Listen to Redeemer Radio, AM 1450 in Fort Wayne, at 9 am Saturday mornings for Dr. Matt Bunson’s show Faithworks.  I (Brown) was recently interviewed for 30 minutes by Dr. Bunson — he is a very fine interviewer.    NE Indiana is fortunate to have such a resource and fortunate to have Redeemer Radio and Dr. Bunson both.

Update:  The interview aired January  9 at 9 am.  Redeemer radio can be heard on the Net at this site:  http://www.redeemerradio.com/.

Working on a way to post a link to the interview, stay tuned.

Growing up Baptist I was never much exposed to thinking about Jesus’ mother.  In fact, I once heard a preacher say she was no more special than the colt that carried Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

I am pleased to note that Evangelical Protestantism is working to correct this oversite. 

Click here for Amy Grant’s You Tube causing us to reflect on the Faith and fears of this great woman of God.

The Mother of Jesus.   Think of the ramifications … for they are almost endless.

Here are the lyrics … (more…)

The Synaxarion of the Nativity (handed down as oral tradition through the Orthodox Churches of the East)

On the 25th day of the same month, the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Verses.
God the one born, the Mother too a Virgin:
What greater wonder had creation seen?
Mary the Virgin bore God on the twenty fifth day of December.

God, who loves mankind, seeing the human race under the tyranny of the devil,

took compassion on it, and sending his Archangel Gabriel, he said to the Mother of God:

‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you’.

And at once our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God, was conceived in her immaculate womb. (more…)

The ArchAngel Institute celebrated this special day in all three divisions.

The Raphael Division, with very much help from Mike and Cathy Butler at Diskey Sign, lit up the southern wall of the Institute with nine beautiful classic Christian art representations.  Drive by the Institute after dark to see this fine work of public art that is our response to Pope Benedict XVI’s call here.  More details to follow.  This post shows one of the works of art now gracing the building.

The Gabriel Division communicated our Executive Director’s long climb toward the Indiana bar and thanked so many who have meant so much to us at our first ever banquet tonight.  Terry Clancy and the crew helped us put on a first rate first effort.  Many, many thanks to those who braved the weather to attend — you are special friends, one and all!

The Michael Division entered federal court at 2:00 pm today and filed a lawsuit against the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, Dr. Elizabeth Bowman, Dr. Steven Ross and Chief Judge of the Indiana Supreme Court Randall Shepard seeking to have three laws enjoined for due process reasons and documenting a psychological waterboarding that is alleged to have violated both the federal and state constitutions in many, many ways.

The federal lawsuit brings 27 separate legal claims, most of them sounding in constitutional law.  More on it later.

Tonight we close with these fine quotes from President Harry S. Truman that seem to sum up today’s filing …

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

“When even one American — who has done nothing wrong — is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.”  Harry S. Truman.

THE ARCHANGEL INSTITUTE : BUILDING THE CULTURE OF LIFE ON THE RUINS OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH –  AND NOT WITH OUR MINDS SHUT OR MOUTHS CLOSED!

Why does an eclipse of the sun by the moon work so completely?    Think of an eclipse of the television by your favorite pesky kid …. you can usually see some of the television still, or, if the pesky kid is big, you cannot see the television but there is part of the kid that you see that is not blocking your view of the television.

Yet when the sun is eclipsed by the moon you (in yesterday’s case Asia) see only the corona of the sun, the heavenly body is completely blocked by that pesky moon.

It fits like a key into a lock.

Why?

According to this website, here is the mathmatical  reason:

The Sun happens to be 400 times the Moon’s diameter, and 400 times as far away. That coincidence means the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size when viewed from Earth. A total solar eclipse, in which the Moon is between the Earth and Sun, blocks the bright light from the Sun’s photosphere, allowing us to see the faint glow from the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

Ah, what a coincidence it is.

What are the odds that happened by mere chance?

Is it easiler to believe that a Creator hung the moon in its place?

And that was not the only coincidence in the heavens this week.

Think about this one and imagine the luck needed to have picked this at random.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112
 
July 20, 1969  USA on the moon
25 years later
July 20, 1994  Comet strikes Jupiter
15 years later
July 20, 2009 A large black cloud appears on Jupiter

Here is what one scientist said (quote from above article) “

“We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn’t have planned it better,” said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL.  “It could be the impact of a comet, but we don’t know for sure yet,” said Orton. “It’s been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing.”

So the scientists are amazed by the orderliness of the seemingly random events.  That is something that scientists should be quite immune to by now, given that order is found everywhere in the allegedly “by chance” universe.

Back to Jupiter, aka Zeus, the symbol in ancient religions for the King of the Gods, the ultimate authority.  (Hmmm, how did the ancients know Jupiter was the largest planet?)   Something supposedly really did ”strike” Jupiter on July 20.  It must have been something really large  –  The scar on Jupiter’s face is the  size of the Pacific Ocean!

And we did not see it on the way there? 

Is someone asleep at the Hubble?

Or could it be that something is happening on the surface of Jupiter, that there was no strike at all, but instead, perhaps, an eruption from inside of Jupiter?  Just wondering – nothing as serious as the 400 times 400 above  – this is just speculation. 

But if it was a strike, as NASA claims (without explaining how they missed it on the way) that made a scar larger than our moon, then imagine if that blow had hit us, or our moon, or even a near neighbor?

Could really ruin one’s day.  Would your life have meaning if ended by such a ”coincidence?”  Now think a moment — If all  is mere coincidence, then does your life have meaning even before such a strike?  If all is mere chance, does your life have meaning in this moment?

Only the meaning found in random paint splatterings, much like a Jackson Pollack painting.   This is in reality the absence of meaning, and is the spiritual plague that calls itself modernity.  A finite point (you), said the postmodern philosopher Sartre, without an infinite reference point (the Creator) is absurd. 

But I have great news, your life is not absurd!!!

The universe is a mystery — and not mere coincidence and heat death, friends.   It has great meaning.  It has an infinite reference point.

It is designed and operated by a Designer.  Click here for more on that idea.

The same Designer who designed your body and who created your soul.

The same Designer that you will one day, probably not too far into the future, meet face to Face.  How is that for ultimate meaning?

Ready or not?  Click here for musings if not. 

Bishop D’ Arcy’s request for a reserved and prayerful response to the shameful act soon taking place at the University of Notre Dame is being rejected, largely by groups led by Protestant pro-lifers.

Some Catholics are indeed joining in, but when the day ends it will be nonCatholics who were the most successful culture war profiteers by going way over the big top in South Bend.

Here is a fine example from a Protestant Evangelical group that now claims to dominate the air space over our Lady’s school:

Acts
Chapter 26

1

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak on your own behalf.” So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense.

2

¹ “I count myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am to defend myself before you today against all the charges made against me by the Jews,

3

especially since you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and controversies. And therefore I beg you to listen patiently.

4

My manner of living from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my people ² and in Jerusalem, all (the) Jews know.

5

They have known about me from the start, if they are willing to testify, that I have lived my life as a Pharisee, the strictest party of our religion.

6

But now I am standing trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors.

7

Our twelve tribes hope to attain to that promise as they fervently worship God day and night; and on account of this hope I am accused by Jews, O king.

8

Why is it thought unbelievable among you that God raises the dead?

9

I myself once thought that I had to do many things against the name of Jesus the Nazorean,

10

and I did so in Jerusalem. I imprisoned many of the holy ones with the authorization I received from the chief priests, and when they were to be put to death I cast my vote against them.

11

Many times, in synagogue after synagogue, I punished them in an attempt to force them to blaspheme; I was so enraged against them that I pursued them even to foreign cities.

12

“On one such occasion I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests.

13

At midday, along the way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions.

14

We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.’ ³

15

And I said, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

16

Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness of what you have seen (of me) and what you will be shown. ⁴

17

I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you,

18

to open their eyes ⁵ that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me.’

19

“And so, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

20

On the contrary, first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance.

21

That is why the Jews seized me (when I was) in the temple and tried to kill me.

22

But I have enjoyed God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike, saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses foretold, ⁶

23

that the Messiah must suffer ⁷ and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

24

While Paul was so speaking in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “You are mad, Paul; much learning is driving you mad.”

25

But Paul replied, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and reason.

26

The king knows about these matters and to him I speak boldly, for I cannot believe that (any) of this has escaped his notice; this was not done in a corner. ⁸

27

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? ⁹ I know you believe.”

28

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You will soon persuade me to play the Christian.”

29

Paul replied, “I would pray to God that sooner or later not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am except for these chains.”

This post takes off from where the last post ended. Thus we are still discussing Ulrich George Klopfer, who has dedicated his adult life to performing first and second trimester abortions. Search for this site for more articles on this man, who I got to know through my pro-life activism and who sued me out of existence about 19 years ago. He brought much pain to me then, but as a powerful German once said, that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

I retire from my 20 years on the Culture War front strong and impoverished.

I have been slammed by a state ordered counselor (actually a contracted cleaner) for failing to have enough empathy for dear doctor Klopfer. She must have missed this testimony and this testimony in the Indiana statehouse earlier in the year. Or maybe not. I has been my finding that those who are slavishly devoted to the regime ushered in by Roe v. Wade are quite willing to overlook women with their guts ripped out by men like Klopfer. Their goddess, Choice, does demand a few adult human sacrifices now and then. It was once about ending back alley abortions. It is now about keeping backalley abortionists in storefront operations. What a noble cause!

Seven month ago Dad and I were at Home Depot buying flooring for the ArchAngel Institute. As we pulled a heavily laden cart toward checkout an older man and middle aged woman passed us by. They ended up just ahead of us in line. The man was on his cell phone speaking loudly in a Germanic accent. Dad had recognized him and his female escort just moments before and tipped me off. As he rang off the call I looked him square in the eye and asked “George, don’t you recognize me?” He did not. It was a seemingly chance encounter that seemed to be ripe with destiny. And so I stepped up to the plate and invited George Ulrich Klopfer to please come visit me at the ArchAngel Institute.

I offered to take abortion off the table and discuss only Mr. Klopfer during the visit. “Let’s talk about you!” I said. I asked him to come into the ArchAngel Gabriel studio and cut an interview with me. He then cursed me, quite loudly, and shared with everyone in the front of the store his low opinion of me. He claimed that I could did not care about human suffering (the empathy thang again), and especially when whole cities were burned to the ground. My Dad looked him in the eye and said “you are talking about Dresden, aren’t you George.” “Damn right I am,” Klopfer responded. “I saw it burn.”

What a moment! Stop the presses! Was George Klopfer wounded by the Devil? Is that how he could be such a faithful servant of the ancient murderer (see John ch.8) for most of his adult life?

If you do not know of Dresden then you do not know of America’s darkest hour in WWII. Click here for some insight into that violence that drives Klopfer’s destructive hand.

Undaunted by his initial refusal to come and visit me at the Institute I mulled over the coincidences and then sent a letter off to my old nemesis. The text of that letter may prove to be controversial. Some might think I offered too much. Some might read it as me compromising. Some might even find it “empathetic.” But probably not those who hate me for my Christian worldview.

Memorial Day weekend, 2008

Dear Mr. Klopfer,

I truly appreciated seeing you once again (last Thursday) after all these many years. The years look to have been kind to you. I believe that I have aged more than you have.

Sir, I do not much believe in chance, and do not believe that our seeming chance
encounter in the checkout lane at Home Depot was by mere happenstance. Consider the
timing and circumstances: Were my Dad not with me I probably would not have recognized
you or Ann; we arrived at the same checkout lane at the very same time; I was in the
process of buying new flooring for your previous offices; I had discussed Dresden and the
uneven historical record as to WWII with a South Bend attorney just a week prior. What
are the chances of us so meeting by chance on a Thursday afternoon? The odds are quite
long.

I also appreciated the topic of our brief discussion. I have long considered Dresden to
be one of the least explored chapters in this nation’s history, and one of the darkest
hours in the Allied Cause. Many are now in the process of rethinking World War II, Pat
Buchanan among them. The generation that witnessed that fratricidal act is not long
among us now is the time to better study such topics as the firebombing of Dresden.

I have enclosed the art that first introduced me to the topic of Dresden. I was not
taught of Dresden in school or college – no surprise there. Pink Floyd’s leadman, Roger
Waters (one of my favorite artists) lost his father at the Battle of the Bulge. (Waters
was of tender years then). He has often allowed his own pain and doubts about WWII come
out in his lyrics. He did so in the 1980 award-winning release The Wall. His followup
to that fine album was even more moving and quite cynical. It received no awards and
little air play. In The Final Cut, Roger Waters fully vented his pain and rage,
including these profound lines, which he places on the lips of a Lancaster bombardier:

The Hero’s Return (Roger Waters, 1982)

Jesus, Jesus, what’s it all about?

Trying to clout these little ingrates into shape.
When I was their age all the lights went out.
There was no time to whine or mope about.
And even now part of me flies over
Dresden at angels one five.

Though they’ll never fathom it behind my
Sarcasm desperate memories lie.
Sweetheart sweetheart are you fast asleep? Good.
‘Cause that’s the only time that I can really speak to you.
And there is something that I’ve locked away
A memory that is too painful
To withstand the light of day.

I have enclosed the compact disc of The Final Cut as a gift from me to you so that you
can hear these lyrics in the context of this quite moving concept album.

After our”chance” encounter I asked a Germanophile attorney (double German
descent) … to consider joining you and me for a no-holds-barred discussion
of Dresden in a studio interview. He views Dresden as a war crime for which Churchill
and others should have been tried. He is [a military man] willing
to risk further career advancement to speak out about Allied War crimes.

The goal of this interview would be to explore the topic of injustices against the
Germanic people using firsthand accounts – yours, among others. The end would be a piece
for radio and internet play that lays out the case against the Allies as to Dresden and
other acts of state-sanctioned terror. We would then invite a response that attempts to
defend what Churchill and Roosevelt ordered. I am open to having your own experts join
us in studio or on the telephone for this series, which I hope to follow up with a
similar series on similar acts which have taken place in the Middle East since WWII.

Your own profession and professional activities of the past 40 years are of no import to
this series and will not be brought up by me or anyone else on my team. I will call you
Mr. Klopfer, George, Ulrich or, if you prefer, Dr. Klopfer during the interview. You may
know that I have rarely offered the latter to anyone in your profession. I even risked
contempt of court to deny the same to Mr. Tiller more than a decade ago. I offer it to
you, now, as a showing of my good faith. I seek common ground and I seek a first hand
accounting of the firestorm over Dresden. I seek a robust discussion of the horrors that
followed that international injustice. War is my focus not a woman’s choices during
peacetime.

You will be accorded the respect due one who lived through the bombing of his ancestral
homelands.

George, decades have passed since we last “tussled.” I have matured much in
the intervening years, and see the world quite differently now. Your litigation had a
devastating effect upon my life, and it yet pays off in negative dividends. But it has
paid off in many positive rewards as well. Had I not left the Fort I would have never
met my lovely wife, Anne. Had I not met my lovely wife I would not have four beautiful
children. So, in a strange way, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you.

To elaborate further, I am concerned about the tone of the national debate over the
“social issues.” I confess that my earlier work has added more heat than light
to the problem. I have been involved in communications that tended to demonize men such
as yourself. I have been involved in communications that demonized you. For that I
tender my apology to you.

Please help me make amends. Please help me produce a recording on the horror that was
visited upon Dresden and, in the process, help humanize you for those who fail to
appreciate that you are a man who has been subjected to war crimes and, I would guess
from my own research, unspeakable childhood pain. I have studied what the Allies did to
Germany after the war. We yet decry the injustices placed upon Germany by the terms of
Versailles but refuse to admit to the greater injustices done to the German people from
1944 – 1949.

Dr. Klopfer, I am one hundred percent sincere. This is not a setup, you have my word on
that. You can bring anyone that you wish along with you into the studio. Abortion will
not be brought up unless you bring it up, and it will not then be discussed unless you
want to discuss it. You would be included in the final production process and have the
ability to edit out any content that was not to your liking. You will be given copies of
all interviews and be given the ability to oversee the erasing of any copies that you do
not want on file.

I simply and sincerely seek your aid in preserving a record of Dresden and WWII from your
very unique perspective. Forget our combative past. Let’s try to work together to get
the truth out, and in so doing send a message to those on both sides of the abortion
debate — the message that common ground can be found if both sides are willing to seek it.
In search of true history,

Bryan J. Brown
Executive Director,
The ArchAngel Institute

Dr. Klopfer failed to respond to my letter. Who is the ungracious party now, counselor?

As Ron Allen says, one must be wounded to be best used. (See previous post)

I bequeath, on this, the seventh post of my swansong as the Executive Director of the ArchAngel Institute, the above knowledge to those who will come after me. George, the offer yet stands. Come let us reason together.

p.s. Klopfer certainly is a German name. Check out this post. And this post. And this post. (Those who know Ulrich may spot a certain familiarity of face.

Once when I walked Ulrich toward 827 Webster Street (where he killed thousands of babies and where the ArchAngel Institute is now located) I asked him why he was an abortionist. He replied, a his thick German accent, that he “removed population pollution.”

Is the Indiana bar yet feeling sympathtic toward the plaintiff Klopfer? Probably not. Amazingly, I still am. But then I would, since I have a much higher tolerance of political incorrectness than the Indiana bar.

It is your move, George. I say let’s talk history.

“Mammon is a term that was used to describe riches, avarice, and worldly gain in Biblical literature. It was personified as a false god in the New Testament. The term is often used to refer to excessive materialism or greed as a negative influence.” Wikipedia

Webster’s dictionary defines ‘Mammon‘ as: 1) the false god of riches and avarice. 2) riches regarded as an object of worship and greedy pursuit; wealth as an evil, more or less personified.

Mammon has corrupted Western Civilization, of that there can be little doubt. Now that the god of this age is shaking and falling, what will you do? Learn to live without this golden calf or fall at its altar, worshipping riches in a bid to revive the idol.

It is easy to point to the abortion industry as a golden calf. After all, it turns little people into economic interests. In the middle ages the dream of the alchemists was to get rich spinning straw into gold. The abortionists get rich spinning the preborn into shekels. But it does not stop there … Hollywood moguls get rich spinning sex into entertainment dollars … modern governments spin debt into paper money to bailout the present at great cost to the future … and … are you ready for this … the Christian Right gets rich spinning yarns into giving units.

Back in the days of Rescue the nationals used to have a saying. You did not hear it unless you were close to the inside. It was something about not beginning to believe your own press releases. The underlying assumption was that press releases tended to exagerate the truth of the matter.

For money, for power, for fame.

Yarns spun into giving units. It was the sad result of direct mail, which is the lifeblood of the Christian Right. I should say was the lifeblood, since reports from all over have been that this strategy, proven to bring in the geld since the 80’s, is now failing.

The Christian Right and its mailing lists were born during the Reagan years, and it is a little known fact that the men behind the letters got really rich. Not only many of the leaders, but also many of the ghost writers. Those men who added the red ink, the person touches, the exaggerations. (Don’t make the mistake of beginning to believe you own fundraising letters.)

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

When I was putting ArchAngel together some nationally recognized pro-life leaders gave me advice. One pulled me aside and whispered this:”Do not do your own fundraising letters, hire professionals. Realize that they will have to take a healthy cut and go over the top at times with the appeals.” I felt sick to my stomach. I was then told such was the way things worked in this business, and if I were to succeed I would have to accept that fact. Another prominent leader advised me against focusing upon Fort Wayne. “I have found,” he matter of factly stated, “that you bring in much more money if you keep a national focus, even if operating only locally.”

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

On another occasion I was speaking with a pro-life promoter who told me of a pro-life team that bought an abortion clinic and evicted the owner. I corrected him, stating that I knew the facts and that the abortionist had moved out before the clinic was bought out by the ‘lifers. I was told that I needed to realize that there was nothing wrong with embellishing the story for dramatic effect.

Well color me old fashioned, but I think there is something very wrong with all of the above.

Whatever happened to the doctrine of Mammon? Can one serve God and money? Can one live by direct mail and do the Will of the Father? Does an embellishment here and yarn there soon end in a butchered conscience?

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

It was all too much for many who watched from the sidelines long ago, even before the pitches got fevered. Consider this social commentary by Queensryche:

“Religion and sex are power plays
manipulate the people for money they pay
selling skin, selling God,
the numbers are the same on the credit card.”

The ArchAngel Institute was not born of Mammon and has not pursued Mammon. We have tried to walk by Faith and live on just what God supplied. We have seen doors open that seemed locked. We have witnessed strange occurrences that strike us as miraculous. Retta just reported another one tonight, look for her to post some good copy next week about a trip to Michigan — just as soon as I finish my swan song.

My views of Mammon and faith were kick started hard back in ‘91, when Susan Hill and George Klopfer’s attorneys relieved me of almost all of my worldly possessions and my career. I wandered west to Wichita, were I learned to live on faith. I had no dependents and it was easy to just look skyward and say “what’s next, Lord?” I did not worry about money and wanted for nothing. I did not live a champagne lifestyle — it has been my experience that God is more proletarian than bourgeoisie in his tastes. He likes us more poor than rich. He knows the lure of Mammon.

As the years passed and the kids came I became more complacent, less faith filled, more trusting in salaries and my career once again. Than, thanks be to God (that was not easy to say) the Left hit me very hard once again. This time I had a wife and four kids. I was again privileged to walk forward in faith. Not relying on a career. Not relying on a salary. Relying on God. He did not disappoint. But it was a great challenge.

Could it be that we are now all, all of us Americans, facing this haunting specter? Could it be that the golden calf of the American economy is falling so that those who call upon the Name of the Lord can come out of a sick world system to walk by faith?

Are you ready for that?

Tonight I bequeath to my readers this advice: Do not fear a walk by Faith. He really is there, He really will hold you aloft. He may want you poorer, that is true. Poor is dependent upon Him. But He can be trusted to see you through.

A depression may be coming. It will not be new to me, I have lived in one since January, 2007, and been persecuted by my government at the same time. Blacklisted and blackballed. But He has met my family’s every actual need. Is our 501 c-3 packed up tight? No. Is our retirement planned? No. Have we lived on less than we thought we could? Yes. Could God be trying to set our priorities aright? Yes, I think so.

Consider our Saviour’s words:

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully;

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Don’t hear these preached often do you? Could it be that we have become “of the nations?” Even the Christian Right?

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

As I step down from the ArchAngel Institute we are financially solvent by the Grace of God. But we do not have treasures stored up in barns. Like the children of Israel we have just enough manna for today, and trust in God that more will come when needed. That more manna needs only be enough to keep the lights on, rent paid and Retta given a retainer to staff the Institute.

We need less than $900 a week to keep this ministry open as a beacon of light and hope. Just this week Retta has entertained two women working through the pain of past abortions at the Institute. Stop and imagine that! A former abortion clinic being used of God to bring healing to those deeply wounded by abortion.

We are seeking first the Kingdom of God, as best we can. Pray that we remain true to that High calling. Pray that we always butcher golden calves rather than our own consciences.

I pledge to you in this swan song that the ArchAngel Institute has not given into the temptation to spin yarns into giving units. Not for money, not for power, not for fame.

Bryan

p.s. Here is tonight’s rock and roll nexus. It pretty well sums up my 20 years on the front.

Here is a great American of days gone by saying much the same as I did above.

I have protested abortion more than a few times and represented protestors in state and federal courts. I have stood in the docket myself for numerous acts of protest and represented protestors who were up on criminal charges, who were being sued and who were doing the suing. I have argued protestor cases before judges, before juries and before appellate courts. I have argued protestor cases in more states than I can remember without my files, but they at least include Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. I have argued protestor cases before the Second, Third, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.

I might be considered somewhat of an expert on protesting.

One of the reasons that I walked away from representing protestors to take up the Consumer Protection crusade in 2003 was the caliber of the protestors I was dealing with. While many were principled, too few seemed to be doing anything other than offending people with six foot dead baby signs.

This needs to be put into some historical context. (Click here for the Fort’s history in a nutshell.)

The “pro-life movement” was born in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade. First as a religious expression of dissent mostly among the Catholic bishops. Then, as abortion clinics came out of the back alleys to hang their neon signs on sidestreets like Webster, pro-lifers were attracted to them like bugs to light.

Some of the best of those bugs were actually pro-life nurses. I am willing to be corrected, but I think that Fort Wayne was one of the first places where such nurses were sued for protesting. Thanks to Phyllis Morken, the late Phyllis Avila and Concordia Lutheran Seminary.

All these “bugs drawn to the light” did to get sued was stand on the sidewalks adjacent to abortion clinics, in their white uniforms, offering abortion bound woman a choice. “Choose Life” they softly offered. And for that they were sued $750,000 by the so-called “pro-choice” champions.

Note that they had a communicative reason (to abortion bound women) to be at the clinic.

As the 80’s droned on the “pro-choicers” became more aggressive on overruling the “choose life” option. They crowded around the abortion bound women as “clinic escorts,” singing loudly to drown out the “choose life” message of the nurses and those that had taken their place. The escorts even began getting a little rough with the sidewalk-stationed “pro-life counselors.”

The abortion industry had, through its useful idiots, upped the ante. The pro-lifers answered in kind, kinda. We began gathering at the clinics en masse to support the sidewalk counselors. It was a show of force, a show of Christian resolve, unified Christian resolve, to stand opposed to the abortion clinics that were proliferating across America.

More escorts showed up. As our masses grew theirs became more desperate. Sidewalk counseling became impossible as rings of escorts rushed abortion bound women toward the doors of fate covered under blankets with music blaring.

Then, in the late 80’s, a tipping point was reached. Some pro-lifers began to stand in the doorways and block access. The cry went out – if abortion was really murder, act like it! What would you do if they were killing one year olds? What is the difference between one year olds (conception plus 21 months) and one month olds (conception plus one month)., The logic seemed inescapable. The Rescue Movement was born out of pro-life angst and collective guilt.

One of the byproducts of the Rescue Movement was a tri-fold division of labor at the clinics. We had the “rescuers” who would block doors, the “counselors” who would approach the clinic bound women and the “pray warriors” who supported the other two by corporate worship onsite.

As a manager of such events it was always the latter group that seemed the least Biblical. The sidewalk counselors had a message to share. The rescuers were engaged in civil disobedience in pursuit of the doctrine of interposition. But the Prayer Warriors were, in my mind, possibly unbiblical.

Here is why …

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven…

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Well lawsuits, aggressive arrests and Congressional action (The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, FACE) pretty well shut down the rescues cold. Threats of the aforementioned and the ravishes of time has worn down the sidewalk counselors. But the prayer warriors have now recently reemerged, only without rescuers or counselors to support. They have now become an end in themselves. And the above verses yet give me pause.

I simply do not comprehend, given the ground rules, a communicative reason (other than public prayer) to be at the clinic. If it is merely to pray in public in close proximity to sinners, then I fear that the above red may apply in full.

Especially when said prayer gatherings attempt to supplant liturgical seasons from the ancient past, such as Lent.

Another recent strain in the protest movement that gives me pause is the advent of the six foot dead baby posters. (And now even truck mounted 10 foot dead baby posters.)  They were not prevalent back in the day of my protest activity. They seemed to spring up once FACE shut down rescues. They strike me as a desperate (and even crass) attempt to create social tension. I have never been comfortable with their use in the general public and have often worried that they simply serve to further coarsen an already too-coarse culture. Think about it … if you were murdered would you want your lifeless body displayed on six foot panels for five year olds to view?  If your wife was torn assunder would you march about showing her most tortured moment?

I turned down as many cases involving these giant posters as I took on when I worked for the AFA Center for Law and Policy. Too many of the protestors acknowledged, even boasted in, their sign’s ability to enrage viewers, and then inexplicably used the same in school zones, along busy highways and in places where families gathered.  It seemed to be all about the impact, and to be, at times, done with a vindictive spirit.

I often asked the sign wielding protestors how they would feel if someone who viewed their signs became visibly shaken or enraged and drove their car into innocent persons. Most of the zealots replied that they would not feel responsible. I wanted to represent only those who clearly understood their responsibility to be responsible protestors.

Finding few, I traded in my constitutional law perch for a position in the civil service. Being pro-life must mean more than holding giant pictures of decapitated babies and praying in public for others to repent of their sins.

How does one best protest the Culture of Death responsibly? How does one protest the Culture of Death with the greatest impact? How does one protest the Culture of Death most biblically?

These are fine questions. As my final bequeathing to the Movement that I actively served these past twenty years I will end this swan song series answering these fine and pressing questions.