I was mandated to take the COVID-19 vaccine but then allowed to submit a request for “religious exception.”
Then I was asked to state my objection in writing. I’m sharing the verbiage in case it may be helpful to someone else.
Update: The request for “religious exception” was “approved indefinitely.“
Honestly one of the reasons why the US military is so effective is that we are Prussian in our doctrine, theory, and tactics. Starting with Baron von Steuben and the foundation of West Point. Continuing on, the Prussian influence has been great in the US military. We perfected Clausewitz’s Auftragstaktik. This means decisions made in the heat of battle by officers on the field.
On this day 158 years ago, day 2 of one of the defining battles in American history ensued. General Robert E. Lee, believing based on intelligence from the day before that the union flanks were open, that Culp’s Hill to the east and Little Round Top to the west were yet unoccupied by federal troops, ordered a simultaneous attack on each flank of the Union line, hoping to collapse their lines.
Longstreet attacked to the west, and some of the most bitter and heroic fighting of the war took place in such now–hallowed spots as the wheatfield, the peach orchard, devil’s den, and little round top, famously defended by the 20th Maine regiment with a bayonet charge by command of COL Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Ewell led the attack to the east against cemetery ridge and Culp’s hill. This failed, too.
At the end of the day, the Army of Northern Virginia (CSA) had lost 6,500 men and the Army of the Potomac had lost over 8,500 men. It is an extremely unusual circumstance for the defensive position to receive higher casualties than the attacking army.
For some perspective, the great military theorist Clausewitz said it took three times as many men to wage a successful attack as to defend. Lee had attempted a flanking strategy that had worked before. But why didn’t it work this time?
Nevertheless it seems the Union army had opened a bottle of courage. Was it the fact that the fight was in Pennsylvania? Was it the emancipation proclamation? Or was it veteran experience kicking in or being tired of losing?
Surely the Union success was in large part due to leadership by Colonel Chamberlain and General Hancock on July 2 against Longstreet’s advance. Chamberlain and Hancock showed adaptability at the battlefield level. This is a superb example of Clausewitz’s concept of Auftragstaktik meaning mission tactics.
The battle of Gettysburg day one.
Divisions (ANVA) of AP Hill and Ewell converge at Gettysburg and face dismounted cavalry (AOP) under BG Buford. The cavalrymen hold for most of the day and get driven back to cemetery Ridge.
Ewell declines to pursue to cemetery ridge one half mile south, and the cavalrymen are reinforced by a corps under MG Winfield Scott Hancock, Who extends the union line along cemetery ridge to little round top. Three more Union corps arrive during the night. For his decision not to attack the high ground Ewell draws criticisms and disfavorable comparisons with LTG “Stonewall” Jackson who had recently died at Chancellorsville by friendly fire, whom Ewell had replaced.
Slavery has existed for all of human history and it still continues. Today we celebrate and commemorate the day The United States ended it in their own territory. It took the sacrifice of over 300,000 Union soldiers.
USA 🇺🇸! Let freedom ring.
Happy Juneteenth
Between Conscience And Defiance: Questions For Grace Community Church
This is not well-balanced or well-argued. He focuses on masks, something that was never addressed in the statement. It’s a red herring. And he doesn’t actually deal in detail with the arguments of the elders at GCC. They stated that the order was illegal from the start. But they complied because it seem to be in the interest of public health. Now things look differently. He simply dismisses it without dealing with it. He doesn’t address the argument that the governor has allowed protests while restricting worship. This was perhaps their most potent argument, and he leaves it unanswered. It reveals a bias and a form of malice against religious worship. This is what for many of our people let the cat out of the bag and revealed the hand of the governor. We realized that he just didn’t see religious worship as essential while other protected forms of speech are. This is the context in which Acts 5:29 applies. He also failed, sadly, to give an explanation of how his version of 2 kingdom theology, which he referenced, would specifically apply in the situation. If Dr. Clark meant to give a reasonable argument, this was a swing and a miss. He needs to try harder to understand the position of the elders at GCC.
“Calvary Chapel has also brought to our attention evidence that the Governor has favored certain speakers over others. When large numbers of protesters openly violated provisions of the Directive, such as the rule against groups of more than 50 people, the Governor not only declined to enforce the directive but publicly supported and partici- pated in a protest. Cf. Masterpiece Cakeshop, 584 U. S., at – (slip op., at 14–16). He even shared a video of pro- testers standing shoulder to shoulder. The State’s response to news that churches might violate the directive was quite different. The attorney general of Nevada is reported to have said, “ ‘You can’t spit . . . in the face of law and not expect law to respond.’”2
Public protests, of course, are themselves protected by the First Amendment, and any efforts to restrict them would be subject to judicial review. But respecting some First Amendment rights is not a shield for violating others. The State defends the Governor on the ground that the protests expressed a viewpoint on important issues, and that is un- doubtedly true, but favoring one viewpoint over others is anathema to the First Amendment.”
Supreme court justice Samuel Alito, dissenting
Wilberforce was the leading statesman in 18th and 19th century British Parliament who successfully, in the end, pushed for the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery in the British Empire. (Although the United States was the first major country to ban the slave trade, Great Britain became the first to almost fully ban the institution of slavery in 1833.)
“Read the Bible, read the Bible! Let no religious book take its place. Through all my perplexities and distresses, I seldom read any other book, and I as rarely felt the want of any other.” —William Wilberforce
The former commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, general Robert E. Lee, moved to Lexington Virginia after the Civil War where he was President of Washington and Lee College. Long known for his Christian devotion, while there he served as president of the Rockbridge Bible society, distributing God’s word to everyone in the region.
In a letter dated April 5, 1869 addressed to Rev. George Woodbridge, President of the Virginia Bible Society, he quotes the abolitionist Wilberforce in a positive sense, “I would, however, make the trial, did I think I could be of any service to the great object of the society. If the managers could suggest any plan, in addition to the abundant distribution of the Holy Scriptures, to cause the mass of the people to meditate on their simple truths, and, in the language of Wilberforce, ‘to read the Bible—read the Bible,’ so as to become acquainted with the experience and realities of religion, the greatest good would be accomplished. Wishing the society all success and continuous advancement in its work, I am, most truly yours. R. E. Lee”
Christ in the Camp, Jones, p 64.
In the former book I did not venture to judge the peasants, since they had offered to be set right and to be instructed, and Christ’s commands, in Matthew 7:1, says that we are not to judge. But before I look around they go on, and, forgetting their offer, they betake themselves to violence, and rob and rage and act like mad dogs. By this it is easy to see what they had in their false minds, and that the pretences which they made in their twelve articles, under the name of the Gospel, were nothing but lies. It is the devil’s work that they are at, and in particular it is the workof the archdevil who rules at Muhlhausen, and does nothing else than stir up robbery, murder, and bloodshed; as Christ says of him in John 8:44, “He was a murderer from the beginning.” Since, then, these peasants and wretched folk have let themselves be led astray, and do otherwise than they have promised, I too must write of them otherwise than I have written, and begin by setting their sin before them, as God commands Isaiah and Ezekiel, on the chance that some of them may learn to know themselves.
Then I must instruct the rulers how they are to conductthemselves in these circumstances.
The peasants have taken on themselves the burden of three terrible sins against God and man, by which they have abundantly merited death in body and soul. In the first place they have sworn to be true and faithful, submissive and obedient, to their rulers, as Christcommands, when He says, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” and in Romans 13:2, “Let everyone be subject unto the higher powers.” Because they are breaking this obedience, and are setting themselves against the higher powers, willfully and with violence, they have forfeited body and soul, as faithless, perjured, lying, disobedient knaves and scoundrels are wont to do. St. Paul passed this judgment on them in Romans 13, when he said, that they who resist the power will bring a judgment upon themselves. This saying will smite the peasants sooner or later, for it is God’s will that faith be kept and duty done.
In the second place, they are starting a rebellion, and violently robbing and plundering monasteries and castleswhich are not theirs, by which they have a second time deserved death in body and soul, if only as highwaymen and murderers. Besides, any man against whom it can be proved that he is a maker of sedition is outside the law of God and Empire, so that the first who can slay him is doing right and well. For if a man is an open rebel every man is his judge and executioner, just as when a firestarts, the first to put it out is the best man. For rebellion is not simple murder, but is like a great fire, which attacks and lays waste a whole land. Thus rebellion brings with it a land full of murder and bloodshed, makes widows and orphans, and turns everything upside down, like the greatest disaster. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel. It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you.
In the third place, they cloak this terrible and horrible sinwith the Gospel, call themselves “Christian brethren,” receive oaths and homage, and compel people to hold with them to these abominations. Thus they become the greatest of all blasphemers of God and slanderers of His holy Name, serving the devil, under the outward appearance of the Gospel, thus earning death in body and soul ten times over. I have never heard of more hideous sin. I suspect that the devil feels the Last Day coming and therefore undertakes such an unheard-of act, as though saying to himself, “This is the last, therefore it shall be the worst; I will stir up the dregs and knock out the bottom.” God will guard us against him! See what a mighty princethe devil is, how he has the world in his hands and can throw everything into confusion, when he can so quickly catch so many thousands of peasants, deceive them, blindthem, harden them, and throw them into revolt, and do with them whatever his raging fury undertakes.
It does not help the peasants, when they pretend that, according to Genesis 1 and 2, all things were created free and common, and that all of us alike have been baptized. For under the New Testament Moses does not count; for there stands our Master, Christ, and subjects us, with our bodies and our property, to the emperor and the law of this world, when He says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Paul, too, says, in Romans 13:1, to all baptized Christians, “Let every man be subject to the power,” and Peter says, “Be subject to every ordinance of man.” By this doctrine of Christ we are bound to live, as the Father commands from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son; hear him.” For baptism does not make men free in body and property, but in soul; and the Gospel does not make goods common, except in the case of those who do of their own free will what the apostles and disciplesdid in Acts 4:32. They did not demand, as do our insane peasants in their raging, that the goods of others, — of a Pilate and a Herod, — should be common, but only their own goods. Our peasants, however, would have other men’s goods common, and keep their own goods for themselves. Fine Christians these! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants. Their raving has gone beyond all measure.
Since the peasants, then, have brought both God and man down upon them and are already so many times guilty of death in body and soul, since they submit to no court and wait for no verdict, but only rage on, I must instruct the worldly governors how they are to act in the matter with a clear conscience.
High Plains Parson 