A NATION TURNING ITS FACE FROM GOD

Photos from my collection, taken at the Memorial Service of Capt. Herbert Crosby,
May 2007 at Arlington National Cemetery

The U.S. government -- OUR government -- has banned the flag-folding recitations at all 125 national cemeteries. Is THIS what our nation's Founders - a Christian bunch if ever there was one -- intended?

The AP reports: At thousands of military burials, VA volunteers have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of each fold to survivors.

Citing a need for uniformity, the National Cemetery Administration has prohibited unpaid VA volunteers as well as employees from conducting the recital at all 125 national cemeteries.

American Legion attorney Rees Lloyd calls it "another attempt by secularist fanatics to cleanse any reference to God."

The Veterans Administration has bowed to pressure from one radical anti-Christian secularist. Allowed to stand, the action by the VA, in essence, means that anti-Christian bigotry is now the accepted and approved law of the land.

"When we got back from the war, we didn't ask for a whole lot," said 85-year-old Bobby Castillo, who was wounded in 1944 as he supported the Allied landings in France. "We just want to give our veterans the respect they deserve. No one has ever complained to us about it. I just don't understand."

Charlie Waters, parliamentarian for the American Legion of California, said he's advising memorial honor details to ignore the edict, even if it means being kicked out of cemeteries.

"This is nuts," Waters, a Korean War veteran, said in a telephone interview from Fresno. "There are 26 million veterans in this country and they're not going to take us all to prison."

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Lutheran clergyman Heinrich Richard Wurmbrand eloquently described the crucial role America would play in the decades of the Cold War and beyond. Persecuted for his religious beliefs in his own country of Romania, he left prison in 1964 after serving a 14-year sentence. In 1967 he said:

"Every freedom-loving man has two fatherlands; his own and America. Today, America is the hope of every enslaved man, because it is the last bastion of freedom in the world. Only America has the power and spiritual resources to stand as a barrier between militant Communism and the people of the world.

It is the last 'dike' holding back the rampaging floodwaters of militant Communism. If it crumples, there is no other dike, no other dam; no other line of defense to fall back upon."America is the last hope of millions of enslaved peoples. They look to it as their second fatherland. In it lies their hopes and prayers.

I have seen fellow-prisoners in Communist prisons beaten, tortured, with 50 pounds of chains on their legs-praying for America ... that the dike will not crumple; that it will remain free" (quoted by William Federer, America's God and Country, 1994, pp. 705-706). -- Good News Magazine

Flag Folds

These meanings, not part of the U.S. Flag Code, have been ascribed to the 13 folds of American flags at veterans burial services:

1. Symbol of life.

2. Symbol of our belief in the eternal life.

3. In honor and remembrance of the veteran departing our ranks who gave a portion of life for the defense of our country to attain a peace throughout the world.

4. Represents our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in times of war for His divine guidance.

5. A tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, "Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong."

6. Represents where our hearts lie. It is with our heart that we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

7. A tribute to our armed forces.

8. A tribute to the one who entered in to the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor mother, for whom it flies on Mother's Day.

9. A tribute to womanhood.

10. A tribute to father.

11. In the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

12. In the eyes of a Christian citizen, represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost.

13. When the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, "In God We Trust."

Sources: U.S. History, other Web sites

H/T: Some Soldiers' Mom

Also posting:

Captain's Quarters

Michelle Malkin

Rhymes with Right

Thunder Run

Thunder Run - Gold Star Father Speaks

What is next, somebody who doesn't like guns complains and they do away with the 21 gun salute? Somebody doesn't like the American Flag, so we ban draping the flag over the soldier's casket or folding it in silence? Somebody is deaf so we don't play TAPS?

A funeral, especially a military funeral, is for the family to have a final moment of good-bye that is befitting of that loved one's standing in life, including religious standing. It is not a time to be concerned about the feeling of an on-looker who has not suffered such a moment of loss. -- Robert Stokely

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