<\/div>\n
Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an army was. He was absolutely essential in warfare, and darn near a required part of battle\u00a0 He did not fight the battle himself, rather his job for the army was to bravely march forward announcing to everyone who saw him \u201cthis is who we are and what we stand for, by golly!\u201d\u00a0 There was no mistaking allies or enemies in a time when a contingent unfurled their colors and lifted them high for all to see.<\/p>\n
Those of us with large families are the modern day standard bearers of the Church Militant. We are an obvious physical symbol of the Church in the modern world.\u00a0 Our presence loudly proclaims that we believe in the gift and value of life . After all, we have surrounded ourselves with it.<\/p>\n
Many times in recent years, the parents of large families have been left wondering where the army has gone that we are representing.\u00a0 As we face increasingly vocal and hostile opposition from a world which values self over sacrifice, our churches and pastors are silent in the face of the onslaught.<\/p>\n
Our pastors have chosen fear over bravery.\u00a0 Instead of loudly condemning contraception for the evil that it is in the world and teaching the proper place of sex in society, our spiritual leaders have chosen to remain silent rather than be unpopular.\u00a0 It is easy to rail against the evil of abortion from the pulpit; it\u2019s not hard to be against killing babies.\u00a0 It takes a much stronger man to call out the evil of the Pill and the creeping destruction it has had on society.<\/p>\n
Their example of cowardice has taught their flocks that such things are not truly important.\u00a0 They have left us, the flag bearers, unprotected.\u00a0 When we meet with hostile looks and unkind words at the store; nasty comments and resentment within our parishes (even from our clergy); the unceasing pressure from doctors, friends,\u00a0 and even strangers to contracept; or disbelieving stares and ugly anger within our extended families, even in front of and to our children, there is very often no one to contradict them.\u00a0 There is no cavalry riding to our defense.<\/p>\n
When representatives of our modern culture condemn us to our faces for \u201covertaxing the planet\u2019s resources\u201d or ridicule our \u201cirresponsible breeding\u201d, our fellow Christians more often than not will simply turn away.\u00a0 They are afraid of confrontation and so they back away from the battle, either because they are ill-equipped to fight it, they are scared, or because they quietly agree with the aggressors.<\/p>\n
We, as a Church, need to do better than this.\u00a0 We need to protect those who are so visible, and we need to better equip those we are sending into the world.\u00a0 We need our priests to teach about sex, not just abortion, but all<\/i> the moral issues wrapped up in that three-letter word.\u00a0 We need to be taught about the cancer of contraception, not just once every few years when a guest speaker shows up (if he comes at all), but often and with frank honesty.<\/p>\n
The people in the pews need to be told that this is a battle for our very souls and we need to be taught to recognize the weapons of the enemy.\u00a0 There is a reason for the decrease in the number of larger families in the modern world.\u00a0 It is a failure of leadership.\u00a0 The faithful are not being taught that children are a gift from God and are to be treasured and welcomed that way, and so even the faithful weekly church-goers have fallen into the trap of ease and convenience.\u00a0 They have been allowed to go forth in ignorance because our priests and bishops fear public condemnation, but their silence condemns us to what they fear.\u00a0 Their people, the Church Militant, could be marching happily to Hell because there are too few people willing to stand in front of them and speak the truth.<\/p>\n
We desperately need our leaders to lead.\u00a0 We have read the Bible, heard the Truth and answered the call.\u00a0 We are here, eagerly standing firm against a culture which it often seems is beginning to hate us.\u00a0 We have answered the call.\u00a0 Where is the rest of the army?\u00a0 They have left us to face the Enemy and his cohorts alone.<\/p>\n
Without an army, the guy with the flag is no longer a proud member of anything.\u00a0 With no soldiers to back him up, standard bearer is nothing more than a fancy name for the target.<\/p>\n
Cross-posted at Defend Us In Battle<\/a>.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t already read Joe\u2019s blog, you should go check it out.<\/span>
\nthanks to my friend Peace for putting this idea in my head weeks ago<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an army was. He was absolutely essential in warfare, and darn near a required part of battle\u00a0 He did not fight the battle himself, rather his job for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Standard Bearer's Battle Hymn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Standard Bearer's Battle Hymn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shoved to Them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-06T08:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-13T19:15:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Frech\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Frech\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html\",\"name\":\"The Standard Bearer's Battle Hymn\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-06T08:15:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-13T19:15:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d\"},\"description\":\"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Standard Bearer’s Battle Hymn\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/\",\"name\":\"Shoved to Them\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Frech\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Frech\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/author\/rfrech\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Standard Bearer's Battle Hymn","description":"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Standard Bearer's Battle Hymn","og_description":"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html","og_site_name":"Shoved to Them","article_published_time":"2012-01-06T08:15:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-13T19:15:12+00:00","author":"Rebecca Frech","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Frech","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html","name":"The Standard Bearer's Battle Hymn","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-06T08:15:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-13T19:15:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d"},"description":"Armies everywhere used to march into battle with their standard bearer (the guy with the flag) right up front.\u00a0 He was the visual proclamation of who an","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2012\/01\/the-standard-bearers-battle-hymn.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Standard Bearer’s Battle Hymn"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/","name":"Shoved to Them","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/a480038559bb99863ca3ba86f368775d","name":"Rebecca Frech","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53a07a84a2f9a9ba08b14e744e53ae70?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Frech"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/author\/rfrech"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1979"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}