We Must Go Back

I listened intently to our President’s speech on health care, as did a great many throughout the nation. There have been many comments and projections made since that night. In my case, one comment caught my attention and has arrested my thoughts in these past few days. It caught my ear mainly because I no longer take things that are said at face value, but rather recognize that behind every statement there is a bundle of ideas due to which an outlook is formed. Ideas have consequences, and therefore it seems most important to me to try and determine the bundle of ideas (commonly called worldview) that precipitates, or gives rise to, the stated opinion or view. With that preface in mind, the comment was one regarding our American character (which was referenced from a letter from former senator Kennedy).

Quoting from former senator Kennedy’s letter, Mr. Obama said, “’What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country’. Later Mr. Obama stated ‘I've thought about that phrase quite a bit in recent days -- the character of our country. One of the unique and wonderful things about America has always been our self-reliance, our rugged individualism, our fierce defense of freedom and our healthy skepticism of government.’” These are statements, or propositions presented by Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Obama. The pertinent question is: From where have the uniquely American answers to the moral issues come. In other words, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Obama both feel these qualities of individualism, defense of freedom and healthy skepticism of government, is something unchanging that has existed since the foundation of this country and is not dependent on the societal, political party, or societal convention of the day. I heartily agree, but what is the basis of this unchanging moral law, or principal, or driving force that is behind the United States of America?

To answer this fundamental question, we must look back at the foundation of the country. Thomas Jefferson said, “On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed”. The moral foundation of our country is found in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. It states, “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”. Our founders understood that every human is created by his or her Creator with certain common rights. Those “inalienable rights” were not given by any governing body, nor could they be molested or taken away by any governing body. The original intent of the framers of the Constitution was to protect the rights of the people to seek out Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by the dictates of their own conscious. So, we are ruggedly individual and self-reliant because we are endowed with life and liberty by our Creator, we defend freedom because we have been given freedom by our Creator, and we should have a healthy skepticism of government because the people we elect have a sinful nature which tempts them to do what they ought not to do (just like the rest of us). After all, that is why we need government in the first place, and why we the people elect, and can fire, those governing us, and why there are three branches of government that were established with a set of checks and balances. This, in brief, is the way in which the founders of this country saw the establishment of the United States of America, and the worldview behind the qualities that former Senator Kennedy and President Obama referred.

I believe that the current line of thinking, or worldview, through which many people currently see these and other topics is taking our country down a wrong road. The incontrovertible fact (borne from a study of the founding documents of this country, our state constitutions, and the men from whom our founders got their ideas for a constitutional republic, like Montesquieu, Blackstone and Locke) is that the United States of America was founded on a Biblical worldview. They believed that God established the state, the family and the church, gave each a key function to perform and provided an absolute moral law (as revealed in the Bible) as a guide. Each is related and accountable to one another, and ultimately each is accountable to God. There is much disagreement about this point. Every attempt is made today to deny God’s oversight over every aspect of life. I know the basis of these attempts and have just one question in response. Why do all our delivered Presidential speeches end with, “May God bless you, and May God bless the United States of America?” To whom do our presidents refer? Are our presidents asking God to bless all of us individually and our country collectively in all matters except those of government, state, education, civil and criminal law, motor vehicle operation and any other activities on publicly owned property? Or instead is Mr. Obama petitioning the God of the Bible to continue to act in the words of Benjamin Franklin, which he uttered before the passage of our Constitution, “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it’. I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building, no better than the builders of Babel.”
So what is the point? We chose to go down a road some years ago where our country has systematically attempted to remove God, the Biblical worldview and the absolute moral law from every state institution. This is not how the country was founded. Health care is just one small part of the shift in thinking that is pervading all avenues of American life. In my opinion, we need to return to how this country began, with every individual and institution accountable firstly to God and then to one another. Some today are calling themselves progressives, but to what are they progressing? In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says, “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back the soonest is the most progressive man…There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.”