October 15, 2018

Help Us Help Others In Need: Devastation and Suffering in the Florida Panhandle

(Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)

October 15, 2018

Re: Emergency Aid is needed when natural disasters come at the untimeliest moments. 

Dear followers of Spiritual Minutemen,

Hillsdale Baptist Church was one of the first ministries to send a man into the Florida Panhandle to assess the path of destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Michael. The cost of lives and the loss of homes and businesses is incalculable at this time. What we do know is there are tens of thousands suffering without water, electricity, and shelter.

Sunday evening, October 14, 2018, Hillsdale’s first Disaster Relief Team arrived in Panama City with a large box truck filled with pallets of bottled water, non-perishable canned goods, paper goods, including diapers, and cleaning supplies.

Hillsdale’s team is:

  • Distributing bottled water and food to areas where no aid has reached to date.
  • Assisting families with removing downed trees from rooftops and driveways.
  • Identifying smaller outlying coastal towns that have received no assistance.
  • Giving aid and comfort.

Our current goal is to send two additional teams to the Florida Panhandle. Our first team is staged in Panama City at two sites: Central Baptist Church and Lighthouse Baptist Church.  I have been advised our second and third teams will thrust out from Panama City to small coastal towns devastated by the hurricane.

Our fellow Floridians are desperate for pallets of water, cases of non-perishable foods, paper goods (including diapers), and cleaning supplies. We welcome all donations, both financial assistance and cases of water and non-perishable goods.

For financial donations, go to Hillsdale’s website, www.HillsdaleBaptist.org, find the Donations button in the upper righthand corner, and follow instructions listing your gift under “Other” and typing in Disaster Relief (your financial donations are tax-deductible and anonymous to this pastor unless you communicate with me directly).

You have this pastor’s assurance that all donations will go directly to Hillsdale’s Disaster Relief Effort in the Florida Panhandle.

With the heart of a shepherd,

Dr. Travis D. Smith

Senior Pastor

Hillsdale Baptist Church

October 2, 2018

A Nation Divided

Last week’s Judiciary Committee meetings unmasked in an indisputable fashion the deep-divide that now defines our nation.

The thought that United States Senators are statesmen suffered a debilitating blow as partisan politics clashed over the vacant Supreme Court seat that may well determine the future of the Supreme Court’s 1973 pro-abortion ruling in the case “Roe vs. Wade”.  Knowing the future of abortion, the sacred cow of liberal and progressive politics, hangs in the balance, Democratic Senators unleashed a barrage of personal attacks on Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh unlike anything I have witnessed in my lifetime.

Driven by a lust for power, coupled with a deep-seeded loathing of American patriotism, the Democrats have become the party of Global internationalism at the sacrifice of American exceptionalism.  Democratic party leaders Senators Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Keith Ellison, and Maxine Waters have whipped up a frenzy of hatred pitting male against female, black against white, and rich against poor.  Leftwing socialists and antifascists anarchists, have turned America’s “melting pot” into a boiling caldron of tension, hatred, and resentment that threaten the survival of our Constitutional Republic.

Becoming nothing more than a propaganda tool dominated by leftwing liberals, America’s news media has embraced a spurious partnership with Democrats and abandoned any semblance of reporting the news and holding politicians in check.

The United States is no longer “One Nation Under God”.  Torn asunder by rabid liberalism and radical partisanship, we are in the midst of a political civil war and the very soul of the American electorate is at stake.  In the immortal words of President Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand…I do not expect the house to fall–but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

We Americans will cast our mid-term vote Tuesday, November 6 and it is not an over exaggeration to say the future of our nation and liberties hang in the balance.

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith

September 7, 2018

Not My Heroes

The NFL and Nike would do well to face the real problem professional athletes are having in our society…our culture has produced multi-millionaire athletes who are morally ill-equipped to face the consequences of their actions and the court of justice.
Too many professional athletes have been pandered to their whole lives by parents, coaches, peers, and corporate sponsors…all “living the dream”…while producing athletes who end up living a nightmare that will, in the words of the evangelist, face a “pay day, someday.”
Forget all of the hullabaloo over NFL players pretending to take the moral high ground by taking the knee and demonizing the very nation that has given them unprecedented wealth.
The real problem is too many professional athletes have no moral foundation at all and the NFL, Nike, and their adoring fans watch them continually follow a path of self-ruin…generation after generation.
Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith
August 23, 2018

An Alternative to Facebook filters prohibiting free speech

Dear Friends and Followers of http://www.SpiritualMinutemen.org,

My use of this blog site has been infrequent at best; however, Facebook’s aggressive filtering of conservative voices is pushing me to move my frequent posts from my Spiritual Minutemen Facebook Page to this blog site in an attempt to deliver news that is either ignored or buried by the liberal media mongrels.

After experiencing posts being removed from my political Spiritual Minutemen Facebook Page, I will engage here and invite you to subscribe if you are interested in my brief editorial commentaries that are often attached to news that you will not hear anywhere else.

You will notice to the right of this post an area you can subscribe to by clicking on “Follow Spiritual Minutemen” and then typing in your email address for direct delivery to your email box.  I promise to deal with news that is honest and truthful, albeit often offensive to liberals, and unfiltered by Facebook.

Your patriot parson,

Travis D. Smith

June 29, 2018

The Cancer of Racism and the 21st Century Church

Our nation has witnessed in the past decade a rise in racism that has left us scarred and divided.  Left wing socialists, bitter anarchists, and political chameleons have pretended to champion the rights of minorities, inflaming impressionable youth, they have enslaved a generation to passions leaving them angry, bitter, scarred and hopeless.

Although we too often fail, the answer to a troubled society and a racially divided nation rests with the church and Bible believers.  While the history of man is proof the natural man is hopelessly prejudiced; such is not to be the case for Christians. We are commanded, “Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17).

What do you suppose is the basis of the command to “Honor all men”?  It is that fundamental truth found in the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” Every man’s worth is this, God created man and woman after His likeness and “crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5).

Pro Football legend and Hall of Famer, David “Deacon” Jones, knew the prejudice of racism in America in the 1960’s and the bitter scars it could leave on a man’s soul.  In his youth, Deacon witnessed an act of racial violence that took the life of a woman he described as an “elderly black church woman”.  Deacon recounted in an interview, “Unlike many black people then, I was determined not to be what society said I was.”

Rather than be caught up in the racial prejudices and violence of his times, Deacon Jones settled on a life-dominating truth: “All men are created equal. After that, it’s up to you.”

When Hillsdale Baptist Church relocated to our new home in 2005, it was my prayer God would enrich our church family with a diversity that reflected our community and a love for others that would “Honor all men”.  It is that principle that will dominate my challenge to our church family this Sunday as we celebrate our nation’s birth. Deacon Jones

June 28, 2018

Republicans, “Victories Have Consequences!”…Act Like Victors!

Dear Spiritual Minutemen followers,
After a much-needed hiatus, I am emerging from my self-imposed retreat to re-engage this political forum.  The announced retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy has stirred my heart as I hope it has all Conservatives who believe in Constitutional government.
President Obama’s appointment of two liberal, anti-constitution Supreme Court Justices (Sonia Sotomayor and David Souter) will shadow that institution for two decades potentially.  While President’s Trump’s appointment of Neil Gorsuch brought balance to the Court, the prospect of appointing another conservative justice to replace Anthony Kennedy may well secure Constitutional government and liberties for at least another decade.
Let’s pray the Republicans in the Senate use their majority to push through a new conservative justice. The Left can wail all they want and point to the last nine months of obstruction in the Senate when Obama put forward a name to replace the late Justice Scalia (who by the way, passed away mysteriously with no Secret Service present); however, that is not a valid comparison.  In that instance, Republicans controlled the Senate and were under no obligation to seat anyone they felt was not a reflection of Constitutional precepts.
I close reminding Democrats of the snarky words of Obama during his presidency…”Victories have consequences” and for this Supreme Court vacancy, Republicans hold all the cards…the House, Senate, and White House!
Your patriot parson.
Travis D. Smith
February 15, 2018

Prayer for Students and Families of Broward County, FL

The news of the senseless slaughter of innocent young lives in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, Wednesday afternoon, February 14, 2018 dominates the news this morning.  As of this morning, the death toll remains at 17 and the names of the dead, students and teachers, has not been released.

Like you, I am aware the tragedy of the loss of life reaches far beyond the dead…siblings, parents, grandparents, friends, classmates, teachers, administrators, neighbors, and yes, our state and nation…are all affected and scarred by the violence, suffering and death.

Liberal pundits will stand in their bully-pulpits and blame firearms for the loss of life.  The media and anti-liberty zealots opposed to the 2nd Amendment, will attack the NRA and conservatives, and advocate the need to limit, if not eliminate private ownership of guns and rifles.

Few will look deeper and honestly examine why this happened.  Why 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student expelled last school year from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, would plan and unleash a hail of gunfire on students of his former high school?

We are learning Cruz’s life is scarred as much as the wounds he inflicted on innocent lives Wednesday.  USA Today reports, “teachers and former classmates say [Cruz] had an angry disposition that led to him being expelled and flagged as a danger on school grounds.”

Former classmates describe Cruz as a troubled soul and many say they are not surprised he unleashed his fury in an act of violence. According to Fox News, an unnamed student told a news station, “kids joked around that the student [Cruz] would be the one to ‘shoot up the school.’”

Cruz is a troubled soul and tragedy seems to have been the haunt of his life.  Fox News reports Cruz and a younger brother were adopted and both his father and mother, Roger and Lynda Cruz, are dead.  Roger apparently died of a heart attack several years ago and Cruz’s mother, Lynda, died of pneumonia November 1, 2017.  Unhappy with family members who took him in, sometime after Thanksgiving 2017, Cruz moved into a mobile home with a high school friend who is a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Cruz’s anger, rage and violence are pandemic in a generation educated in classrooms and nurtured in a society with an irreligious view of human life.  The doctrine that human life is sacred and every life is to be cherished is lost on a generation that mocks God, denies the Creator, and is entertained with acts of violence in video games and television programs from early childhood.

I am not surprised a 19-year-old murdered 17 classmates; I am surprised it does not happen more often.  Look into the eyes of today’s youth and you will find many who appear soulless…unloved and unloving; desensitized by bitterness, rejecting authority, angry with God, and waiting to be triggered into an act of rage that will not only destroy their lives and future, but leave countless others broken and dismayed.

Remembering Cain, the first son of Adam, murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4:8), we understand the problem is not guns and rifles; the problem is sin.  The invitation to this generation is the same as it was to Cain when God wrestled with his sinful soul and asked, “Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?…” (Genesis 4:6-7).

God warned Cain, “…if thou doest not well, sin lieth [crouches] at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire [sin drives our desires], and thou shalt rule over him [man will either master sin or sin will become his master]” (Genesis 4:7).

King Solomon taught his son the same truth, “[A sinner’s] own iniquities shall take [trap] the wicked himself, and he shall be holden [entrapped] with the cords [ropes] of his sins.”

Nikolas Cruz, and I am afraid many like him, is the personification of hopelessness.  Sinners have but two paths to choose in life…Remorse or Repentance.  Cruz followed the path of remorse and dejection and left in his wake 17 lost lives.

Repentance, on the other hand, assumes responsibility, admits guilt (Psalm 51:4), confesses sins, and seeks forgiveness (1 John 1:9).

Let us pray for the lives touched by the loss of 17 lives, but remember there are many Nikolas Cruz’s in our midst who feel unloved, act unloving, need to know the love of God, and our lives serve as the conduit of compassion for their lost souls.

With the heart of a shepherd,

Pastor Travis D. Smith

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith

February 13, 2018

Hillsborough County Public School Teachers…Before You Vote

Only today did I become aware that public school teachers in Hillsborough County are voting for the next president of their Teachers Union.  While I would generally give little thought to a Union election, this one I cannot ignore because it bears heavy influence on who will be leading thousands of public school teachers in Hillsborough County and the moral and political agenda they will pursue in our county.

Because the Teachers Union bears heavy influence on curriculum choices for our public schools in Hillsborough County, every parent, teacher, and taxpayer should be concerned with who the teachers choose as their president. Why?  Because the president of the Hillsborough County Teachers Association will bring his\her own political agenda and moral standard not only to education, but also to the lives of Hillsborough County public school students and employees.

As a Public School teacher, you face the evidences of a decaying culture and the consequences of moral corruption every day.  With the exception of Law Enforcement, I believe you have the most difficult job of any I might imagine.

Sadly, a breakdown of discipline in the home has introduced the same in our schools. Every day you face students, many of whom have no concept of discipline in their studies, nevertheless, you seek to inspire them.  You engage with parents who are disengaged from their children’s education and exhausted from holding down jobs while struggling to pay bills. 

I am aware there are times the administration is less than supportive and the School Board falls short in fulfilling promises and expectations.  I understand the activities of a Union can be a powerful force and you seek leadership that will strive to put forward your interests and that of your schools and students.

I urge you…please do not divorce the moral component of your decision as you cast your vote for the next president of your union.  The president of the Hillsborough County Teachers Association will set the tone and political agenda for your Union.

It is not my role or purpose to endorse anyone, but to caution you to choose a leader who reflects not only your career aspirations, but also the moral character that will command the respect of students, parents and peers.

Travis D. Smith

www.SpiritualMinutemen.org

P.S. With his permission, I am copying below my blog an email from Mr. Terry Kemple of the Community Issues Council concerning Ms. Valerie Chuchman, candidate for president of the Hillsborough County Teacher’s Association.

From: Terry Kemple <tkemple@integrity.com>

Subject: This Woman Is Running For Teachers’ Union President !?!?!

Date: February 13, 2018 at 8:44:25 AM EST

February 13, 2018

Community Issues Council – This teacher is mocking religion in her classroom. And she wants to be President of the Hillsborough County Teachers’ Union.

This is Valerie Chuchman, one of two candidates for President of the Hillsborough County Teachers Union! She is a high school teacher and wore this outfit to school one day. Although it’s not distinct in this picture, the necklace she has on is a “crucifix” made out of little human skulls.

The Facebook comment box is back and forth between her and other teachers commenting on how “creepy” the outfit is and how that’s the impression Chuchman wants to create.

It’s bad enough that she chooses to ridicule religion by wearing an outfit that mocks Catholic Nuns when the only ones she influences are the students at the school where she teaches. Imagine what it will be like if she wins the election and is able, through her leadership of teachers as Union President, to influence teachers at every school in the District.

The hostility toward God and His people in our schools is already oppressive enough toward students, teachers, and staff who are believers. Having this woman in this key leadership position would only heighten the persecution against expressions of faith and those who believe in God!

I looked at her campaign literature and it doesn’t mention that she’s “married” to another female teacher at Riverview High School. You may remember her spouse’s name, Lorajane Reidas.

Reidas is the RHS teacher who forced students in her class to remove their cross necklaces (I guess it would have been alright if the students had worn crosses made of skulls)! She also has coercive homosexual material all around her classroom.

If you’re a teacher, please take all of this into account when you cast your vote for CTA President. If you know other teachers, please share this information with them so their votes are fully informed.

Together we can make a difference!

God bless you!

Terry

Community Issues Council

2312 Cherry Ridge Lane

Brandon, FL  33511

813 368-9077

Website: www.CommunityIssuesCouncil.org

E-Mail: CIC@integrity.com

February 9, 2018 Gallery

You Call This Education? I Don’t Think So!

A confession before an observation: I could care less whether or not there is a Daddy-Daughter school dance in New York City public schools or anywhere else for that matter!

I am, however, very concerned our public school systems and parents are squabbling over “political correctness” and “Inclusion” while education in the public school system has become a national crisis.

Parents and American taxpayers should be infuriated over the failure of our education system to carry out their principle charge…educating America’s youth!  The disgraceful education received by our youth is one from which this nation may never recover.  America’s public-school system needs a total re-start beginning on the local level.

Let’s be real, the duty and responsibility of training and discipline begins at home and it is not the schools’ system’s duty to teach moral values, an appreciation for learning, or acceptable behavior.  The American family is in crisis.  More than 20 million children are fatherless and many more (estimate 33%) have never known the guiding hand of a father.  Too many mothers are bearing the burden of not only parenting, but also struggling and sacrificing to supply basic needs for their children.

Sadly, there is a breakdown of discipline in our schools and survival seems to be the measurement of success for students and teachers.  Administrators order teachers to promote students through the school system, giving them passing grades for nothing more than showing up for class!

No wonder America’s youth are ignorant of phonics, cannot write cursive, are unable to read, conduct simple math, and have no knowledge of history or understanding of American government.

School administrators and teachers fret over “Inclusion” and parents seem oblivious to the reality their children’s education is being sacrificed.  Politicians and liberal media beat the drum for irrational Gender-Neutral matters, while students lack textbooks of their own and have no concept of homework.  Education has been usurped by liberal indoctrination and “political correctness” and America’s youth are the losers.

Tell the students the truth…they do not and never will live in a “fair world”; the best evidence of that is what today’s public schools’ call “education”!

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith

February 8, 2018

TRAGEDY STRIKES THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA

After a 9-year assault on “white America” (I hate to use that term…I am an American!) led by the Obama Administration and gleefully embraced by liberals who hate America and Judeo-Christian values (marriage, family, and home), we now read the largest drop of life expectancy in America is among middle-age “White Americans”.

Liberal educators, politicians, and media buffoons, got their “Hope and Change” in 2008 with the election of Barack Hussein Obama and by 2016 America became a nation feeling hopeless, believing nothing would change…on the brink of spiritual, moral, and economic bankruptcy.

Only by the sovereignty and providence of God have we seen Donald Trump elected President (and no, he is not perfect) and a non-politician take the helm of state and begin to push back against a “hate ideology” that left so many Americans despondent.

Why have Americans turned to drugs, including the epidemic of opioids, alcohol, and pursued sexual depravity at the risk of their health and future?  Why is the heartland of middle America morally imploding?

Yesterday’s report in USA Today suggests, “The problem is concentrated in rural, largely white counties that have often struggled for many years with stagnant wages, unemployment, poverty and the loss of major industries that fueled local economies…”

Predictably, Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, suggests a change of policy “directed at strengthening the middle class” will be the answer.

No, Mr. Woolf, a change of policy is not what America needs.  America needs a spiritual revival.  Our nation needs to humble herself, return to God, repent of our sins, and embrace the fundamental spiritual principles that made us the greatest nation in the world.

Although addressed to Israel, I close with a verse that should be the passion of every believer.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Copyright 2018 – Travis D. Smith