Monday, July 4, 2011
On this 4th of July America celebrates another birthday. Americans across the land are hoisting their
flags, marching in parades (unless you live in Tucson where it is 100+
degrees), preparing for BBQ’s, and setting off fireworks. It still moves me to hear the lyrics, “America, America, God shed His grace on
thee.” The reason is because God has
indeed blessed America, the reason it has endured for over 230 years. America is the oldest constitutional republic
on earth. It is for this reason that we
all need to think seriously about this great and noble experiment in freedom.
This is why religious liberty is America’s
first freedom. The first amendment
of the U.S. Constitution states,
It is our nation’s first freedom not just because of its order in our nation’s founding documents, but because religious liberty and our relationship and responsibility to God is foundational to every other freedom. The inalienable rights are granted by God. Charles Colson wrote,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
It is our nation’s first freedom not just because of its order in our nation’s founding documents, but because religious liberty and our relationship and responsibility to God is foundational to every other freedom. The inalienable rights are granted by God. Charles Colson wrote,
“The references to God in the Declaration of Independence provide a foundation for an ongoing moral conversation within civil society. And moral truths pervade our founding documents from beginning to end. Without God as the source of all those moral principles, the public square would quickly revert to the law of the jungle. British power would prevail. The weak, the unborn, the elderly, and the gravely ill could be quietly terminated."
I’m talking about this because
religious liberty is being imperiled both at home and abroad. I want you to consider a number of things
with me. This is not a “political sermon” but truth that I want
you to measure through the filter of the Word of God. Remember King David’s words (Ps.127:1) “Unless the Lord builds the house [you can
put nation here also], those who
build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
REMEMBERING
OUR FOUNDATION
The first
thing George Washington did after
being inaugurated was to stoop down and kiss his Bible, as an affirmation of
the submissive spirit that he had to have toward the rule and authority of
Almighty God. John Adams, the 2nd President of the U.S. said it best, “Our Constitution was made for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any other.
For democracy to work, the majority of the people have to be religious
and moral at their core, or it falls apart.” Add to this the fact that many of our institutions honored God back then as
well. Did you know that 106 of the first
108 schools in America were founded on the Christian faith? Did you know that Harvard and Yale began as
ministry training schools–schools to train preachers? What’s remarkable is if teachers taught this
in our schools today, their job would be in jeopardy!
What about Abraham Lincoln, who is considered by many as the greatest
President in our nation’s history. On
February 11, 1861, he spoke in Springfield, IL, and said, “In regard to this great book,” -and he held up his Bible- “I have but to say it is the best gift God
has given to man. All the good the
Savior gave to the world was communicated to us through this book. But for it, we would not know right from
wrong.” In 1909, President Theodore
Roosevelt said, “After a week of
perplexing problems, it does so rest my soul to come into the house of the Lord
and to sing and to mean it, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.’ My great job and great glory in occupying
this exalted position as president of the nation is that I am enabled to preach
the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow countrymen and to hold up
Christ as the hope and Savior of the world.” Taken as a whole, there was an unashamed resolve that our forefathers
demonstrated. They were unapologetic
about faith in the Lord! This is a far
cry from the politically-correct, multi-cultural drivel we are being fed today.
A great, modern day lesson on
freedom and religious liberty comes from China. According to the Pew Research Center, 50 to
70 million Chinese Christians belonged to an unregistered house church in
2007. They vastly outnumber members of
the legal but government-regulated “three self” churches. These house-church Christians are not rebels. They love their country and want legal
recognition, but not at the price of government control over their
religion. The Communist government views
this growing Christian movement as a threat to its authority. They tolerate churches that submit to
government control, but churches independent of the state face serious
persecution. In the wake of recent
persecution, 19 pastors from house churches across China are circulating a
petition that urges the government to investigate its policy and treatment of
the house-church movement. It goes even
further by asking for broader protection for religious freedom. They claim freedom of religion as their “first and foremost freedom” (right out
of America’s foundation). Without
religious liberty, they claim, a diverse society like China cannot “form a peaceful civil society, or bring about
social stability, ethnic solidarity or the nation’s prosperity.” These Chinese petitioners know the difference
between being allowed to worship in state-regulated churches and being allowed
true religious freedom — the freedom to live
out their beliefs in all areas of life without government restriction.
THE
TRAVESTY OF “GOD-SCRUBBING”
I am deeply concerned about the
condition and direction our nation is taking, because it is not a
positive step, but a slippery slide to tyranny.
We’ve gone from being a God-fearing people who wanted religious freedom,
who knew that God was sovereign and important, to a nation where we can hardly talk about God for fear of offending
someone in these multi-cultural times.
Someone likened it to cracks appearing and growing in the foundation of
freedom! There is a definite spiritual dimension to this as the
Psalmist recorded, “Why are the nations
so angry? Why do they waste their time
with futile plans? The kings of the
earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one.
"Let us break their chains," they cry, "and free ourselves from slavery to God.”
Over the last few decades,
legions of skeptics have mounted a massive assault on these “self-evident
truths.” From prestigious law schools,
to the halls of government, and especially in the Supreme Court, God is often
banished from the public conversation.
It’s what I call a God-scrubbing. The assault on God in public severely damages
our republic. If God is thrown out of
history, we lose our basis for believing individuals have rights and
dignity. Without God there are not
inalienable rights, no certain proof that liberty is better than tyranny. Everything becomes a matter of opinion or
power. Listen, I’m not saying
everyone needs to be a born-again, Spirit-filled, Bible-believing person, but,
neither is God a curse word or Someone who has no place in the public
square.
The most recent example of this
came from NBC’s final day coverage of
the U.S. Open golf tournament. It began
with a patriotic segment featuring children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to a video montage of past U.S. Open golf
highlights. In this taped vignette, the
kids omitted from the Pledge the phrase, “under God, indivisible.” The criticism came so fast and furious that
NBC issued an on-air apology before the day’s programming was even
finished! Here’s what NBC’s Dan Hicks
said on-air, “We began our coverage of
this final round just about three hours ago and when we did it was our intent
to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that
captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s
capital for the third time. Regrettably,
a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that fear was edited
out. It was not done to upset anyone and
we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.” Ah yes, another “non-apology apology” that
said “we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.” It’s not our fault, but you out there who are
overly sensitive, well, we’re sorry. The
following day, Monday, they did go farther in their apology. They said, “Unfortunately, when producing the piece – which was intended to
capitalize on the patriotism of having our national championship played in our
nations’ capital – a decision was made by a small group of people to
edit portions of the Pledge of Allegiance.
This was a bad decision.”
This is an enlightening
admission that this decision was made by a “small group of people.” A small group of people who want to dictate
to the majority of Americans on all matters moral and spiritual. This is what we’re up against today.
I think it’s also revealing that
even our President is complicit in these kinds of omissions. In a statement issued on Friday, June 17,
2011, President Obama declared that “LGBT [lesbian, gay, bi-sexual-trans-gender] persons are endowed with what
he called “inalienable rights – and entitled to the same protections – as all
human beings.” Words right out of
the Declaration of Independence, but conveniently omitting the word “Creator.” The actual wording is “all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” How significant is that? Well, if you omit or deny God the Creator,
then who’s to say what or where or why these so-called “rights” originate. I seriously doubt that the revolutionary war
was fought over LGBT issues! We all make
mistakes, so I’m fully prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, a simply
mistake. However, this isn’t the first
time. This was actually the 3rd
time this year that the President has used the “inalienable rights” language
and omitted reference to the “Creator.”
Let me add that the amount of illustrations of things of this nature are
legion today, and are almost weekly news stories.
How else to you explain three
years ago the school board at Arlington H.S. in Massachusetts making the
decision that there could be no American flags in classrooms. They also stopped saying the Pledge of
Allegiance. After a three year battle to
get those things reinstated, the principal relented and decided the pledge
could be said after school in the lobby area, so as not to offend anyone. Like some kind of covert operation rather
than gratitude, loyalty and a simple faith acknowledgment. Our Constitution is under attack from all
directions, even though it grants us freedom of speech! Recently it came to light that Wilder Publications has begun printing
copies of the Constitution and reprints of the Declaration of Independence with
warning
labels on them. It reads, “This book is a product of its time and does
not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their
children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal
relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read
this classic work.” In other words,
they really didn’t know what they were talking about back then, so take it with
a grain of salt. Three weeks ago in the
Cape Cod area, the school board unanimously passed a policy for elementary
students — yes, I said elementary students – to be able to distribute free
condoms at school. It even requires that
school officials keep it confidential so parents will never know if their child
has requested them. Totally
unbelievable! It’s like it comes to us
from the theater of the absurd. The
school superintendent says, “Well, the
intent is to protect kids.” If you
think all of these are just isolated events, you are mistaken. They are happening with more and more
frequency; it is like we’re becoming a different nation.
I don’t know about you, but I am
growing increasingly weary and upset, by so-called atheists or minorities who
are supposedly hurt and offended, or feel their rights have been infringed upon
by the mention of God in normal public life.
The latest were the group of NYC atheists who is “demanding” that the city remove a street sign honoring seven
firefighters killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, because they
say the sign violates the separation of church and state. The street’s name is....“Seven In Heaven Way.” But,
the group is saying “there should be no
signage or displays of religious nature in the public domain.” One representative told Fox News Radio that
his organization was especially concerned with the use of the word “heaven”...“we think this is a very bad thing.” No, what’s a bad thing is, people like you
who are ignorant both of our nation’s Constitution and history. The word “heaven” is a bad thing?! I wonder if they are as deeply offended by
the escalation of profanity, vulgarity and incivility in media, entertainment
and the public discourse. By the way,
much of this is fueled by the ACLU,
which is a group of God-hating, and in my opinion, un-American communists. Time won’t allow a full expose, but the
phrase “the separation of Church and
State” is one of the most misunderstood and misapplied statements used
today by ignorant people, reporters and even jurists; who mistakenly think it’s
part of our nation’s founding charter!
Just a hint, folks, it’s not found in the Constitution at all! I’ll leave that for another time.
My point, dear ones, is that religious
liberty is under assault in our land.
(Ps.11:3) says, “If the
foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Those precious foundations that gave birth to
our nation and have sustained us for over 200 years have been targeted by a
relatively small group of agenda-driven people.
The other dangerous reality accompanying all this is that we have diluted what it means to be a
Christian. We have compromised and made
it easy to be a Christian in name only.
So, instead of the resolve
that made our nation strong, we have a relativism
that makes “sincerity” the measuring rod of everything, and not truth. (Jn.14:6) is still the bell-weather, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
GOD,
HEAL OUR LAND
Let me close with prayer. It is a prayer for our nation offered by
Abraham Lincoln in 1863 at a pivotal point in our nation’s history. I’m going to give it to you exactly as it was
prayed:
We have been the recipients 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 nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten you, O 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. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us. It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Amen and Amen!
Special thanks to material by Charles Colson, Dave Stone and Rob
Schwarzwalder
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