By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Father of 9/11 hero says America faces 'same enemy'
David Beamer urges Lakewood Baptist congregation to be vigilant of freedoms
07020beamer1
David Beamer, father of Todd Beamer who helped storm the cockpit of United flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, speaks to the congregation at Lakewood Baptist Church on Sunday morning. The father of 9/11 hero Todd Beamer exhorted a Gainesville church Sunday to “be informed, aware and awake” as America still faces the “same enemy with new tactics and same objectives.” David Beamer, whose son’s expression of “Let’s roll” during a terrorist hijacking of his airliner became a rallying cry for Americans, spoke during a patriotic celebration at Lakewood Baptist Church off Thompson Bridge Road. “We need to be watchmen to preserve whatever it is that we’ve got,” he said. Beamer, a retired business executive, spoke about the day his son joined other passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 to thwart the hijackers’ plan to steer the plane, presumably toward Washington, D.C., and cause more destruction. Speaking on the phone to a customer-service representative, Beamer reportedly spoke of the passengers’ plans and recited “The Lord’s Prayer” with the operator. His last audible words were “Are you guys ready? OK, let’s roll.” His father gave the congregation a brief update on the family Todd left behind. “The Beamer household is all doing fine,” Beamer said. “But it’s still OK if you remember us from time to time with a prayer.” Beamer declared himself a Christian, conservative and capitalist. “But I’m also a concerned citizen this morning,” he said. “It’s been more than 10 years since 9/11, but we are still at war.” Islamic fundamentalists and devout Islamists “have as their objective that the Islamic flag would replace the big (U.S.) flag that was down here a while ago,” Beamer said, referring to the American flag that was draped across the church stage at the beginning of the service. “Their objective is to fly the Islamic flag over the White House and every place else in our land. Islam means to submit to their way of life,” he said. “Islam is not a religion of peace. When they talk about peace, peace is achieved when all the planet Earth submits to the rule of Islam. Coexistence is not possible.” Beamer said the nation’s troubles don’t stop there. “We’re under attack from without and within,” he said. “I want you to stand up, speak out, vote early and often.” He also spoke of “militant secularism,” which seeks to “get God out of the public square, get him out of the city council because is there really a God anyway?” “Tolerance is the new golden term,” Beamer said. “We must tolerate, we must accept, we must believe that there’s an alternate reality and an alternative truth. We don’t talk about sin issues; we talk about social issues.” Beamer turned evangelical in his closing remarks when he said that “in the midst of all this, my joy, my hope and my contentment is unabated. How can that be? I know Jesus Christ as God’s son and my Lord and savior.” He said that on 9/11, his son’s schedule “didn’t have written down ‘I’m going to meet God at 10 o’clock,’ but (in preceding days) he had a life plan. He knew Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior.” “We know how Todd is doing,” Beamer said. “He’s doing great.”
The father of 9/11 hero Todd Beamer exhorted a Gainesville church Sunday to “be informed, aware and awake” as America still faces the “same enemy with new tactics and same objectives.” David Beamer, whose son’s expression of “Let’s roll” during a terrorist hijacking of his airliner became a rallying cry for Americans, spoke during a patriotic celebration at Lakewood Baptist Church off Thompson Bridge Road. “We need to be watchmen to preserve whatever it is that we’ve got,” he said.