All posts by Wintery Knight

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Three reasons why Christians should read military history

A while back, I finished a book called “Beyond The Call: The True Story of One World War II Pilot’s Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front”. It’s about a World War 2 heavy bomber pilot who completes 35 missions, and then goes into the Soviet Union (our allies, at the time) to rescue American POWs who were starving or being kidnapped or murdered by the Soviet secret police.

I found a very good article about it from Stripes, to just quickly introduce the story:

Later, after making contact with POWs roaming the Polish countryside, [Capt. Robert Trimble] fully embraced his mission. He saw the desperate plight of those who had been liberated from Third Reich prison camps. Many were sick, emaciated, often clothed in rags and left to fend for themselves during a brutally harsh winter.

Trimble risked his life numerous times over six weeks, helping to rescue hundreds of POWs. He came to the aid of others, too. In one daring rescue, nearly foiled by Russian agents who had become suspicious of his activities, Trimble helped 400 French women make it out of Poland and back to France.

Although he was being constantly trailed by Russian spies and informers, he would evade them, and bring food and money to the POWs, then put them on a train to Odessa, Ukraine, where they could get onto a ship going home.

Roger Trimble, standing second from the left, in front of his B-24 Liberator
Roger Trimble, standing second from the left, in front of his B-24 Liberator

Why I read military history

It is hard to develop virtues just by wishing and hoping. Something has to go into your mind that causes you to think differently, and feel differently. Everything that you watch on TV, hear on the radio, or see in the movie theater, is made by secular leftists. They aren’t trying to build your moral character. They’re goal is to break down your resistance to their unBiblical worldview and moral values. Instead of giving people who hate Jesus your money, just so you can be entertained, why not try to put something in front of your eyes that will make you better?

Look at this famous passage from the Bible.

Romans 12:1-2:

1Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

And also this from Philippians, my favorite book of the Bible.

Philippians 4:8:

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

So you can see that when I am reading, my goal is to work on my character. I want to have feelings about things that are appropriate for a Christian man.

So why military history? Here are three reasons why I read these military history books.

Humility

First, humility. Humility used to be one of my biggest challenges. So I thought to myself “instead of seeing yourself as some heroic figure, why don’t you read about some real heroes… people who willingly gave their lives for their friends, like the Bible urges, and like Jesus did by example”.

Remember this from John 15:13?

13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Military history is filled with stories of courage, bravery, self-sacrifice, endurance, unselfishness, and many other virtues. When you read about people who are better than you, doing more important things than what you’re doing, it really helps you to be humble.

The best thing for humility is reading Medal of Honor citations. You can find a bunch of them online here. And if you want a book to read, try these books about Medal of Honor recipients:

Endurance

Second, endurance. I sometimes feel badly about not having found someone to marry and not having lots of children. I wanted a good marriage to be a model for others, and also to have an influence in the next generation through my children. However, whenever I read military history, I see a lot of young men dying in battle. And I think, they too won’t know what sex is like. And, they too won’t know what marriage is like. And, they too won’t know what having children is like. But it’s not just the ones who die, it’s the hardships they have to go through, as well. Cold, hunger, imprisonment, pain, loss of their friends, etc.

I remember reading about one of my favorite battles – probably the most famous battle of the Korean War, which is our most moral war. It’s about Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division. They had to hold a hill beside a vital road against overwhelming numbers of Chinese soldiers during the freezing cold North Korean winter. I remember reading about how one soldier got up to go to the bathroom, and was nearly shot by a sniper. He fell over on his own poop, which had already frozen by the time it hit the ground. For months after, I would always think about this whenever I went into a bathroom. We have pre-warmed water in our bathrooms at work, along with soap, lysol spray, febreeze, contact lense cleaner, hand sanitizer, and other things. Just understanding what other people have to go through in war helps me to be more patient with the little tiny setbacks that I experience. I used to get very anxious when anything went wrong, because of I was raised by strict immigrant parents. That anxiety seemed to last a long time, but since I started to read military history, I’ve been much more patient. I know that things could be worse.

Thankfulness

The third thing that I’ve experienced is thankfulness. Not just for all the things that I have because of what our armed forces have done, e.g. – basic human rights, prosperity, liberty, security, etc. But also specifically about those who gave their lives so that I could live free in a free country, and practice my Christian faith without fear.

Here are two of my favorite Medal of Honor stories from World War 2, in the Battle of Pearl Harbor:

Congressional Medal of Honor
Awarded Posthumously
PETER TOMICH

Rank and organization: Chief Watertender, U.S. Navy.
Place and date: Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.
Born: 3 June 1893, Prolog, Austria.

Although realizing that the ship was capsizing as a result of enemy bombing and torpedoing, Tomich remained at his post in the engineering plant of the U.S.S. Utah, until he saw that all boilers were secured and all fireroom personnel had left their stations, and by so doing lost his own life.

And:

Congressional Medal of Honor
Awarded Posthumously
JAMES RICHARD WARD

Rank and organization: Seaman First Class, U.S. Navy.
Place and date: Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.
Born: 10 September 1921, Springfield, Ohio.

When it was seen that the U.S.S. Oklahoma was going to capsize and the order was given to abandon ship, Ward remained in a turret holding a flashlight so the remainder of the turret crew could see to escape, thereby sacrificing his own life.

I do think that it’s important for Christians to read these kinds of stories in order to feed their own awareness of what it must have been like for Jesus to give his life voluntarily for us.

There is no shortcut to gratitude. You have to constantly reflect on the sacrifices made by others for you, if you are to have any concrete reason for feeling grateful. The more you read about examples of people giving their lives for others, the more you’ll appreciate what Jesus did for you. It will make you grateful.

There is a very annoying idea out there in the culture that says that people just do whatever is easy and fun for themselves, and since everyone else is always doing what makes them feel good, then there is no need to be thankful for anything. It’s comforting for people to delude themselves with that belief, but it’s false.

My reading list

You can check out the “What I am Reading” section of the blog to see which military history books I’ve been reading.

Democrats oppose Florida bill that bans teachers from grooming children for sex

I’ve never seen so many people lying about a bill before. This is what the bill actually says: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Let’s take a look.

So I gave you the text of the bill above. It says that TEACHERS cannot INSTRUCT students from KINDERGARTEN through GRADE 3 in any topics related to sexual orientation of gender identity. The word gay doesn’t appear in the bill. It doesn’t say that children can’t talk about sexual issues. It doesn’t say that teachers can’t respond or have conversations about sexual issues. It doesn’t say that kids can’t talk about their gay family / guardians. It is talking about what teachers can teach very young (below age 8) children.

So what this bill really does is prevent far-left progressive teachers from indoctrinating kids in LGBT dogmas, and preparing them for sex with adults (grooming). People who oppose this bill are just pedophiles, or allies of pedophiles. And in fact, that’s not surprising. Democrats are always either found out to be pedophiles, or they support people who are found out to be pedophiles. And that happens in every state. Even in Florida, half the state supported a (married) candidate for governor who was found by police to be having drug-fueled sexual orgies with male prostitutes. When someone says “I vote Democrat”, this is the kind of thing they support. Why? Because the goal of voting Democrat is to smash down traditional Judeo-Christian morality.

But how are Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media presenting the bill?

Daily Wire reports:

On Tuesday, the Florida Senate passed the Parental Rights in Education bill, a potential law that would ban teachers in kindergarten through third grade from providing instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, require schools to notify parents if there has been any change in a student’s physical, emotional, or mental wellbeing, and would also provide legal recourse to parents to sue if they believe a school has violated any of those agreements. It would also teachers to withhold certain information from parents if there is a “reasonable” belief notifying them would result in abuse.

As The Daily Wire reported on Friday, critics of the proposal claim it would harm LGBTQ students by preventing discussion on LGBT sex and gender topics, making them feel unwelcome, and possibly creating an environment of harm at home.

Many have wrongly nicknamed it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, leading many to believe it actually bans the word “gay” from public school.

As a result, on Monday, The Daily Wire reported that in a show of solidarity with voters who want elementary school educators to teach students about transgenderism and other progressive sex-related ideas without parental knowledge, Florida Democrats chanted “Gay! Gay! Gay!” throughout the state’s capitol building.

And here’s the video of the Florida Democrats and the Democrat news media amplifying the lie about the bill:

Notice how the legislators are all women. According to Gallup polls, women support LGBT indoctrination of children (and abortion) more than men. Women are more socially liberal than men, on average. The new virtues among women (on average) are “compassion” and “tolerance” and “inclusion”. Women (on average) think that the height of morality is “don’t judge”. That’s women’s attitudes to abortion and LGBT indoctrination (on average) are more progressive than men’s attitudes.

And notice in the video that the news media, CNN, MSNBC, etc. perpetuate the lie.

What I like about this bill is it is really helping us to see the character of people who will be running for President in 2024. For example, Florida governor Ron DeSantis:

Even White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was perpetuating the lies. I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone by saying this, but when people voted for creepy Joe Biden for President, opposition to grooming and pedophilia were not on their priorities.

In fact, the Daily Wire reported this:

“Parents across the country are looking to national, state, and district leaders to support our nation’s students, help them recover from the pandemic, and provide them the academic and mental health supports they need,” said Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a Tuesday afternoon statement. “Instead, leaders in Florida are prioritizing hateful bills that hurt some of the students most in need.”

“The Department of Education has made clear that all schools receiving federal funding must follow federal civil rights law, including Title IX’s protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” he continued. “We stand with our LGBTQ+ students in Florida and across the country, and urge Florida leaders to make sure all their students are protected and supported.”

I was very encouraged by how DeSantis fought with the journalists to defend this bill. If he signs the bill and takes the heat, that will be a good sign that social conservatives would have an ally in 2024 in the White House.

You almost never see politicians championing social issues, and defending the rights of parents against the far-left school teachers, school boards, and principals. If you’re looking for leadership on social issues, remember the name Ron DeSantis.

School principal attacks father who asked to see teacher performance evaluations

There are so many areas where conservatives could win over independents in future elections. We could fix healthcare with government-funded private health savings accounts. We could fix Russian aggression by developing our own natural gas and nuclear power. And we could fix public schools by creating government-funded individual education savings accounts for parents.

Here’s the latest reason why public schools are failing parents and children, reported by the New York Post:

[Brian] Davison is a ginger-haired 48-year-old who earned two degrees from MIT, then spent much of his career as a Navy officer. By profession, he is a nerd who specializes in “operations research,” finding ways to make organizations function more efficiently. After he had two kids, he figured he could volunteer his number-crunching skills to help their schools.

He’s not a monster. To teachers, he’s something more threatening: a mathematician.

What did Davison do that was so terrible? He wanted to track which schools were producing higher performance for each individual child:

[School performance] could be measured with the same test data that the schools already had: You just needed to look at growth trajectory instead of plain scores. Compare each child’s state exam score from last year to his score from this year. Had he moved ahead especially quickly, merely kept pace, or started to fall behind?

The schools actually have the data he wanted, but only the teachers were allowed to see it – not parents of the students:

Using this “student growth percentile” (SGP) statistic to illuminate the performance of schools and teachers made so much sense that it was unsurprising when in 2009, the Obama administration began requiring it of school districts as a condition for receiving their share of nearly $54 billion in stimulus funding, the best-known component of which was called Race to the Top.

In the ensuing years, Virginia repeatedly received the money after submitting applications attesting that “prior to submitting this request, [schools] provided [to teachers] student growth data.”

So, he asked the schools for the performance data for each child, in order to calculate which schools were helping children improve, year over year. But they would not give him the data. Instead, they tried to call the police.

Loudoun County Public Schools told him it did not have them. In fact, no one in the school system had ever looked at them.

He requested the data from other school districts in the state, which told him essentially the same thing. Educators were so opposed to looking at these numbers that they were willing to systematically lie, apparently ignore the law, and jeopardize vast sums of federal funding. They were doing it for the same reason the information was so important: It revealed which teachers were good and which were not.

[…] In October 2014, Davison sued the Virginia Department of Education to force it to release the growth data, offsetting costs by giving himself a crash course in law and doing some of his own legal work. And he became, as one school board member called him, “Enemy #1.”

And how do teachers treat their enemies? Why, by labeling them “domestic terrorists”, and calling the police and FBI on them. Because if you disagree with a teacher, then they feel bad. And if they feel bad, then you need to be arrested and put in jail.

Here’s school board member Debra Rose:

After Davison raised questions at a school board meeting, board member Debra Rose, a former congressional staffer for the House Judiciary Committee, requested that a sheriff’s deputy remove him. The officer did not.

In March 2015, Rose’s husband summoned police to their home, where “Ms. Rose advised that Mr. Davison has not made any specific threats directed towards her, but he has made her feel extremely uncomfortable.” The police took no action.

In May, her husband called police again to tell them that Davison “is posting links on [an internet] forum to [Ms. Rose’s] campaign website which displays herself and her family members including her children.” The officer responded, according to his police report, that “this may not be a crime because this certain post is a link to his wife’s campaign website.”

Rose called Davison’s elderly father to try to shame him. She emailed his employer five times.

He’s a “domestic terrorist” you know. Anyone who makes teachers feel bad is a domestic terrorist.

Those teachers are all unionized. Do you think that makes them more or less likely to care about their students? Well, what kind of person is content to go through life as a member of a union? People join unions so that the union will stick up for them when they perform poorly. People who want to escape accountability for poor performance join unions. That’s why cars produced by unionized labor are inferior to cars produced by non-unionized labor. People who might be fired have to perform. People who serve customers in a free, competitive market have to earn the trust of their consumers.

Here’s Debbie Rose:

School Board Member Debra Debbie Rose

I post this, so that people will know that just because a woman looks pretty and smiles, it doesn’t mean that she is a good person. It doesn’t mean she cares about children. It doesn’t mean that she is self-controlled or rational. It doesn’t mean she is mentally fit.

Principal Tracy Stephens

If you think that what Debra Rose did was bad, then look at what the school’s principal, Tracy Stephens, did:

After Davison tried to raise testing issues at a PTA meeting in September 2015, the school’s principal, Tracy Stephens, issued a notice that she said made it a crime for him to come to the school for any reason.

School officials were used to parents advocating to get preferential treatment for their own children, but they were not used to anyone asking bigger questions.

“Many of your comments were wholly unrelated to your children. This is frightening to our staff,” Stephens wrote.

The day the no-trespassing order was posted to Davison’s front door, Stephens called the police on him while he waited off school property to pick up his kids. She refused to allow his children to join him. The police told the principal that Davison was entitled to pick up his children, but, according to the police report, Stephens demanded, “I want him arrested!”

When that did not work, she reported Davison to Child Protective Services as a suspected child abuser.

It was not children she was concerned about. The complaint said Davison “exhibits agression [sic] and hostility toward LCPS leadership during public meetings.”

Stephens faxed 62 pages of information to the agency, which has the power to take children away from their parents. They consisted almost entirely of Davison’s comments on school policies or officials’ apparent violations of them. Tacked on the end were two claims that purportedly showed child abuse: One day, his daughter could not play kickball because she was “sent to school in rain boots.” Another day, a teacher said she saw Davison’s children with him and “both of the kids had straight faces.”

And here’s Tracy Stephens:

Loudon County School Principal Tracy Stephens

So what do we learn from all of this? Well, we learn that teacher unions, school boards and principals would rather resort to  persecution of their customers (parents), than be held accountable for their performance. The purpose of teacher unions is to prevent bad teachers from being held accountable. The Democrat party protects these teacher unions. Maybe it’s time the Republican party looked out for the parents instead?