America

December 12, 2020

Why Would Americans Feel Worse Off Today Than Four Years Ago?

Spiritual Minutemen Readers:
I have hibernated this blog site for the majority of the past four years. In part, because the threats to our Constitutional liberties lessened during the Trump era; but also because I felt the world had enough bad news reminders.
Nevertheless, the following headline from THE Hill caught my eye this morning:
That headline, and the poll that inspired it, deserves a rational response.
Why would a majority of Americans surveyed feel worse off today than four years ago?
In my opinion, many of our fellow-citizens suffer from what I define as short-term memory loss. A reflection on the past often takes on a better light than it was in reality, especially compared to the immediate.
A negative view of present conditions, compared to four years ago, can be traced to what we have endured as a nation in 2020.
1) Freedom loving Americans have lived through excessive totalitarian shutdowns, mandated by state governors and local politicians who care little about Constitutional freedoms.
2) We have watched private-owned, small businesses forced into bankruptcy by mandated shutdowns, followed by widespread unemployment.
3) We have been disheartened by news of the militant Left’s riots, and acts of violence, that turned some of our cities into desolate wastelands.
4) We witnessed corruption in our election system that defies any explanation less than a massive coordinated hijacking of the electoral process.
5) Finally, individual liberties are being assailed by leftist socialist Democrats.
We are witnessing the erosion of our freedoms.
Freedom of speech has been shut down by social sites, newspapers, and media broadcasts. The right to peaceful assembly has been outlawed under the guise of COVID-19 guidelines. The cherished freedom of religion has been either severely limited, if not essentially shut down and fined by local politicians, effectively outlawing houses of worship.
Are we worse off than four years ago?
Looking back on 2020, I am afraid the answer is, yes. However, we are delusional if we do not think conditions are about to get far worse as the Biden\Harris administration is empowered to force upon us not only their rhetoric, but also their marxist ideology that is morally bankrupt.
I fear 2020 may one day be remembered as, “the good old days.”

Proverbs 29:2 – 2  When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Your patriot parson,
Travis D. Smith
Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith
November 20, 2020

Is COVID-19 real?

Is COVID-19 real?
Absolutely; however, is it bad enough to force every American to wear a mask, destroy the economy, our livelihood, and our families?
Something to think about: Did you know, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), that in 2017-2018 nearly 45 million Americans had the flu, 808,000 were hospitalized, and there was more than 66,000 deaths?
You might argue, “COVID-19 has killed many more!” Maybe, but the problem with that argument is we really do not know!
For instance, the CDC’s own website is still estimating how many verified cases of flu there were in 2017-2018, and every year since. In other words, not only are cases of COVID-19 estimated at this time, but we all know the numbers have been politicized.
By this time, nearly every American has heard of suicide cases labeled COVID deaths; accidents labeled COVID-19 deaths; even the terminally ill with cancer, dementia, or pneumonia…all labeled COVID-19 deaths.
Is COVID-19 real? Yes, but are we being hoaxed for a political reason that is inevitably an attack on, and is eroding our liberties? I encourage you to listen to this clip of Dr. Hodkinson and draw your own conclusion. He says in it:

“Social distancing is also useless because COVID is spread by aerosols which travel 30 meters or so before landing,” Hodkinson claimed.

He also said “positive test results do not, underlined in neon, mean a clinical infection”, but simply serves to drive “public hysteria”.

My opinion is that his argument is commanding!
The following is his bio.
“Dr. Roger Hodkinson is the former Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons committee in Ottawa, he was once CEO of a large private medical laboratory in Edmonton, Alberta, and for the past 20 years has held the position as Chairman of a Medical Biotechnology company based in North Carolina currently tasked with selling a COVID-19 test. He is a medical specialist in pathology, which includes virology, who trained at Cambridge University in the UK — he is perfectly positioned to speak on this topic.”
A shepherd and a patriot,
Travis D. Smith
Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith
October 28, 2020

Rush Limbaugh, His Peace with God and Himself

I have followed Rush Limbaugh’s radio career since 1987. I have no doubt that he has been the force that God used to cause Conservatism to resonate with the American electorate. Almost singlehandedly, Rush Limbaugh took on the old Republican establishment and exposed many of them for what they were, “Rhino-Republicans,” Trojan horses of liberalism, masked as conservatives.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/rush-limbaugh-plea-re-elect-trump

When his voice grows silent with death, as all of our voices will, he will be missed much, but I rejoice he has found peace, by placing his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior.

A shepherd and a patriot,

Travis D. Smith

Copyright 2020 – Travis D. Smith

July 25, 2019

Mueller: On Making History When It Is Painfully Obvious, It Has Passed Him By!

For those who follow my Spiritual Minutemen Facebook Page, I invite you to subscribe to  my newly revived WordPress Blog, http://www.SpiritualMinutemen.org. You will find to the right of this article a small box where you may enter your email address and this and future blog posts will be sent to you via email.

(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Today’s Washington Times headline reads, “Mueller befuddled by own report, stumbles through testimony”.

I managed to catch several minutes of audio sound bites from the Mueller testimony and my assessment of the man is like his testimony…bewildered.
We have been assured ad nauseam by liberals and the media that Robert Mueller’s integrity is clear of political bias; nevertheless, his testimony leaves little doubt his thinking is cloudy and reasoning skills are diminished.
I feel sorry for the man whose life and career will forever be shadowed by a glaring display of geriatric ineptitude.   Yesterday’s congressional hearing made it painfully obvious, Mueller’s place in time and history has passed.
Copyright 2019 – 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

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 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

September 28, 2017

The Naivety of “Taking the Knee”

I purposed to allow this blog to lie dormant except for the most pertinent concerns; however,  the continuing offense and collusion of NFL management, owners and players provoked me to offer my view (if only for my well-being).

I hope the majority of Americans recognize the “take the knee” protests practiced by NFL players is staged and encouraged by liberals promoting a socialist, anti-American ideology, using young millionaire athletes for their own ends.

The majority of professional athletes “taking a knee” are little more than young naive college graduates.   They have been the objects of praise and adulation their whole lives for no other reason than they can run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than the average.  Apart from playing football and the wealth that comes with stardom, they are like the majority of young Americans…searching for purpose and core values.   Many of these bigger than life athletes have been coddled by parents, pampered by coaches and are ill-equipped for anything more than the games they play.

There are a few athletes in professional sports who have a story to tell and inspire others to rise above mediocrity and become successful, productive citizens; however, they are the exception.

The “take the knee” gang inspires nothing and no one.  They inflame prejudice, provoke division, and dispirit the downhearted.   They live in gated communities, enjoy the luxury of multi-million dollar estates, and on Sunday “take the knee” piously suggesting they identify with millions of fans who cannot afford the expense of parking at the stadium let alone the price of admission!

Who is to blame for giving naive young men the privilege of offending an American public?  

We are!  We are guilty of idolizing professional athletes, showering them with applause and adulation, and nurturing in them a misguided notion their underdeveloped thoughts and opinions deserve expression on America’s biggest stage.  We are guilty of paying taxes that build stadiums and then privilege these misguided young adults with an opportunity to offend sons, daughters, spouses, and parents whose loved ones died in the line of duty!

We are to blame for electing politicians, Democrats and Republicans, who are anti-American liberals, socialists, and marxists!  We are to blame for being silent when politicians, main stream news reporters, teachers, professors, community leaders, and professional athletes denigrate our nation, erode our Constitutional liberties, and assault America’s core-ideals with impunity!

Reflecting a Marxist ideology, liberals veil the offense of “take the knee” protests in the principle of “free speech”, but loathe those who point out their ignorance and hypocrisy.  

The 1st Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”  Americans are protected from a repressive government that would silence its citizens; however, the right of “free speech” does not extend to a private work place, whether it is a Mom and Pop Pizzeria, local McDonald’s franchise or an NFL stadium.

The hypocrisy of the NFL on this point is undeniable.   As a corporation, the NFL did not hesitate to silence the Dallas Cowboys when they wanted to display a miniscule helmet decal in support of law enforcement after five police officers were slain in the line of duty in 2016.   However, the same NFL management supports and tacitly encourages its players to “take the knee” supporting liberal, anti-American speech that offends patriotic Americans.

Wake up America!  You will not give a kid wearing a McDonald’s uniform a free pass on offensive speech.  You will not allow a police officer to disparage you and justify his actions as “free speech”.   Why then will you give the NFL and its players the right to defame America’s flag and National Anthem?

A liberal, socialist ideology is driving the dialog and young NFL players “taking the knee” are pawns of those whose goal is the denigration of American patriotism and the erosion of American Constitutional liberties.

Copyright – Travis D. Smith

May 23, 2017

“Never Trumpers”

The anarchist spirit of the “Never Trump” movement in our society is not only a challenge to our democracy, but also an act of defiance against the will of “We The People”.

The ability of real-time mass communications coupled with intrusive social media platforms gives radicals an opportunity to organize and foment a revolutionary ideology that is borderline hysteria. Pairing a spirit of rebellion with a general public’s ignorance of America’s history and our Constitutional form of government and the stage is set for an erosion of our laws and individual liberties.

Like sheep led to the slaughter, many young Americans are blindly following socialist anarchists bent on eroding the underpinnings of our republic and destroying America.

Copyright 2017 – Travis D. Smith