American Revolution Two

“Your loved ones did not expect to serve the cause of freedom on that Tuesday morning, but serve it they did. Faced with the most frightening circumstances one could possibly imagine, they met the challenge like citizen soldiers, like Americans.” – Tom Ridge, then Pennsylvania Governor

Nine years ago on that day of enormous darkness, destruction and terror, a small band of stout Americans on board Flight 93 ignited a torch of hope, courage and perseverance that lifted a nation in its darkest hour.

The evil that struck that day did not count on the courageous spirit of the American people. Video footage of Bin Laden and his henchmen reveal their predictions that we would roll over, cower and scatter. They underestimated our resolve, and certainly didn’t expect a group of captives to fight back and win a critical battle in the skies over Shanksville, Pennsylvania…

“In the air, a wave of courage made its way from the cockpit to the rear of the aircraft and back again, with all persevering to the end.” – Sandy Dahl, the wife of Flight 93′s pilot, Capt. Jason Dahl

It gives me enormous pride to think about those ordinary citizens who became brave warriors – those frightened souls who decided to battle back. They didn’t wait on anyone to tell them what to do. They actually voted to act – democracy in the skies – and proceeded “to roll.”

On this 9th anniversary of that heinous act of war, I believe we should honor the nearly 3,000 dead, mourn their souls, pray for their families, but also do something else equally important: We need to focus on those enormously brave patriots, driven by a love for their country and illumined with the best of the human spirit. Let us remember their self reliance, initiative, innovation and belief in themselves. Let us cherish their memories and the way they spent their last moments on earth: fighting with a warrior heart to save others. This is what the rest of us must emulate. What better way to honor their sacrifice than by taking up the mantle of what they began that day? What have we done, as individuals, over the last nine years to magnify and embody their courageous spirit and love of country? Maybe the better question is, what shall we do now?

Here are three suggestions:

1. Learn the nature of the enemy. Most of our citizens still aren’t aware or understand the Muslim Brotherhood’s 100 year plan for taking down America, replacing our Constitution, and implementing Sharia law. They’ve been here since the late 40s and are half way there to achieving their goals. The reality of what’s happening today is not for the faint of heart, but it is essential to understand. Click here to download a copy of their plan, and here to understand the nature of this enemy.
2. Take responsibility for our freedom. If we think we can carry on, carefree and careless, relying on our government to protect us, we are sorely mistaken. The federal government is infiltrated and lack the political spine to properly deal with this enemy. It will be the every day American people who win this epic struggle of ideas and cultures. Why do we expect others to carry the burden for us? We must get engaged now. Click here for a place to start.
3. Give up something. We must sacrifice some of our free time in order to raise the level of our civic engagement to where it was designed to be. In a free, constitutional republic, it’s up to us, We the people. It takes time, dedication and sacrifice from every citizen to preserve freedom. Most of us will have to change our priorities and let go of something to honor this duty.

Flight 93. The flight that fought back. A cross section of ordinary citizens who struck back and ultimately saved the lives of many others in the heart of our capital city. That’s what America is all about, and always has been. Let us rededicate and recommit ourselves to insuring that it always will be.

*Click here to watch The Flight that Fought Back – an amazing, must see docudrama about Flight 93

“We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression – to preserve freedom and peace…We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.”
- President Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation, March 23, 1983

In America today, we have worshipers, but few are also warriors. Why? David was a worshiper and a warrior – he loved and depended on God completely, but was also a warrior, with the courage to face a giant that no one else would.

“O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.”
- David, Psalm 59:9

Look around you. Do you see many Davids?

Of course the brave men and women who voluntarily serve in the armed forces are excluded from this line of questioning. Their service to our country is beyond reproach and is the bulwark of our freedom. I’m talking about the rest of us who are benefactors of our military brethren and their selfless sacrifice.

The 80 percent of Americans who call themselves Christians (including me) are in large part betrayers of our unique American legacy. Not only have we allowed God to be pushed off center stage, but we’ve relinquished our duty to elect Godly men to public office. Our nation is hanging by a thread because of the pacifism of the church body...we’ve accepted the lie that being nice, staying out of politics, and avoiding conflict and confrontation at all costs is what Jesus would have us do. Wrong! Jesus was a warrior at heart, exposing hypocrites, facing down evil, rebuking demons and ultimately enduring a torturous death that few can fathom. Do you think it was “nice” of Jesus to overturn the tables, make a whip out of cords and drive the money changers from the temple area?

Would you agree that Christians in America have, by in large, become soft, wishy washy and often pushovers? I feel we’re so preoccupied with being “nice, compassionate and accepting,” that we have forgotten how to stand up for what we believe, confront evil and defend our faith against the God-less political forces consuming our society. The lie that politics and religion don’t mix has eroded the very foundations that built this nation in a revival of religion. It is impossible to govern justly without morality and religion and we’re learning this the hard way.

How can the church continue its blatant disregard of the need for warriors to defend the faith and engage the spiritual warfare that is at our doorstep? Evil is real, it is present and it is everywhere. But somehow we’ve lost our moral courage and conviction to stand firm as so many previous generations have. What if my grandfather’s generation had responded to Japans’ brazen attack on Pearl Harbor with “no, we can’t get involved, we need to turn the other cheek because that’s what Jesus would have us do”?

Appeasing evil only invites more of it. Dismissing evil only encourages it to grow. When Adolf Hitler witnessed the world’s disgraceful, sheepish response to Islam’s brutal massacre of over a million Armenian Christians in Turkey in the early 1900s, he was emboldened to launch a campaign of brutality and conquest of his own.

We ought to be disgusted by the pacifists who sit smugly in their pews on Sunday while political Islam (and Sharia law) advance and take root in America. If not confronted, it will threaten our hard-won freedoms – especially our ability to worship freely. We’ve lost our will to fight and the vision to see clearly the battles of good and evil that rage throughout our land.

What will it take to awaken the warrior heart of America? Are we prepared to defend the last bastion of freedom and liberty on earth? We must rediscover that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” I believe in the might and perseverance of the American people and my confidence in the spirit of a mostly free people remains high. But the time has come to stand up and stand tall…for, in the words of Thomas Paine, “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
(The Crisis, No. 4, 1777)