The Underground Church Coming to America Soon

Over 200 law enforcement officers in dozens of police vehicles blocked entrances to the parking lot of GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Canada, on Wednesday morning, April 7, 2021, building a fence around the building. The congregation has met normally since summer 2020, despite requirements that church gatherings limit capacity, require masks, and practice social distancing.

Over the last eleven months, the Canadian provincial health department conducted 18 inspections and fined the church dozens of times for their refusal to comply with various government orders, including limited seating and no singing. Pastor James Coates was arrested and spent a month in jail. He steadfastly refused to sign a document stating he would obey the government's compulsory health regulations.

The church has issued a statement giving its rationale for disobeying the government:

"We are gravely concerned that COVID-19 is being used to fundamentally alter society and strip us all of our civil liberties. By the time the so-called “pandemic” is over, if it is ever permitted to be over, Albertans will be utterly reliant on government, instead of free, prosperous, and independent. As such, we believe love for our neighbor demands that we exercise our civil liberties... Many Albertans are afraid and are convinced of the efficacy of government lockdowns for two reasons: misinformation and fearmongering. The media has so pounded the COVID-19 drum since the “pandemic” began, almost exclusively emphasizing caseload and deaths, that people are fearful. So fearful, in fact, they have been convinced that yielding up their civil liberties to the government is in their best interests. It is difficult to have not lost confidence in the mainstream media. It would seem as though journalism is on life-support in our province. The media should be made up of the most thorough, discerning, and investigative people in our society. Instead, many of them seem to be serving an ideological agenda. Now more than ever, it is vital that Albertans exercise discernment when listening to the mainstream media.

What do we believe people should do? We believe they should responsibly return to their lives. Churches should open, businesses should open, families and friends should come together around meals, and people should begin to exercise their civil liberties again. Otherwise, we may not get them back. In fact, some say we are on the cusp of reaching the point of no return. Protect the vulnerable, exercise reasonable precautions, but begin to live your lives again."

Regardless of one's agreement with the position of the church, every single Christian should be concerned over the heavy-handedness of the Canadian government. 

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which represents GraceLife and its pastor James Coates, said the move to barricade private church property prevents citizens from “exercising their Charter freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and worship.”

If Americans don't sit up and pay attention to what is happening to our neighbors to the north, we may end up finding ourselves worshiping in the underground church in the United States sooner than we could ever imagine.

The video below is last Sunday's message from Pastor Coates. He preached in an undisclosed location and streamed it LIVE with 'faces in the congregation blurred out' to keep them from being identified by the state police. 

This is happening in Canada. Hard...for...me...to...believe.

Baylor Wins and I Remember Coach Dave Bliss

Guest Speaker: Dave Bliss – Fall To Grace from Emmanuel Enid on Vimeo.

Last night, the Baylor Bears won the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.

Rachelle and I met when we were students at Baylor University, just before the fall semester on Friday, August 21, 1981, on a blind date in the cafeteria of Collins Hall. 

One of my ancestors, Rufus C. Burleson (1823-1901), was the first President of Baylor University and he moved Baylor from Independence, Texas, to Waco, Texas. Rufus also baptized General Sam Houston, the man after whom the city of Houston (Tx) is named,  in the "living waters" of Little Rocky Creek near Independence Baptist Church where Rufus served as pastor. 

I can tell you all kinds of stories about Baylor - anecdotal, personal, and ancestral. 

But after the Baylor Bears won the national championship last night, my thoughts were directed toward the Coach of the Baylor Bears just prior to their superb current coach, Scott Drew. 

That coach's name is David Bliss. 

David made all kinds of mistakes at Baylor University. He was fired because of his moral transgressions, including lying, covering up facts about the murder of one of his players, and a host of other unethical behaviors. 

David Bliss's name is not spoken with admiration by most.

But I consider Coach Bliss a friend. He's spoken at Emmanuel Enid (see above video). Rachelle and I had a private lunch with him at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and we sensed humility and grace from a man ridiculed by all who don't know him.

Dave is the real deal. 

David Bliss has written a book called Fall to Grace. It's an excellent biography of how sin breaks us, but God's grace delivers us. 

SHOWTIME has a documentary on the Baylor basketball scandal during Dave Bliss's tenure as coach. The documentary is called DISGRACED.  

Dave's book is called FALL TO GRACE. 

Someone left a Review on David's book that said:

 "Anyone who watches the Showtime documentary, "Disgraced," would know what an odious and contemptible liar Dave Bliss is. And it wasn't just "one mistake." Google the man and you will see that lies and dishonesty follow him wherever he goes. He is a repulsive individual who, I'm sure, is lying and trying to pull the wool over someone's eyes as we speak, including anyone stupid enough to buy this book. Dave Bliss is an abomination."

I propose that until you understand failure, you'll never comprehend grace. Until you are DISGRACED, you'll never FALL TO GRACE.

Succeeding on the court of basketball or the court of public opinion is not the end-all. 

Discovering God's grace in Jesus Christ is. A.W. Tozer once said.

"The man who is elated by success and is cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it."

Last night I thought of former Coach Dave Bliss because God has taken the worm out of Dave's apple. 

God's grace has a way of putting success and failure into perspective. 

Buck vs. Bell, Forced Vaccinations, and Social Hell

Henning Jacobson

I have a close friend with whom I work out every morning. He's a medical doctor, Ph.D. research scientist, and a fellow at the National Institutes of Health. He and Dr. Faucci are friends and co-workers. My friend has had his vaccination for Covid-19, has convinced me that the new RNA vaccinations are safe, and has been the reason I encourage all my senior adult friends to get a vaccination. 

I will not be vaccinated for Covid-19.

And my refusal has nothing to do with fear, safety, or concerns over my physical well-being (or yours). I've had Covid-19 twice, have developed natural immunity, will probably have it again (as will you), and will do my part to wash my hands, keep my distance from you when symptomatically sick, and will respect your decision to vaccinate. I am not anti-vaccination.

But I am against forcible vaccinations, mandated by the government, with punishments for those who refuse. 

Allow me to tell you why I am convicted to say "No!" to government-mandated vaccinations. 

In 1902, a Swedish American pastor named Henning Jacobson refused to get the smallpox vaccine and he also refused to pay the $5.00 fine (equivalent to $100 today). 

He was charged with a crime and his case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court where the Jacobson v. Massachusetts decision became a landmark case. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government stating that the government could mandate vaccination because "the collective good sometimes outweighs individual rights."

So far, so good.

Carrie Buck and Her Mother

However, nearly two decades later, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in Buck vs. Bell that declared the government has the right and ability to forcibly sterilize women for the public good. 

Buck v. Bell revolved around a woman named Carrie Buck. Born in 1906, one year after the Supreme Court ruled on the Henning Jacobson vaccination case, Carrie Buck was just 3 years old when her mom, Emma Buck, was institutionalized for being “feeble-minded” and “sexually promiscuous.”

Carrie's dad was absent, so child welfare government officials put Carrie in foster care with a family called Dobbs. Carrie stayed with the Dobbs for 14 years until, one day, she learned that she was pregnant. Carrie told welfare workers that the Dobbses’ nephew had raped her. 

But the Dodd's family argued that Carrie was mentally unstable, just like her birth mother, and so the Dobbs put Carrie in an institution—the same one where her mom was.

Carrie's baby, named Vivian, was born in 1924.

In the year that baby Vivian was born, the state of Virginia passed a law that allowed the government to forcibly sterilize people who were "afflicted with hereditary forms of insanity that are recurrent.”

The Virginia institution that housed Carrie and Emma Buck chose Carrie as the first woman to be forcibly sterilized by the government. Carrie sued to protect herself. The Buck vs. Bell case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ruled in favor of the government's forcible sterilization of women by famously saying: 

“Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

The ONLY case cited in the majority opinion of Buck vs. Bell was the ruling against Pastor Henning Jaccobson's liberty to refuse vaccination in Jacobson v. Massachusetts. 

Give the government an inch of your physical liberty and the government may take a eugenics mile of your life. Ask the Jews who lived in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s or the Muslims who live in China today. 

I freely support your decision to be vaccinated and encourage all my friends to do so. But please don't judge or condemn me for refusing to be vaccinated. 

My reason is not fear, nor a lack of scientific knowledge, nor a belief that vaccinations are evil.

I am refusing a Covid-19 vaccination in honor of a young lady named Carrie Buck who was raped and then forced by the government to be sterilized for the public good. I'll determine for myself what the "public good" actually is, and in my view, the liberty of individuals to stand against government mandates is better than acquiescence.

Once you hand to the government control of your body,  you place the government in the position of God. Everyone should feel free to choose a vaccination because it is an individual choice for one's own health. But we must safeguard our freedom and liberty to dissent against government forces.

Government isn't God, and nobody should trust its powers, its purpose, or its provisions. A limited state keeps our liberty safe.

I respect your right to vaccinate. Please respect my right to refuse. 

It's for the public good. 

I'm a Numbers Guy and 02.02.2022 Is My Number

Istoria's Ministry Headquarters, Enid, Oklahoma

Several weeks ago I announced my intention to retire as Lead Pastor of Emmanuel Enid on February 2, 2022 (next year).

I believe in God's sovereignty and providence so much that I intentionally use the phrase "intention to retire." The LORD could call me home in death before I reach the retirement date. Nuclear war with Korea, a pulse bomb from China, or a societal collapse in the United States may shut the doors of the 501(c)-3 called Emmanuel Enid before I retire in February 2022.

My wife will tell you, "Wade is absolutely the most positive person you will ever meet." In fact, I confess, I am "over-the-top" positive. I have very strong feelings about what is coming for our country (a collapse), but in my mind, it is the "best thing that could ever happen to the United States." 

There is something about national poverty, international wars, and societal desolation that drives people to trust God and not the government. A revival of faith in YHWH occurred in Assyria (Ninevah) during the 9th century B.C. through the collapse of Assyrian culture and the prophetic preaching of Jonah. A revival dawned on the people of Judah in 701 B.C. after the collapse of Judean wealth in the face of national calamity accompanied by the preaching of Isaiah. A revival enlivened God's people in Babylon when they found a renewed faith in YHWH while they served Nebuchadnezzar and the mighty Babylonians as their slaves for 70 years (586 B.C. - 516 B.C.). 

Bad things happen to good people in order that bad people might trust a good God and become His people.

Let's never waste our national sorrows. Bad things are coming for the United States of America, but I've never been more excited to be alive than I am right now in 2021.  I am stepping down next year from "pastoral ministry" in the institutional church so that I might concentrate on cultural and societal ministry in a collapsing nation. 

Wade and Rachelle Burleson

The people of Emmanuel Enid called me to be their "Lead Servant (Pastor)" on Sunday, 02.02.1992. They have elected a stellar Pastor Search Committee that intends to have a new Lead Pastor at Emmanuel Enid by 02.02.2022. Thirty years is a long time to serve a church, but any success we've had at Emmanuel Enid is due to the people of Emmanuel. Last Sunday's Enid News and Eagle article expressed well my feelings for the people of Emmanuel Enid. They are like family to Rachelle and me, and Emmanuel Enid will continue to be our church home. 

My ministry will continue beyond 2022. In 2012, Rachelle and I and a group of friends founded a non-profit called Istoria Ministries. Istoria is a Greek word that means "inquiry" and it is the root word from which we get our English word "history." I believe we must inquire into our historical and biblical past for potent answers to the problems we face today. Rachelle and I are spending the next several months working on the new website, the new building, and the new path the LORD has placed before us. 

After 02.02.2022, I will shift focus. My primary goal will be to write books and to produce weekly video/audio podcasts. Rachelle and I will also continue to periodically teach and upload to the Internet special series on marriage, family, and the Scriptures. My intention is to spotlight issues that are typically never addressed through an institutional church.  I will clearly and transparently address the cultural, moral, and social pitfalls we face as Christians in the United States of America. Of course, one might say that addressing those issues is "the role of the pastor," but in my experience, today's culture dismisses pastors as "irrelevant." 

The message of the church of Jesus Christ is foundational to our society, but our society has fundamentally turned away from the church of Jesus Christ.  Istoria will have a broader social media platform that will allow me to be "unchained" so to speak. That is probably an uncomfortable thought to some who already think I am "unchained." To be candid, I've held back. After 02.02.2022, there will be no "holding back." 

Rachelle and I have purchased a building on the historic U.S. Highway 81 that runs through the heart of Enid, Oklahoma. U.S. Highway 81 is the route of the First Secret Mission of the Civil War, and the old historic Chisholm Trail, which actually should be called Black Beaver's Trail. It is called Van Buren Street in Enid, in honor of United States President Martin Van Buren. The building's address is 801 S. Van Buren. Our friend Darrel Bundy has stepped up big time in coordinating all the remodeling. Brad Classen (KC Electric), David Lawrence and Jason Tyman (Dense Mechanical), Chad Forbeck (E-Towne Properties), Kenny Walker (friend and carpenter deluxe), Clint Watkins (Design), Kyle and Carol Williams (Istoria board members), and a host of other friends have been invaluable encouragement to Rachelle and me in helping us get this project underway.

This is a huge step of faith for Rachelle and me. We are going from "two salaries" to just one (Rachelle's). However, playing it safe solves nothing. We sense God's call and we have said "Yes!" to His purpose for our lives as we live out the last quarter of our lives on this earth. 

All the people of Emmanuel (and Enid) know of my decision, but this little post is to make readers of my blog aware of the changes that will be coming on 02.02.2022.

Democracy Always Ends When the Majority Begins to Vote for Themselves Money from the Treasury

The Texas/Mexico Border (under a bridge)

Senator James Lankford made his way to the Texas and Mexico border last night, and broadcast LIVE on Facebook the incredible scene underneath a highway bridge. 

Citizens of Mexico and multiple South American countries are being "processed" by the United States government underneath the bridge. According to Senator Lankford, the "processing" includes asking "Do you feel ill?" There is no Covid-19 test administered, only a question asked. If the answer is "I feel fine," every "family" group (No Identification needed) who has minor children is immediately processed and allowed inside the United States. The family is given a court summons and politely asked to "report to court" in a few years. But according to Senator Lankford, nobody will show up and the United States government under a Biden administration will not go looking for them.

Thus, tens of thousands of illegals are being allowed into the United States without Covid-19 testing, without background checks or official I.D. forms, and without restrictions on their free movement within the United States, avoiding the LEGAL immigration process that has been in place for decades.

At President Biden's Press Conference yesterday, the President said the initiative to require voters in an American election to present an official Identification card "is sick. It's sick." 

In the United States, a person can't open a bank account, obtain a credit card, enroll in school, get a job, buy a plane ticket, travel out of the country, or do any other business without personal I.D., but the President would have everyone vote for the President of the United States and other government officials without presenting an official I.D.

Here's the problem with easy (and illegal) immigration combined with easy access to voting.

The most recent 1.9 TRILLION dollar stimulus payment sent $1,400 to almost 97% of people in America, but only those who pay taxes "funded" the stimulus. In the bizarre financial state of the United States, there aren't enough "taxpayers" to fund "gifts from the public treasury" to all the people. Thus, the United States government has "borrowed" almost 30 TRILLION dollars over the last several decades. 

In essence, the United States government is going bankrupt. 

When the United States was in the beginning stages of our nationhood, a Scottish historian, intellectual, and philosopher named Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote the following:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess (gifts) out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

The prescient quote above is often misattributed to other well-known Founding Fathers, but Tytler, an expert in Classical Antiquity, is the original source. 

Progressives attempt to discredit the above quotation. The Atlantic magazine wrote in 2012 that Alexander Fraser Tytler didn't say it." Instead, wrote The Atlantic, "a newspaperman named Elmer T. Peterson with the Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoman's state newspaper) is the source of the quote." Peterson cited Tytler, but Tytler never said what Peterson claimed he said, according to The Atlantic.

I laughed when I read The Atlantic article. In this progressive magazine's attempt to refute that democracy will not end when the majority vote for themselves gifts from the public treasury, they didn't even take the time to research the man whom they call "the Daily Oklahoman newspaperman named Elmer T. Peterson." 

Elmer T. Peterson was not a newspaperman in Oklahoma. He was a historian and educator from Iowa. Elmer Theodore Peterson was born August 8, 1896, in Essex, Iowa. He received his A.B. degree from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. He received his A.M. degree from Columbia University, New York,. Dr. Peterson was employed at the State University of Iowa as a research assistant from 1924 to 1927 while earning his Ph.D. He was named assistant professor at SUI in 1926 and full professor in 1935. From 1946 to 1961, Peterson was Dean of the College of Education, after serving two years as acting dean. He succeeded Dr. Paul C. Packer in that position. Peterson was professor of Education from 1961 until his retirement in 1964. He died in 1977. 

Dr. Peterson wrote The Daily Oklahoman a letter, a letter which The Daily Oklahoman paid Dr. Peterson $5 to publish. In that letter, Dr. Peterson quotes Scottish philosopher Alexander Fraser Tytler. 

Peterson and Tytler knew what they were writing. They knew their history. They knew about just government. 

"A democracy can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess (gifts) out of the public treasury.

Peterson and Tytler both believed that a dictatorship always followed a collapsed democracy.

How can you tell a dictator is ruling? 

He (or she) protects the seat of government power with armed soldiers and opens the borders to illegal foreigners. Once the government "federalizes" the vote, then the federal government - run by the dictator - can dictate "no I.D. is needed to vote," and remove all opposition to his (or her) Executive Orders by changing the rules of debate (filibuster) and removing all opposition to his (or her) power. 

Say goodbye to democracy.

The Tragic Atlanta Shootings: The Media's Agenda Will Always Trump a Desire for the Stated Truth

Eight people were tragically and brutally murdered in Atlanta on Tuesday by a lone gunman.

The majority of those killed were Asian women, all of whom worked in Atlanta massage parlors. The Atlanta-Consitution reported that the motive for the killings had nothing to do with race.

The paper quoted the police investigators who interviewed the 21-year-old suspect, including Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds. It was very clear what motivated the suspect. According to the Sheriff Reynolds: 

"During our interview, he (the suspect) gave no indicators that this was racially motivated. We asked him that specifically and the answer was "No." He said the massage parlors represented a 'temptation he wanted to eliminate.'"

The suspect was a sex addict. His motive had nothing to do with race and everything to do with a twisted mind and addicted life. The murders are inexcusable. So is attempting to assign a motive to a cold-blooded killer that isn't what the investigators state the motive to be.

Yet, headlines of papers across the country are assigning motive around the race of the women:

The Washington Post - Extremism Fueled a Rise in Anti-Asian Attacks Since the Election.

CNBC - "Stand Up and Condemn the Violence" Say Politicians

Detroit Free Press - Will Atlanta Shootings Spur Hate Crime Laws?

Bloomberg - Trump to Blame for Atlanta Shootings

Even President Biden's Press Secretary blamed former President Trump. According to Global News, White House Press Secretary Jan Psaki said:

"President Trump’s administration’s actions in blaming China for the coronavirus and calling COVID-19 the “China virus” is in part to blame for rising anti-Asian racism incidents in the country."

When there is an agenda, the truth gets in the way. Why can't newspapers report a story without bias?

Our national media leans Marxist.  Cultural Marxism reveals itself in the casual use of terms like “privilege,” “alienation,” “commodification,” “fetishism,” “materialism,” “hegemony,” or “superstructure.” Cultural Marxism wishes to divide people along privilege and poverty, status and skin, haves and have-nots.

Dr. Andrew Lynn’s essay on “Cultural Marxism” in the Fall 2018 issue of The Hedgehog Review nails the agenda of many in the media:

"It is a short step from the Marxist and cultural Marxist premise that ideas are, at their core, expressions of power to rampant, divisive identity politics and the routine judging of people and their cultural contributions based on their race, gender, sexuality, and religion.”

Don't always believe what you read in the papers, what you see on television news, and what you hear in popular cultural/leftist podcasts. 

America is the land of opportunity for all, no matter race, religion, or gender. Marxists want you to believe we are at war with each other. But the only thing Americans are at war with is Marxism, socialism, and communism. Our struggle is not against people (e.g. "flesh and blood"), but the dark philosophies that are destroying our Republic from the inside.

The headlines are not telling you the truth. The Atlanta murders had nothing to do with race. 

Our prayers are with the families of those victims who lost their lives due to the inexcusable actions of a crazy sex addict.  

Facts about FREE MONEY that Few Comprehend

This post will be short and simple. I write for people who think the MORE DOLLARS you have, the WEALTHIER you are.

That is not true - IF - the DOLLARS you possess are worthless. Most people think MONEY is wealth. That isn't true. Ask someone who lives in Zimbabwe about money being equivalent to wealth. They will set you straight. In 2019, Zimbabwe citizens were all BILLIONAIRES - but they all were starving. 

Money is only a "MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE." There is NO intrinsic value in money. The value is what you TRADE money to obtain. 

Therefore, a nation's money is not "wealth."

Wealth is comprised of ASSETS that make the world a better place. MONEY is the agreed-upon MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE that allows one person to purchase a valuable ASSET (a company, an idea, a business, etc...) from another person. 

But when people in a particular country start to believe that they are "WEALTHY" because they've receive free "MONEY," (think stimulus checks) then that country is on the verge of economic collapse.

Welcome to America. 

Everyone who received a $1,400 in stimulus check thinks that they've received instant "WEALTH."

No. They've received worthless money.

WEALTH is work. WEALTH is an investment. WEALTH is making the world a BETTER place.

Money is the means by which a person can obtain wealth.

That $1,400 you received will be worth $14.00 in 5 years, maybe even less, if it isn't saved, invested, or used to create wealth, by ALL AMERICANS.

In about one hour, the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, will give a PRESS CONFERENCE and announce the action taken by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States of America.

He will publicly state three lies:

1. Inflation is "under control."

2. The FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD must stimulate the economy (which is in trouble), by keeping interest rates low.

3. There will be no significant change to the policy of low-interest rates low.

Everyone will cheer. The stock market will shoot higher.

But the American DOLLAR will continue its decline toward worthlessness.

Welcome to RED PILLED AMERICA.

Two Arrests that Sold Me On Bitcoin as the Future

I am skeptical by persuasion and libertarian by education.

I don't trust authoritarian control of governments, be the governance civil, non-profit, or religious. Elitists' desires to control underlings give birth to government totalitarianism, cultural socialism, societal collectivism, and civil activism.

When elites seek uniformity, conformity, and artificial unity (e.g. "we're all in this together"), and use executive edicts and police powers to gain "control over" others, then only bad things happen.

Welcome to the New World Order.

People wake up to authoritarianism when their bank accounts are affected. Americans are about to have our wake-up call. 

The average citizen is "very happy" for the $1,400 stimulus checks about to hit their bank account. "Who wouldn't be happy with free money," Robert Klyosaki, author of the popular book Rich Dad Poor Dad, responded over the weekend. "The problem is," continues Klyosaki:

"Free money makes the poor and middle class poorer. Buy more gold, silver, and Bitcoin."

If you don't understand Klyosaki's statement above, for the future financial security of you and your family, you have time to learn about hyperinflation and how the poor and middle class become destitute when the government hands out "free money."

"Buy Bitcoin," says Klyosaki. 

99% of Americans have very little understanding of this innovative payment network and "new kind of money." 

What you do know is most likely "not good." You may have heard Bitcoin is "not safe," or is "too volatile," or is "the currency used for illegal activities," or "it's anonymous and can't be traced," or "it's easily stolen." Truth be known, most Americans don't trust Bitcoin.

That mistrust is based on misinformation. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are the future of finance. 

At first, I was not a believer in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. I have owned silver and gold for years, believing it a good hedge against inflation and/or government default on America's soon-to-be 50,000,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars of government debt.

America's debt will never - can never - be repaid.

The American dollar is about to be devalued to near zero. That means the dollar will soon be worth a penny. Every American who trusts in $1,400 cash will soon realize it has the value of $14.00.

When will this happen? 

It's hard to say. It could happen overnight (tomorrow) or it could happen in five years or ten years. Nobody knows when it will happen, but everyone who knows finance knows that it will happen. 

I became a believer in Bitcoin based on two arrests of two men who tried to steal Bitcoin from another man and attempted to cover their tracks. 

Photo by Aurich Lawson of ARS TECHNICA

Robert Ulrich, a twenty-seven-year-old Texan, formed an online marketplace called Silk Road in 2011. The government believed that Silk Road sold illicit drugs using Bitcoin as payment. 

Two United States government agents, Secret Service Agent Shaun Bridges, and Drug Enforcement Agent Carl M. Force investigated Robert Ulrich's activities associated with Silk Road. Their investigation led to Robert Ulrich's indictment in 2013.

Agent Bridges and Agent Force then stole Robert Ulrich's 1,600 Bitcoin, attempting to cover their theft using their badges (authority) with bank authorities and then shredding paper. The Bitcoin that Agent Bridges and Force stole is now worth 88 million dollars. 

But both federal agents were caught by other cyber federal agents, charged, convicted, and eventually sent to prison for their theft.

How these two United States government agents were caught convinced me that Bitcoin is the future of finance in America. 

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag of the Northern District of California, Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of the FBI’s San Francisco Division, Special Agent in Charge José M. Martinez of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) San Francisco Division, Special Agent in Charge Michael P. Tompkins of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General Washington Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Lori Hazenstab of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General in Washington D.C. made arrests. These officials credited the transparency and traceability of Bitcoin for helping them uncover the crimes of the rogue agents. 

 

Bitcoin's price is controlled by the market, not the government. Bitcoin can't be stolen like cash since there is a permanent record of every single transaction of Bitcoin, even the transactions initiated by corrupt federal agents. 

There are over 6,000 cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin is the most well-known. If you think that "there's no way I can afford Bitcoin," I would encourage you to consider entering the crypto market by purchasing a small amount of Bitcoin known as "sats" (satoshis) or other crypt coins or market platform tokens that are available for much smaller prices, including MATIC and HBAR which currently sell for .40 cents a coin. 

America is moving away from cash. There is a planned reset coming for the American dollar, most likely led by the International Monetary Fund.

The future of finance is transparent money, and cryptocurrencies are completely transparent.

The arrest of two government agents who tried to cover their tracks "the old-fashioned way" (destruction of paper and authority of a badge) should convince you that Bitcoin is the future of finance.

Business Money explains how to get started in investing in cryptocurrencies. 

Your bank account will thank you in a decade.

Stop Watching News and Start Trusting the LORD

Every evening Rachelle and I record ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News. Our work schedules are such that we can only watch the national news late at night, and so typically during the late evening hours, we'll watch as the national networks report on the news of the day.

No more. I am done.

Every single night, the news anchors broadcast fear. Are Covid numbers going down? New strains are threatening our country. Is the economy opening back up? Everyone is out of work. Have you had your vaccine shot? Still stay isolated from strangers, still wear your mask, and still do not travel. Are people gathering to protest? The National Guard and the United States armed forces are needed to protect the capital from insurrection from internal terrorism. It goes on and on and on.

Recently, I've been inundated with calls from friends who are concerned with their loved ones who are battling anxiety, depression, and extraordinary fear. There's almost a universal cry for help due to the fear stoking in our society.

What's going on in America? Why have we become such a people of fear?

To solve any problem, one must go to the source, not the symptom. It seems some want all Americans to live in perpetual fear. We must ask ourselves the question, "Why?"

About 75 years ago, Hermann Göring, Adolph Hitler's lieutenant, testified at the Nuremberg Court of Appeal trials. He was asked by one of the prosecutors: 

"How did you get the German people to accept government control of all German lives and the government's forced imprisonment and eventual extermination of the Jews, a people deemed 'unclean and unsafe' by the Nazis?"

The second most powerful man in the Nazi State responded: 

′′It was very easy, it had nothing to do with Nazism. It has something to do with human nature. You can get people to conform in a Nazi state, a socialist country, a communist regime, a monarchy, and even in a democracy. The only thing that needs to be done to enslave people is to scare them. If you manage to find a way to scare people, you can make them do what you want."

I've got a solution for the ever-increasing state of fear and government encroachment in our lives.  Stop watching the news and start trusting the LORD. 

America is much like ancient Israel.

In 701 BC, the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem and the ancient city of Judah. The Jews had tried everything to keep the Assyrians from destroying their nation like they had destroyed all the nations around Judah. 

Hezekiah, king of Judah, had paid the king of Assyrian a hefty tax to keep the Assyrians from invading (II Kings 18:14).  The king sent messengers to Egypt to ask for assistance from the Egyptian army (Isaiah 31:1). The people were in a state of panic. Their way of life was about to be destroyed through sudden and unpreventable death. Everyone was afraid.

Then Isaiah the prophet spoke to the people. He gave them a solution:

"The LORD will be the stability of your times. A wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; The fear of the Lord is your treasure." (Isaiah 33:6). 

The truth is the LORD had sent the Assyrians to Zion because His people (the Jews) had turned their backs on Him and started trusting in everything to save them but the LORD. The LORD says in Isaiah 10:5:

Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
I have sent him against a godless nation.  

Everything happening in America is designed by the LORD to drive us to trust in Him. When we turn our backs on the LORD and start living godless lives, events occur - events designed by a good and loving God - to drive us to find our treasure in Him.

The treasure of the LORD is wisdom, knowledge, and stability.

Stop watching the evening news which breeds fear and start reading the Bible which births faith. A Targum is a Biblical saying that updates ancient events, locations, and things with modern equivalents for the encouragement of the hearer. A Targum of an ancient song sung by the Jews in David's day before the king of Israel went out to battle goes like this: 

"Some trust in government and the Presidents, some trust in the CDC and NBC, and some trust in stimulus checks, but we will trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Psalm 20:7). 

The great enemies of America are those dark forces in the spiritual realm that rejoice when Americans trust anything and everything but the LORD. 

Stop watching the news and start trusting the LORD.

Dr. Seuss and the Sad Tale of Two Mulberry Streets

Dr. Seuss: Photo by James L. Amos/Corbis via Getty Image

We live in a world turned upside-down in the year 2021.

Yesterday, it was announced that at least six Dr. Seuss children's books will no longer be published. 

In the crazy, often-offended culture of modern America, butter-cup citizens who get their feelings hurt easily think that Dr. Seuss's first-ever book for children And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, one of the six removed from publication, portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong." The books have been criticized for how they depict Asian and Black people.

Under pressure from the "cancel culture" movement, the Dr. Seuss publishing company says the decision was made last year, in an effort to support "all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship."

Read these "harmful" words from And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It's about a child who sees a "circus" on Mulberry Street in his hometown:

"I'll bet those wagons weigh more than a ton. 

That's really too heavy a load for one beast; 

I'll give him some helpers. He needs two, at least. 

But now what worries me is this.

Mulberry Street runs into Bliss.

Unless there's something I can fix up, 

There'll be an awful traffic mix-up! 

It takes Police to do the trick, 

To guide them through where traffic's thick – 

It takes Police to do the trick.

They'll never crash now, 

They'll race at top speed. 

With Sergeant Mulvaney, himself, in the lead. 

The Mayor is there, And he thinks it is grand, 

And he raises his hat as they dash by the stand.

 The Mayor is there and the Aldermen too,

 All waving big banners of red, white and blue. 

And that is a story that NO ONE can beat

 When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street!"

This morning I read an online front-page article from my hometown newspaper called The Enid News and Eagle. 

Damage at a railroad crossing in Enid, Oklahoma

The article tells of police pursuing a stolen vehicle near Mulberry Street in Enid, Oklahoma It seems a 20-year-old  suspect stole a vehicle then drove eastbound at 80-mph in westbound lanes, directly at oncoming traffic. Curious as to the identity of the young man who showed no regard for human life, who disrespected police in such a dangerous fashion, and who damaged tax-payer property when he crashed his vehicle near Mulberry Street, I went to the young man's Facebook page. 

What I found was a list of reading material, video games, and songs. 

The video game highlighted on the suspect's Facebook page was Grand Theft Auto (ironic?). The first song highlighted was a rap song called OPPS by rappers Yungeen Ace and JayDaYoungan. Here are the words (Warning: Graphic language). 

We looking for opps
Young niggas letting off shots
They don't give a fuck 'bout the cops
We clutchin' them opps
Bitch if you lack at the trap
We taking whatever you got
We catch him, he drop
They're aimin' straight at your top
No dissing, we told them to stop
Hop out on his block, oh with the stick or a Glock
Don't matter somebody get shot

Fuck all the cops

I know they hope we gon' stop
But the way that I'm living I'm not
We stomping this block
Catch him, hop out with the Glock
And put that lil' bitch in a box
You think you gon' plot
He gotta be out of his top
The stick knock 'em outta his socks (bap)
I'm tryin' to turn a bitch nigga head hot
Brand new stick came wit' a red dot

We in that field
I do this shit for real
Bitch I'm tryna catch me a kill
Don't come where I live
Young niggas slinging that steel
You play wit' yo' life and get killed (play wit' yo' life and get killed)
Shit gets real
Won't check you when I come to your city
You and all them bitch niggas gon' get it
This Draco weigh more than twenty
So when I aim at your head I won't miss it (yeah bow!)

My conclusion about this sad tale of two Mulberry Streets is in the form of two couplets.

If the United States cancels Dr. Seuss,

We'll wake up one day with no excuse.

For if we go silent during this stupidity

Our nation will grow full of putridity. 

Live Not by Lies of the U.S. Clean Energy Initiatives

I'm going to make this post simple. Without intending to offend, I am writing it like those "For Dummies" books that you see in the book store.

This post is designed for those who know little about Clean Energy Initiatives and the United Nations' desire to control the amount of carbon dioxide gases in the air by shutting down oil, gas, and coal exploration, production, and transmission. 

Ask anyone in Texas about energy this week, and you'll probably get an earful. The Texas power grid failed, and Governor Greg Abbott blames green energy.  Governor Abbot is correct in blaming the Clean Energy Initiatives for the problems in his state this past week. 

The most abundant, affordable, reliable energy sources are natural gas, oil, and coal. Any society that loses access to abundant, affordable, and reliable energy will never rise out of poverty, or in the United States case, will quickly fall back into poverty.

Green Energy advocates are killing the United States - literally. Green energy advocates tell us that wind, solar, and electric energy must take over for oil, gas, and coal energy in the United States because "using oil, gas, and coal energy is releasing too much carbon dioxide into the air and making the world's temperature increase!" 

Advocates, like President Joe Biden, say "clean energy will save the planet." 

That is both absurd and deceptive. 

More CO₂ is needed in our atmosphere, not less. Adding more CO₂ to the atmosphere enhances plant growth around the world, making more food available for everyone, helping the world's poor more than others, lifting nations from poverty into prosperity. 

Don't take my word for it. Thousands of scientists, meteorologists, physicists, and other professionally-degreed climate experts deny there is a problem with global warming and say the United States will move into third-world status if we lose our ability to use the abundant, affordable, and reliable oil, gas, and coal resources we have in our nation's land. They say that the earth gets warmer and cooler during natural cycles that superimpose on one other.  Warming and cooling periods on this planet happen in varying quantities naturally, and "anthropogenic" (man-made) production of CO₂ is helpful, not detrimental.   

Crazy, is it not, how scientists disagree over the climate change issue? lt is a little like how they disagree over the Covid-19 issue. 

Those scientists who deny "global warming" include the American-born Austrian physicist Fred Singer (1924-2020). Dr. Singer is the author or editor of several books including Global Effects of Environmental Pollution (1970), The Ocean in Human Affairs (1989), Global Climate Change (1989), The Greenhouse Debate Continued (1992), and Hot Talk, Cold Science (1997). He also co-authored Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years (2007) with Dennis Avery, and Climate Change Reconsidered (2009) with Craig Idso.

Before his death in 2020 at the age of 96,  Dr. Singer taught that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, from 350 ppm (parts per million) in 1950 to 414 ppm in 2021, was a natural and welcomed event. He held that any increase in atmospheric CO₂ through the burning of fossil fuels was healthy for the environment because of increased plant production (photosynthesis). With increased plant production, the world's food supply greatly increases, and the ability to use abundant, affordable, and reliable fossil fuels lifts nations out of poverty into prosperity.

Relying on Green Energy takes a prosperous nation into poverty, said Dr. Singer.  Therefore, nobody should ever apologize - ever - for advocating for MORE exploration, production, and transmission of oil, gas, and coal energy in the United States. 

China, of course, which wishes to dominate the world, is building hundreds and hundreds of coal-fired energy plants. The United States through Clean Energy Initiatives is getting to the place where states can't even keep the power on at residential homes. 

I listen to Green Energy advocates. I read what they write. I listen to them talk. The more I hear from them, the more absurd I realize they are in their thinking. For example, James Hansen is the father of the theory of "Global Warming." I have listened to James Hansen's TED Talk on why he speaks out about "climate change." Dr. James Hansen said in his talk - I kid you not - that the increased heat energy on the earth due to climate change over the past  (.04 watts per metric square)  is "equivalent to exploding 400,000 Hiroshima bombs on earth per day, every day, for the last 70 years." 

Dr. Hansen, our church ministers to the Marshall Island people, an ethnic group who had 67 atomic bombs dropped on them in the Pacific by the United States government. That's right, 67 atomic bombs were exploded in the Marshall Islands from 1946-1951. We've been to the Marshall Islands. We've seen the awful and permanent damage from exploding 67 atomic bombs. Your allegation that Global Warming has released the equivalent energy of 10,220,000,000 atomic bombs on planet earth since 1950 tells me that you need to get out of your Ivory Tower and start walking around the real world. 

Computer models may predict, but Nature produces. If what a scientist is predicting in a laboratory isn't observed in the field, then the scientist has made a modeling error.

The Global Warming computer model is a farcical scientific predictive error.

The MAJOR Problem with Clean Energy Initiatives 

From the 1800s until 1950, the International Meteorological Organization served as a forum for exchanging weather data and climate research. The IMO was NON-GOVERNMENTAL, meaning scientists collaborated, often disagreed, but persuaded the world and nation's governments about any climate issues by their research and convincing argumentation.

On March 23, 1950, the United Nations established the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO is GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED. That means governments financially penalize businesses and cooperations that refused to abide by  WMO energy mandates, while financially rewarding (tax-incentives) those who do. The United States Environmental Protection Agency works with the WMO to enforce penalties and give incentives for world-wide Clean Energy Initiatives. 

The WMO is very similar to the World Health Organization (WHO), another entity of the United Nations. Dr. Fauci is the official for the United States who dictates government-mandated medical policy in conjunction with the World Health Organization.  Dr. Fauci is the highest-paid government official in the US federal government. 

What does it say when your nation's Chief Medical Officer is paid more than your Chief Executive Officer (the President of the United States)? It says that a WORLD ORGANIZATION is deemed more important than an individual nation. 

The United Nations also operates the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

HEALTH. ENERGY. TRADE.

All controlled by a one-WORLD-government initiative. 

As we have seen throughout 2020 and Covid-19, any scientist who disagrees with the official proclamations of the World Health Organization (WHO) is censured and silenced. Any scientist who disagrees with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is censured and silenced. Any person who disagrees with the World Trade Organization (WTO) is censured and silenced.

Any President who puts his nation before the world is censured, impeached and silenced. 

Here is the major problem with any WORLD-mandated health, energy, or trade proposal:

"Any WORLD initiative on health, energy, or trade requires a one-WORLD government to enforce it."

The advocates of a one-world government desire a "re-distribution" of wealth, forcing the end of capitalism and the rise of socialism, uniform conformity from the masses to the government elites, and the complete end of "harmful nationalism."

Nationalism Will Never Go Away Because God Won't Let It

The Bible is quite clear that the Creator made the earth and the universe. Mankind, the Creator's highest creation, is charged by God with stewardship over the earth. 

Biblical stewardship of the earth is the opposite of secular environmentalism. The broader environmental movement is either pantheistic, agnostic, atheistic, naturalistic, or sometimes spiritualistic, but never built on a worldview that there is a God who created the earth, and He rules over the people who are charged to care for it.

All secular environmentalists make no distinction between the Creator and the creation. Mother Earth 
is god, and when environmentalism worships the creation, we wind up with stewards in rebellion to their true Master.

For example, the Bible teaches that God established the nations and their boundaries:

"From one man God created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and He determined their boundaries." (Acts 17:26).

When the Messiah returns for the coronation of His eternal Kingdom on this earth, the nations will bow to Him:

"All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name." (Psalm 86:9)

"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:4)

The attempt at a one-world government is predominately led by the communist Peoples' Republic of
China. In a foreign policy initiative called "One Belt, One Road," Chinese communist leaders wish to rule the entire world by 2049, the hundredth anniversary of Mao Zedong declaring the new Marxist state (October 1, 1949). 

Ask yourself why communist China is so heavily involved in World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

HEALTH. ENERGY. TRADE.

China hid Covid-19 from the world. China rapidly went to work to protect its people from Covid-19, but allowed international planes to leave China to other countries. Domestic flights IN China came to a halt. It seems there was little concern for the "world." 

China is also pouring trillions of dollars into oil, gas, and coal energy, while the rest of the world is diverting from fossil fuels. 

Finally, China wants to determine favorable trade status for itself and will refuse any trade agreement that doesn't benefit China. Ask former-President Trump. He knows a deal when he sees one, and the U.S. - China trade agreements over the last few decades only benefited China, and Trump sought to put America first.

China is doing all those things that keep China prosperous while advocating other nations do all those things to keep those nations in poverty, and in the case of the United States, move us from prosperity to poverty ("Houston, we have a problem").  China advocates all the governmental-policies of the WMO, the WHO, and the WTO for "other nations," but does just the opposite themselves. 

Amazing. 

And to make matters even worse, inside communist China, any believer in a God who is above the state is being kidnapped, imprisoned, and re-programmed, and if the prisoner doesn't come to an understanding that the communist state government of China is theri god, then they are executed.

This week, President Biden excused the genocide of Muslims in China by calling the capture, imprisonment, and execution of Uyghurs "a Chinese cultural norm." In China, even Christian foreigners are being asked "to leave" and have recently been told, "don't ever come back."

China is attempting to control the world. And they are using health crises, energy crises, and trade crises to get it done - all through the WHO, the WMO, and the WTO. 

How It All Ends

I am a positive person by nature. I also believe in the Bible. God's on His throne, and the nations will one day all bow to Him. 

Tiananmen Square, 1989

In 1989, forty years after the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China, government dissidents in Tiananmen square attempted to stop the government's increasing encroachment into individual liberties. The Tiananmen Square demonstration was put down by government soldiers who massacred the protestors, and it is now illegal to discuss the protest from 1989 in China. 

But the Chinese people are not done. Over 300 million Chinese people are Christians who understand the principles of freedom, liberty, and proper governance.  

Either the Chinese people will overthrow the communist government internally, or soon the world will be at war with the communists of China who are using the WHO, the WMO, and the WTO to advance their agenda of a one-world government. 

The attempt at world-governance by one government leader will come to an end. 

It's only a matter of how and when.

What you can do as a United States citizen is to keep yourself informed on the bigger issues, stop believing everything you hear from the WMO, the WHO, and the WTO, and help others to become informed. 

Dr. Calvin Beisner, Cornwall Alliance

When it comes to the false claims of global warming, sign up to receive emails and information from the Cornwall Alliance. These 70 scholars - scientists, policy-makers, and theologians - will help you understand the issues.

Peruse their website for some excellent information and articles, and don't forget to sign up for their newsletter. 

Dr. Calvin Beisner was our guest in Enid, Oklahoma, last night. Dr. Beisner is the founder and head of the Cornwall Alliance, and he makes a compelling argument for why every citizen of the United States should understand that the political agenda behind so-called "Clean Energy Initiatives" is far more damaging than imaginable.

SUMMARY

More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the elixir of human life. Less government intrusion on the ground is existential to human life. 

Live Not by Lies.

Help in Writing "The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin"

Iris Chang's Graveside

I am writing a book entitled The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin. It is a book designed to assist family members and friends who are dealing with the painful aftermath of a loved one's suicide. 

I am placing the FOREWORD to The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin below for you to read. 

I would like to hear from you. Tell me your story of enduring the pain of a loved one who took his or her life. I know this might be the first time you've penned your thoughts, your feelings, and your questions. Tell me of your experience. Let me know what you think I should focus on and what I should avoid. I only ask that you allow me to use what you send if I choose (I'll change your name if you desire). You may leave a comment on this blogpost, or if you'd like, you may email me at wwburleson@gmail.com or istoriaministries@gmail.com. I am not sure when The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin will be finished or published, but I think you could be a resource of help to others. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin

Searing Questions from Those Left Behind by Suicide

Deep in the archives of Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Connecticut, is the diary of an American woman who served as a Christian missionary to China from 1912 to 1940. She lovingly served the Chinese people for twenty-eight years and is credited with saving over 10,000 Chinese women from rape, torture, and certain death by invading Japanese Imperial soldiers in what historians call “The Rape of Nanking.”

Her name was Minnie Vautrin.

 As is the archivists’ custom, a biographical/historical summary precedes the diary to familiarize the reader with the author. Yale wrote an eight-sentence summary of Minnie’s life and placed it in the microform manuscript. It is the last sentence of the biographical summary of Minnie Vautrin that took away my breath when I read it for the first time:

“She committed suicide in 1941 at the age of 54.”

That sentence will evoke little emotion in those who know nothing of Minnie or her work among the Chinese. “She committed suicide” is a phrase that ought to grieve all humanity when we hear it, but sadly, a nameless suicide evokes no sympathy.

But “she committed suicide,” when first heard after Minnie’s suicide, tore a hole in the hearts of the 10,000 women that Minnie personally saved from torture and death during the Rape of Nanking.

I wrote The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin for the person living through the consequences of a loved one's suicide. Your loved one’s life mattered; to you, others, the world at large, and God. It is discouraging when “she committed suicide” or “he committed suicide” becomes a phrase that others use of your loved one, defining your loved one's life by how it ended and not the scope of its influence.

This book is for those who have heard the words “he committed suicide,” or “she committed suicide,” and – at that moment – it felt like you died too.

Any suicide is an awful experience for humankind, but the suicide of the one you love leaves a searing scar that feels as if it will never heal.

I understand how you feel, and I may be able to help you heal.

The questions you have about suicide, including how you go about life absent your loved one and where you can turn for some safe emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing, are questions I will address. They are essential questions, and the answers on paper will take time to process into your life.

Suicide kills far more than the one who dies physically. A suicide by your loved one saps your strength and slaps you with excruciating suffering that numbs the positive emotions you once enjoyed. At times, you may have even wished it was you who had taken your life, not your loved one.

I am not an expert on preventing suicide, but I do know something about coping with suicide.

 
For several years I served as a chaplain for the Tulsa Police Department. I cannot count the number of times dispatch called me to a suicide. The TPD assigned me to notify the victim’s next of kin, but only after going to the scene to answer any questions that loved ones would later ask me after I informed them of the suicide.

Nothing surprised me after working years in the field. The gruesome means of death chosen by a loved one may feel original and horrible to family members, compounded by where the suicide of their loved one took place, how people discovered it, and when and how police informed loved ones. I have learned a principle from my four decades of experience serving as a chaplain and a pastor:

Every suicidal path is unique, but all suicidal pain is ubiquitous.

That means no suicide is the same for anyone, but all loved ones feel the same pain after suicide.

I kept copies of all the suicide notes discovered at the scenes of the suicides I worked. Something is gripping and mesmerizing about one’s final words on paper. I learned a great deal about life through reading and re-reading notes about death. We will talk about some of the lessons I learned from those notes later in this book.

But, as a few of you already know by experience, some suicides will leave no note behind. Those were the hardest for me to work. I had no answers for loved ones who screamed at me, “Why?”

Sometimes families openly wept, and on rare occasions, the victim’s loved ones would attack me physically after I told them the news. I never judged anyone who hit me in the chest or screamed at me to “Get out!” or cursed me and went into a rage. Early on, I learned that emotional outbursts are often unexpected and uncontrolled – particularly when surprised by the devastating and shocking news that someone you love has taken his or her life.

I will be weaving in some narratives of my experiences during my forty years of serving as a police chaplain and pastor, but this book’s focus will be Minnie Vautrin.

Why Minnie? Minnie once said, “Had I ten perfect lives, I would give them all to China.” Minnie’s life wasn’t perfect. Nobody lives a perfect life. But Minnie will provide some profound lessons from her imperfect life for those of us who have struggled with the painful aftermath of a loved one’s suicide.

The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin is not a history book about China, nor do I write to encourage the reader to enter the mission field. This book isn’t even a biography of Minnie Vautrin.

You may have picked this book to read because someone recommended it to you.

Or it could be that the title or subtitle grabbed your attention as you scrolled through a list of books on suicide. I don’t know what made you pick this book, but I understand why you chose it.

You want answers because the one you love is gone, and the aftermath is painful.

Minnie Vautrin served in Nanking, China, the Republic of China’s capital, running a school for young women called Ginling College. She started as a missionary to China in 1912 and served during World War 1 (1914-1918), during the Chinese civil wars between revolutionary communists and the Republic of China (1927-1937), and during the awful start to World War II in the Far East when Imperial Japan invaded China and destroyed the Chinese capital of Nanking (1937-1940).

During the Rape of Nanking, Minnie Vautrin hung an American flag in front of Ginling College and declared her school a “safe zone,” and sheltered 10,000 women and children from death by gunfire, sword, and tortuous rampage. Minnie held her ground when Japanese soldiers aimed rifles at her, slapped her face, and threatened her with death.

Her diary from 1937 to 1940 provides a gripping account of how she managed to save 10,000 Chinese women from Japanese soldiers’ treachery. We’ll examine excerpts from her diary as we look at the psychological and emotional turmoil in Minnie’s life during the Rape of Nanking.

Minnie left China in the spring of 1940 for the United States, intending to return to China after a year-long leave. After speaking to the International Convention during the first week of May 1941, Minnie went to stay with Miss Genevieve Brown, a United Christian Missionary Society secretary in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Unexpectedly, on May 14, 1941, Minnie sealed the small apartment where she was staying and turned on the kitchen stove’s gas jet. She left a note stating that she believed her life “was a failure.”

I didn’t know that Minnie committed suicide until I read Yale Divinity School’s summary of her life in the archives. I learned about Minnie’s heroic efforts to save thousands of Chinese by reading Iris Chang’s 1997 gripping non-fictional book The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World II. That book opened to wide acclaim, appearing on the New York Times Bestseller List for ten weeks, selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

Iris Chang devoted one chapter in the Rape of Nanking to Minnie Vautrin and her heroic courage in saving thousands of Chinese lives in Nanking. When I read Chang’s book, I overlooked the short portion about how Minnie died by suicide in America in 1941.

That’s why I caught my breath when I read that last sentence of Yale Divinity School’s short biography of Minnie Vautrin's life. I knew what she'd done; I didn't know how she died.

Chinese author Iris Chang would have been the best author to write The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin. She was a meticulous historical researcher and a woman who deeply admired Minnie Vautrin.

But on Thursday, September 9, 2004, Iris Chang pulled her small car onto an access road off California Highway 17, just outside San Jose, California. As her car sat parked and idling, Iris Chang took a loaded revolver and shot herself in the head. A passerby found her inside the car the following morning.

Iris left a suicide note that said:

“When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day — but by the minute.” 

I hope The Suicide of Minnie Vautrin will help you turn minutes into days, days into months, and months into years – productive years of living, especially in the painful aftermath of your loved one’s suicide.

© Istoria Ministries, 2021. The contents of this website is copyrighted by Istoria Ministries. It may be downloaded or printed for personal use, but it may not, except with expressed written permission of Istoria Ministries, be distributed for any commercial use.