Posted on 09/15/2002 9:09:26 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
Rally for Enduring Freedom: Defending the Heart and Soul of America
State Fair Grounds
Lewisburg, West Virginia
9-14-02
Tom Hoefling
“Restoring an America that Reveres God, Respects Life, and Enjoys Liberty.”
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am honored to be here for this great event. I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been moved today; by the presentation of the colors, by the music, and by the passionate love for our country being demonstrated everywhere we look.
Before I get to my remarks, I would like to personally thank a couple of people; first of all the man whose vision inspired it all in the first place, Randy Skaggs, and his lovely wife Sue, and everyone who did so much to make all of this possible. Can we show them our appreciation with a big round of richly deserved applause?
This is a day for remembrance, and I want to look back to the events of a year ago. But I also want to take you back to some other events from the past; a few of them far in the past. And then, before I am through, I want to ask you to look forward as well.
The first gift that God gave to mankind was the incredible gift of life. In Genesis we read the account of how He formed Adam from the earth, and then built Eve from Adam’s rib; a vast improvement on the prototype, I might add…
But following that miracle of creation, the Lord did something just as incredible; He gave the man and the woman the gift of liberty; the free choice to choose their own path, for good or for evil, with Him or without Him.
What a dangerous gift that was! Freedom is a very dangerous thing, oh, yes it is; but it’s worth it!
We all know the story. Even though they were in paradise, in the midst of Eden, a place with no imperfections, the perfect environment, they chose to follow the lies of the enemy of our souls; a choice the entire race is still afflicted with even to the present day.
But God, by His own sacrifice, has since provided a way out of the dilemma created by their fall. He came down; humbled himself; He came in the form of a servant. On the night of His crucifixion He washed the feet of His disciples, and then laid down His life for all of us who will accept it. As it says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
So, these are the two great gifts to mankind; Life and Liberty, and the great example set by the Lord Himself; the example of the power of humble service and self-sacrifice—demonstrated perfectly in the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ; an example that has had more of an impact on the history of mankind than any other, by far.
Our forefathers understood these great truths; and designed a form of republican government that is based on that knowledge, knowing man’s fallen nature, and therefore instituting a system that wisely separated power; diffusing it so that no single man, or small group of men, could appropriate more power than was good or healthy.
But, as wise as they were, and as inspired was their plan, they also were painfully aware that it couldn’t and wouldn’t last, if it was missing the most important ingredient: A moral and educated people who were capable of governing themselves.
John Adams, who some consider to be as much the Father of our Country as Washington, in an address to the military on October 11th, 1798, put it this way:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The beginning of the United States of America was among the most dramatic and significant turning points in the history of mankind — the implementation in human government of the Christian idea of liberty, law, and self-government. Christianity is the foundation stone for all of our documents of government — the Declaration of Independence—the Constitution—and the Bill of Rights. Let me quote the Declaration:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Those are the words that describe the heart and the soul of America.
These basic Christian ideas had been working for centuries in the minds of thinking men and women, and had led the Founders to an obvious conclusion: Individual man, the object of infinite divine grace and mercy, is the most important creature on earth, and as such, is worthy of protection by civil government. This is the origin of the basic American political ideal: that man gets all his rights and powers from God, the Creator; that government is lower and less important than man, because government was created by men—but that government has its place in God’s great scheme of things.
To whatever extent America has turned from reliance on the true God and faith in Jesus Christ, America’s strength and culture has deteriorated. Our nation has degenerated in the exact measure that Americans no longer hold aloft the central tenet of Christian faith — namely, that the human individual is a divinely important being, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world to make a blood atonement for the sins of individuals.
You see—the loss of reverence for God invariably leads to the loss of respect for the creatures that He made in His Image. The examples from the last century alone are almost too many to recount—of course Communism being the primary case. Hundreds of millions of lives were either snuffed out or were crushed under the burden of tyranny by their misguided dream of creating the perfect man and the perfect society apart from God. Take the time to read Solzhenitsyn’s account of the gulags, and how all of Russia was reduced to misery and squalor—how the oppressed and the oppressors together descended into a hell on earth.
Germany in the Twenties and Thirties fell into another form of socialism; National Socialism; and a crazy-quilt of strange doctrines that included the rise of the occult—and we all know where that led them. Again we see the pattern; walk away from God and obedience to His Word, and soon, loss of respect for human life follows—and as that disregard for innocent human life intensifies, the loss of basic God-given human liberty begins quickly.
Again, let me repeat, the road that leads away from the Lord is the road that leads to hell on earth.
Now, someone might say, “But what about the threat we face today from Islam? They believe in God, don’t they? Isn’t that why they did what they did on 9-11? Isn’t it because they are a bunch of ‘religious fanatics’?”
Well, my answer to those who are so naïve is this: Remember that mankind got into the predicament it is in because our first father and our first mother believed a lie. The radical Islamists have also believed a lie. I know without a doubt that they didn’t enter into a paradise filled with virgins when those planes crashed into the Trade Towers and the Pentagon—they entered into a place of torment reserved for those who have rejected God—to wait for the Day that they will be judged for what they have done on the earth. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in their shoes then—and Allah sure isn’t going to be there to help them out.
I know it isn’t PC to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway, because it is the truth—and it is a truth that every American had better understand—the sooner the better: Islam doesn’t mean ‘peace’, as some claim—it means ‘submission’. They have made no secret of the fact that their goal is to enslave the entire world—and that their plan for those who won’t submit to their tyrannical rule is the same fate suffered by nearly 3000 Americans just 368 days ago. In short, Islam is incompatible with our American institutions of government.
No, my friends, they didn’t serve God when they walked up behind the pilots of those planes and slit their throats, starting the process that would lead to even greater horrors—men, women, and children trapped in burning towers—helpless to escape—some being forced to jump to a certain death rather than endure being burned alive.
They didn’t serve God when they cut off Daniel Pearl’s head live on videotape.
They don’t serve God when they walk onto a crowded bus or a busy pizzeria in Tel Aviv and detonate explosives that are full of nails and rat poison—designed to cause as much suffering to their innocent victims as possible. Well—actually they do serve ‘A’ ‘god’—the god of death and destruction—but certainly not the true and living God who said, “Love one another”.
Now, let me contrast their hideous acts to what was demonstrated by Americans on 9-11:
Firemen and policemen going up the stairs when everyone else was going down; office workers who, instead of taking their chance to escape, stayed to try and help others get out of the doomed buildings; the heroic passengers of Flight 93, who, when they learned what had happened to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, immediately knew that the hijackers were in all likelihood taking their aircraft to a similar target, probably the Capitol or the White House.
So, what did they do? Did they do what crews and passengers of hijacked planes have always been advised to do, and what the poor crew and passengers on the other three flights did; stay cool, go along with them, and wait for the cavalry to come charging in to save them? NO, they had the information—the intelligence—they needed to know that the war had changed—the enemy had changed the rules. They also knew that ‘the government’ wasn’t going to help them. They knew there wasn’t a policeman on the corner who was going to come with sirens blaring and strobe lights flashing.
So, they, like other Americans before them, formed a militia on the spot--choosing leaders and instantly deciding on the mission. They knew that if they failed to overpower the terrorists, one of our national landmarks would very likely be destroyed, and thousands of people were probably going to die. So, they looked around for any weapon they could find—and settled for what they had—a serving cart, and dishes of boiling water heated up in the microwave, and their bare hands—they waited for their moment, and then attacked when they heard the now famous words, “Let’s roll!”
You know the rest; they paid for their defiance with their lives; but God only knows how many lives they saved that day in Washington, D.C.
So, to repeat, departing from the true God always leads to a hell on earth—to a total disregard and disrespect for innocent human life, and to the loss of the enjoyment of basic God-given liberty.
Let’s look for a minute at another country that has gone down this path—Iraq. Two days ago, at the United Nations, President Bush minced very few words concerning Hussein and his regime when he listed Saddam's sadistic crimes, such as using poison gas to slaughter 5,000 innocent men, women and children in the northern part of Iraq. He also used poison gas in the war he launched against Iran.
"Tens of thousand of political opponents and ordinary citizens have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, summary execution and torture by beating, burning, electric shock, starvation, mutilation and rape," he said.
"Wives are tortured in front of their husbands; children it the presence of their parents - all of these horrors concealed from the world by the apparatus of a totalitarian state."
And like Afghanistan under the now-eliminated hard-line Muslim Taliban, Iraq "continues to shelter and support terrorist organizations that direct violence against Iran, Israel and Western governments," said the president.
"Iraqi dissidents abroad are targeted for murder. In 1993, Iraq attempted to assassinate the Emir of Kuwait and a former American president (The President’s father, by the way). Iraq's government openly praised the attacks of Sept. 11. Al-Qaida terrorists who escaped from Afghanistan are known to be in Iraq."
President Bush laid down terms he knows Saddam will resist and break once more even if he agrees:
"If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, and all related material." Plus stop supporting terrorism.
Then, in a shot across the bow towards those who are dragging their feet in the War on Terror, including many of our allies, and many in the Congress, he said this to the General Assembly.
"The first time we may be completely certain he has nuclear weapons is when, God forbid, he uses one."
I don’t know about you, but that is convincing enough for me. I believe with all of my heart that if Bin Laden, Hussein, or any of their Wahabbi friends get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, they will attempt to find a way to use them on us—on an American city—or cities—if they can.
If that kind of threat, from a foe that we know is totally heartless, doesn’t wake up the American people, I don’t know what will.
But the signs are there that a large majority of Americans do understand—and will stand with the President—and the forces he commands—in opposing these murderous barbarians with all of our strength—with our constant prayer, with our treasure, and even with our lives if necessary.
There are some in this country and abroad who want to blame America for what happened a year ago. The Canadian Prime Minister even gave voice to that idea a few days ago—to the great sorrow of many good Canadians, I might add. But let me tell you, these left-wingers at home and abroad have shown their disdain for America for years—subjecting those of us who believe in God and Country to constant and unrelenting ridicule.
But let me tell you this, my friends—they aren’t going to win this time! The carnage was too graphic—too real on September 11th, 2001. The threat to our way of life—to the lives of our people—to the lives of our friends around the world is too great for the voices of appeasement and inaction to prevail this time.
God help protect us from politicians and pundits and diplomats who dither while this very real—and very present danger grows.
Brothers and Sisters—my fellow Americans—let me reiterate what is at stake. Our way of life—our very lives and our liberty are on the line.
And I don’t mean the watered down, meaningless version of ‘liberty’ that has been thrown around for the last generation—the supposed right to do anything you please. The framers of our founding documents would find such concepts to be totally alien to them.
Their definition of liberty had nothing at all to do with license—they believed in—and fought for—and in many cases died for—the liberty to do good—to produce and prosper—to own their own property without worrying that someone—especially the government—might take it away from them by force—The right to worship freely as they saw fit as long as their form of worship did no one else any harm—The right to gather together freely, and to petition their government for redress of grievances—the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property and their country—for all of these basic God-given rights they laid it all on the line.
The Declaration of Independence closes with these words—words to which we will do well to heed:
“…For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. “
You know, there is an old joke that asks the question: “Which one is more committed to breakfast--the chicken or the pig”?
These men and women were totally committed to the Revolution that would become the beacon to the whole world—to the principles of God-given life and liberty.
As they prepared to go into one certain battle in 1777, Captain John Stark said this to his troops:
“My men, yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and ten pence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight, the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow! “
Now that’s commitment!
On July 2nd, 1776, in a general order to the Army, General Washington had this to say to the troops:
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore to resolve to conquer or die.”
What a leader Washington was! What foresight he had! Where would we be if God had not given him to us at the right time in our history?
56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. Most of them paid a horrendous price for their stand—their property was either seized or destroyed, many had their families killed—and a very large number ended their lives in poverty.
My best friend, and a valuable co-worker in the conservative movement, is a gentleman named Craig Bergman. He is a direct descendent of Robert Morris--who at the start of the Revolutionary War was a wealthy merchant and a close personal friend of George Washington. He was one of the primary financiers of the Revolution, and a signer of the Declaration.
When the Army was in danger of starving to death at Valley Forge, he mortgaged his ships and his very lucrative shipping business to the French—he then took the proceeds, bought wagonloads of supplies, and brought them to the Continental Army just in time to rescue it from sinking forever into the snows of that horrible winter up yonder in Pennsylvania.
Never again in his life did Robert Morris regain the kind of wealth he had enjoyed before the Revolution—but he certainly brought inestimable wealth of a greater kind to all of us—and to the entire world if they had the sense to realize it.
Now, I know what many of you are thinking to yourselves— …“But I’m just one person, living in America in the 21st Century—I’m not going to do these kind of exploits—I won’t be asked to make these kinds of sacrifices for these wonderful ideals!”
But don’t kid yourself. There may be many in this place today who will be called to do great things for the sake of the Gospel—for the sake of our Country—or for their neighbors, friends and families—after all, our nation is entering very perilous times.
But even if you aren’t called to such conspicuous acts—it is sometimes the humblest service that means the most in the end.
You can pray.
You can prepare yourself by striving to understand God’s Word, history and the times we live in better, so you will know how to react when the times of testing arrive—and so that you can help others understand too.
You can work with other like-minded individuals to elect men and women to public office who believe in these principles we have discussed today—and who understand that their primary purpose in that high station is to protect the freedom and the security of the American people, and to promote equality and justice.
You can work with those of us who are committed to removing from office those politicians who scoff at God and His Word—those craven power-mongers who will do almost anything to gain and to hold power—but who have no regard for innocent human life, born or unborn.
You can assure through your long-term committed activism that no longer will elected officials or judges be allowed to get away with showing contempt for the Bill of Rights.
You can raise children who are being taught these principles of Life and Liberty—so that our free republic can be passed on to our posterity, as it was to us.
You can say, with the ancient Israelites of Nehemiah’s day:
“Let us rise up and build!”
…And, as that great man of God said as they worked to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem—when vicious enemies beset them all around:
“Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”
And remember this one last truth, stated so well by the great William Penn:
“Those people who will not be ruled by God will be ruled by tyrants.”
Thank you very much, and may God bless you and the United States of America.
Whoa buddy, what a speech. Hope it helps in your efforts there.
NO PC flourishing in WV when you're around. Way to go EV.
With only 50 days left til the election, and our country at war, this is certainly no time for pulling punches.
Thank you for everything, my friend.
Now go get that Rockefeller and give him what he deserves, having to answer a speech like that!
Getting him to answer anything is tough...he hides behind his incumbency and his money--and refuses to even debate Jay Wolfe.
But we have a growing grassroots army coming together that is whipping him in the precincts...his money can't buy the kind of committed activists who are flocking to our cause.
EV
Thanks for the "ping!"
Regards,
Nice work, EV!
Cheers,
Richard F.
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