OK, no BBR content yet (take it easy, this is only the beta and it’s less than a day old!), but the backburner is hot!
In fact, “Too hot for You Tube!” as Chuck Baldwin says.
Baldwin is the pastor at Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, which was the first stop on our whirlwind itinerary. I was in a tizzy trying to get ready, packing and making a huge lunch for me and calorie-monster Lukas; I remember Annie Bukacek back in 2020 saying, “Pastor doesn’t like you to be late!” Luckily I was saved by daylight savings-forgot to change the clocks and so the whole morning I was running around unaware I had an extra hour. Kind of like the joy of finding a lost wallet- The silver lining to absent-minded forgetfullness.
Liberty Fellowship gathers in a local hotel conference room. Pastor Baldwin is also a syndicated columnist and was once the Constitution Party presidential candidate. He’s a staunch supporter of the Constitution, especially the 1st and 2nd amendments. He is ready to make common cause with people all across the political spectrum on key, popular issues. wikipedia: On September 10, [Ron] Paul held a National Press Club conference at which Baldwin, Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, and independent candidate Ralph Nader all agreed on four principles—quickly ending the Iraq War, protecting privacy and civil liberties, stopping increases in the national debt, and investigating the Federal Reserve—and on their opposition to the Democratic and Republican parties ignoring these issues.[41]
Man, can you imagine having a viable presidential candidate supporting those issues?It sounds like an impossibility.
Pastor Chuck makes a point of greeting newcomers to the fellowship before things get underway. He remembered me from our interviews in 2020 and gave me a hearty ‘welcome back’. He was very happy to have Lukas there from Germany too. He said, “Well, you guys sure picked a special day to attend. Today is going to be red hot!” When he got to the lectern, he asked us both to stand up and introduce ourselves. I won’t give away the sermon here; it’s not up on the web yet and I’ll link it later. but the reason Pastor Baldwin said too ‘red hot’ was because he isn’t going to put it up on his most popular medium, Youtube. They’d censor it in a flash and give him a strike if not a ban. If you know his work, you’ll probably know what he talked about. Hint: If you follow any of these guys you’ll also know:
I’ll link to the sermon when it’s up on the web. After Liberty Fellowship, I booked a night at a hotel close to downtown and Lukas and I had a walk around. As in Anytown, USA, the best part is where the buildings were built over 80 years ago. There’s lots of stately churches in just south of downtown, Kalispell. Here’s the front door to the Catholic church:
I never even knew about the practice of chalking the door. Apparently it got started in Methodist communities in Great Britain, and spread to the American Midwest. Lukas said he’d seen it in Germany. The numbers are for the current year; the crosses, which I mistook for ‘plusses’ in an equation, are for the crosses of Christ (the three on Calvary Hill?); and the C,B and M stand for the names of the Three Kings (Magi) or Christus mansionem benedicat ('May Christ bless this house').
Leaving the celestial and heading back to the center of town, we found mammon: a brew pub with some live music. I thought we were pretty lucky to get a table close to the singer/guitarist, but after a couple minutes I realized it was pure amateur night, the big fat guy at the mixer turned to us and said, “Are you guys musicians? It’s open mic!”
Lukas and I looked at each other and fats said, “You get a free beer if you come up!”
I said to Lukas, “Should I get up and play, Justin Bieber’s Face?”
Luke- Yeah man, do it!
Me- No way, I gotta get that down. I got nervous just playing in front of you and Rick…What about you, Luke? You can play some nice licks.
Luke was tempted but we both agreed we’d better practice a bit. The guys who came upstage were pretty good guitar players.
Actually, we may have the chance to show off our chops next week. We might be back in Kalispell as Liberty Fellowship will have a special guest. The co-author of this book is coming:
That’s my copy I got from LF bookstore on the way out. Maybe I’ll get the author to fit an interview into his busy schedule next week. First interview for BBR, maybe?
I’ll keep you posted.
Postscript: Apparently, the Catholics go all the way with the door chalking and bless the chalk:
Blessed chalk - only $4 - http://stmichaelstore.com/blessedchalk.html. Couldn't find cheaper offerings from Amazon or Etsy, and Temu forces you to sign up before letting you search. But plenty of Ukranian chalk came up on Etsy. Another way to send your $$ to support Ukraine now that the gvt seems to telling Zelensky "oh well, that didn't work."