In God We Trust-Lindale

Hey friends!

I haven't used this blog too much because I figure I bore people enough in person. Why do it online? However, I have to write this note about an amazing thing that happened last Wednesday night, May 29, 2013.  I apologize right now for the length of this. It's a long, but amazing story!

 A friend who we'd known from our Prestonwood days sent the link you see below. Years ago, Diane and I along with Jeff Brockleman wrote a Children's  musical entitled, "IN GOD WE TRUST". It's a patriotic musical basically telling of the Christian foundation that America has. After examining statements from our Founding Fathers,  it doesn't take long to recognize that their faith in God was the catalyst for our nation being born. I'd recommend a book by William Federer called, "America's God and Country". It's an encyclopedia of quotations from many of our forefathers that clearly indicates that not only did they believe in God, but they also had a faith in Jesus Christ. Check it out!

Back to the story! We wrote this musical in about 1996. After some frustration with publishers, we decided to publish it ourselves. We did a mass mailing, and basically a grassroots, word of mouth campaign created an ongoing use of this musical. We still sell it today. Of course, we've seen it performed by churches and Christian schools, but very occasionally by a public school.

We got word that an elementary school in Lindale, TX was doing the musical. Turns out, this is the 11th year that they have presented it. This year, a certain parent got offended and notified the atheist group, FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION. A lawyer from that group sent a letter to the Superintendent of Schools demanding that the play NOT be performed, citing a 1st amendment violation of the separation of church and state. (By the way, that phrase, though spoken by Thomas Jefferson, does NOT appear in the Constitution anywhere. None the less, that phrase gets used as a sledge hammer by groups like this).  At first, the school decided to go ahead with a "sanitized version" of the play, taking out any Christian references.

Oh, by the way, we were named in the letter. They'd gone on our website and this is from the linked article:  "Cavell states the Machens run a music and worship ministry whose goals are to 'lead the church in worship and reach non-believers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.'" Isn't that terrible? The Machens are trying to do their ministry. Horrifying! They also printed an excerpt from the supposed offending dialog. Funny thing was, they misquoted or intentionally moved lines around to make it say something it didn't actually say. (I'd be glad to provide that dialog if anyone is interested).

Moving on! 

The pastor of the First Baptist Church Lindale got involved. Not one to be bullied by an outside group, he rallied the entire town together. The church rented out the Lindale Performing Arts Center so the kids could perform the musical in its entirety, "voluntarily."  Of course, the FFRF got wind of this and sent another letter stating that no school employee could participate. Not true! Who are they to dictate what a person does on his or her private time?

As I said, the whole community got involved. Diane and I decided to make the 2 hour drive to go and support the kids, the school and the town. When we drove into town, our jaws dropped.  Marquee after marquee of businesses all over town had put up messages saying things like, "WE SUPPORT IN GOD WE TRUST" or "CLOSED TO ATTEND IN GOD WE TRUST." Businesses that didn't have marquees used masking tape in their windows with the words "IN GOD WE TRUST" boldly displayed. Churches that normally meet on Wednesday nights were closed to attend the 5th graders' performance.

Here's the good part! Lindale is a community of about 4000 people. Some more if you count the surrounding county property. The Performing Arts Center seats 1200. OVER 3000 PEOPLE WERE IN ATTENDANCE to support the kids, the school, the teachers and administrators and district officials! More than that, they were there to support FREEDOM OF SPEECH  and FREEDOM OF RELIGION.  Two overflow areas had been set up, plus some people were outside the Performing Arts Center listening on speakers that had been set up. Oh, and the teachers who were threatened not to participate in the "off-sight" performance were there. Volunteering, of course.

We've never seen anything like it. There still aren't words to describe the evening. It was like a Pep Rally atmosphere. In fact, Diane said, "It was a 'God Rally!'"  The people gave a standing ovation to the kids after almost every song. The cheers were for the kids, but for America, too. There were also state and local officials in attendance.  And almost every person was wearing an IN GOD WE TRUST t-shirt. 3000 t-shirts!!!! Let that sink in.

Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice has been contacted to represent the school district and community. This could turn into and national debate. My response is, GREAT! In my lifetime, I've seen the secularization of our American society. We're wagged around by small, but rather vocal minorities and in the name of political correctness, our beloved nation is quickly turning from away from God. But as much as certain liberal groups, politicians and university professors would try to rewrite our history, you cannot erase the facts that this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian morals, ethics and laws. We may try to expunge the Ten Commandments from our society, but we can't erase them from our history. We can't escape the fact that our laws are based on God's Laws. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, etc...Yeah, that was God!

Well, if you've survived this rant of mine, I'd invite you to click the link below to take you to the news site that contains the details of the Lindale ISD vs. Freedom From Religion Foundation debate. It's gonna be interesting to see where this goes. Just remember that God sits on His sovereign throne and....well, read Ps. 2 and find out!

God Still Moves,

Chris

http://www.ketknbc.com/news/lindale-5th-grade-play-to-be-modified-after-compla