This is one of those questions that just eats at ya, y'know? Those who know me well know that I've been an outspoken critic of the American People for a long time now, placing the blame for our governmental situation on ourselves at least as much as on any of our so-called 'leaders,' and often more so. One of my oft repeated refrains, in fact, has been some form of this: “the next time you have a complaint about your elected officials and the way they're conducting themselves, in their 'personal' or their 'private' lives, just go to the nearest mirror in your home, look at yourself and repeat these words “I am (insert offending leader's name).”
Now, this is not a very popular position to take, even within 'conservative' circles, but as VA and others write, 'we should be able to have an adult conversation about this thing, and whether it has any truth to it.' Indeed we should, and ultimately we must, I should think...
I mention VA because she put up an entry a few days ago dealing with this very question over at her blog, Iowa and the government we deserve. And yes, implicit in the title is the idea contained in the body of the post indicting us Americans – We the People – for the government we have and complain so often about. We've had this conversation more than a few times over at the AFB, and elsewhere, and the conversation went southward fairly quickly in some instances where someone was offended by the notion that we have ourselves, and only ourselves, to blame for our condition, when ya boil it all down.
Personally I think the idea applies to Americans in a very unique way. Even at this point when things seem to be so very bad; when our government seems so very out of control, when the cancers of liberalism and political correctness seem to have almost thoroughly overtaken us in our political capacity as 'one nation; one people,' we still hold the purse strings; we still are the ultimate and the final authority in this government founded on laws and free elections.
In some other parts of the world, people are ruled by 'arbitrary' government, that is, they are ruled by illegitimate government, founded on illegitimate ideas of government. But not us. Not yet. Not completely. Many of us traditionalists who point to our Christian roots as the very foundation which gave rise to this government 'of, by, and for the People,' as well as has been chiefly responsible for sustaining it, often recur to scriptures such as Psalms 11:3, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”, in our various warnings that we need to get back to those traditional roots in order to 'secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.' The implication being, of course, that the foundations themselves, once destroyed, leave us with a fragmented or a non-existent means of putting humpty dumpty back together again.
So, is our nation's foundation still left intact? In other words, do we still have in place a solid enough foundation upon which to rebuild those parts of the American edifice which we've witnessed (and actually contributed to in many cases) deteriorate over time, but at a very accelerated pace over the last couple of decades? I'm thinking here in terms of the absolute moral degradation that has seemingly overtaken us during that span of time.
To me the question is a vitally important one, because either way we answer it within ourselves, ultimately will determine within us, and without us, what measures we take, or don't take, to ameliorate the impending crisis. And seriously, folks, I don't care what it is we're talking about, whether it's immigration reform, conducting a war against islamic jihadists the world over, restraining (or not) such things as promiscuous and immoral sexually devious lifestyles, putting restraints on certain tendencies to be ungovernable, to be anarchist; or coming to grips nationally with the immorality of Abortion, or whatever, our Christian tradition always (Always!) applies in an extremely 'foundational' way.
Our founding fathers and mothers understood this concept very well. And they passed on to their children and grandchildren these fundamentally reducible principles of 'Christian Self-Government.' Not only do we see it in their writings leading up to the revolution where this example may be given as a prime one of a collective determination on their parts,:Whereas it has pleased the righteous Sovereign of the Universe, in just indignation against the sins of a People long blessed with inestimable privileges, civil and religious, to suffer the plots of wicked men on both sides of the Atlantic...
-A Proclamation of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, April 15, 1775
But we see it as well in their progeny such as this exemplary example shows:I have been blamed by men of science, both in this country and in England, for quoting the Bible in confirmation of the doctrines of physical geography. The Bible, they say, was not written for scientific purposes, and is therefore of no authority in matters of science. I beg pardon! The Bible is authority for everything it touches...The Bible is true and science is true, and therefore each, if truly read, but proves the truth of the other...
-Matthew Fontaine Maury
Many other examples of the same line of thinking may be had by even a cursory investigation into our unique history as a distinct nation. But the point is this, that which makes us, and always has made us a distinctive people when compared against other peoples of the world is our history of being unwilling to allow extra-biblical, extra-traditional doctrines to creep into our thinking. Our founders understood that to do so would eventually pave the way for extra-constitutional, anti-traditionalist American values to corrupt our system, our laws, our institutions, our very culture. And so it is that we bear witness to today.
So what is the answer? How do we get this nation back on track? Truly I believe that the only answer, when you get down to where the rubber meets the road, is that we need to rediscover our Christian roots, and to apply those uniquely Christian principles of government that this nation was founded upon. Some of course will scoff at this notion, but if I know anything at all to be a 'truth,' it is that if there is a God (and God exists, don't kid yourselves), then He has revealed certain things to his moral creatures (mankind), in 'general' and 'special' kinds of revelation. The Bible being of that latter kind of revelation, reason would teach us that, as Maury relates, whatever it touches, it is authority for. And if it touches on political science, it is authority for that as well.
Truly we are at fault my friends, because with all of our scientific 'advances,' and those things which we've discovered, not invented, having made our lives so easy, we have forgotten to whom to give the glory.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
-DW
Monday, August 13, 2007
Do We Deserve Our Government?
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4 comments:
Very nice! That's very much what I mean when I suggest that traditionalists ought to be "anti-intellectual", I might add. Yours is a very anti-intellectual solution. We ought to be instinctively traditionalist; then we would not even think of doing things the "modern" way.
You really address the root causes here. I suppose the post I wrote up today, isn't intended to do that. But then again, my main purpose wasn't to answer this question anyway. I just managed to work in a reference to this debate since I was discussing what it meant to blame Bush's failures on his advisers. But don't take that as a sign that I don't like your solution -- yours is what I'd prefer.
John, yes, it is an anti-intellectual position that I take here, and this really is what defines me when it comes to restoring this Republic. I ain't too hip on itellectualism myself.
I don't think it possible to truly restore this republic without restoring our traditional values, and as I often relate to my gymnast daugter, Rebecca, whenever you think you're losing ground, rather than gaining it, a good rule of thumb to follow is to make sure you're not neglecting the 'fundamentals.' While I'm not properly her coach (I know very little about gymastics), I do take it upon myself to hold her to the fundamentals when I notice she is indeed neglecting them.
In our case governmentally, however, the 'fundamentals' are not well understood, even among traditionalist circles I would think. And often when they are understood, they're more or less rejected as a means to an end. I think this puts pressure on those who do understand them well, and who do not discount their corrective ability, to get the message out.
I'm not saying I'm one of those people. What I am saying, however, is that if I note a break from the fundamentals, I shant remain silent.
I'll certainly be putting up more posts in this vein as time goes on, so look for 'em posted here in the future.
Thank you for the comments, John.
-Terry
Amen.
Beautiful post.
Even in discussing this subject with fellow Christians, I sometimes meet resistance; many modern Christians become highly offended if you suggest that in any way we are responsible for the dire state of our country. Some will say things like 'are you saying God hates us? Are you saying we brought 9/11 [or whatever problem] on ourselves?' So there is resistance; many Christians today don't believe that God ever lets bad things happen to his people or that we in fact are responsible because of our rebellion or our straying.
Our forefathers often had national days of fasting and prayer when there was a crisis; I don't think such things could be proposed now, not only because we are no longer a Christian nation but because even the Christians often want only a feel-good version of Christianity.
But could a revival, if it happened, restore our country, even though most Americans are not Christians anymore? I think about those questions.
-VA
That's a good question, VA, and I'll try to address it in a future post.
I experience the same sort of 'faith based' Christianity in my conversations with Christians too. And what I mean by that is that most of the Christians I know aren't particularly acquainted with God's nature or Christian apologetics.
I think this is bad for Christianity, and it's bad for the nation as a result.
I think a large percentage of Christians these days (probably a pretty hefty majority) tend to believe that we live in the last of the 'last days,' and therefore don't see the necessity, or the propriety of making the necessary corrections to our problems, spiritual and otherwise. I think that most Christians tend to be deluded by the 'last days' message so prevalent among tv evangelists and their cronies.
While I tend to believe that we are in the last days too, that doesn't translate into my focusing my full and undivided attention on 'last days theology,' or, in other words, I'm not going to let that keep me from studying the book of Revelations outside the context of the whole of sacred scripture.
On the other hand, it was that kind of study that eventually led me to the study of Christian Apologetics some years ago. So I still question whether this influence might be a positive one to an extent.
-Terry
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