Blessed is the nation

I know there are many good people in this country…thank God…and much good that is being done. But it can hardly be denied that badness has gained a powerful foothold in the last half-century, and shows no signs of letting go.

Sure…immorality, deception, violence, harassment, et al have been exhibited and committed by humans in this country and every country since humans existed. But the degree to which these sins and others are excused, rationalized, and even condoned and celebrated today is something relatively new. I fear for where it will lead if we don’t turn things around and turn back to God.

Our Founding Fathers warned of the dangers to our freedom and prosperity if religion, morality, and virtue were rejected or neglected. If we hope to avoid those dangers, we first must acknowledge the connection between virtue and freedom, and between religion and virtue. And then we’ve got to restore religion and true faith in God to the place of importance and prominence in American life that they once had. Our future depends on it.

So since I don’t have the credentials nor influence to expect anyone to just take my word for it, I’m going to let other, more knowledgeable people do the talking.

So here’s installment one of my series I’ve titled, Blessed is the Nation. It will simply be the words of politicians, statesmen, judges, legislators and others establishing that America was founded on Christian principles and warning against abandoning them.

I begin with, and will stay quite a while with, the Founding Fathers. First, some insight into the nature of man from our 2nd president John Adams, writing in his diary February 9, 1772. See if you don’t agree this well describes what we are witnessing today.

We see every day that our imaginations are so strong and our reason so weak, the charms of wealth and power are so enchanting, and the belief of future punishments so faint that men find ways to persuade themselves to believe any absurdity, to submit to any prostitution, rather than forego their wishes and desires. Their reason becomes at last an eloquent advocate on the side of their passions, and [they] bring themselves to believe that black is white, that vice is virtue, that folly is wisdom and eternity a moment… (1)

⁽¹⁾ William J. Federer, America’s God and Country: Encyclopedia Of Quotations (St. Louis: Amerisearch, Inc., 2000) p. 6