Second Weekly Prayer Challenge—Our Military

Susan Myers

Prayer—are we praying for our military? Our wonderful defenders have certainly been used to bring about the liberation of millions. Young people with an eye to the future are enlisting. Educational incentives and employment opportunities, in addition to our armed forces’ patriotic contributions, make the service attractive to those emerging from high school.

However, there are concerns for thinking parents and citizens. Just to mention a few: UN directives interfering with national freedoms, recent threats from countries such as North Korea, growing religious restraints on Christian chaplains, and increasing pressure to succumb to moral dangers. Muslims even feel free to attack our military recruiting centers in our homeland and it almost goes unnoticed.

Our servicemen deserve special seasons of prayer. They stand between all of us and our national enemies. Will you stand between them and their enemies—the flesh, the worldly influences, and the devil as well as the physical dangers they face? Consider setting aside one day a week to remember those you know personally and locally, as well as all the military, including officers, military bases, and chaplains. We thank God for answers to prayer such as the recent upholding of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But how can we expect to see God work if we don’t continue to pray, and pray specifically?

Remember that many young soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are still in their formative years. Their education is continuing in the classroom, in technical training, and in life. Do they have a firm foundation, salvation in Christ and a solid belief in God’s Word? If so, that will stand them in good stead. However, if evolutionary teaching has weakened their faith in the Almighty and the Bible, doubts can easily triumph.

Chaplains are reporting claims of atheism among enlisted men and women as never before. George Washington in addressing his troops at Valley Forge on May 2, 1778 took for granted the Christian character of his men: “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion [Christianity]. To the distinguished character of a patriot, it should be our highest glory to laud the more distinguished character of [a] Christian.”

God gave our country freedom in response to the cries of believing citizens and soldiers. They certainly trusted in His power. The lives and eternities of our present servicemen as well as the freedom of our nation have been and will be affected by this and succeeding generations’ understanding or ignorance of the truth. If we as a nation do not believe in Jesus Christ and are not on the Lord’s side, how can we expect God to defend us or give our troops victory as God did for King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32:6–8?

Pray each week for good chaplains, the freedom to do the work God has called them to, and courage for Christian servicemen to powerfully witness to others while they live victoriously each day. Work to put material into military hands that will sweep away the roadblock of evolution and give real answers to build them up in the faith, giving them the backbone they need to defend themselves and our country in this crooked and perverse world.

Pray that Texas Governor Perry Will Veto HB 4294

There is a struggle in Texas right now over who will oversee education. The blocking of the reappointment of Chairman Don McElroy of the State Board of Education by liberal senators in the state legislature and the present attempt to strip the SBOE of authority (and thus citizens of input into that properly elected body) are the result of efforts by the media, egged on by organizations who are dedicated to keeping evolution in the science classroom and creationism out. Why do organizations such as the National Center for Science Education and the Texas Freedom Network put so much time, effort, and money into this state and this particular fight? Any person or organization whose purpose is to ensure accuracy and give students a good education—enabling them to think on their own—weakens evolution’s hold on the mind of students and they know it. They also know that Texas is key to educational issues in the rest of the nation.

So how does this struggle in Texas affect the rest of the nation’s public school children? Texas and California are the two most influential states for education in the United States. California leads in being the first to push issues like homosexual teaching into public school curriculum (next year introducing this even for kindergarteners without recourse for objecting parents). Texas leads in educational accuracy. Texas’s current textbook adoption process results in more accurate and educationally excellent materials. Many states—and possibly yours—schedule their textbook adoption for the year following the Lone Star State’s because they realize that many factual errors in new educational material will be caught and corrected during this time. Their work keeps educational publishers accountable (each uncorrected error accrues a fine) and saves all states the time and money (months of analysis per textbook and digitalized materials by trained eyes) to ferret out inaccuracies and weaknesses of pedagogy.

Current Situation: HB 4294—which would place digitalized textbooks in Texas classrooms, bypassing the public hearings and careful scrutiny of the SBOE textbook adoption process—has been sent to Governor Perry’s desk. This would effectively end the benefits given not only Texas, but all states, of accountability for publishers and the impetus for them to correct errors. Help him see the influence of Texas in education issues nationally and ask on behalf of yours to continue this process of excellence.

Take Action
Pray for this issue and urge Governor Rick Perry to veto the measure of HB 4294. Ask him to maintain his state’s role as leader in textbook excellence for the sake of Texas and all states.

National Standards, National Tests, National Indoctrination!

Donna Garner

[Washington Post announced federal government's plans to create national standards and testing. Education specialist, Donna Garner shared today her insights on the federal government’s massive intrusion into state affairs.—Susan Myers]

What a hoax! The federal government is going to create national standards that lead to national tests that lead to national indoctrination of our children, and Arne Duncan is trying to make it look as if this whole idea has "bubbled up from the states." Nonsense. He has put out the word to the states that if their states do not sign onto the national standards, bad consequences will follow; and the idea that the states pushed this idea is bogus. It has been the Washington bureaucrats, Obama, and Arne who have pushed this entire scheme to gain control of every public school child in this country.

What is amazing is the breathtaking speed at which this is moving, in hopes that the American people will not notice until it is too late.

I am so proud of the Commissioners of Education in Texas, Alaska, Missouri, and South Carolina who are smart enough to recognize "a red herring" when they see one. These people need to be congratulated for their wisdom and for their courage.

To show what a "red herring" this idea of national standards/national tests really is, please notice that the issue of whole language vs. phonics is not even going to be addressed in them. To ignore the empirical reading research that has been done by the National Institutes of Health that proves that phonemic awareness and decoding skills are the key to becoming a successful reader is a crime in itself! This further shows that nothing good will ever come out of the national standards/national tests movement if the one thing upon which we actually have solid scientific and medically based education research is going to be ignored.

"Or whether students should be drilled on math facts"—In other words, the national standards are not going to require students to learn those "terrible" math facts that produced the greatest mathematicians and scientists in the whole world! What good are national standards if they do not guide the public schools into the teaching of real math and real science?

Every person in America should voice outrage because the largest percentage of students attend the public schools, and whatever those students learn or do not learn impacts the entire future of our nation.