Last Tuesday the United States held its annual election day. The party out of power bolstered by a strong independent group known as the Tea Party claimed a huge upsurge in the House of Representatives and a real increase in representation in the Senate. There was also a great increase in the number of Republican governors. This pattern was repeated in many state legislatures, such as North Carolina which has the first Republican majority legislature since the 1800’s.
All this has many politicians and pundits making a variety of claims. I’m sure you’ve seen many of them – repudiation of the current administration’s policies, demand for change, throwing out people who do not represent the population they are supposed to serve, and so forth.
More specifically, I hear people talking about how the real issue is the economy, how that is the great problem in America, how the focus has to be on fixing that – including such actions as cutting spending, continuing the Bush era tax cuts, and so forth.
I’m writing this to tell you the real problem in America is not the economy. Most certainly not. Yes, abut 10% unemployment is high and bad, and yes, there are probably even more out there unemployed who are not counted. But the real problem for these United States is that the people – as a whole – have forgotten who they are, if some ever knew. They are focused on their own income and security, while steps have been taken to dismantle the fundamental structure of the country.
The United States, as I have written before, was founded by a group of spectacular individuals who were well grounded in the Christian faith and who sought God’s blessings on this enterprise. The original bold documents were laid out to provide and protect individual liberty and to reward individual effort. In fact the original holders of political positions were not really full time politicians. They had other jobs, like being a farmer or something else. It was like many of our state legislatures used to be – part time jobs filled by people connected to the real economy and society of the country. But over the years we have come to have career politicians, people who have never held a real job in the economy and thus have little or no understanding of the economic system that drives the country and job creation. Senators and Congressmen serving many years! And people out of office working in Washington as lobbyists until they can be appointed or reelected to another position.
Some times in the past when I was involved in the business world I would go to meetings and functions with these people or their staffs in Washington, “inside the beltway.” The discussions even in the informal time before or after the meetings were all about politics. I remember thinking – no one in the rest of the country cares about what these people are talking about.
This great separation of the “leaders” from the population was never so clear as in the past two years when the federal government pushed through dramatically new legislation and actions that were not wanted by the American people. This population, this 330 million people, was ignored by an elected elite that considered itself above it all, perhaps wiser and better than the rest.
The past two years saw steady moves to a socialist system, a federal takeover of much more of the countries activities. But it is the private enterprise system that is the engine that has driven the country up to such economic heights.
And it has been the strong Christian beliefs of some of the population that has led the country to take bold steps in the past to defend other less powerful nations and peoples. The action of a leader apologizing to the world for the actions of the US is out of line with history. Yes, of course, the country has made mistakes, and when that happens they should be apologized for. But in this secular world, the US has been the greatest force for good the world has seen these past many years. Had the US not entered World War II in Europe as well as in the Pacific, something many did not want to happen, the world would be living today with the Nazis in control of Europe. Britain alone could not have defeated Hitler and the Nazis. That’s just one good example, one very good example. The same can be said for stopping Japanese aggression in the Pacific.
Over the years this country has been the base for sending countless missionaries into the world, for sending huge relief efforts to areas devastated by drought, by war, by famine, by typhoons and earthquakes and other natural disasters.
There is only one true responsibility of a national government – to protect the country and the citizens against foreign enemies. Everything beyond that is an add-on that does not have to be included.
We see today an enormous number of people who now feel they are owed things by the country, by the government – people refer to this as entitlements. So for those people the issue of going forward to the best of their abilities (hopefully with their eye and prayers toward God and seeking his guidance) does not exist as it once did in the country.
The founding fathers, clearly guided by God, created a country where people had the environment and the opportunity to go forward with their God-given talents and pursue to the best of their abilities the areas they wished to pursue. That’s it. That’s all. No one is owed anything by a national government. Yes, there has to be provision for those truly physically or mentally unable to participate fully, but that is a very small number indeed, not the huge numbers today expecting to receive from the government.
Here seems a good time to move more into the preacher role. God is the source, not the government! God is the source. We have this extraordinary government and society because clearly this land has been blessed by God in its founding, because there have been so many godly people living here. One of the Psalms points out how God has claimed the godly for himself. And there are many verses in the Bible that point out how God blesses people. There are also verses that point out that people are to work hard. Also that that work is not to take all the time from waking to going to bed.
The great problem in America is that most Americans have forgotten who they are. That includes the magnificent heritage of the creation and history of the country. And it includes the role that faith in God has played. I would say that is why the country has been so successful. As so many Americans pull away from God – which we clearly see in the entertainment world, the political world, the media and everyday life– the United States slips steadily from the shining platform it had reached.
Some voting advice: Don’t elect ungodly leaders. Don’t elect people who think the economy is the greatest problem in the country. Don’t elect leaders that will take the country to failed social systems that have long ago been disproved in Europe and Asia. Don’t ever elect leaders who cannot see truth and hide behind phony facades like political correctness. And don’t elect leaders who have had no personal experiences in working in the system that prospered the country.
This recent election at least shows a sizable number of Americans know something is wrong. Well, it is. We are rapidly approaching the time of Jesus’ return to earth. And in the US there is a national falling away from God, almost a rebellion against God; a blatant disregard of things God has boldly warned us about in the Bible; and a blind acceptance of people as leaders who even a cursory glance would show are highly unqualified and even dangerous.
May God have mercy on the United States of America.
