The depth of God’s blessings on our country is on my heart this month to share with you as my new readership family, thanks to my new friends at Gateway Neighbors magazine who have graciously picked up my column now that my former longtime publication partner is going all digital. So, my deepest thanks go to the talented GN team that has welcomed me with open arms! I feel so blessed!
So, with the upcoming inauguration of a new administration and a hopefully peaceful transition this month, but in the painful shadow of the very rare chaotic transition four years ago, I am thinking this is a good time to remind ourselves of the history of our blessings from above, especially as we may struggle below.
First, I don’t mind telling you that with a political science/pre-law degree from the University of Texas at Austin and advanced degrees in Divinity and Applied Theology, the cacophony of wildly diverse social and political narratives in our cultural landscape in the last few decades has regularly frazzled my puny little mind whenever I start trudging through the philosophical trenches.
But after years of frustration that has given way to a few decades of pastoring, preaching, teaching, writing, and broadcasting, I am discovering that that frazzled state of mind is really a good thing, not a bad thing. Uh, what? Well, getting frazzled by our fractured socio-political landscape is what can ultimately drive us to the safer middle ground that our Founding Fathers envisioned and formulated for us as “one nation under God,” but only offered, not required. Let me explain.
In all candor, it took me a while to recognize and appreciate the humility and brilliance of our Founding Fathers in framing our nation as a “God-acknowledging” republic, rather than the polar extremes of a “God-establishing” theocracy (in much of Europe at the time) or a “God-exclusion” democracy (or populism as in the French revolution).
Realizing that irreconcilably raging philosophical debates from the polar extremes would rip our country apart (hence our frazzled hearts today), they gave us the sure footing of the middle ground of wise, humble, and respectful “God-acknowledgement.”
This middle ground is where the principle of individual “self-governing,” “as unto the Lord” can take place in the constituency, which precludes the need for a vast authoritarian form of government or law enforcement to keep people from violating each other’s rights. In sharp contrast, cultures dominated by Religious Humanism (no ultimate God, just do what’s right in your own eyes) and/or populism (pseudo-democracy out of control; let the rabble rule) requires very strong forms of governing and law enforcement. Look familiar?
But don’t take my word for the summary above. Read it from our Founding Fathers . . .
Regarding no “God Establishment,” the first amendment of Constitution of the United States reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
Regarding no “God Exclusion,” it further reads:“Congress… shall not prohibit the free exercise (of religion) thereof;”
George Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people (Principle of self-governing). It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Regarding “God Acknowledgement,” The Declaration of Independence reads: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. “
Benjamin Franklin: “We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ . . . I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”
Thomas Jefferson. “I hold the precepts of Jesus, as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man.”
Abraham Lincoln. “We have been the recipient of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nations have ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own (Religious Humanism).”
Just to be clear, I am not saying that our nation is perfect and thus totally blessed from above. But what I am saying is that the more we drift away from God-acknowledgement to God-exclusion via Religious Humanism, the more the blessings of God will drift away. Why? Because God will not trump our “free will.” Rather, He will let our bad choices reap the inevitable negative consequences.
And yet, by His grace upon grace, He still provides a portion of His blessing and is very willing to bless us more bountifully once again, to the degree we turn our hearts to Him, just as our Founding Fathers did at the birth of our nation, at the middle ground, far removed from establishing a brand-specific national religion. That’s how we can humbly walk together, my friends, in the grace of God, even with those who may not believe.
As we head into a new year, may God bless you, and may God continue to bless America. A struggling nation, but still in progress!
Grateful for His Grace with you,
Pastor Mark
