Our Sacred Honor

                One of the challenges being laid before Patriots in our day is to remember that our founders paid a price for freedom, because after pledging their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, many of them lost one, two or three of those. When I first learned this truth, bit by bit, it was mostly hearsay, or reading, or conversation, or by teaching and mostly my body was sitting comfortably somewhere in a seat or chair and my mind was free to ponder. These were third party ideals, coming from 200+ years back and  it had to enter our minds and hearts through an intermediary. After the ideas were digested, they became first hand idealism; our own. At this point, all the dynamics changed. In real life, the pledge becomes very hard to talk about and even harder to see it at work.

                I am at the point in my life where I no longer come across as the typical personality of the 21st century; I have become atypical. I know this because I got my face rubbed in the dirt this week and had to figure out what happened. In thinking it through, I discovered that when people act on the principles that are most dear to their heart, it is possible for friends to become enemies. The most heartbreaking sense of this came to me one dusky evening (years back) as I drove home from work and turned on PBS, who at that time and place programmed an hour of Celtic music. There was commentary with the music on that night. A feminine Irish voice introduced a song her friend had written out of the cauldron of agony between two or three friends torn apart by sectarian violence. I listened as the ballad story flowed in a clear, male Irish voice of how dear friends found themselves on separate sides of the Catholic/Protestant divide, eventually resulting in death. I parked in front of my house, weeping like a baby at the telling of their painful truth.

                Sacred honor causes people to take sides, even to the point of war. Our Civil War is replete with similar stories of friends who found themselves on separate sides of the conflict. There has been a conflict brewing in our nation for the last century and it is becoming very heated and focused in these days. My hope is that it will be a Great Civil Discourse and we can keep it at that. Even so, it necessitates that we will find ourselves opposing friends or being opposed by friends. This adds an element of discomfort to our lives if we intend to keep our inner pledge of our life, our fortune and our sacred honor. This event that happened to me this week is all about sacred honor... theirs against mine.  And it was the picture of a stamp that started it.

                Changing names to Kyle and Ellie, who both have been my long time friends, one since the 60's and one since the 70's. Both of them blew me off their map this week because I espoused rejecting use of a  USPS 44 cent Stamp in which unintelligible foreign signage appears and which has no shred of an intent to communicate to any but the sect it represents. In my world view, it is disgusting. Kyle sees it as equal to any other holiday stamp. Ellie sees a bigot behind the boycott. Neither one cared for my opinion which if they'd actually asked me to explain would unite us. They both ended their relationships with me. After thinking about, it a few things became clear to me but the most clear, was that each of them were acting on their sacred honor and so was I. Go figure! I had no idea it would get like this.

                A good while back I was in my kitchen cooking while two little neighbor girls were playing together with toys in a large open space. A fight broke out and I turned to see the angry older sister standing near the exit. She shouted, "I hate you! I don't want to play with you anymore." The cause was that there was only one doll, and the younger sister didn't want to give it up. I told the big sister to look at the little sister and then look at the doll. "Which one is more amazing, more beautiful, more wonderful, the doll or your sister?" She was silent. Then she said, "My sister." I said, "Well, you have your sister, and your sister has a doll. Why not go play with her?" She did. Kyle and Ellie had me, and I had an opinion I didn't want to give up. Which one is more amazing, more beautiful, more wonderful? Me or the opinion? They clearly don't think the opinion is worth much, so why reject me, a lifelong friend? Nevertheless, that is what happened. It is hard to be told by a friend that you mean less to them than a worthless opinion about a tiny piece of paper with foreign scribbling on it. But somehow their Sacred Honor demanded it of them. This has everything to do with the purpose of my weekly Christian commentary on current events.

                I have been looking at video of Sharia Justice in which a small 8 year old boy who stole a loaf of bread methodically and legally had his right arm crushed under the wheel of a car so he would go through life maimed and aware he stole a loaf of bread once and forfeited his right to earn a living. I have been looking at video of a "celebration" in the streets of Vienna, Austria, where Muslim men and boys down to the age of just walking, paraded with swords and song and ritual dance to commemorate a successful past Jihad. Only thing is I had to watch in horror as they began to give their heads to each other's real swords, as each man sliced open the scalp of the other until the entire group of men, boys, and babes were dancing  with blood streaming down their faces and clothing, never once stopping the singing and dancing for Allah, even though the little boys were now crying and the older boys were round eyed and stony faced and the mothers were eating ice-cream on the side lines and looking away. I had just watched again the  film of the collapse of the twin towers in New York City. Those first two videos are more current than the one of the twin towers. They show Muslim activities 9 years after 9-11's attack on the United States.

                 I had just watched news about the Imam leading the Cordoba Initiative. This current event has everything to do with current events and Christianity. We are using American money that comes from our excessive taxes: EXCESSIVE TAXES. You want proof its excessive? How come that after we pay for schools, police, firemen and public transportation, we have enough to finance a worldwide fund-raising trip so one religious leader out of our entire nation of religious leaders can find backing among his kind to complete his CORDOBA INITIATIVE?  Cordoba was the site in Spain where the Islamic hordes tore down an important Christian Church in order to set up a Mosque to Allah after they conquered Spain. Pardon me if I recoil at unknown dithering on a stamp! I have more important things on my mind lately.

                These are the sorts of things that I am pledging my sacred honor to as well as to ask the question why the killing of 14 of our soldiers at Fort Kent has been swept under the carpet in favor of attacks on the Tea Party. Little stuff like that are on my mind. Little stuff like the National Education Association's stranglehold on our nations' children's minds; on the refusal of the government to issue vouchers and fund alternative schooling, even though it's our money and our kids we are paying to educate. Stuff like finding out that the reason why they won't issue vouchers is because the United Nations doesn't want vouchers. They want every child born in the entire world to be taught one thing and one thing only: their accepted ideology. Pardon me if I say we must resist until there is nothing left to resist. I will stand by my own Sacred Honor and if I lose a few friends along the way I do not care. There is an ancient Hebrew scripture that does comfort me. It goes something like this: Though a thousand may fall by your side, do not fear, for I am with you. In the end, the only thing that is worth fighting over is the sweetness of Jesus and His Love. His is the actual definition of Sacred Honor.

                As the crisp and intoxicating days of Autumn drift in, so will the news of current events under the sun. Voices will drone on about the elections. To those of us who love freedom and who aren't sticking our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich who enjoys the coolness while her eggs are trampled and broken, we need to realize that freedom comes with a small cost, while subjugation negates the soul itself. Freedom Counts  Christian Commentary on Current Events  is written by Reverend Rachelle Hamlin, AEA  Forwarding is encouraged.  To subscribe or comment contact:    rahamlin@hughes.net.