Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Thanksgiving On A Hill Is Challenged

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF
Thanksgiving On A Hill Is Challenged.

This past Veteran's Day, four Marines carried a 13-foot cross to the top of a hill at Camp Pendleton and erected it precisely at the time and date of the official end of World War I.

The cross replaced one that had been erected on the hill back in 2003 by Marines before they were deployed to Iraq. The first cross was destroyed by a brush fire.

The cross was erected as a memorial to those who have given their lives for our freedom and an expression of Thanksgiving for those freedoms.

The Los Angeles Times wrote a complimentary story about the Marines, with a picture of them erecting the cross on top the hill. What followed may not be surprising, but it certainly exemplifies just how precious and fragile our freedoms are.

After the excellent Los Angeles Times article was published, the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers became aware of the cross and are now demanding the cross be removed.

Ironically, the sacrifice of the lives of our military of whom this memorial was intended to honor, is protecting the freedom of atheists to make such demands. You know the "separation" drill.

John Quincy Adams described our freedom and the Revolution that established it like this: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

Perhaps the greatest threat today in America is not so much from without, but from within. Apparently the Marines are free enough to fight and die defending our freedom, but not free enough to express their deepest feelings of gratitude if there is any linkage between their thankfulness and their Christian faith.

John Quincy Adams would be shocked. And disappointed.

Perhaps Abraham Lincoln would not be. He said "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

In his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation he also said, "We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us."

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, let us give thanks for the freedoms and blessings that are ours, and be mindful of why they exist, from whom they come and how they can be lost.

Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Thankful. Be Prayerful. Be Active. Be Free. Be Blessed.

:: Click here to add these blogs to your email inbox.