Think About It

By May 1787, the Articles of Confederation that bound the colonies together during the American Revolution were starting to unravel.  The States were quarreling with each other over currency, land, waterway rights and debts.  The European powers with designs on the new world laid in wait; preparing to devour the infant United States should she falter. The call went out to assemble in Philadelphia, “for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation.”

People became suspicious. Patrick Henry of Virginia refused to attend because he smelled a rat, and Rhode Island, keeping with her rebellious heritage, boycotted the convention.  Eventually, twelve of the thirteen states would be represented.   The first order of business was electing George Washington Convention President, and establishing a set of rules to encourage a full and open debate.   However, it soon became evident that the Articles of Confederation could not be salvaged. A new government would be necessary; a new type of government suited to a new people, and a new nation.

The men who attended the convention were the cream of the colonies, well-educated and propertied; legislators and governors, leaders of the Continental Army, signers of the Declaration of Independence, and authors of the Articles of Confederation. They were seasoned, experienced, and politically shrewd.  As they began their debate, and set about to construct a new government, it became apparent that the single greatest obstacle they faced, is what in Christian Theology is known as, “the fallen nature of man.”

The framers of the Constitution realized that human beings were corrupt, and it was man’s nature to abuse power.  The dilemma they faced was, to whom to entrust the power; the government or the people?   They knew the nation needed an effective government.  However, they also understood that all governments gravitated towards tyranny.  As Benjamin Franklin reminded them; a king will continue to tax the people to pay for his army and government, until he first takes all their money, then their land, and eventually, their freedom.

They also had serious reservations about the people’s ability to govern themselves.  In order for the nation to succeed, the American people would have to rise to the challenge.  They would have to be well educated, informed, involved, and above all else, moral.  Experience had taught the framers that the people could be easily manipulated, and controlled by politicians who promised them entitlements from the national treasury.  If the American people were not vigilant about their self-government, the nation would fail.

Drawing on the lessons of history, they discussed and debated every possible form of government, and came to the conclusion that a Republic, a nation of laws, with three distinct branches; the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, would offer the greatest chance of success.  However, the devil is in the details, and that’s where things became difficult.

Should there be one Chief Executive or a council of three? Should he serve for life? Should he have absolute power to veto the laws of Congress, or should there be a mechanism to override his veto? Should he be appointed by the Legislature, or elected by the people? How many houses should make up Congress? How will representation be determined; proportional by population, or equally by state?  Should they be appointed by their state legislatures, or elected by the people. Can they hold an office in both their state government and federal government at the same time? Are state governments even necessary?  Wouldn’t it be better to dissolve the state governments and consolidate everything under the national government? Who was going to pay Congress; their home states or the national treasury?

Benjamin Franklin opposed paying government officials a salary.  He believed that the two things men most coveted were money and power, and creating a government office that offered both, would only attract the worst possible candidates.

They worked and debated through the brutally hot summer, continually struggling to balance and reconcile the allocation of power.  Often, tensions and emotions ran high; big states versus small states, north versus south, and farmer versus merchant.  Some delegates became despondent and quit, returning to their home states in frustration and despair.  Several times it appeared that the convention was at an impasse, and would dissolve in failure, but they continued compromising, working with each other for the benefit of the new nation.  Slowly, the Constitution began to take shape; word by word, line by line, every paragraph and phrased was discussed and debated until it was right.  As the convention came to a close that September, not a single person in attendance was completely satisfied, five of the delegates refused to sign it, but what they had accomplished was truly miraculous; something never before seen in human history; a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

On the last day of the convention, Benjamin Franklin too old and sick to stand and address the assembly had James Wilson read some remarks that he prepared.   He recognized that the Constitution was not perfect, but he implored his fellow delegates to like him, doubt a little of their own infallibility, and sign the document.  However, Franklin pessimistically went on to make a prediction. He said that initially the government would succeed in benefiting the people, but eventually, like all governments, it would end in despotism, because in the end, the people would become so corrupt, that only a tyrant could rule them.

Sometimes children disappoint their parents.  John Adams’ father wanted him to become a minister, but he opted for a career in law.  Adams graduated Harvard at sixteen, became a college professor at seventeen, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-three.  Thomas Jefferson called him the “Colossus of Independence” because of the role he played in our nation’s founding.   He nominated George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and served on more committees in the Second Continental Congress, including the one that drafted the Declaration of Independence, than any other representative.  He was an ambassador to France and Great Britain, and helped negotiate the treaty that ended the American Revolution. Adams wrote the Massachusetts Constitution, was the first Vice-President of the United States, and our second President.  I guess some parents are just impossible to please.

Although he never became a minister, Adams understood the importance of religion in “The Great Experiment.”  In a letter to the officers and men of the Massachusetts Militia, he noted that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  It’s rather an odd statement coming from a man who shunned the cloth for what he considered the nobler calling of the law. What did Adams mean by this statement?

Adams understood that the United States was a new type of nation, something never before seen in human history.  We are the first nation in history in which the people govern themselves.  The United States is the world’s first self-governed nation, and it is impossible to overstate the significance of this achievement.

Throughout history, in all cultures and civilizations, the people have always been governed by a ruling class. There had always been a nobility or aristocracy that set themselves apart from and above the common man.  Their power was based upon the property they inherited. They secured their position and controlled the masses by keeping the people economically dependent on those who owned the property.   The ruling elite did not permit social mobility; if you were born a commoner, you died a commoner, and if you were born privileged, you died privileged.  Our Founding Fathers broke from this mold.  America was, and still is, “The Great Experiment.”  The great experiment to see if a people could govern themselves.

There have never been a people who have enjoyed more personal liberties and freedoms than the Americans.  However, Adams knew this autonomy carried with it dangerous and potentially fatal challenges.  The greatest threat to the nation was, and remains, the people.  In order for the nation to thrive, the people would have to exercise an extraordinary amount of self-control and self-discipline. An amount Adams believed could only be achieved if the people were both “moral” and “religious.”

Adams understood human nature.  He knew that with unlimited freedom, the people could abandon the moral virtues to which their religion compelled them, in order to pursue more self-indulgent intentions.  Our democracy would degenerate into an anarchy in which no citizen respected the rights or property of anyone else. This would create the situation in which a tyrant, promising to restore order, could rise to power and usurp the liberties and freedoms on which the nation was established.

Religion serves two critical functions in “The Great Experiment.”  First, it is freedoms guarantee.  The Declaration of Independence states that we are endowed by our Creator with the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  No state or government can take these from us because they are God given.  A religious people can always invoke the protection of the Almighty in preserving their liberty. Second, religion is a regulator of human behavior.  A people who are motivated to love and serve the Lord will continually strive to do the right thing.  They will be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to preserve, promote and protect the liberties and freedoms of future generations.   The willingness to sacrifice in the present for the benefit of tomorrow is absolutely essential if a society is going to thrive and endure.

Today, the United States is heading down the perilous path of secularism.  There is an on-going effort to remove God from “The Great Experiment.”  The consensus among the enlightened liberal elite is that religion is passé.  They believe that our society has evolved to the point where God is no longer desirable or necessary.  If they succeed, “The Great Experiment” will end badly.

The twentieth-century has numerous examples of secular-atheist states that were successful in removing God from their societies. The Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, and to some extent, Nazi Germany are the most notorious.  These Governments instituted policies that effectively outlawed religion and openly persecuted people of faith.  Not surprisingly, these states are the worst violators of human rights in history, using economic repression, starvation and mass murder to achieve their political objectives.

Those who believe that, it could never happen here are deluding themselves.  It didn’t happen in those places because they were Russian, Chinese, North Korean, or German.  It happened in those nations because they were human. When you remove God from the equation you create a power vacuum; a vacuum which someone like Stalin, Mao, Kim or Hitler will gladly try to fill.

God is the ultimate moral authority; the benefactor and protector of all human rights.  God is the best guarantee we have to safeguard and preserve our fundamental and inalienable rights. John Adams understood this.  He feared that America could drift away from its Judeo-Christian roots and start down the slippery slope of secularism.  He warned; “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

When I was a kid, it was great time to be a kid.  Every house in the neighborhood had at least three or four children. The moms stayed home and raised the children while the dads went off to work, and the kids spent all their time just being kids. None of us really had a lot but we all seemed to have plenty.  Some of the dads went to college, and some didn’t. Blue collar or white, it really didn’t matter; we were all pretty much the same, and nobody kept score.

Sunday was the best day of the week. Everyone got dressed-up to go to church.  It didn’t matter what church you went to, when you went to church, you got dressed-up. Dinner was served at two; usually roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, pop-n-fresh rolls, and something wonderful for dessert.  Sunday night the entire family gathered around the TV to watch; “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, “ “The Wonderful World of Disney,” and for those old enough to stay up past eight, “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

In the summer, you’d get up around eight, grab a quick bowl of cereal and head outside to play.  You’d build tree forts, rope swings, catch frogs and turtles, play baseball on the street, and run through the lawn sprinkler.  You’d come home for lunch, but head right back outside in the afternoon.  After dinner, you’d play hide-and-go seek in the dark, and try to catch fireflies in a jar.

During the school year, you walked to the bus stop with your buddies, dumped each other’s books, and threw snowballs at the diaper truck.  A hot-lunch cost twenty-five cents, and on Thursday’s they served Dagwood sandwiches.  At Thanksgiving, you made Indian headdresses out of construction paper, sang Christmas Carols at Christmas time, and had an end of year party.  Report cards had letter grades; parents and teachers had meetings, and not every kid got promoted.  All in all, it was a pretty good time to be a kid.

Things started to change in Junior High. An eighth-grade girl was taken to the hospital after overdosing on something.  The house next door was broken into; my mother’s car was stolen from the drive way, and the girl down the street got pregnant and had to drop out of school. A lot of things began to change, and the pace at which they changed began to increase.  Plenty of people complained, but nobody stopped to consider where these changes were taking us.  Nobody bothered to ask: Where are we going?

We got cable TV and went from three channels to fifty.  They didn’t stop broadcasting after the nightly news either; no more national anthem and test pattern, you could watch TV all night long if you wanted. The mall opened, and kids became a market segment.  We had always had the after Thanksgiving Toy Catalog, but this was different; kids were now in the cross hairs of Madison Avenue.  Again, people complained but still nobody bothered to ask: Where are we going?

Church became casual; people stopped getting dressed-up to go, and then stopped going all together.  The sit-down Sunday dinner disappeared as the stores started staying open and more moms started working; usually a part-time job to help pay for the second car, third color TV, or fourth trip to Disney World. Sometimes it was just to help pay for food and gas because things really started to get expensive.  People complained even more but again, no one bothered to ask: Where are we going?

More kids started going off to college, burning draft cards and bras, and became sexually liberated. The President got caught lying and had to resign.  A whole bunch of Congressmen were caught lying, cheating on their taxes and sleeping with under-age  pages, but none of them had to resign. Sometime later another President got caught lying, but he didn’t have to resign either.  People complained even louder but still no one asked: Where are we going?

The Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade, but the number of illegitimate births continued to soar, as did the number of people on welfare and food stamps.  The manufacturing sector got smaller as the government got bigger. Now almost every family had to have two working parents, and there were no more stay at-home moms.  The internet was born and people no longer had to get their Playboys delivered in a brown paper wrapper.  They could download just about anything imaginable, and even some things previously unimaginable.  Video games became interactive and 3D; young men and boys could spend countless hours shooting up Fallujah or killing zombies. Still no one asked: Where are we going?

Today kids don’t walk to the bus stop; their parents have to drive them.  Their jump ropes and yo-yo’s have been replaced by laptops and I-phones, which they use for calling, tweeting, texting and sexting. Facebook and My-Space, have supplanted the Saturday night sleep-over and pickup game of street hockey.  Kids are indoctrinated at school, targeted at the mall, and stocked online. Words previously confined to the locker-room and barracks are now commonplace in the classroom and cafeteria.  School nurses no longer worry about bloody noses and skinned knees; they’re more concerned with pregnancies and STDs. All in all, it’s not a very good time to be a kid.

I don’t know when that change occurred, but it definitely happened.  Of course things will continue to change, but we no longer have to wonder where all these changes are taking us.  They’ve taken us to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut.

The air was crisp and clear when George Washington stepped onto the balcony at Federal Hall, in New York City, on April 30, 1789.  Wearing a dark-brown suit and white silk stockings, he graciously bowed to acknowledge the crowd of well-wishers.  Robert Livingston opened the bible. Washington placed his hand upon it and began, “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States,” then pausing briefly, he added, “So help me God!”

This account of Washington’s inauguration has been recorded in history books, recounted in literature, and depicted in movies.  It is the reason why modern presidents conclude their oath of office with the divine petition, “So help me God!” However, recently some historians have challenged the account.  Apparently, there is no eye-witness record of Washington uttering the phrase. The first documented account doesn’t appear until 1854, some 65-years after the event. Additionally, these historians assert that Washington was a stickler for protocol, and it is unlikely that he would amend the Constitutional oath, with a personal petition to the Almighty. Given the lack of evidence to either prove, or disprove the account, it appears that the story of “So help me God,” is destined to remain in historical limbo, somewhere between folklore and fact.

Over the past couple of decades, there as been an effort to reinterpret and secularize George Washington.  Modern historians have described him as a lukewarm Episcopalian, and a man who was not deeply religious, or particularly ardent in his faith.  They propose that because there is no mention of Jesus Christ by name in any of Washington’s writings, he was not a Christian, but a Deist.

An examination of the historical evidence is enough to discredit these re-interpretations. George Washington was without doubt a Christian.  He was a member of Pohick Parish near his home at Mount Vernon, and while President regularly attended services at Christ Church in Philadelphia. The extent that Washington adhered to the doctrine and dogma of his faith is unknown, but he apparently did not receive communion.  His adopted daughter describes him as a devote Christian, and Robert Lewis, his nephew and private secretary regularly witnessed him kneeling to pray, reading the bible, quoting scripture and writing prayers.

Washington was an intensely private man who adhered to a strict code of civility and behavior. He never discussed politics or religion in conversation. However, his public and private papers are full of references to God.  He frequently appealed to the Almighty during our struggle for independence, and earnestly believed that divine intervention helped win the American Revolution.  He issued a Presidential Proclamation assigning Thursday, November 26 as a day of Thanksgiving to recognize “that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good, that is, or will be,” and told the Chiefs of the Delaware Indians that, “You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people… “

If there is so much evidence that Washington was a Christian, why is there an on-going debate about his faith?  There are those that claim that it is a deliberate attempt by secularist to re-write our history in order to negate the importance of religion and faith on the nation’s founding, and complete the job of removing God from all our public institutions. Conspiracy theories aside, it is most likely the inability of modern historians to understand the impact of faith on our first President.

Today’s historians cannot understand Washington because they’re looking at him through the secular perspective of arrogance and cynicism.  Modern politicians compartmentalize their religious beliefs and political philosophies.  In this era of the Politics of Personal Destruction, politicians routinely abandoned morality and values for expediency and votes.  Academia and the self-proclaimed intellectual elite scoff at the notion of a higher moral authority, and stand ready to ridicule anyone who believes in the Creator. Any business or civic leader, who formulates a policy or position based on religious principles, runs the risk of being attacked and vilified by the media.  Faith has become a political liability in the secular arena of public discourse.

Washington like most of the Founding Fathers was a man of great faith.  He ardently believed that there was a creator, a God who actively participated in and influenced the lives of men.  He understood that there is a higher moral authority that will one-day hold us all accountable for what we do and fail to do with the life he gave us.  Secular historians cannot understand George Washington because they are either unable, or unwilling to accept this truth.

This country was settled by people seeking freedom OF religion, and not freedom FROM religion. That tradition was very much alive at the time of the American Revolution. Washington and the Founding Fathers understood the significance of their undertaking.  They set out to create something new and unique in human history; a nation predicated on the divine truth that all men are created equal.  They succeeded in securing our independence because they believed in the divine nature of their cause, and had the faith and courage to risk everything.

Washington and the other Founding Fathers were men, just like any other men; ambitious, petty and jealous.  They were separated by regional and religious differences, and had their own personal agendas.  However, they were able to put those differences aside, doubt a little of their own infallibility, and create the miracle at Philadelphia, because they understood that one day, they would be judged not only by history, but by God Almighty.

It is said that actions speak louder than words, and perhaps that’s true. We may never know what Washington actually said at his inauguration, but we do know what he did.  Eye-witness Eliza Susan Morton Quincy, wife of Harvard President and Congressman Josiah Quincy wrote, “Chancellor Livingston read the oath according to the form prescribed by the Constitution; and Washington repeated it, resting his hand upon the Bible. Mr. Otis, the Secretary of the Senate, then took the Bible to raise it to the lips of Washington; who stooped, and kissed the book.” The crowd then shouted “Long live George Washington!”

Yorktown Virginia, October 19, 1781; it’s just after two in the afternoon, and the British army is preparing for its final advance. Eight-thousand regulars dressed in scarlet and white, will depart their fortifications and march a mile; through the cordon of ragtag, American troops that line the road, to an open field where they will lay down their muskets, and affectively end the American Revolution. As the Red Coats snap to attention and the command “Forward – March” is given, the British band strikes up the tune “The World Turned Upside Down.”

The world in 1781 was a world ruled by monarchs; Charles IV of Spain, Fredrick II of Germany, Louis XVI of France, Catherine II of Russia, Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Austria, and George III of England. It was a world divided by class. At the top of the pecking order were the nobility, and at the bottom, the commoners.  The nobility inherited their status and special privileges, while the commoners gratefully accepted what they were given, or else faced a very difficult existence. However, all that changed one April morning with the shot herd round the world.

The American Revolution was not just a revolt against the British crown; it was a revolt against the philosophy and culture that had dominated Europe for centuries. Five years earlier the Founding Fathers rejected the status- quo and proclaimed to the world the truth, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  That autumn day in Virginia, literally turned the world, upside down.

The Founding Fathers embraced the divine truth “that all men are created equal.”  They believed God created autonomous human beings, with the free-will to make their own decisions and build their own lives, and that it was immoral for any other human being or human institution to infringe upon, or usurp that autonomy.

However, the Founding Fathers studied history, and knew that all governments gravitated towards tyranny. They knew human nature, and understood that there would always be some form of aristocracy seeking to set themselves apart from, and above the masses. When they created the American Republic, they rejected the concept of class, and the idea that any individual was inherently superior to another because of bloodline or birth. They establish a society in which the individual was free to rise and fall, according to the merits of their own ideas and actions.

The Founding Fathers did not build the greatest nation on earth by empowering a great government. They built it by limiting government, which enables people to be great, and accomplish great things.

Although all men are equal in the eyes of God, and under the law, the reality is that no two human beings are the same. We are all unique; possessing our own blend of intelligence, talent and potential. We are all individuals with our own values, ambitions, and experiences. No two human beings can be guaranteed the same success or failure in life. It’s up to each individual to decide on what’s important to them, define their own success, and then “go for it.” The best that we can hope to accomplish is to preserve and promote what our Founding Fathers established; a society in which every individual has the freedom and opportunity to pursue their own dreams, free from, and unhindered by the intrusion of government.

Over the past five decades, we’ve changed the prism through which we interpret the phrase “all men are created equal.” It has morphed from the divine truth of the Founding Fathers, into the secular notion of collective equality; the fallacy that everyone is entitled to a certain standard of living, and that it is the government’s role to secure it for them.

Between 1940 and 1964, the poverty rate in the United States plummeted from 43 percent to 14 percent, due to a booming economy, the best public education system in the world, and investments in highways and infrastructure that made rural America accessible. Then in 1964 President Johnson declares a war on poverty, and the decline halted, stagnating around 13 percent. Over the past 50 years, the United States has spent over 15 trillion dollars battling poverty. This 15 trillion does not include Social Security or Medicare. It is just welfare payments, food stamps, housing subsidies and other means-tested programs.

Why can’t we do better? Why has the “Great Society” failed? The answer unfortunately, is the law of unintended consequences.

It’s not the intent that counts, but the results, and President Johnson’s “Great Society” has decimated the American family. Since the start of the war on poverty, the divorce rate in the United States has doubled, and the number of out-of-wedlock births has increased ten-fold. Seventy-five percent of people on welfare today find themselves on it because of a divorce, or out-of-wedlock birth. One-third of the children in the country are raised in a single-parent home, and one-third of those live in poverty. The best intentions of the “Great Society” have created an entire class of citizens who are terminally dependent upon the government.

Compounding the problem is the creation of the new aristocracy; the federal and state bureaucrats who administer these programs. Each year, hundreds of billions of dollars are spent to administer programs that are designed to keep people dependent upon the government. Less than one percent of the trillions of dollars budgeted for means tested-programs is spent on job-training, or programs designed to give people the education and skills needed to be self-sufficient and independent.

The welfare state created by the “Great Society” is immoral. It has bred an army of bureaucrats whose livelihood is contingent upon keeping millions of people dependent upon the government. It has usurped the autonomy of the individual and subjugated generations of Americans to a life of limited opportunity and hopelessness. The modern welfare-state has once again turned the world upside down because clearly, today in America, all men are not created equal.

On Feb 8 1954, President Eisenhower attended services at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, the same church Abraham Lincoln attended while he was President. It was a service to commemorate the 145th birthday of the sixteenth President. The Reverend Dr. George Docherty delivered a sermon posing the same question that Lincoln had posed in his Gettysburg Address; whether or not our nation, or any nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, could long endure?

The world had changed a great deal from Lincoln’s time.  It was the height of the Cold War. The United States and Soviet Union had emerged from the Second World War as global super-powers with conflicting ideologies that threatened to consume the planet in a nuclear Armageddon.  However, despite that ever-present threat, and the fear and paranoia that gripped the nation, the Reverend concluded that we could, and would endure, because we were one nation under God, that had always been able to emerge from the ashes of war and conflict, rededicated to the ideals and values of our founding.  The sermon inspired Eisenhower, and on June 14, 1954, the phrase “One Nation Under God” was officially incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance.

Over the years there have been numerous legal challenges to the phrase “Under God,” brought by the ACLU and other secularists, claiming that it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. These suits have been heard at all levels of the judicial system, including the US Supreme Court, with very little success.  For now, the consensus remains that the phrase “Under God,” does not constitute the establishment of an official state religion, and elementary school children are still free to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Despite these court rulings, secularists will continue to challenge the phrase “Under God,” because they simply do not understand the ideological foundations of this Nation.  Their revisionist history even claims that our Founding Fathers intended to establish a purely secular state in order to purposely exclude God from the public sector. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The Founding Fathers were men of great faith, who intentionally established a nation based upon the Natural Law of the Creator.

The Natural Law recognizes that there is a Creator, who set in motion the evolution of the universe, and put in place both the physical and moral laws that govern it. The physical laws are the laws that govern the formation of the cosmos, and orbits of the planets.  They are discovered by man with his intellect and reason, and comprise the foundations of science. The moral law has been revealed to man by God.  They are Moses’s Ten Commandments, Buddha’s Eight Fold Path to Enlightenment, Confucius’s Gentlemanly Principals, and the commandment of Jesus of Nazareth to love God with all your heart and all your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  They form the culture of ideals and values known as the Judeo-Christian ethic.

The evidence that our Founding Fathers intended to create a nation built upon the Natural Law is found in the very document that established the United States.  The preamble of the Declaration of Independence states quite clearly, that our new nation, and our liberties and freedoms are based upon the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” The United States is the first and perhaps only nation in modern history founded upon God’s truths, and God’s Natural Law.  It is the reason for our success and the source of our greatness.

The delusion of modern secular liberalism is that you can build a nation and establish a government based on human ideas alone, and need not acknowledge, or accept the natural law of the Creator.  History has shown time and time again that a society or nation that attempts this, does so at its own peril.  It is after all, the story of the Old Testament and the history of the Jewish people.

When the Israelites obeyed God’s commandments, recognized and acknowledged his authority, they flourished and prospered. Whenever they abandoned God, violated his law and ignored his authority, they found themselves in exile or slavery.

God’s law is right reason, and when applied by government in regulating human relations, it is justice. Abandoning God and God’s law is irrational and dangerous.  It creates a society in which the powerful, unrestrained by the higher moral authority, are free to impose their will upon the masses. Nations that embrace God’s law thrive, while nations that reject God’s law perish. The twentieth century’s victims of secularism included Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union.  Will the United States be its first victim of the twenty-first century?

As the United States continues its slide towards secularism, we do so at our own peril. If the Reverend Docherty or President Eisenhower were alive today, how would they answer that question posed by Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address?

Alexis De Tocqueville was a French political philosopher and historian.  In 1831, he came to the United States to try to understand why the American Revolution had succeeded, while the French Revolution had failed, deteriorating into the Rein of Terror and eventual dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte.  He toured America for almost two years, taking notes, studying her institutions and people, looking for the source of her success, and he found it in the pews and stalls of her churches, synagogues and temples.

De Tocqueville was astonished by the devotion and faith of the American people.  Unlike the nations of Europe, America didn’t have an official religion, here people where free to worship according to their own convictions. This created a landscape dotted with the spires and steeples of multiple faiths and denominations, but no matter what place of worship he entered, De Tocqueville was struck by the sincere and honest desire of the American people to listen to God’s words, follow his laws, and do the right thing.   He concluded; “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization, the United States is among the world’s most emotionally depressed countries; we’re second to only France with nineteen percent of our population experiencing major depressive episodes.  Furthermore, the Center for Disease Control reports that eleven percent of all Americans are on some form of antidepressant medication. The report indicates that four percent of American adolescent girls and twenty percent of American women between the ages 40 and 59 take antidepressants. In total, the number of Americans on mood medication increased by over 400 percent since 1994.

This doesn’t make any sense!  The United States was established on the right to pursue happiness, and every indication suggests that the current generation of Americans is pursuing happiness with more vigor than ever before.  If we’re more affluent, spend more and have more than any other generation in our history, why is America so unhappy?

The Declaration of Independence proclaims that we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, while more and more Americans enthusiastically pursue these rights, fewer and fewer of us truly understand and appreciate the source of those rights!

Jefferson asserts that our rights and freedoms come from God. They are gifts from the creator of the universe, and the divine architect who set in motion the evolution of the human race. It is a revelation that freed the common man and gave rise to the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. We owe OUR life, liberty and happiness to God. It is a humbling and awe inspiring truth, and is why faith has always been an integral part of our national character.

During the American Revolution, our Founding Fathers appealed to the Supreme Judge of the World in our struggle for independence.  Our faith has seen us through a civil war, two World Wars, and countless other conflicts.  It has sustained us in time of great depression, civil unrest and natural disaster.  We have always been a people of faith because we are a nation built upon the Judeo-Christian ethic, and the truth that all men are created equal by God.

However, over the past 50 years there has been a considerable decline in the number of Americans who believe in God.  Today only 76 percent of Americans consider themselves Christian, down from 86 percent in 1990, and 20 percent of the population has no religious affiliation whatsoever.  Sadly, America is losing her faith.  We are becoming a secular state that no longer has time for God, and this just might be the cause of our national psychosis.

Without faith, there is no moral compass to guide and sustain society.  Principles and values give way to what’s popular and politically correct. The culture becomes materialistic, success and happiness are dependent upon status, and an individual’s self-worth is measured by the number of friends they have on Facebook.  Parents are failures if their child fails to gain admission to an Ivy League College, and our lives are some how unfulfilled if we don’t achieve our 15 minutes of fame.  We’re suffering the effects of secularism, the loneliness and despair that emerge when God is removed from society.

There is an understanding of the truth that can only be revealed by faith.  It is the acknowledgement that each of us is purposefully created by God for a particular reason, and our success and ultimate happiness in life depends upon our discovery of, and fulfillment of that purpose.  Those willing to embrace this truth will find the strength to look beyond their own concerns, take possession of their lives, and find the harmony and happiness that are only available in faith.  Those unwilling to accept this truth will stumble through life forever trying to find purpose and meaning in a material existence, and will be unable to undertake the journey that makes life worth living.  It is no coincidence that our epidemic of depression parallels our loss of faith.

The Founding Fathers who drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence understood this truth.  They were men of means; well educated, successful and propertied.  When they signed the Declaration, they pledge to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.  Of the 56 men who signed; 5 were captured, tortured and killed, 9 fought and died from their wounds; 12 had their property seized, homes burned and were financially ruined, and others lost children and spouses in our fight for independence.  They were men of great faith, willing to pay the price and make the sacrifices necessary to ensure that those who came after them could enjoy the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with which the Supreme Judge of the World has endowed us.

On October 28, 1886, the United States opened her 100^th birthday present a decade late.  On that date, French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi unveiled his most famous work, the Statue of Liberty.  Although Lady Liberty is perched atop a granite pedestal and towers more than 300 feet above New York harbor, she isn’t standing still; she’s moving forward to enlighten the world with her torch of knowledge and truth.  Cradled in her arm is a keystone tablet that represents the rule of law on which this Republic was found.  Embossed on the tablet is the date, July 4, 1776. Lady Liberty is dressed in the robe and sandals of the goddess Libertas, representing freedom from tyranny and oppression.  On her head she wears a crown with seven spikes representing the seven continents, and windows symbolizing the light of heaven shining down upon the people of the earth. At her feet are the broken chains and shackles that symbolize her passage from slavery to freedom.

In the decades since her dedication, more than 12 million people have sailed under her torch hoping to start a new life in America. They came to these shores with the knowledge that God created free and autonomous human beings, with the free-will to build and live their own lives.  They understood that this was God’s purpose and plan for mankind, and the right and natural condition to which every human being is entitled.  Man’s freedom stems directly from his relationship with his creator, because God is both the source and author of our liberty! Unfortunately, we live in a world that continuously tries to thwart God’s will and usurp his authority.

Man has an unquenchable thirst for power, and the desire to dominate his fellow man.  He usurps God’s authority and human autonomy by making his fellow man dependent upon him for his liberty and livelihood.  In ancient times, Pharaohs and Caesars established their control over the people by declaring themselves divine.  As man evolved and began to reject these claims, their rulers responded by asserting that their right to rule came directly from God.  In the modern secular state, such as Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union, dictators use their position in the party to subjugate others to their will.  Regardless of the era, the method is always the same.  By supplanting God and making the people dependent upon the state, you cut them off from the true source of their liberty and freedom.

It starts with a promise; a promise to create jobs, end corruption and redistribute the wealth; a promise for a better life.  All it takes is for the people to give the ruler, the party, or the government the authority to make it happen, which they do! They surrender their autonomy to the state trusting that those in charge will do what’s right. Initially, they may do what’s in the best interest of the people, but inevitably it changes.

The state in its desire to expand its power starts to target private property. As happened in the former Soviet Union, when the state takes control and eliminate private property, it controls the economy and the livelihood of the people. This occurs in all communist countries, where the government simply outlaws and assumes control over private property.  In other nations, governments use regulation and tax policy to control it.  The end result is the same, a people who are economically dependent upon the state.

At the same time, there’s a move towards secularism that’s designed to eliminate the influence of God on the culture.  Some nations, like North Korea, are atheist.  They outlaw religion in order to make the state the highest moral authority.  In other societies, the secularization takes decades or generations; court rulings, government regulations, and political correctness conspirer to drive God from the public sector. As the people begin to drift away from God they become morally corrupt.  The moral corruption creates a multitude of social problems that brings about even more government regulation and control, and an even greater dependence upon the state. Without God, the state becomes the arbitrator and benefactor of human rights. The end result is the loss of personal liberty and freedom.

Over the past five decades, the rise of secularism has contributed to the moral decline of our society, and the creation of a terminally dependent class.  This is evident in the illegitimate birth rate.  In 1960 only 5.3% of the births were to unwed mothers.  Today, 41% of births are illegitimate. Correspondingly, in 1960, twenty-five percent of the federal budget went to support the 21.7 million members of the dependent class.  Today that number is seventy percent! With 67.3 million dependent Americas and an ever expanding federal bureaucracy, more than 91 million Americans are dependent upon the government for some form of subsistence.

There is no freedom in dependence, and no liberty on government subsistence.   It is a life of limited choice, limited opportunity, and limited hope.  Being born out of wedlock and dependent upon the state is the single biggest indicator that a child will drop out of school, do drugs, become a pregnant teen, and face a life of limited opportunity.  A child raised in a public housing project is far more likely to end up in prison, than in college.

This is not the liberty that our Founding Fathers envisioned.  When they declared our independence, they proclaimed that the rights and freedoms of all human beings are given to us by God, and not by any state or monarch.  They created a nation in which an individual’s liberty is paramount, and intentionally designed the Constitution to minimize the power of the government, while maximizing the autonomy of the people.  They added the First Amendment to guarantee that the government could never infringe upon the right of the people to acknowledge and worship God; the origin and source of our liberty and freedom.

Lady Liberty has enlightened the world for almost a century and a half.  No country has beckoned to the huddle masses more than the United States.  We are a nation found on the divine truth that all men are created equal, a nation of immigrants where every individual has the opportunity to live with the freedom and autonomy with which their creator endowed them. However, today the light of freedom is beginning to dim.  The secularization of our society is all but complete with our government’s all-out assault on the first amendment.  More than half of our people are dependent upon the government for some form of subsistence.  If “We the People” don’t reconnect with our creator and source of our liberty, and reclaim our autonomy from the secular state, Liberty’s torch of knowledge and truth may be extinguished forever

Every child in school is taught that we are endowed with the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers believed that God gave human beings these rights.  Non-believers may disagree, asserting that they are simply an intrinsic part of human nature.  Regardless, most rational people will agree that every human being is endowed with these fundamental and unalienable rights.

In 1973 Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a woman’s right to an abortion must be balanced against the state’s right to protect prenatal life.  They recognized that there is a point during the forty-week gestation period where the life developing inside the mother’s womb becomes human; inherits those unalienable rights, and is entitled to protection under the law.

In an attempt to achieve this balance, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has the right to an abortion until viability.  They defined viability as the “interim point at which the fetus becomes … potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid.” Using the court’s logic, we can conclude that viability is the point in time at which a human life begins and the state’s right to protect that life goes into effect.

Initially the viability threshold was placed at 28-weeks. However, over the decades since Roe v. Wade, advances in medical technology have lowered that threshold to 24-weeks. Currently, the survival rate for infants born at 24-weeks is fifty percent. The youngest surviving premature infants were born between the 21^st and 22^nd weeks of gestation.

On October 21, 2006 Amillia Taylor was born at the Baptist Children’s Hospital in Miami. She was 21-weeks old, weighed less than 10 ounces and was only 9.5 inches long.  Her mother Sonja lied to the doctors about the length of her pregnancy because being less than 24-weeks old, Amillia wasn’t considered viable.  Today, Amillia is a thriving and healthy little girl.

We now know that viability is not a fixed point in time. Rather, viability is dependent upon a number of factors including, the health and strength of the fetus at birth, the medical technology and neonatal care available, and quite possibly the ability to pay for that care.  If human life and viability are synonymous, then the definition of what constitutes a human life, and when human life begins is both ambiguous and arbitrary. It begins whenever it becomes viable and is dependent upon the numerous factors that determine viability.

However, there is a problem with trying to equate human life with viability.  If medical advances continue, as they will, and neonatology is able to lower the survival rate to 20 or 15-weeks, do we then have to redefine human life?  If at some point in the future, science is not only able to conceive a life outside the womb, which it is today, but is able to bring that life to term in some artificial womb, are we then again forced to reconsider and redefine human life?

The definition of what constitutes a human life and when human life begins cannot be ambiguous or arbitrary.  It must be certain, fixed, and universal!  It must apply equally to every person, everywhere, regardless of the time period, the technology available, or an individual’s economic condition.

Although viability will always be ambiguous and arbitrary, there is a point in time that we know with absolute certainty initiates the process that will result in an independent and viable human life.  That point is conception!  From the moment the sperm fuses with the ovum, the genetic blueprint is established, and the march towards life has begun.  This is without question the point when human life begins.

There can be no uncertainty in defining human life, or in determining when a human life begins. If we error, we must error on the side of life as opposed to the side of uncertainty. If there is any uncertainty of what constitutes a human life, or when human life begins, we must protect the right to life over the right of a woman to have an abortion.  The only certain and acceptable definition of what constitutes a human life, and when human life begins, is conception.

In April 1864, during the Civil War, in perhaps the darkest and most desperate period in our history, Congress passed a resolution directing that the United States Mint engrave the inscription “In God We Trust” on all coins minted as currency.  It first appeared on the two-cent piece that same year, and has continued to appear on some form of US currency ever since.  In 1956, President Eisenhower signed legislation making “In God We Trust” the official motto of the United States.  Again, in November of 2011, Congress voted overwhelmingly to retain “In God We Trust” as our national motto.

Over the years there have been numerous challenges to the motto, lawsuits brought by secularists or atheists claiming that it violates the separation of church and state.  However, there is no separation of church and state provision in the Constitution. The First Amendment simply states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and so far the courts have ruled that recognizing a deity does not constitute the establishment of an official state religion.

The separation of church and state provision that secularist invoke can be traced back to a letter written by President Thomas Jefferson, to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut.  In his letter, Jefferson re-affirms the First Amendment by stating that it creates a “wall of separation between the Church & State.” Interestingly enough, Jefferson ends his letter with a prayer for the protection and blessings of the common father, and creator of man.

Despite the court’s rulings and Congressional legislation, there are those who continue to try to use the separation of church and state argument to remove God from the public sector.  These secularists either don’t fully understand the First Amendment, or are ignorant of their own country’s history and traditions.  God and America are inseparable, because the United States is the first nation in modern history found on a divine truth.

The Declaration of Independence is the document that establishes the United States of America.  It’s not a long document, just a single page with 1,338 words, most of which is a list of grievances against the King, justifying our separation from England.  However, the document does a lot more than simply declare our independence from Great Britain.  The Declaration of Independence proclaims and establishes the ideology and philosophy of our Nation. On it, there are four references to God, none more famous or important than the first sentence of the second paragraph;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Although we’re all familiar with these words, it’s impossible to truly appreciate their significance and impact, unless we understand the context in which they were written.

The Declaration of Independence was written in a world ruled by monarchs, emperors and princes who invoked the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings to justify their absolute power. An individual’s rights and freedoms were determined by their social class.  Those with titles, the nobility and aristocracy enjoyed rights, and privileges not granted to the common man.  The state or king was the source of a person’s rights, and he had the power to grant them or take them away.

Our Founding Fathers rejected this notion and established a new nation predicated on the proposition that all men are created equal, a nation in which a person’s rights and freedoms were no longer dependent upon the generosity of a king.  They proclaimed that the rights and freedoms of all human beings are given to us by God; and no state, no government, no king or prince can take them from us. This truth is the essence of America.  Jefferson’s words are an evolution in the thinking of mankind and the understanding of God’s truth. It is a divine revelation that changed human history by validating the dignity and worth of the individual, and cementing the autonomy of the common man.

The Founding Fathers affirmed this divine truth and expanded upon it with the Bill of Rights, which lists the unalienable rights with which we are all endowed.  Although, there was a debate at the Constitutional Convention as to whether or not a Bill of Rights was necessary.  Some felt that because the Constitution limited the power of the government, these rights were inherent or implied.  Others remembering the oppression suffered at the hands of their former King, wanted these rights enumerated, or spelled out. The first ten amendments were added to the Constitution as a written guarantee insuring that the state could never infringe upon, or take away these God given rights.

The Fathers were fearful of a government that could become too powerful and abusive, and worked hard to draft a Constitution that limited the power it had over their lives.  They did this because they understood human nature. They knew that the government, any government, was made up of people; fallible, frail and imperfect people who would eventually place their own self-interests above those of the people they were supposed to serve.  They understood this because they studied history, and knew this is what governments and people did.  They didn’t place their trust in the government, or even in the Constitution.  They placed their trust in God, forever securing and preserving their liberty and freedom.

Today the Constitution is reeling under the pressure of a Federal Government that continues to increase its size, and expand its power and authority. The Bill of Rights is being assaulted by the very government that is supposed to protect it.  There’s a growing concern that the United States is becoming a socialist secular state in which the government, and not the people wields the power.  It is a legitimate fear because throughout history, liberty and freedom have always been both fragile and fleeting.  However, “We the People” have a written guarantee, printed on the back of every dollar bill and engraved on every coin.  As long as we hold true to the traditions of out founding by keeping our eye on the Government, and putting our trust in the common father, and creator of man, we’ll continue to enjoy the unalienable rights with which God has endowed us, and the Constitution guarantees.