One If By Land, Two If By Sea

One If by Land, Two if by Sea,
Three if by Pennsylvania Ave.

A “wake up call” filled the midnight air on that faithful April night in 1775, as the thunder of horse’s hooves echoed off of the cobblestones and as the rider sounded the alarm.

“The British are coming” was the reveille call that pierced the silent night, as if it was keeping beat with the “war drums” of the hooves slamming into the stones. Horse and rider raced through the night as if they were one being driven by an unfamiliar spirit that was unknown to them, but is known to every one of us. This was the night that the “American Spirit” was born.

I sit here tonight on New Year’s Eve and I think about that time in our history, and I wonder if Paul Revere had any doubts in his heart about the events that was unfolding all around him? Would he finish his ride, and be alone? Would the town people assume that the British would not really go through with the threats they had made, or if they had become complacent with their day to day lives to even notice or understand what was unfolding around them? I sit here and wonder what would have happened if it were today?

On December 14, 2012, our Nation was turned upside down by a satanic coward. I was riding with a coworker that morning to a meeting. We spent the 1 ½ hour drive by making small talk and chit chat, but for some reason we began to talk about the world we live in today. I made the comment that America would never see another D-Day. He asked what did I mean, and I explained that for the past 20 years or so we as a country have not been raising our boys to be men. We even go as far as to make growing into a man a bad thing. I pointed out that in high schools all across the country teenage boys are sent home if they have whiskers or stubble on their face, and told not to come back until they shave. It is like they should be ashamed that their bodies are developing into men. That would be like telling a girl she shouldn’t grow breast until she is out of school.

I spent a few minutes that day talking about everything that went wrong with the D-Day invasion, from the paratroopers missing their drop zones, to the beaches with no cover, to the stalemate in the hedgerows.

I think back to the stories I have been told by some of the men that were there that day on that beach. Stories about how they charged straight into the danger that lay ahead of them. How they would advance through the bodies of their fallen brothers, knowing that each inch they moved would be putting them an inch closer to their death. I asked one of the men that ordained me into the ministry, “how did y’all do it?” He gave a very simple complex reply, “It was what a man had to do.” You see the generations of men that we sent to battle that day were taught that at times a man has to fight. They were taught that life is at times hard and the odds will be against you, but you stand tall and defeat the odds. They were taught that when a bully picked on you in the school yard that you clinched your fist and you busted his nose as hard as you could, today we teach our boys to go tell a teacher.

I asked my co-worker on that ride, “Do you think Columbine would have happened in 1945?” Think about it for a minute, we used to teach a boy how to grow into a man. When I preached my Daddy’s funeral, I made the statement that “Daddy taught me how to be a man”, I learned that as a man I was to defend that which was right, and I was to protect the ones that I love. I believe that the same generation of men that stormed Omaha beach would have stormed those two cowards in Colorado.

When I turned on the news coverage of Sandy Hook, I made a simple comment to my wife, I asked her, “Where were the men?” The question had come from the conversation I had that morning, but as I sat and heard the reports of the teachers and staff that were in the school that day it was women’s names that were being reported, women that hid children in the classrooms, women who surrendered their lives to try protect the lives of the children that was entrusted to them, and the question kept ringing in my ears “Where were the men?”

Where were the men that were supposed to teach that boy how to grow to be a man? The Bible teaches us to train up a child in the way that he is to go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Where was the man that was supposed to be his Daddy? I’m not excusing what he did; I’m not blaming Hollywood or video games, I’m not blaming bullies, I’m not even blaming the guns or the bullets for his rampage. Honestly,if I was in that school that morning, I would have died attacking him, or I would have killed him myself. The person that is to blame is his father. The one who was put in his life to teach and train him, but he was left for his mother to raise.

If we want to put an end to these school shootings, then we do need to put armed guards in the schools as a start, but most importantly we have to put the fathers back in the home. A woman cannot raise a boy to be a man; she can only raise him to be a woman. The Bible instructs the young man to shew a pattern of good works; that pattern is to come from the father.

We find ourselves at a crossroad in our country today where we have to ask the question that has been ringing in my ears for the last couple of weeks now, “Where are the men?”

I sat and watched the news coverage of Sandy Hook, and before the tears even had time to dry, wicked politicians took to the airwaves vowing to “ban the assault weapons used.” They promised to rid our country of the weapons that could inflict that much damage, so nothing like this could ever happen again. One thing they never look at is, the person is the weapon. If you attempt to harm my family on the street the weapon I will protect them with is me. The gun, knife, or fist I use is simply my tool. The passion to protect the ones I love and to defend what is right that burns deep inside of my soul is what gives this weapon it’s strength, not the tool used by it. It is better to die on my feet fighting than to lose a loved one or to lose that which is right.

If Paul Revere were alive today would he see three lanterns hanging in the church tower? Would his reveille call be “The grabbers are coming”? Would he find the common man ready to stand with him? Where are the men today?

There is an all out attack on our Constitutional Rights in our country today. Dianne Feinstein wants to completely disarm the American citizen. I know you are thinking to yourself right now that she just wants to ban certain types of guns, but in 1995 after getting the 1994 assault weapon ban passed she said “if I had 51 votes I would have taken all of the guns, Mr. and Mrs. American turn them all in.” (you can see the video here)

The lanterns are in the church window, the sound of hoof beats are echoing across the country tonight, our Rights are under attack and we are at risk at losing all of them if we refuse to hear the alarm. We will lose our Freedoms if we don’t stand. We will lose if we have to ask:

“Where Are The Men?” Our Right to Keep and Bear Arms, is the Right that Guarantees ALL of our other Freedoms.