Courage to stand for what is right even if you’re alone

  I realize that we have not fought this battle alone; I thank God for those nations who stood with us, especially our closest allies, Canada and the UK.

As a rule, I don’t have a great deal of respect for lawyers but I heard a speech by one this weekend that truly inspired me. His name is David French; he is a representative for ADF (Alliance Defense Fund). David lives near me in the Nashville, Tennessee area. He defended a school teacher in our area who was named in suet by the ACLU for being a member of an organization of concerned parents who stood for religious liberty, who did not advocate infringing on anyone’s liberty but who only wanted to stand on the religious liberty afforded by the constitution. The case was won in favor of the teacher and they were able to continue their organization.

David does not only speak of our religious liberty but was willing to fight for it in Iraq.He tells the story of how he decided at the age of 37, even though he was a husband and father of a daughter, to leave his family and law profession and join the army. He says he was at his dining table when he read the news of the American bombing of Iraq and he said, “I think that America is to soft and weak to fight a long war,” and then it dawned on him that it was himself that he was talking about. His wife who could read his thoughts said, “don’t even think about it”.

The very next day David’s wife took their daughter to a patriotic exhibit and the daughter saw the word patriot and asked her mother what it meant. Her mother said that it was those who stand for their country and would even give their life for it. The daughter then asked “Are we patriots?  It struck a deep chord but her mother said, “Yes we are”. When David came home in the evening, his wife said, “You have to go”.

David said that after basic training he was shipped out to Iraq. This was near the beginning of the war and there was a contingency of Al-Qaeda who had sealed off a few square miles and had imposed their own Islamic government and had executed men, women and children of any village who did not support them. They had heavily mined the perimeter and were well dug in to defend their territory.

David said that he was aboard a Schnook helicopter that was flying troops in by night to defeat and take over the Al-Qaeda stronghold. He described his feelings as he gazed over the shoulder of the gunner, who was sweeping the area below, searching for any signs of the enemy; and he thought: this is only the first day of more than three hundred remaining. As he continued to think, he asked himself, what in the world am I doing here with a wife and daughter back home that depends on me? He talked about the intense fear that he felt inside and he begin to pray and then realized that this was where he was supposed to be and that he would do his best.

The title of David’s speech was “courage”. He said you know we often do things thinking we are courageous when we aren’t really because we don’t understand what courage is. Someone says something that makes someone angry and think they have courage. This is not courage, gumption maybe but not courage. Hollywood makes a motion picture that angers people living in Alabama and think they have courage. Courage is being willing to leave your comfort zone to stand for that you know to be right even if it cost you, hurts you or even requires you life, that’s courage. Courage is not being without fear or otherwise we would not need it.

On this occasion as David stood there filled with fear, he wondered if he would have the courage to face all that he would have to face in the year ahead. Many of his friends would die. This battle was the most heavily hit in causalities of the entire war. But stand he did and was able to return home alive at the end of the year but as he was traveling home, news came to him that his best friend had been killed in a road side bombing as he led his troops in a offence.

I’m thinking as I set here at my desk with tears rolling down my face, hardly able to keep crying, what a price some have paid, what a sacrifice and here I sit in all the comfort of a beautiful home, free to do or go as I please; oh God help me to be fully appreciative of the price that has been paid.

We have liberty guaranteed by the constitution of the United States of America but we must claim it or lose it. David told of the courage of a college student that he defended in Southwest Missouri, my home state in fact, and the story goes like this: Sue (not her real name) was a senior at a major university in southwest Missouri and was taking a course in social studies. Her assignment was to go to the Mall and do a sex act with another woman and then write a paper on how people around her responded. She wasn’t able to do it but she wrote a paper as if she did and later felt so guilty. She said to herself, if only I had another chance.

Her chance came when she received an assignment to write a paper about why people of the same sex should be allowed to adopt children. This time she told her professor “no” that she would not do something she believed to be wrong.

We have liberty: if the president of the United States asked me to do something that was against my convictions, I have the liberty to tell him, “In all respect Mr. President I will not do what you ask because I believe it to be wrong”. Even the President of the United States could not force me to do it.

This university called Sue in before a review board of five college professors who grilled her for two hours on her beliefs and then told her she would have to change her beliefs or not graduate from their university.

This is where David and the ADF stepped in to defend her. They sued the University for denying this young woman her constitutional rights of religious liberty and won.

The university was ordered to pay the expense of any graduate degree from any university she choose as well as paying for the pain they had caused her, along with attorney fees.

We have liberty but we must be willing and have the courage to stand on it even if others don’t like us for it, or if it hurts us, or denies us of that which we want. Liberty is a precious treasure that must be appreciated and guarded. It comes with a high price; it cost a lot of lives.

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