QotD: Chesterton

"The modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is forever engaged in undermining his own mines, in his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men.  Therefore the modern man in revolt becomes practically useless for all purposes of revolt.  By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything."

~Gordon Keith Chesterton, Orthodoxy

State supreme

I have said this before, and I'll probably say it again.  Having freedom means that I am free to fail.

Where this gets dicey in our modern American minds is when it comes to children.  If my failure means difficult circumstances for my children, should I still be free to fail.  Again, I say yes.

Consider those who founded our nation.  They left the civilization of western Europe at great risk to themselves and their children to find a place where they could live in freedom.  In most cases, they sought a place where they could worship the God of the Bible as their conscience and understanding of the word dictated.  During the voyages across the Atlantic, fathers died.  Mothers died.  Children died.  Should that state have stepped in to prevent this "abuse" from parents?

The real abuse, though, in the mind of the Church of England and the mind of the Vatican, was that the parents would have the arrogance and the audacity to presume to teach their children what the Bible said.  Only the "Church" had the authority to do such a thing, so they believed.

We look back on those pages of history and shake our heads that anyone would allow a nation to become like that and worse, that we would let the Church become like that.

Fast forward 500 years.

It's happening again.  Consider this from the California Law Review*:

• There are legal and constitutional limits on the ability of parents who home school “to teach their children idiosyncratic and illiberal beliefs and values."

Oh, really?  As a parent I'm limited as to what I can teach my child?!  How 'bout this from a George Washington Law School professor:

• "The growing reliance on homeschooling comes into direct conflict with assuring that children are exposed to such constitutional values."

The value she lauds is tolerance.  Continuing,

• "Indeed, the long-term consequences for the child being home schooled or sent to a private school cannot be overstated. The total absence of regulation over what and how children are taught leaves the child vulnerable to gaining a sub-par or non-existent education from which they may never recover."

What is the solution to this problem of parental autonomy where dad and mom teach their children as they see fit?

• "[T]he more appropriate suggestion for our current educational dilemma is that public education should be mandatory and universal."

Ah.  No private school.  No home school.  Just public schools.  Shall we use an adjective that adds a bit more clarity?  Let's try state schools.

We reel in our minds over what the Catholic Church and the Church of England did during their darkest days.   We shake our heads in disbelief that Nazi Germany made little Nazis out of the children by imposing formal training and creating the Hitler Youth.  So why do we not shudder when the UN and educators in our own country begin asserting that state education be mandatory and that it be mandatory at a younger and younger age?

Here's the deal.  Every education form has some fundamental worldview as its foundation.  Whose worldview will undergird the education of my children?  At this point, parents have a choice in how their children will be educated.  They can opt for the state school.  They can opt for a private school with a worldview that has birthed that private school in the first place.  Or they can opt to school their children at home.

(By the way, where are all of the atheistic private schools?  Is their lack because there is no need?)

So here, again, we speed toward an historic crossroad.  Will parents be allowed the freedom to fail by educating their children in the manner that they see fit, or will the state step in to prevent such abuse by insuring our children get a "proper education?"

I can't believe I'm asking that on the threshold of 2011 America.
-------------------------
* All quotes taken from a speech by Michael Farris and transcripted here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Nothing sweeter than Linus Van Pelt taking center stage and explaining what Christmas is all about:



Here's the entirety of the Christmas story from Luke 2. Savor the Savior on this most historic of days!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.


And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:1-20

Moral inconsistencies: homosexuality & pedophilia

From time to time, I peek in on left-leaning America to see what issues they have been considering, the positions they take, and the support they offer.  Sometimes I come away understanding their position, not agreeing with it but following their train of thought.  Sometimes I just end up befuddled.

Like the other day.

On the Huffington Post, two articles stood comically side-by-side, one by Billie Jean King, that '70's symbol of I-am-woman feminism, lamenting the fact that so advanced a nation would still have such knuckle-dragging laws on the books like "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" (here) and the other by Sinéad O'Connor, that Irish minstrel who earned fame and fortune by shredding a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, continuing her loathing of the papacy for their poor handling of the priestly pedophiles (here). 

Why so funny?  How is it that the military would be hammered for opposing the homosexual lifestyle but the dramatic leftists should be lauded for opposing a pedophiliac lifestyle?  Why is homosexuality acceptable but pedophelia intolerable?

That's what happens when you loose yourself from an objective moral determinant.  You can have it your way.  Orange is good.  Yellow is evil.  Why?  Um, because.  Upon what do you base that.  Folks who like orange are just happy people so that's good, but I find yellow morally reprehensible therefore bad on the church for not crucifying all of those in favor of yellow.  When you have a moral standard given by the One who embodies those standards, the colors come into clear focus.

Dismiss the standard and you get Billie Jean (homosexual Billie Jean) praising homosexual advocacy for the military while Sinead rails against pedophilia.

I guess HuffPo missed the joke.

The blood-red moon

My wife and I set an alarm last night.  1:20 a.m.  It wasn't as painful as I thought it might be.  The minor sleep interruption proved well worth it.


Joel 2:30-31

After throwing on some clothing and stumbling into the front yard, we craned our necks straight up and beheld the moon near full-eclipse.  As we watched, the bright white along the right edge faded into dusty red.  The heavens spread out with breathtaking clarity, the stars twinkling in wonder at the moon's transformation.

I know that scientists knew this would happen.  That's why I didn't sleep through the thing; I believed their calculations.  The sun, moon, and stars seem to work with clockwork precision almost as though they were set in place to help us determine times and seasons.

Wait a minute.  They were.

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night.  And let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years."

Genesis 1:14

Few would argue with the fact that our years and months have their definition in the cosmos (interesting to note, though, that the seven-day week didn't spring from the heavens but from the pages of Genesis 1).  As my neck began to cramp and the moon slipped into a darker shade of red, I reconsidered the second half of verse 14, "...let them be for signs..."

It seems that the universe God wickered runs with amazing precision, so much so that I was able to set my clock to behold the wonder in the heavens.  At the same time the One who set the celestial clock a-ticking indicated that happenings on high might portend other events, a warning light on your dashboard, if you will.

No, I'm not going to give you eleven reasons why Jesus will return in 2011, but consider this (full article here):

This (2010) was the year the Earth struck back.


Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.


"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

And consider this:

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there willl be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Jesus Christ said that to his disciples as to the sign of the end of the age (Matthew 24:7-8).

Am I hiding 'neath my desk?  Nope.  Am I putting all my money in a mattress and heading for the hills?  Nope. I have IRA's and 401k's I hope to see mature one day.  I will say that we are one day nearer to Christ's return than we were yesterday, and the pages of Scripture paint a horrifying picture of what the days will be like before his return to set all things right.

When I see the moon turn into a deep red warning sign right over my head, it gives me pause.  God is calling all of humanity back to himself having provided them forgiveness for their rebellion and sin through his Son, Jesus Christ, the One who will set all things right.  The time is short.  Will it be today?  Dunno.  Tomorrow?  Dunno?  I plan my future on earth like I will be here for another forty years.  I try to live my days on earth like he'll return in fifteen minutes.  I can only do that because my eternity is secure, taken care of by Christ himself.  On that alone, I rest.

Don't ignore the light on the dashboard.

I will show wonders in the heavens

and on the earth,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Joel 2:30-31



Who's your Eve?

In Genesis chapter 2, God allows Adam to discover that he’d been created alone.  Despite perfect fellowship with Almighty God and despite an earth teeming with enough flora and fauna to flabbergast the mind, Adam was alone.

When the light bulb went on over Adam’s head, God turned it out, put him to sleep, and crafted that which would complete Adam.

God didn’t make another animal.

God didn’t make another tree.

God didn’t make another man.

God made Eve.

Take special note; God did not create five lassies from which Adam could pick his favorite.  He didn’t create a few lassies and a few lads for Adam to try and determine his gender.

God.

Created.

One.

Woman.

For one man.

For Adam.

“But what if they hadn’t clicked?” you might ask.  Or how about sexual incompatibility?  What if he snored?  What if she was a winter and he liked summers?  What if he liked ski vacations and she liked Broadway?

Acck –ptooey!!  Hairball.

For Adam, God made Eve and presented her to him.  She entered the world created from and as the unique and special gift for one man, the only man.  She for him.

Adam had NO choice.  Eve had NO choice.  In breathtaking understatement, Adam exalts, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  If I may loosely paraphrase, “WOW!  Are you kidding??  That’s for ME??”  You can use your imagination with the rest.  Some would argue that they could have rejected each other, but that would be as likely as Sarah Palin opting for Dillards over Denali National Park.  Or me aching for Jerry Jones to become owner of the Vikings and the Twins.  Not gonna happen.  Ever.

God himself indicated a few thousand years later that his intention had always been that what he had joined together man had no business tearing apart (Matthew 19:6).  In other words, God joined Adam and Eve together.  Adam for Eve.  Eve for Adam.  Christ equated that union with the union of every man and woman of his day, and because it transcended those four preceding millennia, it reaches forward two more and applies to us today.

*Revelation warning*-- God’s not surprised that you’re married to the one you married.  Jesus exposed that he joined you two together.

How’s that flesh out (so to speak)?  One woman for him.  One man for her.  No other.  God ordained.  God designed.

Really, I could and should be able to end right there, but we in our sinful nature immediately vomit out, “Yeah, but…”  In all honesty, a lot has happened since Genesis 3.  There’s a lot of filthy water that’s passed under that bridge.  Why do we not sit at work and think about what awaits us at home with an “ooh, boy!  She’s for me” kind of Adamic excitement.  Why does our woman not have excitement and anticipatory butterflies hammering her stomach while she waits for her man’s eyes to fall upon her face and form after being apart for the day? 

Two things thwart our hunger for one another.  The first and biggest problem is you (and "I" as I write this, that pronoun sticks an enormous finger out of my monitor and into my chest).  We carry so many scorecards around in our pockets regarding snubs and neglect from the past that we cannot love our spouse.  Love keeps no record of wrongs.  That hurts.  Yep, it might.  God's command to love my wife and lay my life down for her and his command to her to respect and submit to me do not come with an “If only they love me to my satisfaction” clause. 

Face it.  We are selfish, but Christ calls us to servanthood.  My life is not my own.  It’s Christ’s.  He purchased me.  As such, I lay myself down for him in submission by laying myself down for my wife.  The wife does so in respect and honor to the husband.  Until we get rid of all of our scorecards, our marriages will only be mediocre…at best.

The second roadblock to a Genesis 2 thrill about our spouse is trust.  In a jaded, post-modern, post-Christian 21st century America, we don't trust God.  God made us.  In marriage, he made the other for us.  He knows how best that marriage thing should work.  He went so far as to write some of those things down for us.  Problem is, we don't trust him.  Don't believe me?  Chomp on 1 Corinthians 13 for a few days and see how you measure up.  Gnaw on your part of Ephesians 5 and let God have his way with you (5:25-33 for the men and 5:22-24 for the women). 

If I really trust the God who made me, I will live out his guidance for me and my marriage in loving trust that he knows what's best.  I will keep no scorecard.  I will lay down my life for my wife to the glory of God...and trust him for the rest.

If the passages in 1 Corinthians 13 and Ephesians 5 do not exemplify my marriage and I call myself a Christian, I am the hypocritical Christian the world so loves to hate, that James speaks out against  in James 2:14-26, and that Jesus himself indicts in Revelation 3:1-3.

Trust God.  Love your wife.  Honor your man.

Dawn Treader lite

When the Lord of the Rings films buzzed the country, I remember hearing Christopher Lee, Peter Jackson's "Saruman," say that he read the entire trilogy every year.  Thus, if Mr. Lee said something about Tolkien's classics, you would do well to hear him.

Liam Neeson?  Not so much.

Mr. Neeson has had the honor of voicing Aslan, the central figure in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, in the saga's first three films (due to a weak opening weekend, there will likely be no others).  In the weeks before the opening of the newest film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Mr. Neeson opined to salivating reporters that,

"Yes, Aslan symbolizes a Christ-like figure, but he also symbolizes for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries."

Now, Mr. Neeson claims to have read these books and others by Lewis, but how does he get around the substitutionary death and resurrection of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe?  What about the constant and consistent representations of Aslan's deity?  Mohammed?  He's dead.  Buddha?  Dead.  Aslan in the stories, like Christ, is very much alive.

You don't see Aslan taking a harem of lionesses.  He doesn't lop off anyone's head or self-detonate.  He doesn't sit in the lotus and try to cleanse himself of the impurities of the physical world.  Seeing Mohammed or Buddha in Aslan is like seeing Mao or Lenin in Captain America.  You've completely missed the point.

But it's not just Mr. Neeson.  Georgia Henley, the young lady who plays Queen Lucy, comes to Mr. Neeson's defense.

"I can see where he is coming from...Aslan represents more than Jesus or God for a wide range of people...He can be the epitome of wisdom or the epitome of courage, for instance, and it is very important that people can have their own interpretation of what he represents rather than have something forced upon them."

I'll chalk that up to youth, but I can't get around producer Mark Johnson's ignorance. 

"...resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian."

Wow.  I must have missed all those others where God condescended to become man, suffer the penalty for his creature's sin, and then be raised to life to guarantee their future hope.

**Spoiler Warning:  VDT's ending discussed below**

It is no wonder, then, that Hollywood has seen fit to neuter the most vivid depiction of Aslan as Christ in the book.  At the end, Edmond, Eustace, and Lucy come across a lamb, and the lamb is cooking fish upon a fire.  Hmmm.  I guess there must be lamb-figures in many different religions, too.  Lambs that cook up fish for their followers.  Oh, yes, and this lamb transforms in their presence into the great golden lion, Aslan.  Lion-lamb?  Lion-lamb?  Where have I heard that before?  Thus, when Aslan utters, "But in your world I am known by another name" in the book, the reader knows full well whom Lewis intends his lion to represent.

When Neeson voices that line in the movie, apart from the appearance of any lamb, one is free to insert the name of your choice.  Perhaps he represents Vishnu for you, and for you over there, he represents Imhotep.  That rube in the corner thinks he represents Jesus, but those enlightened folks over there think that he represents Oprah.

The story is that it is Christian allegory.  That's what makes Narnia so powerful on all levels.  When you snip out those uncomfortable scenes, you neuter the story.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader does a reasonable job of tying all the scenes together in a semi-coherent movie.  The characters are nicely developed while the acting remains as obvious as the first two films.  The true message of the film, penned in Lewis' final two pages of the book, was left on the cutting room floor leaving the door open for you to decide who Aslan is for you.

Alas.

Polishing marriage

Sometimes you need an outside look to sober up your perspective.

American marriage has hit the rocks. Disillusionment and infidelity have left many to wonder, “Why bother? Three things help me focus on the wonder and beauty that marriage can and should be.

First, take stock in a good marriage. Do you know someone with a great marriage? Talk to them. Find out what makes them tick. Translate that into your relationship. If you want to get better at golf, talk to Tiger Woods. If you want to get better at marriage, talk to someone else.

Second, understand that there are weeds on the other side of the fence, too. Take note of the amazing surprises in your own yard. In Sunday’s paper, columnist Betsy Hart responded to Time Magazine’s article which wondered “Who needs marriage?” with brevity. “I do,” she declared.

Married for seventeen years, Ms. Hart has been divorced for the last four. I don’t know the cause of the divorce, but she was very transparent about some of the things she misses. Like a husband who disciplines the children in support of his bride. Or someone to simply come along side and help with the highs and lows of life, from “putting up Christmas lights” to “killing spiders.” Then there’s this crystalline insight.

"But marriage is certainly not, ultimately, about sharing parenting -- which has a limited shelf life. At least, it shouldn't be. It's about sharing a life. As a woman, I want to feel protected and cared for by a husband. I believe I'm -- gasp! -- built to want that. But it's also about what I'm built to uniquely give to one man committed to me: my support, respect, admiration and encouragement, and all without ever trying to make him my best girlfriend! Without a spouse, right now I'm not able to give full expression to those things."

But what about the tough times when his/her jerk-meter is pegged?  She wisely noted,

"I even need the conflict of marriage. Really. Bearing with a man, with someone so different from me, giving him the freedom to fail and still loving him, would again stretch me as a human being. A lot. Humbly receiving that same forbearance from him? Well, that's part of what I need, too."

Wow. She recognizes something, though, that most people and most married people miss about marriage today. It’s not 50/50. It’s a 100% investment, and that’s the third thing to help understand the wonder and beauty of marriage. Get God’s perspective on the deal.

You see, marriage is of God. If not, then we might as well go the way of the critters where each gent corrals as many fillies as he can handle. But God designed one Eve for Adam.* The word of God is chock full of great passages on marriage and the roles of the husband and wife. If you’ve never taken the time to ponder these passages, grab a Bible or go online, and meditate upon what God has to say about YOUR role in marriage (let your spouse worry about their role).

• Genesis 1:26-31
• Genesis 2:18-25
• Proverbs 5:15-23
• Proverbs 18:22, 19:14
• Proverbs 31 (a great passage on how a husband should praise his woman)
• The Song of Solomon (all--oh yes, all!)
• Matthew 19:3-9
• 1 Corinthians 6:12-7:5 (you can go all the way through ch. 7)
• (You knew this one was coming) Ephesians 5:21-33
• Colossians 3:18-19
• 1 Peter 3:1-7

Some things do get better with age. Marriage is one of those things. When one or both partners is willing to give the 100% sacrificial love called for by Almighty God, it can be a truly great thing.

Make contact with those in great marriages. Keep your eyes on your side of the fence and appreciate the wonder and beauty in your marriage. And seek out God’s counsel on what it takes to make a marriage and what it takes to make it work.

Then, enjoy the fruit!

*The polygamy within the Bible ALWAYS birthed chaos and was not God’s design.

No, he's not

Ladies, you just might want to skip this post.  I know that merely saying that will pique your curiosity.  Trust me.  This ones for guys who've played football or hockey or baseball.

If you've worn a cup, this one's for you.

When my family and I traveled to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving, my brother and I commiserated over the darkness of the Minnesota Vikings' season.  Brad Childress had yet to be canned.  We got to talking about when we played football as kids when I mentioned to him that I was amazed that so many of the pros no longer wore knee pads or thigh pads.


"No way!" he countered.

"Oh, yes," I maintained.  "And it gets worse.  A lot of them have stopped wearing cups."

He looked at me like I had just declared the earth to be flat, like I'd just revealed that I'd lived an alternate life in an alternate universe with Rosie O'Donnell, or like I believed Bud Grant to be a closet Packer fan.


Oomph....ommm...breath...

A brief trip to the internet and a peek at the pics from the previous weeks' games, and my brother shook his head in utter dismay.

Do knee pads and thigh pads restrict speed and agility so much as to aschew them altogether?  We could see cornerbacks getting away without them.  Maybe the safeties.  But most linemen and running backs still wear them. 

But--take a deep breath and think on this--most do not protect their ability to procreate. 

I remember hitting an opposing player during a hockey game, and as he flew off his feet, his knee came straight north into Mason and Dixon.  I dropped like a sack of potatoes and that while wearing a cup!  I horror to think on what might have been.

In trying to prove my story to my brother, I came across this gem on ESPN (btw, the ESPN blog is titled "Page 2."  The article starts right there).  David Fleming tries to come to terms with the collective insanity that has overcome NFL players.  He summed it up nicely.  "If you ask me, they're all nuts."

We were gay soldiers

"For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish."
Isaiah 60:12

Admiral Mullen

Admiral Mike Mullen and Senator John McCain went nose-to-nose in the Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on Thursday over whether homosexuals should be able to serve openly in the military. 

A post-modern Chief of Staff and a former POW turned career senator.  The one welcomes, "Swing open the door!" while the other cautions, "Not so fast with Pandora's box."

On Friday, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Chief of Staff of the Army sided with the Senator.  "Not so fast, please."

Here's the sober truth.  Apart from a people who strive to live their lives in honor of the God who created them and thereby in accordance with his word, homosexuality and every imaginable sexual knotting will become accepted.  Without an objective source of truth to which we can appeal, all bets are off.  If homosexuality is now okey-dokey, why is polygamy frowned upon?  Why do the NAMBLA folks get such a bad rap?  Who's to say when the age of consent should be?  Try running openly homosexuals by Curtis LeMay or George Patton.  But Mike Mullen's just ducky with it.

Senator McCain



Who's to say, apart from an objective determinant for right and wrong?

Well, Christian, get over it.  In case you've been napping the past thirty years, America civically, culturally, academically, and spiritually has dismissed the God of the Bible (who happens to be the God of our heritage).  I challenge you to find a commandment (of the Big Ten) that most Americans still accept as valid.

American Christians have never known persecution, but the lions are roaring.  Consider what's happening in the military:

• A military friend noted today that he can't talk too openly about his relationship with Jesus Christ and what that means, but he could chat openly about his homosexual relationship (if he had one).
• Chaplains will either stop preaching the Bible or they will be speaking openly against a policy endorsed by the Department of Defense and their Commander in Chief.  Most chaplains don't preach the Bible anymore anyway, but those that do will now face military discipline for disobeying a superior's directives.

So what's a Bible-believing Christian to do?  Some thoughts.

First, we are sojourners.  While I passionately love the United States of America, her vistas, her cities, and her heritage, this is not my home.  Should she decide to turn her back on the living God, I will weep and grieve for the death of such an ideal and for her people, but I will not follow.  That said, I will continue to be the very best citizen that I can be until that conflicts with the word of God.

Consider Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael (aka, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego).  Those gents lived in about as pagan a land as you could hope to live.  We refer to moral trash heaps as Babylon for a very good reason, and that was the land where they were dragged and made to serve within the government.  They did very well, thank you, and did not compromise despite high-temperature quarters and gruff and growly roommates.  They served and served with distinction in a land hostile to their convictions.

I alluded to it above, but the second point is the most important; a Christian cannot compromise when the world (or his country or his commander) demands him to do so.  Daniel, when told not to pray, continued his habit of thrice-daily prayer with windows wide opened.  The three amigos, when told to bow, stood tall in a sea of genuflecting moral mice.  How's that for standing out in a crowd.  Both instances would have brought certain death but for the amazing intervention of God.

But as the three declared, it didn't matter whether God delivered them from the furnace or not.  They knew he would deliver them--ultimately.  Peter and John faced the same issue.  Either buckle under the Sanhedrin's threats and omit the politically incorrect name of Jesus Christ in their preaching or face cultural alienation and disciplinary beatings.  Their response?  "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard...We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 4:19-20, 5:29).  Jesus' disciples took a beating for that, happy that they were "counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name" (5:41).

Cutting to the chase, the Christian soldier, like Daniel and his three friends, should still be able to serve and honor God.  Crossroads may loom.  Chaplains, too, can still serve, but they know that they will be required to stand before the military Sanhedrin and declare their higher allegiance to God.  The only way the military will be able to handle that pile of goo is by either dissolving the chaplaincy in its entirety (for the first time in our nation's history) or only enlist a chaplain corps that holds to a neutered version of the Bible.

Consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials...