From the Desk of Jeff King

Showtime

The light show lasted only a few minutes. I pointed my Nikon D80 toward the Olympic Mountains and snapped several shots as the setting sun painted the sky burnt red, orange and yellow. Several ducklings swam past me and into the shadows of Puget Sound, leaving a trail of soft ripples. For a fleeting few minutes on a chilly Thanksgiving eve, God's creation was at rest and in union with Him.

The fall of America

On Election Day I felt alienated and alone. I didn't recognize my country anymore. As I got out of my car for work in Seattle, packs of young people walked past me waving Obama signs. They wore Zombie-like grins, celebrating the impending coronation of their self-made messiah. I was the invisible man in this wave of euphoria. No one could hear the groaning and sighing in my spirit. No one could see what's obvious: the United States is dying.

I believe God gave America a choice, and it chose the king it deserves. We are a rebellious and wicked nation and will reap what we've sown. During the election frenzy I was reading Ezekiel 23:35 and the LORD impressed upon me that this word was for America as well: "Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore you shall bear the penalty of your lewdness and your harlotry." The Hebrew word for lewdness, zimmah, can mean a heinous crime or evil scheme.

Our republic is rotting from the inside. Virtues of morality, decency and honesty no longer are esteemed. Our president elect won't, or can't, produce a valid birth certificate to dispel allegations he was born in Kenya, which would disqualify him from serving as president. Inauguration Day is two months away and Obama and his minions already are scheming to divide Jerusalem and cripple the Jewish state. Obama's campaign mantra was change, but in the Mideast he's recycling Bush's flawed Road Map.

Like me, Jan Willem van der Hoeven, director of the International Christian Zionist Center, mourns for the United States. Here's an excerpt from his commentary Fall of America. Fall of the West:

Already you can feel it in the air: the hatred, anger and intolerance of many who have reveled in the election of their messiah-like Obama, the man who promises them – the young and old – change that is not based on personal change by repenting from sin and evil, but a deceitful promise of change, while everyone can live it up according to his and her own desires without necessitating a change in their own, personal behavior. Under Obama, nearly everything will go. The killing of the unborn, the perversion of sexuality, the very abominations that brought down the worlds of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Rome and the Greek civilization, will bring down America and, with it, the West.

Speaking of Gomorrah, I watched a YouTube video of a sodomite mob attacking Christians in the gay district of San Francisco (see link below). What provoked the confrontation? Worshippers were walking the streets at night, praying and singing Amazing Grace. They were swarmed by hundreds of homosexuals, who lunged at them and threatened to kill them. Some were doused with hot coffee; one woman was knocked down and kicked. Police in riot gear arrived, encircled the Christians and escorted them out of harm's way.

In these last days I am at a loss for words. My heart is so heavy I can hardly look up. LORD, in wrath remember mercy.

Camp Dora

The V-1 missile is a new exhibit at Seattle's Museum of Flight (Jeff King photos).

Germany's World War II cruise missile, the V-1 Buzz Bomb, rained terror on western Europe. Today it is a disarmed shell parked in the Great Gallery at Seattle's Museum of Flight. But unlike the other historic aircraft housed here, the V-1 isn't a warm, welcoming presence. The weapon on display was restored with parts salvaged from the notorious Mittelwerk factory in Nordhausen, Germany. Slave laborers from the adjoining Dora concentration camp assembled the V-1 and V-2 ballistic missiles in harsh, degrading conditions.

Readers might recognize the names Dora and Nordhausen. Six months ago I posted an entry about Private John Galione, an American soldier who discovered the missile factory and prisoner camp by accident. Galione's actions led to the liberation of concentration camps across Europe and the seizing of Germany's rocket technology, beating the advancing Russian army by mere hours. I visited the Great Gallery last weekend to photograph airplanes. I had read about the V-1 exhibit on the museum's website, but was unaware of the Camp Dora connection until I was standing a few feet away. The sign informed visitors that 20,000 to 30,000 Dora prisoners died in the inhuman conditions at Mittelwerk. Workers who were caught sabotaging missiles were hanged. The V-weapons are the only weapons in history to have killed more people assembling them than on the battlefield.

As a friend of Israel, my heart ached. Many of the laborers were Jewish. It's likely some had worked on the missile I was staring at. The museum should be commended for including this murderous weapon in its aviation hall of fame, if only to honor the Dora prisoners who were brutally exploited and killed. I won't forget them, and neither will the God of Israel. The Jews remain the apple of His eye.

Addendum – Mary Nahas, the daughter of John Galione, emailed me this interesting footnote: stealth technology also was captured by the Americans at Mittelwerk, although "it sat in a pile for 20 years before they realized what they had."