These two women were offered $26 million for their farm. They told the data center people, "No". Why? How could you say no to that much money? I believe these two ladies have a deep connection with a patriot of this country who gave an important speech 251 years ago this week.
Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every single day. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. There's a family in Kentucky that refuses to sell their farm for a data center.
Sell their farm. And you're thinking, I wouldn't sell either. Stand up to the you know what's $26 million. Oh, well, I mean, for for $26 million. I think that's, I would probably sell. I want to tie that story into a speech that was given this week, specifically March 23rd, 251 years ago.
First, here's what happened with this family, according to the local Kentucky news.
If it's my way, I'll stay and hold and feed an Asian. 26 million doesn't mean anything.
Some people might find it hard to understand how Delcia Bear can turn away a $26 million offer to buy some of her land until you spend a little time with her walking the dirt road she grew up on and in the house her daddy built.
My grandfather and great -grandfather and a whole bunch of family has all lived here for years, paid taxes on it, fed a nation off of it. He even raised wheat through the depression and kept the bread lines up in the United States of America when people didn't have anything else.
Delcia is one of dozens of landowners approached by an anonymous buyer, one of the major players in artificial intelligence, likely Google or Meta or Amazon, to purchase their land. The market value for land in Mason County is about $6 ,000 an acre. The realtor that came to her door last April offered her and her mother about 10 times that.
They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we're not. We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don't have any water and poison, we know we've had it.
Delcia's mom, Ida Huddleston, is now 82 years old. She says she does not need the money or the hassle. She was born on this land, and she plans to die here. And she certainly does not trust the promises made by the AI companies or the people who want them to build here. So what do you say to the people who are in town that say, hey, this is going to bring jobs, this is going to bring economic prosperity?
I say they're a liar and the truth ain't in them, is what I say.
It's a scam.
For Delcia, scam or not, she says she's connected to her home like Scarlett O 'Hara was in Gone with the Wind.
As long as she was attached to that land, her spirit never would die. And that's the exact same thing for me right here. As long as I'm on this land, as long as it's feeding me, as long as it's taking care of me, there's nothing that can destroy me if I've got this land.
I met that realtor who came to their door. thought they were going to make these people's day. Oh, I'm going to give them 26 million. They're going to be so happy. They're going to give me a big hug. But they said, get off my property right now and don't ever come back.
That line from grandma, she said, the truth is not in him. That's 1 John 2, 3. Now by this, we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in him again.
1 John 2, 3. I love these two women. What good is 26 million? to people who don't care about money? What good is $26 million to people who understand that there are things more important in life than money? I saw a cartoon.
There's a couple of people starving around a fire. And then the caption said, sure, the planet got destroyed, but for a beautiful moment in time, we created a lot of value for shareholders. You wouldn't, you wouldn't, but the shareholder value was through the roof. but at what cost. I want to bring it to the Bible here. Here's what I want to do a little bit different than maybe we normally do.
Those great patriots, those women in Kentucky, they come from the same line of great Americans as our founding fathers and founding grandfathers, because they're people who understand that there's something more important than money. They're people who believe in the first of all, but they understand that there's something more important than money. They're grounded in the land and grounded in what's right above all else. This week, it was March 23rd, 1775. Patrick Henry gave his famous, give me liberty or give me death speech 251 years ago this week. And I want to read it.
I want to read the whole speech, but I'm going to pause and give the biblical references throughout it. These Patriots, 181 of them, I believe met in Richmond instead of Williamsburg because they wanted to avoid the royal governor Lord Dunmore. So they went to Richmond and they met in the largest building in town, St. John's church. And the question was, should we go to war with the strongest military in the world? Oh, and if we lose, we die.
Patrick Henry got up to speech. It was not a foregone conclusion that we would win, of course, that we would even fight. Patrick Henry gets up. He says, Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes. It's Proverbs 1630, Isaiah 44, 18 says, they know not, nor do they discern for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot understand.
He said, We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren until she transforms us into beasts. That's a reference to the Odyssey. Is this the part of wise men engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who having eyes see not and having ears hear not? Jeremiah 521. Hear this, O foolish and senseless people who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.
And also Ezekiel 12 .2, which says, Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house who have eyes to see, but see not. who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. So Patrick Henry says, Are we are we going to be those people who have ears and eyes, but we don't use them? The things which so clearly concern our temporal salvation. For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost. That's Job 711.
Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Henry said, I'm willing to know the whole truth. John 8 32. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
I'm willing to know the whole truth to know the worst and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided. That's Psalm 119, 105. Our word is a lamp to my feet. Your word is a lamp to my feet. and a light to my path.
He says, and this is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging in the future, but by the past. And judging by the past, I know, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the past 10 years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves in the house. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir. It will prove a snare to your feet.
Jeremiah 18 .22, a cry. Let be heard from their houses when you bring the troops suddenly upon them, for they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. Are you with me on how Patrick Henry was able to just pull all of this, all these biblical allusions in his speech, and that all the people there knew exactly what he was talking about? Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. It's all throughout the Gospels, of course. Judas.
Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comforts those or excuse me, comports with those war -like preparations which are made within our borders. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array if it purpose be not to force us to submission?
Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain, any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir. He is not. Like, what else are they doing here? They're meant for us.
They can be meant for no other. They're sent over to bomb us. rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we've been trying that for the last 10 years.
Has it been any avail? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that we could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on us. We have petitioned. We have supplicated.
We have prostrated ourselves before the throne. and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted, our remonstrances have been produced, additional violence, insult and insult, our supplications have been disregarded, and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve and violate those inestimable privileges of for which we have been so long contending.
If we mean not basically to abandon the noble struggle in which we've been so long engaged, in which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight. I repeat it, sir, we must fight. An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that has left us. They tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week or next year?
Will it be when we are totally disarmed and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the defensive phantom of hope? Until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot, sir, we are not weak. if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a country as that which we possess," that's Deuteronomy 312, and this land which we possessed at that time, "...are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.
Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God. " Isaiah 45 21. which says, there's no God else beside me, a just God and a savior. There's none beside me. There's a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will rise up friends to fight our battles for us.
It's first Samuel 8 20 that we may also, uh, that we also may be like all the nations and that our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. And then also second Chronicles 32 eight says with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord, our God to help us and to fight our battles. Patrick Henry said, the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Ecclesiastes 9 .11 says again. I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery, our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable. Let it come.
I repeat it, sir. Let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace. But there is no peace. Jeremiah 6, 14.
One of the most famous lines in American history comes from Jeremiah 6, 14, which says they have healed the wound of my people lightly saying peace, peace when there is no peace. And also Jeremiah 8, 11. They have healed the wounds of my people lightly saying peace, peace again, when there is no peace. The war has actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north. will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms.
Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? It's Matthew 6, excuse me, Matthew 26. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? There's Patrick Henry.
Why are we standing here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear? Acts 20, 24, but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy. Do you find life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, Joshua 24, 15, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I do not know what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. Our founders and all the hearers of that speech. They knew every single reference, biblical reference, and they knew exactly what Patrick Henry was doing with what became one of the most important speeches in American history. It inspired people at the moment, of course.
The vote was narrow. 65 to 60 was the final vote to rise up the militia. But it was that speech that swayed everything. It was Virginia, after all. Also, Thomas Jefferson was there. He wasn't yet a national figure.
He was known somewhat, but he wasn't a hero by any means. This wasn't the first time that Thomas Jefferson heard a Patrick Henry speech. When Thomas Jefferson was 20 years old, he was studying law. And he heard a speech that Patrick Henry gave, the speech where Patrick Henry called the king a tyrant. And Thomas Jefferson later said of Patrick Henry, it appeared to me. that he spoke as Homer wrote. This is who we come from. This is our heritage. Those two ladies in Kentucky know it.