Revised 21 Oct., 1997
\nFor “Life Advocate Magazine”
\nMichael Bray<\/p>\n
In October, Sodom City hosted the 30th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. The original word-of-mouth event drew 35,000 hippies to Haight-Asbury and Golden Gate Park to share in psychedelic drugs, music and fornication. The current mayor, Willie Brown, was a hippie in 1967 living in the Haight-Asbury district. He supported the anniversary celebration attended by a cross-generational crowd of \u201cbalding hippies with free-flowing beards, leather-clad punks, generation Xers in tied-dyed shirts and dreadlocks, and curious tourists\u201d (Reuters, 13 October).<\/p>\n
Don Spitz (Director of Prolife Virginia) was there, too, in a – shall we say – pre-regenerate condition. <\/p>\n
As the progressive fornicators aged and rose to positions of power, proceeding from one form of immorality to another, they reconstructed the cities, accordingly. The sacrifice of children in fulfillment of the unrestrained joy of free sex followed necessarily and hard on the trail. Belatedly, children of the light resisted. Many went to jail, and some have remained there for years – lights in the darkness.<\/p>\n
And as Brown continued in darkness ascending to the throne of the city (even as another hippie – yea, even another Willie – acceded to the throne in D.C.), Mr. Spitz walked in the light joining the counter-counterculture. He has stood against the various forms of fornication as well as the segued slaughter of innocents. Mr. Spitz will be joining other non-conformists who stand against the pagan establishment with its attendant innocent blood shedding. He will gather to honor prisoners in January at the annual White Rose Banquet in D.C. Among those honored will be Curt Beseda who was to have been released, again, on October 23. <\/p>\n
Absent will be Mr. Beseda. He had been turned over to a U.S. Probation officer on 3 October after being locked up for thirteen years on a 20-year sentence (See October 1996 issue of Life Advocate). He was reinterned on March 24 for refusing to take psychiatric drugs. Curt has been judged by at least one shrink to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. In conversation, he will sometimes be unresponsive, abiding in what is called a \u201ccatatonic\u201d condition. He knows he is suffering from something, but he chooses to continue in earnest prayers which, he believes, such drug treatment as the recommended powerful tranquilizer, Stelazine, would inhibit. It is a tough choice. But Curt\u2019s commitment to persevering in particularly rigorous prayer is higher than his own freedom – and health. <\/p>\n
There are children of darkness and there are children of light. The Apostle John is brutally clear about this: \u201cBy this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother\u201d (1John 3:10). Bigot-like, he speaks judgmentally of evil spirits and false prophets, warning: \u201cEvery spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of antichrist.\u201d And most narrow-minded, undemocratic, anti-multicultural and paranoid-sounding is this claim: \u201cWe know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one\u201d (5:19).<\/p>\n
And the children of light do battle with evil powers. Yes, since the days of the garden, a personal evil power known as Satan has connived against mankind. The Evil One and his assistants were active throughout the recorded life of Christ and the acts of the Apostles. Down through the ages, the records of the history of Christian churches indicate the ongoing conflict. An ancient sentence pronounced upon a cursed excommunicant says – gnathemizatum et damnatum cum diabolo et angelis ejus et omnibus reprobis in eternum ignem – \u201ccursed and damned with the devil and his angels and all the reprobate to eternal fire.\u201d Similarly, throughout the world in all expressions of Christianity exorcisms and confrontation with demons are recognized as an authentic experiences.<\/p>\n
But when a Christian prisoner in a modern secularist society (in which the demonic slaughter of innocents is tolerated, protected, even promoted) is immured for thirteen years in the company of every kind of criminal and foul spirit and speaks of suffering from spiritual \u201cinterference\u201d and interprets it as demonic oppression, he is judged strange and in need of medication. \u201cAh, but he often lies unresponsive and hears voices,\u201d say his evaluators.<\/p>\n
It is not necessarily a bad thing. Mary and Joseph each heard voices and saw visions. And St. Joan of Arc heard voices which, unfortunately, when she would not renounce them, were used as evidence to prosecute her for sorcery. But if folks hear bad voices, such as the ones Jesus heard when he was tempted by the Devil, this is not fun, though the fact does not impugn the character of the hearer. But in our modern times, when such phenomena are explained only in terms of mental problems, hearing voices is never a good thing. The matter can serve no end but to impugn the character of the hearer (unless he confines his testimony to Pentecostal and certain other churches where such phenomena are enthusiastically embraced – as long as such ecstatic activity doesn\u2019t somehow bring FACE suits and the FBI against the church).<\/p>\n
Curt\u2019s overseers fear that his will embarrass them by reverting to his old ways. He might be emboldened by associating with outlaw antiabortionists and get himself into trouble. The Parole Commission\u2019s rule allow them to deny him contact with felons (of which category an increasing number of Christians have become members in the wake of Roe). But it has stepped beyond these written rules to forbid contact with any \u201cprolife activists\u201d who might, in the opinion of parole officers, arouse an ex-con to go out and do some more damage to abortuaries. <\/p>\n
I shall therefore purge myself in hopes of paving the way for more tolerance. Accordingly, I concede now before this august readership together with the degenerate Planned Barrenhood plaintiffs who are looking under every rock to find a way to win that $ 1.4 billion – that I have verily engaged in a conspiracy with Mr. Beseda. (There are other conspirators who are unknown to me; I am aware of their existence, however.) Long ago, when news of the Whitewater scandal came forth (to our boundless alacrity), we agreed to engage in prayer for good fruit to be born from this marvelous revelation. We were never specific in what we agreed to pray about. But our minds are similar and I can imagine that we hoped for the same kinds of results as we prayed a simple five-point prayer. (I shall not reveal the five points. This withholding of information will give the Planned Barrenhood attorneys and myself something to talk about at the next boring deposition.) The substance of the prayers was \u201cWhitewater investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curt has been much more devoted in prayer and fasting than I. He has been faithful and persistent in reminding me not to let a day go by without our \u201cWhitewater prayers.\u201d Curt has engaged in arduous and regular fasting for several years, while I would fast much less frequently and never as long as he. And, my oh my, how much more of a strain the prayer time became as more scandals came forth! When we amended our prayer format to \u201cWhitewater and related investigations\u201d it was as if the heavens opened! Prayer time was expanded with Travelgate, Filegate, the Waco assault, jailings of Hubbell and Rostenkowski, the contempt jailing of McDougal, the death of Vince Foster, impreachment process initiated by Henry Hyde over for treason with China, Paula Jones, and more. It has become quite a burden.<\/p>\n
My favorite prayer topic is the Paula Jones case. (I have to admit, it does appeal to my baser instincts.) The front page bi-line of the Washington Times (15 Oct.) is all about the President of the United States\u2019 membrum virile and a certain \u201cdistinguishing characteristic\u201d thereof. It says, \u201cPAULA JONES\u2019 AFFIDAVIT DESCRIBES CURVATURE OF THE ORGAN, WHICH MAY BE CAUSED BY CHRONIC \u2018PEYRONIE\u2019S DISEASE.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But sometimes I just don\u2019t know how to pray a righteous prayer. I\u2019m sure that by the time you read this you will have already heard thousands of jokes about such a prurient topic. In the interest of time, I have decided to simply pray that the President remains bent out of shape so that he will either leave office or be forced by the judge to get another examination by the plaintiffs. (I must admit that I am suspicious about that \u201cknee\u201d injury, but I try to restrain my imagination concerning conspiracies as a good example for Janet Waco Reno and Planned Barrenhood to follow.)<\/p>\n
Curt has surely strained under the success of our prayers. Good results, it seems, have inspired yet more fasting and prayer. And Curt has devoted himself in a way that seems good to a devout man who, confined and unable to engage in baby saving action, has chosen to devote himself in this service. While on parole, he wrote to another pastor on January 2, 1997, \u201cFasting and praying will continue to be part of me response to the institutionalized slaughter of unborn children. This even includes Whitewater and related investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consider a man who is confined for thirteen years under a 20-year sentence by a government which protects child slaughterers and imprisons the defenders of innocent children. What does he do? Let us assume that he has opted to refrain from using force to stop the slaughter, as have apparently a couple dozen others who have done time and been released for various arson and bombing charges. None of these have renounced their deeds; yet they have refrained, apparently. Curt, I am convinced, has no intention of performing the destruction of an abortuary. But he could make no promises to his jailers or his parolers. Such would be to deny the truth, to deny the humanity of the unborn. To promise never to defend the innocents would be a heinous and unconscionable pledge. Curt is rumored to have refused the opportunity for earlier release by a few years by declining to promise not to perform similar deeds again. <\/p>\n
Consider a man so fastidious in keeping his word. Did he foolishly choose to identify with the innocent children by denying himself in this way? Was such solidarity folly? Did he comply to his detriment in cutting himself off from other Christians upon release? This new segregation inflicts a pain which is worse than imprisonment itself. He is severed from the spiritual life which flows from Christian fellowship. He is denied the soul food of Christian fellowship. Curt\u2019s catatonic episodes were far worse during the six months he was released than they were while he was immured. Although we had communicated perpetually over the years a few times each week by mail or phone for thirteen years, Curt was required to obey the obscene command to cut off communication; he complied according to his word. <\/p>\n
Consider a man, locked behind steel and barbed wire, practically deprived of the means to be involved in the plight of the innocent, who sacrifices his own health by prayer and fasting to accomplish the very goal of rescuing the innocent by the spiritual means available to him. <\/p>\n
Curt\u2019s family has told me that I would not recognize him – he is so thin. Mike and Bonnie Undseth, longtime friends from Curt\u2019s hometown, have visited him regularly since his reinternment. They say: \u201cHe looks like a concentration camp victim.\u201d Curt\u2019s body is sorely depleted; he is malnourished. He is half starved. <\/p>\n
He is doing much better and gaining a little weight. He has let up on his fasting and is preparing his body to go back to work. We are glad. Someone else can take up Curt\u2019s former services. But we are pro-choice in such matters. Christians may choose whatever they want to do as long as the choice is Lawful. It is not unLawful to fast and pray. It is simply uncommon to sacrifice one\u2019s own health by such service.<\/p>\n
Curt has been surrounded by bad company for years. Were there demons there? Certainly. Was he sorely afflicted by such a brutal separation from Christian company? Surely. But he has not been corrupted. And he has no mental problems. In order for him to function like one of us regulars (for whatever that is worth), he just needs some good food and the freedom to have Christian fellowship with his friends. <\/p>\n
Sadly, the U.S. Parole Commission will not allow Curt to attend the banquet which will honor him, in absentia again, in January. But Don Spitz will be there in D.C. And Willie Brown will be on the other coast. Two former hippies, now as far apart as East is from West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Revised 21 Oct., 1997 For “Life Advocate Magazine” Michael Bray In October, Sodom City hosted the 30th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. The original word-of-mouth event drew 35,000 hippies to Haight-Asbury and Golden Gate Park to share in psychedelic drugs, music and fornication. The current mayor, Willie Brown, was a hippie in 1967 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defending-the-defenders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}