I can claim only partial credit that this week’s essay is timely. Actually, the Focus editor called my attention to the abbreviated schedule for the 4th of July holiday. Otherwise, I would, as usual, be out of synch with calendar events. (Some might say I’m out of synch with politically correct events). By the time you read this Independence Day will have passed, subsumed by America’s “dependence days.”
Our country has certainly “traveled” farther than the two hundred and thirty-nine years since the American colonies declared independence from the tyranny of Great Britain. After winning our freedom, spreading from sea to sea and after winning two 20th century world wars and defeating Soviet Communism, we have embraced the nanny state and are in the process of becoming irrelevant, and lost on the sands of time just like Shelley’s “Ozymandias” (Google it).
A Republic is a system of government based upon the rule of law. Laws are written with words. Last week we learned that “Words no longer have meaning,” according to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). In his vehement minority rebuttal of Chief Justice Robert’s Supreme Court validation of Obama-care, Scalia implies that our Representative Republic of the United States is void because “words no longer have meaning,” and are now subject to reinterpretation by nine old lawyers. After two centuries we discover that our Representative Republic stands on shifting sand, soon to be washed away in the deluge of oligarchy and tyranny.
If Chief Justice Robert’s redefinition of the word “state” confuses you, you aren’t alone, because he subsequently argues in another decision that the people in the various states and their elected officials should be the arbiters of marriage licenses. If marriage is now redefined I ask why I shouldn’t be allowed to marry my goat or for that matter the Bobbsey Twins. We have laws against bestiality and polygamy, but laws are made of words and we’ve learned that “words no longer have meaning.”
A few additional examples demonstrate my point. The Affordable Care Act is not “affordable” unless Washington gives you money from the pockets of someone else. And a “fine” for not having healthcare has been deemed a “tax” by Chief Justice Roberts and SCOTUS. Furthermore, “full- time employment” is now defined as thirty hours a week. This allows an employer to reduce hours and to avoid the responsibility of providing health care benefits. His employees then obtain health insurance from Obama-care, paid for with money from someone else’s pocket. If the word “state” (used seven times in the Obama-care law) doesn’t mean state and marriage doesn’t have civilization’s five thousand year definition, why can’t I elope with my goat?
A friend of mine who opposes the destructive policies of progressive-liberal-Democrats, recently told me he’s tired. His business is being destroyed by thirty-somethings with MBAs, just as Democrats have destroyed every city where they govern. California, Illinois and New Jersey are broke. Democrat financial and cultural ruination and lawlessness are rampant in Detroit, Philadelphia and Chicago. Even smaller towns haven’t escaped fifty years of liberalism and are going bankrupt. But don’t worry folks, we’re in “economic recovery” since the summer of 2009 according to Obama and Joe Biden. Someone should tell Uncle Joe that 93 million Americans are out of work, and many others are underemployed or have just quit looking for a job. And food stamps…ah… EBT cards are at historical highs. (It would be useless to try and reason with “the One.”)
Another friend of mine asked me to do a presentation at church on Obama-care “now that it’s the law of the land.” I declined and told him I can no longer be objective after more than six years of lies about Benghazi, the IRS, the VA, the Arab Spring, and the “JV” organization known as ISIS.
I’ve lived long enough to understand that each of us has three options when confronted with danger, dishonesty or moral turpitude (depravity). You can oppose evil. You can compromise and go along to get along. Or you can flee. Historically, people have run away from corrupt societies to monasteries, to communes and even to the New World, as did the Pilgrims. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere to escape; I know, because I’ve searched the world for a place of refuge. Like my friend I’ve become weary of America’s newest civil war, though we know that neither of us can compromise with evil and retain our souls.
King Solomon was purported to be the wisest man who ever lived. He succeeded his father, King David, to the throne of ancient Israel, and in a dream was asked by God what was his coronation wish. He asked God for wisdom to serve his people wisely. God granted Solomon’s wish and more. We should be so fortunate.
Recently I read that the absence of religion leads to a “moral vacuum.” We see this in Europe and specifically Britain, who embraced a secular nanny state after WW II. Britain renounced God and passed the world leadership baton to the United States, its former colony. Europe is now a secular society whose churches are empty of parishioners. God has been replaced by State. And we are on track to do the same in America. God help the world if the horrors of ISIS, the tyranny of Islam or the amorality of the secular state is the replacement of the City on the Hill.
A man named Epictetus once said that your thoughts are your only true freedom. Will my friend and I retreat into our thoughts? My minister recently preached on the Jordon River faith of the ancient Hebrews who escaped slavery in Egypt, wandered in the desert for forty years, but finally trusted God and crossed the Jordon River to fulfill their destiny.
Each election I have hope that our people will see that America must return to its founding principles. On this Independence Day I know that Americans, and all the rest of humanity, would be better off and closer to the truth if God were our leader instead of what we have. These are not new thoughts. The Chronicler said the same thing 2500 years ago (2 Chronicles 7:14).
It is my Jordon River hope that America is not doomed to repeat the mistakes of history and end up on the sands of time.
