The 2020 Election and What's at Stake this Week

SPECIAL REPORT: The 2020 Election and What's at Stake

The 2020 Election, What's at Stake

I have written and compiled quite a bit concerning the upcoming election. Here is a guide to some of the articles.

The Path Before Us, What's at Stake
[click to read]

In just a week, Americans will not only choose a President, they will choose the course for this nation’s future. To say that this election is important would be a huge understatement. In this issue I lay out a few of the things that are at stake. Yet many people will not vote. They will say things like “my vote doesn’t matter,” but it does! They may even spiritualize their lack of participation saying “God will raise up the leaders.” Let me tell you though – He HAS! In a Representative Republic they are US! (read more)

Church in America, Wake Up!
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On the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election, Pastor Gary delivers a sermon to challenge the church in America to “wake up!” Our nation is at a crossroads and our only hope is for Christians to stand for righteousness and vote our values! To be disengaged and apathetic will result in the advancement of a liberal, progressive, demonic-inspired agenda that is bent on the destruction of America. Christians need to wake up and realize that we are in a spiritual battle for the heart and soul of our nation and the heart and soul of the next generation. Stand up for righteousness! Stand up for truth! And let your voices be heard for the glory of God! (read more)

Staring into the Abyss
[read more]

By Father Ed Meeks

I mentioned to you for the past two Sundays that I’m going to be speaking today on the November third election and want to give you a little heads-up as I begin. I will be going a little bit long this morning because I have a lot of ground to cover. This will be for me personally the 14th presidential election I will have voted in since reaching the age of majority. And this one is unlike anything I have ever seen. I actually said the same thing about the last election in 2016, but the events of the last four years and in fact of the past six or seven months have cast this upcoming election in a whole new and ever more dire light. I believe that at this moment in time and history you and I find ourselves as part of a society that is staring into the abyss. And it how our nation votes on November the third will determine whether we collectively step off the cliff into that abyss or step back from it, if only temporarily. (read more)

Something to Think About
[click to read]

Hate Didn’t Elect Donald Trump; People Did 

By Victoria Sanders

Over the summer, my little sister had a soccer tournament at Bloomsburg University, located in central Pennsylvania. The drive there was about three hours and many of the towns we drove through shocked me. The conditions of these towns were terrible. Houses were falling apart. Bars and restaurants were boarded up. Scrap metal was thrown across front lawns. White, plastic lawn chairs were out on the drooping front porches. There were no malls. No outlets. Most of these small towns did not have a Walmart, only a dollar store and a few run down thrift stores. In almost every town, there was an abandoned factory.

My father, who was driving the car, turned to me and pointed out a Trump sign stuck in a front yard, surrounded by weeds and dead grass. “This is Trump country, Tori,” He said. “These people are desperate, trapped for life in these small towns with no escape. These people are the ones voting for Trump.” (read more)

Arguing without Quarreling
[click to read]

There are no odd couples anymore. In an age of heightened partisanship and unsparing vitriol, it is conventional wisdom that if you are a conservative, you cannot pal around with a liberal. And if you are a liberal, you can have nothing in common with a conservative.

Not so Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. (read more)

Will the Church Just Sing Louder?
[cick to read]

In his book When A Nation Forgets God Dr. Erwin Lutzer recounts the following testimony of a German Christian: “I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it. A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance, and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.” And then the eyewitness shared with Pastor Lutzer, “ Although years have passed, I still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me, forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.” (read more)

The Flight of the Phoenix Election
By Bob Kirchman

In the last election, an article appeared comparing the urgency of the election to the situation facing the passengers on flight 93 on September 11, 2001. It’s then anonymous author, ‘Publicus,’ made a great point. Too often Conservatives approached the dangers facing the republic with not enough of a sense of urgency. The 2016 election was indeed of grave importance. But now it is 2020 and the urgency of the situation has only become more pronounced. After the country seemed to be taking a better course the pandemic and civil unrest threw sand in the engine of recovery. Here we are, much like the cast of Flight of the Phoenix, stuck in a bad place. (read more)

We've Got a Country to Save
[click to read]

The United States has always been a home for those suffering under socialist regimes across the world, but all of that is at great risk in the hands of today’s Democratic Party run by Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and AOC. Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker, scholar, and New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza, Trump Card is an exposé of the socialism, corruption and gangsterization that now define the Democratic Party. Whether it is the creeping socialism of Joe Biden or the overt socialism of Bernie Sanders, the film reveals what is unique about modern socialism, who is behind it, why it’s evil, and how we can work together with President Trump to stop it. (read more)

Prayer for Our Nation
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The only hope for America is God.” Today, you can watch live from Washington, D.C., as Franklin Graham leads a Prayer March from the Lincoln Memorial to U.S. Capitol. You can watch the archived video of the Prayer March now. “Prayer is our most important weapon,” he said. “It allows us to go directly to the King of kings, directly to stand in front of the throne of grace and make our petitions known directly to God.” Watch the Prayer March 2020 archived video, and pray along. (read more)


Franklin Graham leads thousands in prayer at the Reflecting Pool on September 26, 2020.

Will the Church Just Sing Louder? Call to Action

Volume XIX, Issue XIII: Will the Church Just Sing Louder?

Will the Church Just Sing Louder?

In his book When A Nation Forgets God Dr. Erwin Lutzer recounts the following testimony of a German Christian: “I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it. A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance, and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.” And then the eyewitness shared with Pastor Lutzer, “ Although years have passed, I still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me, forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.” 

Adolf Hitler sought to keep the church away from the affairs of state. “The Germans were deceived into believing that allegiance to God was best demonstrated by allegiance to the state. Hitler stood down and negated the influence of two strong Christian theologians – Martin Niemöller  and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Although Niemöller and Bonhoeffer refused to buy in to the Nazi propaganda, the more than 2,000 pastors that had stood with them in the early stages of Nazi development withdrew their support.” – James Robinson

Of course, we know the tragedy of the Shoah where over six million Jews died while only a handful of Germans resisted. It was a tragedy of epic proportions. It happened while so many people ‘just sang louder.’ “But that was back then,” you say.

The world of the early and mid-twentieth Century was not so unlike our world today. Joseph Laconte, in his book A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War, tells of how the generation of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were affected by the great war. Both of them served in the trenches and saw youth move from idealism to despair. Many of the young people of that generation, Lewis included, became their time’s version of the ‘Nones;’ those with no faith. Laconte describes a culture much like our own. Disillusioned by the wars they entered as a ‘holy crusade,’ they now saw nothing worth fighting for. They lived mainly for the pleasure of the moment and with a certain fatalism.

Lewis and Tolkien saw the literature of the time promoting further the myth that there was nothing worth fighting for. Nothing was good and holy. Modern science sought to better the condition of man on earth but ignored the spiritual being that man is. Science offered solutions such as Eugenics and that would eventually lead to horrible things. Lewis and Tolkien took it upon themselves to write the stories their time needed – the ‘True Myth’ informed them. Redemption in Christ! In that light there were true goods to preserve, true evils to be fought. Epic struggles with little hope of success, but they were the great stories! The heroes of these stories were ordinary people, like a simple little hobbit – a member of a race not known for heroic exploits, preferring instead the comfort of hearth and home – and a good meal!

So too we live in a time of great peril. The good and true foundations of our world are under siege as life has been devalued by abortion, the family has been rendered obsolete by many modern thinkers, our freedom of religion is challenged by civil authorities and precious children are victims of sexual exploitation. We reduce human lives to commodities. We now are able to offer solace to the millions of truly persecuted in the world, but that may soon no longer be allowed us.

And we just sing louder!

Too many pulpits fail to call us to action in the epic war we are already in. We need to uphold the principle learned from Genesis 1: IMAGO DEI, that each person is created in the Image of God. The unborn, the child, the refugee from Rwanda, black, brown, white, and every shade between — each life matters. Such are the issues that need to be addressed in our public life. And yet, the participation of Christians in the election process is pathetically low. Why is that so? I truly believe people care about their communities. I feel like so many simply don’t know what is at stake – and we just play the music louder... 

White Rock Falls
Photo by Bob Kirchman



Raindrops on Roses (and Other Blossoms)
Photos by Bob Kirchman









Elites Try to Demonize Votes for Trump
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They’re blind — or worse — to the false moral equivalence between abortion and their classic character concerns. (read more)

More Harm than Good
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By Jay Hobbes

I love John Piper and have been influenced by him in countless ways–all, I hope, to the good. However, I think this piece does far more harm than good. Among a large number of false dichotomies he lays out (as if Trump were uniquely guilty of pride compared with fellow politicians — to which I say, “Hardy har-har”), the most glaring is Piper’s conflation of sin and policy. It’s true that a leader’s bad character and a nation’s degradation go hand-in-hand, but isn’t policy the clearest way to see this phenomenon play out? It was in the Old Testament, where nations and Israel were judged for their wicked actions such as child-sacrifices and sexually untethered idolatry, (Leviticus 20:1-5, Jeremiah 7:30, 2 Kings 17:17) and it’s just as true today. Of course, the heart plays a crucial role, but the actions and policies are where we see the heart on display.

On the topic of character, we should remember that one key indicator of this quality is whether someone keeps his or her word. Many conservatives were understandably reluctant to vote for Trump in 2016, but his track record of conservative accomplishments—not just the Supreme Court justices, but also some 300 lower court judges, his efforts to cut back on crushing regulations, and his admirable restraint to resist expanding the size of the federal government even in times of crisis—speaks for itself. That’s what character is. The word for that is integrity. Yes, boorishness and pride are wicked vices. Full stop. The problem is, these vices are common throughout our body politic. They’re not relegated to one party or the other. Unyielding allegiance to a regime of abortion, sexual immorality, and theft, on the other hand, are hallmarks of the stated platform of the only one party. And these policies far outlast any president’s time in office. In his piece, Piper also commits the common error of assuming that issues like abortion, religious liberty, free speech, gender identity, and parental rights won’t seriously be affected regardless of who wins between Biden and Trump. It just ain’t so. (read more)

APOLLONIUS, Chapter Ten, Settlement on Mars

Volume XIX, Issue XIII: Special Book Section

Apollonius
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 10: Settlement on Mars

Shuttle 001 returned safely to Great Northern three days after it landed on the surface, having established the beginnings of the colony. The final shuttles down to the planet Mars would be piloted by settlers. The shuttles would remain on the planet as ‘lifeboats’ in the event that a speedy return to Earth became necessary. That would allow for emergency evacuation of the entire population if the need arose and they could safely reach Earth orbit and rescue. This required the flight crew to train the landing crew… and hours and hours of simulation. Sarah was the sharpest pilot in the crew according to the astronaut scoring system and she was also gifted as a teacher. Sadly, the settlers were tough students, having been recruited from a part of society that did not necessarily prize high achievement in the sciences. Sarah was especially adept at recasting the lessons for them though and the training kept them too busy for mischief… or at least that is how it seemed. Sarah was not enjoying the hours in zero-gravity necessary to work with the pilots of the craft. You see, though she had never had problems with queasiness or space-sickness before, there was a new reason for her unsettled stomach… one that would have been a happy one had she been safely in a house on Earth, but here approaching an unknown ball of red rock, it was an uncertain one. More than once the seasoned astronaut had to grab the upchuck bag as she taught. It was embarrassing but it was quickly passed off as space-sickness to the unsuspecting students.

Though she had tried to learn the names of the 29 settlers when they came aboard, Cohen found it somewhat distressing that the settlers were of late referring to each other by their badge numbers. “How odd!” she wondered to herself. “Going off to build a new community, new lives and a new civilization and they’re talking to each other like they’re part of some bland Twentieth Century bureaucracy!” If she’d distrusted Apollonius before, she now grew to loath him. “No doubt, this is HIS doing… making them into cogs in his machine. The settlement will take on the personality of Apollonius but suppress the spirit of its occupants.” She longed to confront the billionaire on this but orders were to transport without comment. Besides, she had a new reason to be concerned stirring within her. “Get them delivered, get home. Retire!” She longed for the time the settlers could be deposited safely on Mars and it would be just them again… just the tight little crew of the Great Northern. Then it would be safe to tell Abiyah he was going to be a father!

With relatively few mishaps, thirty settlers in ten little craft set down in a precise circle on the Martian plane. They set to work extracting more shelters from the shuttles, more life support modules, more pieces of a colossal puzzle. Apollonius was supposed to be their leader but thankfully Ben Gurion’s crew had trained the settlers well enough that they could assemble the colony quite without him. That is exactly what they did. George Apollonius had something on his mind… but it was not the colony.
(to be continued)

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Arguing without Quarreling in an Election Year

SPECIAL REPORT: Arguing without Quarreling

Arguing without Quarreling
[click to read]

There are no odd couples anymore. In an age of heightened partisanship and unsparing vitriol, it is conventional wisdom that if you are a conservative, you cannot pal around with a liberal. And if you are a liberal, you can have nothing in common with a conservative.

Not so Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.

From the standpoint of their politics and jurisprudence, you might have thought these two Supreme Court giants were from different planets. Ginsburg would be described as a liberal’s liberal with staunch opinions (literally) on everything from civil liberties to abortion. Scalia was recognized as a towering conservative who championed the separation of powers and a keen deference to the text of the law. Ginsburg believed in the living Constitution while Scalia defended originalism. Though both were native New Yorkers, their judicial philosophies could have spawned a rivalry akin to the fiery mid-century rows between New York Yankee and Brooklyn Dodger fans.

And yet they really liked each other. (read more)

Church in America, Wake Up!

SPECIAL REPORT: Church in America, Wake Up!

Church in America, Wake Up!

On the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election, Pastor Gary delivers a sermon to challenge the church in America to “wake up!” Our nation is at a crossroads and our only hope is for Christians to stand for righteousness and vote our values! To be disengaged and apathetic will result in the advancement of a liberal, progressive, demonic-inspired agenda that is bent on the destruction of America. Christians need to wake up and realize that we are in a spiritual battle for the heart and soul of our nation and the heart and soul of the next generation. Stand up for righteousness! Stand up for truth! And let your voices be heard for the glory of God!

VIA PULCHRITUDINIS, “The Way of Beauty”

Volume XIX, Issue XIIa: VIA PULCHRITUDINIS

Walking in “The Way of Beauty”


Ray Rinaldo of Furniture Medic prepares to hang the Crucifix in St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Waynesboro, Virginia.

God called man into existence, committing to him the craftsman’s task. Through his “artistic creativity” man appears more than ever “in the image of God”, and he accomplishes this task above all in shaping the wondrous “material” of his own humanity and then exercising creative dominion over the universe which surrounds him.” – Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists

There is a new sense of the beautiful as a tool for evangelization in the church today as is witnessed by the creation of beautiful structures as houses of worship in the Catholic community. While Evangelicals may seem to possess a slightly impoverished architectural vision, there is certainly a rich love of music in their ranks. Beauty is a quality that is universally sought. It is in both the pursuit of beauty and the desire to create it that we find a certain communion with our Creator. Thus the writings of people like Bishop Robert Barron and the hymns of Keith and Kristen Getty serve to give richness and texture to our worship and our message.

I, for one, am happy to see beautiful architecture as a part of beautiful worship. It need not be grand, for I recall with joy the wonderful feeling of those wonderful little country churches with the big windows that opened to the surrounding trees and countryside. Even the finest stained glass could not compare to autumn’s majesty seen through the wavy glass of century past. A bright sunny day sent wondrous shafts of light through the pews. A day of grey clouds only served to make the autumn tree colors more vivid. Winter’s stark contrasts painted another picture altogether. The flowering trees of spring completed the masterpiece. Far from being a distraction it was always for me an invitation into the Master Artist’s studio.

Sadly, the visual often was not so celebrated in the Evangelical tradition. Windowless megachurches began to resemble theatres more than sacred spaces. The projection screen often grabbed the space that should have held sacred imagery. Happily there is a movement to return to beautiful environments for worship. Be it the renaissance of the great forms of the past or the light filled modernist churches of Fay Jones, beauty speaks of the One who made all things Beautiful! It I indeed, as Bishop Barron says, a means of communicating the Gospel.


St. Joseph is the Patron of Craftsmen. Photo by Bob Kirchman

Thorncrown Chapel


Thorncrown Chapel, designed by Fay Jones, invites nature into a worshipful space in the Prarie Style.

Natural Arches in Augusta County Virginia
Photos by Bob Kirchman





These smaller cousins of the famous Natural Bridge are technically not ‘bridges’ but natural arches because no water flows beneath them.

MOHOMONY, “The Bridge of G-d”


Mohomony, the 'Bridge of G-d,' as the Monacans called it is the namesake of Rockbridge County in Virginia.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” – ISAIAH 43:19

The Bridge Builder
By Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

Source: Father: An Anthology of Verse (EP Dutton and Company, 1931)



The Bridge of G-d
Unique Natural Formation Saved Early Monacans


One can almost imagine the battle...


...raging above this deep chasm.

Amazing Story of Deliverance in Monacan Heritage

Running desperately through the forest, the small band of Monacan men, women and children were vastly outnumbered by their pursuers. Powhatan warriers were overtaking them. Suddenly they came to the edge of a vast chasm! They could see no way to cross it.

They closed their eyes and prayed. Then they looked up and saw the formation we know today as Natural Bridge, one of Virginia's most unique wonders, spanning the chasm. Hurrying their women and children across the stone span, they followed. Then they turned to make their stand. The much larger army was constricted by the narrow bridge and could only attack the Monacans in a much smaller number. The bridge became a great equalizer between the two forces and the Monacans were victorious that day.

Passed from generation to generation, the story of Monacan survival has made Natural Bridge a sacred place to the Monacans. They named it Mohomony, meaning 'Bridge of G-d."

Today a recreated Monacan village stands at the base of the bridge. Because the story predates written accounts, it is easy to dismiss it as legend, yet as we considered it my wife said: "I believe it recounts an actual event." The strategic element inherent in the story (the narrow bridge equalizing the battle) is too much like something another Rockbridge County resident, Thomas Jackson, would want to remember.

Like Homer's accounts of the Trojan War and the Odyssey home, some unknown Monacan warrier seems to have recounted this amazing story, remembering the time when geography aided them in battle. I walked across the bridge on route 11, imagining an epic battle like something out of Tolkien (like Gandalf facing the Balrog)! Young Monacans standing shoulder to shoulder to protect children and wives from an overwhelming enemy, who prevailed that day, passed the story to their children.

It just seemed to me like one of many grand moments in history where the unseen hand of G-d was seen as deliverer.


Today visitors walk beneath the bridge...


...but her greatest story may have played out above!

Reopening Alaska
[click to read]

By Lela Markham

Despite the fact that my author friends in England and Canada believe we’re a bunch of idiots for doing so, Alaska’s Gov. Dunleavy has acquiesced to demands that he start reopening the economy. Alaska (population 800,000) has had less than 400 confirmed cases of CVD19, less than 100 hospitalizations and 10 deaths (although 4–5 of them were Alaska residents who were never in Alaska during their illness). All of the 4–5 deaths in the state suffered from comorbidities that might have killed them in the absence of CVD19.

If you had CVD19 and arteriosclerosis and you suffered a stroke and died — which one killed you? The answer to that depends on whether you died in February (before CVD19 officially got to Alaska) or died in March, April or May. But regardless, in Alaska, you have a 0.003% chance of dying of CVD19, even if you catch it. Meanwhile, you have a 30% chance of unemployment and small-business owners have an 80% chance of bankruptcy at this point. We’ve decided to address the bigger risks to our quality of life now that we’re pretty sure everybody won’t die of CVD19. (read more)

Cherry Blossoms






Cherry Blossoms at the Jefferson memorial. Photos by Bob Kirchman

Mohomony in Afternoon Light
Photos by Bob Kirchman









Thoughts on the Current Crisis
[click to read]

By Larry P. Arn

First a report about the College. Hillsdale’s campus is quiet, which it ought not to be, but also well. Our students were away for spring break when the coronavirus hit. We spent the week absorbing the news and making plans to bring them back, it being our job to have college. We found that we could not. Much of what I am writing here is shaped by this discovery: we did not have and could not get the tools and knowledge to do our work. And soon enough we were forbidden to do it by general fiat.

Spirits are good here, nonetheless. There have been many inspiring examples of service, good humor, and effort. I just finished a videoconference with the senior class officers to plan Commencement, which will be a grand celebration whether it is in May or later this summer. The seniors will arrive days early, dress up in their finery, and come over in groups for dinner at my house and sing and give toasts. Those are important rituals of friendship, and students have the same attitude as I: they will put up with absence and isolation, but resent it, and they will redouble their efforts to achieve the best things. They are determined to convert this disruption into an opportunity for excellence. (read more)

APOLLONIUS, Chapter Nine, 1st 3 People on Mars

Volume XIX, Issue XII

Apollonius
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved

Chapter 9: The First Three People on Mars

In the long shaft connecting Great Northern’s gravity ring to the engine complex, hundreds of supply pods were stored, ready to be dropped to the plane’s surface. The parts for greenhouses, an initial biosphere and solar panels along with pipe and machinery could be dropped in a fairly low-tech manner, and as the ship slowed into Martian orbit the process of site selection began. “Flat site, easy path to polar ice for initial water line, visibility from Earth so semaphore signals or emergency rocket could be seen…” After a day in orbit several were identified. In conversation with Earth control, it was finally narrowed down to one prime site and Abiyah and Sarah entered returnable shuttle 001 and waited as ‘Katherine’ cast them free. Retros fired and the craft made an arced descent towards the surface. Abiyah was praying his return engine would light. Sarah was praying she wouldn’t lose her lunch. Both were filled with anticipation. The Martian surface rose to meet the descending craft. The computer called out the distance to the surface in 100’ increments now… Retro fire! Slowed descent and a cloud of dust as shuttle 001 gently rested on her landing legs on the Martian surface. “We’re on the surface,” Sarah announced through the microphone. History had been made!

Adding gloves and helmets to their pressure suits, the two astronauts wasted no time in getting to the surface. The first humans to set foot on Mars climbed down the ladder together and stood on the last rung holding hands. Abiyah counted “One, two, three…” and then they jumped… still holding hands to the Martian surface. The athletic Abiyah pulled up his feet at the last possible moment so that Sarah would touch first… by a second. Standing on the surface they said nothing for a few seconds, staring at a vast red world. They had been rendered quite speechless! Then in unison, the two astronauts began in Hebrew: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens…”

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visits him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; though has put all things under his feet.”

Oh Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

As much of the world’s secular media howled in protest, two astronauts mediated on the eighth Psalm and then set down to work.

Ready to release sensitive equipment pod.” Sarah chimed.

Housing Module A10001 deploy.” said Abiyah.

D9 Special Edition Deploy” said Sarah as a very customized bulldozer was ejected from the craft.

Life support/com module deploy.” said Abiyah.

Solar array for initial camp deploy.” said Sarah.

That day the astronauts used the ’special edition’ tractor to position the first house on Mars, its life-support systems, a small folding greenhouse and a construction office/communications center. They spent the night together in the little house and were sure to lay claim to another historic ‘first’ as far as that was concerned. Sarah ached to tell Abiyah her suspicions but she knew that he could afford no distractions now. Reckless intimacy in the crew house on Mars was probably too much as it was, but that was part of who they already were. As for what Sarah suspected was happening inside her, the time was not right to talk about it.
(to be continued)





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SPECIAL REPORT: Staring Into the Abyss

SPECIAL REPORT: Staring Into the Abyss

Staring into the Abyss
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By Father Ed Meeks


Read Transcript HERE [click to read]

I mentioned to you for the past two Sundays that I’m going to be speaking today on the November third election and want to give you a little heads-up as I begin. I will be going a little bit long this morning because I have a lot of ground to cover. This will be for me personally the 14th presidential election I will have voted in since reaching the age of majority. And this one is unlike anything I have ever seen. I actually said the same thing about the last election in 2016, but the events of the last four years and in fact of the past six or seven months have cast this upcoming election in a whole new and ever more dire light. I believe that at this moment in time and history you and I find ourselves as part of a society that is staring into the abyss. And it how our nation votes on November the third will determine whether we collectively step off the cliff into that abyss or step back from it, if only temporarily. (read more)

Hate Didn't Elect Donald Trump; People Did

SPECIAL REPORT: Hate Didn't Elect Donald Trump


Factory stacks in Waynesboro, Virginia. Photo by Bob Kirchman.

Something to Think About
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Hate Didn’t Elect Donald Trump; People Did
By Victoria Sanders

Over the summer, my little sister had a soccer tournament at Bloomsburg University, located in central Pennsylvania. The drive there was about three hours and many of the towns we drove through shocked me. The conditions of these towns were terrible. Houses were falling apart. Bars and restaurants were boarded up. Scrap metal was thrown across front lawns. White, plastic lawn chairs were out on the drooping front porches. There were no malls. No outlets. Most of these small towns did not have a Walmart, only a dollar store and a few run down thrift stores. In almost every town, there was an abandoned factory.

My father, who was driving the car, turned to me and pointed out a Trump sign stuck in a front yard, surrounded by weeds and dead grass. “This is Trump country, Tori,” He said. “These people are desperate, trapped for life in these small towns with no escape. These people are the ones voting for Trump.”

My father understood Trump’s key to success, even though it would leave the media and half of America baffled and terrified on November 9th.

My father understood Trump’s key to success, even though it would leave the media and half of America baffled and terrified on November 9th. Trump’s presidency has sparked nationwide outrage, disbelief and fear.

And, while I commend the passion many of my fellow millennials feels towards minorities and the fervency they oppose the rhetoric they find dangerous, I do find many of their fears unfounded. I don’t find their fears unfounded because I negate the potency of racism. Or the potency of oppression. Or the potency of hate.

I find these fears unfounded because these people groups have an army fighting for them. This army is full of celebrities, politicians, billionaires, students, journalists and passionate activists. Trust me, minorities will be fine with an army like this defending them.

And, I would argue, that these minorities aren’t the only ones who need our help. The results of Tuesday night did not expose a red shout of racism but a red shout for help.

Journalists are now reporting that Trump won because rural America voted for him in droves. I see a lot of journalists reporting about the what, the who, and the how of this election, but not many are tackling the why. I do not at all feel qualified enough to discuss the why of this, but I don’t see anybody bringing up the astounding poverty found in rural America and that the desperation found in these areas is what prompted the rise of Donald Trump. Perhaps this will inspire more intelligent people than I to look into this more deeply.

It’s easy to point to these small, impoverished towns and name racism, the second amendment or plain stupidity as the only reasons why these people would ever vote for a man like Donald Trump. I find this to be highly intellectually dishonest, though. To write this off as simple racism is to ignore the very real and very heartbreaking struggles small town America faces.

The majority of rhetoric going around says that if you’re white, you have an inherent advantage in life. I would argue that, at least for the members of these small impoverished communities, their whiteness only harms them as it keeps their immense struggles out of the public eye.

Rural Americans suffer from a poverty rate that is 3 points higher than the poverty rate found in urban America. In Southern regions, like Appalachia, the poverty rate jumps to 8 points higher than those found in cities. One fifth of the children living in poverty live rural areas. The children in this “forgotten fifth” are more likely to live in extreme poverty and live in poverty longer than their urban counterparts. 57% of these children are white.

Education, particularly college, is less attainable to those living in rural areas. 64% of young people in rural areas attend college, compared to the 70% of students who attend universities in metro areas. 47% of these small town students who end up attending college only go for a two-year degree, while only 38% of urban students attain only a two-year degree. And, when these students do fight the odds and attend a university, they don’t come back to their place of origin due to the lack of jobs.

Rural Americans also suffer from a lower life expectancy. Those living in Appalachia regions, in particular, have a life expectancy that is declining at a rate that is worse than anywhere else in the USA. Those living in rural America are more likely to suffer from depression. Alcohol and substance abuse is prevalent in rural America and 25.9% of those entering rehab for addictions are between the ages of 12-17. The chronic pain that comes from vocations such as mining has caused the heroin epidemic sweeping small towns. (read more)


Corridor H, U. S. 48 through the mountains of West Virginia, promises to bring commerce and jobs to the region. Photo by Bob Kirchman.


A billboard between the towns of Thomas and Davis in West Virginia asks: "Got Faith?" Photo by Bob Kirchman.

Staring into the Abyss
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By Father Ed Meeks


Read Transcript HERE [click to read]

I mentioned to you for the past two Sundays that I’m going to be speaking today on the November third election and want to give you a little heads-up as I begin. I will be going a little bit long this morning because I have a lot of ground to cover. This will be for me personally the 14th presidential election I will have voted in since reaching the age of majority. And this one is unlike anything I have ever seen. I actually said the same thing about the last election in 2016, but the events of the last four years and in fact of the past six or seven months have cast this upcoming election in a whole new and ever more dire light. I believe that at this moment in time and history you and I find ourselves as part of a society that is staring into the abyss. And it how our nation votes on November the third will determine whether we collectively step off the cliff into that abyss or step back from it, if only temporarily. (read more)

SPECIAL REPORT: A Country to Save

SPECIAL REPORT: A Country to Save

TRUMP CARD
[click to read]

The United States has always been a home for those suffering under socialist regimes across the world, but all of that is at great risk in the hands of today’s Democratic Party run by Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and AOC. Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker, scholar, and New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza, Trump Card is an exposé of the socialism, corruption and gangsterization that now define the Democratic Party. Whether it is the creeping socialism of Joe Biden or the overt socialism of Bernie Sanders, the film reveals what is unique about modern socialism, who is behind it, why it’s evil, and how we can work together with President Trump to stop it. (read more)

The Hunter Biden Emails
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Hunter Biden pursued lucrative deals involving China’s largest private energy company — including one that he said would be “interesting for me and my family,” emails obtained by The Post show. (read more)