A Note to all you Whiny Atheists, et al: I am Tired of Your "Nonsense"

by Larry Peterson

Veteran's Peace Cross: Prince George County, Maryland

We just celebrated Memorial Day where we honored all those who gifted their nation and their fellow citizens with their most precious possession---their lives.  Memorial Day is a poignant holiday with deep and profound meaning. There is even a scent in the air and it is called tribute and gratitude. The vast majority of Americans sense this and it causes them to maybe just slow down a bit, breathe it in, and give a thought to those being honored on this special day, this uniquely American day. And then, you have the miniscule population of God-haters, the mental Lilliputians of our land, aka atheists.

I am so tired of their nonsense. SO, to all you whiny, cranky atheists, agnostics, humanists and God-haters let me say:
        I have nothing against you. I do not care what you believe in. Worship a tortoise shell, love a Dogwood tree, cuddle a plush toy.  Good for you--knock yourself out.  But why do you have such a problem with the vast majority of us who believe in God and wish to honor Him?  Don't you understand how you offend all of us with your ranting and raving about our core beliefs.  Don't you care about any of us?  Are you so wrapped up with your own personal wonderment that you cannot see beyond your  ill-conceived justifications for God-hating?  (Hey look, God is about LOVE, right, so what is so bad about that?)  Don't you understand?  Can't you grasp  how deeply faith in God is embedded in so many of your fellow citizens?  It is part of our American genetic fabric. Why don't you care about our feelings and how hurt we can be at God being mocked and trashed?  Maybe you are just jealous and wish that you could have some of what the rest of us have. Is that it?  If that is the reason then it is simply yours for the asking.  Our entire existence on this planet is predicated by the perfection around us.  Imagine no time or no seasons, or no night and day?  Do you think all of that surrounds us and supports our very existence just happened through some random explosion?  Try taking apart an iPhone and blowing up the pieces. See if you get a better and improved iPhone.

What prompted me to write this to you was your latest temper tantrum being directed at the Veteran's Peace Cross in Maryland.  This 40 foot cross was erected almost 100 years ago and honors 39 fallen, WWI soldiers from the area.  Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president, was in office when it was dedicated.  So, one of your people,  a guy by the name of Fred Edwords (not misspelled) is the founder of an organization called the "United Coalition for Reason". Fred's organization is for atheists, agnostics, humanists and whoever other God-deniers or haters would like to join. (Maybe you belong to this group).  Anyway, Edwords and his group filed suit against the cross to "save the taxpayers the money" of having to maintain it.  How noble of them.

I could go on and on about this but these people get enough attention. The name, United Coalition of Reason, is, in my opinion, an oxymoron. It contradicts itself.  It is actually a silly name.  Why? Because "Reason" will lead a person to the existence of an intelligent being (most of us call that being "God") because perfection cannot be the result of a random explosion. Atheism is the result of a missing ingredient. Not having this ingredient causes a condition known as  "Denial". If an atheist could somehow ingest, inject or simply breathe in a heavy dose of this ingredient they might catch a glimpse of that Intelligent Being and His benevolent hand that has crafted all we know. That ingredient is called Humility.  

On Memorial Day, 2014: The Bataan Death March; a Microcosm of American Exceptionalism

by Larry Peterson

Soldier's Bodies left along the road at Bataan

The Memorial Day weekend of 2014 is upon us. It is the day when we honor all those who, throughout the course of our  history, have given the ultimate sacrifice for their nation, for the freedom(s) it represents and, foremost,  for all Americans, past, present and future.  I write now about a brief time period encapsulated in that history.  I doubt that most  of today's high-school and college students have ever heard about this.  It is known as the  Bataan Death March and it is one of the most brutal and inhuman periods that occupy the pages of our own history. The Bataan Death March began on April 9, 1942 and ended sometime in May of 1942.

 On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese Empire launched a sneak attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  America was now officially part of World War II.  As the New Year of 1942 dawned, the Japanese were running almost undeterred through the South Pacific and the battle of the Philippine Islands was underway.  On January 7, 1942, the Battle of Bataan began.  (Bataan was a peninsula on the southern end of the Philippines and was the gateway for the Japanese army via the South China Sea.)  Three months later, on April 9, the remaining American and Filipino soldiers finally surrendered to overwhelming Japanese forces. The infamous Bataan Death March was about to begin.

The surrender by the American and Filipino forces at Bataan was viewed by the Japanese soldiers as "cowardice".  They believed that the defeated soldiers had been disgraced and should have committed suicide. Consequently, when they had rounded up the approximately 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American soldiers, they held them with utter contempt. They were ordered to march the prisoners to "Camp O'Donnell", an 80-mile journey through the bug infested and sweltering jungle heat of the Philippines. Before the journey had even begun the captors were treating their prisoners as if they were nothing more than dogs.

The thousands of prisoners were divided into groups of about 100 men and the Bataan death march  began. The exact figures are unknown but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the sheer brutality of their captors.  The men were starved and  deprived of water.  If they fell they were beaten and, depending on the Japanese soldier guarding them, sometimes bayoneted.  Decapitation by sword  was not uncommon. Thousands died later from from disease.  General Masaharu Homma, was the  commander of the Japanese forces in the Philippines.   In September of 1945, he was arrested by Allied troops and indicted for war crimes. The court found that Homma had permitted his troops to commit "brutal atrocities and other high crimes". He was sentenced to death by firing squad and was executed on April 3, 1946.

This is only a tiny portion of the people that we Americans honor on Memorial Day. They were folks like us: husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and grandfathers. Many were still teenagers. They  believed in God,  had honor and loved their country. They liked baseball and football and music. They fought for us, they suffered for us and many died for us. And please do not think for a minute that women were not a part of this. Click on the link and read about the "Angels of Bataan".

The legacies left behind, the courage displayed by so many, the sacrifices of lives given in defense of the United States of America and her ideals represents the finest in God's human creations.  I hope and pray our young people are being taught our exceptional history from the Revolutionary War down through the war taking place at this moment in that God-forsaken place called Afghanistan.  On Memorial Day all Americans owe our fellow and sister Americans who have served in these places a moment of prayer and a THANK YOU.  And, as always, may GOD BLESS AMERICA.