From Bill Bennett's American Patriot's Almanac:
On April 21, 1942, a nervous Lt. Cdr. Edward “Butch” O’Hare stood beside his wife, Rita, at the White House while Franklin Delano Roosevelt awarded him the Congressional Medal of Honor for “one of the most daring, if not the most daring single action in the history of combat aviation.”
Butch O’Hare never really wanted a medal—just a chance to do his job. On February 20, 1942, he was on board the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific when radar picked up a formation of Japanese bombers closing in fast. The Lexington quickly launched fighters to intercept the oncoming planes. By the time O’Hare got aloft in his Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat, there was no chance to “get in on the brawl,” as he later put it, because other fighters had done a magnificent job breaking up the attack.
Then came a frantic message from the Lexington: a second wave of Japanese bombers had appeared. Only two Wildcats were in position to head them off—Butch and his wingman “Duff ” Dufilho. Dufilho soon discovered that his guns wouldn’t fire. That left Butch to fight off the bombers, which were minutes away from his carrier.
Roaring at the bombers, O’Hare began picking them off with deadly aim, one at a time. Sailors on deck watched in awe as he shot down five planes and disabled a sixth, all in a matter of minutes. He stopped only when he ran out of ammunition. When he landed, his first words were, “Just load those ammo belts, and I’ll get back up.” There was no need—his shooting had broken up the attack and saved the Lexington.
Twenty-one months later, Butch O’Hare’s plane disappeared over the Pacific during a night attack against some Japanese torpedo bombers. In 1949 Chicago renamed its airport O’Hare International Airport in honor of the Navy’s first flying ace.
Every day, Bill Bennett provides via email--for free--a reading from his American Patriot's Almanac. It's "a daily newsletter that will teach you key events that took place each day in American history." Click here to subscribe.
Welcome to the Intersections Blog, where I try to work out where politics, pop culture, and the Bible meet
So What's This All About?
In case you didn't know, I'm in the multi-year-long process of posting a Christian devotional at the TAWG Blog. The TAWG Blog is, and always will be, mostly apolitical. For the most part, Bible-believing Christians will find little to disagree with there. But I also firmly believe that God's word can--and should--inform everything in life, and this should include politics and popular culture. How should we vote? How should we respond to hot topics such as abortion, capital punishment, taxes, and other issues? Which party, if either, is closer to the Biblical ideal? Tony Campolo and Ron Sider, Evangelicals whose political leanings are on the Left, have made the case in several of their writings that God wants his followers to vote politically on the Left more than on the Right. At times, some of them have gone so far as to equate voting on the Left with obedience to Christ, either subtly or not-so-subtly contending that the converse is true as well: If you vote Republican, you're sinning against the Savior.
I don't agree. I think that to the degree they actually resort to the Bible, they're misinterpreting it. With a whole bunch of caveats, I think politically conservative positions are a lot more compatible with the Scriptures than the Leftist positions.
Just to clarify, I would never accuse people who disagree with me--especially siblings in Christ--of what they accuse me of. I don't judge my own heart, much less anyone else's, and I don't equate political disagreement with theological fidelity to God. I have no reason to doubt their love for the Lord and "for the least of these," but I believe that they're sincerely wrong.
Just to clarify, I would never accuse people who disagree with me--especially siblings in Christ--of what they accuse me of. I don't judge my own heart, much less anyone else's, and I don't equate political disagreement with theological fidelity to God. I have no reason to doubt their love for the Lord and "for the least of these," but I believe that they're sincerely wrong.
So there are two main purposes for this blog. One is to make a case for my political beliefs based on Scripture. The other is a bit more vague, basically to work out my political beliefs and figure out what's based on Scripture and what's based on my own biases. I certainly don't have all the answers. Some of this stuff I'm still figuring out. And I'm certainly open to correction. As long as you make your case civilly and based on Scripture, feel free to make a comment, and I promise I'll post it and consider your arguments thoughtfully and prayerfully. Who knows? Maybe we'll learn a little something from each other.
May God bless our common striving together towards both the "little t" truth and "Big T" Truth. Our watchword here is a line from C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle: "Further up and further in!"
P.S. -- Below on the left is "Topics I've Covered" which lists everything I've posted topically. It's come to my attention that some people would like to see everything just listed for them. If that's you, you can get it here. Thanks to my friend Stephen Young for the tip!
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