Dec 19, 2017 | Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
Those wishing to destroy or remove Christ from Christmas prefer “Winter Break” or “Happy Holidays;” the same is true of “Easter Break” to “Spring Break.” This language reduces the connection to Christ, the reason for both. Proponents argue that this terminology is advanced so as not to offend non-believers who sometimes choose to be offended but it offends those of us who are believers.
The songs of the birth of Christ blanket the earth resulting in more love, more giving, more kindness, more caring and sharing, more thought for others, indeed more of everything that is good. Why would anyone wish to remove this influence? Non-believers might say that society could have all this without Christ. Really!!— As evidenced by the other eleven months??? I do not think so!! Christmas has an unexplained magic to it unlike any other time of the year.
I first noticed the unusual effects of Christ at Christmas as a13-year-old boy milking my neighbor’s cow while he was away. The experience was repeated on the following days also. It was a mostly opened shed, very cold at six a.m. in the morning with icy patches of unmelted snow still on the ground. The sky was lit with a thousand stars demonstrating the immensity of space and of the enormous domain of God. I was happy for no identifiable reason. This was the key—happy for no identifiable reason. And songs of the birth, especially “Silent Night,” played in my mind as I squeezed out the milk from the cow into an open bucket below. I felt all the virtues identified above seemingly all at once and I knew that this season and this little baby was much more than just special. He had to be God. I felt so warmed. I now am long passed just believing.
Others feel this warmth too as it is so plentifully spread over the earth as though by angels spreading angel dust. Santa is a nice guy, mostly for children, but made-up. Christ is not. Non-believers have to notice this unexplained special feeling or choose to deny it. Also easily noticed is that this special warm feeling is pretty much gone by New Year’s Day.
It is okay not to know as I know. I respect the holidays and sacred days of others but I do DEMAND my own. Of all the founders of other religions and faiths, some of which may have been impressive, none was born in a lowlier place—in a manger where cows fed—because his parents, though with child, lacked the distinction to merit something better. None was introduced into the world by a heavenly choir sung to lowly shepherds who were the first invitees to the birth of this king, possibly the only time that happened in history.
No other founder could read the unexpressed thoughts of others. None fed thousands with a few fish or loaves of bread. None walked on water. None of them replaced a severed ear fallen to the ground, simply by returning it to the head of his enemy. None of them healed the sick, made the lame walk, the deaf hear, and gave sight to the blind. Indeed He was the gift to the downtrodden, infirmed, and sinners.
No other founder could forgive sin itself. None restored life to someone who had been dead for days. None but Christ raised himself from the dead. None of them!!! None were said to be perfect. He wronged no one. None, while in the greatest agony of excruciating pain, from one of the cruelest types of torture then known, forgave his afflicters “for they knew not what they did.” All these manifestations were seen by many, sometimes thousands, of witnesses. No one but God does these things.
The Wise men from afar knew of his birth in the “writings” of the stars and came to visit bringing incense, frankincense and myrrh, gifts of great value. Legends of Native Americans speak of his birth and cite stories of a white God coming to them with new plants and foods and the same healing powers as expressed in the Old World. The Aztecs called him Quetzalcoatl, the Mayans Kukulcan and in Peru, Viracocha, in Brazil, Sume, in Columbia, Bochica. Time stopped and thereafter was counted as AD, rather than BC, in both the old and new worlds. Identify another founder of religion who had this kind of influence in the world.
Christ left the most profound political problem solving formula known to mortals. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Such would end most, if not all, problems between humans and governments. He commanded to first love God and then others as “ourselves.” For non-believers, who may contest Christ’s Godhood, can you dispute this wisdom?
Again, why take this special feeling and moment from Christians, or belittle it, or choose to offend me by expressing all this as simply “Winter Break” or “Happy Holidays.” Yes, offend me!! And most assuredly, please understand why I might retort, to someone giving me this greeting, bringing home my point, Merry CHRIST-mas. Yes, it is all about Christ, so be offended if you choose to be or be warmed with the unexplained magic of the season with the rest of us!!
Why would we not want to keep Christ in Christmas? Merry CHRIST-mas to all!!
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Dec 18, 2017 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
According to the media members of Congress of both major political parties are dropping like flies to a fly-swatter in a barn: Senator Al Franken, Congressmen John Conyers, Ruben Kihuen, Blake Farenthold, Joe Barton, Trent Franks, Alcee Hastings, in the last 30 days. All are accused of sexually abusing women, some recent, some years ago. The Constitution deals with misbehaving members of Congress when followed fully.
Unfortunately with the disclosure of these seven also came the exposure of the existence of a secret funding source for members of Congress accused of sexual harassment and other work-place discretions created under the Congressional Review Act of 1995. Since 1997, the fund has paid at least $15 million to settle complaints. Congressman Blake Farenthold is the first member of Congress confirmed to have benefited from it receiving $84,000 in taxpayer dollars in 2014 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with a former aide. We will have many other disclosures to rise to the expenditure of $15 million. A fund to potentially hide immoral, possibly illegal, activities is completely unconstitutional. It also removes a deterrent to transgression.
So how does the Constitution deal with misbehaving members of Congress? It begins with the morality of the electorate. John Adams, a Founding Father and 2nd president of the United States, identified the first principle of a republic where a king does not dictate good or evil, but the participants in that government bridle their “human passions” through “morality and religion.” left unbridled, he said, they “would break the strongest cords of our Constitution.” He ended a lengthy paragraph on the topic with, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
At least nine other Founders expressed similar opinions. George Washington in his “Farewell Address” wrote: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports . . . And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”
In their time none denied the relationship between morality, religion, God and justice. When morality is situational, as it seems to be for so many today, this link is broken and one depends upon his own wisdom alone. There is no “appealing to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding,” as expressed by Benjamin Franklin in the Constitutional Convention. As Washington once said, “Government is like fire, a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Unprincipled government can do much damage as it has to the Constitution for years.
We expect those we elect to govern to have strong moral fiber and to have their human passions fully bridled. If they are still struggling with the base, hedonistic, animalistic and adulterous elements of themselves, such as is reported of these members of Congress, how can we expect them to make laws for the people based upon righteousness and justice? How can they discern such?
So the first constitutional principle is the election of persons to govern who demonstrate moral fiber. Moral bankruptcy usually starts long before one is a member of Congress. Al Franken demonstrated this by his choice of material as a professional comedian. Women complained of the sexually abusive behavior of John Conyers decades ago. Once this is known and confirmed, he should not be reelected. When the people themselves are morally bankrupt and do not care about the philandering of their favorite, as in the second election of President Bill Clinton, then such, as Adams said, breaks “the strongest cords of our Constitution.” Returning to the principle of electing only those with strong moral fiber, and zero tolerance for those who do not, will eliminate most, if not all, predatory behavior in Congress.
Once manifested two parts of the Constitution come into play to isolate the damage. Each House is to be the judge “of the Elections, Returns and Qualification of its own Members” making certain that it is the will of voters and that will was fairly derived (Article I, Section 5, Clause 1). But neither House can constitutionally rejudge behavior that is known to voters addressed during the campaign after the expression of the people, should any of the seven run and win in 2018.
Also, each House may “punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member” (Article I, Section 5, Clause 2). In this they deal with behavior occurring after being seated such as sexual harassment. So let the Ethics Committee of both houses deal with the accused.
But the Constitution has one more check. At least six of the seven accused of sexual abuse face their constituents in eleven months to be judged by them and reseated or not. Their best behavior is likely pending that outcome. Let these two constitutional filters do their work not media trials that only serve the vengeful and are too politicized to be fair.
If the above does not end predatory sexual behavior in Congress the Constitution can be said to be broken, as Adams said, at least on curbing immorality of its leaders. The disclosures are serious; still, we need to be reminded that there are 535 members of Congress and most bridle their “human passions” but the seven, who presumably do not, are seven too many.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly columns, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Dec 11, 2017 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
“Some people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington,” President Donald Trump said, speaking at Utah’s State Capitol Dec 3, 2017. “And guess what? They’re wrong.” He then reduced two national monuments in Utah, one the Grand Staircase-Escalante by 50%, created by Bill Clinton in 1996, the other, The Bears Ears by 85%, created by Barack Obama less than a year ago, both land grabs highly unpopular with Utah congressional delegates.
The cut of two million acres in Utah monuments alone is the largest in the nation’s history. These cuts may open a new era as 27 other monuments may be on the down size agenda in coming months or years reducing the trend of previous presidents to gobble up enormous tracts of largely western land. The Federal government already owns 63.6% of Utah and elected government officials want to manage their own land, like states east of the Mississippi. Indeed, the federal government claims to own a third of all the landmass in the United States (Inventory Report on Real Property Owned by the United States Throughout the World, published by the General Services Administration, page 10).
Presidents designating national monuments for the last 40 years ranked on number follow: Obama 26, Clinton 19, Carter 15, G. W. Bush 6, Reagan and George Bush 0 (Department of the Interior, Quartz). Those restricting land use the most in millions of acres were: Obama 553.5m, G. W. Bush 218.8m, Carter 56m and Clinton 5.7m. All presidents previous to Carter were 3 million or less. In other words, the top three land grabbers: Obama, G. W. Bush and Clinton each set aside more land than all previous presidents before them combined. At this rate of acceleration one can easily see that in a few short decades the president could own or control every acre in America (National Parks Conservation Association). At the very least one can say that Trump has potentially stopped the acceleration.
A big issue is the constitutionality of further restricting land use mostly of campers, bikers and hikers. It also restricts hunting, fishing, horseback riding and off-road vehicle usage, by the signature of one man only. Outside of managing land as a territory until statehood is obtained (Article 4, Section. 3, Clause 2), the Constitution gives little power to the federal government to do so.
The Founders understood that the size of land holding was proportionally related to the perceived size of the federal government and they intentionally wanted that perception small. The federal government was permitted to have but 10 square miles for a federal capital. The only other land that they could acquire had to be for military purposes as specified in the common defense clause of the Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 which reads: “and to exercise like Authority over all places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock Yards, and other needful Buildings.” Any new acquisition had (1) to be purchased, (2) have the consent of the State Legislature where the land exists, (3) and be for military purposes.
As all land acquisition powers are in Article I of the Constitution with the legislative branch, the president was left out of the process. None of these constitutional requirements were met with respect to any of the national monuments acquired and Teddy Roosevelt used a mere law, the Antiquities Act of 1903, to trump the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. None were purchased, none received the consent of the State Legislature, and none are used exclusively for military purposes. Nor has there been an additional amendment to the Constitution authorizing additional federal ownership of land as required by Article V for any additional federal power. Constitutionally there exists no federal land, or Bureau of Land Management, or even public land.
One might argue that most, if not all, of the monuments were already on federal land having been acquired when the federal government refused to give to new states all the land that went with statehood when they transitioned from territorial status. That is true. The federal government through this process came to own about a third of the United States. That late 19th Century leaders fraudulently acquired the property in the first place, it does not follow that present leaders should expand on the fraudulency.
Constitutionally all land within state boundaries, unless acquired through the three stipulations noted in the Constitution, belong to the states—no exceptions. That the federal government has created national monuments unconstitutionally on what are state lands, or that both political parties have ignored this part of the Constitution for over a hundred years, does not make federal confiscation now constitutional.
Although President Trump claimed no constitutional grounds for his downsizing precedent, he should. His cited reason, that the natural resources of Utah should not be “controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington” is basic to the collective view of the Founding Fathers that federal powers be limited and specifically listed in the Constitution or in an amendment to it, was supported by all signing it. And should be today by all swearing an oath to preserve it.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Dec 4, 2017 | Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
Have you ever wondered why respected scientists of both major political parties see climate change so differently, one party viewing the future with great fear and trepidation the other calmly viewing it as normal and natural? The one claiming their position to be “established science,” the other “we have seen this before.” One, we have got to legislate away green house gasses; the other increased CO2 gasses actually benefit the earth. It all comes down to what assessment tools are used by the scientists, computer models or actual climate history.
Nowhere is the discrepancy wider than with respect to sea level assessments. Is it rising or subsiding or neither? A recent article, perhaps the best in assessing the problem in laymen’s terms, was printed in “The New American,” September 2017 (Sea Level Lies, by Ed Hiserodt and Rebecca Terrell, pp. 10-16). Only two factors can affect a rise or a decline, adding or subtracting water.
Increasing water volume can only happen in three ways: water added by volcanic eruptions, temperature rising expands water, and frozen water melting. Added water by volcano eruptions is minimal. NOAA reports “the global mean temperature of land and ocean has increased … 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 135 years,” no “real” volume change. Glacial melt does not increase sea levels when it is floating ice any more than does ice floating in a glass of water, when thawed, overflow the glass. “When ice melts it contracts causing no change in water level.” The poles are mostly floating ice.
Land ice, as opposed to sea or floating ice, is displaced from the sea and does affect sea levels when it melts because it adds back the water initially taken to make the land ice. Between the coolest ice age (when sea levels were 410 feet lower than today) and warmest age (when sea levels were 19.7 feet higher than today) there was a sea level change of 380 feet, but there has been very little change in actual sea level change in many decades. The extremes account for why there once existed a land bridge between North American and Asia some 600 miles wide and why Southern Greenland, once a forest, is not today. Certainly we have a long way to go before either extreme is met again.
Since most of the ice on the poles is floating ice, and not land ice, the affect of sea level change is minimal. Scientist estimate that a melted land ice sheet the size of New Hampshire, 1,000 inches thick, would raise sea levels only a fourth of an inch. There has been little sea level rise from melting glaciers the past 20 years.
If the sea level of the planet is best illustrated as a bowl partially filled with water, the level of that water thereafter can change only, as we have said, by two factors adding or subtracting water. If the three possibilities of adding water, volcanic eruptions, water temperature rising, and water melting do not change the levels significantly, perhaps the answer is in subtracting water, instead.
This can happen in four ways: subduction, subsidence, displacement and isostasy. All four amount to changing the dimensions of the bowl not the amount of water in the bowl. Subduction alters local tidal readings when one tectonic plate overlaps another and moves. Subsidence, somewhat similar to subduction, is a gradual sinking of land such as in sinkholes in Florida, but on the ocean floor instead. Its twin, called displacement, would be volcanoes pushing land upward where water once was, such as those creating Hawaii. The water is now simply displaced elsewhere causing sea level risings in other places. Isostasy is the melting of land ice returning water to the bowl, which, using New Hampshire as our example is important, but minimally changes the water surface of the globe.
All of these things can affect local readings up or down by varying the dimensions of the bowl but not the volume of water in the bowl. Further complicating readings is the moon and its alignment with the sun resulting in gravitational pull but this too does not add or subtract water.
What the geological and historical data show for the last 20 centuries is little fluctuation in sea levels, perhaps 7-8 inches a century. So why do “alarmists” and “normalist” scientists vary so on this subject; the first taking over the Democratic Party, the second maintaining their hold on the Republican Party? Because Republican scientist continue to focus on documented past trends for their predictions and Democrat scientists accept past trends to 1993 but thereafter abandon these favoring “computer simulations of global temperature rise, which suffer from faulty models.”
The advent of what is known as satellite radar altimetry, although not time tested and yielding only a very limited database, has allowed faulty data to be seriously considered as fact. Why would any scientist value such data without it having had a long-term verifiable past? The answer is because its projections fit with those believing in man-made climate change theories? It is because catastrophic science is more easily funded than non-catastrophic science and because global warming education infiltrated the cartoons of preschool learners and inundated government schools thereafter. And it is because science has become politicized and most of the established media cover only the alarmist view.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Nov 28, 2017 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph. D
I too am troubled by a 32 year-old man becoming a U.S. Senator allegedly having attempted to seduce a 14 year-old-girl 38 years ago, as I am with allegations of “me too” women alleging something similar. Thus far documentation on these are not conclusive. And I question the timing—just before an election— which potentially disrupts the balance of power in the Senate.
Moreover, this seems like the same movie that I watched on others the left wanted to destroy notably Clarence Thomas and Donald Trump, while John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, whom the left solidly supported, both had sexual relations with an intern in the White House. So I avoid rushing to judgment on Moore until conclusive evidence is available.
Unfortunately no one is writing about Roy Moore as the judge that used the Constitution to defend the Ten Commandments and the Defense of Marriage Act, issues which made him indisputably the most hated judge in America by the left. That hatred began when Moore, a newly elected circuit judge, placed a wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments on the wall of his courtroom. This and his practice of having pre-session prayer in his courtroom asking for divine guidance for jurors in their deliberations resulted in non-Christian hatred toward him.
His designing and placing a monument of the Ten Commandments in front of the Alabama Supreme Court building amplified such. The ACLU successfully sued to have it removed. Moore refused on the basis that the Ten Commandments are the “moral foundation” of U.S. law, stating that in order to restore this foundation, “we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs … the sovereignty of God.” For this he was removed from his judgeship.
His defense of the Defense of Marriage Act was the second unpardonable sin for the left. In state after state the Act, defining marriage as between a man and a woman, was passed. Likewise, in state after state, after passage, non-elected federal appellate judges ruled same-sex marriage to be constitutional, reversing the will of the majority. Justice Moore gave the constitutional argument in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act when he wrote that the U.S. Constitution gives no jurisdiction whatsoever to any branch of the federal government to dictate marriage policy to the states and advised Alabama Governor Robert Bentley to disallow county clerks from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
In a hand delivered letter to Governor Robert Bentley January 27, 2015, Justice Moore argued that “nothing in the United States Constitution grants the federal government the authority to redefine the institution of marriage” and that it decidedly trumps Alabama state law, more specifically the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment passed in 2006 by 81% of her voters. Moreover, “44 federal justices have imposed by judicial fiat same-sex marriages in 21 states of the Union, overturning the express will of the people in those states.” This he called judicial tyranny, which he defined as “unlawful opinions issued without constitutional authority.” He referred to the misuse of more recent interpretations of equal protection, due process, and full faith and credit concepts, as “spacious pretexts” not part of the original document.
When the Founding Fathers created the Constitution they recognized two co-existing governments known as Federalism: one, the federal government, to function primarily externally, the other, the states, to manage internal functions. Like a normal marriage they functioned—neither being master nor slave. Of the two only the federal government was restricted in its functions by a list of 17 specific powers found in Article I, Section 8. The Founders knew that all central governments like to grow. The states were left unrestricted and all power not identified was intentionally left to them and lesser governments.
To make doubly certain that this limitation on the federal government was permanent, the States insisted on a Bill of Rights as a condition of their acceptance of the Constitution. Amendment 10 of it reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution…are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
Unfortunately for advocates of federalizing “loving relationships” the word marriage, or anything like unto it, is not in Section 8, nor has it been added to the Constitution by way of amendment through Article V, which is the process for change and thus this issue is devoid of federal constitutional authority. If we are to follow the Constitution as intended, and not make a mockery of it, marriage related questions are state functions alone and cannot be moved to a federal jurisdiction without a 3/4th affirmative vote of the states as per Article V of the U.S. Constitution. Alabama has every constitutional right not to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples.
Judge Moore knows and honors the Constitution as understood by its Founders resulting in his having many enemies. Is that hatred enough to fabricate child sexual assault stories never before mentioned? Quite possibly! Many of us still believe that a man is innocent until proven guilty. So until then we should support Mr. Moore. The left has a long history of giving a pass regarding the personal conduct of its favorites but will bring quick attention to anyone else alleged doing something similar, more especially if it changes the Senate to its favor and disrupts the Trump agenda.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Nov 20, 2017 | Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease Ph. D
This is the season to be grateful and to acknowledge our many blessings, even in the midst of extreme difficult times for so many of our neighbors and friends the last three months in particular. September has been declared “the most active month for hurricanes on record since 1851, with three: Irma, Jose, and Katia photographed by satellite above the Atlantic Ocean on the same day Sept. 8,” (Washington Post, Sept. 27). Harvey devastated Texas and Maria virtually destroyed Puerto Rico, most still without adequate electricity. Tying for second most active hurricane month in our history was years 1893 and 1926.
Three mass murderers paralyzed three communities in six weeks: the nations largest mass shooting was in Las Vegas, Oct. 1, with 59 killed and 527 injured, and the slaughter of 26 and wounding of 20 First Baptist church goers in Sutherland Springs, Nov. 6, was the largest in Texas history. Finally a murderous truck driver mowed down New Yorkers on Oct 31, killing 8 and injuring 11. A fourth mass shooting occurred as I wrote this column. This one at and around Rancho Tehama Elementary School near Corning, California, where five were killed (including the gunman) ten wounded; none of the murdered were children. Heroic teachers locked down the school preventing a much greater slaughter.
These and our own personal circumstances may bring us beneath what we think we can endure. During such times it is sometimes hard to find things to be grateful for or to find the hand of God in anything. Still, adversities make most Christians stronger and some may never have found Christ without adversity. True heroes are found sharing and giving everything, as did Christ, to help others. Sometimes adversity also gives birth to songs of strength.
Finding someone whose life circumstances are much worse sometimes helps a little. One such was Martin Rinckart. He authored the beloved Christian hymnal “Now Thank We All Our God” which has given fellow Christian’s strength in their trials for almost 400 years.
In 1637 the Swedes and Germans were in the midst of The Thirty-Year War (Catholics vs. Protestants) and refugees from that encounter were flooding into Eilenburg, Saxony where Martin Rinckart was serving as Archdeacon of his native German town. A horrible plaque gripped the area leaving some 8,000 persons dead in a single year. Rinckart had to assist “at the beds of the sick and dying.” Although fortunately he maintained his own health during this time of death, he “had to read forty or fifty funeral services a day” including the services of two of his fellow clergymen. A fourth ran away, out of fear of getting sick, leaving him the lone church authority in this major crisis. He assisted in burying some 4,480 in all. In May of that year, his wife died. “By the end of the year, the refugees had to be buried in trenches without services.”
This horror was followed by a famine “so extreme that thirty or forty persons might be seen fighting in the streets for a dead cat or crow.” As the head of the church in his area “his door was surrounded by a crowd of poor starving wretches, who found it their only refuge.” He shared everything he had reserving “the barest rations for his own family.”
Next the Swedes returned demanding a tribute of $30,000 from the town. Such money was not available. After failing to entreat the invading general for mercy, Rinckart turned to those following him and, in the general’s presence, said “Come, my children, we can find no hearing, no mercy with men, let us take refuge with God.” He then “fell on his knees and prayed with such touching earnestness that the Swedish general relented, and lowered his demand at last to 2,000 florins.”
Apparently the words of his hymn were originally written as a grace to be said before meals but given his circumstances it became a song of strength in adversity. Listen to them. “Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom his earth rejoices; Who, from our mothers’ arms, Hath blessed us on our way With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.” The first verse of this Lutheran hymnal is certainly a message of thanksgiving; the second, one of protection and guidance. “Oh, may our bounteous God Through all our life be near us, With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us, And keep us in his love, And guide us day and night, And free us from all ills, Protect us by his might.”
Perhaps his life and song can make us stronger as well. At the very least it should give us a few extra things for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving Day. None of us are fighting over a dead cat or crow to eat. Despite our obstacles, deep inside we know that God still has our best interests in mind. When we next sing this song let us do it with more gratitude reflecting, at least for a moment, on our great blessings, as he did, rather than our trials. The trials will always be there but so will also the blessings.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
