Eulogies

On Monday morning we received a phone call from his wife Debbi informing us that Mark Downey, a long-time friend and fellow Christian Identity pastor, had died in northern Kentucky. So Melissa and I are headed north once again, where we shall probably stay through the Sunday services at the Fellowship of God’s Covenant People. Mark had been diagnosed with late-stage cancer of the lungs about 6 months ago, and he and Debbi did everything they could to combat the disease. Mark fought a good fight, but with such a late discovery of the illness, it is evident that Yahweh God had different plans.

So tonight, as we visit with Debbi and attend whatever services are planned for Mark, we decided to offer a memorial for him by broadcasting his final sermons, a two-part series titled Eyes That See, which were delivered at the Fellowship of God’s Covenant People on November 2nd and 19th of 2017. In the second part, which is much shorter than the first, it sadly becomes evident that Mark has already begun to lose his voice, a condition which was caused by his illness. However his completion of the sermon is nevertheless a testament to his character and fortitude.

Remembering Clifton this evening, we replayed a program I presented with him on June 10th of 2011, The Angels Chained in Darkness

Tonight we are mourning the death of our long-time friend and fellow-worker, Clifton Emahiser, who passed on Wednesday afternoon. This introduction is prerecorded for both programs this weekend, July 20th and 21st, 2018, and each evening I will rebroadcast a program which Clifton and I did together over the past several years.

Clifton Emahiser had been very sick for a long time. He had a stent put in his heart in 1998. One can go to his very first Watchman’s Teaching Letter, published in May of 1998, and the first thing he discussed was his heart attack that February, and his promise to devote the rest of his life to a teaching ministry. I remember him telling me often, even while I was still in prison, which is now at least ten years ago, about his intermittent spells of high blood pressure or low pulse rates.

Last August he had fallen in his garage at home, spent 17 hours on the floor, and had suffered some minor heart attacks then. The type of heart attacks to which Clifton was susceptible were not the sudden, massive ones that usually kill men immediately, but more subtle, long-lasting ones that leave one too weak to do much of anything but to have anxiety. He was told last August that he had more blocked arteries, but because of his age he was not a candidate for heart surgery.

Remembering Clifton Emahiser, Who is the Beast of the Field?

Too many Identity Christians take for granted the claim that the non-White races are the so-called “beasts of the field”. While in some passages non-Whites may be described as beasts, the word beast in those instances being used as a pejorative, that does not mean that they are the “beasts of the field” or “beasts of the earth” of the Creation account in Genesis. Alan Campbell, Eli James and others have continually made that claim, but it simply is not true. Then, more nefariously, Eli James and his cronies would call them “men” in relation to the New Testament, which is a Jew trick if I ever saw one.

A Eulogy for Clifton Emahiser

It is just over twenty years ago that Clifton Emahiser decided to start his Watchman's Teaching Ministry, and my name was added to his list of subscribers by a mutual friend. He decided to begin his endeavor while he was hospitalized following a heart attack, in February of 1998. With his first issue he said that he was committed to publishing his teaching letters for as long as he lived, saying that “Since I came down with a heart attack February 6, 1998, I have dedicated the rest my life (at least what there is of it) to full time writing for the Almighty.” He very nearly lived up to that promise, and I am certain he never expected to complete 232 monthly editions, spanning 19 years and four months from when he had started. There are still a couple of papers Clifton wrote as late as this past winter, which I must retrieve from his files and evaluate for publication.

Near the end of the first year of his publications, I wrote him with a disagreement in reference to a particular historical subject. Often, pastors and Bible teachers who are challenged concerning such things are offended, but not Clifton. Rather than be upset over my criticism, rather than be angry, Clifton was more than happy to study what I had written him, and to discuss and reconsider his position after investigating the matter further. So we developed a working relationship and an enduring friendship over the subsequent years.

Clifton was incredibly humble, he loved hearing and discussing my critiques of his work, and over the eighteen years that I edited for him, he was always happy if I found anything that could be improved or corrected. Clifton was also humble enough to trust in his companions. He told me nearly ten years ago, when I first set up his website, that I could change anything which I thought needed correction and he would be pleased. Of course, I do not think I should change anything at all, except perhaps for minor typing or grammar corrections, whether or not I agree completely with him on any other subject. I mention all of this here as a testimony to Clifton's character. Clifton was always eager to learn as well as to teach, while he could also ardently defend his positions when he believed that criticisms were unfounded. But when criticism had merit, Clifton never rejected good evidence and he was always willing to reconsider and develop a new perspective. He was always a student as well as a teacher, eager to listen and slow to speak. We should all be like Clifton Emahiser.

This weekend we remember Clifton Emahiser by replaying his first appearance on Internet Radio.

Clifton's fleshly body was committed to the earth this morning in Tiffin, Ohio, the same town in which he was born in 1928. We thank all of our friends who attended the brief funeral, who came from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania to be with us this day.

The program we present tonight was first broadcast on Talkshoe on April 18th, 2009, days after Clifton's 82nd birthday.

At left: Clifton at his dining room table in his home in Fostoria, Ohio, October, 2015.