A Hero's Welcome for Senator Ted Cruz

"Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong."
1 Corinthians 16:13

Phenomenal speech by Ted Cruz at last weekend's GOP convention:



Highlights:

• "I spent all week in Washington D.C. and it's great to be back in America."

• Texans have always led the way for Freedom, from Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Rick Perry, to Rand Paul.

• The Constitution was designed, as Thomas Jefferson said, "to bind the mischief of government."

• "If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."

• "We already have a common core in this country, it's called the Constitution of the United States."

• "In the time Pastor Saeed has been in that jail he has led dozens of his fellow captives and jailers to Christ."

• The people who are struggling are the ones hurt most by the Obama economy.

• Unleash the American energy renaissance that is producing MILLIONS of high paying jobs.

• "Repeal every blessed word of Obamacare."

• Abolish the IRS.

• Audit the Federal Reserve.

• In 1980, Washington D.C. despised Ronald Reagan.

History Lesson: Planned Parenthood's Founder and Eugenics

"Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him"
John 9:1-3

This 2009 clip from Glenn Beck summarizes the origins of today's pro-abortion movement:



Highlights:

• Hillary: "Admires Margaret Sanger tremendously."

• Margaret Sanger wasn't internally conflicted like Jefferson.

• Sanger used to hang out with the Klan.

• "The poor have always been the target of eugenicists."

• The global warming movement is also about population control.

How Miranda Lambert's Hometown Outsmarted Wisconsin Atheists

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."

Genesis 50:20

Last night, a friend told us about this story out of Lindale, TX; re-printed (with permission) in full from Seven Spheres news:

School District Defies Lawsuit Threats to Perform “In God We Trust” the Musical 

By Patrick Butler, Seven Spheres News 

710 Words 

LINDALE, Texas – In defiance of lawsuit threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an estimated 2,200 people turned out Wednesday night in Lindale, Texas, to view the Lindale Independent School District’s 5th Grade musical "In God We Trust." 

The Lindale High School's performing arts center was filled to its capacity of about 1,300 people said event organizers, and overflow rooms were set up in the school gymnasium and cafeteria. 

U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) attended the event to “show his support” as did civic representatives and staffers including Jason Wright of Senator Ted Cruz's office and Texas State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Dist. 5). The mayor of Lindale, and other local elected officials, joined a standing-room-only capacity crowd to see the musical. 

“We also have an overflow room of 200 filled to capacity,” said the Rev. Tom Buck, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lindale, to the cheering audience, “and another overflow room of 700 also filled to capacity. Those who can't fit in the rooms are out on the lawn, listening to an audio-only,” feed from the auditorium. 

Buck said he was “overwhelmed” by the community support for “In God We Trust,” as did the play's co-authors, Chris and Dian Machen of Plano, Texas, located on the outskirts of Dallas, about 90 miles west of Lindale. The couple came to Lindale when they heard the Freedom From Religion Foundation had threatened to sue the Lindale School District if the play was performed as a school function. 

“The number of people here tonight is far beyond what a play like this would normally attract,” said Machen. “Because of what they [Freedom From Religion Foundation] have done, more people than ever are seeing this play.” 

While the words of the songs originated with the Machens, the spoken elements of the play were, for the most part, direct quotes from America's Founding Fathers affirming the role of God in the formation of the country. 

The recitations by the Founding Fathers were re-enacted by fifth grade class members, often in period costume. Direct quotes affirming the role of religion in America from the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and William Bradford (governor of Plymouth Plantation in the 1600's), were recited without elaboration or interpretation, allowing the writers to speak for themselves. 

Fifth-grader Francisco Mata delivered Bradford's observation that, “A vessel, called the Mayflower, delivered us in pursuit of a new country. To declare our faith, we travelled under a sail inscribed with the words, 'In God We Trust.’” 

The “separation of church and state” controversy was met with Thomas Jefferson's own words taken from the letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, recited by fifth-grader Colton Beeler to heavy applause: “I believe with you,” wrote Jefferson, “that religion is a matter that lies only between man and God. The people have voted that no law controls the decisions of churches in America. It is not that the state should be separate from religion, but that religion should be separate from the state.” 

A consortium of churches in Lindale, including First Baptist Church of Lindale that spearheaded the event, rented the high school’s performing arts center for the evening and staffed the venue. That enabled the fifth grade class at E.J. Moss Elementary school to present their play, which had been stopped when the Freedom From Religion Foundation out of Wisconsin threatened a lawsuit just two days before the scheduled event. 

Gohmert spoke afterwards congratulating the children, parents and community supporters.
"Don't you just love Lindale, Texas?" Gohmert said, to a cheering crowd. 

To the class he said, “I've been in the presence of presidents of our country. I've been in the presence of prime ministers and queens. There is nowhere I'd rather be tonight than right here in Lindale with you.” 

Gohmert quoted Benjamin Franklin, too. 

“Franklin also said, 'God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground, is it possible an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that unless God builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.'” 

Turning to the class on stage he said, “You have shown this, exemplified this, to us tonight in such a wonderful way.”

 Kudos also to Congressman Louie Gohmert and Texas State Rep Bryan Hughes, two perennial favorites of Cahnman's Musings!!!

Ted Cruz and the Baptists

Sit and Spin ACLU:



Highlights:

•  Sovereignty belongs to the people but we lend a tiny bit to government for a brief period of time, yet we have a constitution to, as Thomas Jefferson said, "bind the mischief of government."

• Inscribed in the Liberty Bell was Leviticus 25:10: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land."

• John Quincy Adams 1837: "Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the savior?!?"

• As Christians, we're called to sacrifice and stand for principle.

• We see liberty, in particular religious liberty, in peril.

• If we want to preserve our liberty:
• Pray
• Stand Up
• Speak

• Believing "is getting into the wheelbarrow."

David Barton: The Foundations of American Exceptionalism

Way, way cool:


Highlights:

• The United States has the longest surviving form of government in the world.

• Political Stability is not a natural state for a nation.

• "The comparisons of our Government and those of Europe are like a comparison of Heaven and Hell." Thomas Jefferson

• We've been blessed in America because we followed certain Godly principles.

• The political leaders we think of as America's Founding Fathers didn't think of themselves that way; they thought the Pastors were Founding Fathers.

• Taxation without Representation is grievance #17 out of 27 in the Declaration of Independence; in other words, economic complaints against the King didn't even make the first half of the list.

• Every right presented in the Declaration of Independence was preached from the American pulpit prior to 1763.

• Massachusetts 1647; First Public School Law in America
• "Satan's #1 purpose is to keep us from reading scripture."
• Grounding kids in Scripture was the whole point.
• Jefferson and Franklin were the two least religious Founders, but they're the only ones we ever talk about when discussing the Faith of the Founders.

• Dr. Benjamin Rush
• "If we can get Americans to read the Bible two things will happen: 1) They'll become Christians and figure out how to have a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ [Personal Note: Amen to THAT], and 2) if Americans will obey what they read it will solve all our social problems."
   
• Mulitiple Founders would read the Bible cover-to-cover once a year. 

• John Adams' writings on Christ are waaay cool!!!

• Abigail Adams said shed rather see John Quincy die than renounce his faith!

• In a free market of spiritual ideas, Christianity wins every time; it's the best product.

• Origin of the Free Market system -- 1 Timothy 5:8, 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

• For Christians, voting is a form of stewardship.

• Luke 19:13 -- "Occupy till I come" -- Whether or not we're living in the End Times is irrelevant.

• A Christian Nation doesn't mean you decree Christianity by law, it means Christianity has a major influence on the development of the culture.

• George Washington asked for Chaplains for the military seven separate times during the Revolution.

• Hebrews 11

What offends me about the Jefferson Lies

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed BY THEIR CREATOR with certain inalienable Rights."  United States Declaration of Independence, 1776, written by Thomas Jefferson.

"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gift of God?!?"  Thomas Jefferson, quoted at the Jefferson Memorial.

I wrote last week about the controversy surrounding David Barton's new book, "The Jefferson Lies."  Beyond this controversy, we should all be upset that a book like this needed to be written in the first place.  The controversy is obnoxious, but what's truly offensive are the actual Jefferson Lies.

Thomas Jefferson clearly believed in a Judeo-Christian foundation for society.  His writings are filled with references to a biblical foundation; I list two of my favorite above.  While Thomas Jefferson's personal relationship with Jesus Christ is unclear, that doesn't change the Judeo-Christian influence on his political views.

Yes, in 1802, Jefferson did use the phrase "wall of separation between Church and State;" here's the full context:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

 In other words, Jefferson was trying to protect the Church from the government, and NOT the other way around.

Atheists have been lying about Jefferson's views on the role of Biblical Principles in government since at least 1947, and it pisses me off.

Don't get me started on Sally Hemmings.

Will David Barton be the Next Chick-fil-a?!?

David Barton is a national treasure.  He has done more to preserve the truth about America's Juedo-Christian foundation than anyone else currently alive.  That's why what happened to him Friday is such a shame.

In cast you missed it, last Friday the publisher of Barton's latest work The Jefferson Lies dropped the title.  They claimed a review of the book revealed "historical details...that were not adequately supported."  It's worth pointing out that the publisher did not offer a single specific example.  The publisher didn't even consult Barton over the alleged inaccuracies before pulling the book.  In reality, the publisher caved to left-wing pressure.

(Sidenote: If the book is really as inaccurate as the publisher claims, what does it say about the competence of that publisher that they green-lighted it in the first place?!?)

David Barton is a big boy and he can take care of himself.  He's already found a new publisher.  There is, however, opportunity in this setback.

This controversy is another Chick-fil-a.  In both cases, someone made a claim contrary to the conventional wisdom.  In both cases, rather than engaging in open debate, the purveyors of conventional wisdom shut down dissenting views.

Obviously, I don't (yet!) have a megaphone the size of Mike Huckabee's or Glenn Beck's.  I do, however, think holding 'David Barton Appreciation Day' on September 1 would send a powerful message.  Please take a moment to post this blog entry to Mike Huckabee's and Glenn Beck's Facebook pages if you agree.

Update: The Blaze has A LOT more.