March 2007 Archives

USA Today— As Donna and Mike entered their wedding reception, an unwitting announcer told the expectant crowd, “Ladies and gentleman, put your hands together for the new Mr. and Mrs. Salinger!”

The Salingers broke a patriarchal tradition so ingrained in American society that many women’s studies researchers have yet to study it.

That may be coming. The California Legislature is set to consider a bill this month that would allow men to change their surnames upon marriage as seamlessly as women now can. Only seven states now allow a man who wishes to alter his name after his wedding to do so without going through the laborious, frequently expensive legal process set out by the courts for any name change. Women don’t have to do so.

The bill is co-sponsored by the ACLU of California as a follow-up to a federal lawsuit the civil rights group filed in December on behalf of Michael Buday, a Los Angeles man who wants to take on his wife’s surname, Bijon, to show his affinity for his father-in-law. He accuses the state of gender discrimination for forcing him into the more complex process.

“We have the perfect marriage application for the 17th century,” says ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum, who is litigating the case. Buday did not respond to requests for an interview. “Every place Michael went, he had the door shut in his face or he was ridiculed.”

Mike Salinger, who said it cost him about $350 to change his name legally, concedes he changed his name “because I’m a big ole granola liberal and I wanted to tweak the tradition while showing my wife I love her.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 28, 2007 | Permalink

Don Wildmon’s American Family News Network (AFN) interviewed me yesterday concerning the Jamestown Quadricentennial. You can view the article they published today concerning our event at OneNewsNow.com.

AFN’s story on why we are celebrating Jamestown’s heritage has been syndicated internationally, even appearing in France in an online Christian Journal.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 27, 2007 | Permalink

In his feature weekly column at WorldnetDaily entitled: “Pocahontas’ Perfect Politically Correct Party,” actor Chuck Norris discusses the political correctness of the Jamestown 2007 organizers and encourages readers to attend the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History, sponsored by Vision Forum Ministries:

This past week, the London Telegraph echoed a WND report about how the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia is toning down its 400th anniversary of the colony from a “celebration” to a “commemoration,” because “black and Indian members of the organizing committee branded Jamestown ‘an invasion.’....

The Telegraph comments that the National Park Service exhibition “plays down the achievements of the first 107 settlers.” Those accomplishments, as WND reported in another article,include the Christian motive and mission of the colony, which is being excluded in some tour guides’ education to the public....

Reported the Telegraph: “A critic for the New York Times, who visited the exhibition this month, noted that the Queen [who is visiting Virginia in May] would find ‘not the triumph of British influence, but the triumph of ambiguity, discomfort and vague multiculturalism.’ Edward Rothstein warned that the ‘overall impact’ of the exhibition was ‘only to diminish a visitor’s sense of English culture.’”

As a patriot in line with our Founding Fathers, I’d highly encourage readers to voice their opinions about these things to Virginian governmental representatives as well as to leaders of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which oversees the Jamestown Settlement and falls under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Virginia....

In hope of setting the record straight, Vision Forum Ministries and its founder, Doug Phillips, is organizing “The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History,” which will be held June 11-16, 2007, in the Jamestown-Williamsburg-Yorktown triangle. I encourage your attendance at that event, as well as your weekly readings of Phillips’ new WND “Jamestown Jubilee” column....

Click here to read the rest of this article

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 27, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 27, 2007 | Permalink

The Commonwealth of Virginia has proven to be the most active state participating in the Jamestown 400: Our National Treasure Hunt. We salute those from the following Virginia cities who have continued to persevere:

Alexandria, Arlington, Ashburn, Battery Park, Bealeton, Berryville. Blacksburg, Bland, Boston, Boyce, Brandy Station, Bridgewater, Buena Vista, Burr Hill, Cape Charles, Cardinal, Carrollton, Carrsville, Casanova, Centreville, Chase City, Chesapeake, Chester, Chesterfield, Clover, Cloverdale, Concord, Daleville, Dendron, Disputanta; Dulles, Earlysville, Eggleston, Elberon, Elkton, Elliston, Etlan, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fishersville, Forest, Fort Belvoir, Fort Monroe, Franklin, Fredericksburg, Front Royal, Glasgow, Glen Allen, Goldvein, Goodview, Gordonsville, Greenway, Greenwood, Gretna, Hampton, Harrisonburg, Hayes, Haywood, Herndon, Hume, Ivor, Ivy, Jeffersonton, Keeling, Keezletown, Kenbridge, Lacey Spring, Leesburg, Lexington, Lightfoot, Lincoln, Locust Grove, Long Island, Lunenburg, Lynchburg, Lyndhurst, Manassas, Marshall, Mc Gaheysville, Mclean, Mechanicsville, Middleburg, Midland, Mint Spring, Montebello, Natural Bridge Station, New Kent, Newport News, Norfolk, Norge, North Tazewell, Orlean, Palmyra, Paris, Pleasant Valley, Portsmouth, Powhatan, Prince George, Pulaski, Purcellville. Rapidan, Rawlings, Rectortown, Remington, Rescuel, Reston, Richmond, Rixeyville, Roanoke, Rockville, Round Hill, Salem, Scottsburg, Shawsville, Shenandoah, Smithfield, Somerset, South Hill, Sperryville, Spotsylvania, Spring Grove, Springfield, Stanardsville, Staunton, Stephenson, Sterling, Stevensburg, Stuarts Draft, Suffolk, Sutherland, Toano, Troutville, Vesuvius, Victoria, Vienna, Viewtown, Virginia Beach, Wakefield, Warrenton, Waverly, Williamsburg, Windsor, Woodberry Forest, Woodbridge, Yorktown .

Participants from 47 States are currently represented in The Jamestown 400: Our National Treasure Hunt.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 27, 2007 | Permalink

I often carry my camera with me for moments like this. He was so involved in his little boy world, that he did not even see me take the picture. Boots, hat, pistol, toy tank and marshmallow blow gun — the preferred tools of boyhood for a five-year-old.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 26, 2007 | Permalink

The results are in, and Americans have failed the test. When it comes to our history, we are the most ignorant generation of Americans ever to be born. Despite unprecedented access to media and information, our families have little idea where they came from, let alone who they are.

Consider the results of a Virginia Tourism Corp. poll recently published in the Virginia Gazette. Of the one thousand people polled, only 7% knew that the first permanent English settlement in America occurred in 1607; only 31% knew that the settlement was located in Virginia; and only 26% knew its name was Jamestown. A mere eight out of one thousand respondents knew the name of the ships that brought the settlers.

This problem is not exclusively theirs — i.e., the unbelieving world. It is our problem. The sad truth is that most Christian parents and their children know more about Hollywood celebrities than they do about Christian heroes like John Smith, Pocahontas, John Rolfe, William Bradford, Cotton Mather, Samuel Davies, Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Tyler, and the pantheon of remarkable men and women who were used of God to give us a legacy of law and liberty under Christ.

And the reason for the historical amnesia of most Americans is clear. We have set aside the biblical commands, like those found in the 78th Psalm, for fathers to teach their children the mighty deeds of God in history.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 26, 2007 | Permalink

As we approach the 11th Annual Boys’ and Men’s Titanic Dinner, I thought this quote was significant:

“What is it that guides the soldier’s hand, and nerves his arm in battle, but the anxious desire to defend the near and dear?” - Sam Houston, in a speech given November 25, 1841

As quoted from Madge Thornall Roberts, Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston (Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1993), p. 64.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 26, 2007 | Permalink

The Jamestown Quadricentennial

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 26, 2007 | Permalink

Family and friends came together for a neighborhood craft fair. The children had so much fun preparing for the event. Everyone had a wonderful time.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 24, 2007 | Permalink

In my weekly column for Worldnetdaily.com today I point out that:

“Fifty years ago, the queen of England traveled to Jamestown for the 350th anniversary of the birth of America in 1607. At Jamestown Festival Park, she visited a giant Christian cross that had been erected just months before “in gratitude” for the Christian men and women who gave their lives for future generations....

“But there will be no “official” Christian monuments placed when the queen returns in May for the 400th.

“In fact, there will be no new monuments.

“Gratitude is simply not a priority for officials who have banned the use of the word “celebration” and who view the displacement of paganism by Christianity as an embarrassment.

“Edward Rothstein of the New York Times put it this way: “[N]ow, two months before the 400th anniversary festivities begin, the monumental hardly matters anymore, and neither, it seems, does John Smith. ... what will [the queen] find? Not the triumph of British influence, but the triumph of ambiguity, discomfort and vague multiculturalism.”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 23, 2007 | Permalink

Joe Farah, founder and CEO of Worldnetdaily.com, has written today in his column on the importance of American’s celebrating our 400th birthday:

“To be perfectly blunt with you, if Americans forget how God has blessed them throughout history, we seal our doom.

We won’t even have to succumb to the plentiful enemies around the world who seek our destruction. We will simply wither, suffocate and die for lack of purpose, for lack of moral oxygen, for lack of spiritual sustenance.”

Click here to read his column

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 23, 2007 | Permalink

Coming soon from Vision Forum.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 22, 2007 | Permalink

This clip is of our dear friend Dr. Leonard Holifield, who currently serves as chief of security for former Chief Justice Roy Moore. During the Alabama battle for the Ten Commandments I traveled extensively with the Chief as I was assisting him and his legal team. My sons and I spent much wonderful time with Dr. Holifield and were impressed by his courage, his love for Jesus Christ, and his commitment to giving hope to young men. As an aside, I have never seen a man with a stronger fist and harder punch in my life. (If “Holifield” sounds familiar to you, it is because he is cousin to former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield.)

Above is an exclusive video clip from the newly released DVD A Legend and a Legacy produced by Valor Visual Media. Vision Forum now has A Legend and a Legacy available for sale for a special discounted price.

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 21, 2007 | Permalink

“Protect the children from evil influences.” That is the paraphrased version of the cry of educators and parents in Oregon who expressed outrage and deep concern for the frightening and confusing influence their children were getting in the public schools

The culprit? A teacher who believed the Bible was true.

Here is an excerpt from the report:

SISTERS, Oregon (AP) — During his eight days as a part-time high school biology teacher, Kris Helphinstine included Biblical references in material he provided to students and gave a PowerPoint presentation that made links between evolution, Nazi Germany and Planned Parenthood.

“He took passages that had all kinds of Biblical references,” Rahm said. “It prevented her from learning what she needed to learn.”

“How many minds did he pollute?” Dan Harrison, the father of a student in Helphinstine’s class, said at the meeting. “It’s a thinly veiled attempt to hide his own agenda.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 21, 2007 | Permalink

MSNBC is reporting on the story about Procter & Gamble Co. which

”...has won a jury award of $19.25 million in a civil lawsuit filed against four former Amway distributors accused of spreading false rumors linking the company to Satanism to advance their own business.

The U.S. District Court jury in Salt Lake City on Friday found in favor of the Cincinnati-based consumer products company in a lawsuit filed by P&G in 1995. It was one of several the company brought over rumors alleging a link with the company’s logo and Satanism.

Rumors had begun circulating as early as 1981 that the company’s logo — a bearded, crescent man-in-moon looking over a field of 13 stars — was a symbol of Satanism.

The company alleged that Amway Corp. distributors revived those rumors in 1995, using a voice mail system to tell thousands of customers that part of Procter & Gamble profits went to satanic cults.

“This is about protecting our reputation,” Jim Johnson, P&G’s chief legal officer, said in a statement Monday.

The former Amway distributors thought they’d be exonerated and were shocked by the jury’s verdict late Friday, said Randy L. Haugen, one of the defendants.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 21, 2007 | Permalink

Grover Cleveland is one of my favorite presidents. I visited his grave last year. Consequently, I found this report interesting. According to James Ostrowski commenting on Grover Cleveland’s legacy at a recent function in Buffalo, New York on the Lewrockwell.com blog that

“George Cleveland, his grandson, is in town as our guest of honor. He will also speak tonight. At dinner last night, he told us that when he visited Hawaii he was treated like a superstar. Grover Cleveland is revered by native Hawaiians there, he said, because he opposed military intervention into Hawaii.

That’s one of the many, many things he was right about in his long and distinguished public and private career. Late in life, he battled Woodrow Wilson at Princeton. What higher praise can I bestow on a man than that?

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 19, 2007 | Permalink

PARIS (AP) - “France’s highest court Tuesday rejected as unlawful the first marriage by a gay couple in France, annulling the union of the two men.”

“Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married in a civil ceremony on June 5, 2004, in Begles, a town in the southwest Bordeaux region. The government immediately said the union was outside the law, and a series of court decisions unfavorable to the couple followed.”

“In the latest decision, the court ruled that “under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman,” backing a 2005 decision by an appeals court in Bordeaux.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 19, 2007 | Permalink

It is important to remember that not all descendants of the American Indians by Jamestown condone the present day rewriting of our history. We have received numerous contacts from direct descendants of Pocahontas who have expressed their concern over the current politically driven historico-fantasy information being set forth as truth by revisionists to induce self loathing on this our birthday year. Here is one that came in today:

As a direct descendant of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, I was absolutely appalled with the revisionist “history” which claims my grandmother (x10) was a rape victim who was forcibly converted to Christianity. What a bunch of nonsense! Thank you so much for defending my ancestors and the real, true history of the events in Jamestown, 1607! May God richly bless you for the work you are doing.

Pax et Bonum,
Fr. William Leland

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 19, 2007 | Permalink

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them. And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. (Matt 18:2-5)

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 18, 2007 | Permalink

The UK Daily Telegraph today joins dozens of newspapers across the nation and overseas responding to the crisis of historical revisionism driving some of the events associated with this year’s Jamestown anniversary. They also point out the work of Vision Forum in providing a Christian vision of jubilee and celebration:

It’s hardly Pocahontas: new exhibits portray Jamestown colonists as killers and rapists

By James Langton in New York, Sunday Telegraph

England’s first successful colonists in America have been branded as rapists and murderers who imported slavery and oppressed the local Indian population.

The controversial portrait of pioneer life in 17th-century Jamestown has become a central part of this year’s 400th anniversary of the colony, whose settlement led directly to the birth of the world’s most powerful nation.

When the Queen arrives in Virginia as guest of honour in early May, she will find that organisers have banned plans for a “celebration”, instead calling the event a “commemoration” after black and Indian members of the organising committee branded Jamestown “an invasion”.

An exhibition by the US National Park Service, which manages the land on which the original settlement was built, plays down the achievements of the first 107 settlers, who brought with them the English language and the traditions of English justice and common law that still underpin modern America.

A critic for The New York Times, who visited the exhibition this month, noted that the Queen would find “not the triumph of British influence, but the triumph of ambiguity, discomfort and vague multiculturalism”. Edward Rothstein warned that the “overall impact” of the exhibition was “only to diminish a visitor’s sense of English culture”.

Organisers of the Jamestown 2007 events justify their decision to ban the word “celebration” by saying: “Many facets of Jamestown’s history were not cause for celebration.” Galleries at the exhibition place heavy emphasis on the local Indians, who are described as being “in harmony with the life that surrounds them” and living in an “advanced complex society”.

By contrast, life in early 17th-century Britain is portrayed as offering “limited opportunity” thanks to a “small elite” of aristocrats who made sure “life was difficult” for most of the population.

The exhibition includes statues of two Indian chiefs and an African queen who fought Portuguese invaders in what is now part of Angola. In fact, the first Africans did not arrive at Jamestown until 1619 and were indentured servants, like many poor whites. Ironically, the first African slave was owned by a former black indentured servant in 1654...

Pocahontas, who was portrayed in a Disney animated film, became friendly with the settlers and eventually married a widowed tobacco farmer, John Rolfe.

She had a son, Thomas, but she died suddenly at the end of a visit to England in 1617 and was buried at St George’s Church in Gravesend. The True Story of Pocahontas, a book written to coincide with the anniversary, claims that she was raped by at least one leading member of the colony and was murdered in England, possibly to prevent her from telling her father what she had learnt during her visit.

The authors, Linwood “Little Bear” Custalow and Angela “Silver Star” Daniel, claim to be descended from Pocahontas’s tribe and say the allegations of rape and murder come from “sacred Mattaponi oral traditions”...

Other events organised for Jamestown 2007 include a talk on the local ecology which brands the settlement “the origin of environmental injustice in America” and a recent conference looking at the influence of African Americans on the colony, at which speakers accused the settlers of creating “a holocaust”.

However, Christian groups say the organisers are ignoring the strong religious faith of the first settlers. They are organising a rival event, in June, to celebrate the role Jamestown played in introducing Christian common law and America’s first Protestant Christian worship and baptisms. Those involved will also celebrate the wedding between Pocahontas and Rolfe as America’s first inter-racial marriage...” Click here to read the rest of the story.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 17, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 16, 2007 | Permalink

I am thankful to Joe Farah founder of WorldNetDaily.com for allowing me to have a weekly column which will address the issue of the battle for American history in this our quadricentennial year. My column is called “Jamestown Jubilee.” In today’s inaugural piece entitled “Who will win the war on America’s history?,” I point out that, “As America remembers her 400th birthday at Jamestown in 1607, two competing histories and two rival visions of our nation have emerged. The winner will define the way the boys and girls look at themselves, their future and their nation.” Click here to read the rest of the story.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 16, 2007 | Permalink

Dear Mr. Phillips:

A few days ago, I visited your website and read about your project to erect a monument in Jamestown during the 400th anniversary celebrations this summer. What a great idea this is! It is encouraging to know that your ministry has taken the initiative to encourage children to invest in this significant landmark.

As a young man, I do not yet have children of my own, but I believe that someday the Lord will bless me with the opportunity to start a family and raise up children to love and follow Him. Therefore, I would like to donate the enclosed funds to the Jamestown Children’s Memorial Fund on behalf of the children of the next generation of the Johnson family, who—God willing—will also be recipients of the great freedoms with which the Lord has blessed our country.

I also want to express my appreciation for the work you and your organization do to inspire a godly vision in families across the United States. You certainly have encouraged me in many ways, and I am truly grateful. May God bless you in the work you are doing for His kingdom.

In Christ,

Matthew J.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 16, 2007 | Permalink

This year, America celebrates the 400th anniversary of the coming to North America of reformation Christianity, the English Bible, the Christian common law, the Great Commission, republican representative government, and our first protestant Christian churches and baptisms. This and much more is the legacy of Jamestown. Now Vision Forum Ministries is calling on the grateful children of America to stand together on the principles found in the Fifth Commandment and to join us in erecting an Ebenezer of thanksgiving — a rock of remembrance to the Lord for His providential work through the lives of our forefathers.

By Douglas W. Phillips

In the Bible, God’s people often laid stones of remembrance - memorials and monuments to the providences of God. Jacob consecrated the rock that had served as his pillow, making it a pillar of remembrance for his heirs (Genesis 28:18); the sepulchre of David was used as a monument of remembrance and encouragement (Acts 2:29-37); and Scripture tells us that “Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us’” (I Samuel 7:12).

Past generations of Americans have recognized the importance of using the occasion of historic anniversaries to raise up rocks of remembrance to the glory of God and His many providential blessings through the lives of our forefathers. For the 250th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement, the former United States President John Tyler exhorted Americans:

What if the inscription on the monuments erected over the dead be rendered illegible by time, and the monuments themselves be in fragments; yet is there a glory encircling those ruins, and arising from the earth on which those adventurers trod, which decay cannot reach, and which the lapse of centuries can only make more imposing. We are to do them reverence, and in the silent homage of the heart to utter thanksgiving and praise to our Heavenly Parent for the great benefits which, under His good providence, their hardy and successful adventures have conferred upon us and upon the world. (“Celebration at Jamestown: A Report of the Proceedings of the Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the English Settlement at Jamestown,” SLM 23 (1857), p. 437)

For the three hundredth anniversaries of both Jamestown and Plymouth, great markers and monuments were placed, some of which boldly invoked the name of the Lord and pointed to Holy Scripture. (See Plymouth in the Words of Her Founders: A Visitor’s Guide to America’s Hometown and Laird and Lee’s Guide to Historic Virginia and the Jamestown Centennial, both published by Vision Forum.)

One example - the great 103-foot-tall Jamestown Tercentenary Monument - was erected by the United States in 1907. It bears the following inscription:

Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the giver of all goodness, for every plantation which our heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted out. - Advice of London Council for Virginia to the Colony 1606

Just yards away from the Tercentenary Monument is the beautiful Rev. Hunt Memorial Shrine, commemorating the first Protestant Christian worship services in the New World. Not far from the shrine is the 1922 statue of America’s first baptized Christian convert - the princess Pocahontas. Around the corner in the Jamestown church, one can read markers of gratitude for the heroes of Jamestown, including another convert to Christianity named Chanco who saved the lives of many of the settlers.

All of these markers were placed by men and women of past generations who felt a burden to remind us - the children of their future - about the miracle of America and the providence of God.

But for America’s 400th birthday, there are no plans by officials to erect monuments of gratitude which give praise to the Lord for men of God like Rev. Hunt and Captain John Smith who brought Christianity to these shores.

And how can there be when the use of the word “celebration” has been banished from the official events out of embarrassment over our Christian forefathers? How can we expect praises to the Lord when our officials are afraid that mentioning the name of the Lord will be offensive?

Calling on the Grateful Children of America

We must transcend the temptation to curse the darkness and instead be about the business of lighting candles. That is why Vision Forum Ministries and the Faith of Our Fathers Project are calling upon the grateful children of America to rectify this problem by taking advantage of an important moment in time. This is our opportunity to offer praise to the Lord for the mighty deeds He has done in the days of our forefathers.

We intend to place a monument of honor on the occasion of America’s four hundredth birthday as the event will be celebrated by the thousands of families who we trust will be participating in the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History.

Paid for by the one-dollar donations of the children of this generation, the Jamestown Children’s Memorial will be a reminder to future generations that that we honored our fathers by raising rocks of remembrance on the anniversary of our nation’s birth. It will stand as a testimony to our children’s children, letting them know that we were a thankful people.

And we have much for which we should be thankful.

Jamestown was not only the first permanent English settlement in the New World. It was established on the Charter of 1606 which documented the fact that the legal and moral foundation for settlement was the Great Commission. Jamestown was the spot where Protestant Christian worship was brought to the new land. At Jamestown, we experienced our first Gospel conversion and Christian baptism. In fact, Jamestown is the site of the first “inter-racial” marriage in our history - the marriage of Englishman John Rolfe with the converted princess Pocahontas. The Jamestown Colony was birthed by Christian visionaries like Richard Hakluyt who desired to see the New World become a place for religious freedom and evangelism. Their dream ultimately became a reality. At Jamestown, Americans got their introduction to Christian common law and republican representative government. Though the legacy of Jamestown includes the mistakes of imperfect men, these imperfections only drive us to deeper appreciation for the mercy of the Lord and for His providence in the lives of these persevering forefathers.

A Monument that Glorifies God and Honors Our Fathers

Artist’s rendition of proposed quadricentennial monument

Carved by the same company that built the now-legendary Alabama Ten Commandments Monument, the Jamestown Children’s Memorial will be a beautiful edifice crowned with a sculpting of Holy Scripture opened to Psalm 78 - the text which admonishes fathers to teach the providences of God so that their children might have hope. The monument will display Scripture, a list of key providential accomplishments, a quote from the Christian visionary behind Jamestown, and a message of gratitude left for future generations. The four sides of the monument reveal the Fifth Commandment, words of Christian exhortation from the visionaries behind Jamestown, a list of providential accomplishments through Jamestown, and the following acknowledgement:

In gratitude to the Lord our God for the mercy and kindness bestowed upon the American people and the children of the twenty-first century, through His providential direction and care of our Jamestown forefathers. Erected on the four hundredth anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement by the grateful children of America. [i]

A Multi-Generational Vision of Honor

The year 1607 was a time of great uncertainty for our Jamestown founding fathers. Ours, too, is an age of tremendous uncertainty about our future as a people. But the Fifth Commandment is clear: To live “long in the land which the Lord [our] God giveth” (Exodus 20:12), we must honor our fathers. In 2007, one way for Christian families to do just this is to gather their children and make a pilgrimage this June to our nation’s birthplace for the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History. Another way is to be part of our national effort to lay the Jamestown Children’s Memorial.

Someday, the children of this generation will be parents. They will have children who in turn will have children. My question is this: How will they remember us?

One hundred years from now, America will celebrate its five hundredth birthday. It is our prayer that, on that great anniversary, the children of the twenty-second century will be inspired and encouraged to learn that a remnant of children from the twenty-first came forward to honor their forefathers and to give thanks to the Lord on the occasion of America’s four hundredth birthday celebration.

On that day in 2107 - should the Lord will it so - a time-capsule under the monument will be opened. In the time capsule will be a scroll with the names of all the children who stepped forward to honor their American forefathers by contributing one dollar to the Jamestown Children’s Memorial. Those names will be read. And perhaps, just perhaps, the great grandchildren of those donors will be present to give praise to the Lord, not just for America, but for the faith of their fathers.

To learn how to support the Jamestown Children’s Memorial, click here.

P.S. Visit the official site to learn more about our speakers and events for the Jamestown Quadricentennial. Also, make sure to take advantage of the discount room rates when you are booking your hotel reservations.

The Faith of Our Fathers Project is a ministry of Vision Forum Ministries. It was established in 2005 to teach the younger generation to honor the fathers and mothers of the generations that came before them. This year, our efforts focus on the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History. The Jamestown Children’s Memorial is one expression of this effort. If you would like to make your own contribution of one dollar or more to the Jamestown Children’s Memorial, submit your donations online, or write to us at Vision Forum Ministries, Attn: Jamestown Children’s Memorial, 4719 Blanco Rd., San Antonio, TX 78212. We estimate the costs for the Jamestown Children’s Memorial to be approximately $30,000. Should donations exceed the amount needed for the monument, the excess funds will be used to support the Jamestown Quadricentennial event. Make sure to give us the names of the children who are represented by the donation if you want their names included in the time capsule. Please note: Plans for the shape, size, and text of the monument are still being finalized and are subject to modification.

[i] Vision Forum Ministries has formally requested of the appropriate authorities that the monument be placed on the site of the original Jamestown Island. That decision is pending. In the event that this option is not available, another location of historic significance near Jamestown by the James River has been secured.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 15, 2007 | Permalink

Former Chief Justice Roy Moore expounds on the Law of Nature and the Declaration of Independence during his talk titled So Help Me God at the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy. This talk can be found on the Introduction to Christianity, Law, and Culture DVD set available from Vision Forum.

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 15, 2007 | Permalink

WorldNetDaily.com reports today that: “Tour guides at the American birthplace of Jamestown, Va., are being prevented from explaining Christian history, and are under orders to refer to items such as the Ten Commandments and Lord’s Prayer only as “religious” in nature.

WorldNetDaily.com reports:

That according to California pastor and researcher Todd DuBord who says he was stunned on a recent tour of the historic town when “our guide responded to our inquiry by saying that she was ‘unable to speak about the plaques. We are only allowed to say they are religious plaques....’”

Because of the removal of Christianity from the history of Jamestown, Vision Forum has launched plans for a full series of events to celebrate the arrival of the settlers. The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History will be centered around events planned for June 11-16.

Those events are including the settlers’ Christian heritage, because Vision Forum President Doug Phillips said the war over the accuracy of the historical presentations “is one of the most significant battles of our day.”

“It is the battle for our history,” he said.

“Jamestown’s Christian legacy of law and liberty is significant,” Phillips told WND. “The vision for settlement at Jamestown was first communicated by a British cartographer and preacher named Richard Hakluyt who hoped the Virginia settlement would be a beacon for religious liberty. The Virginia Charter for 1606, both empowering and governing the Jamestown settlement, was expressly rooted in the Great Commission of Holy Scripture.”

He said the law system on which the colony was governed incorporated a millennia-long, Christian common law tradition.”

“The Jamestown settlers brought with them the Holy Scriptures and were the first to establish its enduring legacy of its presence in North America. Jamestown gave us our first Protestant house of worship, our first Christian conversions and baptisms and our first ‘interracial’ marriages based on the Christian faith. Jamestown also gave us a vision of republican representative government which was understood to find its origins in the Old Testament of Holy Scripture,” Phillips said.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 15, 2007 | Permalink

George Washington — the Founding Father of our Nation — has been the subject of great confusion and debate about his faith, leading to the misconception that he was a Deist. The purpose of George Washington’s Sacred Fire is to prove definitively that George Washington was indeed a devout, practicing Christian.

Dr. Peter Lillback who is a featured speaker at this year’s Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential Historty has spent over fifteen years researching original source documents dealing with Washington’s Christian Faith.

The book will convince readers by evidence of Washington’s own thoughts, words, and deeds. The reader will be able to articulate why Washington was not a Deist and to comprehend why this fact is critical for understanding the founding of America and for insuring the future strength of America as “One Nation under God.” George Washington’s Sacred Fire will empower, enable, and defend the Christian perspective of our nation’s founding, history, documents, and future values of government and the courts. It will provide the necessary foundation for an honest, fact-based assessment of the faith and values of our founders and the government that they instituted.

Click here to order your copy now of George Washington’s Sacred Fire.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 15, 2007 | Permalink

Dear Friends:

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank you for the tremendous encouragement extended to the families of Vision Forum Ministries by so many of you. This month we also want to make you aware of two special offers:

First, for those who send in a donation of any amount between now and the end of the month, we will send you as our gift, a copy of our previously unreleased message on compact disc, Manly Friendships. This message is probably unlike anything you have heard before, because it addresses an issue that is rarely discussed: The true nature and meaning of biblical, manly friendships. It explains how one develops such relationships, the way that God uses these relationships in the work of the Kingdom, and why such relationships must be nurtured and treasured.

Second, Vision Forum Ministries has purchased fifty sets of the greatest Bible commentary in print: John Gill’s Exposition of the Old and New Testament. These have been among the most prized possessions in my library for close to two decades. Doctrinally, I believe them to be the most trustworthy one can find. They are also the only verse-by-verse commentary of the entire Bible ever produced. A friend recently wrote me and told me that the grand historical and biographical introduction to the set alone was worth the price of purchase. This set (about to be discontinued) originally retailed for $300, We are offering it between now and the end of the month for those supporters who would like to make a significant finanical contribution at this time to help us continue in the work which the Lord has set before us. These resources will help us with our efforts to maintain our staff and operations which are necessary for the work of our conferences and this year’s Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History. Of course, we will also include a copy of the compact disc, Manly Friendships. For more information, visit the Vision Forum Ministries site.

If you are unable to support the work of Vision Forum Ministries financially, we humbly ask you as our brothers and sisters in Christ, that you would remember us in prayer. We are a team of families first aspiring to be faithful to the Lord as parents with our own children, but secondarily as Gospel preachers and missionaries to the American family. We recognize our deep need for the blessing and the favor of the Lord in all that we do. Your prayers mean the world to us.

With Love in Christ,
Doug, Beall, and the Staff

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 14, 2007 | Permalink

Vision Forum Ministries is pleased to announce that Dr. Peter Lillback, President of Westminster Theological Seminary, will be a featured speaker at this year’s Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History. In addition to leading Westminster Theological Seminary, serving as professor of Historical Theology and Senior Pastor at Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, he is the author of numerous books including the newly released George Washington’s Sacred Fire (Providence Forum Press), The Binding of God: Calvin’s Role in the Development of Covenant Theology (Baker), Freedom’s Holy Light - With a Firm Reliance on Divine Providence (Providence Forum Press) and Proclaim Liberty: A Broken Bell Rings Freedom to the World (Providence Forum Press), and co-author of the soon-to-be-released Lessons on Liberty - A Primer for Young Patriots.

Dr. Lillback’s exhaustive research and interpretation of Christianity, providence, and character in the life of America’s single most important historic figure, has been a critical contribution to the proper historiography of George Washington. His research stands in opposition to much of the politicization and revisionism offered by secular elites intent on dismissing the faith of the Founding Fathers. Dr. Lillback is not only a historian of note, but he is a dynamic speaker who will be bringing memorable messages on the providences of God in the life of George Washington. He will also be available for book signings.

Come to Jamestown to hear Dr. Lillback and an impressive line-up of historians, orators, and preachers offer the great centennial messages of this generation concerning the providence of God in the life of this nation and through the lives of our forefathers.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

Join us in Jamestown on America’s 400th birthday for balloon rides, boat rides, thrilling messages, exciting history tours, games, dramatic presentations, and an event which comes only once in a century. Join us for the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History. Early-bird registration ends next month, so sign up now.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

Dear Mr. Phillips,

I thought I would alert you to another trend that is abhorrent regarding women in the military. I was speaking with my nephew during Christmas. He is with the Army, and is currently serving in Iraq. He was home on leave during Christmas. During our talk, he told me that many women when they find their unit is going to be shipped out will purposely get pregnant. Once the troops are deployed (without them because they are pregnant), they will have an abortion. He has said typically 1/3 of his unit will not be deployed because they are pregnant, but very few of these women will have a child upon the unit’s return from a tour of duty. I could not believe this atrocity is happening, but he assured me it was. He said, however, you will not hear about it unless you are in the ‘inner circle’.

It just makes my stomach twist and turn.

Sincerely, Mrs. Eldridge

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

Just wanted to thank you for the awesome job on every day news. The latest one, The Model Cannon, was sooooo good. Leave it to a home schooler to come up with an idea like that! Every one is doing a great job! I am a Every Day News fan! It makes me want to be young again! Thanks again, An avid ENN watcher

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.” General Peter Pace

Special praise to United States Marine General Peter Pace who is under fire for speaking the truth about the immorality of homosexuality. For nearly four hundred years of our history on this continent, there was little debate that sodomy was a moral perversion contrary to the laws of man and God. However, according to CNN.com:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A gay advocacy group demanded an apology Tuesday from the Pentagon’s top general for calling homosexuality immoral.

In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace likened homosexuality to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

“General Pace’s comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces,” the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

Well, the Court got it partly right. Good result. Imperfect reasoning.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the right to keep handguns, but they misunderstood the constitutional meaning of the militia. For an historical and constitutional perspective on the 2nd Amendment, make sure to review our materials from the Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy including our DVD course, our Best of CD set, and the actual Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy.

CNN reports:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In a landmark legal victory for opponents of gun control, a federal appeals court Friday struck down a District of Columbia ban on keeping handguns in homes as a violation of the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms.

In its 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that the amendment’s guarantee belongs to individuals and was not a collective right limited to members of militias — something gun-control proponents long have contended.

“The amendment does not protect the right of militiamen to keep and bear arms, but rather the right of the people,” the majority opinion said. “If the competent drafters of the Second Amendment had meant the right to be limited to the protection of state militias, it is hard to imagine that they would have chosen the language they did.”

Friday’s decision marks the first time a federal appeals court has struck down a gun law on Second Amendment grounds, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 13, 2007 | Permalink

This year, when you are deciding whether or not to commemorate the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic — an event which told the whole world that men are supposed to die for women and children — please consider the implications of the crumbling theological foundations of the Church of Jesus Christ for this culture. Rarely will you hear of pastors, churches, or denominations denouncing as unbiblical the plague of a female military, yet that is exactly what it is: unbiblical and a judgment on our nation. It is, however, the logical and necessary conclusion of feminist, neo-feminist, Christian feminist, and anti-patriarchal sentiments in our culture and churches. Rather than viewing women as daughters, mothers, future mothers, and objects of protection, modern American males view them as competitors, as neo-men, and worse. Christian fathers and pastors contribute to this confusion by setting conflicting visions of womanhood before their daughters. The message, “Be feminine, be a soldier,” is one example. The message, “Forget motherhood, embrace your career, but be a virtuous woman,” is yet another.

Below are more quotes from the Salon article, “The Private War of Woman Soldiers.” Note the important statistics on rape in the military:

“Of course we were in combat!” said Laura Naylor, 25, who served with the Army Combat Military Police in Baghdad from 2003-04. “We were interchangeable with the infantry. They came to our police stations and helped pull security, and we helped them search houses and search people. That’s how it is in Iraq.”

Women are fighting in ground combat because there is no choice. This is a war with no front lines or safe zones, no hiding from in-flying mortars, car and roadside bombs, and not enough soldiers. As a result, women are coming home with missing limbs, mutilating wounds and severe trauma, just like the men.

All the women I interviewed held dangerous jobs in Iraq. They drove trucks along bomb-ridden roads, acted as gunners atop tanks and unarmored vehicles, raided houses, guarded prisoners, rescued the wounded in the midst of battle, and searched Iraqis at checkpoints. Some watched their best friends die, some were wounded, all saw the death and mutilation of Iraqi children and citizens.

Yet, despite the equal risks women are taking, they are still being treated as inferior soldiers and sex toys by many of their male colleagues. As Pickett told me, “It’s like sending three women to live in a frat house.”

Rape, sexual assault and harassment are nothing new to the military. They were a serious problem for the Women’s Army Corps in Vietnam, and the rapes and sexual hounding of Navy women at Tailhook in 1991 and of Army women at Aberdeen in 1996 became national news. A 2003 survey of female veterans from Vietnam through the first Gulf War found that 30 percent said they were raped in the military. A 2004 study of veterans from Vietnam and all the wars since, who were seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder, found that 71 percent of the women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military. And in a third study, conducted in 1992-93 with female veterans of the Gulf War and earlier wars, 90 percent said they had been sexually harassed in the military....

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

Salon is reporting on the extensive nature of abuse that women in the military are experiencing from other male soldiers.

Comprehensive statistics on the sexual assault of female soldiers in Iraq have not been collected, but early numbers revealed a problem so bad that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered a task force in 2004 to investigate. As a result, the Defense Department put up a Web site in 2005 designed to clarify that sexual assault is illegal and to help women report it. It also initiated required classes on sexual assault and harassment. The military’s definition of sexual assault includes “rape; nonconsensual sodomy; unwanted inappropriate sexual contact or fondling; or attempts to commit these acts.... Many female soldiers say they are sexually assaulted by their male comrades and can’t trust the military to protect them. “The knife wasn’t for the Iraqis,” says one woman. “It was for the guys on my own side.”

Vision Forum has been been writing about the unbiblical nature of women being sent to war for a couple of years now. Click here to read our position.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

We have the Jonathan Park Volume II CDs. I enjoy listening. It is really fun. It is my science in our home school. Our school is called King’s Way Academy. We’re learning about the Ten Commandments in Bible class. The best part about it is I get to write. Everytime I listen to your CD, it makes me think I am there. Thank you for such a fun science class.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

The New York Times is reporting on the fact that “now, two months before the 400th anniversary festivities begin , the monumental hardly matters anymore, and neither, it seems, does John Smith. Other kinds of commemoration have been prepared. It isn’t that Jamestown is being treated as less important: it is still regarded as the place where the DNA of a nation was first laid out, where, in 1607, England established an early beachhead against the expanding empires of Spain and Portugal and so determined the main language we speak and many of the ideas we share....

“Past Jamestown anniversaries were referred to as ‘celebrations.’ Because many facets of Jamestown’s history are not cause for celebration, like human bondage and the displacement of Virginia Indians, the Jamestown 400th Anniversary is referred to as the Jamestown 2007 Commemoration.” Throughout this introductory exhibition Jamestown is not the beleaguered settlement cheered on against all odds, but is a hothouse laboratory for conflict, oppression and perhaps accommodation.

So what exactly is being celebrated here? A closing gallery makes some suggestions... “Displacement of Indigenous People” and “Servitude and Injustice.” What a change from the Tercentennial when Jamestown was the symbol of America’s birth and President Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain and Booker T. Washington spoke. On the 350th anniversary Queen Elizabeth II made her first royal trip to the United States, and she is expected to come this time as well. But what will she find? Not the triumph of British influence, but the triumph of ambiguity, discomfort and vague multiculturalism...

For a breath of fresh air, and a message of hope, Christianity and providential history, learn about the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of Our Providential History. For a joyous family vacation and an event that comes once in a century, come to Jamestown this June 11-16th.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

Increasingly, scientists are turning to insects and other creatures for better ways to identify biohazards. “Cockroaches can detect all kinds of things, from anthrax spores to DNA,” says Karen Kester, an entomologist at Virginia Commonwealth University.

With $1 million in funding from the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), Kester is studying ways to use roaches and houseflies as toxin sentinels inside contaminated buildings or subways. This, of course, spares humans the job, and it may prove more effective than mechanical sensors, which often lack the range and sensitivity of their living counterparts.

Read the full story here.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

Concerning the transformation of the State-sponsored Jamestown Commemoration into a diabtribe on Christian settlement, the New York Times explains:

...50 years ago, accompanying exhibitions were about Virginia’s British heritage and great achievements by Virginians. Now the theme is: “Three Cultures, One Century: America’s Story.” Jamestown becomes archetypal not because it laid the foundations for British influence on American political culture, eventually enshrining notions of rights and representation, but because it established a pattern of conflict with Indians and enslavement of Africans — something that is here homogenized into a more vague multicultural interaction.

...The Indians, we read, were “in harmony with the land that sustained them and formed an “advanced, complex society of families and tribes.” English society — the society that gave us the King James Bible and Shakespeare along with stirrings of democratic argument — is described as offering “limited opportunity” in which a “small elite” were landowners; in London, we are told, “life was difficult,” with social dislocation, low wages, unemployment, etc.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 12, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 10, 2007 | Permalink

We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed. The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all. I beseech you, therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion.

Reformed Pastor, Richard Baxter, “Take Heed to Thy Flocks,” p. 100

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 10, 2007 | Permalink

Example #34: Dedicate a lot of time and energy to smiling at your dad.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 10, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 10, 2007 | Permalink

Worldnetdaily.com is asking its readers to vote regarding “What do you think of characterizations of the Jamestown settlement as a ‘holocaust’?” Click here to vote.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 9, 2007 | Permalink

Activists associated with the official Jamestown comemoration are calling the settlement of Christian Europeans in Jamestown an “invasion” that should not be celebrated. Behind this sentiment is an embarrassment about the Christian legacy of the American Republic. Herb Titus is not embarrassed. In his article, “The First Charter of Virginia,” he explains how the Great Commission of Holy Scripture provides the legal basis for the Jamestown Settlement and the Virginia Charter of 1606:

The 1606 Charter was secured from King James I by the founders of the London and Plimouth companies “to make Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a colony of our people into that part of America commonly called Virginia, and other parts and Territories in America, either appertaining to us, or which are not now actually possessed by any Christian Prince or People....”

After describing a geographical area stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts, and on a line south to the Carolinas and north as far as Maine, the Charter turned to the founders’ purpose and the King’s acceptance of it:

“We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government.”

So the expressed purpose, and the only one written in the Charter, was to establish colonies in the new World as a Christian evangelical witness to the native peoples.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 9, 2007 | Permalink

It’s not too late to join the search for America’s providential history, and a real treasure buried somewhere in the Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown triangle.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 9, 2007 | Permalink

Officials Declare War on Our Nation’s Christian Heritage as Part of America’s 400th Birthday — Vision Forum to Host Alternative Celebration

JAMESTOWN, Virginia, Mar. 8 /Christian Newswire/ — As America turns 400 this year with the founding of Jamestown in 1607, officials leading America’s 400th birthday commemoration have banned the term “celebration” in conjunction with their efforts and sought to discredit the Christian influence of the Jamestown Colony in keeping with politically correct dogma. Countering the claims of the Left, Vision Forum Ministries is hosting an alternative event on June 11-16 in Virginia’s historic triangle that will celebrate God’s providential hand in the founding of America four centuries ago.

“For nearly two centuries, our leaders have recognized the importance of celebrating the providential goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ through our nation’s birth at Jamestown in 1607,” observed Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum Ministries, “But this year during America’s Quadricentennial, officials are intent on belittling our nation’s Christian past and painting the Jamestown settlers as blood-thirsty cannibals, environmental terrorists, and worse. They have even gone so far as to ban the word ‘celebration’ because, after all, as one official stated, ‘You can’t celebrate an invasion.’”

The Jamestown 2007 is hosting ten signature events as part of their year-long effort to commemorate the Jamestown Settlement. These events include a diversity of politically charged topics that implicate the Jamestown founders in everything from “environmental injustice” to genocide.

At one of the signature events launching the official commemoration, “The State of the Black Union Jamestown Conference,” Rev. Otis Moss — as part of a panel discussion with the Rev.’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson — invoked a highly charged comparison to Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan. Moss declared that the Jamestown settlers were guilty of a mass “holocaust” and “lynchings.”

“This leftist spin coming from event organizers and their featured guests concerning the legacy of Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and the rest of the Virginia Company is grossly misleading and utterly irresponsible,” said Phillips. “The message of these speakers is certainly a sharp contrast to the message of hope presented by the great educator Booker T. Washington, who delivered a keynote at the 1907 Jamestown celebration, and who evaluated the Jamestown legacy in terms of the journey of black Americans from paganism to Christianity.”

Motivated by a desire to encourage the children of today with a message of hope from the historic record of God’s providential faithfulness, Vision Forum Ministries is hosting a week-long celebration: The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History in Virginia’s historic triangle on June 11-16. “The event is in the spirit of the best of America’s historic jubilee and centennial celebrations,” Phillips said.

The Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History will include orations by some of America’s leading Christian historians and teachers, Faith and Freedom mini-history tours, dramatic reenactments, fife and drum music, boat and balloon rides, a memorial dedication, and more. The week-long event will culminate with a large celebration event on the grounds of Fort Pocahontas — located a short distance from Old Jamestown Island, where the original colonists settled in 1607.

“We recognize that history involves bumps and bruises. Jamestown is certainly an example of imperfect men who were used mightily by God to lay the foundations of a Christian people. However, unlike the politically correct scholars and outspoken revisionists who are at the center of the state-sponsored Jamestown 2007 events, we are not embarrassed by our nation’s Christian heritage,” remarked Phillips, “And it is our prayer that grateful Americans from sea to shining sea will join us in Jamestown this June as we offer hope to this generation, even as we remember the many providences of God in the lives of our forefathers.”

To learn more about the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History, visit www.jamestown400th.org.

Press Contact: Wesley Strackbein, Vision Forum, 210-340-5250 ext. 222, wesley@visionforum.com

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 9, 2007 | Permalink

The federal government decided to take “In God We Trust” off the face or back of the new George Washington dollar coin currency. Instead, you will be able to find it on the edge of the coin. Now MSNBC is reporting that “an unknown number” of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including “In God We Trust,” and are fetching around $50 apiece online.

“The properly struck dollar coins, bearing the likeness of the nation’s first president, are inscribed along the edge with “In God We Trust,” “E Pluribus Unum” and the year and mint mark. The flawed coins made it past inspectors and went into circulation Feb. 15.

“The U.S. Mint struck 300 million of the coins, which are golden in color and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter.

Read the rest of the story here.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 9, 2007 | Permalink

Take a moment and read the touching journal entry eulogy offered by John Piper for his father:

“Thank you, Daddy. Thank you for sixty-one years of faithfulness to me. I am simply looking into his face now. Thank you. You were a good father. You never put me down. Discipline, yes. Spankings, yes. But you never scorned me. You never treated me with contempt. You never spoke of my future with hopelessness in your voice. You believed God’s hand was on me. You approved of my ministry. You prayed for me. Everyday. That may be the biggest change in these new days: Daddy is no longer praying for me.

I look you in the face and promise you with all my heart: Never will I forsake your gospel. O how you believed in hell and heaven and Christ and cross and blood and righteousness and faith and salvation and the Holy Spirit and the life of holiness and love. I rededicate myself, Daddy, to serve your great and glorious Lord Jesus with all my heart and with all my strength. You have not lived in vain. Your life goes on in thousands. I am glad to be one.”

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 9, 2007 | Permalink

The battle for our providential and Christian history is really a battle for our children and our country. If we deny the hand of the Lord in the creation and direction of this nation, or if we ignore His glorious mercies and providences, or if we rewrite our history so as to hide the great deeds of God from our children, we ensure a generation of the hopeless (see Psalm 78). If we fail to honor our imperfect, but God-used fathers, we have no hope that we will “live long in the land” which God has given — as noted in the Fifth Commandment.

I am grateful WorldNetDaily.com recognizes the importance of the battle for American history. Today, they cover the story of the Jamestown Quadricentennial and the attempt by politically correct officials to banish thoughts of “celebration” and to rewrite our history.

Help us solve this problem and “raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair,” by joining us in Jamestown, June 11-16, for a providential celebration of America’s four hundred years.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 8, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 7, 2007 | Permalink

An elderly woman has walked away without a scratch after being run over by a train in Portugal:

Maria Delores Ramos, 77, slipped as she attempted to cross the railway near her home in the northern village of Barroselas, the daily Jornal de Noticias reported. She could not get up on her own as she suffers from arthritis in her legs, so she sat in the middle of the track to wait for someone to pass by. But when a train approached she decided to lay down after her frantic waving failed to get the attention of the conductor, Ramos told the newspaper

“I started to pray and ask God for forgiveness for my sins. But when I saw that the first carriage passed over me and didn’t touch me, I realized I was safe. And I survived,” she said.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 7, 2007 | Permalink

”...the religion of Christ has, from its first appearance in the world, been attacked in vain by all the wits, philosophers, and wise ones, aided by every power of man, and its triumphs have been complete.” Marshall Foster powerfully recounts the dying words of Patrick Henry during his talk on The Miracle of America during the History of the World Mega-Conference.

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 7, 2007 | Permalink

Thanks to all of you who will be coming to this year’s Vision Forum Ministries’ Father and Daughter Retreat. With nearly 550 fathers and daughters in attendance, we have regretfully reached maximum capacity and are no longer able to take registrations.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 6, 2007 | Permalink

“As Christians, we must observe the example of Jesus Christ, who suffered betrayal and persecution far more than anything we could suffer...and we must pray that God will sustain us in our convictions, in that which we know to be true, that we will be increased in our ability to serve him faithfully...” From Howard Phillips’ talk, “The Son of a Prophet: Honor in the Face of Persecution,” at the 2006 Generations Conference, sponsored by The Highlands Study Center. This message can be found on Vision Forum’s DVD album Fathers & Sons: Living the Fifth Commandment.

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 6, 2007 | Permalink

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 6, 2007 | Permalink

My daughter (9 yrs. old) snapped up the Vision Forum catalogue when it came to our house last year. I didn’t see it again for months! She had been saving her money for a large purchase. She was considering another doll (she received Liberty for Christmas 2005) or clothes for Liberty. Then she noticed the Jonathan Park series. She loves Adventures in Odyssey and other audio stories so she decided to purchase the whole set! I placed the order for her and she gave me the money she had saved to pay for it. She was very excited when it arrived and could barely wait to begin listening! Within days she had listened to almost the whole set. She loves all of them! I am so encouraged to find great stories that have a Biblical perspective. My husband was impressed that Bible quotations were from the KJV. And our son (5 yrs. old) is enjoying the stories too! Several times my daughter has commented about what a good purchase she made and how satisfied she is with the selection she made. Keep up the good work! Sincerely, Teresa B

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 6, 2007 | Permalink

The London Telegraph is reporting on the way clothing and doll manufacturers are damaging young girls by encouraging them to identify with harlots, immoral conduct, and mature subject matters.

“A generation of very young girls is being psychologically damaged by inappropriate “sexy” clothing, toys and images in the media that are corrupting childhood, leading psychologists warn today.

They say marketing takes unfair advantage of children’s desire for affection and the need to conform, leading to eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression....”

“Apart from clothing for five- and six-year-olds, with old-fashioned frilly frocks replaced by mini skirts, plunging necklines and sequined crop tops, the report specifically criticises “Bratz dolls”.

These outsell Barbie dolls in Britain by two to one and come dressed in miniskirts, fishnet stockings and feather boas.”

The Walt Disney Company also contributes to this problem:

Disney’s Little Mermaid or Pocahontas “which have more cleavage, fewer clothes and are depicted as sexier than characters of yesteryear” are also picked out.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 5, 2007 | Permalink

At this year’s Vision Forum Ministries Father and Daughter Retreat, Geoffrey Botkin will be presenting a unique glimpse into the ways he brought up his two daughters—Anna Sofia and Elizabeth, co-authors of So Much More—and how he polished cornerstones fit for a royal palace. He will reveal very personal priorities he set for them from birth, and how he inspired in them a desire to model dominion-oriented femininity. He will disclose principles every father can draw on when it comes to motherhood, work, education, interaction with young men, speech, fashion, and deportment.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 5, 2007 | Permalink

These are my favorite Bible commentaries. John Gill is orthodox, exhaustive, approachable, and Christ-exalting. They are also the only verse-by-verse commentaries of the Bible ever published. This is an important addition to any Christian library. I feel so strongly about the books that last year I contacted the original publisher of this edition to request a special arrangement to put these gems back into print. Unfortunately, we overestimated demand and are now in the process of liquidating our inventory. Consequently, we are offering a final close-out sale. Once they are gone, they are gone. This is your opportunity to purchase the entire set (as well as get the 9-volume set on CD, and a hardback book edition of the Life of John Gill). The sale price is close to our cost. It is a tremendous price. If you are like me and are looking for sets of great books to give to your children, you might consider purchasing more than one set. Sale begins at 10:00 A.M. today. First come, first serve until they are gone.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 5, 2007 | Permalink

Come to Jamestown. June 11-16.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 3, 2007 | Permalink

Below is a sampling of some of the precious notes of encouragement which were in today’s e-mailbag. (I have attached links to the subject matter of the notes, where appropriate.)

I have so appreciated these articles you have sent out! I have found them most encouraging in reading to focus on raising godly women. I wish you could send out more of these. You are PRIVILEGED to have a church that supports this & not trying to get young teenagers to just blend in with the world.

Doug, I wanted to personally thank you for making the Entrepreneurial Bootcamp CDs available. I am a very blessed entrepreneur. The quality of the men and their excellent content were very valuable to me in my current business endeavors and with thinking through how to involve my precious wife and sons. This has to be the best $100.00 I have ever invested. I pray the LORD will continue to bless you for making such quality products available. Gratefully Christ’s, Stephen J.

Dear Mr. Phillips: Thank you for publishing Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkins’ challenges to young ladies. For us, the timing was perfect. Our oldest daughter’s thirteenth birthday is tomorrow. Diane

I have enjoyed your products for the last several years, but nothing has been more valuable to me than the Poems for Patriarchs which I purchased as a Valentine’s gift for my wonderful husband. He tells me it is the best gift I have ever given to him. He reads to our children from it, he has read from it in church meetings, and pastoral staff meetings (he is a Worship Arts Pastor) and most importantly has been inspired to write his own poem. I share it with a grateful heart.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 3, 2007 | Permalink

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The international Cassini spacecraft has beamed back to Earth never-before-seen angles of Saturn from high above and below its majestic rings. The planet is fully surrounded by the rings in images released Thursday by NASA.

“Finally, here are the views that we’ve waited years for,” Cassini scientist Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement.”It just doesn’t look like the same place. It’s so utterly breathtaking, it almost gives you vertigo,” Porco said.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 3, 2007 | Permalink

”...God wanted the extinction of dinosaurs to be a horrible visual aid to depraved men that the world is not evolving, it’s not improving, it’s dying out.” from Dr. John Whitcomb’s talk on The World that Perished at the History of the World Mega-Conference.

(To view this video clip, you must have QuickTime 7 installed.)

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 2, 2007 | Permalink

I am pleased to announce the launch of the Jamestown Quad Blog, a publication dedicated to celebrating the providences of God associated with the 400th birthday of America, and to reflections and updates relating to the present war on American history. The blog is designed to equip parents and students, not only with historical commentary and analysis of controversies associated with the founding of America, but with primary resources and quotes which will fuel discussion and assist research.

Start by getting caught up on February, our first month of postings. You can read the statements in the Jamestown Charter invoking the Great Commission as the basis for exploration and settlement; Booker T. Washington’s perspective on Christianity and the legacy of Jamestown for black America; presidential orations at past Jamestown celebrations expressing thankfulness to God for providential direction of our Jamestown forefathers; a letter from Captain John Smith requesting that Pocahontas, the “first Christian,” receive special honor from the Queen as the defender of the colony; and more.

As the 400th anniversary of our nation’s founding, 2007 is the year for home educators, students, pastors, and parents to renew their study of history, and to learn to apply a distinctively biblical grid of historiography. In the Phillips household, we are treating the year as a twelve month unit study on the providential origins of our nation, and seeking wisdom and insights to the lessons of history which are most applicable for helping our children chart a course of victory for the future. The blog is updated two to three times a week.

Posted by Doug Phillips on March 1, 2007 | Permalink