalist too) -- “Red Roses for a Blue Lady” (1949)

9) Ray Anthony -- “This Love of Mine” (1956)

10) The Mills Brothers (featuring Tommy Dorsey on trombone!) --“Please Don’t Talk About Me (When I’m Gone)” (1951)

11) Harry James Orchestra -- “You’ll Never Know” (1943)

12) Roy Rogers -- “San Fernando Valley” (1944)

Like I said, the July “When Swing Was King” is one of our very song collections. And the photographs – absolutely terrific! So, we cordially invite you -- no, make that we enthusiastically invite you -- to see and hear for yourself the July “When Swing Was King.”

The Top 5 (July 6)

* "Were the Founders Deist? Here’s One Sure-Fire Piece of Evidence Against That Idea" (Tyler O'Neil, Daily Signal)

From the article -- Although some of America’s Founding Fathers were deists, rather than Christians, the United States owes a debt of gratitude to a Judeo-Christian moral framework that goes beyond mere deism—and the proof is in the Declaration of Independence itself. Deism refers to the belief that God created the world and endowed human beings with reason, but after that, he left the world alone to develop naturally. Deists prefer a largely absent God who just set things in motion and then stands back, hoping everyone has a good time.

The Declaration of Independence does not envision such a God, and the document could not have formed the cornerstone of the American Revolution without a firm declaration that God—not government—is the foundation of just rule.

* "1 In 5 Auto Accident Deaths Now Involves Marijuana Use" (Jefferey H. Anderson, Federalist)

From the article -- A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health — and conducted by scholars at Boston Medical Center, Boston University, and the University of Victoria — found that the percentage of car crash deaths in America that involved marijuana has skyrocketed since 2000. The percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis alone rose from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 11.2 percent in 2018. Over that same span, the percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis and alcohol together rose from 4.8 to 10.3 percent. So the total percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis, either with or without alcohol, rose from 9.0 percent in 2000 to 21.5 percent in 2018 — to more than a fifth of all car crash deaths in America.

Monitoring the Future, a survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, finds that the percentage of those ages 19 to 30 who use marijuana on a daily basis rose from 3.8 percent in 2000 to 7.8 percent in 2018 — more than doubling. That closely tracks the rise in car crash deaths involving marijuana over that period. 

Those numbers, however, are only through 2018. From 2019 to 2022, deaths from drunk-driver car crashes rose a whopping 33 percent — from 10,142 in 2019 to 13,524 in 2022 (the most recent statistics available), according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Deaths from stoned driver car crashes likely increased even more, given that, unlike alcohol use (which hasn’t changed much), pot use has risen greatly over the past few years.

* "The devastating case against vaccine-pusher Pfizer" (Neville Hodgkinson, The Conservative Woman)

From the article -- WILL our world eventually realise the extent of the covid con trick to which we have been subjected over the past four years? While most UK authorities, including the mainstream media, are still maintaining silence on the disaster, the American legal system seems poised to break omerta around the issue.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and another three of the state’s top legal officials have announced a lawsuit against Pfizer alleging misleading claims related to its covid vaccine. ‘Pfizer made multiple misleading statements to deceive the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth,’ Kobach said. A similar action by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton remains pending, and several other states are becoming involved.

Pfizer says the lawsuits have no merit, and that its representations about the vaccine have been ‘accurate and science-based’. However, according to Dr Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-based Medicine at Oxford University, the charge sheet against Pfizer, with the main points outlined here, is ‘devastating’.

* "The Diminishing Likelihood of a Fair Election" (Brian T. Kennedy, The American Mind)

From the article -- Regardless of who the nominees are in 2024, just as in 2020, much of America will hold their elections in the least transparent, most vulnerable method possible: absentee ballots. Because of this, a free and fair election cannot be assured. It matters not that President Trump is ahead in all the polls and in ways that some pollsters believe cannot be overcome. Citizens should expect that, since America is in a war with Communist China, November’s election will be the target of a massive intelligence operation to decide the next president.

It should be noted that America’s election system was not built to stop the Communist Chinese or any nation state, or for that matter any dark money group, with the capacity and the interest in deciding an American presidential election.

The United States is made vulnerable by being the only developed country in the world to allow for this wide-spread use of absentee ballots. Every other advanced democracy conducts their elections in person, with identification shown, on paper ballots counted by large groups of people transparently tallying vote totals with the results available the same day of the election. In states around America, Secretaries of State have allowed or been part of the development of elections systems that would appear to be designed to allow for fraud. So whether not an election is stolen, a free and fair election system has been stolen from the American people. 

* "Cowboy Role Models" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- Mamas, you can go ahead and let your babies grow up to be cowboys…if, that is, they grow up following cowboy codes like the ones you’ll find below.

My sermon yesterday at Wellspring Church down in Papillion was entitled, “Let's Talk About Role Models” with the foundational text being 1 Corinthians 11: 1,2. And I introduced it with a story my Mom used to tell about me as a very young boy (before I could even read) asking her to give me my own Bible. The reason? I had just finished watching a TV episode of The Lone Ranger in which he solved a mystery by being remarkably familiar with a Scripture passage. And since one of my favorite heroes knew the Bible so well, I figured I’d do well to follow his example.

That’s a key difference between a mere hero and a role model. For the former can be “admired from afar” but the role model presents enough moral strength to influence a person’s behavior, priorities, even character. And don’t think those cinematic cowboys (and their producers, scriptwriters, and advertisers) weren’t well aware of how influential they could be. Indeed, back in the day, that influence was considered as something to be invested for a child’s good…and thus, the good of the culture.

Examples? Well, check out the following lists that I offered to church goers after the service. They are terrific moral codes that come from my 3 favorite cowboys.

Intelligent Design Creates the “Ultimate Skepticism”

Speaking of the Intelligent Design movement and the resulting cracks in the “great wall” of evolution, America’s most compelling novelist, the late Tom Wolfe writes...

“This, science’s Ultimate Skepticism, has been spreading ever since then. Over the past two years even Darwinism, a sacred tenet among American scientists for the past seventy years, has been beset by doubts. Scientists -- not religiosi -- notably the mathematician David Berlinski (‘The Deniable Darwin,’ Commentary, June 1996) and the biochemist Michael Behe (Darwin’s Black Box, 1996), have begun attacking Darwinism as a mere theory, not a scientific discovery, a theory woefully unsupported by fossil evidence and featuring, at the core of its logic, sheer mush.

Dennett and Dawkins, for whom Darwin is the Only Begotten, the Messiah, are already screaming. They’re beside themselves, utterly apoplectic. Wilson, the giant, keeping his cool, has remained above the battle.” (Tom Wolfe, “Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died,” first published in Orthodoxy Today, 1996)

Cowboy Role Models

Mamas, you can go ahead and let your babies grow up to be cowboys…if, that is, they grow up following cowboy codes like the ones you’ll find below.

My sermon yesterday at Wellspring Church down in Papillion was entitled, “Let's Talk About Role Models” with the foundational text being 1 Corinthians 11: 1,2. And I introduced it with a story my Mom used to tell about me as a very young boy (before I could even read) asking her to give me my own Bible. The reason? I had just finished watching a TV episode of The Lone Ranger in which he solved a mystery by being remarkably familiar with a Scripture passage. And since one of my favorite heroes knew the Bible so well, I figured I’d do well to follow his example.

That’s a key difference between a mere hero and a role model. For the former can be “admired from afar” but the role model presents enough moral strength to influence a person’s behavior, priorities, even character.

And don’t think those cinematic cowboys (and their producers, scriptwriters, and advertisers) weren’t well aware of how influential they could be. Indeed, back in the day, that influence was considered as something to be invested for a child’s good…and thus, the good of the culture.

Examples? Well, check out the following lists that I offered to church goers after the service. They are terrific moral codes that come from my 3 favorite cowboys.

“Ten Guidelines for Life” from Hopalong Cassidy

1) The highest badge of honor a person can wear is honesty. Be truthful at all times.

2) Your parents are the best friends you have. Listen to them and obey their instructions.

3) If you want to be respected, you must respect others. Show good manners in every way.

4) Only through hard work and study can you succeed. Don’t be lazy.

5) Your good deeds always come to light. So don’t boast or be a show-off.

6) If you waste time or money today, you will regret it tomorrow. Practice thrift in all ways.

7) Many animals are good and loyal companions. Be friendly and kind to them.

8) A strong, healthy body is a precious gift. Be neat and clean.

9) Our country’s laws are made for your protection. Observe them carefully.

10) Children in many foreign lands are less fortunate than you.

Be glad and proud you are an American.

Roy Rogers’ Rules (for a Life Well-Lived)

1) Be neat and clean

2) Be courteous and polite.

3) Always obey your parents.

4) Protect the weak and help them.

5) Be brave but never take chances.

6) Study hard and learn all you can.

7) Be kind to animals

and take care of them.

8) Eat all your food

and never waste any.

9) Love God and go to Sunday School regularly.

10) Always respect our flag and our country.

The Lone Ranger Creed

1) I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.

2) That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.

3) That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.

4) In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.

5) That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.

6) That “this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people” shall live always.

7) That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.

8) That sooner or later – somewhere – somehow – we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

9) That all things change, but the truth, and the truth alone, lives on forever.

10) I believe in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.