The 2nd Amendment: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Laws in the American Constitution

Fellow American, The Biden administration is making brash moves to mandate gender identity ideology on Christian college campuses, and one brave college in Missouri is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect its rights. In just over two years on the job, President Biden has spared no effort in attempting to insert a radical gender identity ideology into federal policy. Even if that means disregarding religious freedom—and common sense. The administration is even threatening fines and jail time to strong-arm people of faith into falling in line. Religious freedom needs protecting. And you can help do that today in one critical case. The Biden administration has issued a mandate forcing colleges and universities to open their dorms, bathrooms, and showers to members of the opposite sex. This is blatantly unconstitutional. And one brave college in Missouri stood up against this edict. But three lower court judges said they do not even have the right to ask courts for an order protecting their students from this illegal mandate. So the College has just appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to give the College its day in court. What is the College of the Ozarks? The College of the Ozarks is a religious school in Missouri and the Christian faith is integral to how it operates. Not surprisingly, the college believes that sex is created by God and unchangeable. And it runs its dorms accordingly. But now, the Biden administration is trying to FORCE the college to violate its religious beliefs and allow men and women to share dorm rooms … and even showers. The federal government’s directive that we’re fighting applies to all colleges where any student can apply—even private, religious colleges, whether or not they accept federal funds. That means there’s no way out. If College of the Ozarks doesn’t comply with the mandate, it could face fines above six figures. It’s time for believers everywhere to send a CLEAR message to the Biden administration: We will stand up for our constitutionally protected freedoms, including our freedom to live out our faith without fear. On Monday, it was reported that a Christian high school girls’ basketball team in Vermont forfeited a game in the fourth round of a state championship tournament when it was discovered that a biological male who identifies as a transgender female was on the opposing team’s roster. Experts are applauding the school’s decision, pointing to the physical dangers that male athletes pose to female athletes as well as the infringement on fair play that is created by allowing males to compete against females. “We withdrew from the tournament because we believe playing against an opponent with a biological male jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players,” said Vicky Fogg, who serves as Head of School at Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) in White River Junction. “Allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports sets a bad precedent for the future of women’s sports in general.” A number of incidents involving the physical injury of female athletes at the hands of male athletes who identify as transgender women have occurred in recent years.  Enjoying news and commentary from a biblical worldview? Stand with The Washington Stand by partnering with Family Research Council. In October of last year, footage was released of an incident during a high school girls’ volleyball match in North Carolina in which a female player suffered a serious head injury resulting from a biological male on the opposing team spiking the ball directly into the female player’s face. The female player’s county school board subsequently voted to forfeit all future girls volleyball games against Highlands School, the team with the biological male. In April of last year, a male rugby player identifying as a female directly injured three female players from the opposing team during a high school match in Guam. Former UFC fighter Fallon Fox, who was born a male but was allowed to fight in the female division after identifying as a woman, severely injured several female fighters over the course of his career, including breaking the skull of Tamikka Brents during a match. Brents, who broke seven orbital bones and suffered a concussion at the hands of Fox, later recounted, “I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night. … I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right.” Since 2003, biological men have won at least 30 women’s sports titles. Joseph Backholm, senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at Family Research Council, praised Mid Vermont Christian School for forfeiting the game last week. “The school did the right thing,” he told The Washington Stand. “By participating in a game, you are implying that the game is being conducted fairly. But in this case, it certainly would not have been. Males are genetically advantaged when it comes to athletic participation, which is why we created separate sports leagues in the first place. Though it’s unfortunate for the athletes that their opportunity to compete for a state championship was taken away from them, the only way to defeat the madness of gender ideology is not to cooperate with it. Hopefully other schools will do the same.” Backholm continued, “Probably the best way to solve this is to stop calling them ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ sports and instead call them ‘XX’ and ‘XY’ sports. The fact that someone’s feelings about themselves is seen as more important than their inherent biological advantages or disadvantages is silly.” Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at FRC, expressed additional support for MVCS’s decision while also pointing to potential physical dangers posed by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports. “This situation is not just unfair for the girls competing, it’s unsafe,” she told The Washington Stand. “Men and boys are physically stronger than women and girls. That’s why we have sex-separated sports. Men have an advantage physically and women face additional risk of injury by competing against men.” “It is to the great credit of this team, its coaches, its players, and their parents that they are willing to make this stand for the truth of biological sex,” Kilgannon added. “At this level of competition, much time, talent, and treasure has been invested. Practical pressures to play on are high. So we applaud this effort to honor the dignity of all the players by not participating in a girl's sporting event that is not reserved for girls and girls alone. We regret that this example is so necessary and hope that it serves to expose the problem of ‘gender’ for women and girls.” Topics:Gender Identity, Womens Rights, Sports

The Biden administration is hostile to religious freedom "The Biden administration is very aggressive in pushing the LGBTQ agenda. And they don’t respect free speech at all," ADF attorney Julie Marie Blake, who represents the college, says. "They think everyone who’s against them is a bigot, and they intend to give no quarter unless directly ordered by a court to do so—and, even then, not until they’ve exhausted all appeals." Colleges that refuse to comply with the directive risk paying massive fines and, in extreme circumstances, even prison. This case is about countering an administrative agenda that is at direct odds with religious freedom. It’s about ensuring that a radical gender identity ideology isn’t forcefully imposed on anyone. And, ultimately, it’s about guaranteeing that faith-based colleges can operate based on their faith.

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Defender: Genesis 14:14 > Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants...

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of the free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Having fled persecution in Great Britain, the Puritans had laws requiring every family to own a gun, carry it in public places, and train children in the use of firearms. In1619, the colony of Virginia had statutes that required everyone to bear arms. Connecticut law in 1650 required every man above the age of sixteen to possess "a good musket or other guns, fit for service."

The early laws of America are very clear about this. The people were responsible for their own defense and freedoms and needed to be prepared to fight. Thomas Jefferson said, "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." At the time, there was no concept of a professional army created and paid to defend the colonies. George Mason, called the father of the Bill of Rights, said, "What is the militia? It is the whole people. TO disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them."

With the approach of the American Revolution, the natural rights philosophers established the foundation for self-defense. Every man's life, they said, belongs to God, and to allow one's life to be taken because one failed to defend it was wrong. This natural law to the right of self-defense was also applied to the duty to protect one's family, community, and national liberty, a sacred gift from God.

For the most part, the colonial churches, particularly New England's Congregational congregations, believe that a revolt against tyrants, such as King George, was to obey God. It may have had its roots in the Old Testament accounts of Israel's wars for freedom, but it became a powerful fire that impassioned the citizenry. And it remains a belief that continues to influence Americans' views about the right to bear arms today.

Protector: Genesis 16:12 > ".... his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him"

The Barbary Pirates

The Barbary pirates were Muslim pirates who operated from modern-day Morocco Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, from the time of the Crusades until the early nineteenth century. They often made raids on European coastal towns to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in places such as Algeria and Morocco. They estimated that from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships in these attacks, and their inhabitants completely abandoned long stretches of coast in Spain and Italy.

In 1783, the United States won its freedom from the British monarchy, which had been paying tribute money to the pirates, and in 1784 the first American ship was seized by pirates from Morocco. Two more ships were seized in 1785 by Algeria. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, then the ambassadors to France and Britain, Sidi Adja, asked why his government was hostile to American ships. The ambassador's response, which was reported to the Continental Congress, stated that it was their right "to plunder and enslave."

After some serious debate over what to do, the United States chose to fight the pirates of Barbary than pay tribute, as did all the other nations who traded in the Mediterranean Sea. The decision was bold, and the United States Navy was born in March 1794. Six frigates were authorized, and this new military presence helped lead to the two Barbary Wars along the North African coast: the First Barbary War from 1801 to 1805 and the Second Barbary War in 1815. Naval victories in 1815 ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s.

The tiny United States Navy broke a pattern of international blackmail and terrorism dating back more than one hundred and fifty years. The actions of the United States Marine Corps in these wars led to the line "to the shores of Tripoli" in the opening of the Marine Hymn. Due to the hazards of boarding hostile ships, Marines' uniforms had leather high collars to protect against cutlass slashes. This led to the nickname Leatherneck for the U.S. Marines.

Freedom, Genesis 37:28

... and sold [Joseph] to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver

Taking Liberty for Granted

Dick Cheney, the 46th vice president of the United States:

It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you.

 Genesis 45:5 Faith  "....for God sent me before you to preserve life."

God-Made Rights of God-Made Man

Clarence Manion, dean of the Notre Dame College of Law (1941-1952), stated concerning the Declaration of Independence:

Look closely at these self-evident truths, these imperishable articles of American faith upon which all our government is firmly based. First and foremost is the existence of God. Next comes the truth that all men are equal in the sight of God. The third is the fact of God's great gift of unalienable rights to every person on earth. Then follows the true and single purpose of all American government, namely, to preserve and protect these God-made rights of god-made man.

George Washington placed his hand on Genesis 49:13 as he took the presidential oath of office in 1789,

Genesis 49:13 > "Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea;

He shall become a haven for ships, 

And his border shall adjoin Sidon.

Exodus

Autor: Moses

When Written: Around 1400 B.C.

Theme: Deliverance

Key Verses: Exodus 14:13-14 > "And Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.' "

Key Chapters: Exodus 12 - 14 God's powerful deliverance of Israel through the blood and through His power is dramatically depicted in these chapters.

On December 17, 1620, a small group of Pilgrims who had left England in search of a greater freedom to worship God dropped anchor of the Mayflower at Plymouth Harbor in what is now Massachusetts. These were some of the very first individuals and families in those soul beat the heart of what we now call the "American spirit."

THeir flight from oppression mirrored a much earlier Exodus, when God led the children of Israel out of the bondage and oppression of Egypt and into a land that He had promised their forefather Abraham. the Book of Exodus recounts how through His mercy - and through the "blood of the lamb"God delivered them great success through obedience to His Word and will.

George Washington, the "American Moses"

Exodus 3:10 > "Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of  Egypt."

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," said Major General Henry Lee about George Washington, agter his deth. He was surely that and more. Emerging as the most significnt leader in the founding of the United States, he was the essential man, the American Moses, the Father of the Country. At the three major crossroads in the establishment of the nation, he led our troops to victory in the Revolutionary War, he superinended the Constitutional Convention, and he was unanimously elected as the first president.

How, one wonders, is it possible for so much greatness to be embodied in one man? After all, he was surrounded by a host of other courageous leaders, brilliant thinkers, passionate, orators, and gifted writers - Franklin, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Mason, John and Samuel Adams, Hamilton, Madison - almost all of whom were far better educated than he. Yet Washington always led the way.

While much has often been made of his physical stature (he stood six feet two inches when the average man stood five foot seven inches, and he weighted two hundred pounds), or his courage, charisma, energy, vision, calm demeanor, or wealth, it was his high moral t most historical sources commonly cite as the reason for his emergence as the supreme leader. Combine his sterling character and his genius in the area of leadership, and here was a man who could be trusted implicitly to lead over a long period of time and in the course of extraordinary difficulties.

Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States, said about Washington: "He was... possessed of the pure, possessed of an extensive influence, but he never used it but for the benefit of his country.... If you look through the whole tenor of his life, history will not produce to us a parallel."

Thomas Jefferson wrote of Washington: "His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known. No motives ... of friendship or hatred being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man. It may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance."

Service Exodus 12:14 >

"So this day shall be to you a memorial..."

What We Can Do for Our Country

In honor of the veterans of the Civil War, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who had been wounded three times during the war, said in a Memorial Day Address in 1884:

It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.

"Emancipate! Enfranchise! Educate!"

The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865, completed legislation to abolish slavery, which had begun with the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. At Lincoln's request, I asked Presbyterian minister Henry Highland Garnet to deliver a sermon in the House of Representatives to commemorate the event on February 12, 1865.

For the first time in the Republic's history, a black American spoke in the Capitol, and he delivered these powerful words:

Augustine, Constantine, Ignatius, Polycarp, Maximus, and the most illustrious lights of the ancient church denounced the sin of slaveholding. Thomas Jefferson said- at a period of his life when his judgment was matured and his experience was ripe — "There is preparing, I hope, under the auspices of heaven, a way for a total emancipation." sainted, Washington said, near the close of his mortal career and when the light of eternity was beaming upon him, "It is among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country shall be abolished by law. I know of but one way by which this can be done, and that is by legislative action; and so far as my vote can go, it shall not be wanted." Patrick Henry said, "We should transmit to posterity our abhorrence of slavery." So also thought [this] Congress...

Let the verdict of death which has been brought in against slavery by Congress be affirmed and expected by the people. Let the gigantic monster perish. Yes, perish now, and perish forever!... Let slavery die. It has had a long and fair trial; God Himself has pleaded against it. God and man signed its death warrant. Do not commute its sentence. Give it no respite, but let it be ignominiously executed.

Honorable Senators and Representatives! Illustrious rulers of this great nation! I cannot refrain this day from invoking upon you, in God's name, your humanity, justice, and patriotism have opened the blessings of millions who were ready to perish. You have said, "Let the Constitution of the country be so amended that slavery and involuntary servitude shall no longer exist in the United States, except in punishment for a crime." Surely, an act so sublime could not escape Divine notice; and doubtless, the deed has been recorded in the archives of Heaven!... Favored men - and honored of God as His instruments-speedily finish the work which He has given you to do. Emancipate! Enfranchise! Educate! and give the blessing of the Gospel to every American citizen!

Integrity: Exodus 18:21 > ".... able men, such as fear God...

Character Matters 

Noah Webster, known as the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" and author of the famous Webster's Dictionary, stated. 

In selecting men for office, let the principal be your guide. Regard, not the particular sect [party] of the candidate, look at his character. It is alleged by men of loose principles or defective views of the subject that religion and morality are unnecessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rules should be men "who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men's truth, hating covetousness."