Br. Terry

Happy Birthday To My Son, Samuel

2011-12-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

It was 11pm two years ago on December 16th that I decided to lay my head down on a pillow at my apartment in Beaufort, South Carolina. Deanna had already made the move back to Ohio in anticipation of my release from active duty naval service. We weren't too happy with the idea of being so far apart, especially with her being pregnant, but it was something that had to be done in order for her to get her job back at Franklin County Job and Family Services. That, and I was vehemently opposed to my son being born in the South. Sorry, Southerners; I love your ways, but we're Buckeyes, and that's something we say with pride.

Thankfully I had left the ringer on on my phone, or else I would have missed one of the most interesting text messages of my entire life. At 12:27am on December 17, Deanna sent a message that read the following: "Either I just peed the bed, or my water just broke."

She wasn't due until December 30, and we were making plans for my return to Columbus on the 21st. The plan was for me to take 15 days of regular leave, followed by the extra 10 days my squadron was graciously giving me for paternity leave, with a federal holiday on the backside of that. We had a great plan that involved me making the 660 mile drive so we would have my car in Ohio, which was far more reliable than her mini-van. Samuel, apparently, didn't care if we had plans. He heard there was a full moon coming, and he was interested in checking this thing out.

I picked up my cell phone and called Deanna. She answered on the other end. I asked her if her water had broken, and she said she still didn't know, she was still in the bed. Convincing her that the only way to know for sure was to get up, she did so and goo continued to make its way out. It was time.

Deanna had been staying with my parents until she found a place. Walking across the hall, she tapped on my mothers bedroom door. No one answered. So she knocked again. Again, no answer. My mother could probably sleep through a nuclear war, just not voices. I told Deanna I was going to call mom's house phone, so we hung up with one another and I called for the answering machine. My message follows:

"Hey mom and Tony. Just calling to tell you that Deanna's water has broken and she's standing outside your door knocking. Ok, talk to you later. Love you. Bye."

Mom swings her bedroom door open, and says to Deanna, "You're shi**ing me?!?"

Deanna affirms that she is in fact going into labor.

Meanwhile in South Carolina, I'm running around my apartment throwing random things into my seabag, trying to find all the pieces I will need while in Ohio. My day the preceding morning had begun at 4am, and I was going now on only about 1 hour of sleep. I rushed out of the apartment so fast, I forgot my keys. Then my bag. Then I forgot to lock the door.

I arrived on base about 10 minutes later. This drive usually took me twenty. Like a one armed paper hanger, I filled out a pile of paperwork and proceeded to drop them in the boxes in the office. I knew that driving would be a horrible idea on so little sleep, so I logged into my computer and began searching plane tickets out of Savannah and Charleston. After searching for a few mintues, the earliest flight I could find was out of Charleston, at 7am, at the low low price of $500. Screw the price, I said, I'm not missing my child coming into the world. Pay, click, print. Into the car I went, and off to Charleston I drove.

I managed to get about 45 minutes of sleep after I arrived at the Charleston airport. As soon as the ticket counter opened, I went to the desk to check in. The agent told me that I looked exhausted and she was surprised to see anyone there that early. I told her what was about to happen, and she immediately began cancelling my ticket to get me a 50% discount. I don't remember that lady's name, but I'm still thankful for her.

We left the Charleston Airport exactly on time and headed towards Charlotte. We ended up being delayed in Charlotte. During this time, Deanna started to dialate more and more. We kept texting back and forth, and then my mother began texting me telling me I needed to hurry up. I love my mom, but she sure was getting annoying with her incessant texts. There wasn't much I could do to speed things along.

Finally we left Charlotte. On the flight I was starting to get jittery. The fact that my son was ready to come into the world was sinking in. I began talking to the man across the isle. We were just shooting the bull when he asked me if Columbus was my final stop. I said that it was and told him what the occasion was. It was then that it dawned on me that this man looked really familiar. I asked him what his name was and about crapped my pants when he told me he was Dr. Donald Winter, former Secretary of the Navy. I then formally introduced myself as Petty Officer Gatwood. He shook my hand and told me how honored he was to meet me. Super cool moment.

After landing in Columbus, our plane pulled up to the gate. He and I were sitting far towards the rear of the plane, and as everyone began standing up he shouted above everyone to sit down and "let this Sailor out first" because my wife was in labor and I needed to get off first. A few people disregarded him, but most people clapped and patted me on the back in congratulation. I turned my phone back on as soon as I stepped off the plane, and, of course, my mother was blowing it up. She told me that Sam was ready to come NOW and that if I didn't get there soon the doctors were just going to deliver. Apparently Deanna had been ready to deliver for over an hour, and because of Sam's position his pulse kept dropping dangerously low. I'm happy she didn't tell me this, because as tired and worried as I was I probably would have started crying.

My Papaw and his girlfriend Tamara met me in the baggage area. The following drive from the airport to Mount Carmel East still stands today as the most terrifying ride along of my life. I think Tamara missed her calling as a Formula One driver. I've never seen someone weave in and out of traffic and beat every red light like her.

They dropped me at the door and I sprinted all the way to Labor and Delivery. When I arrived, my mother, like she does, began nagging me that I needed to hurry up. Story of my life (I'll admit here, I am pretty slow. I call it being deliberate lol). When I got into the room, I found Deanna in tears. She was in great pain and scared. The first thing she said to me was, "you made it." I said, "I promised I would be here."

Just under an hour later our son, Samuel, made his first beautiful sound.

That night I finally held my son for the first time. As mommy slept, Sam and I set in the rocking chair in the room and I talked to him about everything I could think of. I then began my first prayer with him, the Lord's Prayer. As I began praying, his tiny little eyes opened, and though I knew he didn't yet have the ability to see I just got lost in his baby blue eyes. It was nice to see those little peepers open as we prayed together. I finally lost my tears, so thankful for the gift God had give to us, and thankful that He made it possible for me to be there and to have this moment of worship with my son.

That night I realized I had gained the most important title I'll ever bear in my entire life: daddy. It's one I'll gladly wear until the day I go home to meet the Father Sam, Jack and I share in common.

Thanks, again, God for giving me my own personal cheesy Lifetime Movie story to tell, and for the beautiful gifts you've given me in Sam and Jack. Bless them in body, mind, and spirit, that they may follow after you all of their days. Protect them mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, that they may be able to be servants of Christ in this world to the best of their abilities.

Ohio: Beyond the Thunderdome

2010-11-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Two terrible things happened in both my home city and the city in which I attend university.

In Columbus, a man kills his infant because the mother is breaking the relationship off with him. See the story here:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/11/19/babys-last-minutes-were-tale-of-horrific-abuse-police-say.html?sid=101

Then, Mount Vernon police find the three missing persons wrapped in trashbags, and dumped into a hallow tree. See the story here:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/11/19/a-tragic-ending-in-knox-county.html

There is already grumbling going on at the State House that we need some new law to deal with this. My questions are, what can prevent this that is written on paper, and isn't murder already illegal?

My answer (and I'm not trying to be funny) is more concealed carry weapons. If one of those women had happened to have a pistol on her belt, she could have shot that man in the face when he started his shenanigans. No one knew he was going to do such an atrocious thing, that is for sure. But it definitely could have been stopped immediately had she been packing.

With the baby-daddy case, as soon as he punched the great-grandmother in the face, she should have shot him. She's an old woman, and a man of his youth and strength could have easily beat her to death. She should have just shot him in the face as well, ending that story.

I'm applying for my Utah Concealed-Carry permit next week. I will be carrying a loaded weapon.

Three weeks ago I had my own run-in with an armed nutty man. He held me at knife point and told me to give him all my money. I only had twelve dollars in my pocket, and would have given it to him if he would have asked me, as I had already given some to a man earlier that day. But this man resorted to a threat of stabbing and death, and that was just not going to stand.

The Marine Corps taught me "if you hesistate, you die." This flashed through my head immediately, and the next thing I knew I was stepping into the man, pushing his knife hand by the wrist upwards and out while throwing my right fist into his face with every bit of strength in my body. He hit the pavement like a ton of bricks, and was knocked out.

Another man came rushing across the parking lot to help. I told him to call the police and an ambulance for the man on the pavement.

Once the police and medical team arrived, I gave my statement to the officer who then told me that what I had done was stupid, and that I should have just given the armed man the money.

To the police officer I said that even had I given the man the money, there was still no way of knowing that he wouldn't still stab me, because I've seen his face or because he was pissed I only had twelve dollars. Apparently the cop didn't hear me correctly, because he just shook his head and told me to just comply with the assailant the next time.

At this, I was pretty angry. I asked the police officer if he had ever served in the military. He said "no." To this I said, "Well, you hesistate, you die. I think we're done now. Goodbye."

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

The Beautiful Color of Gray

2010-11-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

I am a Midwesterner. Born and raised on the outer edges of Columbus, Ohio, where the city and the farm fields meet in this odd way that I've only seen in middle America, I've grown accustom to a few things.

The first is the seemingly unpredictability of the weather. Last week, we had a day where the temperature rose all the way into the mid 70's, only to turn around the next day to find ourselves back in the 40's. One hour we'll have a tremendous amount of rain or snow, brought on by that always mysterious Alberta Clipper, just to find ourselves enjoying sunny weather the next hour. If you have ever been to Germany or The Netherlands you will understand after spending a Fall or Spring in Ohio why so many German and Dutch people moved here: it gets muddy.

Second, the flannel-gray skies of the fall and winter. To some, this brings out the seasonal blahs. It used to do this to me, but I've come to recognize that this is an event of natural beauty.

After spending five years away from the Buckeye state, living primarily in sunny and warm places, I learned that gray is pretty. On the rare occasion that we'd actually have a truly overcast day in Okinawa or South Carolina, I would become homesick. It reminded me that my family and friends, the people I loved most in this world, were so far away. It gave me the opportunity to think about the fact that it is my family who made me who I am.

It also gave me the chance to break out my best Ohio State Buckeyes garb, most of which are heavy and warm. It was like a reassuring hug reminding me that I am loved, and that by people who get to endure the gray skies for most of the year. I missed those very skies.

So, gray to me is beautiful.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

A New Academic Stretegy

2010-10-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I was handed a graded copy of a quiz I had taken two days prior. On that quiz I was given the grade of 7/10. I had studied the text, and even took notes the night before the quiz. Today I was given this past Wednesday's quiz, on which I recieved a 6/10. Again, plenty of study and notes without a payoff.

The young man who sits next to me, who does not read the text at all, has recieved in the last two weeks grades of 10/10 and 9/10.

My new strategy for this class is one that I employed all throughout high school, and I'm hoping it works out again: not studying the primary text.

Maybe it is entirely possible to learn from a book via osmosis.

I do have an A in this class, however, but that is due to my research and positions writing skills.

Midterms came out this week. I have four A's and a C-. Anyone who knows me already knows what the C- is in...Algebra. I'm still a mathtard after all these years.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Ethical Relativism (Short Essay)

2010-10-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Ethical relativism “is the theory that there are no universally valid moral principles, that all moral principles are valid relative to culture or individual choice” (Pojman 258). According to John Ladd of Brown University, conventional ethical relativism can be defined in this way: “Ethical relativism is the doctrine that the moral rightness and wrongness of actions varies from society to society and that there are no absolute universal moral standards binding on all men at all times. Accordingly, it holds that whether or not it is right for an individual to act in a certain way depends on or is relative to the society to which he belongs” (258).
An exemplary example of the cultural point of view working itself out in reality is the philosophical standard of the German National Socialist Workers Party before World War II. Informed by Hegel, an opponent of individualism, they did not accept the ideas of Kant and Fichte who had said that a man can discover “the content of good and evil by his own judgment, independent of the views of society” (Ominous Parallels 87). Hegel, on the contrary, says that the “principles of morality…are to be determined not by an individual’s mind but by his ‘real self,’ the community or the state--whose traditions and laws…constitute the real standard of good and evil” (87). The only good in Nazi German society is that which benefits the Volk.
German laws constantly changed in their foci, eliminating one after another those things and even persons who were seen as a weakness to society at large. The guiding principle enforcing this “moral” way of life (which was subject to change as the Volk’s needs changed) can be found in the words of Adolph Hitler: “In the chase after their own happiness men fall from heaven into a real hell. Yes, even posterity forgets the men who have only served their own advantage and praises the heroes who have denounced their own happiness….Our own German language possess a word which magnificently designates this kind of activity: Pflichterfüllung (fulfillment of duty); it means not to be self-sufficient but to serve the community” (Mein Kampf 300).
According to this subjectivist point of view, it is not only perfectly acceptable to practice self-immolation for the good of the larger community, but it is a concrete truth. However, this is where the problem lies in this argument: if all things are relative to the cultural understandings of life, what happens when a person belongs not only to the State (in this case, Third Reich Germany), but also to a sub-cultural group such as Berliners, Hamburgers, Lutherans, Catholics, et al., that may not subscribe to this supposed truth? With whom do they then identify? Furthermore, if all things are relative, then there really cannot be any concrete truth from which to act.
Hegel, Hitler, Koppel Pinson, Friedrich Beck, and other thinkers of the time could not then be taken at face value. When all things in their arguments are considered, there can be no proof of reason to act in whatever way the culture demanded. There is no truth: all things are relative. It could even be argued that since a particular person challenging the cultural norms is also a member of the Volk, then the ethical mind of the Volk is changing, therefore this is the new ethical norm in a relativist view.
Without an objective standard, there can be no guiding principles upon which to govern oneself or a society at large, as homogeneous or heterogeneous as it may be. Nothing then is out of the norm, because there can be some group which can be found or founded that could espouse these ideas, which then makes it part of the cultural mind. It is an argument built on a foundation of sand that can be easily washed away when any strong surge of counter-opinion is brought forth.

Works Cited
Peikoff, Leonard. The Ominous Parallels: A Brilliant Study of America Today and the “Ominous Parallels” With the Chaos of Pre-Hitler Germany. Penguin Meridian: New York 1982.

Pojman, Lewis P. Philosophy: The Pursuit of Wisdom 5th Ed. Thomson Wadsworth: Belmont 2006.

Short Personal Theological Statement

2010-10-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

I grew up in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. Before me, my family had been Methodist and German Pietists since the early 1800s. I was properly catechized in the doctrines and practice of Methodism, and had never given any other theological system much thought. This is until I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, with the United States Navy in October 2006.
As a Navy Chaplain’s Assistant, I was appointed to work for Chaplain’s of all different faith traditions. Pastor Brian Stamm, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was my first, and theologically most important, appointment. Through many discussions with Pastor Stamm on the theological points of Lutheranism found in the Book of Concord I began to do some soul searching. What I found shocked me: I was guilty of the heresy of Semi-Pelagiansim(1). I had come to this conclusion by theological conviction.
The central point that truly affected me was the idea of justification by grace alone through faith. I had always believed this, but had a works-based view of it. In order for God to save me through the work Christ had already done, I had to exercise faith in God. I had to do something. An act of my own will, seeking God, would save me.
Yet, this is utterly false in the view of Scripture. No man, no matter how intellectually rigorous he may be, how obedient and faithful his attempts follow the commandments of God, how sorry he may feel for his many sins, can ever go about seeking God on his own.(2) Only the will of God(3), the beckoning of the Holy Spirit# can call out a man and justify him by the gift of faith. Scripture tells us that God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,”(4) and “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”(5) It is by the Holy Spirit’s drawing by the proclamation of the Gospel and the Sacraments. Man cannot, in his sinful position, by human reason, come to salvific faith.(6)(7)
Original Sin strikes at the root of all things. It has perverted the creation of God, malforming it into something that looks similar to its perfect form, yet is still far from it. In the soul of man, it does not just appear as a stain, but as a complete perversion of perfection. Even the earth “groaneth and travaileth in pain…” as a result of the Fall.(8) Even though through baptism the bonds of Original Sin are broken in the newly baptized Christian, and the guilt of that sin removed from the regenerate soul (not a soul that has been wiped clean of some smudge upon it, but completely changed in its disposition to sin(9)) that new soul of the man still resides in a body of corrupted flesh, living in a corrupted world.
“Hunger drives us to eat,” Niebuhr writes.(10) The Law of God condemns, and it convinces us that we are spiritually hungry for something; it points us in the direction of the food for which we silently, and ignorantly, are seeking. Yet the Gospel, alive and among us, brings to men a food wherewith the heart is satiated. From this the called believer in Christ is empowered to do good works at the Holy Spirit’s leading.
We live in the world, with all its brokenness and corruption. It has been this way since the Fall, and will remain so until the return of Christ. Christ’s call to the faithful, while living in society, is to “love [our] neighbor as [ourselves].”(11) Paul also moves Christians to “do good to all people.”(12)
It is because of the love of God, first directed towards us before we could even consider loving Him, that we are able to love our neighbors.(13) Being found still living within society, the question whether or not to secede from the union of society looms. The Fundamentalist would affirm the notion that breaking from culture would benefit the Christian by leaving behind the pollution of sin that comes with it. However, it would be difficult to maintain a pure society, nay impossible, since the way we perceive things and interpret the Scriptures comes from training and upbringing in our cultural society.
Concerning a utopian ideal of society, C.S. Lewis writes “they use any rhetoric that comes to hand to keep out of your mind the recollection that even if all the happiness they promised could come to man on earth, yet still each generation would lose it by death…”(14) Through pure religiosity, building their own Tower of Babel to heaven by good works, the Fundamentalist fails to realize that none of these things can justify them before God, in the way that only grace through faith can.(15) A person of this orientation captures the Gospel by ideology. By placing extra-biblical requirements of rejection and withdrawing from cultural society on the Christian as a condition of fellowship, they burden the believer with unnecessary works. As Carl Braaten writes, “the gospel has become law!”(16)
Culture is neither good nor bad. It is the collective expression of the men who live in society. Our life in Christ often finds itself at odds with the demands of our culture. Yet, the best thing we can do while suffering through this spirtual tug-o-war is to remain steadfast in our faith as part of society, being the living, breathing Word.

1. New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13703a.htm
2. Paul Tillich, in Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper, 1957), writes about three distortions of faith, three “ladders to heaven” (Chapter 2).
3.John 1:12-13; John 6:44-45,65;
4. John 14:17; I Corinthians 2; Titus 3:5-7; et al.
5. 2 Peter 3:9
6. Romans 10:14
7. “But since the devil's bride, Reason, that pretty whore, comes in and thinks she's wise, and what she says, what she thinks, is from the Holy Spirit, who can help us, then? Not judges, not doctors, no king or emperor, because [reason] is the Devil's greatest whore.” Martin Luther's Last Sermon in Wittenberg ... Second Sunday in Epiphany, 17 January 1546.Dr. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. (Weimar: Herman Boehlaus Nachfolger, 1914), Band 51:126, Line 7ff
8. “Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it…struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.” "The Last Written Words of Luther," Table Talk No. 5468, 1546-02-16, in James A. Kellerman, Tr., Dr. Martin Luthers Werke, (Weimar: Hermann Boehlaus Nachfolger, 1909), Band 85 (TR 5) 317–318
9. Romans 8:22
10. Romans 6:6; 2 Corinthians 5:17; et al.
11. H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, (New York: Harper & Row, 1951), 176
12. Mark 12:31
13. Galatians 6:10
14. 1 John 4
15. Clive Staples Lewis, The Weight of Glory, (New York: HarperCollins, 1949), 32
16. Ephesians 2:8-9

Back to School

2010-09-03T19:20:00.001-07:00

Wow. It's been quite a while since I've blogged. I always mean to update, but then never seem to get around to it.

This week I started going back to Mount Vernon Nazarene University. I've been away since 2003. Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever get to finish at MVNU, but God has blessed me with the financial resources to study at the only school I've ever felt at home.

Most people choose thier university based on a program of study, or financial opportunities, but I chose mine through prayers. I believe that God led me to this school, but began to have doubts about that when I couldn't come up with the money to return after my freshman year. After a series of unfortunate events, I ended up going to Columbus State, where I absolutely hated it. Don't get me wrong, CSCC is a good school, but it just wasn't for me.

Then I joined the United States Navy. Another thing that I'd felt God calling me to do for a long time.

Though I'm one of the oldest students in most of my classes this year, I now have a great sense of self-discipline and a better work ethic than I did back then. I thought that I'd been wrong about what God was calling me to do and where to do it, but He was just building me up to be a better builder of His kingdom here on earth.

I'm so happy that He moved the Congress and President to reform the GI Bill to give greater opportunity to veterans for academic study.

That's all for today. Hopefully I'll be able to blog more soon.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

One Week

2010-03-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

In seven days, I'll be ending my tour in Beaufort, SC, and returning to Columbus, OH, to rejoin my wife and son. These last four and a half years in the Navy have flown by. I've been homesick since the day I left for Boot Camp. Only now am I fully able to express how difficult it has been for me being all alone, always in new places, unable to see my family on a regular basis. The most important things I have in this life aren't things at all, but my family. And I can't wait to return home to them. For better and for worse, they are my family, and I wouldn't be the man I am today were it not for ALL of them. I love you guys.

I'm still looking for employment. That scares me a little, but I've been able to save up a bit of money to live off of until I find something. Even though unemployment is around 10.5% in Ohio, I don't think I'll have a terribly difficult time finding something to make ends meet. I've had a lot of good training in the Navy, and hopefully employers will look upon my honorable service favorably, knowing I have the discipline and work ethic to make their businesses flourish all the more. Not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty awesome.

Anyways, I can't wait to get home, see everyone, and jump back into some sort of ministry role at Walnut Hill.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Understanding our Constitution

2010-01-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

Not many things surprise me anymore. Since I’ve been in the Navy, I’ve seen and heard a lot that would generally cause a normal person a stress headache. Yet this one thing drives me a bit over the edge.

How difficult, really, is it to understand the Constitution of the United States of America? Honestly, it was intentionally written in the most basic terms that it would be easily read by every literate person.

I went to public schools, and am aware that it is common to find them teaching to a test and building up young persons to be good citizens (which I always thought was the job of my parents, and in my case, the people of my worship community). Real learning seems to be a thing of the past there, but at least basic reading skills are still taught, as far as I am aware. There are still good teachers who try their very best, but if a good foundation, and parents who are involved at home, are not present, they likely will only be able to spend great amounts of time on review, and quite a little on new learning.

Maybe the problem is that today’s high school graduate is indeed illiterate. Not illiterate in that they cannot read, but in the sense that they can read but not comprehend. I was privileged to have been able to spend so much time with my grandparents and great-grandparents who would tell me about what it was like to live in times past. This is primarily the reason why I read so much history, and enjoy taking trips across the country, and world for that matter, to visit Indian Mounds, churches, ancient forts, ruins, and the like. I greatly enjoy studying the cultural contexts.

And context is the key.

A great-big lie that has been propagated in our time is that the Constitution is a living, breathing document. It is not. Why would the men who crafted this document have allowed it to be so?

I guess a better question to ask would be, what was the reason for our separation from England? I think Thomas Paine is the best person in this context to answer that question. Read “Common Sense” at this link: http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/

Our Constitution is a restriction placed upon the Federal Government. It expressly defines what the powers of this United Government shall be. There are no other “hidden powers” for the government of the States United. And all other powers not expressly given to the Federal Government is reserved to the States, respectively.

It limits greatly the power of all three branches of government. But most citizens sadly don’t even know this plain and simple fact. I would even venture to say that the majority of Americans have never read the Constitution in its entirety. It’s only four pages long, with twenty-seven short and to the point amendments. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

Pay close attention to what our lawmakers, executives, and justices are doing in the District of Columbia. Knowing the Constitution and its intended purpose will likely cause you to wonder what in the world they think they are doing.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Socialism=Nazi

2009-12-27T15:02:00.000-08:00

Found this on the Free Republic website.

Socialism = NAZI (Hitler was a socialist)
THE OMINOUS PARALLELS ^ | Leonard Peikoff

Posted on June 22, 2002 1:38:56 PM EDT by freeforall

Socialism = NAZI or...

Hitler was a socialist.

The nasty little secret they don't want you to know!

THE OMINOUS PARALLELS, by Leonard Peikoff...

A Veritas News Service Book Review - "A magnificent work... it should be required reading for all Americans. This book reveals socialisms nasty little secret." William Cooper

Excerpt from Chapter One.

The Nazis were not a tribe of prehistoric savages. Their crimes were the official, legal acts and policies of modern Germany -- an educated, industrialized, CIVILIZED Western European nation, a nation renowned throughout the world for the luster of its intellectual and cultural achievements. By reason of its long line of famous artists and thinkers, Germany has been called "the land of poets and philosophers."

But its education offered the country no protection against the Sergeant Molls in its ranks. The German university students were among the earliest groups to back Hitler. The intellectuals were among his regime's most ardent supporters. Professors with distinguished academic credentials, eager to pronounce their benediction on the Fuhrer's cause, put their scholarship to work full time; they turned out a library of admiring volumes, adorned with obscure allusions and learned references.

The Nazis did not gain power against the country's wishes. In this respect there was no gulf between the intellectuals and the people. The Nazi party was elected to office by the freely cast ballots of millions of German voters, including men on every social, economic, and educational level. In the national election of July 1932, the Nazis obtained 37% of the vote and a plurality of seats in the Reichstag. On January 30, 1933, in full accordance with the country's legal and constitutional principles, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Five weeks later, in the last (and semi-free) election of the pre-totalitarian period, the Nazis obtained 17 million votes, 44% of the total.

The voters were aware of the Nazi ideology. Nazi literature, including statements of the Nazi plans for the future, papered the country during the last years of the Weimar Republic. "Mein Kampf" alone sold more than 200,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. The essence of the political system which Hitler intended to establish in Germany was clear.

In 1933, when Hitler did establish the system he had promised, he did not find it necessary to forbid foreign travel. Until World War II, those Germans who wished to flee the country could do so. The overwhelming majority did not. They were satisfied to remain.

The system which Hitler established -- the social reality which so many Germans were so eager to embrace or so willing to endure -- the politics which began in a theory and ended in Auschwitz -- was: the "total state". The term, from which the adjective "totalitarian" derives, was coined by Hitler's mentor, Mussolini.

The state must have absolute power over every man and over every sphere of human activity, the Nazis declared. "The authority of the Fuhrer is not limited by checks and controls, by special autonomous bodies or individual rights, but it is free and independent, all-inclusive and unlimited," said Ernst Huber, an official party spokesman, in 1933.

"The concept of personal liberties of the individual as opposed to the authority of the state had to disappear; it is not to be reconciled with the principle of the nationalistic Reich," said Huber to a country which listened, and nodded. "There are no personal liberties of the individual which fall outside of the realm of the state and which must be respected by the state... The constitution of the nationalistic Reich is therefore not based upon a system of inborn and inalienable rights of the individual."

If the term "statism" designates concentration of power in the state at the expense of individual liberty, then Nazism in politics was a form of statism. In principle, it did not represent a new approach to government; it was a continuation of the political absolutism -- the absolute monarchies, the oligarchies, the theocracies, the random tyrannies -- which has characterized most of human history.

In degree, however, the total state does differ from its predecessors: it represents statism pressed to its limits, in theory and in practice, devouring the last remnants of the individual. Although previous dictators (and many today; e.g., in Latin America) often preached the unlimited power of the state, they were on the whole unable to enforce such power. As a rule, citizens of such countries had a kind of partial "freedom", not a freedom-on-principle, but at least a freedom-by-default.

Even the latter was effectively absent in Nazi Germany. The efficiency of the government in dominating its subjects, the all-encompassing character of its coercion, the complete mass regimentation on a scale involving millions of men -- and, one might add, the enormity of the slaughter, the planned, systematic mass slaughter, in peacetime, initiated by a government against its own citizens -- these are the insignia of twentieth-century totalitarianism (Nazi AND communist), which are without parallel in recorded history. In the totalitarian regimes, as the Germans found out after only a few months of Hitler's rule, every detail of life is prescribed, or proscribed. There is no longer any distinction between private matters and public matters. "There are to be no more private Germans," said Friedrich Sieburg, a Nazi writer; "each is to attain significance only by his service to the state, and to find complete self-fulfillment in his service." "The only person who is still a private individual in Germany," boasted Robert Ley, a member of the Nazi hierarchy, after several years of Nazi rule, "is somebody who is asleep."

In place of the despised "private individuals," the Germans heard daily or hourly about a different kind of entity, a supreme entity, whose will, it was said, is what determines the course and actions of the state: the nation, the whole, the GROUP. Over and over, the Germans heard the idea that underlies the advocacy of omnipotent government, the idea that totalitarians of every kind stress as the justification of their total states: COLLECTIVISM.

Collectivism is the theory that the group (the collective) has primacy over the individual. Collectivism holds that, in human affairs, the collective -- society, the community, the nation, the proletariat, the race, etc. -- is THE UNIT OF REALITY AND THE STANDARD OF VALUE. On this view, the individual has reality only as part of the group, and value only insofar as he serves it; on his own he has no political rights; he is to be sacrificed for the group whenever it -- or its representative, the state -- deems this desirable.

Fascism, said one of its leading spokesmen, Alfredo Rocco, stresses:

...the necessity, for which the older doctrines make little allowance, of sacrifice, even up to the total immolation of individuals, on behalf of society... For Liberalism (i.e., individualism), the individual is the end and society the means; nor is it conceivable that the individual, considered in the dignity of an ultimate finality, be lowered to mere instrumentality. For Fascism, society is the end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists in using individuals as instruments for its social ends.

"The higher interests involved in the life of the whole," said Hitler in a 1933 speech, "must here set the limits and lay down the duties of the interests of the individual." Men, echoed the Nazis, have to "realize that the State is more important than the individual, that individuals must be willing and ready to sacrifice themselves for Nation and Fuhrer." The people, said the Nazis, "form a true organism," a "living unity", whose cells are individual persons. In reality, therefore -- appearances to the contrary notwithstanding -- there is no such thing as an "isolated individual" or an autonomous man.

Just as the individual is to be regarded merely as a fragment of the group, the Nazis said, so his possessions are to be regarded as a fragment of the group's wealth.

"Private property" as conceived under the liberalistic economy order was a reversal of the true concept of property [wrote Huber]. This "private property" represented the right of the individual to manage and to speculate with inherited or acquired property as he pleased, without regard for the general interests... German socialism had to overcome this "private", that is, unrestrained and irresponsible view of property. All property is common property. The owner is bound by the people and the Reich to the responsible management of his goods. His legal position is only justified when he satisfies this responsibility to the community.

Contrary to the Marxists, the Nazis did not advocate public ownership of the means of production. They did demand that the government oversee and run the nation's economy. The issue of legal ownership, they explained, is secondary; what counts is the issue of CONTROL. Private citizens, therefore, may continue to hold titles to property -- so long as the state reserves to itself the unqualified right to regulate the use of their property.

If "ownership" means the right to determine the use and disposal of material goods, then Nazism endowed the state with every real prerogative of ownership. What the individual retained was merely a formal deed, a content-less deed, which conferred no rights on its holder. Under communism, there is collective ownership of property DEJURE. Under Nazism, there is the same collective ownership DE FACTO.

During the Hitler years -- in order to finance the party's programs, including the war expenditures -- every social group in Germany was mercilessly exploited and drained. White-collar salaries and the earnings of small businessmen were deliberately held down by government controls, freezes, taxes. Big business was bled by taxes and "special contributions" of every kind, and strangled by the bureaucracy. At the same time the income of the farmers was held down, and there was a desperate flight to the cities -- where the middle class, especially the small tradesmen, were soon in desperate straits, and where the workers were forced to labor at low wages for increasingly longer hours (up to 60 or more per week).

But the Nazis defended their policies, and the country did not rebel; it accepted the Nazi argument. Selfish individuals may be unhappy, the Nazis said, but what we have established in Germany is the ideal system, SOCIALISM. In its Nazi usage this term is not restricted to a theory of economics; it is to be understood in a fundamental sense. "Socialism" for the Nazis denotes the principle of collectivism as such and its corollary, statism -- in every field of human action, including but not limited to economics.

"To be a socialist", says Goebbels, "is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole."

By this definition, the Nazis practiced what they preached. They practiced it at home and then abroad. No one can claim that they did not sacrifice enough individuals.

Excerpted from Chapter 1 of THE OMINOUS PARALLELS, by Leonard Peikoff... most probably the most important book written in modern times. Buy it... read it... study it.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

I'm a Daddy

2009-12-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

Samuel Robert Gatwood arrived early to Deanna and I on Thursday, 17 December 2009, at 11:52 am. He weighed 6 pounds 11 oz, and was 19 inches long.

We are very thankful that he is perfectly healthy, and is doing well. We plan to have our son baptized before I return to Beaufort, SC. Currently, we are looking at January 3.

Please keep Samuel in your prayers.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Health Insurance is Unethical

2009-12-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

I have the answer! It is in no way profound. The answer to the rising cost of health insurance is quite simple, really. So simple the most uneducated person could figure this out. Shoot, I did.

Make health insurance illegal. Yes, you read that correctly. Outlaw the sale of insurance on health care, except for coverage of catastophic health events (ie cancer, major surgery, etc).

Here's the simple formula: if there were no such thing as the giant pile of premiums sitting at the health insurance companies, doctors would be unable to charge that company for the ceiling price for taking care of you. When the insurance mafia is broken up, deregulated if you will, then doctors and pharmacies would be forced to charge a fair market price for goods and services (meds and treatment). If patients are still unable to afford basic health care (and this really wouldn't be a problem if we didn't live in [what Phil Gramm called a nations of whiners] an age of unrealistic worry about the common cold where people run to the emergency room for what they could have treated by buying OTC meds at Walmart) it is entirely plausable practices could set up credit programs, much like department stores have, with an interest rate capped at five percent or so.

I would still support medicare/medicaid for orphans, elderly widows, and the infirm.

Honestly, I feel betrayed by both the Democratic and Republican parties. I have been a registered Republican since October of 2000, and uphold traditional Republican principles, which make the Republican betrayal of the free market all the more difficult to bear. Instead of working towards a reformation of the health care scene that is legally sound, the Republicans on the hill, for the most part, are simply trying to shape the unConstitutional bill to fit the social aspect of the party (no abortions on the tax-payer dime, health care for the elderly, etc). Shame on you, Republicans. Democrats, I don't even consider you as operating under the Constitution anymore anyways. That died under Kennedy and Johnson.

Hopefully President Johnson, I mean Carter...excuse me, Obama will have a philosophical change of heart and not sign this bill. However, I will not be holding my breath on that. We are currently under the leadership of a President who doesn't understand the very basic and simple principles of free market economics falsely believing free markets are by nature boom and bust, though it is clear it is heavy regulation that causes bubbles and bursts. During his presidential campaign he clearly did not understand this, saying (paraphrased) that he believes in the invisible hand of the free market, but sometimes that hand needs a little guiding.

Guess what? The guiding of that hand belongs to the will of the people, and how the people use thier money in the marketplace. Go back to Econ 101. You need a brush up.

Now is a serious time of prayer for the direction in which we are headed. Without a real reformation of the health care market, and if we continue in this ill fated direction, we can be sure that we can never come back. All one needs to do to understand this simple fact is look at the United Kingdom.

Kyrie eleision,

Terry W. Gatwood

Cleansing Rain

2009-12-02T16:32:00.000-08:00

Rain. Water. Falling freely out of the sky, rinsing off the dirt and dust that covers everything left exposed to the elements. It can be a frightening experience when the clouds bring lighting, high winds and loud claps of thunder. But it can also be one of natures most beautiful things.

Living in the Southeast United States, especially living on the coast, I have been witness to many powerful and awesome storms. Tonight is no exception. At the moment, there is a storm front reaching from Southern Georgia all the way up to New England. Anything left outside stands a good chance of being whisked away by the water pouring down from the heavens. My car has been dive bombed by birds lately, and as I sit here the rain is washing away the offerings left behind by those most generous birds.

I cannot help but think of Gods amazing power to not only forgive sins, but also his willingness to wash them away by the instantaneous event of sanctification and the following process of growing in Christian maturity by grace. The storms arrive with all thier power and wind, loud claps of thunder, and flashes of bright white lightning. And then the rain washes.

Sometimes a God event in life is like this. Mostly, God comes with quiet and gentleness, but when God sees fit, God brings the noise. God brings the lightning and thunder, with great winds and rain that change things forever.

Gods grace will change you. It will wash away the sins that plague you. It can even free you from those again in the future. But this is a process. And it takes a willingness to move in that direction from the one upon whom the heavens have opened.

Sometimes the storms in life are the moments when God is trying to move you the most. Allow Gods rain to wash you. Christ bled for you to have this free gift. Let God come in those stormy moments and change your landscape for eternity.

As the great old hymn of the Church says, "There is power...wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb."

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

A Sad Day

2009-10-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Today I have to leave Columbus, Ohio again for Beaufort, SC. But this time I will be leaving behind my pregnant wife, Deanna. We made the decision that since I am getting out of the Navy relatively soon she would go back to her old job at Franklin County Job and Family Services before she couldn't get it back at all. Thus she will be living in Columbus, while I work on getting out this late winter, early spring time.

I'm not excited by this, but we prayed about this a lot, and at the end of the day, both felt it was the right thing to do.

I love Deanna so very much. We have been friends for over a decade. I'm glad that our friendship ended up like this, and am so excited that the Lord chose to bless us with a baby so soon. That's precisely why it hurts so much to be separated from her for this time. Though I'll be up here many times in the next four months, it won't be any easier. Please pray for us, and for our pre-born son, Samuel Robert.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Glenn Beck, the 912 Project, and the Following Rumbling

2009-09-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

So, on September 12, 2009, a project Glenn Beck had been working on, along with the National Taxpayers Union and various other groups, held a rally in front of the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. There are no official numbers from the D.C. police, as they stopped giving such reports several years ago. More liberal groups say there weren't more than 300,000 people there, while some far right groups said up to 3 million. I think we would be safe to assume, from seeing the whole thing unfold on CSPAN, that the real number was probably around the 1.5 million mark. But numbers aside, who was there, what was it about, and why did they choose the 12th of September.

What: A rally decrying the ridiculous amount of deficit spending, and that of the worst kind; printing new money thus lowering the value of the dollars currently on the market. (Keynesian economics and fiat currency vs. commodity based money...Google that...). Protest of the forthcoming Medical Reform Bill, also known as "Obamacare." General outcry of the tax and spend policies that are taking over our wallets and forcing the citizenry of the US into a terrible form of slavery...socialism.

Who: Many news outlets will tell you that the people who marched that day are a fringe group of the radical right wing. The people there have been painted as conservative, Republican, evangelicals, etc. Anything that will remind you of the 43rd President of the United States of America, George W. Bush (of whom, personally, I am not a fan). While a large number of the people there were in fact registered Republicans (as traditional Repubs hold to a political and economic philosophy of individualism, capitalism, and personal responsiblity [more often found in the Libertarian Party these days] vice the prevailing thought in the Dems side which is philosophically socialistic), there were also many other groups of people represented there. Many of the people who were at the rally here in Beaufort happend to be Democrats fed up with the polarizing direction thier party has taken.

Why: On 12 September 2001 this nation saw itself as one. We were united, not under a political banner, or a retaliatory spirit, but as Americans. Free people who were in shock, mourning, and bewilderment over what had just happend. We, for the first time in many years, began taking care of each other, not out of a sense of duty of because we were pressed to do so, but out of that patriotic love that people who love freedom and want it for everyone express. But soon after this day, we went right back to politics as usual.

We need the spirit of 912 people again. We need to realize that we are all Americans, for better or worse, and we need to come together to fight the coming chains of slavery. I'm afraid we won't be able to do it, but I'm going to continue marching in that direction in hope we can buck the coming of more and more socialism and the weakening of our people in the name of equality.

Pray for yourselves, Americans.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

2009-09-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff going on...

2009-09-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

It has been yet another long wait for a post, and there has been so much going on it is hard to write about. I'll start with the big stuff.

I married my best friend Deanna. She and I have known each other since we were kids in High School. We met originally in Bible Quizzing (we were on different teams).

We are expecting our first child already! Certainly we didn't waste any time. It's a boy, and we are going to call him Samuel Robert. Samuel, after the biblical Samuel, and because my grandmothers initials were SAM; Robert, after my grandfather. There has been some dispute over what his nickname will be. I have been calling him Ducky since day one, and my wife has been calling him Sam. Mom calls him Sammy. I like Bobby if we are going to go that route. But Ducky is just the cutest. :)

I am looking towards an early exit from the Navy, somewhere between Feb and April-May timeframe. I've been accepted to OSU Newark for the completion of my History Ed. degree. Looking forward to getting that out of the way so I can move on to Seminary.

Holli is also pregnant with her first child. She is currently seven weeks along and doing fine. I'm being a bit of a Nazi about her eating right and taking her vitamins every day.

More to come soon (I hope. Know I always say that). I just don't have a computer at the moment which makes this so much harder to do.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Been too long!

2009-06-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

You know, for the last six months I kept thinking to myself, "hey, I should really update my blog." Then something would come up and I'd forget about it for a week or so. So now, six months later I am finally going to start getting into the habit of writing. My journaling has fallen off lately too.

Life has been moving at light speed lately. I can't write about all the happenings on here just yet, but it has been hectic.

I've taken a second job apart from my military responsibilities at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. I enjoy the work I do there, and don't mind the money either. We keep on our feet the whole time moving around which helps the time pass by rather quickly.

That's all for now. More to come later this week.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

All You Need Is Love

2009-01-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

The following is a post I made on Myspace back in the Fall of 2006.

I would like to be able to make a woman feel as if she is the most important person in the world. Not just by the words I say (anyone can tell you that they love you, but do they really mean it?), the things I do, or the gifts I give. Not even for the security that I will work to provide and the comfort I will bring. But by the way I treat her in the very small things. Such as remembering her contact solution when I run into the store to grab razor blades for myself, or when walking by a guy on the side of the road selling flowers I buy her a single rose to show her how much I love her, not because it's expected of me or because material things can make someone happy, but because I took the time out of my day to think about her before myself.
Love is not an emotion only. It is a willful loyalty to another that says you are willing to make a sacrifice on their behalf. Let me give you a good example.

God, in His great mercy, sacrificed His one and only Son, Jesus, the Christ, the Holy and Anointed One, on our behalf because God loved us so much. Jesus willingly took our place at the cross because He is in love with you and me. The God of all creation, all things great and small, took the time out of His day to give all of humanity the opportunity to know Him personally, intimately.

A husband and a wife should love each other completely, from the very small things all the way, ideally, to the point that they are both willingly able to give up even their very own lives.

Now, do not misunderstand what I am saying. I do not believe that once a a man and a woman marry that they are complete. This is not true. God must be a part of this marriage or else it will not be one based on this true love, this self-sacrificing, all-giving relationship where both partners do not go in 50-50, but 100-100. Remember, "A threefold cord is not easily broken."
Love your spouse like there is no other person on the earth like them, because the fact is, there is no other person on this earth that is. Make your wife (or husband, or girl/boyfriend) know you love them all the time. Not just in the big things, but in the very small things also. Things that may seem of the minutest concern to you, but because you remembered and took the time to think of your other, means the world to them. And when you say "I love you," say it with conviction and meaning. Do not use it as a passing greeting, but speak it with understanding of what it means: "I give of myself joyfully for you."

Now, no relationship is going to be sunshine and daisies all the time, but we can press on together as a team, as a family, towards the goal of truly loving each other. And I pray that if there be any children in that relationship they would see and understand this true love, that it would spread like a virus through them to future generations.

Jesus stated in Mark 12: 30-31 that the greatest commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself." Would it not be safe to say that your closest neighbor is your spouse?

A bit of wisdom to pass on to you, passed to me by another brother: if we both live first for the Lord and then live for each other instead of for ourselves, one will find oneself in a happy relationship.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

A New Year

2009-01-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and in a couple of days so will Epiphany. We've celebrated the birth of our Savior, and are drawing closer to the remembrance of when wise men sought him out and found him. We would do well to follow that example.

But, what I want to write about today is the New Year. What exactly is the New Year's celebration anyways? Is it just the changing of the date from 12-31-whatever-the-year to 1-1-new-year? Why do we ascribe to it so much majesty? Why the celebration, pomp, and circumstance? What makes it so special that we should party the night away?

2008 was a year marked with great goods and horrific bads for me. The bads mostly stretch all the way back to 2005-2006. I've been dealing with great deals of stress that nearly overtook me this past year. I was put back on anti-depressant medication, sleeping medication, and now see a counselor on a weekly basis. A good friend told me recently that he feels that sometimes I just care too much about people and thier issues. I don't know if that is possible, but I've certainly given it some thought. Spending all of my time in caring for others, yet not caring for myself, has emptied me of every ounce of energy I once had. If not for the grace of God, I don't think I'd be here right now. His strength is all that has gotten me through some of the mess. And I'm thankful for that. I guess I need to learn to love myself too before I can adequately love and minister to others.

2009 is marked with hopefulness for me. I know it's just a new number denoting aproximately how far away from the birth of Christ we are, yet it's that newness that gives one hopefulness. It's a clean slate. It's a fresh start. There is a chance for something different, something wondeful. We can put the old behind and march on towards the new.

My prayer is that in Christ, we can focus our lives on that hope which calls us heavenward, yet remembering that while we are here on earth we have a chance to bring God's kingdom everywhere while still here. We have hope for a new day, another chance, a clean slate. If you need a fresh start, make it now. And if you find yourself midway through this year just running out of steam, know that God's strength can carry you through and make every new day a new year.

Happy New Year, friends.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Bearing One Anothers Burdens

2008-11-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

"Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."

Is your heart broken by the brokenness of others? Do you hurt with those who hurt? Cry with those who cry? Pick your neighbors up who can't seem to stand on their own?

We share a common faith. All too often I see my brothers and sisters trying to make it on their own. I fall into the same rut from time to time, attempting to live by my own strength instead of God's strength. And when I realize I cannot live like this, it is a struggle to turn to God's strength. That's why I'm glad I'm a part of the family of God.

We have been made parts of the same body for a reason. God has knit us together, all Christians, to move as one person, His bride. Some people are this part, others are that, and even some may be the big toe. All parts have a purpose in the body.

Other Christians are the immune system in the body. This is what we do for one another. When I'm sick and cannot heal myself, I need that immunity to kick in. We carry each others burdens.
Our Christian faith, while relying on us maintaining a healthy and personal relationship with God our Creator and Father, is not simply a "me and Jesus" event. It is also an "us and Jesus" relationship. We are all His children, and thus brothers and sisters. And we are responsible to and for one another.

Let's bear each others burdens and love one another like our lives depend on it, because they really do.

Prayer

Loving Father, we humbly bow before you and recognize your Supreme Nature. You are God, and we praise you.

Father, we pray that you will open our hearts and our minds to your Holy Spirit, that we may see and hear those things you are sending our way. God, make us mindful of one another, that we may help one another carry our burdens, loving and encouraging each other all the way down this difficult path that leads to our home with you. Heal our divisions, mend our lives. May we submit it all to you.

Christ, we pray your will be done in our lives. Makes us after your image, and create in us clean hearts that may love perfectly.

Thy will be done,

Amen.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Elizabeth of Hungary

2008-11-19T07:13:00.001-08:00

Elizabeth of Hungary, 19 November 1231

The numerous "St. Elizabeth's Hospitals" throughout the world are for the most part named, not for the Biblical Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, but for this princess of Hungary. She was concerned for the relief of the poor and the sick, and with her husband's consent she used her dowry money for their relief. During a famine and epidemic in 1226, while her husband was away in Italy, she sold her jewels and established a hospital where she nursed the sick, and opened the royal granaries to feed the hungry. After her husband's death in 1227, her inlaws, who opposed her "extravagances," expelled her from Wartburg. Finally an arrangement was negotiated with them that gave her a stipend. She became a Franciscan tertiary (lay associate) and devoted the remainder of her life to nursing and charity. She sewed garments to clothe the poor, and went fishing to feed them.

Prayer

Almighty God, by whose grace your servant Elizabeth of Hungary Recognized and honored Jesus in the poor of this world: Grant that we, following her example, may with love and gladness serve those in any need or trouble, in the name and for the sake of through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Peaceful

2008-11-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

The past couple of months have been a great time of personal growth for me. God has been dealing with my heart in a big way. Many things have occurred that generally would have me terrified. But I am not. And there is nothing I can say to explain this except that I've been blessed with that "peace that passes all understanding." To this I can only respond in praise and thanksgiving to our God. Praise to Him that loves the unlovely.

In the midst of many of these things that could have been quite unsettling, God still moves. I'm currently on the threshold of something that has the potential to beat great. Something that could change my life for the better. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I don't know yet how it will end, for I'm just at the beginning of it, but if hope and faith can once again defeat circumstances, and there are many of them, then this thing could have great potential. I believe that it has been divinely timed by God. Now I must exercise patience in this matter. The biblical concept of long-suffering applies here. But again, I believe in this divine appointment being from our Father. There's really no other way I can explain this either. So, again, praise be to God.

I refuse to be overtaken by circumstances. These things are merely temporary roadblocks. They may seem overwhelming, insurmountable, but they are not so. In fact, these mountains can be, and if we allow them to, will be moved. Distance is a circumstance. It can be overcome. Time is a circumstance. With patience, it can be overcome. Prior commitments are circumstances. With time, they too can be overcome. Faith and Hope will always defeat these giants when the resolute are willing to stand up to them.

Gracious Lord, I place into your hand my life, my entire life, and all that it is. For you are the Creator of all that is seen and unseen, heaven and earth, and all who dwell within. You know the innermost workings of every intricate thing in your universe, for you made them and govern them in your holy wisdom.

So often, God, we pray that you will bless the things that we are involved in and that we are doing, but so rarely do we stop to ask you to put us into things that you are blessing. I pray that right at this moment, Father, you will indeed put us in what it is you are blessing. Give us the strength and the courage to fight for the things that are right, to love each other in this world passionately, with the love you have shown us. Help us to stand up to giants that creep into our lives. Make us resolute and strong in our weaknesses.

Lord remember us today. Keep us wrapped in your loving arms and never let us go. We praise you and worship, and give you thanks.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Decision Time

2008-11-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is election day in the United States. This is the day we will choose our next chief executive, the next Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. The decision we make tomorrow is of the utmost importance.

Many people I've talked to are taking this very lightly. They are arbitrarily choosing their candidate based on a single issue, or based on race, or party affiliation, or something else of tertiary importance.

Yesterday I received a message from a friend that said sometimes you have to vote against a person instead of for someone else. I understand his point, but find it completely ridiculous.

I will not be voting for Mr. Obama. He is a socialist of the worst kind. Socialism is not all bad all the time, but his policies are old policies, ones that have failed us time and again. Jimmy Carter rehashed. There is a reason Carter was a one-term president. He failed us. And in the same way, and possibly far worse, Mr. Obama is going to fail us too.

He is also a liar of the worst kind. It's sad that the popular media will not show old clips of Mr. Obama during the preliminary debates, or even from a month or two ago. His policies have changed so much over that time. Now, you may say, "but can't a man change his mind with time?" I say, of course a man can. But let me ask this. How can you fundamentally change your positions on such issues as the right to life for all humans, those living and the pre-born? And slinging mud at me because I like my God and my guns is really sad and stupid. I trusted in God and enjoyed my guns long before the economy turned downward. You just don't understand the Law of our Land, thus making you a bad fit for the top cop position.

I will also not be voting for Mr. McCain. He is less socialist than Mr. Obama, but a socialist just the same. He will continue the same terrible policies that Mr. Bush has held so tightly to these last eight years. Cutting taxes without cutting spending is stupid. A high school kid could have done better than that. And Iraq was a mistake. Now that we are there, stop politicizing this war. As a military member, you are making it worse for us.

My vote will be going for Mr. Bob Barr. He is the Libertarian Party candidate. He is the only man in this current election who seems to understand the Constitution of our great nation, and will strictly abide by it.

Both major parties had great candidates with great ideas this year. Mr. Gravel of the Democratic Party, and Dr. Paul of the Republican Party. We just blew it.

Make good choices. Not out of selfishness. But out of love and respect for your neighbor and for the law.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Back from Iraq

2008-11-02T05:10:00.000-08:00

For medical reasons, I have been sent back early from Iraq. I can't say that I'm thrilled by this decision, but I will say that if this is what it takes for me to heal completely, then so be it. I know that God directs my steps and that it is God who will take care of me. I trust God to fix me.

Terry

Unoriginal Post Number 1025

2008-10-12T03:32:00.000-07:00

Today is, by far, the busiest day of the week for the Religious Ministry Team here at Al Asad. I began the day by coming into the office, answering correspondence for a couple of hours, fielding question to which I generally had no clue how to answer, followed by setting up for Catholic Mass at 1000.

While setting up for Mass, I noticed that the altar linens and other cloths where all dirty and stained in some way. It really does not appear as if they have been properly cared for in the past. I am going to make sure that things are more properly taken care of on my watch. I may not be Catholic, but reverence is something that is very important to me, and these things are set apart for a holy use.

Right now I am watching episodes of Jericho, season 1 on the share drive here. This is the little down time I get during the day, so I'm trying to use it best I can by relaxing.

At 1600 we officially take the reins as the Command Religious Ministry Team at the turn over ceremony. I'm looking forward to finally "owning" this office and the chapel. I've got some plans for it that I'm certain will bring a little more life and organization to it. Last night I spent four hours cleaning the worship space. Right now it's "spic-and-span" and I intend to keep it that way. All for the greater glory of God.

Later tonight, at 1900, we will have the Protestant Service at our chapel. I was able to help design the order of service, and will be reading the call to worship/responsorial Psalm at the beginning. It's nice that my chaplain is allowing me to take a great role in the leadership of the Christian community here, as some chaplain's tend to have reservations about allowing their RP's to do so, not wanting to blur the line between clergy and laity.

This week I went to Thompson Clinic to be checked out for some issues I've been having. I've been having a great deal of trouble sleeping at night, and this has been going on for a little over two years. It's really gotten worse in the last few months, and it was beginning to show in my work. I've not fallen below standards, but I'm only operating like a Second Class Petty Officer should, at the minimum level. I tend to try and stay well above standards, so it was noticeable. The doctor has put me on Ambien to help me with my sleep cycle. This particular medication prevents me from travelling "outside the wire" as my chaplain's bodyguard on convoys, so now I'm unable to perform an essential function of my job, which makes me a little sad. Hopefully we can get my sleeping schedule adjusted correctly so that I'm able to do this when we need to go see our Marines and Sailors at other FOBs.

Pictures are soon to come.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Welcome to Babylon, Home of the Original Sin

2008-10-05T12:11:00.005-07:00

Chaplain Bowden and I arrived in Iraq on 30 September for our seven month deployment with Marine Wing Support Squadron 273. This is really odd to even hear myself say, but I am excited to be here.

It's interesting to be here. This is often referred to as the "cradle of civilization." This is the land of the earliest forms of language, math, science, and the birth place of Abrahamic religions. It's very hard to see how this land can be considered holy seeing it today, but I imagine that when Eden still existed here, this was a beautiful place. Not so much anymore. It's dry, dusty, and full of creatures that I do not even want to think about. Google "camel spider" and see what I mean. I got to meet one of those little guys yesterday.

We had our first chapel service today at the Sweathog Chapel on our camp. Chaplain Bowden and I were not in charge as we let the outgoing chaplain finish up a sermon series he was doing. I will be putting up pictures very soon our facilities. You'll enjoy seeing our chapel. It's basically a dusty old barn. It's very cool, and a constant reminder of how our Lord came into this world.

It's very late here and I should be getting to bed. Just wanted to let everyone know I made it here safely.

Please continue to pray for our ministry while we are here. And please pray for me as I continue to struggle with a personal issue. Thanks so much, friends!

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

One More Week

2008-09-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Not much time is left until I board a plane and head around the world again, this time for Iraq. I wasn't anxious at all before, but now that the clock is showing one week I certainly am feeling that way.

Most of the friends I went through A-School and CREST with have already been deployed twice, but on board ships. A couple have been on the ground with the SeaBees. They have done a great job, and I'm proud that I can say I came up with them.

It's not that I'm afraid of getting killed while deployed, but the thought certainly does cross my mind from time to time. Have I spent enough time with the people I love, have I said the right things, crossed enough t's and dotted enough i's? I love my family so very much. Most of the people I work with are very independent people. I am too, but only to a certain point. Family is important, and it's hard for me to be separated from them by such a great distance, only to be able to see them at someone else's leisure. There are a lot of us who think this way, so at least I'm not suffering alone in this.

But what if I don't make it back? What if, while deployed, something happens, a mortar falls on the shower while I'm occupying it, or an IED blast while on a convoy, or a stray round hits me, or, well, the list could go on and on with possibilities.

This is what I want all my friends and family to know: I love you. You were my entire world, and you made my world wonderful. Through all the high points and the bad patches, you have all been there for me, whether offering sound advice or just being the quiet listener when I had to vent, rant, or cry uncontrollably. You were there experiencing life with me, and I thank you.

Thank you for putting up with my passions. I haven't found many things in this life about which I could refrain from being passionate about. Especially my Christian faith, and the administration of justice with mercy in the political realm.

About my faith: I do not wish for you to be exactly like me, to conform to how I see things as a Christian. We all have to develop our own relationship with Christ, and I encourage you to continue to ask questions, to seek answers, and to believe those things which are true with your whole heart, releasing them for no one. I've still not quite figured out how to live into this Covenant with God in Jesus Christ, but I can say that it is quite an adventure being in this love affair with a Holy God, and remember that it is this same God who is the primary actor in all things. He has chosen you first.

About my American Citizenship: Liberty is the only effectual means by which a human being can truly be a good. We must always strive to maximize liberty, not for anarchical reasons, for that would be insanity without justice and peace, but for unregulated, unrestrained freedom to choose whether to do right or wrong, so long as it does not harm another.

The Constitution of the United States is a document that is set up to protect the citizenry of the United States from the tyranny of the few in Government. Do not allow it to be used against you. Read it, study it, know it. Use it as a weapon against those who would repress and harm you. Fight with all your might, using words and peace as your preferred method. Compromise nothing that would chip away at your God-given liberty for the sake of safety and security. The Natural Law of this earth which inspired the Second Amendment, pushes you to protect yourself and your family. Do it.

I know I will be back in seven months. But just in case, remember that I love you all. Please pray for me and my brethren as we go to do our work. You do not have to agree with our mission, and I would never ask you to do so as I often question our motives, but I would beg you to cover us in prayer. Ask the God of the entire Universe to protect, guide, and inspire us to do what is right and good in His sight above all else.

T-Minus one week and counting.

Kyrie eleision,

Terry W. Gatwood

Time to Think

2008-09-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

I wasn't too particularly stressed out yesterday. It was like any other day, with it's high points and it's lows. After work I went home and surfed the internet for a little bit, looking at this and that. Nothing really important, just anything that had piqued my interest while surfing. Brainless activity, really.

It was nice to relax, think, and just wander around in my own mind for a while, like a lazy mid-fall day in the park. Recently, it seems, I haven't had much time to spend with my favorite person: me. I needed yesterday, just as much as I need to spend time with the people I love on most other days. But yesterday was a day of solitude and reflection. I didn't even read, but simply "vegged." It was nice.

I still had quite a bit of energy left at 7pm, so I put on my Adidas shirt, my matching Adidas shorts, and my Adidas running shoes (looked like I had signed an endorsement deal with Adidas), and headed back to the Air Station. Arriving on base, I drove through the gate, under the mossy oaks gently swaying in the light breeze of the evening, and parked my car by the gymnasium. The weather was perfection for running.

Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by God. He has taken care of me, even when I haven't noticed Him moving in my life. Like the gentle breeze last night, not quite noticeable to the person, but one gaze at the trees and you can see the effect of it's movement. Such a large thing an oak tree is. But much greater is the wind that moves it. So it is with us. Such an amazing creation we are, made Imago Dei, entrused with a free will that allows us to fail. But as great as we are, how much greater is that wind, that gentle breeze of the Holy Spirit of God that forces us move, yet still allows us to stand and not fail and fall?

Kyrie eleison,

Terry

Reaction to McCain's VP Choice

2008-08-29T16:51:00.001-07:00

I will not be voting for John McCain this year. Most people who know me understand that I am truly conservative. I've been described by many as a "Goldwater Republican." If this is the case that I am a modern-day Goldwater Rep., I will wear that title with honor. I cannot vote for Mr. McCain because he is not a conservative. Conservatives do not believe in big government. Real conservatives know that things like the income taxes are wrong, and that starting wars with countries which have no Navy or Air Force, possess no weapons that are armed and pointed at us, and have not shown any aggression towards the United States, is wrong and immoral. We also favor the free market over regulated markets. It's what made this country financially strong to begin with.

However, I think Sarah Palin will be a good choice for Mr. McCain's campaign. Here's a little bit of what I said in response to a friend today when asked what I thought about Gov. Palin.

"I think Gov. Palin is the smart and responsible choice for McCain. She's the gov. of a state which is modestly populated, but incredibly spread out, presenting unique challenges in carrying out her duties. She is daily faced with issues of conservation and environmental protection, which will be some of the secondary issues in this campaign season. She is conservative in most ways, but not crazy. She is adamantly opposed to abortion, but has allowed the passage of gay marriage in her state. So she seems to have the civil libertarian ideas floating around her head, but is not willing to budge on taking the life of babies. Good for her.

I think it's about time we have someone in an executive office who did not grow up having everything. She was the mayor of a town of around 5500 people. Everyone can turn on the television and get a good picture of large America. We all know what's going on in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, etc, but we often miss out on someone who understands middle and small America in those executive positions by voting for people from big America. She knows small and middle America quite well. I think that is an important point to tell people.

John McCain comes from AZ, which is typically a break ranks kind of place, and he has shown himself to be that kind of guy. She will do the same in situations where she believes the right thing is something else. McCain, though, is the son and grandson of four-star Admirals. He himself was a Navy Captain. He's had a lot in his life, and that's good for him. Gov. Palin is a tough Alaskan woman, plus she was a beauty queen."

I'm watching CNN right now, and they are totally trying to pick Gov. Palin apart about her not having experience managing millions of people. The Dems talk about change, and hope, and more change, and running on the idea that Obama is a Beltway outsider, then endorse Sen. Biden, a career politician and part of the establishment. So I guess CNN wants someone who is part of the elite ruling class to be in there instead of someone who comes up from the people.

CNN sucks. I don't know why I watch it. Probably because Bill O'Reilly, Neil Cavuto, and especially Sean Hannity have been annoying me to no end lately. Faux Noise.

You know, maybe we should dump McCain, make Sarah Palin the presidential nominee, and make Ron Paul her VP. Then I could jump on the Republican bandwagon this year.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Gloomy Gloomy Gloomy

2008-08-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

It has done nothing but rain, rain, and rain some more this weekend in Beaufort. We've been getting dumped on by the outer rain bands of Tropical Storm Fay for the last few days. It's made for a really gloomy weekend, particularly during what is usually the sunny part of the day. I'm looking forward to this thing passing. No doubt my friends in Florida are looking forward to the same, and more so than I.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait for the weekend to be over so I can get back to work. At least there I have something to do. The whole point of living on this side of Beaufort is to enjoy the beauty, and that is quite a difficult thing when it's constantly raining. Just a general feeling of blah is going on right now.

Our HMMWV course didn't actually take place this past week. My classmates and I sat around at the Licensing Station for eight hours, three days in a row, waiting for JP5 gasoline. Well, seems the base had run out of it for training vehicles. So we all wasted an enitre day, a full twenty four hours.

Luckily I love to read, so I was able to polish off two and a half books during that time. Barry Goldwater's 1960 classic "The Conscience of a Conservative," Ron Paul's newest book "The Revolution: A Manifesto," and I began reading Neil Gaiman's "American God's." After Gaiman's book I plan on reading Miller's "Blue Like Jazz" and Brennan Manning's "Ragamuffin Gospel." I'm really looking forward to those two.

Today I watched the classic "European Vaction" starring Chevy Chase. I began thinking to myself that if God ever chose to give me a family blessing, wife and children, it would be pretty cool to be like Clark Griswold. Don't know why I think that would be neat, but I'm sure it would be good for some laughs.

My squadron hits the thirty day window for deployment next week. Things will start to tighten up around here, particularly accountability issues (formations, etc). I'm not looking forward to that. Feels like a lot of wasted time standing in a formation calling out names. Really, it could be taken care of in individual sections, then reported electronically up the chain (like a morning report!!!) saving everyone so much time and effort. Yeah, but what do I know, right? lol

I'm starting to get pretty lonely down here. I only have a handful of friends around here. It's been difficult making friends around here, particularly since I've been moving around so much since we found out we were deploying, and the one's I have made are always on the move themselves. Plus I've never been much of a social creature. I find it difficult to just "make friends" with ease. I need to find some local groups of nerds or something. I've been going to a trivia group monthly, but it's way down in Savannah. Maybe I can start one here in Beaufort when I get back from Iraq. Hmm. We'll see.

I went to the dentist yesterday. My jaw hurts pretty bad today as well as my tooth. I broke a tooth back in high school, and most of it had to be replaced yesterday. Hopefully that won't need to be done for another ten years or so.

That's what I've been up to. I'll update again tomorrow with a thought on the Sunday Lectionary.

Blessings!

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Leaving Home

2008-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, today is the day I hit the road to go back to Beaufort. I've enjoyed every minute of time I've had to spend back in the great Buckeye State. My time was relaxing. Every other time I've left I have left with a feeling that things were still unresolved. That feeling pertained to several different issues, but mostly to the issue I have previously written the most about. I leave this time without that feeling. I leave this time placing all things in the hands of Almighty God. He knows better than I how to handle the things I'm going through.

Yesterday I heard a pastor on the radio speaking about faith. A line that struck me as interesting was when he said "Faith is not only asking God for what you want and expecting Him to give it to you, but accepting what God now gives you that you need."

A list of things I've done since being in Ohio.

>Went to the Ohio State Fair twice, once with the Sullo's and once with Jamie, Chris and the kids.
>Saw two movies with friends
>Met with my ministry mentor
>Preached at Walnut Hill UM Church
>Went to Pochi's Tea Station at OSU about a dozen times
>Took several car rides through the country
>Played with my cats extensively
>Saw Kristine, Mike, Dawn, Cindy, Alex, Rob, Nathan, Mac, and a bunch of other friends.
>Visited my Aunt Sandy, where I accidentally ran into my cousins Terri and Tina.
>Visited my Great-grandma Sadie
>Took care of financial and legal stuff
>Went to Cedar Point with Kristine, Mike and Dawn.
>Had dinner with Papaw, Tamara, Mike, Dawn, Aunt Kelly and Stan.
>Tons of other fun stuff
>Had a generally great time.

I can't wait until my term of active duty service is up. Not because I hate the Navy or anything, because I do enjoy the work I do, but because I love Ohio and my people there. But I've been called to do this right now, so I go.

Pray for my safe travel as I return to Beaufort tonight.

Next update soon to come!

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

Leadership

2008-07-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

This week I've been a Navy leadership course. It's called the Work Center Supervisor Leadership Course. It's our equivalent of the Marine Corps Sergeants Course. Before we Second Class Petty Officer's can take the First Class exam, we must satisfactorily complete this course.

So far we've covered quite a bit of good information. A lot of the things we have covered deals with how to build the people we lead up into the leaders who will replace us someday. It's been a very good learning experience thus far, and I'm looking forward to the next two days.

Honestly, I didn't want to take this course at first. I am not even qualified to take the First Class exam for two more years. However, I am now glad I'm doing it. Whether or not I'm ready to take the next exam, I am still a leader. God helped me advance as fast as I did, and put me in the position that I'm in for a reason; to lead people.

I have been given an opportunity to be an example to others, representing Christ in a secular governmental agency. What an amazing opportunity! Most of the people I am given charge over are, at the most, only nominally religious. Most do not have a relationship with Christ at all. I have met other very faithful and dedicated Christian while in, and like myself, they have advanced very quickly. All it takes is one look with eyes wide open to see that God has set this up for us to show Him to others in our work. I pray that we can faithfully do this.

Thanks God. Even if I did grump about going to school.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood

My Last Trip to Columbus This Year

2008-07-29T21:04:00.001-07:00

Friends,

I'll be returning to Columbus for the final time this year before I deploy to Al Asad, Iraq for seven months. I'm looking forward to the time of rest, but am saddend that this will be the last time I get to see all of you for this extended period. There is a great song that I am reminded of at times like this. "Anywhere with Jesus." So, I go sad that I'm going to miss all of you, but happy that I'm moving to the place that God is blessing. Pray for our ministry while we are gone.

Lately, I've been getting pounded by God to have my head in Romans. Yet again tonight, I turned on the radio while driving to the local high school track for a run and hear a message on the Christian station from Romans chapter 8. To summarize the verse that is being brought to me over and over again, "God will work everything for good for those who love Him, for those who are called by Him according to His purpose for you."

I've been going through many spiritual struggles lately. Things are not going the way that they should have, partly because I messed them up. Yet, it's amazing that God is able to use my messes, my mistakes, to glorify Himself in me.

I apologize to those who have been affected by my mistakes. Please know that I am working to amend my life in these areas. But also, please keep in mind, I'm still a work unfinished by God. I make horrible, stupid mistakes, but I am trying. I just ask for your patience as I struggle through these things. Pray for me as I work through this, and pray that God can be glorified in me.

If anyone would like to spend some time with me while I'm home, please give me a call on my cell phone. 614-517-0359. Please remember that I have the ghetto plan, with no voice mail. Don't ask why. If you call, and I don't recognize your number, I may not answer the first time. Just call again a few minutes later and I'll get to you. Thanks.

Also, I would like to invite you, my friends, to look into something that has brought me great comfort and joy during these dark times in my life. I am a brother in the Order of Saint Luke. We are a sacramental order whose mission it is to encourage sacramental scholarship and liturgical renewal. Please check out the website at www.saint-luke.org.

Love you all.

Kyrie eleison,

Terry W. Gatwood