The Tragic Murder of Missionary John Birch (Pt. 2)

The wreckage of Col. Jimmy Doolittle's Plane

The average American today knows little of the dangers of communism. My wife recently told me of a survey that stated "49% of recent American college graduates believe that communism is a better form of government than America's current form of government."

Sigh.  

Sadly, even some Christians think that there are similarities between communism and early Christianity as described in Acts 2. But there is a FUNDAMENTAL difference between Christianity and communism. The latter is a form of government that requires dictators to force the masses to do things against their will "for the common good" of the country. Of course, the "common good" is always defined by the dictator or governmental leaders, and disobedience leads first to loss of personal liberties, and if eventual uniform conformity is not achieved, then individual deaths. Communist dictators have killed over 150,000,000 people worldwide for non-conformity. 

The Christians in Acts 2 shared all things in common voluntarily (Acts 2:44-48). Demands of uniformity and conformity by government coercion,  regardless of the intended or stated societal good, always means the loss of individual liberty and safety. 

Death follows communism like thunder follows lightning.

In Part 1 of this series I introduced you to John Morrison Birch (1918-1945), the American Christian missionary to China (1940-1945) who was murdered by Chinese communist government soldiers (CPC) on August 25, 1945, 10 days after the end of World War II.  John Birch's death has been called “the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World.”

I would like my followers of Jesus' friends to see that Kingdom people like John Birch will sometimes choose to defend liberty for the sake of a nation's health and safety, believing that this defense is a call from God Himself to protect others from physical suffering and death. 

Missionary to China John Morrison Birch

John Birch was born in 1919 to Christian missionaries living in India (George and Ethel Birch). When John was two years old, the Birch family moved back to the United States due to George's ill health. First settling in New Jersey with Ethel's family, the Birchs would eventually migrate to Georgia, where George Birch had inherited a 500-acre family farm. Teenage John Birch and his older brother worked on the farm all summer to prepare it for the Birch family to live. 

An aunt who recognized John's intellectual acumen offered to pay for his high school education at a school in Gore, Georgia, so that John could afford a better education than the one-room church school in the woods near Birchwood Farm. John graduated with honors from high school and then enrolled at Mercer University in the fall of 1935. After graduation from Mercer with honors and a year of training in Fort Worth, Texas, John Birch went to China. 

John Birch in the rice paddy fields of China

John Birch arrived in Shanghai, China, in July 1940. The coastland of China and all of northern China had been invaded and occupied by the Japanese in 1936. John began an intensive study of Mandarin Chinese in the Japanese-occupied territory of China. After a few months, John went to Hangzhou, China, to begin his ministry of witnessing to the Chinese farmers and their families about the Good News of Jesus Christ. He was an outstanding Christian missionary. He spoke Mandarin fluently, dressed in the rural Chinese everyday clothes, and grew his hair long, dyed it black, and pulled it back just like the rice paddy farmers did. 

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President of the United States ordered a surprise attack on Tokyo. In April 1942, the famous and successful Doolittle Raid struck terror in the hearts of the Japanese, who thought their island impenetrable to attack, and it lifted the morale of the American people. Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his crew bailed out in China after the Tokyo raid because they did not have enough gas in their tanks to return to the aircraft carrier.  They had flown from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8), bombed Tokyo, and bailed out of their planes before crashing on the Chinese mainland. The American air crews rendezvoused and then tried to figure out a way to get out of Japanese-controlled China. A local farmer put them in the bottom level of his fishing boat.

John Birch was eating a cheap rice bowl in a restaurant that overlooked the Ch'ien Tang River. James M Scott, in his superb book Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor explains what happened next:

A Chinese officer came inside and spotted the missionary, striking up a conversation in the hope of practicing his English. The officer commented that there were several Americans on the general’s boat tied up below. Birch protested that he must be mistaken, prompting the officer to point out the policeman in a black uniform standing guard on deck. Birch decided he had to check it out for himself. 

“Have you any Americans on this boat?” the missionary demanded of the guard. 

“No,” the policeman answered in Chinese. 

“Are there any Americans in there?” Birch repeated, this time shouting. 

Doolittle and his men crouched inside the cabin, listening to the exchange. “Well, Jesus Christ,” Paul Leonard blurted out.

 “That’s an awfully good name,” Birch answered. “But I am not he.” 

The door sprang open, and Birch spotted several bearded faces inside. “Come in here!” came the chorus. Birch climbed inside the cabin and came face-to-face with Doolittle and his men. The aviators were thrilled to meet Birch, whose language skills and knowledge of the area would be assets. Doolittle briefed the young missionary on the operation and asked whether he would travel with them and help interpret. “Of course, I was glad to,” Birch later said. “The first time I’d associated with celebrities.” 

Birch traveled with Doolittle to Lanchi, relating stories of the Japanese atrocities. The missionary confessed to Doolittle that he wanted to help American forces. Doolittle bade farewell to Birch, assuring him that he would recommend him up the ladder and asking him to remain ready to help other raiders.

Scott, James M.. Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor (pp. 276-277). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. 

Order of Merit

When Doolittle arrived in Chongqing, he told Colonel Claire Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, about Birch's help. Chennault said he could use a Chinese-speaking American who knew the country well, and he commissioned Birch as a first lieutenant on July 4, 1942, to work as a field intelligence officer, though Birch had expected to work as a chaplain.

Lieutenant John Birch would eventually be promoted to Captain John Birch and he would be a highly decorated field intelligence officer, including being awarded the Legion of Merit for his distinguished service in China. General Claire Chennault would later say of John Birch, "I loved like my own son." 

It was on August 25, 1945, 10 days after the official end of World War II, that Chinese communist soldiers shot and killed Captain John Birch in cold blood.

John Birch died defending China against insurgent communists. He died wearing an American soldier's uniform. The United States government covered up John Birch's murder for five years. In one of the blackest stains on American foreign policy, the American government pulled its military and financial support from Chiang Kai-Shek and the Republic of China and allowed the country of China to fall into the hands of the communists led by Mao Zedong. 

Millions of Chinese died under the butchering hands of Mao Zedong. 

A fight against communism is a fight for lives. 

How the communists killed John Birch and why it's important to understand the goals of communism will come in Part 3 of this series. 

The Tragic Murder of Missionary John Birch (Pt. 1)

Missionary John Birch in China (c. 1940)

This is the first of a three-part series on the extraordinary life and tragic murder of an American Baptist missionary to China named John Birch.

His cold-blooded murder by  Chinese communists on Saturday, August 25, 1945, should serve as a warning to all Americans who believe in liberty, individual responsibility, and government accountability.

Many have heard of the John Birch Society. 

However, few people know about the man John Birch (1918-1945), after whom the organization was named. 

John Birch, the son of missionary parents to India, would spend his school years in Georgia. God called him to be a missionary at the age of eleven. A superb student, Birch graduated from Mercer University with top academic honors at age twenty. At twenty-two, John Birch took a ship to Shanghai, where he studied Chinese at a prestigious language academy. John picked up the problematic language rather quickly and became fluent in speaking and writing Mandarin Chinese, able to imitate the local tonal dialects with precision.

A young John Birch telling the Christmas Story

John Birch served as a model Christian missionary to the Chinese people. He dressed like the Chinese people and ate rice and the local Chinese cuisine. He quickly made friendships with Chinese families as he shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with the Chinese people of northwest China. John refused to marry a British missionary woman with whom he fell in love because he felt having a wife would deter him from his mission in China. 

When World War II began, John didn't abandon his missionary post. Japan had already invaded China
in 1937, so when World War II broke out for the United States in 1941, the Republic of China was our ally, but the Empire of Japan was our enemy. John Birch continued his missionary efforts among the Chinese, moving away from the coastal areas to avoid the Japanese occupying troops. 

By God's providence, missionary John Birch guided Jimmy Doolittle and the Doolittle Raiders out of China (a story I will tell in Part II). Upon Jimmy Doolittle's recommendation, General Clairee Chennault made missionary John Birch a lieutenant in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of America's Central Intelligence Agency.

John Birch, decorated by Gen. Claire Chennault

John Birch's fluent Mandarin, his knowledge of the land and people, and his ability to get close to the Japanese without being identified as an American made John Birch the perfect spy for Allied forces. From 1942 to 1945, John Birch saved countless lives through his dangerous intelligence work for the American government, all the while continuing his missionary work. John Birch would be posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Meritt. 

After World War II ended on August 14, 1945, John Birch recognized the dangers facing the Republic of China. Communist revolutionaries, desiring to overthrow the Republic of China to turn China into a Marxist country like the Soviet Union, attacked their Chinese brothers and the Republic of China.

John Birch knew the fate of the Chinese people was at stake.  The 

The Communist Emblem

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, sought to destroy the Republic of China (ROC), led by Chiang Kai-Shek, through riots, destruction, murder, and mayhem. 

On Saturday, August 25, 1945, just ten days after the conclusion of World War II, the Chinese communists murdered John Birch in cold blood - a story I will tell in detail in Part II.

Even worse, the United States government covered up John Birch's murder for five years. In one of the blackest stains on American foreign policy, the American government covered up John Birch's murder by the communists, pulled its military and financial support from Chiang Kai-Shek and the Republic of China, allowing the country of China to fall to the communists.

Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalist Party for the Republic of China withdrew from the mainland after

Taiwan - The Republic of China (ROC)

their defeat to a Chinese island. There, Chiang Ka Shek and the Republicans established The Republic of China (1949), what Americans call Taiwan. For over seven decades now, the government of Communist China (CPC) has threatened to invade Taiwan, even if it brings about a World War. 

The common purpose of socialism/communism/Marxism is a unified, one-world government where control of the masses for the "collective" good is orchestrated through social conformity and a Big Brother mentality (e.g. "you can only do what the government allows you to do.") 

John Birch's death has been called “the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World.”

Burial Site of John Birch in Soochow, China

Every American should know about the missionary John Birch. Every lover of liberty should respect the John Birch Society's objective. The three-fold goal of the JBS is: 

1. Less government. 
2. More individual responsibility.
3. By God's grace - a better world.

Robert Welch (1899-1985) founded the John Birch Society on the cold Monday evening of December 9, 1958, in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Welch,  who was fifty-nine years old at the time, had three decades earlier become wealthy from his candy empire that began with his invention of a caramel-bar-on-a-stick that he called Sugar Daddy.

Welch invited eleven other well-known American businessmen from around the United States to join him in Indianapolis. These twelve men became the founding members of the John Birch Society. Among them were Harry Lynde Bradley, co-founder of the Allen Bradley Company and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Fred C. Koch, founder of Koch Industries; and Robert Waring Stoddard, President of Wyman-Gordon, a major industrial enterprise. 

Five years earlier (1954), Welch had written a book entitled The Life of John Birch: In the Story of One American Boy, the Ordeal of His Age. The candy maker was no dummy. Welch began reading at age two, tackled algebra at age six, read all nine volumes of John Clark Ridpath’s formidable History of the World at age seven, and entered the University of North Carolina at age 12, graduating at 16. He was a true “Renaissance Man,” a world traveler, conversant in several languages, and an avid lifelong student of history, language, philosophy, economics, mathematics, science, geography, chess, poetry, classical literature, politics, and other subjects.

However, it was the American Baptist missionary to China, John Birch, who captured Robert Welch's mind and heart. 

At an age when most people are enjoying their retirement, Robert Welch decided to forego a life of leisure and create an organization (The John Birch Society) to promote what Welch believed to be ideals of Americanism. He wanted to battle the overwhelming wave of communism he saw taking over numerous countries, and he had already seen communism’s prominent influence in America throughout his lifetime.

Fast-forward to 2021. On Presidential Inauguration Day, it was my privilege to have lunch with Marty

(L to R) Marty, Wade, John, Clark

Ohlson, the President of the John Birch Society, Clark Curry, the Chairman of the Board for the national Board of Directors for the John Birch Society, and John Dwyer, the historian par excellence for Oklahoma. 

All three are friends of mine. They're sharp, prosperous businessmen who cherish the principles of less government, more individual responsibility, and, by God's grace, a better world. 

Fred Trump, the father of former President Donald Trump, was a member of the John Birch Society, and Fred ingrained into his son the principles of liberty, responsibility, and government accountability. 

It's no wonder Donald Trump had so much opposition.

National socialism, Marxism, and/or communism  have the following three-fold objective:

1. A powerful, expansive, and all-controlling government.
2. Minimal individual responsibility and collective (social) responsibility.
3. A utopian world by the government's control of the masses with no need for God.

Missionary John Birch saw the dangers of communism in China and worldwide. He is an example of a person who is primarily interested in the Kingdom of Christ but was willing to lay his life on the line to ensure a country remained free.

John Birch died tragically murdered by the communists, but the message he conveys lives on.

More to come.  

Just What Exactly about 1776 Does Biden Not Like?

Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College, served as the Chairman of the Presidential 1776 Commission, a commission appointed by the 45th President of the United States. The Commission issued its 1776 Report this past Monday, January 18, 2021. 

The report calls for a return to the unifying principles of the Declaration of Independence. It quotes the greatest Americans, black and white, men and women, in devotion to these principles. The report also calls for a civics education that fosters a reverence for our nation's unifying principles, beginning with accurate and honest teaching of American history. It is no partisan document.

Yet, on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden abolished the 1776 Commission with one of his first executive orders after taking the oath of office.

Mike Gonzales, a senior fellow in Heritage's Allison Center for Foreign Policy and the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum fellow and one of the 1776 Commissioners, commented on President Biden's abolishment of the commission: 

All Americans should wish President Joe Biden well. To do otherwise would be churlish and self-defeating. It beggars belief, though, that one of his first intended acts was for his White House to take down the report issued Monday by the 1776 Commission, and on his first day as president, to disband the commission.

Is that really the priority? As one of the commissioners, I guess I’m flattered. But is the baying from the woke left so furious that dissolving a commission named after our nation’s founding, and deleting a report calling for teaching objective history, makes the top of the list?

The symbolism alone should give pause. But maybe the symbolism is the thing, and our new president wants to demonstrate his bona fides to the creators of the 1619 Project and their hard-left allies.

For the record, we commissioners intend to continue meeting and fulfilling the charges of our two-year remit. The Heritage Foundation will also continue to host the report, which you can henceforth find here.

You must read the 1776 report. I am grateful for the 1776 Commission and its superb work!

After you read the 1776 Report, I think you'll hard-pressed to understand why our new President felt the need to abolish it.

On the other hand, it might also explain the serious trouble we are in as a nation.

The USA from Commencement to Collapse: From Pain, to Productivity, to Prosperity, to Promiscuity

United States President John Adams once wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. The Constitution is wholly inadequate to the government of any other" (Source: John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798, The National Archives). 

Regent University, in establishing their Robertson Center for Constitutional Law, publicly stated: "The biggest threat to our constitutional order… is the failure to pass to subsequent generations the character, virtue, and knowledge required to protect the constitutional safeguards."

Many Americans feel as if they have lost their country. To those with a sense of this loss, it seems that the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution are gone. But any lament over the loss of Constitutional liberties must take into account the past 50 years of United States history.

Sexual immorality has brought us to the fall of the Republic. If you won't take my word for the reason for our national collapse, at least ponder the conclusions of Oxford University anthropologist J.D. Unwin.

In Dr. Unwin's 1934 book Sex and Culture, he quotes the Greek philosopher Plato for the explanation of how and why a country or civilization goes "from democracy to dissolution." Plato said the dissolution occurs when the government takes from the rich to give to the poor. Plato wrote:

"Their leaders deprive the rich of their estates and distribute them among the people; at the same time, taking care to reserve the larger part for themselves (e.g. the government officials). The persons who have their property taken from them are then compelled to defend themselves as they best can...Democracy comes to dissolution by the insatiable desire of citizens to have what others possess." (Source: Timaesus, Critias, and Republic, by Plato).

Dr. Unwin studied 86 different cultures and civilizations over the past 5,000 years, including the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and Romans, the Teutons, and the Anglo-Saxons. He analyzed these cultures and observed that sexual promiscuity always preceded the leaders' of that country's attempt to transfer wealth from the rich to the poor. 

Dr. Unwin believed there was a strong correlation between a civilization's standard of monogamous heterosexual marriage and cultural advancement. He also believed (as do I) that legal equality between women and men is "a necessary prerequisite to absolute monogamy" within a culture (Sex and Culture, p. 431).  This Oxford anthropologist charted the 86 civilizations that he studied from commencement to collapse using four words: Pain, Productivity, Prosperity, and Promiscuity. 

At first, Dr. Unwin writes, people go through a painful struggle such as famine, disease, or war. that commences a cultural or national identity. Then, the people who have overcome the struggle through their self-discipline and innovation will become productive as a nation or society. For example, the United States went through our painful struggle of the Revolutionary War (AD 1775-1783). Shortly after winning the war, Americans became a productive young nation due to our Protestant work ethic and personal self-discipline, both of which were forged in the crucible of war.

Dr. Unwin observed that in productive civilizations, the prosperity of all people will soon follow. Over time, however, prosperous people become lax, casting off their self-discipline, their innovative courage, and their self-restraint. Prosperity as an experience leads them to pursue more and more pleasures. Thus, prosperous people invariably turn into promiscuous people. They set aside their morals, discipline, and religious convictions - the very character qualities that enabled them to overcome their initial seminal struggle - in an attempt to find even greater personal pleasures. 

You may not understand this Oxford professor's explanation for the rise and fall of civilizations, so let me give another explanation for the rise and fall of the United States using simpler, middle-American English.

Joe Wright, Pastor of Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kansas, opened the 2019  legislative session of the Kansas State Legislature with the following prayer. Joe Wright says the same thing that Dr. Unwin says: 

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We confess:

We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the Name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

 The United States may be broken, but we serve a King whose Kingdom is unshakeable.

Self-Government Means Free Access to Information

If we the people of the United States are to remain self-governed, we must have access to all information, arguments, and opinions relevant to public affairs so that we may assess and choose the leaders that we desire to represent us in government.

Our free access to information and opinions must never be restricted. There are no essential substitutes for the freedom of speech and the press. Free access to a discussion about political matters is necessary for any society to remain free and self-governed.

Throughout history, repressive regimes, dominant dictators, and communist countries have recognized the power of freedom of speech. Repressive government bodies make certain they are the arbiters of what is “really” going on at home and abroad, and they regularly inform their subjects of "the truth" Any contrary opinions are silenced. Repressive governments may not allow free people to discuss public affairs and give opinions that differ from the party line. 

LEFTISM (available for free download) was written by Dr. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1909-1999). Erik was a scholar and leading historian of the German “Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” (National Socialist German Workers’ Party). He gives a gripping summary of what happens when repressive governments censor their people “for the good” of the nation. Dr. Kuehnelt-Leddihn writes:

"When a government demands identically dressed men or women carry out identical movements (e.g., “by everyone thinking, saying, and doing the same thing”), that nation gives the overpowering impression of homogeneity, synchronization, symmetry, and uniformity. A leftist identity movement tends toward the effacement of self (e.g. "the individual") and towards nostrism (e.g. "USness"). In nostrism, the individual becomes submerged in the whole as in ‘We're all in this together.’”

Nostrism was the term created by the Austrian Nazi Walter Pembaur (1886-1948). The Nazis (The National Socialist German Workers' Party) used nostrism in a clever way. 'Whoever praises and extolls the collective unit in which he participates (the German nation, the Aryian race, the working class, the Nazi party) only praises himself."

The nonconforming person or group who sins against the sacred principle of sameness will always be treated as a traitor, and if he is not a traitor the envious majority will push him in that direction through social shaming. All leftist identity movements take a stand for sameness and oppose otherness. All modern liberal trends point to the specter of a terrifying, bigger and more pitiless conformity.

To the simple-minded, identical laws, identical measurements, an identical language, an identical currency, an identical education, an identical political power ("one-man-one-vote"), identical pay rates, an identical intellectual level, and identical clothes (or coverings) seem highly desirable. It simplifies matters. It is cheaper. It saves thinking. To certain minds it even seems 'more just.'"

Political leftism destroys personal liberty. I would thoroughly subscribe to the words of Alexis de Tocqueville when he wrote, "Despotism appears to me particularly to be dreaded in democratic ages. I think that I would have loved liberty at all times, but in the present age I am ready to worship it."

The far-right extremist groups that breached the United States Capitol in an attempt to undermine the rule of law have been and should be condemned by all Americans. President-elect Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States, and Christians are called by Scripture to pray "for kings and all those in authority" (I Timothy 2:2). We will pray for Mr. Biden. 

But we will continue to speak out on the oppression of freedom and the repression of free people. Shutting down Americans' free access to information and opinions on political matters - even if you don't like the discussion being had - is never the solution for free people living in a free country. 

 As Benjamin Franklin once said: 

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Your Bed Is Too Short and Your Blanket Too Small

Today, half of the people in the United States will wake up mad and the other half will wake-up glad. 

Political elections have a way of splitting a country right down the middle. 

I may offend every American with this post. Whether your candidate lost and you are mad or whether your candidate won and you are glad, you have a greater problem than politics.

Your bed is too short and your blanket too small. 

That's a biblical way of saying your trust is in things other than the LORD. 

Let me explain.

Isaiah (761 - 686 BC) warned the people of Judah that their trust was in everything but the LORD. He chastised them for taking refuge in political leaders and in believing the deceptive lies that economic collapse and death would evade them. The Jews had seen those horrific problems plague their northern neighbors (Ephraim), but they felt confident those same problems would not face them. 

The Jews believed they were God's chosen people, and nothing like what happened to Ephraim could happen to Judah!

But Isaiah's message to Judah rang out with force and clarity (Isaiah 28). You may profess trust in the LORD, Isaiah said, but you don't possess trust in the LORD. 

You are trusting anything and everything but Him! The reason the prophet knew the hearts of his people was because he felt the emotions of his people. He knew them to be smugly confident when things went their way, and saw them openly fearful when things didn't go as planned.

If your trust is in the LORD, you are confident of the future no matter the present. 

Prophets speak for the good of the people, whether the people listen or not. The prophet's message is what the people need to hear. A true prophet is not silent when the people don't like his message. A prophet from God speaks because the principles conveyed are ultimately rewarding to the hearers, and he regards not whether the hearers are immediately receiving the principles conveyed.

To vividly describe the consequences of trusting in anything and everything other than the LORD, Isaiah summarizes succinctly and visually by saying:

 "The bed is too short on which to stretch out, And the blanket is too small to wrap oneself in." (Isaiah 28:20 NASB)

When the OKC Thunder moved from Seattle, the Colcord Hotel changed out their beds. To entice visiting National Basketball Association teams to stay at the downtown Colcord, management replaced traditional beds with ones that were fifteen inches longer.

NBA players are tall. The Colcord knew that nobody likes sleeping on a bed too short.

You are restless on a bed too short. You are uncomfortable on a bed too short. You are often sleepless on a bed too short. You are tired the next day when you sleep on a bed too short. In short (pardon the pun), life is miserable when you sleep on a bed too short. You might not notice it immediately, but you'll darn sure feel it ultimately.

So too, when you have a blanket too small, you are cold. You feel insecure and unprotected from the elements. A blanket is a true refuge on a cold winter night. But when your blanket is too small, your problems are very large. 

Isaiah tells the people of Judah that their lack of trust in the LORD is ruining their lives. The ancient prophet's message to Judah applies in 2021 to the people of America. 

Trust in the LORD and nothing else today. 

A Heartfelt Apology to My Fellow Believers in Jesus

It is New Year's Day. 

New Year's Resolutions don't move me as much as they did Jonathan Edwards. 

But I am making one very important New Year's Resolution for 2021. 

I will never again publicly post a critical word about a fellow believer in Jesus Christ. Period. 

That is my 2021 New Year's Resolution. You may not understand it. You may not agree with it. But it is not necessary that you agree. This is my New Year's resolution, not yours. 

For the past fifteen years, I have been at doing all I can to ensure Christian women are recognized for their gifts, and never diminished because of their gender. I have been sometimes labeled (wrongly) a heretic because I believe in the biblical equality of women. I have not - and will not - change my opinion about the Scriptures, for I see them to teach that leadership in the church, home, and society is based on gifting, not gender; character, not control; humility, not honors.

For the past fifteen years I also have been at the forefront of stopping sexual abuse in the institutional church. I will continue that righteous fight. But my tactics are changing.

I repent. I do not repent of my biblical principles. I repent of my brazen practices. 

I will never again speak a negative word about any person who claims Christ as LORD. I don't care if they hammer me verbally, condemn me publicly, and label me falsely. 

A Jesus follower is my family member.

Christians are my family. Family members sometimes disagree, but we're part of the same  family.

I have spent the last 48 hours deleting vulgar, profane death threats directed at me from people who do not name Christ as LORD because of a post where I declared transgenderism is "a lie" that harms society.

Though my Christian friends have been furious with me over my views on the equality of women over the past fifteen years,  they've never stooped to death threats, to vulgar and profane comments, and to the kind of vitriol I've received the last few days on social media.

Christian friends are my family.

Though we as Christians may not agree on every "jot and tittle' of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, I covenant to never again say a negative word about Christians who disagree with me - no matter what they may say of me - because they are my family members. 

Welcome, 2021.

I love those who love the LORD Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

Lt. General Raymond S. McLain, Oklahoma Citizen Soldiers, and the 45th Infantry (The Thunderbirds)

    (PIECE of JAKE) Photo by Bell, Signal Photo Company, SC 18687. Credit NARA. 367. "MM-5-151943"

On Christmas Day 2020, the colorized photograph above appeared in my Facebook feed. I knew immediately that I was looking at something extraordinary. 

These were American soldiers fighting during World War II. 

The Thunderbird Patch

They were praying. 

The photo caption said it was Christmas Day 1943, and these soldiers were praying on the Italian front before Christmas dinner. 

After carefully looking at the photo, I realized these soldiers were not regular army soldiers. They were National Guard "citizen-soldiers."  

And they were from Oklahoma.

These men were farmers, lawyers, teachers, and businessmen in Oklahoma. But on Christmas Day 1943, south of Rome, they were fighting the Axis powers so that they might "give humanity another chance." 

These soldiers were called Thunderbirds, members of the highly decorated Oklahoma National Guard and the 45th Infantry Division, which helped the United States win World War II. You can see the Thunderbird patch on the left arm of the soldier that is standing just to the right of Chaplain Harvey Floyd Bell. Chaplain Bell is identified by the traditional chaplain's patch on his left arm,  a red cross on white cloth.

The Thunderbirds' route to Rome

Six months before this photo was taken, the Thunderbirds had invaded the island of Sicily.  Using Sicily as their base, the Oklahoma boys stormed the Italian mainland, going ashore at the beaches of Salerno, Italy, on September 10, 1943 (see photo to the left).

The Thunderbirds then moved north, fighting their way toward Rome. It took several days to cross the Colore and Volturno rivers. After crossing the rivers, the soldiers were involved in fierce battles near the Italian city of Venafro. Majestic mountains surround this picturesque Italian city. 

The fighting lasted 40 days and was known as "the days of mud, mules, and mountains." Battling the cold, the wet weather, fatigue, and the tortuous mountain trails that were too steep and winding for jeeps to pass, the Thunderbirds faced extreme peril. The Germans' fanatical resistance and the introduction of the "screaming mimis" - fierce artillery fire that issued screeching screams as it flew toward the soldiers -  it seemed impossible for the Oklahoma boys to take the town, and the mountains filled with German troops.  Yet, against all odds, the Thunderbirds opened and secured a pathway to Rome.  The Oklahoma citizen-soldiers made the regular army marvel at their toughness and spirit. 

General Raymond S. McLain

General Raymond Stallings McLain (b. 1890 - d. 1954) was responsible for preparing the Oklahoma National Guard to enter World War II was

Like the men he commanded, McLain served as a citizen-soldier in Oklahoma. 

Born in Kentucky, McLain moved with his parents to the new state of Oklahoma in 1907. At seventeen, he took a job as a clerk for an Oklahoma City abstract office. McLain also joined the newly formed Oklahoma National Guard. 

Although McLain's formal education ended in the sixth grade in Kentucky, he never stopped learning. McLain taught himself the banking and abstract business, eventually starting his own title and abstract company in Oklahoma City in his early twenties. 

Then came World War I. 

McLain fought with distinction in Europe as a captain, commanding a machine gun company.  Upon returning to Oklahoma City after World War I, McLain returned to the title business, later merging his small company with a larger one. At age 29, in 1919, McLain became president of that merged company. He then began personally buying and selling real estate in a small suburb of Oklahoma City called Edmond. 

McLain was an excellent businessman and an even better soldier. He remained in the Oklahoma National Guard after World War I. He became an original member of the Oklahoma Thunderbirds 45th Infantry Division at its formation in 1924. For the next twelve years, he served on weekends as a citizen-soldier. In 1937, McLain attended the Special Command and General Staff Class for Guard and Reserve officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Upon graduation, he became a Brigadier General of the Oklahoma National Guard. 

General McLain was appointed Chief of Staff of the 45th National Guard Division (Thunderbirds). In the years preceding World War II, McLain drilled the troops meticulously. He demanded that all his subordinate officers train their men knowing they might soon be in a very real war.

Training could not be shortcutted or compromised. McClain is the reason the citizen-soldiers of Oklahoma became such excellent fighting men. 

When World War II began, the Thunderbirds were ready. They fought with honor and discipline through the end of the war, eventually freeing the inmates at Dachau Concentration Camp. 

Normandy, where Gen. McLain distinguished himself as commander of the 90th Infantry Division

McLain himself fought with distinction at Sicily, in Italy, and on the beaches of Normandy. The Army needed his leadership. During the Battle of Normandy in August 1944, McLain briefly took command of the 90th Infantry Division, a division that had numerous command problems and was in need of a strong commander. He quickly transformed the 90th into a first-class fighting formation, just as he had done with the Oklahoma Thunderbirds. McLain led the 90th across France in the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, leading them to victory in numerous battles along the Western Front. 

In October 1944, McLain assumed command of the XIX Corps and remained the commander of the XIX Corps for the rest of the war. General Raymond Stallings McLain was the only National Guardsman to command a corps during World War II combat. McClain was the first guardsman to be given a battlefield promotion of two stars, and the first citizen soldier to command an army corps in battle since Dan Sickles raised a corps in New York and led it to Gettysburg. McLain's XIX Corps defeated the Germans at Julich, improbably conquering the 600-year-old German fortress that the Allied forces deemed near impregnable. General Dwight D. Eisenhower credited the Allied victory at Julich to General McLain's aggressive tactics.

Maj. Gen. McLain, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lt. Gen. William Simpson at Julich Fortress, Nov. 1944

 

"General McLain in his person, elevated and gave great distinction to the term ‘citizen soldier, ” said General George C. Marshall in 1949.

 

Tulsa McLain High School

The Oklahoma Hall of Fame inducted Raymond S. McLain in its class of 1945. McLain Magnet High School for Science and Technology in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Tulsa McClain High School, took its name in honor of General McLain. 

Fort Leavenworth inducted Raymond McLain into its Hall of Fame. To this day, General McClain remains the only National Guardsman so honored by Fort Leavenworth.

The prestigious LIEUTENANT GENERAL RAYMOND S. McLAIN MEDAL was established in 1999 and is awarded annually to a serving or former member of the United States National Guard who has contributed most to the advancement of the goal of the Association of the United States Army, the goal of a seamless and component-integrated U.S. Army.

For McLain's distinguished service in the war, he was appointed a brigadier general in the Regular Army. Later, he became the comptroller of the United States Army and was appointed the army's first statutory comptroller general. At the time of his death in 1954, he served on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's National Security Training Commission.

Raymond Stallings McLain died at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., on December 14, 1954, at 64.

Lieutenant General McLain's ribbon bar:

Lieutenant General McLain's decorations include Distinguished Service Cross with Oak leaf Cluster (Sicily, 1943 and France, 1944), the Army Distinguished Service Medal with Oak leaf Cluster (France, 1944 and Germany, 1945), Silver Star (Italy, 1943), Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with Oak leaf Cluster (Italy, 1944 and Germany, 1945), Mexican Border Service Medal, World War I Victory Medal with two battle clasps, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver and three bronze service stars and Arrowhead device, World War II Victory Medal, Army of Occupation Medal, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, French Croix de Guerre 1939–1945, Grand officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau with swords, Commander of the Order of Leopold II and Belgian Croix de Guerre.

AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY...

Robert McLain had an eye for real estate. While scouring far north Oklahoma City in the late 1920s, about three miles south of downtown Edmond, Oklahoma, McLain spotted an ideal property to buy for himself and a group of six investors, all fellow officers in the Oklahoma National Guard. McLain described the large property as "a beautiful piece of wooded high ground." General McLain would build for himself a "two-story log cabin" near Eastern Avenue, calling his home Tree Tops. McLain, his wife, son, and daughters lived at Tree Tops during the 1930s. The family remained behind at Tree Tops when General McLain went to Europe to fight during World War II. 

Tree Tops - The Home of Raymond McLain - Hand-painted for a Mrs. Akright Christmas Card

According to the official biography of General McClain, written by Raymond's daughter, Dr. Betty McLain Belvin, Tree Tops House played a vital role in forming McLain's leadership skills and ultimate success on the battlefield during World War II. Betty Belvin writes:

"McLain would study military problems long into the night at Tree Tops, at first by gaslight and then by windmill-generated electric light. He talked over historic battles with his friends (the other officers who owned homes at Reveille Retreat), knowing full well that rumors of genocide and of madman Adolf Hitler's theats in Mein Kampf would have to be reckoned with." 

McClean's home was built with a massive bomb bunker with 24-inch concrete walls where the leading generals and colonels of the United States Army at OU ROTC would plan for the United States' entry into "the war in Europe," later called World War II.

The bomb shelter was to prevent deaths of the Oklahomans if a German or Japanese plane infiltrated the heartland and sought to bomb Reveille Road. 

It's been my pleasure to be shown the bunker in preparation for a radio show I did on OKC KTOK. 

Tree Tops was McLain's dream home, reminding him of his roots in Kentucky. But after World War II, when the Army asked General McLain to serve as the United States Army's comptroller with the rank of Brigadier General in the Regular Army, McLain decided to sell his log home and move to Washington, D.C.  The McLain family sold Tree Tops to the Akright family. 

Though seven Oklahoma National Guard officers built their homes in the wooded area the men called Reveille Retreat, I will highlight only two more.

Raymond McClain's son, Ray Jr., became fast friends with oilman Baird Markham's son, Baird Jr. The elder Markham had been promoted to Brigadier General of the Oklahoma National Guard in 1923. General Baird's son and General McClain's son would often play together in the Reveille Retreat woods. 

The McClain and Markham houses were joined by many footpaths through the woods. In 1937, at age 21, Baird Markham Jr. would make national headlines after he was kidnapped for ransom while out examining an oil lease for his father near Ada, Oklahoma. Baird Jr. was kidnapped by Charles Chapman and Pete Traxel, two men at the top of America's Most Wanted list, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Markham Kidnapping, as well as the Charles Urschel kidnapping, were instrumental in saving J. Edgar Hoover from being fired as FBI Director by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Col. Bolend, Chief Surgeon, 45th Infantry

Another home, just northwest of McLain's Tree Tops log house, was built by Colonel Rex Bolend. Col. Bolend, a private practice physician (urologist), served as the Chief Surgeon for the 45th Infantry. Bolend built a log home similar to the two-story Tree Tops house that McClain had built. 

Rex Bolend called his home at Reveille Retreat the Dormar House. The name came from the first three initials of Colonel Bolend's daughter Dorothy and the first three initials of his wife Martha.  Colonel Bolend, General McLain, and General Markham, were close friends, as were the other four officers who built a total of seven homes in Reveille Retreat. All of them were outstanding soldiers for the United States. The road that connected Tree Tops with Dormar House and the other officer's homes was appropriately called Reveille Road.

The elegant and peaceful log homes built in the beautiful woods north of Oklahoma City, about three miles south of downtown Edmond and just east of Eastern Road, are a tribute to a much simpler time in the life of America.  

In 1950, Colonel Rex Bolend sold Dormar House to my grandfather, Frederick Tinsley Donne Cherry, and his wife (my grandmother), Virginia (Salyer) Cherry. My grandfather, a former All-Big 6 tight end for the University of Oklahoma, scored the first touchdown in the newly opened Cotton Bowl when Oklahoma played Texas in the fall of 1930. More importantly, my grandfather joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) while at the University of Oklahoma, and he drilled under all the Colonels and Generals who built their homes in Reveille Retreat. Fred T. Cherry joined other Oklahoma National Guardsmen in fighting the Germans during World War II. My grandfather drove a jeep with John 3:16 emblazoned on the side and fought with other 45th Infantrymen (The Thunderbirds) from Oklahoma in the southern portion of the Battle of the Bulge. 

After the war, my father used his petroleum engineering degree to take a job in the oil fields of East Texas. That's where he met my grandmother. Soon, my father decided to give up "the oil business" and become an evangelist. His friendship with the ROTC officers at Reveille Retreat and his notoriety as an Oklahoma football and track star probably helped secure the purchase of Colonel Rex Bolend's home for this young but growing Cherry family. 

My mother, Mary Cherry (Burleson), was a young girl when she and her siblings moved into what they came to call "Cherry Hollow." She and her brothers and sisters have fond memories of walking down Reveille Road (see the modern Google map below), fishing in the man-made muddy lake at the bottom of Tree Tops, and exploring the creeks, woods, and hills of the Reveille Retreat. 

My mother first met my father, Paul Burleson, when he visited my grandfather Fred Cherry one afternoon in late 1957 at the Dormar House.  Fred Cherry had become an evangelist after his Oklahoma football days and short oilfield career. My father was a young music evangelist scheduled to lead music at one of Fred Cherry's evangelistic revivals. Paul Burleson walked into Dormar House to talk with Fred Cherry about the evangelistic meeting and met Fred's daughter, Mary Cherry, on Christmas Day 1957. Two nights later, on December 27, 1957, my mother came to hear her father preach and her future husband lead the music. Their relationship began at Dormar House.

A red rose by the long gravel drive that leads down to Cherry Hollow in Edmond, Oklahoma.

I have many memories of spending holidays with my maternal Cherry family at the house. I remember repairing a fence with my grandfather Fred Cherry, one of my clearest memories of spending time with him as a boy. My grandparents are now gone, and my uncle, Fred Cherry, now lives at Dormar House, the place we now call Cherry Hollow. Fred has turned the property into a one-of-a-kind country showpiece. 

The wooded Reveille Retreat area is no longer in "the middle of nowhere." In 1957, Oklahoma Christian University built its campus a half-mile north of Cherry Hollow. Modern subdivisions now surround the old Dormar House, but the oak and blackjack trees remain so thick, and the driveways so long, that once you arrive in the woods, it still feels like you are in the middle of the woods. It must be close to the same feeling that General McLain, General Markham, Colonel Bolend, and the other National Guard officers felt when they built and lived in their homes nearly a century ago. All of these men of Reveille Retreat played a significant role in the Allied Forces winning World War II.

Of the seven homes that the officers of the Oklahoma National Guard built at Reveille Retreat during the late 1920s and early 1930s, only Dormar House remains (now Fred Cherry's home). General McClain's home, purchased by the Akright family, burned to the ground in a fire caused by a floor furnace during Thanksgiving Week, 1975. General Raymond S. McLain, the original purchaser of the property he and his friends called Reveille Retreat, died of leukemia at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. on December 14, 1954. To this day, Raymond McLain remains the most decorated National Guard officer in the history of the American military.

Dormar House, now maintained with exquisite country beauty by Fred Cherry, the author's uncle.

A back bedroom on the second floor of Dormar House (now called Cherry Hollow)

One of the advantages of knowing history is the ability to have one's soul anchored by the past and built for hope in the future. Reveille Retreat in Edmond and the old Dormar House (our Cherry Hollow), does both for me. 

The Burlesons eating dinner at Cherry Hollow on Labor Day, 2020

As 2020 comes to a close and we begin another year, I am grateful for God's grace in being a Christian, an Oklahoman, an American, a historian, and someone who never takes for granted the people of our past, the special moments of our present, and the marvelous hope for a bright future because our God is good and gracious all the time.

I leave you with a memorable violin solo by Fred Cherry that he played for us on the second floor of the Dormar House, where we ate dinner on Labor Day 2020. As you listen to Fred Cherry play, say a prayer for all the men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces.  I thank God for all who've risked their lives so Americans can live in a country of peace and liberty. 

Thank you, General McLain, General Markham, Colonel Bolend, and all the other Oklahoma National Guard officers  (Thunderbirds) who built your homes at Reveille Retreat. 

Thank you for defeating the Nazis during World War II that we might enjoy a peaceful, family dinner at the place you once called home.