"I PRAYED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE..."

This is guaranteed to annoy the hell out of rabid atheists who see this...

Jailed activist tells of life in cold cell

Ms Harris passes the time in her Murmansk cell desperately trying to keep her mind occupied.

''I try to keep myself 'busy' with little things like doing the laundry, sweeping the floor and doing exercises,'' she wrote in her first letter to Australia. ''We're allowed to leave our cell and walk for one hour each day. We're locked in what can be described as an outdoor chicken pen [to walk]. It's horrible. But yesterday I saw that someone had scratched 'Save the Arctic' into the wall. It made me laugh.''

In a letter written on October 10, a week before she appeared in court and her bid for bail was denied, Ms Harris told Mr Lorenz she had begun to pray.  ''I honestly believed I'd be out of prison by now,'' she said. ''I'm slowly coming to terms with the prospect of spending two months here. But it's not knowing what will happen after that that I find really hard. I prayed for the first time in my life the other day. I prayed for freedom and courage.''

To be fair, I don't know for sure if Alexandra Harris is, in fact, an atheist, an agnostic or merely non-religious.  Given her left-wing associations and the fact that by her own admission she has never before prayed in her life, it would seem very likely that she is an atheist.

For argument's sake, I'm going to assume that she is a person who has considered herself an atheist.  I don't know exactly to whom she was praying.  She may not have a clear idea herself. Obviously, however, with frightening uncertainty enveloping her in those harsh surroundings she has felt the need to seek comfort and hope from a higher power.  

It's not quite a foxhole in wartime but it's a similar dynamic and another example of the aphorism "There are no atheists in foxholes."

This statement irritates atheists precisely because it's so often true.  But if you read the Wikipedia page at the link above you'll notice that they have basically turned it into an attack on the phrase.  It's a rather silly attempt to debunk the aphorism by "proving" that there actually have been atheists in foxholes (I'm sure there have been a few).  There are no links to sites that explain or support the idea, only ones that make the atheist "argument" against it.  This is not a coincidence.

The phrase is merely intended to point out that when it's a matter of life and death, many people who didn't realize it before come to find out that a devotion to Darwinism simply isn't sufficient comfort.  They need more.  They pray to God.

But so fanatical are atheists to prove their point, that they've even built themselves a monument to celebrate their contrarian view.  For the record, I have no problem with that.  It's amusing to see them erect monuments to their lack of faith.  I'd rather have them erecting their own monuments than constantly attacking our Christian ones.  The eliminationist nihilism of rabid atheists is what I find disturbing, not their curiously fervent belief in their own non-belief.

More malignant is their compulsive need to attack people of faith, especially those who serve in the military.  This summer there was a disturbing report concerning an essay written by Lt. Colonel Kenneth Reyes, a chaplain at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.  Reyes was ordered to remove the column, titled, "No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave all in World War II," because it allegedly offended atheists serving on the Air Force base.

Col. Brian Duffy, the base commander told Fox News the column was removed "out of respect for those who considered its title offensive."

"The 673d Air Base Wing does not advocate any particular religion or belief set over another and upon learning of the complaints from some readers, the article was promptly removed," he said. "We regret any undue attention this article may have brought to any particular group or individuals."

Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes confirmed to Fox News that he wrote the original essay that appeared in his "Chaplain's Corner" column on the base website.

Reyes recounted the origin of the phrase "There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole." Father William Cummings has largely been credited with uttering the phrase in Bataan during World War II.

President Eisenhower referenced the phrase during a speech to the American Legion in 1954, noting "I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes."

Reyes ended his essay with a reflection on faith.

"Everyone expresses some form of faith every day, whether it is religious or secular," he wrote. "Some express faith by believing when they get up in the morning they will arrive at work in one piece, thankful they have been given another opportunity to enjoy the majesty of the day, or express relief the doctor’s results were negative."

Reyes did not attack or insult atheists or non-believers in his column.

Of course he didn't.  No reasonable person would take offense at the chaplain's essay.  Unfortunately, we're not talking about reasonable (or rational) people.  We're talking about Mikey Weinstein and his gang of haters and misfits. In a really pathetic attempt at portraying themselves as victims, Weinstein's group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation accused Reyes of going on an "anti-secular diatribe" and publicly denigrating "those without religion."

According to Weinstein's fanatical organization, 42 airmen (all anonymous, of course) allegedly complained about the essay.  In an alarming example of moral cowardice in the face of a ridiculous PC attack on the First Amendment, Colonel Duffy ran up the white flag of surrender.

"In the civilian world, such anti-secular diatribe is protected free speech," wrote MRFF's Blake Page in a letter to Col. Duffy. "Beyond his most obvious failure in upholding regulations through redundant use of the bigoted, religious supremacist phrase, 'no atheists in foxholes,' he defiles the dignity of service members by telling them that regardless of their personally held philosophical beliefs they must have faith."

The Air Force agreed and approximately five hours after the MRFF complained, they removed the chaplain’s essay.

"While certainly not intended to offend, the article has been removed from our website," Col. Duffy wrote in an email to the MRFF. "We remain mindful of the governing instructions on this matter and will work to avoid recurrence."

But that's not good enough for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. They want the chaplain punished for what he wrote.

"Faith based hate, is hate all the same," Page wrote. "Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately reprimanded."

Where, exactly, is the "hate" in the chaplain's essay?  It's a question for which they have no honest answer.  Perhaps Weinstein and his mob should take a good long look in the mirror if they want to discover who is injecting hate into the situation.  So let them babble on about Ted Williams.  I will continue to be inspired by the remarkable life of Army chaplain Father Emil Kapaun.

Liberals these days love to invoke Eisenhower's name and his words as a way to demonstrate what a "good Republican" should be like.  They have always loved to quote from his farewell address in 1961.  They are, however, much less enthusiastic about the speech he gave on February 7, 1954 in which he said:

AS A FORMER SOLDIER, I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives.

In battle, they learned a great truth--that there are no atheists in the foxholes. They know that in time of test and trial, we instinctively turn to God for new courage and peace of mind.

All the history of America bears witness to this truth.

Out of faith in God, and through faith in themselves as His children, our forefathers designed and built this Republic.

We remember from school days that, aboard a tiny ship of destiny called the Mayflower, self-government on our continent was first conceived by the Pilgrim Fathers. Their immortal compact began with the words, "In the name of God, Amen."

Amen!