The RECORD

By Col. Myrl Allinder

The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money. Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840

The short definition of war: opposition of will. The LORD is a Man of War, YAHWEH is His Name. Exodus 15:3 (from the Hebrew)

I was perfect until the age of 2. My mother said, "Stand up," and I said, "OK." My father said, "Sit down," and I responded in word and in deed, "OK." Conforming to the will and the way of my parents resulted in peace. When I needed something, I had only to say, "I need something," and the necessity was soon forthcoming. I had no idea how water came out of the faucet, or how a brown cow could eat green grass and give white milk. It was all miraculous to the 2 year old, especially when ice cream was added, far exceeding my necessities. Except you repent and become like a little boy, you will not
enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:3

And there was Peace. Parents defined the will and the way; the son obeyed, though often not understanding, without questioning or complaining; all necessities were met or exceeded. And there was Peace.

Unfortunately, I turned 2. When next my mother said, "Stand up," I began to lean on my own understanding (Prov 3:5). I began to follow the popular crowd, to think and reason for myself rather than following the known will and way of my parents. I stomped my foot, and shouted the magic word.... no! And the war was on.

There is WAR in America, and it is nothing like every person over 62 experienced during WW II, nothing like those over 54 experienced in Korea, nothing like those over 35 experienced during Vietnam, nothing like those over 16 experienced during the first war with Iraq in 1991. The war in America in 2007 has nothing at all to do with Islam, nor with Iraq, nor with hydrogen bombs in Iran and North Korea. Those are the least of our worries and concerns. In fact, my view of Islam is that it is God's rod of correction to chastise rich, disobedient, self-centered, success-oriented, vain, arrogant, strutting children. He that spares the rod hates his child. Prov 13:24 23:14 If you are not chastised, then you are bastards, not children. Heb 12:8

In a word: Americans, especially Christian businessmen, are at war with God.

America's primary fear should be of God Himself, seeking/talking/walking first in His Righteousness. Then all those other things will be added, like paychecks and homes and families. Matt 6:33 Any business practice, any government legislation, any personal conduct that is contrary to God's Will and Way constitutes War with God. We know Who will win that one. The increase in iniquity and evil in America is a direct result of the individual American businessman failing to stand and speak what is right and good, and failing to oppose public actions and laws which are contrary to the 10 Commandments.

The teacher is not responsible for the education of a man's children... the man is. The preacher is not responsible for the religious training of a man's children.. the man is. The judge may pronounce legal decisions that are contrary to Scripture; but because the judge says abortions or homosexual marriages are legal does not mean the true man stops speaking the Truth. Even when the 9th District Court calls it 'hate speech' and threatens jail. Two Gideon businessmen were arrested and locked up in Key Largo, FL in Feb 2007 for passing out free Bibles on a public sidewalk. They were charged with trespassing. On a public sidewalk.

Speaking/doing the Truth has always gotten businessmen in trouble. With the world, that is. That was the case with Messiah, the Carpenter. And Peter the fisherman; Paul the tentmaker; Matthew the tax man; Moses the shepherd. ( All Israel rejected Moses, the meekest man, at least 3 times.) Stephen was only one man against the crowd. He got in trouble when he spoke out about their contrariness and opposition to the Will and the Way of God. (Acts 7 ) Stephen found out that Acts 1:8 was also true: You will receive Power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My martyrs. (from the Greek)

American Christians are fearful of death. Why? Because they do not believe God, nor His Word. A good name is better than precious things; and better is the day of a man's death than the day of his birth. Eccl 7:1 Either that statement is true, or God is a liar. Stonewall Jackson said that a man who trusts in God should feel as at ease on the battlefield as he does in his own bed at home.

America has many martyrs on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. We need one or two on the battlefield called Main Street, America.

Tom B. is an old retired businessman from Upstate NY, and an oldtime, outspoken Yankee. He sat at the local drug store counter one morning, enjoying his coffee and donut, when another outspoken Yankee began cursing and swearing and using loud, foul language.
Tom smiled, looked at the man, and asked him kindly, "Do you really believe in freedom of speech?" "Freedom of speech?" the rascally one growled, "..well you better @#()(*#$ know I believe in freedom of speech!" "Wow! That's great!" Tom replied, and then in much louder voice, "PRAISE THE SWEET LOVELY NAME OF JESUS CHRIST MY SAVIOUR AND REDEEMER!"

A Presence came into that drug store that caused Tom to smile even more, and caused the foulmouth to tremble. Peace was restored to the Upstate NY coffee counter by the Fear of God, not by fear of Tom's old carcass nor of force of flesh nor by any pharisee-intimidations. But it happened only after Tom spoke out. Gideon the wheat farmer had the same experience in Judges 6:13-14, "YAHWEH is with you, mighty warrior."

Huh? Who? Me?

Scripture says it is not by might of our Marines and soldiers and weapons and Bill Gates' billions; not by power of the President and Supreme Court and Congress and the local pastors; but by The Spirit of The Living GOD Who will speak to us and defend us... IF we will be true men and Call on His Name.... in public... 24/7.

Habbakuk 4:6, Luke 11:13 How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And there's the rub... men must humiliate themselves in front of God and man.... and ask. It takes a warrior. It will be poor consolation if the soldiers win the war in the Middle East, and the businessmen lose America.

Myrl Allinder is married to the former Martha E. Smith of Augusta, GA since 1956. They rejoice in 4 children, and in 5 grandchildren. Myrl retired as a Colonel of Marines in 1986 after 29 years, 375 combat missions, and command of 3 squadrons. He served on the staff of the Secretary of Defense for 3 years, and as a Strategic Planner for the Department of the Navy at the Naval War College, Newport, RI for 4 years. His final job was Chief of Plans, Joint Deployment Agency, Joint Chiefs of Staff, developing Logistics War Plans for all Theaters, including the Middle East.

Upon retirement he served as a missionary in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America from 1987-2000. Today he volunteers in the Pinellas County Jail (4,000 prisoners, 1000 arrests per week), in the Suncoast Haven of Rest rescue mission (7,000 homeless); and as a Gideon distributes thousands of Bibles each year to students and foreigners in the Tampa Bay area. He is an usher at Bayside Church of God in Safety Harbor, FL, serving on the Missions Committee.

Few would argue about whether our choices have consequences. However, most of us don't think about the cumulative effect of our choices over a lifetime. C.S. Lewis thought about that and wrote,

"Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven; that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.

You have a choice to make today about the role you will play. Our great state of Maine is progressing to one state or another. In twenty years Maine will either be a place where the enduring virtues of our Christian faith inform our common life, or where the dull values of multiculturalism dumb us down.

Your action or inaction today will help define which state your children and grandchildren inherit from you.

If you care at all about God and country, then you will take two minutes to register for our Citizen Action Center and take action to protect the building blocks of civilization -- your Christian faith and marriage. You can do this from the comfort of your home or office. Nothing could be easier.

The relentless barrage of immorality that bombards us causes some of us to waver. We wonder if the fight is worth it. Maybe, we tell ourselves, God wants it this way. He is allowing this depravity in the lead up to His return. Perhaps.

However, it is clear that we have a duty before God to live as courageous and principled Christians, no matter the times. And it is always true that evil triumphs only when good men do nothing.

Now is your chance to do something. Don't pass it up. Get involved. Make a difference. Speak out.

TODAY'S LINKS

Poverty or Common Sense -- Mike Heath
The Cloning of America -- Coach Dave Daubenmire
F.A.Q. on Homosexual Partnerships
A Report from the League Administrator
Maine Pro-Pot Proposal Gets 'Smoked' at Town Meeting
Homosexual partnership bill still in committee

Maine people work hard for a living every day. Consequently they don't have a lot of time to pay attention to politics. They especially don't have time to attend public hearings, and buttonhole legislators. Your absence from the public hearings and hallway shmoozing doesn't mean that politicians are right about the world. A politician's, lobbyist's or interest groups presence in the State House doesn't make them right. It may make them informed, but it doesn't make their view of law, culture and politics accurate or true.

As a Christian citizen, you have something to say. Your experiences raising your family, paying your taxes, going to church and working your job give you insights they don't have. Your representatives in government need to hear from you. Our Citizen Action Center makes it easy for you to share your views with them in a timely way.

When you use our Citizen Action Center you are showing up electronically in the State House. The values of home and hearth are showing up in the halls of power. This is important, and gives me great hope for our future.

When you use the Citizen Action Center you email your message to key decision makers only. You are not spamming the entire State House. Your message is going only to those leaders who are interested in hearing from you on that particular issue. We created the Citizen Action Center to do that for you.

Email and the internet make it possible to do this right from your home or work place. Legislators are using email. If they receive an email on a bill that is before their committee, they are going to take it seriously.

We are working on a bill that received no opposition at a public hearing last week. That isn't because people aren't opposed to it. The bill is the highest priority of a very small, but vocal immoral minority. LD 375 acknowledges homosexual partnerships in the law. It must be killed, but nobody opposed it at the public hearing. I addressed this point in our Frequently Asked Questions page.

While nobody testified in opposition at the hearing, every member of the Labor Committee has received over 80 emails from concerned members of the public who live all over Maine. Legislators are paying attention if they receive as few as 3 contacts on any particular bill. EVERY MEMBER OF THE LABOR COMMITTEE HAS ALREADY HEARD FROM OVER 80! They are paying attention.

That doesn't mean that they will agree, but they are paying attention. Even if the Labor Committee refuses to kill the bill, it can still be defeated in either the House or Senate.

I worked very hard against a slot machine expansion bill in 2004. It passed everywhere except the House of Representatives. It died because it couldn't receive a winning vote in that body. No, the homosexual partners expansion bill isn't a law yet. You can still kill it if you want to. You just need to email all your friends and tell them to use the Citizen Action Center. Do it today.

Chairman Strimling, Tuttle, distinguished members of the Labor Committee, my name is Michael Heath. I am the executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine.

I did not attend the public hearing. Given the majority party's obvious disdain for the will of the people on matters related to sexual orientation. I was of two minds about appearing at the hearing on Wednesday, February 28, 2007. I'm certain that nobody in the Legislature would interpret my failure to speak as support for this measure. It may, however, have been interpreted by some to be a lack of resolve.

Additionally, I understand that some people may be using my absence as reason to support this bill. This is shameful. The bill is bad no matter what the League, or I, say about it. Legislators have a duty to make up their own minds according to their lights, just as I have a duty to accurately convey the mind of the League.

I wish to reassure you regarding my views. If you interpreted my absence as lack of resolve, you are mistaken. Here is the testimony that I was prayerfully considering delivering on that Wednesday.

One year before the League was formed Charles Sheldon wrote a book. "In His Steps" was written in 1896. The book inspired a popular personal motto in the 1990s, WWJD, "What Would Jesus Do." As I was preparing my testimony today I asked myself that question, What Would Jesus Do? Social forces that wish to redefine familiar words like "family" and "marriage" often suggest that Jesus, and Christianity, obviously support their vision for western man.

I wish to respectfully suggest today that this belief is false. Jesus does not support the redefinition of words. Jesus, Christianity and the Bible are clear about family and marriage. Everyone knows that this legal definition of something called domestic partners is not consistent with Christianity. Is it truly compassionate and loving to affirm them, even in a secular society?

It is not either compassionate or loving to do so. If the state wanted to be truly compassionate and loving toward everyone involved in this matter then it would defeat this bill and go on to repeal the recently passed sexual orientation law. The government and media would uphold marriage and family, instead of allowing extreme ideas to dominate our conversation.

I propose a simple truth that once informed our thinking most powerfully. That idea is this: Sex outside of marriage is wrong. We should make this truth into a test and pose it as a question with respect to all our laws, practices, entertainment and policies. The question could be asked, Does this law (program, practice, policy) encourage or discourage sex outside of marriage? If the proposal doesn't discourage the practice, then the bill should be defeated.

This legislature has the power to pass this law. You can continue to hollow out America's culture by attempting to redefine words. Setting religion aside, this is not what Jesus would do. Jesus knows that this is nonsense.

Abraham Lincoln once famously asked, How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? We could ask as we ponder this proposed law, How many definitions of family are there if the state calls some of them a domestic partnership?

While it may be many things, a domestic partnership is no more a family than a dog's tail is a leg.

The Christian Civic League of Maine urges you to unanimously reject this bill.

Thank you.

A bill that has Christian people ready to take out their pitchforks and head for Augusta is still bottled up in Committee. The Labor Committee held a very poorly attended public hearing on the bill on February 28, 2007. The hearing featured a carefully orchestrated 90 minutes of testimony presented by the most radical homosexual rights group in Maine. "Equality Maine" openly admits that this bill is the next best thing to same sex marriage. In their press release declaring support for the measure they write, "The ultimate, fairest, and simplest solution will be for same sex couples and their families to have ... marriage." Nobody testified in opposition.

League Executive Director Michael Heath submitted written testimony on Wednesday, March 7, 2007. The bill is not yet scheduled for a work session. It is still in Committee.

Heath opened his written testimony acknowledging, "I did not attend the public hearing." He continued. "Given the majority party's obvious disdain for the will of the people on matters related to sexual orientation, I was of two minds about appearing at the hearing on Wednesday, February 28, 2007. I'm certain that nobody in the Legislature would interpret my failure to speak as support for this measure. It may, however, have been interpreted by some to be a lack of resolve."

Some people have suggested the bill deserves support because nobody is opposed. Heath observed, "Additionally, I understand that some people may be using my absence as reason to support this bill. This is shameful. The bill is bad no matter what the League, or I, say about it. Legislators have a duty to make up their own minds according to their lights, just as I have a duty to accurately convey the mind of the League."

Heath wrote with emphasis, "I wish to reassure you regarding my views. If you interpreted by absence as lack of resolve, you are mistaken."

While only a few couples and individuals testified in support of the bill at the hearing, 68 people have used the League's Citizen Action Center to email decision makers on the bill. They have sent a total of 1,049 emails to members of the Labor Committee, the Governor, groups that are supporting the bill, and their own House and Senate members.

Equality Maine has declared that this bill is their highest priority this session. The Roman Catholic Diocese is supporting the bill as written, even though the definition of "domestic partnership" clearly includes "same sex couples." The Chancery put out a statement in which they offered a "point of information." They said that they do not support having the phrase "domestic partners" refer to "same sex couples."

The bill not only covers same sex couples, it forces businesses to honor intentionally fatherless (or motherless) parenting. The bill states that employers MUST provide leave from work to an employee at the birth of the lesbian partner's child, and when children under the age of 16 are placed in the home of transgendered men. The Maine Chamber of Commerce supports this bill.

Gary L. Morella, a research assistant at Penn State asks, "What kind of lunacy permeates the Maine Chancery to support a bill like this?"

Morella continues, "Where a clear voice is called for on the part of a Catholic witness to the Truth, Who is Christ, instead we get obfuscation playing right into the hands of the devil's disciples."

One supporter of the League sent a letter to 43 of her friends urging them to contact their Legislator on this bill. She quoted League director Mike Heath, "The real reason for this bill is to create a successful court case in the future for homosexuality. Same-sex marriage is the pot full of gold at the end of their rainbow. This bill will continue to lay the foundation for equality of sexual practices if it becomes law."