By Pastor Jim Hanson,
Dunedin Alliance Church, Dunedin Florida.

As I was pondering what to discuss at our first Christian Coalition meeting, I couldn’t help thinking about a study I did a little while ago. I was thinking about the spiritual condition of our county and the political degeneration it has caused.

I remembered what I was taught in grade school. Back in the sixties when it was "politically correct" to be a patriot, we were taught about the Minutemen of the Revolutionary War. To this day I still admire their bravery by sacrificing their lives for the fledgling nation called the United States of America. So I did a computer search and rediscovered their heroism.

Literally they were a trained militia that goes back further than the Revolution. They were trained to protect the American settlers from Indian attacks, animals, and from evil men who would do them harm. There were only a "Few Good Men" who were selected from different militias who would at the sound of the alarm literally drop what ever they were doing and pick up their muskets and run to defend their fellow colonists from danger. A farmer or a businessman would immediately take to arms, and defend his friends and neighbors with grit-teeth and a chiseled posture, fighting until the threat subsided.

In the Revolutionary War, a very famous patriot named Paul Revere rode into the night announcing the approach of the enemy. The Minutemen along, with others I’m sure, stood at that fateful bridge at Lexington Green to defend America from her enemies. The "shot heard around the world" rang out and the fight for freedom began!

There is a park in their honor where they took their stand and…"fought along Battle Road for 22 miles in Minute Man National Historical Park outside of Boston within the towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord, Massachusetts. On April 19, 1775, British soldiers and American militia, Minutemen, met in a series of unplanned skirmishes along a 22 mile stretch of road that ran from Boston to Concord. This marked the beginning of an America Revolution that lasted 8 years. Minute Man Park encompasses the story of an evolution of the ideals of freedom and liberty, new notions of cultural independence and citizen responsibility. These are the ideals that led to the American Revolution in 1776." Reference from Minute Man Park web at http://www.nps.gov/mima/ .

America needs to call upon the Minutemen once again! No, the British are not coming, but another enemy is! The enemy within our nation stands against our freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States; the enemy within stands against the Biblical values that Americans of all faiths stand in support of; the enemy within has the audacity to take prayer out of schools, to legalize death policies like abortion and, perhaps soon, euthanasia; the enemy within marches down our streets provocatively dressed and demanding gay marriage rights directly attacking the sanctity of our families, the enemy within demands the teaching of ungodly morals to our children beginning in K-5 through the 12 grades; the enemy within indoctrinates our kids in college with "globalism" and "political correctness" over and against love of God and Country; the enemy within is now staring God in the face and saying we don’t want Your Ten Commandments representing us. Yet, in Sacramental California, there is a monument honoring the gay rights movement. How tragic!

We need more Paul Reveres crying in our streets, "The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming, to arms, to arms, the enemy is coming!" My heart's message to our modern day patriots, i.e., Minutemen, is, "Our country needs you again! Look at the bleeding wounds of our nation! Look at the bruises that the enemy has caused our republic! How much longer can she survive? Minutemen, Where Are you?"

Pastor Jim Hanson

North Pinellas, Florida

Christian Coalition