IS TODAY'S AMERICA THE FOUNDERS AMERICA?
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
July 14, 2013
NewsWithViews.com
It is obvious that today’s America is miles from the America our Founders established. The size of America and because of the influence that it is capable of exerting in world affairs makes America exponentially different. Unfortunately what made America the unique nation of its day is absent from America today. Granted, America is still the greatest nation in the world. People are not risking their lives to go to Cuba or Venezuela or any Islamic nation. The only nation that people risk their lives to get to is America.
The reason for that is because America has always been known as a place where one could be free. Free to do whatever you wanted to do. The biggest reason was religious freedom. All religions are allowed in America but the Founders believed that only when there was an imposition by one religion on a people that that religion should be bridled. They were free to have enterprises of their choosing, live how and where they wanted and their benefits of their labor were tied to directly how hard they were willing to work.
Today’s society is full of people who believe that the government should supply all their needs. This welfare mentality was started by the Democrat Party under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and in the present administration is doing all it can to get as many people on the public dole as it can. Welfare buys votes and that is why they are pushing so hard for amnesty for all the illegal immigrants, an automatic eleven million voters. I believe that the figure is much greater than that, around thirty million. All of this includes welfare, food stamps, Aid to Dependent Children and an arm load of other programs that does nothing but buy votes. At some point there will be more people on the government teat than those working and at that point the government will no longer be able to feed and house the masses and society will collapse into impoverished chaos.
This is not the nation the Founders envisioned. They also knew that it would take a diligent and responsible people to maintain what they established. Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman at the finish of the Continental Convention what kind of government had they given the people and his response was “A republic ma’am, if you can keep it.” There are inherent down falls to a republic. It was Franklin that also said "When we the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." This is exactly what we are seeing today. Government paid for healthcare with Medicare and Medicaid an all of the other entitlements that we now feel that we are entitled to. We are spending 62% of our national budget on entitlements: 22% on Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare; 21% on Social Security; and 19% on other welfare programs. Franklin also commented concerning people on the public dole: "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it." The only one that isn’t fully government paid is Social Security. At one point it was funded by the working people. When it was started there were thirteen people working for every person drawing it. Now there is only two working for ever one drawing. I don’t have a problem with the idea, but the government should not have access to any of the funds – EVER! A few years back a journalist for the Wall Street Journal figured out that if a person had put the same amount into a simple passbook savings account from the time they started working until they retired they would be able to draw almost ten times what the government is paying AND if the person dies before drawing anything, all those funds would go to his/her family. Now the family gets nothing.
Our founders believed that only a person of high character should be placed in a position of authority. Benjamin Rush stated what he believed was the foundation of raising a person of high moral character: “I know there is an objection among many people to teaching children doctrines of any kind, because they are liable to be controverted. But let us not be wiser than our Maker. If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into all the world would have been unnecessary. The perfect morality of the gospel rests upon the doctrine which, though often controverted has never been refuted: I mean the vicarious life and death of the Son of God.” He also stated: "By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime."
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Charles Carroll commented that it was the principles Christianity that maintained the foundations of free governments: “Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they, therefore, who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”
James Madison believed that the essence of the success of America was its ability to live according to Biblical principles: 'We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for Self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God.'
John Adams proved that our republican style of government was entrenched in Biblical principles when he stated: 'We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for Self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God.' Adams knew that it was the moral foundation of the nation that would determine the moral foundation government: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.
Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” Speaking of Christianity’s influence on society as a whole and the need for it to be practiced within all of society: "Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all government and in all the combinations of human society." Even the private lives of those in authority should be based on moral foundations because the Founders knew that without a moral private life there would be no moral public life: “Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.”
In this last century we have seen way too many of our public leaders involved in extra marital affairs Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton all Democrats. There have been Republicans that have found their ‘soul mates’ even though they were married to someone else. We’ve all heard of Weiner’s texts. Spritzer’s flings with women of ill repute. These are the people that are in authority over us. We have put them there because we do not take the time to put a man or woman or character in a position of authority. The quality of our nation has deteriorated greatly because of our lack of diligence in maintaining high moral character for not just ourselves but of those that we elect.
Is this the America our Founders established? Not by a long shot. But it is still the best in the world hands down. Can we make it better? Absolutely! Are we going to? We can begin in the 2014 midterm elections. Congress has a 9% approval rating which means that the majority of those running for re-election need to be replaced. The Democrat Party has given itself over to the communist party. This happened as far back as 1969. The Republican Party is not far behind.
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The so-called immigration bill they are putting together in the House is based almost entirely on the communist ideals for immigration. Only a complete purge of Congress at this point will make the difference needed to get America back on track. The agenda of government run everything, including our everyday lives must come to an end.
Time is short for America. The church will soon be taken out of here and I don’t envy anyone who is left behind. It will be hell on earth. But we are to ‘occupy until His return’ and that means fight however we have to to keep what our Founders gave us. John Adams knew the importance of fighting for freedom. He knew it had to be fought for to get as well as to keep. He was willing to sacrifice his time so his children would have to. He stated: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.” I too will do what I can to ensure that my children and grandchildren will live in peacec and freedom. They will do the same for their kids. It is our duty to our nation.
� 2013 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
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Pastor Roger Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches that was restricted in 1954.
President of The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org, which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States. Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.
Web site: RestoreFreeSpeech.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
