Response to Roger Ebert's Article - Civics:101

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ~ Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda.

I like Roger Ebert. He is a great movie critic and I have relied on his recommendations to make movie selections. But when it comes to Civics 101, Roger needs to go back to school.

In Ebert's article published in the New Castle Courier Times last week he made several statements that are simply wrong. But it's not his fault; unfortunately we've been taught a skewed and inaccurate view of American history for decades and now many believe this flawed view to be true.

The prayer rally, while unique in recent years was a common occurrence in the first century of the United States. Between 1622 and 1815 there were over 1,200 prayer proclamations made by presidents and governors including George Washington and John Hancock.

Mr. Ebert ridiculed pre-game prayers asking for victory. Every pre-game prayer I've heard or been involved in asked not for victory but for the safety of all players including their opponents. God may not be interested in "the drift of a field goal kick" but it wouldn't surprise me considering the New Testament story of the fish with a coin in his mouth and the Old Testament story of Gideon and his fleece.

Roger stated that this nation "was specifically not a Christian nation." That flies in the face of statements made by dozens of individuals including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Benjamin Rush, & John Hancock. These individuals, along with several courts and congress itself emphatically stated that the United States was founded on Biblical principles.

Yes, the founding settlers were escaping persecution from nations with state sponsored religions. Which is why they went back to scripture to support revolution against those governments. John Locke wrote The Two Treatises of Government, which quoted scripture over a thousand times to refute the Divine Right of Kings. 100 years later the Founders used Locke's book to create the Declaration of Independence.

If you examine nations, both current and historical, religious freedom and tolerance can only be found in nations founded on Judeo-Christian principles. That's because the founders believed in the free market system and the free exchange of ideas found in scripture. Everyone has an opportunity to share their ideas, products and beliefs; the best ones survive and thrive but the worst ones still have the right to stay in the conversation.

Mr. Ebert also states on more than one occasion that our form of government is a democracy. However, the Constitution guarantees a republican (representative) form of government, not a pure democracy. The Pledge of Allegiance reinforces this concept when we declare, "and to the Republic for which it stands." Many of the founders rejected democracy as one of the worst forms of government. John Adams said, "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Roger Ebert has had several challenges in his life, and I appreciate his passion for life. He is more than qualified to critique motion pictures. I just wish he had done his homework in Civics 101.

By the way, in researching the information in this letter, I found that the quote at the top of this letter was never actually made by the Nazi minister of propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels. But it was repeated often enough that most people now believe he said it, which is incredibly ironic.

Don't believe everything you hear or read. Search for and follow the truth wherever it leads. Use original documents as often as possible, if not exclusively. Do your own research. Then teach others.

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We Are Called To Reason

Isaiah 1:18 reads: "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

God designed us to use reason to know and establish truth in our culture. And although we enter the 'house of salvation' only by active faith in the risen Christ, God does not require us to check our brains at the door.

   

Peter tells the church, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." We should be prepared to reason with people regarding the truth of our claims about Christ.

The Bereans were applauded for using scripture to determine that what Paul was preaching was true. Later, Paul used reason to present the gospel to the Greek culture on Mars Hill.

The Founders of the United States believed in reason as well. If everyone has freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, they believed we could discuss, debate, and give reasons for what we thought to be true. And they believed that truth would be discovered if we reasoned well.

This is why they established the "free exercise" of religion, even though they were almost exclusively from Christian denominations. They were confident that when people diligently seek religious truth and are free to reason, the truth will always be found.

However, over many years, the North American culture has abandoned the idea of knowable, absolute truth. Many believe absolute truth does not exist, and even if it does - it cannot be known. As a result we have lost the art of reasoning. The meanings of terms like proposition, argument, syllogism, fallacy, and dilemma are unknown to many adults, but years ago they were taught to elementary students.

When reasoning has been lost in a culture, we resort to physical, emotional, political, or economic force to achieve our desired goals. Consequently society suffers.

Zero tolerance laws have lead to silly situations where students have been suspended from school for bringing a plastic knife to cut a birthday cake. Why? Because adults refuse to do the difficult work of reasoning.

Apple has removed the app for the Manhattan Declaration from its iTunes store. The Manhattan Declaration uses reason to advance the belief that life is sacred, marriage is sacred, and religious freedom is worth fighting for. Apple calls it 'hate speech' and refuses to engage in or permit reasoned discussion.

Recently, legislators have done what many of us do when we face tough decisions - run. Could things have turned out differently if we had stayed and done the hard work of reasoning and wrestling with difficult decisions? Only if everyone was determined to find the truth.

When reason is suppressed or lost, tensions within a culture begin to rise and eventually boil over as we can see in nations around the world, and as we have witnessed in America in race riots and a Civil War.

When the church fails to reason, it can become legalistic with lists of "do's and don'ts" that ignore the truth and drive people further away from God.

But when reason is used as a compliment to faith we see significant advancements in society. Many of our great explorers pursued science because they believed that all truth was God's truth, and that it was knowable. After all, if there is no truth, or if it cannot be known - why pursue it?

Truth was pursued and reason was used to craft documents like the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; documents that have protected freedom and established justice for individuals here and around the world.

If we value truth, believe that it is knowable, and are willing to do the hard work of reasoning together we can advance the Kingdom of God. We can contribute to our culture in positive ways. We can prevent untold sorrow and suffering.

Centuries ago scripture issued an invitation to people of faith from every generation: "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord.

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There Is No Such Thing As a Free Dog

There is no such thing as a free dog. Our family discovered that three years ago. We received a curly-haired, black bundle of joy called Teddy as a Christmas gift - absolutely free . . . or so we thought. Three years later, he has become the beloved beta-male of the Ferrell pack, but he has come with a price.

We feed him and take him to the vet. We purchase flea, tick, and heartworm medicine monthly. We purchased a cage for use while he was house trained and a series of ceramic bowls for him to sleep in. I don't know why he liked sleeping in ceramic bowls, but every few weeks he grew out of the old bowl and needed a larger one.

Eventually he grew out of his small cage and we purchased a bigger one. Now he sleeps on top of it and dreams of being Snoopy chasing down the Red Barron! Add up all of the toys, snacks, food, medicine, collars and leashes, and we could put a good down payment on my daughters' college education. There is no such thing as a free dog.

In addition, we have lost some of our freedom as a family. When the 'pack' travels and stops at the Speedway or Wal-Mart, we can't all go inside; someone says behind with Teddy. When we travel without Teddy, we find someone to take care of him while we are gone. We cannot go too far away or for too long, because Teddy must be cared for. We can no longer play card games on the living room floor because Teddy lays down on the discard pile. He just wants to be the center of attention.

While I dearly love our little fuzz ball, if we had known the expense and the loss of certain freedoms we may have thought longer before accepting the 'free Christmas gift.' We may have recalled the words of Christ, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?"

Unfortunately, our nation seems to have made the same mistake 'the Ferrell pack' did, only on a grander scale. The idea of universal health care is wonderfully exciting! No more pain, no more sickness, no doctors performing unnecessary tonsillectomies in order to buy a new yacht; or so the rumor goes in Washington. But have we counted the cost? Do we have the money to pay for this 'free gift?' Have we listened to sound advice from scripture?

Scripture teaches that a blessed nation "lends to many nations but will borrow from none." How does that square with our position as a nation? Scripture says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Yet we have clearly given up our freedom of choice in exchange for the illusion of security. We are advised to "defend the cause of the weak and fatherless," yet we have affirmed legislation that will provide funding for abortions, unaffected by any Executive Order.

Over just a handful of decades the church has accepted the idea, an idea that was foreign to the founders of this great nation, that faith has no place in the public square. And Christians, in particular, cannot and should not try to influence political thought. God save us from our own ignorance! There is no such thing as a free dog, and there is no such thing as free health care. Freedom itself isn't free; it was given to us by our Creator and defended with the blood of hundreds of thousands of men and women who laid down their lives so that we could experience freedom.

If the events of the past few weeks stand unchallenged, we may come to love and appreciate our new-found security. But at what price? We have exchanged the gift from our Creator for the gift from our government. We have exchanged our freedom for security. But at what cost?

There is no such thing as a free dog.

Questions or comments?
Write curt@smdcog.org

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Forgotten US History and the Church

Would it surprise you to know that George Washington refused to call anyone a patriot who worked to remove religion and morality from public and governmental life?

What would you say if I told you that the United States Congress tried to import 20,000 bibles from Europe, but then decided to endorse a version printed in America and recommended that version to every American?

Did you know that 27 of the 39 signers of the U.S. Constitution had seminary degrees?

Each of these statements are true, but they have been cleanly scrubbed from our history books and from our public memory.

If you become a student of pre-1900 U.S. History, you might be surprised at how influential Christianity has been in the foundation and maintenance of the federal government. Christianity was not only foundational to the United States, it was strongly promoted by many of the Founding Fathers, sometimes using government funds to advance the faith.

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the supposed "wall between church and state", authorized payment of funds by the United Sates to the Kaskasia Indians to help them build a church. He also approved seven years of financial support out of the government's coffers to pay for a priest! So how does this square with Jefferson being the creator of the concept of the separation of church and state?

By the way, the words "separation", "church" and "state" cannot be found in the First Amendment, the Constitution, or any other official founding document.

Why is it important to discover, recover and remember this information? Because the founders of this nation understood that a republic, like the United States, would never work, and would eventually fail if the People rejected morality and a Judeo-Christian understanding of God.

John Adams, the Second President of the United States and a crafter of the Declaration of Independence, stated, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other [people]."

Unfortunately, there has been a consistent attack on the public demonstration and declaration of our faith for several years, sometimes by people who have sworn to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." There are even some, in the highest offices in the land, who think that the constitution is fundamentally flawed and that we need to break free from its basic limitations.

However, the Constitution was written and designed to list a handful of things that the Federal Government had the power to do. Any authority, action, or power, other than those things specified in the Constitution, was to be determined by the States or the People. In short, it was intentionally designed to limit the power of the Federal Government. Modern political thought seeks to limit the People and give power to the Government.

The church has an opportunity to speak into this culture and remind it of the moral and religious foundation of the nation. No one else will do it. And when we do, we will not be wrapping the church in the American flag. Instead we will be wrapping America in the truths found in Scripture.

Truths like, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

"For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure."

"Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts."

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. "

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people."

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."

Consider these parting words of George Washington: "Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."

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Choose Well, Choose Life

Article for The New Castle Courier-Times, Christian Perspectives, December 26, 2009

And in despair I bowed my head,
“There is no peace on earth,” I said.
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

It’s the day after Christmas, and this article is sharing the newspaper with stories of current events that impact our community. Inside its pages you will likely find a section filled with names and photos of individuals who have died in the last 36 hours. You’ll see stories about the war in Afghanistan, a tragic fire or domestic assault. You likely read a story about political squabbling or mudslinging, and one of our superstars may be in the news again – for all the wrong reasons. Maybe today will be the day when the annual “Grinch” story will be written about this year’s hard-hearted person who stole all of the Christmas presents from under the tree.

It’s clear, even as you examine this paper, that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was right. Hate is strong. In these “United” States, we are experiencing more animosity and division than we have in several years as politicians pit the Haves against the Have-Nots. The threat of a nuclear Iran is foreshadowing a handful of responses, all of which make Sodom and Gomorrah pale in comparison. The "good-old-days" of abortion on demand have mutated into today's headlines of a Virginia woman being able to kill her own live-born daughter without consequence because "the mother and baby were still connected by the umbilical cord."

This day is not unlike the days following the first Christmas. The part of the advent story we seldom read in our "sanitized" version of the Christmas story was very dark and tragic. Herod, the king, was so afraid of this new born King that he had every male child under the age of two slaughtered. Mothers and fathers across Judea wailed in anguish over the loss of their sons.

"There is no peace on earth," I said.

But, what is the source of this animosity, these dark-days, this war that is waged every day in our neighborhoods, and political parties, and churches, and families? Could it be that the source of this ill-will can be found in our freedom of choice?

Of all people, Americans should have the most intense understanding of the power we find in the freedom of choice. Our nation was founded on this freedom-of-all-freedoms. We are free to choose our own paths as we “pursue happiness.” We are free to choose how we will live. It is with this power, our freedom of choice, that we can transform the world both for good and bad.

Examine a passage of scripture common to Jews, Muslims, and Christians says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life!” This may come as a shock to some right-wing individuals who have invested far too much energy in the wrong argument of the abortion debate, but God is pro-choice. Before us every day are countless decisions. In each one we can choose between blessings and life, or curses and death. God wants us to choose life. He commands us to choose life. But the choice is ultimately ours, and so are the consequences.

The angels on the hillside announced "Peace on earth, good-will toward men." But that is just God's side of the equation. What is our side of the equation? Are we choosing life over death? Are we choosing peace over conflict? Sadly, I think not.

All too often we choose the things that promise hope, only to be disappointed. Herod promised peace as long has he was in control. But when his power was threatened, even by an infant, pain and anguish replaced the stillness found in Bethlehem. God never asked us to choose hope; he asked us to choose life, even if choosing life meant a life of challenge.

Longfellow's final stanza reminds us what can happen if we choose life; if we choose right; if we reject wrong. He reminds us that we must fight for what is right and reject what is wrong. The choice is ours. Now is the time. Choose well.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, goodwill to men.


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