For
decades some history writers have been trying to minimize the
religious heritage of the founders of the United States of America.
The truth is, America's success (or failure) is directly connected to
it's citizens' view of God, and their actions based on relationship
with (or without) God.
An
individual doesn't have to be a God-follower to reap the benefit from
freedoms guaranteed by the founders' intent in the Constitution. The
privileges we enjoy as a "free society" are evident in all
areas of life including family, commerce, church, education,
entertainment, and government.
The
founders based their view of government on principles found in the
Bible. When these principles are honored, things go well. When God
is dishonored by not granting supremacy to his ways over human
ingenuity, things fall apart. "Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12). It doesn't take long to make a huge
list of problems in America today. Each problem on our list can
somehow be traced to a further distance from the original design
(although not perfect) for our government. We are paying huge
consequences for forsaking godly principles.
The
solution to America's problems is not in finding a "perfect"
political leader. America could be made stronger by shrinking the
size of bureaucracy, wiping out our national debt, and re-empowering
our military to accurately identify and fight our enemies, Putting
our hopes in one person to achieve even the most noblest of goals is
futility. America can only become great again if the hearts of its
people honor God's greatness. John Adams (2nd President of the USA)
once said, "We
have no government armed with power capable of contending with human
passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution
was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other."
If
you are a person of moral and/or religious conviction, it is
imperative you participate in our system of government wherever
possible. At the very least, make sure you vote in the upcoming
election. There is absolutely no reason not to vote. "I don't
like any of the candidates," "They're all corrupt,"
"Both parties are equally at fault for our problems," and
other similar comments are all lame excuses. There maybe some
elements of truth these statements, but our system is designed to
work, one vote at a time. America needs your vote.
You're
not just voting for one person. Yes, the "office" of
President is held by one person. But, our system of electing that
person includes that person belonging to a larger organization of
like-minded individuals called a party. The candidate who wins the
office of President selects a "cabinet" of key persons who
also hold offices of top leadership in the government. This cabinet
also selects key persons to serve in leadership to carry out the
mission of its respective function of government. Generally all
these top positions of the government are filled by people from the
same political party as the top office of President. A vote for a
presidential candidate therefore, is a vote for what is called the
party platform.
The
party platform is the formal statement of values and beliefs held by
the members of the organization. The two main parties in the US
(Democratic and Republican), have each adopted a platform at their
respective conventions last month. These two platforms have never
been more divergent in our history as a nation. Since all the top
leaders of our government will come from one of these two parties, it
becomes very important to understand the contents of each platform in
order to make an intelligent vote in the election. A vote in the
Presidential election coming in November, is more a vote for a set of
values in the platform than it is about voting for one person whose
name happens to represent their party on the ballot.
The
platforms are quite different on social issues, friendliness towards
Israel, free enterprise, religious liberties, and morality. The
people helping the President to select the next few Supreme Court
justices will be representing one of these two platforms as well.
The choice is very clear, although watching the “mainstream media”
you would never obtain enough truth to make a good decision.
So
for at least three months, turn off the television. TV has become a
propaganda tool promoting ideologies very destructive to Americans.
Even so-called "news" broadcasts,
often defy standards of common sense. The aim of propaganda is to distract you from thinking for yourself.
Don't fall for it. You can think. You can make good choices. And
if you allow God (who designed your personhood) to influence your
decisions, you can make “God” honoring (godly) choices. That's
really how God can be made great in America, again!
If
you like living in America, whether you believe in God or not, your
best hope for America to thrive is for God to be made great in
America, again.
Note:
A book I authored Escaping the Pain of
Offense: Empowered to Forgive from the Heart
discusses truth for dealing with disappointments, offense and finding
freedom through forgiveness (from a Christian perspective). See more
about the book by clicking here:
http://bluerockbnb.com/healing/book_main.htm .
