Greetings from Kuwait in the name of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ.  In this latest letter I want to focus on Memorial Day and speak about the meaning of freedom.  First, let me give you a brief update on my activities and experiences lately.  Since my last letter to you I have completed trips to Afghanistan and Iraq, and have spoken to dozens of our soldiers.  As always, most of them display a level of maturity and resiliency which amazes and heartens me.  They are mission focused and intent on winning this war.

I'm sure most of you are aware of the tour extensions of our active duty units, for a further three months.  I asked one young infantryman about that and his reply with a smile on his face was, "Oh, it's not that big of a deal sir.  Whether I'm here or back in the states I'll still get up every day and do my job?"  This is not to say our soldiers are "happy" about deployment extensions, but they understand we are at war with people holding an ideology which says they must destroy us and our way of life.  So, rather than complain about relatively minor nuisances of a three month extension, absence from family, and missing the comforts of home, these fine soldiers are focused on making sure Islamic extremists are defeated on the field of battle here, so we won't have to worry about them attacking Americans in the United States.  In short, most of our soldiers maintain a great and positive attitude, based at least in part on the knowledge they are doing the right thing and moving toward their goal.

It has gotten hot here.  Temperatures in both Iraq and Kuwait are already topping out at near 120 degrees.  During the worst of the summer heat however, those temperatures can occasionally reach 140 degrees in the desert.  That is dangerously hot.  Thank God for Gatorade.  The coming of the heat also means we see more of the wildlife, indigenous to this area.  In other words, scorpions, lizards, beetles, camel spiders, and snakes.  You ask what a camel spider is?  Imagine an arachnid which stretches as much as a full foot from the tip of its forward legs to the tip of its back legs.  That is one big spider!

During my travels around theater I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the prayer breakfast for one of the units in Iraq.  The subject was Memorial Day, and since it is the concept of freedom that fired the imaginations of those patriots who were willing to give the last full measure of devotion for their country, I spoke on freedom, specifically how it was defined by the founders of our great nation.  That brings us to our subject today:  Memorial Day and the liberty that gives it meaning.

Memorial Day is a solemn, and pathos laden remembrance of the long line of American soldiers past, and present, who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation's freedom.  Originally known as Decoration Day, it was observed on the 30^th of May.  It was a day of remembrance for soldiers, from both sides of the conflict, who died during the course of our Civil War.  The date was marked with parades, sprucing up the graves of the war dead, and solemn ceremonies to remember their sacrifice. Unfortunately today, such activities aren't observed nearly often enough.  In 1971, Congress changed observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended it to honor all soldiers who died in America's wars.

What I'm most interested in though, is what this thing called freedom is, that has inspired so many of our best people to willingly walk into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, in its defense.  Is it merely a "political freedom", under which people can do, without any consequence whatsoever, anything they desire, whether or not they should?  From the writings of our national founders, it is obvious freedom, or liberty, meant something much more to them.  I would like to explore that with you today.

Our nation is founded on two seminal documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States of America.  The Declaration of Independence serves as the preamble for the Constitution, and provides the context to understand the liberties annunciated in the Constitution.  Without the Declaration, one can't even begin to understand what the writers of the Constitution intended when writing that document.  The Constitution further includes the Bill of Rights, which originally began as ten legal statements defining strict limitations on the powers of the federal government.  Interestingly, the first of these statements limits among other things, the federal government's ability to restrict our religious freedoms.  Members of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, take an oath in which we swear among other things, "To uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."  So how did our founders look at the subject of freedom?

On the eve of our War for Independence, in the city of Richmond, Virginia, 39 year old Patrick Henry arose from his seat, gravely strode to the front of the Virginia Assembly, provocatively threw a glove to the floor and orated one of the greatest speeches, and clear definitions of the costs of liberty, in American history.  Then as now, Americans were divided over whether to fight a war.  Most people then, as now, opposed war.  Thank God those like Henry prevailed, who understood that if one stood for freedom, war would have to be fought, otherwise, you and I may not be free today. By the time his speech concluded with a defining question and emphatic answer, no one had any doubt where Henry stood on the question of American liberty, or what it would take to see it birthed.  Do you remember his question and his answer?  "What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

I believe too few of us really understand what Patrick Henry intended when he addressed his subject that early spring day.  I think most people merely look at his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" statement, as political defiance against a tyrant, something like the way Cecil B. DeMille presents his subject in the classic film "The Ten Commandments."  Admittedly during scenes of the golden calf, DeMille speaks a little about the evil of sin, of doing what is wrong, and God's judgment on that sin, but the primary subject of the movie is political freedom. But not the broad concept of liberty that envisions human beings truly set free to dream and carry to completion all the greatest endeavors they can dream.  By contrast, Patrick Henry's statement was defiant, and it was certainly made against the whims of a tyrant.  But that is beside the point. 

First, Henry was a Christian and it was from a Judeo-Christian worldview he thought and spoke.  Therefore, he strongly believed human beings to be created in the image of God, and therefore having the right to exercise their free will in accordance with the rule of law, not the whims of a dictator who saw himself above the law.  Further, when he and other of our founders spoke of the rule of law, they understood adamantly all legitimate law originates from God, and therefore must be in compliance with God's supreme law, in order to have any legitimacy at all.

Our founders thought very different from many today.  For instance, the modern, legal construct of separation of church and state would have been foreign to them.  Look in your Constitution all you want.  It's not there.  Further, the First Article of the Bill of Rights was placed in the Constitution to enumerate that law in the United States was to protect religious liberty, not define how religious liberty could be restricted.  It is from this understanding, by the way, that every article of the Bill of Rights limits the power of the federal government, not the freedoms of the people.

This is why John Adams, our second President, said of our Constitution, "This Constitution was written for a moral and religious people, and is entirely inadequate for any other."  Why? Because of the extremely broad freedoms our constitution affords.  You see, a moral and religious people responsibly restrain their baser natures even when the law does not specifically do so.  On the other hand, an immoral, or even worse, amoral, people, refuse to restrain themselves unless the law forces them, and even then look for a way around the law.  And who can seriously argue any real morality arises from people who lack a disposition to religion? 

Second, Henry could confidently say give me liberty or give me death because he didn't see the grave as the end, but rather the beginning of eternal life.  Death held no fear for him, because he strongly believed the cessation of his earthly life was when his Savior would take him into a full and happy, life eternal.  As a Chaplain in the conduct of this war, I have witnessed many times how our people's faith has brought them through loss, even the terrible loss of a family member in the holy cause of liberty.

In summary, Henry, and all our founders, believed it was man who made slaves, not God, and further, since God is the author of all legitimate law, no man has the right to utilize the yoke of law to force his fellow man into political, and in the case of our current enemy, religious, servitude. In short, Henry's statement is more about people having moral freedom, than it is about political freedom.  And since God is the creator of law and created law with human liberty in mind, man's rights are derived from Him, rather than government.  So while legitimate government defends freedom, government is not the source of freedom.  Therefore, it follows, when people are truly walking in moral freedom, with representatives elected by the people doing the same, the result is always political, as well as, moral, freedom.

So when our national founders affixed their signature to a document, The Declaration of Independence, which by their signing might very well mean their death if captured by the British, they held a broad concept of liberty.  To them, the connotations of this concept went way beyond the merely political.  And in fact, it is this broader concept of liberty, Americans of all generations have fought and bled to uphold.  In truth, it is only in this broader concept of liberty we as Americans can remain confident of our freedoms, if we remain constant in their defense.  Why, because of all nations under heaven, only we, the Americans, and more recently, the people of the Philippines have enshrined in our foundational documents that it is God who gives us liberty, not any government of man.  Interestingly, it is precisely because of their history with their own tyrant, Ferdinand Marcos, the people of the Philippines made this change to their constitution.  They found, as have others, that anything a government of man can "give", that government can also take.  Therefore no government of man can have any right to take from us, what only God can give us.

Today, in far flung countries of the Middle East our service people are fighting tyranny again.  And while we are making gains and seeing more signs of success, it will be a long, tough fight to defeat Islamic Fascism, as it was a long, tough fight to defeat Nazi Fascism in World War II.  A number of tribes in Baghdad recently approached us to help them fight against and defeat Al Qaida in Iraq.  This is wonderful news, but it has only come about because of the outstanding efforts of great soldiers fighting the good fight, some of whom have made the ultimate sacrifice for liberty.  We must realize these gains, while very important, are only tenuous and can be lost if we now leave because people back home believe the battle to be too difficult, or not worth the costs.  It is difficult, but it is also worth the costs.  As I said in my last letter, "Wars are won in the will before they are won on the battlefield."  If you have the will to win, we will.  My message to you and anyone you would send this letter to is, stay the course!

I pray you had a wonderful and meaningful Memorial Day.  Please remember your veterans everywhere as it was by their sweat and blood this precious gift of freedom has been defended through the decades of our nation.  Keep us in your prayers.