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Faith in Gettysburg

By: Uma Richie (Diary)  |  December 10th, 2010 at 09:15 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

From the Diaries by Leon.

 

     This past October on Lincoln Square in Gettysburg, my family participated in the annual “Life Chain,” a prayerful hour of silent witness against abortion. The prayer on Lincoln Square was part of the larger national Life Chain effort on the same day, with participants in over 1500 cities (1). The reaction we received was largely positive, as passing motorists smiled, waved, or gave us the thumbs up. Only one detractor yelled out his car window, “I can’t believe you brought children to this!” Because he seemed to be pro-abortion, I’m not sure if he opposed the presence of children at the Life Chain specifically, or the world outside the womb in general.

 

     When I reviewed local coverage of the event the next day, I was delighted to read a story sympathetic to the pro-life movement (2). The reporter wrote from the perspective of two demonstrators who regretted having abortions. The article even provided information on Silent No More Awareness, an organization that helps post-abortive men and women cope with the loss of their child(ren) (3).

 

      What is interesting is that this demonstration could have been stopped if Gettysburg had wanted to suppress it. The day of the Life Chain coincided with Gettysburg College’s alumni homecoming weekend, a (hopefully) busy time for downtown businesses, and a passable excuse for Gettysburg borough council to reject the Life Chain’s permit application. But the permit was granted, the businesses on the square were gracious, and about 100 of us, holding signs and praying quietly, lined the sidewalks in the heart of Gettysburg.

 

     Having exercised my First Amendment rights in Gettysburg recently, I was bewildered by allegations on both Fox Nation and RedState that Gettysburg was trying to “kick God out of town” through code enforcement action against the Civil War Chapel, a bivouac-type gathering place built by the US Christian Commission (4), (5). The subsequent destruction of the chapel by arsonists amplified the claims and triggered an accusation that the town leadership had desecrated Gettysburg’s hallowed ground (6).  

 

     If you are reading this, you are probably among the Americans who, heeding President Lincoln’s words, have dedicated yourself to the unfinished task of giving “this nation under God…a new birth of freedom.” For you, any intimation that Gettysburg has forsaken God would be most distressing. Rest assured, the reports of His eviction are grossly exaggerated.

 

     Today, this 7500-citizen town is home to 34 religious congregations (7). Tablets bearing the Ten Commandments remain the cornerstone of the courthouse. Today, the US Christian Commission renovates a new museum space to accommodate growing receptiveness to its ministry to visitors (8). Today at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, over 250 men and women prepare for a life of service to God (9). Today, construction continues on St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church’s new school and parish life center because the existing facilities are bursting with the faithful (10). As snow falls on Gettysburg today, the Adams Rescue Mission shelters 6 families and 33 single men, in Jesus’ name (11). Today, a petition bearing the signatures of 66 local religious leaders implores the Pennsylvania State Gaming Control Board not to grant a license to the proposed Gettysburg casino (12). Today, Prince of Peace Episcopal Church plans for a permanent move of its soup kitchen to a larger venue (13). Today a Christmas tree stands alone in the center of town, hailing the upcoming celebration of Christ’s birth.

 

     In short, the people of Gettysburg freely exercise their religious beliefs. In doing so, they have proclaimed God’s Good News. They have let their children come unto Jesus. They have provided for Him when He was hungry and homeless. Please have faith in Gettysburg, because, as far as I can see, Gettysburg is keeping its faith in God.

 

1. http://www.nationallifechain.org/

2. Katharine Harmon. ‘A silent witness.’ Evening Sun (Hanover, PA) – Sunday, October 3, 2010.

3. http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/

4. http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2010/11/22/gettysburg-wants-kick-god-out-town

5. http://www.redstate.com/ladyimpactohio/2010/11/19/gettysburg-wants-to-kick-god-out-of-town-threatens-historic-civil-war-chapel/

6. http://www.redstate.com/ladyimpactohio/2010/12/07/arson-officially-ruled-as-cause-of-fire-which-destroyed-gettysburg-chapel-burned-god-out-of-town/

7. http://www.gettysburg.com/communit/church.htm

8. http://www.usccgettysburg.org/museum.asp

9. http://www.ltsg.edu/Prospective-Students/files/Gettysburgseminary_Viewbook

10. Craig K. Paskoski. ‘Sneak preview for new school.’ Evening Sun (Hanover, PA) – Wednesday, November 3, 2010.

11. http://adamsrescuemission.org/

12. http://nocasinogettysburg.ning.com/notes/Casino_Comments_closed,_NCG_Delivers_

Petitions

13. http://www.gettysburgsoupkitchen.org/

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  • rdelbov

    for the message.

    May God Bless

    Our Church is a week away from our annual food basket (actually a box now) program. We will assemble 1200 baskets for those folks who are in need. From Maine to Hawaii there private efforts aimed at helping those folks who are down and out. Times are a little tough right now so its not a good time to cut back on charity. My wife and I try to spend as much on those folks in need as we do on presents for ourselves or our family. As Uma’s story shows there is a “reason for the season”.

    There was a post earlier today on Bill Buckley. I wanted to comment on it but felt inadequate. Here is perhaps a better place for a comment on WFB. He was a man of God. William Buckley had no problem reconciling God and Conservatism. In his life he apparently lived by the motto “what would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his life”.

    I believe in Providence- whether its in Gettysburg PA or Rhode Island. We all live imperfectly in this life. Yet I believe we are placed here for a reason and in a condidtion that we cannot fully understand.

    So whether Providence has placed in a position of need or a place of plenty. May God Bless you during this time of year.

    • Uma Richie

      That’s a lot of mouths to feed. May God bless you and your family.

  • wethepeoplevstheprogressives

    I can only in Gods eyes, see as a wake up call because I chose to ignore and/or put-off all the relatively gracious other signs! Thank you for being a leader in many things not the least of which is the reason for the season. I would only like to add the following….we have heard far too many times recently that elections have consequences…I also am living proof IMO that stubborness, inaction, fear, and selfishness have grave consequences as well. God bless all you who read this

    • Uma Richie

      God bless you too, and I hope that God will open a window of opportunity for you soon.

  • elizabeth bennet

    Thank you for posting.

    • Uma Richie

      nt

      • http://teapartisan.wordpress.com Socrates

        As someone who helped pass around the original story, I always assumed two things were given. I regret not having said anything until now.

        First, I understood the phrase “kicking God out of town” after the pattern of “kicking God out of the classroom”. Obviously God is not leaving town, as long as two are gathered in His name. It was an attention-getting device that went too far.

        Second, implicit in the story is a disconnect between the people of Gettysburg and its government, or a faction (or even lone actor) in it. Beyond the fact of Gettysburg’s historical significance, that is the unstated importance of the story. We right-wing bloggers believe that outside the big cities, the people are mostly on our side, while local governments tend to attract the loony left agitators.

        I figured that there was a misunderstanding of the necessity of the battlefield replica chapel retaining its primitive character. Bringing the place up to code, with (for example) properly wheelchair-accessible restrooms and GFCI electrical outlets would have ruined the place as an historical replica.

        I wondered all along why the demand wasn’t that people stop using the museum-piece chapel as a worship facility, and keep it as a static, velvet-rope display. That still would have been overzealous government busibodiness, but it at least would have fit the government’s stated goal of public safety.

        But as the demand was to tear the structure down, well, of such small escalations are conflagrations made.

        It’s good to emphasize that God is still in town, and will not be mocked. To the extent that I was involved in that, I apologize.

        • Uma Richie

          There seems to be a lot of interest in figuring out whether or not the town leadership was out of line. I live in the same region (South Central PA) as Gettysburg, but I had to go into local newspaper databases to get a feel for the issue. I hope to have something posted within a week.

          But for the near term, I’d like to give you a short timeline:
          Jan 2004 – Faith-based homeless shelter burns. Investigation into cause of fire cancelled because building is unstructurally sound.
          2004 – Lot sits empty, becomes blighted.
          2005 – USCC builds canvas-roofed field chapel on lot.
          2005-2009 – Chapel operates without newsworthy incident. (As far as I can tell)
          Jan 2010 – Too much snow destroys chapel canvas roof.
          Spring 2010 – Chapel roof rebuilt with tin panels. Steeple with bell is added.
          June 2010 – Town notifies USCC that roof improvements make chapel subject to permanent structure ordinances.

          I hope this sheds some light on the subject.

          • SoulEspresso

            Far be it from me to question LadyImpactOhio’s motives. That’s happened to me on this site and it’s no fun. Perusing some of the links involved demonstrated thoroughly to me that the story had a lot of moving parts. I rather questioned her tactics as I thought the sensationalism was unhelpful.

            The real issues involved may be more “boring” but of longer-term interest: government overreach or inconsistency, the need for competent, conservative local government, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be a cautionary tale about the need for competent conservatives in local government.

          • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

            that you defend the honor of the majority in Gettysburg. Great job gal.

  • ocleverone

    I was bewildered at the original thread, but having only a passing knowledge of Gettysburg (visiting a few times with a 14 year old history buff) I didn’t know if my surface observations were valid.

    Thank you for writing this. Beautifully done.

    • Uma Richie

      Keep bringing the kiddos back.

  • runner12

    I am still wary that the code violations were legitimate regarding the chapel, but I understand where you are coming from and would probably be offended if someone characterized my hometown in a negative light based on the actions of a few. Thank you for sharing with us this wonderful story and giving everyone a different perspective of Gettysburg.

    • Uma Richie

      I hope to write another diary in the next week outlining some local issues that I didn’t even know existed, but very well may have influenced the council’s actions.

      What I will tell you quickly is that in 2005, local businesses started an organization to hold council accountable for arbitrary code enforcement. In 2007, council rewrote much of the town ordinance to try to streamline it. In 2009, a serial litigant started suing a bunch of Gettysburg businesses over Americans With Disabilties Act violations. This is an ongoing nightmare, as the businesses can’t satisfy both the ADA and the Gburg Historic Architectural Board at the same time. And that’s on top of the casino, and the property tax reassessment, and the new NPS visitor center.

  • Leon H. Wolf

    Great piece and thanks for doing it. You know, they have these things called “links” that all the kids are using these days… :)

    Seriously, if you need help learning how to do them, lemme know.

  • Uma Richie

    I used to type my diaries in html. I felt like this diary was overdue and wanted to get it out there.

  • jimmyg

    I am ashamed of myself. This nonsense went on for three diaries before Leon and yourself challenged the contention made by the writer of the original diaries. I am reluctant to challenge much of what passes as fact in some of these diaries. Opinion is one thing, the writer of the diaries in question rendered her opinions as though they were fact, and many, if not most of the regulars encouraged her without differentiating fact from her opinion. This allowed the Town of Gettysburg to be slandered without any blowback. Why am I ashamed? I knew this, I knew that this was a story made of whole cloth, but feared rendereing a contrary opinion, and stayed silent. As of late, at least the last several months, opinons contrary to some of the regulars, lead to piling on and name calling, which I try to avoid. For this I apologize.

  • SoulEspresso

    even if arsonists burn all the churches to the ground.

    But it doesn’t sound like that’s a danger in Gettysburg. Thanks to Uma for writing this and Leon for promoting it.

    Folks, there’s a time for scorched-earth tactics in politics. Some occasions might even call for sensationalist promotion.

    But when it comes to the faith delivered to the saints, we’re talking a long game–one that carries us into eternity. Christians who are led to become political activists can never have an “ends justify the means” attitude in religious liberty issues, because the ends are never in our hands; we only have the means. If those means are not the means of Christ we cannot expect His blessing.

  • http://www.flaliberty.org scorpio0679

    jimmyg, I feel your pain.

    @OP: thanks for this wonderful read. The only thing I love hearing about more than conservatives beating liberals is the work of Christ in the hearts of men. It is truly an amazing thing.

  • http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

    … really about a couple of arsonists who unilaterally made a ‘decision’ on behalf of others in the community and thereby deprived many – even the authorities – of their right to decide. IE; the actions of a few subsumed and violated the rights of the many.

    At least to me that’s what it was about.

  • Leon H. Wolf

    For all the people who piled on me or RedState for my comment (which admittedly may have been a tad over the top), I don’t see any of them apologizing for recommending – and ganging up on people to defend – a series of posts which was obviously and completely factually wrong and which furthermore dragged an entire city in a swing state through the mud.

    Did it ever cross your mind that it was necessary to correct this series of posts because it isn’t good to lie about people? Nah, I’m sure it’s because we just want to have good things written about us in the media and get invited to the right cocktail parties (Ed. – to my knowledge I have never attended a DC cocktail party).

    You know, it is one thing to publish an alarmist and false series of stories about Obama (although, as with the birthers, there is a limit to what we will tolerate even with respect to that). I mean, he knew what he was signing up for. That’s part of the game. But the City of Gettysburg??? The original series of stories served absolutely no point and did not advance the conservative cause at all. In fact, as the people of Gettysburg suddenly found themselves the subject of national attention due to screaming idiots who self-identified as conservative claiming that their town hated God and was burning him out of town, I am confident that the posts hurt the conservative cause. The original author of these posts either never considered that or didn’t give a crap because, unlike me, I am quite sure she does care very much about being quoted and carried on FoxNews.

    This is who you’re defending, Jaded. If you’re that comfortable throwing in with a liar and standing against the truth then maybe this isn’t the right website for you.

  • Uma Richie

    to the lies of the MSM involved their egregiously false reporting on topics that I had firsthand knowledge of. I wrote this diary because I don’t want voters and potential activists in Adams County, PA (59% McCain, 40% Obama) to doubt RedState’s credibility as badly as I doubt MSNBC’s.

  • Uma Richie

    Thanks for your comments. I think the outrage expressed was justified, but the targeting needed more precision. My personal opinion is that the church arson was more than a reckless act by three teenagers.

  • Uma Richie

    Thank you so much for your comments.

  • Uma Richie

    My first priority was to correct the record regarding Gettysburg’s honor.

    As for everything else, including the code enforcement actions and the possible motives of the arsonists, I need to write another diary and lay it out for debate.

  • http://thesandsinstitute.org Vassar Bushmills

    I think there’s plenty of room in the events, as they transpired, for people to disagree, philosophically and on the facts.

    It’s too bad there isn’t a free and open forum where the parties can lay their understandings of the facts, for I’d love to present the case, at least for those you’ve accused of piling on here, including me, to an impartial finder of fact.

    yep, too bad.

    Cordially

  • Leon H. Wolf

    You?re certainly free to keep writing diaries that suggest – against all the evidence and common sense itself – that GETTYSBURG IS RUNNING GOD OUT OF TOWN. Neither I nor anyone else has banned anyone or threatened to do so for writing diaries that are short on facts (or the correct interpretation thereof). Spurious material has a long and storied history on the internet and RedState is certainly no exception.

    However, if you write something that is bullcrap, expect to have it called bullcrap, by me or someone else in the comments. Apparently, this concept is a little too much for some people who I am sure right now are whining about some sort of conspiracy to shut them out of RedState.

    Rest assured that no such conspiracy exists, except to the extent that there is a conspiracy afoot to challenge fabulists, and most fabulists don?t like to stick around when their fantasies are challenged.

  • http://www.flaliberty.org scorpio0679

    I read the series of diaries that are the subject of this post, but didn’t bother participating in the comments.

    I am wondering if you might be ascribing more mens rea to ladyimpactohio than is warranted. It seemed to me that the diaries were written in more of a sensational way, from someone unfamiliar with the local situation, rather than in a malicious way. It didn’t seem to me that ladyimpactohio was “lying” but rather was drawing unwarranted conclusions without enough factual basis . . . there is a big difference.

    Anyway I think everyone ought to be mindful of what exactly they are putting into these diaries because as this debacle proves, it could wind up on Fox News.

  • Leon H. Wolf

    I have reason to believe differently. We’ll leave it at that.

    That said, however you believe that the information got out there, it deserved to be corrected. Jaded’s snide comment that we were just doing it to look good for the media was uncalled for.

  • Scope

    I am glad that Uma Richie wrote this beautiful diary, It is a testament that good things are happening in Gettysburg as to religion, God, pro-life issues. Thank you Uma.

    You are referring to the “series” of diaries written by ladyimpactohio. I believe there were 3 if I am not mistaken. I don’t know the facts, and would never make claim to that knowledge. The question I have is- if the first diary written was factually wrong, why wasn’t it redacted, and possibly replaced with some sort of wording to that affect? I’ve seen that happen to some diaries here. Would that not have been enough of a waring to back off, if the information was incorrect. Again I don’t know the facts. It seems to me that the very public flogging, and humiliation done to the author, here for all of the members to see, was something not many of us have witnessed here at Redstate, at least since I’ve been here. Again, a redaction of the diary would have served the purpose of not having something that some felt was offensive, or false statements, to enter the world wide web, and to be an embarrassment to Redstate, if it was faulty. Ladyimpactohio has written some very good, and very widely received diaries, there is one at the top of the reco list right now. Maybe an email- to back off, rather than the public burning at the stake so to speak?

  • lexington_concord

    You have email.