Christian Americans and British Saved the World in World War II, But Can Christians Save Themselves Now?

THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE D-DAY LANDINGS HAS BEGUN. The ceremonies began Wednesday morning in Portsmouth, in southern England, where the D-Day ships left the UK for Normandy on June 6, 1944 -- the start of the campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.. • • • THE PORTSMOUTH CEREMONY. The BBC reported on Wednesday that "World leaders, including US President Donald Trump, have joined the Queen in Portsmouth to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Landings. Theresa May is hosting 15 world leaders to honour the largest combined land, air and naval operation in history." The event is the last official engagement for PM May. She will resign on June 8, becoming caretaker until a new Conservative Party leader is elected and accepted by the Queen as the new prime minister. Leaders from every country that fought alongside the UK are attending and have agreed to make a joint statement pledging to ensure the "unimaginable horror" of World War Two is not repeated. "The D-Day proclamation," commits the 16 signatories -- including the UK and the US -- to working together to "resolve international tensions peacefully." UK Prime Minister Theresa May is calling for continued Western unity in tackling what she will labels as "new and evolving security threats." • The BBC reported that : "The Queen and the Prince of Wales attended the commemorations on Southsea Common, along with representatives from the countries that fought alongside the UK in the Battle of Normandy including French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Also attending were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as leaders from Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland and Slovakia." • The Queen told the crowd she was "delighted" to be at the event to thank veterans for their service : "When I attended the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Landings, some thought it might be the last such event. But the wartime generation, my generation, is resilient." • The BBC offered some facts about the D-Day Landings : "156,000 allied troops landed in Normandy, across 5 beaches; 7,000 ships and landing craft involved and 10,000 vehicles; 4,400 from the combined allied forces died on the day; 4,000 - 9,000 German casualties. Thousands of French civilians also died." • French President Emmanuel Macron met veterans after reading to the audience a letter from an executed French Resistance fighter. The memories of a Royal Navy electrician R G Watts, as he left Southampton to Normandy in June 1944, were read to the crowd. • President Trump read the prayer given by US President Franklin Roosevelt on radio as the D-Day Landings began. • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP WRAPS UP HIS UK STATE VISIT. One of the controversies late on Tuesday arose because when asked during a joint news conference with the UK prime minister if the NHS would be on the table in the trade negotiations [Note that the President had to ask PM May what the reporter was referring to as the NHS], Mr Trump had said "everything is on the table" in future discussions between the countries. But, the BBC reported that : "Mr Trump told Piers Morgan in an interview for ITV's Good Morning Britain that he did not 'see it being on the table. I said everything's up for negotiation because everything is, but I don't see that being...that's something that I would not consider part of trade. That's not trade,' he said. Other things Mr Trump said in the ITV interview were : People who fought on D-Day paid the 'ultimate debt'. 'That may have been the greatest battle ever in history,' he said. 'Being at that site [Portsmouth] will be very interesting.' He would have 'no problem' with meeting Jeremy Corbyn another time after earlier revealing he had turned down a request to meet the Labour leader. He had a long conversation with Prince Charles about climate change -- referred to as "extreme weather" by Mr Trump -- and was impressed with the prince's 'passion' for future generations. He clarified that he had called the Duchess of Sussex's comments about him 'nasty,' rather than calling her nasty. [He said] his mother 'would have been very proud' to see him meet the Queen. 'There's always a chance' he might take military action in Iran, but he does not want to. 'I'd much rather talk [to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani].' On having the nuclear codes -- 'I think it's a terrible responsibility but it's a responsibility I'm prepared to handle." • President Trump also also tweeted that : "@realDonaldTrump Could not have been treated more warmly in the United Kingdom by the Royal Family or the people. Our relationship has never been better, and I see a very big Trade Deal down the road." • Following the commemoration in Portsmouth, President Trump will fly to Shannon for his first visit to the Republic of Ireland as US President. He will then hold a meeting with the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar before he goes to his golf resort in Doonbeg. • • • PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT'S D-DAY PRAYER. Here is what President Trump read at the Portsmouth D-Day Landings commemoration : "June 6, 1944. My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer : Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home. Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom. And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice. Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts. Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces. And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be. And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen." • • • IS AMERICA A CHRISTIAN NATION? Franklin Roosevelt and all Americans in 1944 certainly thought so. BUT, today that is being challenged. For example, on June 5, 2018, Donald Bishop of the Public Diplomacy Council wrote about FDR's D-Day prayer : "Spontaneous events were quickly organized. The Mayor of Philadelphia rang the Liberty Bell for the first time in more than a hundred years. Trading at the New York Stock Exchange paused for two minutes. Mayor LaGuardia led a rally in New York City. Houses of worship organized their own services. More than seven decades later, it’s surprising that the President’s communication on D-Day was so overtly religious. It rubs against our contemporary understandings of American freedoms, and fewer public displays of religiosity show how America has changed in the succeeding years. FDR was President then, not now, however, and who among us now can question his judgment that the grave moment called for prayer? The President said the war was 'a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization.' It’s the 'our religion' that stands out to this modern reader. The two words were not in the original draft, but the President added them in his own handwriting. 'Faith' is a word that can stretch to include religious faith, democratic faith, or faith in a cause. 'Our religion' suggests something more specific. One might wring a 'civil religion' interpretation out of the words, but it seems more likely that the President thought of American in a Christian or Judeo-Christian way. Use of phrases and words like 'it has come to pass,' 'faith,' 'blessings,' 'Thy grace,' 'haven,' 'sore tried,' 'invoking Thy help,' 'men’s souls,' 'crusade,' 'temporal matters,' 'unholy forces of our enemy,' 'into Thy kingdom,' 'apostles,' 'reaping the just rewards,' and 'Thy will be done' helped create the effect. From American history came 'rededicate ourselves' and 'we shall return.' The former Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Charlotte Beers, counseled that there can be a place for emotion in Public Diplomacy. The President’s speech reached beyond the presentation of facts and policies, beyond national pride and will. He sought a full engagement of the nation’s deepest values and religious emotions. When the President spoke of 'racial arrogances,' he no doubt was thinking of Nazi Germany and the concept of a pure race. After the war, however, many Americans could see the injustice of America’s own racial arrogances. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke out for civil rights, and we now acknowledge the war as one factor in shaping the American nation for a more equal future. Of the President’s hopes for 'a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men,' we can only say not all the President’s prayers were answered." • Donald M. Bishop is the Bren Chair of Strategic Communications in the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. Mr. Bishop served as a Foreign Service Officer -- first in the US Information Agency and then in the Department of State -- for 31 years.YET, his comments on FDR's prayer, while they certainly reflect the attitude toward Christianity in today's America, cannot see the truth that a majority of today's Americans would agree with President Roosevelt's prayer. For America is a Christian nation. If America is not Christian, it is nothing. The Republic's values and morality -- now sadly lacking in younger generations because of the scouring of Christian values from all public places in American life -- are in danger of becoming consigned to the dustheap of history as current radical socialists try to "cleanse" America of all Christian thought, ethics, and practice. What will America be if these radicals succeed? It will be what Europeans call "post-Christian," lacking all spiritual means of defending itself from the onslaught of godless socialism and of other religious zealots who want to impose their anti-Judeo-Christian worldview on us. • • • DEAR READERS, we know what the Founders wrote for us. We know what American leaders and patriots believed for 189 years. Why have we, beginning in the 1960s, abandoned so unwittingly our Christian values and their defense as the cornerstone of American constitutional freedom and rule of law? Ironically, because we thought it was "Christian" to welcome diverse religious views into the Republic's scheme of government. The anti-Christian left took that to mean we could be pushed out of existence. And, they have frightened many into silence with threatening labels of racist, misogynist, and fascist. All of that is nonsense. But, we were silenced until President Trump took up our Christian cause from a political leadership stance. We are now seeing a regeneration of the defense of these Christian, often uniquely American values, but the struggle is going to be long and difficult. Bearing witness to that are the attacks on the leftist media on the Reverend Franklin Graham's call for prayer on Sunday, June 2, for President Trump. It is easy to dismiss the negative media commentary as relating to the President, but that is only part of it. The media and Democrat Party abhor Christian values and the Christians who support those values -- abortion, same sex marriage, transgender indoctrination of America's children, labeling any effort to manage immigration as "racist" and "not who we are" -- what are they other than a massive and sustained assault by the radical socialist left of the Democrat Party on America's Christian culture and values? • What sustained America and Britain during the dark days of World War II when German Nazis overran all of western Europe except the British islands. It was prayer, faith in God and His deliverance from evil -- and Winston Churchill. • What is coming after us now? The Deep State and its atheist financiers -- George Soros, Tom Streyer, Scott Wallace, and others -- who are trying to buy America for socialism. The Washington Beacon's Joe Schoffstall reported on Friday that : "Liberal billionaires George Soros and Scott Wallace are helping bankroll a new fund hosted by an intricate dark money organization and focused on helping Democrats make inroads with midwestern voters for the 2020 elections. The deep-pocketed donors moved the money from the Open Society Foundations, Soros's foundation, and the Wallace Global Fund, Wallace's foundation, to the newly launched HEARTLAND FUND, a collaborative effort focused on building 'power across the divides of the American heartland' as overall Democratic efforts have veered towards the region. The Heartland Fund recently disbursed $500,000 in its first round of grants to nine left-wing groups and will begin its efforts with organizing and issue advocacy. The initiative is housed at the Windward Fund, which falls under the auspices of ARABELLA ADVISORS, a major dark money 'fiscal sponsor' network founded by Eric Kessler, a former Bill Clinton appointee." • Why the Soros push into the very Red State Midwest? Schoffstall quotes the Arabella website : "For a growing number of donors, the 2016 election was a wake-up call, clearly indicating that we need to re-engage with these communities and their concerns to achieve philanthropic priorities related to health care, immigration, education, economic development, climate and environmental justice, civil and voting rights, and more. Even among these donors, however, discussions about how best to engage often fall prey to assumptions and narratives that pit rural communities against urban ones, communities of color against the white working class, and progressive organizing and movement building against efforts to bridge a broader portion of the political and ideological spectrum." • What does "re-engage with these communities and their concerns to achieve philanthropic priorities related to health care, immigration, education, economic development, climate and environmental justice, civil and voting rights, and more" mean? It means that the Money Men of the socialist Progressive-Globalist left are moving into the Christian-majority US midwest heartland to try to sell Christian voters radical socialist ideas. We have been warned. Now, it is up to us to expose these Progressive-Globalist fat-cats for what they really are -- purveyors of the Hillary & Co. Deep State cabal against our President and his Christian supporters-- and then to counter their effort with our own for 2020 and beyond. • Until we make the fight for America a fight about American Christian culture and values, we will go on losing ground to the atheist socialist left. Christian values made us victorious in World War II. They will make us victorious now if we step up and fight to preserve them. • • • And, I want to express our condolences to Israel President Reuven Rivlin and Israel on the death of President Rivlin's wife of 48 years, Nechama. She was 74 and had suffered from a pulmonary disease that she fought for years, including a lung transplant in March. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the First Lady on behalf of the people of Israel. “Together with every Israeli citizen, my wife Sara and I are deeply saddened at the passing of the wife of the president, Nechama Rivlin. We have all prayed for her health during the recent period, when she fought heroically for her life.” Nechama Rivlin was laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon at the section reserved for Leaders of the Nation on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Rest in Peace.