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The Pinecone
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July 2015
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f r om Don J oh n s on , K i r b y P i n e s Chap l a i n
Chaplain’s COrner
Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, has attributed Rome’s
destruction to five things.
1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining
of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is
the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of
public monies for free bread and circuses for the
populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming
every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when
the real enemy was within, the decadence of the
people.
5. The decay of religion—faith fading into
mere form, losing touch with life and becoming
impotent to warn and guide the people.
He speaks about failure in the family, social
issues’ imbalance, misguidance of focus, false
dependence of the external while overlooking
inner failings, and the decline of faith.
If Gibbon were to write about America today
would his conclusions be similar? Or maybe
more dramatic?
Benjamin Franklin cautiously warned: “Only
a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As
nations become more corrupt and vicious, they
have more need of masters.” And masters we will
have if virtue continues to give way to corruption
and anarchy.
On March 11, 1792 George Washington wrote
to John Armstrong, “I am sure there never was
a people who had more reason to acknowledge
a Divine interposition in their affairs than those
Lessons from the Past
of the United States.” Why are some afraid to
acknowledge God’s hand in our beginnings and
in today.
President Andrew Jackson in his March 4, 1837,
farewell address declared: “Providence has
bestowed on this favored land blessings without
number, and has chosen you as the guardians
of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the
human race. May He who holds in His hands the
destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors
He has bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts
and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard
and defend to the end of time the great charge He
has committed to your keeping.”
If we aren’t challenged and inspired by the past,
we may easily lose the present and the future.
We should never stop loving and waving the
American flag. Nor should we cease singing our
National Anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”
And let us certainly defend and declare that this
nation, under God, is still the world’s greatest
example of a land of the free and home of the
brave.
In August, 1940, England’s Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill, referring to the brave airmen
whose helped turn the tide in World War II said,
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much
owed by so many to so few.” May this be said
of us. We may be few but we can accomplish so
much and enrich so many by our actions of liberty
for all.
What someone wrote especially applies to us
now: “We cannot have a new beginning, but we
can start now to make a new ending.”
Till Next Time,
Don Johnson, KP Chaplain
July 30th
Reverend
Susan Sharpe
Wesleyan Hills Methodist
July 9th
Father
Augustine DeArmond
St. Peter Catholic
July 16th
David South
Woodland Nills
Church of Christ
July 23rd
Reverend
John Bomar
Baptist Pastor, Retired
July Vesper Services
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6:30pm
•
Performing Arts Center
July 2nd
Reverend
Wess Brown
Faith Anglican Church
GIBBON
FRANKLIN
WASHINGTON
JACKSON
CHURCHILL