Faith and Liberty and How the Idea of America Became Weird
"Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land unto All the Inhabitants thereof." (Leviticus 25:10)
During the American Revolution, theistic language referencing a “Creator” [God] who had endowed human beings with dignity and rights had found its way into the Declaration of Independence:
“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…”
And almost 250 years later our nation has now endowed the government with its own unalienable rights to manage and limit our Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness. We've made our bureaucratic state our god and he's a tyrant.
America has one of the highest standards of living in the world, if only we could raise our standards of thinking about what American standards matter anymore. Our government judges its people not by what they stand for, but by what they'll fall for. Much has been said about what America stands for, but maybe we'd be better served by our bureaucratic servants if they didn't forget some of the things that America won't stand for. Maybe they need an object lesson. Maybe, we'll see.
Most politicians have high ideals and will stand by them as long as it pays off, but don't blame them for their flip-flopping, they're only following the lead of their followers. The American people have only themselves to blame for the bureaucratic tyrants they've created for themselves. Our ideals are all too often like an antique chair-nice to talk about and put on display in order to show off, but too fragile to actually use.
Washington DC has a large assortment of peace monuments; they build one after every war. America sets up their ideals as monuments on the mall, and then they surround them with a bureaucratic foggy bottom swamp that mostly manages the business of war and feeds unrest. And yet somehow that city sees itself as the seat of truth, justice, and democracy. If Washington DC is the seat of justice and managing our truth and democracy, then the taxpayer is the pants pocket in that bureaucratic suit. That city is only able to afford its power by taxing the powerless. We The People have sold out to the lowest bidders who offered them the semblance of security for a price they couldn't refuse. The real trouble with government is that tyrannical bureaucratic state. Our bureaucracies have too few ideals and far too many deals. It used to be said that you could defeat organized crime by forming a government agency to run it---just stand back and watch it drown in its own red tape. But the truth is Washington DC is not going to get rid of any organized crime by introducing its own bureaucratic crime syndicate. For the business of the state there has to be some place to put the shirts they're taking off our backs. Ultimately, they need a bank account that the American people cannot balance. The bureaucrats cannot stand for democracy for very long and still maintain their power. They must secure their right to veto the people's rights, if for no other reason than to protect themselves from revolt.
The American bureaucratic state strives for some form of a communist regime. Communism and bureaucracies have this in common, they both are the product of the apathy of the many and the authoritarian audacity of the few. That state cannot exist in an America that stands on its founding principles, and they know it. They know that communism and the bureaucratic state will be defeated in America when "We the People" are more interested in being mobilized than in being tranquilized by the next new big idea.
MAGA
When it's said, "make America great again", what's really being said is let's get back to the rights of the people to hold their government accountable. That was the founding principle, [We the People], that formed our union. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our nation began with a spirit of revolution founded on the Hebrew Christian principle that every person is equal in the sight of God. Kings were not wanted, and definitely not deity. The courts were supposed to be servants limited in power, not Lords lording over the masses. The political class were meant to be representatives owing their allegiance only to the people, not owning their lifetime livelihood to the Department of Commerce. And the President was meant to be the commander in chief whose charge was to defend all the God-given rights outlined in the constitution. Make America Great Again means make America stand again for what it was principally created to stand for.
Today it has wandered away from its roots. The bureaucratic state serves the military industrial complex and commercial special interests at the expense of the people. The representative government is funded and managed by the Department of Commerce special interests populated by former representatives. And the President is merely a figurehead owned by the Department of Justice and the State Department that were both installed, never voted for, to protect all bureaucrats from We the People.
Faith and Liberty
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams, To the Massachusetts Militia 1798
Ethics and values derived from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures has shaped our nation from its inception, but without being forcefully imposed on anyone. The god of this age that currently rules in Washington DC has only the force of tyranny to inspire allegiance from its people. America is supposed to guarantee that individuals have the freedom of their faith, and in doing so foster and protect the faith that is necessary for our freedom to flourish. The founders believed that personal faith cultivates public virtue, which is the bedrock of a republic founded in liberty. If America cannot stand again for these principles and values, then surely, we will fall for anything that gives us some sense of freedom in a bureaucratic system of security. Our rights will be determined not by God, but by the State Department.
Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell captures what America was founded to stand up for. It is inscribed with a verse from the Hebrew Bible: "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof." (Leviticus 25:10) That bell is broken and the ground that our faith stands upon, which supports and grounds our nations stand for liberty in a moral universe of truth and justice, is being shaken. It's supposed to be a firm faithful foundation that is meant to form the bedrock of our society. It was enshrined into our constitutional law to protect against tyrannical rulers. And our government was intended to stand on that ground and represent its morality and protect it for us.
How they doing?
Don't answer I already know.
So, what am I going to do about it?
Taking The Steps of Faith
Jesus said:
"It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore, do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known." (Matthew 10:25-26)
I'll continue to fear The Lord, not the State. Whatever Jesus tells me in the dark, I'll speak it in the light. I'll continue to preach on the housetops. I'll not fear those who work to limit my life and liberty. My concern is only resisting the one who is trying to destroy my soul. I know Jesus did not come to bring peace, and so I will acknowledge him before others with the sword of truth. I will take up my cross and follow him. I won't limit its importance in my life in order to get along.
I'll trust Jesus when he said:
"Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39)
I know he holds my reward in Him. I know what he's doing on my behalf. I trust Him with my liberty. And I will not bow down to a corrupt government bureaucracy. I cannot stand by quietly watching as our people pass on the ground of our liberty to a Communist bureaucracy. I will not be silenced.
In the year I was born, people still believed in the American ideals. And people still understood what American greatness meant. I hope and pray for this generation, that they'll someday understand without having to learn these truths again in a revolution. I'll end this devotion today with a quote from the first President I ever voted for.
God bless America. 🇺🇸
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free." – Ronald Reagan 1961