BruceSpeaks

posted by Bruce Porter on כ"ה אלול תש"ע כ"ג טבת תש"ל

By Bruce Porter

The teacher is engaged not simply in the training of individuals,
but in the formation of the “proper” social life….
In this way, the teacher always is the prophet of the “true” God
and the usherer-in of the “true” Kingdom of God.

-Atheist John Dewey-
Socialist “Father” of Public Education
(With socialist ‘code words’ emphasized in quotes)

 I often hear well-meaning people say that it is important that children be properly “socialized.” Usually this comes up in conversations when I tell them my 13-year-old daughter is being home-schooled (as were my two older children).

I understand that most people who raise such concerns are speaking about the need for children to be able to get along with other children in a group setting. This is, of course, perfectly reasonable. A well-rounded education certainly does not consist of merely being able to regurgitate facts and perform math computations. As humans, we are intrinsically ‘wired’ to interrelate with people in a wholesome and mutually beneficial circumstances. Social skills like sharing, compassion, empathy, and a sense of responsibility for others (outside ourselves) well-being is indisputably an important part of a well-rounded personality.

I usually answer that my daughter is probably over-socialized, in that she regularly spends time in group settings like dance classes, our home-school co-op, and our House Church (click for info). At 13, she is comfortable in conversation with all ages, regularly shares her things with friends, and has a caring, compassionate attitude toward her world.

Not only this, but she tested-out last year (using the Iowa Skills Exam) several grades ahead of the national average in every subject, and is even doing college-level work in several subjects in spite of the fact that she was only in the 7th grade. This usually ends the discussion, since most public school children cannot make such boasts. It’s not that their children are less intelligent than my little girl. It is more a statement about the state of government education.

With regard to the “socialization” issue however, I must now restrain myself. If I really opened up and said what I think about the dismal state of  ”government education,” and the “Educrats” that run it, I would lose all sense of polite decorum and begin ranting and howling with blood squirting out of my eyes and ears (like the madman most liberals assume that I am). I will therefore withhold any such ranting, control my emotions, and try to calmly deal with this issue in a restrained tone worthy of a National Public Radio interview on “All Things Considered.”

I will only allow myself this one indulgence into the ‘rant zone:’ Children are not being “socialized” in public schools. They are being BRAINWASHED into MARXIST SOCIALISM! More than this, whatever “socializing” they are experiencing with regard to politeness, decorum, and ethical or moral behavior, well, I am a product of the public school system. I can confidently say that I decided early-on not to let this negative schooling life-experience get in the way of my subsequent education. (Apologies to Mark Twain) There, I got it off my chest!

The latest outrage is the increasing practice of exposing younger and younger children to “socialist” propaganda in films, assemblies, and anti-conservative rants by teachers who are following Dewey’s injunction to act as prophets ”…of the ‘true’ God and the usherer-in of the ‘true’ Kingdom of God.” Really folks, I didn’t make this up! ¹

A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF INDOCTRINATION:

Recently, a 20-minute video surfaced called “The Story of Stuff,” narrated by Annie Leonard, and commissioned by the Tides Foundation. ² Tides is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization that provides funding for “progressive” groups. For those unfamiliar with the term “progressive,” this is a sanitized, politically-neutral word for “Marxist.”

Children across the nation are being shown this video, and thus far, little notice has been made of it since it’s a cutsie, cartoonish, cheerful, and disarmingly clever presentation of anti-capitalism under the cover of “saving the earth.” I have found some rebuttals to the video, and I urge you to take time to watch the videos below. Share this link with your friends, particularly those with children in public schools, and warn them of the danger.

posted by Bruce Porter on כ"ה אלול תש"ע כ"ג טבת תש"ל

One of my recent posts:

How the Radical Left Plan to Destroy the Republic
Through Our Children

posted on September 7, elicited the following email response from Amy Sterling Casil, one of the authors I referenced in the blog. 

Ordinarily, I would not re-post a private email, but this one was illuminating. Please understand I do not share this with any intention of showing disrespect. Amy is an accomplished author I sincerely respect and admire. I am honored that she even took the time to write me. The fact that I disagree with her position on public education, and John Dewey in particular, should not be construed as a lack of respect for her or her considerable scholarship. You may read her bio at the end of this post.

However, the issues she raises speaks volumes about the present state of academia (even among Christians) and a lack of awareness/discernment about the true nature of American public education and the hidden agenda of Socialism in our nation. Her excellent letter is shared here in its entirety, with my responses in block quotes.

—– Original Message —–

From: asterling@****.com
To: bruce@brucespeaks.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 3:48 PM

Subject: Please remove reference

Dear Bruce,

I am an author of a book that you used as a reference for a blog post about education and the Obama administration (http://www.brucespeaks.com/?p=536). I would appreciate as an authorial courtesy your removing this educational/school library book from a reference in this politically-charged commentary that isn’t really directed at children, schools or education.

 Your book reference has been removed per your request. You are correct that my article is not directed at children, (note the X-rated references elsewhere in the article about the sex education curricula promulgated in many public schools) nor is it directed at schools or educators.

It is primarily directed to parents, grandparents, and guardians of young children who are enrolled in government educational institutions and have virtually no knowledge of Dewey’s considerable influence and highly controversial political views/associations which you referenced in your book so well.

 I am actually relatively conservative, and also a Christian – as well as being a college teacher and author of over 20 books for children/young adults.  I understand the point you are trying to make, but this is really distortive of John Dewey’s work and the broad perspective of his role in education.  He certainly contributed to far, far more than you present in this article, and his political activities were not strongly correlated with his work in education, and extensive study and educational writings.

 Yes, he did sign the Humanist Manifesto, and was also one of the founders of the ACLU.  100 years ago, neither of these were all that unreasonable things to do.  I can provide you with an original source for his signing of the Humanist Manifesto, if your desire is to document what you have written.  It is true that he signed this document, and also true that he traveled to the former Soviet Union.  It is equally true that he advocated education and literacy for children in order for them to be able to act as informed citizens.

 I certainly wouldn’t question your faith in Christ Amy, but after reading your email, I harbor doubts as to your conservative credentials.

I am well-aware of Dewey’s extensive work in the field of education. However, it is his highly questionable political alliances and motivations that are alarming and virtually unknown to the general populace. We must not minimize the extensive ANTI-Christian/conservative worldviews espoused in the Humanist Manifesto, or Roger Nash Baldwin’s Marxist worldview and his involvement in the establishment of the ACLU. Dewey’s agreement/association with, and signing on to, such extremely controversial views should be more widely known.

My object was not to distort the historical record, but rather, to bring to light the EXISTING distortions of the record due to the virtual silence by most biographers of Dewey’s leftist political views.

With regard to your comment about Dewey’s advocacy of public education as a means of literacy: “in order for them to be able to act as informed citizens.” How can we possibly observe the progressive deterioration of the state of education in America during the 20th century as anything but a slow-motion train wreck? Prior to Dewey’s influence, illiteracy was rare among our citizens, and most 8th grade children in the late 1800s could easily put most modern college graduates to shame with their knowledge of geography, history, math, grammar, and virtually any other subject (except of course, modern electronics, aerospace, and computer technology).

The state of our public education system is a national disgrace, with many High School graduates unable to read their own diplomas. Prior to Dewey’s influence, political awareness of our founding documents by the majority of American children, and their sense of civic responsibility, was exemplary. Can we ignore this?

I do know how emotional people get about these things.  Most people think John Dewey invented the Dewey Decimal System.  My book didn’t focus on political aspects, but rather educational and philosophical aspects – Mr. Dewey’s philosophy of education was “students learn best by doing” and his philosophical writings were of the school of pragmatism – i.e. development of moral and individual compass through experience.

I think the historical record clearly shows that 19th-century America’s “moral and individual compass” was far superior to the one that resulted from the establishment of a “pragmatic” (and secular) government educational system. School violence, teen pregnancy, and juvenile delinquency were rare events before Dewey. They are nearly pandemic now. His systematic elimination of the Christian worldview has resulted in a moral, ethical, and societal meltdown.

The last words of his pedagogic manifesto are: “I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God.” 

I learned as a much younger (and foolish) Socialist and Liberal Progressive that it is highly necessary to carefully couch the Progressive agenda in terms that will not alarm the populace or stimulate reactionary elements. Dewey, in my opinion, was a master of subterfuge, and his use of terms like: “…maintenance of *proper* social order and the securing of the *right* social growth” (emphasis added obviously) are Progressive code words that anyone in the Progressive movement would recognize.

Also, given his extensive written (and extremely critical) views regarding the Christian faith, it requires no conspiratorial “leap of faith” to see that his use of words like: “…prophet of the *true* God and the usherer in of the *true* kingdom of God” are transparently disingenuous references to the establishment of the Socialist State as an idyllic socialist “kingdom” on earth.

The “true” god and “kingdom” of the Humanist/Socialist is ultimately humanity and naturalistic scientific reason. As you know, the 5th plank of the Humanist Manifesto of 1933 (that Dewey signed-on to) states this clearly: “Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.” As a Christian, you no-doubt recognize immediately this as the very antithesis of biblical Judeo/Christian thought.

This is “social” in the sense of people getting along in SOCIETY – not “socialism.”  Society as in people getting along with each other – i.e. not stealing, committing crimes, or operating only with self-interest or in an anti-social manner.  Everyone who teaches knows that school is more about learning to get along with others in preparation for working or living successfully in society, not about forced memorization of facts – which indeed was the main emphasis of schools pre-Dewey.

Thank you for this courtesy.  The book is educational, not political in nature.  It would be false/poor education to ignore Mr. Dewey’s existence.

- Amy Sterling Casil

I couldn’t disagree more with your closing statement. Surely you’re not unaware that the “society” Dewey grew up in was one of the most literate, polite, productive, civil, and just societies in all the history of the world? Our founding documents and form of government were based almost entirely upon biblical precepts and sermons dating back to the 16th century. I can provide documentation for this if you wish.

Certainly, our nation had faults, some grievous, but our people constantly sought improvement through the Bill of Rights and amendments. We fought a bitter civil war to end the evil of slavery. Christians were on the forefront of the effort to stop this blight upon our nation. Thankfully, under our constitution and republican form of government, we possessed the political means and moral courage to correct those evils and will continue to make amends where needed.

I do find agreement with one statement you made. “It would be false/poor education to ignore Mr. Dewey’s existence.” I entirely agree, but would only add that it would be a disservice and disingenuous to not give people the entire story of Mr. Dewey’s educational agenda and political motives. Only by fully disclosing these facts can people be expected to make wise decisions regarding politics and society as a whole, and through our children, preserve our great nation as a free, moral, prosperous, and Constitutional Republic.

Forgive my forthrightness, but I couldn’t help responding to your points. It is manifestly clear that we have dramatically different interpretations of history and Dewey. In any case, I wish you well.

Yours sincerely,

Bruce Porter

Biographical Information on Amy Sterling Casil

Amy Sterling Casil  is a Southern California science fiction writer. Her writing has often included Southern California themes. Her mother, Sterling Sturtevant was an Academy Award-winning art director for animated films who worked for Playhouse Pictures, UPA and Charles Schulz.

A four-year National Merit Scholar, she graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, CA in 1983 with bachelor’s degrees in British/American Literature and Studio Art. She was the first female editor and publisher of the Claremont Colleges’ newsmagazine. She twice received the Crombie Allen Award for fiction writing at the Claremont Colleges. She attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop at Michigan State University in 1984.

“Jonny Punkinhead,” which appeared in the July 1996 New Writers issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, was her first published genre story.

Casil was the director of Family Service Association in Redlands, California from 1987 to 1997. In 1999, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University, Orange, CA with full honors, under committee chair James P. Blaylock. From 1998 to 2005, she taught English and creative writing at several Southern California colleges, including Chapman University and Saddleback College. Since 2005, she has been Director of Development for the noted Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, Beyond Shelter.

For a complete bio, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Sterling_Casil#As_Editor

posted by Bruce Porter on כ"ה אלול תש"ע כ"ג טבת תש"ל

How the Radical Left
Plan to Destroy the Republic Through Our Children
by: Dr. Bruce R. Porter

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
Is The Hand That Rules The World

 -From a poem by William Ross Wallace- 

 “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’
I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already…What are you?
You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp.
In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.
…Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.”
– Adolph Hitler

A letter from the U.S. Department of Education was recently sent to America’s school principals, announcing that President Barack Obama “will deliver a national address to the students of America” on Tuesday, September 8, at 12 noon EDT. The letter encourages “students of all ages, teachers, and administrators to participate in this historic moment by watching the president deliver the address, which will be broadcast on the White House website.”

The letter goes on to state that the President “…will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school.” and “…encourages educators to use this moment” to lay aside their ordinary lesson plans and choose from a “menu of classroom activities” prepared by the Obama administration’s own “teachers-in-residence” and “Teaching Ambassador Fellows.”

The climax of this outrage is a letter announcing that the Obama Department of Education is “launching the ‘What I am to Learn’ video contest,” offering three grand prizes of $1,000 cash to the best responses to the President’s educational challenge, to be awarded in October by a “panel of judges including” Obama’s own Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. There is a dark underside to this little exercise that is more than troubling.

Part of the exercise was to include teachers putting up “quotations” from Obama on the walls, and having the children making a “pledge” to do what they can to “serve” President Obama. This is the pinch of arsenic in the sweet-pie. Under our constitution, (unlike nations like North Korea or China) our leaders SERVE US. They are our employees and as such, we are NOT their servants! I fear that we are witnessing the beginnings of an effort to recruit our children into a dangerous cult of personality worship not unlike what we saw in Socialist Germany in the 1930s.

First of all, can anyone show me a reference in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights giving the President the slightest shred of authority to operate in the role of “Superintendent in Chief” of a national education system? Look for it. It will not be found! This is nothing less than a transparent, contemptuous, and extremely dangerous move on the part of the Left in our country to move the nation toward their agenda through our children! The only encouraging part of this sorry spectacle is that I’m hearing that no small numbers of parents are planning to keep their children home on Tuesday, and some school Principals are refusing to allow the online video to be shown in their schools. No doubt pressures will be brought to bear upon those brave dissenters in the months to come.

Is this a new tactic on the part of Socialists and Progressives to influence the education environment and the minds of our children? You might be surprised to know that the answer is emphatically NO. This has been a part of a decades-long agenda beginning around the turn of the 19^th century. Journey with me now into a place were the foundations of our Republic were beginning to crumble away. A place where reason and faith were supplanted by an atheistic, humanistic, socialistic mindset that is entirely intolerant of any “belief system” other than its own.

Come with me now, into the “Public Education Zone.”

Our story begins with the establishment of the secular public school system, and to understand it, we must examine who actually set it in motion in America. If you’ve never been exposed to this information, it might seem extreme. Truth sometimes has that effect on you when you’ve lived inside the Matrix all your life. Maybe it’s time to take the red pill, and see how far down the rabbit hole goes… (Reference to the secular film, The Matrix) ¹

Dewey: “The Father of Modern Education”

John Dewey has been called the “Father of Modern Education.” What is not widely known is that he was also a totalitarian socialist who envisioned total government control over all education through the agency of public schools. He believed that through secular public education, a throng of indoctrinated socialists could be brought to power and transform America into a totalitarian society. The world he envisioned would eliminate the Judeo-Christian paradigm. He built his socialist education dream-house with lumber he borrowed from a book titled; “Looking Backward,” published in 1887 by Edward Bellamy, a fellow totalitarian socialist. ²

The foundation-stone of Dewey’s vision was his utter rejection of the existence of ultimate truth. Because the very concept of God is an absolute, he dismissed belief in God and postulated that moral relativism and evolutionary forces govern human existence through chance-random processes. Dewey recognized that deeply held religious convictions, especially those based upon the Bible, would not be easily eradicated from society and would require a long period of “progressive” indoctrination in compulsory public schools. Eventually, the students of these schools would grow up to be teachers and school administrators themselves and would pass on, perhaps unwittingly, the assumptions and world-views of secularism and socialism. What better place for this societal transformation to take place but in the minds and hearts of impressionable children? In fact, Dewey’s book, Democracy and Education, was listed by Human Events magazine as fifth in a list of the ten most harmful books of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. ³

Most people are unaware that Dewey was a prominent signer of the socialist/atheist Humanist Manifesto. ⁴ Secular Humanism is a belief system that utterly rejects the concept of sin, the existence of God, or any need of forgiveness or salvation. Humanism has an entirely different understanding of salvation, asserting that man is his own god, and any “salvation” must come from his own enlightened efforts. Dewey championed Darwinian evolution as the foundation of true science as a means of marginalizing any belief in God as utter ridiculousness. ⁵  Between 1945 and 1953, Dewey’s articles and books virtually amounted to the Americanized version of the Communist Manifesto. His influence helped introduce Marxist socialism into the American culture. History has proven repeatedly that wherever these evil ideologies have gained a foothold, human enslavement, poverty, and misery has multiplied.

Dewey disdained those who maintained “originalist” interpretations of the U.S. Constitution. Because he thought it ludicrous to believe in fixed, unchanging realities, ⁶ he gave philosophical support to the modern idea that the Constitution is a “living document” and must change according to the demands of “Progressivism.” Such fixed landmarks on the political and societal horizons must be removed, and replaced with a socialist totalitarian society free of moral or biblical restraint. He set in motion public education policies that relentlessly sought to identify and eliminate any teacher who continued to hold conservative views. This practice continues to this day, with Christian teachers frequently reprimanded or dismissed for simply displaying a personal bible in open view upon their desk. For a comprehensive study of how these totalitarian thinkers have influenced American public education, I recommend A Brief Chronology of Collectivism by Eric Samuelson, Attorney At Law (October 1997)

Recent polls demonstrate that the vast majority of youth today do not believe in the existence of absolute truth, or the concept of absolute right and wrong. Due to the effectiveness of the socialist agenda in our nation’s public schools, most of our people’s beliefs are now based on what will make them feel good, or give immediate selfish gratification, without much regard for truthful or ethical standards. ⁷  Throughout Dewey’s life, he diligently sought to establish a public school curriculum that erodes Christianity and absolute values, slowly replacing them with relativism. He has been remarkably successful over the past century.

Dewey labored successfully to remove from the “accepted” curriculum list the long-established Eclectic Education Series (EES) textbooks which completely dominated American schools from 1865 to 1915. He also targeted Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Law. Self-proclaimed “tolerant” liberal progressives cannot tolerate views such as the EES textbooks or Blackstone’s Commentaries because they contained ubiquitous references to God and high moral standards. Blackstone was vilified for teaching that laws ultimately originate from God’s word, and taught that there were certain rights and wrongs that never change with the shifting winds of popular opinion. ⁸  McGuffe’s Readers, part of the ESS series, were particularly hated by Dewey and his cohorts because, as Dewey declared in his own words, public schools should be the “State established church.”

Dewey’s socialist activism extended even to helping establish the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  The ACLU was founded by an associate of Dewey, Roger Nash Baldwin. ⁹  Baldwin was a member of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA), and was a master at the art of deception regarding his true agendas. ¹⁰  It appears that the deception has been largely successful. Most people look at you askance if you dare to say that the ACLU is a Communist hack organization.

Dewey was also highly influential in the establishment in 1917 of the National Education Association (NEA). ¹¹  Most people are completely ignorant of the true agenda of this organ of the Left, and think it exists to provide a good education to their children. The reality is, however, that the NEA is one of the foremost apparatchiks of public school indoctrination to destroy young minds and turn them into committed little liberal progressives. ^{12 13}

Dewey became even busier. In the 1920s and 30s he foisted his views on progressive evolutionism at Peking University and many other places in China with the liberal progressive, Bertrand Russell. Ironically, Mao Zedong, co-founder of the Communist Party of China (CPC) worked and studied at the University of Peking during that time, and was introduced to Communism there. Is it not possible that Dewey was a contributing factor in the Marxist Cultural Revolution that occurred there in the late 1940s, and resulted in slaughter of tens of millions of people? ¹⁴

Totalitarians view state schools as a means to indoctrinate children as loyal wards of the State. School children are encouraged to reject their parent’s values and even report on them to school authorities when asked. (“Johnny, how many guns does your daddy have at home?”) Dewey firmly believed that children had to be reeducated away from the traditional values of their parents, thereby facilitating citizens for the new world order. Has anyone noticed a similar trend in America’s public schools over the past few decades?

Increasingly, “politically correct” revisionist history books that undermine free-enterprise and loyalty to the United States are finding their way into our classrooms. Recently, incidents of ranting anti-American, socialist teachers have been captured by students who recorded these indoctrination sessions with digital recorders.¹⁵ These reports have been largely ignored by the media and public at large.

Leftist radicals were publishing and promoting textbooks with a socialist agenda even as far back as the 1940s. For example, the Rockefeller Foundation spent millions of (1940) dollars to create history books introducing socialist/atheistic agendas in so-called “approved texts” to local school districts. Did these socialist activists ever stop their agenda? No! Even the California Library Association (a far-left liberal advocacy group) confirmed this fact by posted a scathing rebuttal against conservatives who wanted to stop Marxist indoctrination in the library and school systems in the 40s and 50s.¹⁶

Now we find ourselves in a socialist “Twilight Zone” after the recent presidential campaign. A majority of the electorate became enamored with the concept of “Change,” or “Change We Can Believe In,” with hardly a passing thought about what that “change” would actually mean in practical terms. Judging from what we can read between the lines, we can reasonably expect a radical plunge into a socialist “new world” nightmare. After over fifty years of public school socialist indoctrination, our people seem sufficiently dumbed-down and willing to embrace socialism and secularism. This is playing out just as Dewey and his fellow-travelers envisioned!

Why is this issue so important to these government officials? Perhaps more importantly, why are such huge numbers of parents “opting out” of the public school system and risking the wrath of the State by doing so?

Could it possibly be that parents are deeply concerned with the abysmal academic quality of a public school education? Well-documented studies have shown conclusively that public schools are turning out students with grade equivalences on par with some third-world African nations in spite of massive annual infusions of billions of tax dollars to feed this insatiable system. In 1983, the Reagan administration appointed a blue-ribbon commission to report on the state of American public education. The result was alarming. The report titled, “A Nation at Risk,” sent shockwaves across the nation. Politicians made speeches, school officials sputtered their indignation, and yet, little has improved since then. A Christian Science Monitor report in 2003 revealed that our nation’s schools are in as much a crisis now as then. ¹⁷ Even the liberal Boston Globe released an alarming report on public education in 2006, calling for radical reforms.¹⁸

Perhaps most parents are also not terribly excited about their kids being taught to put condoms on bananas or cucumbers, ¹⁹ or that their God-given gender is a mere happenstance, and they must “explore their sexual identity” even in the primary grades? ²⁰

Or, could it be that parents of faith are distressed that the entire concept of God, (especially the Christian one) is treated like plutonium in public schools; replaced with evolution’s “everything-is-an-accident-and-therefore-nothing-has-meaning” delusions?

Perhaps it just might be that millions of American parents have finally gone beyond being merely annoyed, and are now completely fed-up with the entire public education apparatus itself, and have every reason to believe that those running it have a far different agenda than simply teaching our children math, history, or science. ²¹

I fear we are witnessing the deconstruction of our Constitutional Republic resulting primarily from the “re-education camps” popularly known as public schools. No longer is this radical agenda found in the Colleges and Universities alone, but the radical left has captured the lower grades in the government schools. While they tout slogans about “tolerance” and “multi-culturalism,” the real agenda is the eradication of all competing beliefs and ideologies, particularly Judeo-Christian ones. Their goal is a one-world socialist order where an elite few rule over the ignorant masses and enslave them.

Some of my friends who are either public school teachers or administrators, or, have enrolled their children in the public schools for one reason or another, may feel a bit defensive and perhaps a little offended at this point. Please forgive me, but I cannot hold my peace. Truth is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow. I maintain that you are putting the spiritual and emotional health of not only yourself, but also your children, at grave risk by placing them in these government schools.

The usual defense I get is some variation of; “But our school different! We have great teachers there!” This may be true, and I acknowledge that many public school teachers are loving dedicated people who are not personally in agreement with the dark side of the system they serve. However, you can be sure that these teachers are closely monitored and live daily under the threat of censure or dismissal if they communicate in even the slightest degree to their students, their personal convictions about their faith, or misgivings about the indoctrination taking place. There are also certainly varying degrees of the socialist/humanist indoctrination agenda in play at various schools, often depending on how rural that school may be, and individual administrators. However, I maintain that the underlying “agenda” is definitely present, however cleverly masked it may be, even if only by what is excluded from the curriculum.

In light of the above, it is no surprise that California’s radical-left Judiciary sought to outlaw all home schooling in practicality. They know that private and parochial schools and home schools are the last bastion of freedom. They fear that un-indoctrinated home-school students may rise up and oppose their socialist agenda. Karl Marx called such upstarts “Reactionaries.” The “new world order” zealots must crush all other ideas, especially ones that inculcate a supreme loyalty to the God of the Bible over the State.

“I know not what course others may take…” –Patrick Henry 

I cannot speak for the resolve others may hold regarding this issue, but as a home-schooling father, I will resist any effort to indoctrinate my grade-school daughter, or my grandchildren into the socialist “new world order.” This is culture war. My fervent hope and prayer is that it will not esclalate into something even more ominous. We didn’t seek this conflict, but it has come nevertheless, forced upon us by those who wish to fundamentally change our nation and world into a humanistic, atheistic, totalitarian nightmare. As the actor Sean Connery said in his King Arthur character in the film First Knight, “There’s a peace to be found only on the other side of war. If that battle must come, I will fight it!”

Will we prevail in our struggle to retain the freedom to educate our children according to our faith with academic excellence and patriotic conviction? Let us hope so, for the price we will pay for defeat is far too terrible to contemplate. Are we willing to stand for truth and pay freedom’s price yet again? Are there yet among us those who would resist tyranny with “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor?” One thing is certain. If we do nothing, if we refuse to speak out and remain on the sidelines in this battle, we will ensure our defeat and enslavement.

Dr. Bruce R. Porter is a pastor, writer, speaker, chaplain, crisis responder, and blogger and podcaster. He and his wife of 32 years live in the Colorado mountains west of Denver with their adopted homeschooled daughter from China. His blogs can be found at:  http://www.brucespeaks.com and http://www.astroillume.com

His email address is: bruce@brucespeaks.com

Endnotes:

posted by Bruce Porter on י"ח אדר תש"ע כ"ג טבת תש"ל

Columbine High School: Ten Years Later

The world you have created
has led to my death.
Rachel Joy Scott, April, 1999
Slain Columbine Student

Although school violence was occurring around the country in the years leading up to Columbine’s massacre, it just didn’t seem to be a very large blip on the media’s radar screen, or in the public’s mind. Suddenly, Columbine was THE breaking news story across the nation and world for several months.

Perhaps it was the number of victims, (13 dead, 26 wounded) or the continuous revelations related to the hateful mindset and vicious motivations of the killers on their websites and video tapes they left behind for posterity. Without doubt, it was a major wakeup call to us all that something was very wrong in our schools. It is clear now that we’ve collectively hit the “snooze” button.

A point worth mentioning is that the real story—entirely lost in the liberal media’s fanatical obsession over the firearms used in the attack—was the fact that the vile cretins who did this planted bombs in the school that would have killed over 600 students and teachers had they detonated! Only their gross ineptitude at bomb-making prevented an attack that would have been unimaginable in magnitude.

The event triggered an international debate over everything from gun control to prescription psycho-med use in schools. Side-issues like bullying, psychological profiling of “troubled students” and school “zero-tolerance” policies were the subject of endless talk shows and print media.

In the months that followed, other school violence events occurred around the nation, and even overseas. Some attacks were averted only at the last minute by vigilant students who overheard unguarded comments by would-be perpetrators who were bragging about “doing another Columbine.” Paranoia about school safety was nearly pandemic for nearly 29 months, until that is, the Islamic terror attack on our nation occurred on 9/11/2001. From then until now, our nation’s focus was on a “war on terror” and our incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq. Now most of our attention is focused on our economic problems and the Socialists in charge of the country.

It’s been ten years since shots were fired at Columbine, destroying the lives of twelve students and a brave teacher, yet the memory of that horrible day remains for those of us who live here and experienced it. Those who were wounded and survived, and now live with the scars and disabilities inflicted upon their bodies and souls, have mostly moved on with their lives. Some are married and starting families, and others are pursuing their careers. However, all live with the memories of that dark spring day, and were forever changed by it.

Each of the lives lost that day were precious beyond comprehension. This month of April, as in all years previous, we will again visit their graves, place flowers and memorabilia upon them, and pray for the ongoing healing of the surviving families and victims. Once again we will have to endure the media talking heads pontificate about the evils of firearms while virtually ignoring the abysmal lack of character education in public schools. We will ponder yet again the deep mysteries of good and evil, life and death, and our own mortality. Once again, those of us who believe will ask, “Why God? Why?”

As one who has studied history and history’s God for many years, I come to believe that His unseen hand guides the course of nations and individuals. Personally, I have come to terms with the fact that although I may never understand in this world why tragedies happen—even to the young and innocent—I have complete confidence that there is a higher purpose and plan in play. In the larger scheme of things, a greater good will emerge—like the mythical Phoenix bird—from the flaming ashes of tragedy, and we will one day marvel at the wisdom of God in all things.

Until that bright day of understanding, we labor to preserve and cultivate what remains of goodness in the world. Jesus said we are the “salt of the world.” I understand this to mean that one of our functions in this present world is to preserve what remains of goodness, mercy, love, and truth from the corrupting influence of mankind’s fallen state. While salt does not bring dead things to life, it does season and preserve them.

One particularly bright light in Columbine’s darkness was Rachel Joy Scott. I speak of her not because she was more precious than any other person who died there, but because she was a Christian who tried to sprinkle “salt” into her school and the people around her. Other victims did also, but I am more familiar with Rachel since I was honored to be a minister to part of her immediate family. She was known as one who tried to push back against the prevailing tide of license and immorality in her generation.

Against all opposition, Rachel sought to make her faith in Jesus known to her friends and schoolmates through many well-documented acts of kindness and compassion. She was a friend to the friendless, a comforter to brokenhearted, and an influencer toward goodness. This drew secret admiration from the timid, and the vicious hatred of the monsters who slaughtered her.

Rachel was a “Thermostat” in a world populated mostly by “Thermometers.”

A “thermostat person” influences their environment. The thermostat on the wall of your home “sets” the heating and cooling system and determines what the temperature will be. A “thermometer person,” on the other hand, merely reflects or reveals their environment and is influenced by it. There is a vast difference between the two.

Rachel was a “thermostat person” at Columbine. She set her own pace, in clothes, style, beliefs and behavior. She stood up for her convictions about Jesus, and paid a heavy price. Her friends at school (even some who claimed to be Christians) razzed and hurt her deeply. In one of her journal entries, Rachel lamented that she endured cruel rejection after setting a Christian example at Columbine:

I lost all my friends at school. Now that I have begun to ‘walk my talk,’ they make fun of me. I don’t even know what I have done. I don’t really have to say anything and they turn me away… I know what they’re thinking every time I make a decision to resist temptation and follow God… They talk behind my back and call me ‘the preacher’s churchgoing girl…’  …I have no more personal friends at school. But you know what? … I am not going to apologize for speaking the name of Jesus, I am not going to justify my faith to them, and I am not going to hide the light that God has put into me. If I have to sacrifice everything… I will. I will take it. If my friends have to become my enemies for me to be with my best friend Jesus, then that’s fine with me.

Rachel’s “thermostatic” influence—her ‘set point’—touched and moved the world around her.  Her influence was increased exponentially when her persecutors pulled the trigger on the bullet that took her life. Even at the last moment, lying on the ground crying with three gunshot wounds, she answered her killer’s vulgar, sneering, vicious taunts with courage. She affirmed one last time her undying faith in Christ, and her words and life-example touched the entire world!

In the past ten years, her story and testimony has been shared before millions of people around the world, and HER thermostat setting of love, compassion, faith, and uncompromised devotion to Jesus has influenced hundreds of thousands of young people to follow her example and receive the grace of God in Christ.

I end this article with a short excerpt from my book, The Martyrs’ Torch; the Message of the Columbine Massacre. It was part of my eulogy I delivered at her funeral:

Rachel carried a torch—a torch of truth, a torch of compassion, a torch of love, a torch of the good news of Jesus Christ her Lord, whom she was not ashamed of, even in her hour of death. …The torch has fallen from Rachel’s hand. Who will pick it up again? Who will pick up the torch again?

That torch represents a life lived as a “thermostat” and a light in the darkness. It symbolizes a life lived for the highest purpose of making the love and grace of God known to all who have ears to hear. Will you live your life as a thermostat? Will you imprint upon the world, or will you allow it to imprint its values and worldview on you? Thermometer people cower in fear and timidity, seeking the approval of the world and acceptance from their peers without concern for their values. Seeking to conform to the world around you and be a chameleon is a coward’s choice! The choice is yours! Take up your torch! YOU set the standard to those around you, and don’t let the world impose its standards upon YOU!

I end with Rachel’s words from her journals…

Don’t let your character get camouflaged with your environment.
Find who you are and let it stay in its true colors.

About Bruce Porter:

Bruce R. Porter, D.Div., is an author, chaplain, writer, speaker, and a pastor in the Littleton area. At the time of the Columbine massacre, he was pastor to Rachel Joy Scott’s mother and stepfather, and ministered intensely to the family during the months following her death, and officiated at Rachel’s funeral.

In the years since Columbine, Bruce has ministered at numerous other scenes of tragedy, including New York City after the 9/11 terror attacks, the school shootings at Bailey, Colorado, Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota, the Amish school massacre, Erfurt, Germany, Beslan, Russia, to name a few. He continues to respond to crisis situations as able.

He has conducted scores of school assemblies and rallies sharing the story of Columbine and Rachel’s amazing testimony. He is also the author of the book; The Martyrs’ Torch, the Message of the Columbine Massacre. (Destiny Image)

For further information, you may go to: www.torchgrab.org

posted by Bruce Porter on כ' שבט תש"ע כ"ג טבת תש"ל

“All political power comes from the barrel of a gun.
The communist party must command all the guns,
that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.”

Chairman Mao Tse Tung
(Problems of War and Strategy, Nov 6 1938, published in “Selected Works of Mao Zedong,” 1965)

The leftist-loonies at Cherokee Trail High School overstepped this time.

Their heavy-handed move to suspend 17-year-old Marie Morrow, a senior with a 3.5 GPA for possessing three drill-team “facsimile” weapons in her locked car has blown up in their faces. Morrow is a member of Douglas County Young Marines. She had the plastic, wood and duct-tape non-operative rifles in her SUV to use at an after-school practice session.

In the wake of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, Colorado State legislators passed a knee-jerk “no tolerance” law that mandates expulsion for any student found with a weapon, or a “facsimile” of a weapon on school grounds.

The post-Columbine paranoia related to guns has been played for everything it’s worth across the nation by gun control fanatics as an opportunity to demonize weapons and anyone associated with them. The result? The 2^nd Amendment is being water-boarded.

Marie Morrow’s attorney got a chance to explain her side of the story in her expulsion hearing this morning, and it was laughable to see how the school administration scurried for cover under the glare of parental and media attention. After hearing from Marie’s Commanding Officer, police, family, and friends—all of whom sang her praises—the school backed down and allowed Marie to return to class. Aurora Police officer, Quint Cox, the School Resource Officer, said, “right away I could tell they were ROTC rifles.”

Marie and her family met with members of the Colorado House and Senate last week.  Sen. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud) plans to introduce legislation to change state law to provide an exception for facsimile weapons being used by military-sponsored youth groups.

“There should be exemptions to this hard-and-fast rule so this type of thing doesn’t happen again,” Lundberg wrote. “I am outraged that a student faces expulsion for participating in a drill team.”

Morrow has already received the required recommendation from a Congressman for appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy. She received assurances that this incident would not destroy her chances for acceptance to the Academy.

What does this teach us?

The general feeling on the ground here is that school officials at this school have a negative bias toward the military. They “threw the book” at this young woman, apparently because she is a patriotic American and believes that our nation’s security requires a strong military force.

Such attitudes, of course, are anathema to the Politically Correct. Too bad. Let’s rub their face in the Constitution. Let’s stop the water-boarding of common sense. Seriously.

posted by Bruce Porter on כ' שבט תש"ע כ"ג טבת תש"ל

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me
I wish none of this had ever happened ……

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times,
but that is not for them to decide.
All you have to decide
is how to use the time that is given to you.

J. R. R TOLKEIN The Lord of the Rings

Fighting exhaustion and impending nausea, I stumbled from the examination room of the field morgue next to the rubble of the World Trade Center. It had been a long day and I desperately needed rest.

There in an adjacent tent, two young Catholic priests sat, freshly arrived, and looking very intimidated. Hardly into their twenties, it was an easy assumption that they were newly ordained, and like all of us, extremely uncomfortable with what was happening in that tent of unspeakable horrors. I felt sorry for them. Such places cruelly rip out whatever might remain of youthful innocence. I’d lost mine in Vietnam over thirty years before, and compassion welled up within me for them. We were in the middle of a waking nightmare.

I shuffled over to them. “Hi Fathers. How are you?” (It seemed a bit strange to address such young men as “Fathers”) Looking at each other, one said nervously; “We were sent to administer the Sacrament of Last Rites, and bring what comfort we may.” Searching their eyes, I could see that these young men were overwhelmed, and understandably so. We all were.

Glancing back into the exam room, I shuddered as I thought about what they were about to walk into. They were nearly the same age as my own son, and I wished I could protect them. What was in that room was something no seminary could ever prepare them for. My thoughts drifted…

I had labored several days among the forensic and Medical Examiner teams. The putrid air inside the morgue was sticky with the heat and humidity of a late New York City summer. In spite of my biohazard mask, the stench of death assaulted my senses, and my mind recoiled at the sight of the decomposing body parts of my fellow Americans on the stainless steel tables.

A firefighter standing next to me one day sobbed softly, and I reached over and put a gloved hand on his grimy shoulder. Glancing up and seeing “Chaplain” on my helmet, he nodded his thanks wordlessly through bloodshot, tear-filled eyes. He had just brought in the fragmentary remains of a fellow firefighter from the smoking ruins outside. Bits of turnout gear still clung to what remained of our fallen brother. Our grief was unspeakable. Few words exchanged—few required.

Their examination ended and the remains were tenderly slid into a small bio-hazard bag. The Medical Examiner looked at me and said softly, “Chaplain?” Her eyes, peering over her mask, seemed to say; “We’ve done all we humanly can. Now we look to God.” Glancing around for a Priest to give Last Rites, or a Rabbi to say Kaddish, we would each participate in ministering. Without forensic evidence to determine religion, we tried to cover every possibility for the sake of the family.

In a repeated ritual, a U.S. Flag was unfurled, and gloved hands reached out to help cover the stretcher holding our brother. Tenderly, we tucked the edges of the flag around the stretcher like a mother lovingly tucking a child into bed. I prayed. “Thank you Father, for a life given while saving others. There is no greater love…”

Firefighters and officers carefully lifted the stretcher. Leading the small procession, I exited into the street toward a waiting ambulance. As the flag-draped bier came into view, hundreds of people working outside instantly stopped everything, formed lines, and snapped to attention. Only the sound of electrical generators broke the silence. “Hand salute!” Someone barked. Tearfully, I saluted and stood at attention to one side as they placed the stretcher into the ambulance. Everyone stood silently, holding their salute to their fallen comrade. The doors closed, and the ambulance slowly slipped away into the darkened streets. Finally someone shouted; “Order salute!” and everyone returned to their work.

Emerging from my reverie, I turned back to the two priests before me. My heart broke for them. “Fathers,” I said, “Your service to our Messiah in this terrible place is honorable.” Glancing at each other again, they seemed to relax a bit as I continued. “With your permission, I would like to pray for you.” Their eyes widened a bit at this, for I suspect it is rare that anyone ever offers to pray for a priest. They are, after all, assumed to be the ones who do the heavy-lifting regarding ministry. Tonight, the ministers needed encouragement. “Well, thank you, yes, that would be very kind of you,” they said tentatively.

Kneeling down in front of where they were sitting, I clasped their hands and began to pray for their strength to face the challenges of service there, asking our Father in Heaven to protect and give the assurance of His love for them as they reach out to bring the comfort of Messiah to others. I prayed for their empowerment as instruments of His grace far beyond all they could ask or imagine, and that Yeshua would be seen in their faces as they ministered.

God’s presence seemed to fill the room, and I began to sob with the pent-up pain of the previous days. Looking up, both of the priests were also weeping. Spontaneously we stood and hugged in an embrace of fellowship in the Spirit. In this place of suffering, we stood together. These young priests—willing to walk into the bowels of hell to minister to their flock—became true heroes in my eyes that night. So were they also in the Heavenly Father’s eyes.

Walking out into the deep darkness before dawn, I tried to glimpse the stars, whose twinkling orbs often give me comfort. Finding none in the glare of search lights, I gazed at the mountain of smoking, twisted steel, and the billowing clouds of smoke rising from the “pile.” Steelworkers cut away the rubble with torches, making bright fountains of sparks. I whispered a prayer of thanks that the stars still shone brightly somewhere far above. A new day would soon dawn for us all. Come quickly, Lord Yeshua!

posted by Bruce Porter on כ"ז כסלו תשע"א כ"ג טבת תש"ל

The Core Cause of the Middle East Conflict

By: Dr. Bruce R. Porter

Secular solutions to the Arab/Israel conflict are doomed to failure. This is because the conflict is not merely a political struggle or a dispute over real estate. The core problem is Islamic intolerance and hostility toward all other religions including secular states not under Islamic control. This intolerance is particularly focused on Christians and Jews, and especially upon the Jewish State of Israel. There are clear reasons for this within Islamic theology and teaching. For the purposes of this article, I will focus primarily on the Arab/Israeli conflict, and probe the underlying reasons for it.

There are several standard arguments offered by Israel’s enemies to justify her destruction. The list usually includes the following oft-repeated charges;

-         Israel’s “illegal occupation” of “Palestinian” land

-         Israel’s “human rights” abuses against Arabs

Beyond these broad charges, specific to the existence of the Jewish State, the Jewish people have endured accusations of more sinister conspiratorial plots against humanity in general. Some of these defamatory accusations include;

• Jewish “control” over the world’s banking systems
  
• Jewish “control” over the media of the world
  
• Jewish dishonesty in business and commerce
  
• Jewish religious practices that include child sacrifices
  
• Jewish plots to control the world

All the above anti-Jewish libels (each easily refuted by well-established facts) comprise an intricate web of deceitful smoke screens and straw man arguments designed to divert attention away from the REAL reason that opposition to the Jewish people and the State of Israel is so vituperative and insidious. For purposes of this presentation, I shall narrow my focus on this singularly fundamental factor in anti-Zionist rancor, and leave the other issues to those infinitely more qualified to argue them.

Religious Considerations

While the nations of the world (and even liberal/secular Israelis) seek to grapple with the Arab/Israeli conflict from a purely secular/political approach, the religious foundations of the present conflict are almost entirely ignored. Even if one is non-religious or even atheist in world-view, it must be recognized that religious considerations loom large in the minds of Israel’s most intransigent enemy, the fundamentalist followers of Islam. In the main, Arab opposition to the existence of Israel in the Middle East is based upon literal interpretations of Islamic teachings in the Qu’ran and the Hadith. For example, consider the following quotations attributed to Mohammed;

The Messenger said during his final illness,

‘Two religions cannot coexist in the Arabian Peninsula.’

Umar investigated the matter, then sent to the Jews, saying:

‘Allah has given permission for you to be expelled;

for I have received word that the Prophet said that two religions cannot coexist in Arabia.

Tabari VIII:130

Allah’s Apostle said,

‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews,

and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say,

“O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”’

Bukhari:V4B52N177

 Just issue orders to kill every Jew in the country.

Bukhari:V1B1N6

Anti-Semitism in History

It must be acknowledged that anti-Semitism has not, either historically or in present times, arisen exclusively within the Islamic community. Nazi philosophy derives much of its anti-Semitic fervor in the quasi-religious belief in the myth of the supremacy of the Aryan race. This belief was fostered in great part by the Theosophical movement founded by Helena Blavatsky. She thought that the Aryans originally came from Atlantis and described the Aryan races with the following words:

“The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown,

almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour,

are yet all of one and the same stock

– the Fifth Root-Race –

and spring from one single progenitor, (…)

who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago,

and also 850,000 years ago –

at the time of the sinking of the last remnants

of the great continent of Atlantis.”

(Secret Doctrine, Volume II, p.249)

“Lucifer represents..
Life.. Thought.. Progress..
Civilization.. Liberty.. Independence..
Lucifer is the Logos..
the Serpent, the Savior.”

(Secret Doctrine, Volume II, pages 171, 225, 255)

Blavatsky’s occult ideas fed into the development of Nazi ideology. Hitler’s obsession to “cleanse” the Aryan Europeans (the “master race”) of Semitic pollutions drove him to systematically slaughter the Jews in the holocaust. The foundational (and religious) philosophy of the Atlantis myth fueled this unspeakable evil, and yet influences white supremacist neo-Nazi groups to this present day.

Interestingly, Nazi and Islamic anti-Semitism joined forces during World War II when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, personally recruited for Hitler Bosnian-Muslim troops—a unit of the “Hanjar (Saber) Division” of the Waffen SS—to give Muslim assistance to the Nazi “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” Was this unholy alliance destroyed in World War II? Decidedly not! Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and the slanderous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, are presently best sellers in Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, and many other Islamic nations. Nazism did not die with Hitler on April 30, 1945in his Berlin Führerbunker. Like the mythical vampire, the foul corpse has resurrected again in the form of Islamofascism.

Christian anti-Semitism is also a well-established historical fact, and any attempt to deny this charge is ludicrous. In recent times, however, overt expressions of Christian anti-Semitism have become relatively rare, being confined to a few aberrant “replacement theology” sects, white “Christian Identity” supremacists, and leftist/liberal denominations. Although they are relatively few in number, these groups command disproportionate media attention because their sensational and outrageous claims make them newsworthy.

The largest majorities of Christians, particularly among Evangelical churches in the United States, are highly supportive of Israel, and feel a strong bond of fraternity with the Jewish people. In addition, many Catholic Christians possess a deep sense of remorse regarding historical offenses committed against the Jewish people in the name of Christ, and are zealous to make amends for past abuses. In March of 2000, Pope John Paul II publicly asked God’s forgiveness for the sins of Roman Church through the ages, including wrongs inflicted on Jews, women and minorities. While the apology fell short in the eyes of many Jewish leaders, specifically because the Pope did not mention the sins of the church with regard to the Holocaust, or the controversial role of Pope Pius XII, who many Jews believe turned a blind eye to the Nazi death camps, it remains that an apology was offered. Vatican Cardinal Edward Cassidy later expressed an apology, with a response from the Pope, specifically referencing the treatment of Jews, and said: “Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by a not a few of their number against the people of the Covenant.”

Islam, however, has no such remorse, and those who take the Qu’ran and Hadith seriously are entirely committed to the eradication of the Jewish State and the Jewish people. In addition, their genocidal obsessions do not confine themselves to the Jews alone. It is clear, not only from Islamic writings, but also from Jihadist terrorism in recent decades, that Islam’s goal is total domination over every other religious belief in the world.

Secular Solutions Alone Cannot Bring Peace

No amount of appeasement, territorial compromises, political agreements, or diplomatic efforts will bring peace to the Middle East so long as Islam and the Jewish State of Israel exist. Historically, and up to the present day, the Arab/Israeli conflict has stemmed primarily from fundamentalist Islam. The clear teachings of Mohammad make it impossible for Islam to coexist peacefully with people of any other religion, and especially Judaism. This is the dirty little secret that secularist politicians are loath to acknowledge, primarily because it is beyond their ability to control. This is the reason America’s war against fundamentalist Islamic Jihadist warriors is publicly cloaked under the more politically correct rubric of “The War against Terror.” This is, of course, patently absurd, for how could any nation possibly ever win a war against a tactic of warfare? Would this not be akin to President Roosevelt making a nonsensical declaration of war against “sneak attacks” in the wake of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, while making no mention of the Imperial Japanese?

Islamic Intolerance IS the Problem

On May 3, 1999, the official Palestine Authority (PA) radio station (Voice of Palestine) broadcast the following religious sermon (at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque) instructing all Muslims that Israel is part of Palestine and that Israel’s survival is “forbidden by religious law:”

“The land of Muslim Palestine is a single unit which cannot be divided.

There is no difference between Haifa and Nablus, between Lod and Ramallah, between Jerusalem and Nazareth.

The division of the land of Palestine into cantons and the recognition of the occupation is forbidden by religious law,

since the land of Palestine is sacred Wakf land for the benefit of all Muslims, east and west.

No one has the right to divide it or give up any of it.

The liberation of Palestine is obligatory for all the Islamic nations and not only for our Palestinian nation…

All Israeli politicians across their entire political spectrum, regardless of their labels,

they all have a single Zionist view embodied in the occupation of the land

and the establishment of the Zionist entity at the expense of the Muslim Palestinian land…

Allah shall free the captives and the prisoners,

Allah shall grant victory to our jihad warriors.”

(Emphasis Added)

Consider the following quotes by Islamic leaders.

“In the end Israel will disappear as the Koran states.

From the standpoint of the Koran,

there is no place for Israel and its existence is not justifiable.”

(Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdalla Shalah, Mid-East Mirror, November 10, 1996)

“Islam does not permit giving up one inch of Palestine

and states that Palestine belongs to the Muslims, belongs to the Palestinian people,

not to the Jews.

Bartering land is not liberation and is not permissible in Islam.”

(Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Jerusalem Post, May 25, 1997)

“Islamic law does not rule out peace with Israel …

 on condition that it is a temporary peace,

 until the Moslems build up the [military] strength needed to expel the Jews.”

(Sheikh Abdel Aziz Bin-Baz, Mufti of Saudi Arabia, January, 1995)

In January of 2006, Hamas won the majority 74 of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. This organization was founded in 1987 and is funded primarily by Iran. The Hamas Charter states:

“We [all Palestinians] know the Palestinian problem is a religious one,

 to be dealt with on this premise…

 ‘I swear by that [sic] who holds in his hands the Soul of Muhammad!

 I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah!

I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill.”

(Emphasis added)

Palestinian Police give Nazi Salute

Itamar Marcus, the Director of Palestinian Media Watch, recently gave an oral presentation at

Tel Aviv University’s Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies. In his paper entitled; Islam’s Mandatory War against Jews and Israel, Marcus documented that the Palestinians have completely redefined the Arab/Israeli conflict as “a religious war for Allah in which compromise is heretical.” If it were merely a border dispute, such a conflict might be settled with diplomacy and compromise. As a religious dispute, all such diplomacy is doomed to failure.

Islamic leaders in the Palestinian Authority continuously emphasize the following eight points during Friday services in mosques:

Jews are the enemy of Allah

The killing of a Jew is a religious obligation

All agreements with Israel are temporary in nature

Islam is fighting a religious war against the Jews

Palestinians are the vanguard in this war against the Jews,
but all of Islam is obligated to assist them

All the of the land between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean Sea is Islamic trust
and any Muslim who relinquishes his land
is damned to hell

Allah will replace Muslims who shirk their duty to fight Israel

The ultimate destruction of Israel is a certainty

More ominously, it is a well-documented fact that the PA Authority wields absolute control over PA schools, and regularly indoctrinates children from preschool onward with venomous hatred of Jews and Christians, brainwashing them on the above eight points. Is it any wonder that there is no shortage of new Jihadist fighters in Islam’s war against Israel?

Islam’s Mandate

“Blessed is he who fights Jihad in the name of Allah,

 blessed is he who [goes on] raids in the name of Allah,

 blessed is he who dons a vest of explosives on himself or on his children

 and goes in to the depth of the Jews and says:

 ‘Allahu Akbar, Blessed be Allah’

 Like the collapse of the building

 upon the heads of the Jews in their sinful dance-hall,

 I ask of Allah that we see the Knesset collapsing

 on the heads of the Jews.”

(Emphasis added)

- – Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Madi, Friday Sermon, Palestinian TV, June 8, 2001

No amount of political maneuvering, treaties, agreements, “peace processes,” or “roadmaps” will substantively change the commitment of Islamists to not only destroy the State of Israel and murder the Jews resident there, but then subjugate the entire world under Sharia (Islamic) control.

Israel’s Struggle is the World’s Struggle

All other faiths, especially Christians, are also marked for subjugation or slaughter in the Islamic world envisioned by Jihadists. Palestinian children are taught a song that sums up this reality. One of the verses states; “First we will go after the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” With this shared fate, it is entirely logical that Christians and Jews, as well as other faiths, form a united front against this evil.

Denial In the Face of Evidence

Passionate resistance is aroused each time the axe of truth is laid upon the root of Mohammad’s Islamic poison ivy. While evil marches under the banner of the Crescent of Islam, modern society finds it nearly impossible to comprehend such malevolence. Playing upon this near-pandemic incredulity, pro-Islamist propagandists spare no expense and effort to assuage public alarm by seeking to portray Islam as a “religion of peace.” Unfortunately, many gullible and uninformed political leaders reinforce this propaganda in a misguided effort to show tolerance.

Additionally, pro-Islamist groups have formed legal advocacy, public relations, and political advocacy groups in the West. These well-financed and highly skilled Islamic apologists have shown themselves more than willing to exploit our legal system and media, and utilize litigation and character defamation against anyone who dares to expose Islam’s true agenda. An ignorant and naïve populace only makes the Islamic apologists’ task easier.

In spite of well-documented vicious Islamic suicide attacks against innocent civilians around the world, as well as on U.S. soil on 9/11, there is no shortage of hopeful humanists who continue to try and “understand” this cult of terror and evil. Examples of the Islamic atrocities would fill volumes, and yet appeasers remain resolute in their denial.

Solutions? Few Exist. None Are Pleasant

Military solutions, whether in Iraq, Israel, or any other place where Islamic Jihadists operate, are doomed to failure if applied with anything less than decisive and overwhelming force. Such application of military force against the advance of Islamic violence is highly unlikely in the present climate of political correctness. Such violence is repugnant to civilized nations—as it should be—especially in consideration of the Jihadist tactic of ensconcing their military operations in the midst of civilian populations so that military attacks against them yield grisly news-video footage of eviscerated women and children. The populations of the West are not conditioned to the harsh realities of war, and grow impatient if a conflict lasts more than a year or two. Also, Western societies love their children more than they love principled causes. By contrast, Islamic extremists love the cause of Islam more than they love their own children, upon whom they strap suicide bombs and make into guided missiles to kill infidels. They are also content to carry on the struggle for centuries if need be.

The more likely long-term solution would be a massive public information effort that would reach into Elementary and Secondary school curricula with accurate information, and an expose’ of Islamic teachings that reveal their agenda of world hegemony. This would also require a concerted public awareness program aimed at the news media, entertainment, and culture. Such public awareness would stave off efforts to neutralize Westerners’ resistance to the Islamic agenda. This solution is also highly unlikely because of the presently entrenched cult of “multiculturalism” in the U.S., and the increasing adoption of pro-Islamic textbooks in American elementary schools by the “Council on Islamic Education,” who influence textbook committees to adopt their pro-Islam spin under the flag of “tolerance.” (See www.cie.org)

Finally, military force might be useful in the takeover of Islamic learning centers and madras’s, particularly in the “PA occupied” areas of Israel where small children are being brainwashed into malicious hatred and violence against Christians and Jews. Of course, such efforts would be met with violence and mass demonstrations by raging mobs of Muslims around the world. Leftists and civil libertarians could be relied upon to protest such a move as something analogous to “cultural genocide.” However, if enough reasonable people should come to the conclusion that indoctrinating children to believe that murder and hatred is an indefensible activity under any measure of civilized behavior, the collective will would exist to put a stop to this horrendous form of child abuse.

The West Lacks the Will to Win… Unless.

Sadly, it is the opinion of this writer that none of the above solutions will be implemented unless… and I am loath to even write the words… unless there is an act of terrorism by Islamic extremists so devastating, so overwhelming, and so outrageous that the whining voices of the appeasers, the “politically correct,” and the leftists are drowned out by a chorus of outrage. It required a Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese to arouse the American people to the peril of Japanese Imperialism. One would have thought that the Jihadist attack in America on 9/11 would have been sufficient. After all, more people were slaughtered (and civilians at that) on that black day than all the military service people at Pearl Harbor. However, the response has since been watered down by a liberal-left media.

Will it take a nuclear detonation in one or more of our cities? Will it require a chemical/biological attack that slaughters and maims millions of innocent men, women, and children, and devastates our economy to awaken us? Ironically, the impatience of a relatively small number of Jihadists who launch such an outrageous attack may, in the end, prove their own undoing. A well-known quote, attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Imperial Japanese task force, is apropos. Shortly after the attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Admiral Yamamoto was quoted as saying;

“I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant

 and filled him with a terrible resolve.”

Perhaps the “sleeping giant” may yet awaken again, but will need to be shaken hard.

As a Christian, (and the same can be said for Jews) I am convinced in an ultimate sense that the Creator is not the slightest bit surprised by any of these problems, and has a plan for each contingency that will end in the establishment of righteousness on the Earth with peace. Until then, we are each “responsible” to the extent of our individual “ability to respond.” As the drama of history plays out on the world stage, I cling to the Biblical promises that Israelis an eternal part of a larger divine plan, and therefore will never cease to exist. Until that Messianic age flourishes, let us each stand for what is right and true, resist evil, and defend the defenseless. God will sort it all out in the end.

I end with a salient quote from President Ronald Reagan, who, against unparalleled opposition, was instrumental in bringing down the former Soviet Union and freeing millions of people from Marxist tyranny. His words ring as true today as they did in 1981 when he said;

“Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.”