By Pastor Roger Anghis
February 26, 2023
America was founded by men who wanted the freedom to live and worship in the manner in which they choose. The first people to arrive here were escaping the tyranny of England and Europe where everything they did was dictated to them. Their Bible, the Geneva Bible, was illegal in many of the European countries and England didn’t like it either. It taught that God was where their rights came from and the king of England, King Henry VII, believed that he and only he was the one that gave people their rights. The people were taxed to the point of poverty to support the monarch’s lifestyle and wars.
Even in the early 1600s with king James, the great-great-grandson of Henty VII did not like the people believing that anyone but him gave them their rights. There was no real freedom of religion but you were free to at the Church or England. That was the ‘established’ church. You were taxed to support it and you did what the church said. The church didn’t think that the average person should read the bible because it took their educated learning to understand it. The average person did not have that education. That’s why the Geneva Bible was liked by the people, it was written so the average person could understand it and it also exposed a lot of lies the church had taught the people.
There were a lot of other things that the people sought and found in the new world, freedom to work at their chosen profession, run a business, get an education, live where they wanted to live, free speech, protest against the government, have a free press, own property, and a whole list of other things. These were things most of Europe and England couldn’t do. This, in my opinion, is why America became a magnet for people who longed for those freedoms. We see all of this enshrined in our First Amendment: 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.
Those freedoms go far beyond what I’ve just listed and include the right to bear arms, A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. This right is violated in many States. Having to get permits to get a gun is an infringement, having to get a permit to carry a gun is an infringement. In New York City the chief of police decides if you have the right to carry a gun. I guess he never read the 2nd Amendment or is incapable of understanding it. My guess is it’s both. Most nations don’t allow the population to even own guns let alone carry one. Most if not all the states that have very strict gun laws are democrat run States and have the highest gun-related crime rates in the country.
The Forth Amendment is very important for keeping our personal papers secure and private: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. But that was completely ignored when the Patriot Act was passed.
Our Fifth Amendment should guarantee our property rights: . . . nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. City and State governments violate this provision with impunity and have for decades. Notice it says just compensation, When they exercise ‘eminent domain’ it is usually ten cents on the dollar. That isn’t ‘just compensation’. I had a friend with some very valuable property on a main thoroughfare the city wanted for generating tax revenue. They made an offer of 30% of its value which is not just compensation, and when they refused to sell for that figure they used eminent domain and they only got ten cents on the dollar. I understand that eminent domain can only be used for public uses, schools, roadways, and government buildings. This property was taken by the city and sold to a major corporation for appraised value making the city millions of dollars.
The Sixth Amendment guarantees us a speedy trial. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed. The January 6th people have been in jail, some in solitary confinement, for over two years. Most have not been charged with anything. This is because the Patriot Act removed those rights for people that the government calls ‘insurrectionist’. It has become very obvious that January 6th was a planned operation headed up by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats. This is a massive injustice to these people and their families.
The Tenth Amendment is an interesting one. The federal government has ignored this amendment for decades upon decades: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Most government powers belong to the States but the federal government has overreached its boundaries time and again. The federal government’s responsibilities include protecting our borders. Eisenhower made a very good effort to do so as did Reagan. His 1983 Amnesty package had a provision for border security but Chuck Schumer has always found a way to block that from happening. Donald Trump did the best job of any president but was fought but not just by the Democrats but by Republicans too. Notice that those three are all Republicans. Johnson never accomplished anything towards closing the border, Nixon didn’t and neither did Bush 41 or 43, Clinton did nothing, Obama did nothing and Biden has thrown the border wide open and as of today around five million have crossed the border that we know of.
We’ve also seen when some border States attempt to protect their border the federal government comes in a sues them to stop. We have seen this in Texas just this year. We are seeing our constitutional rights being eroded almost daily. If we don’t stop it we will lose them all. Remember the rights we lose today our grandchildren will never know we had them. We can vote our way into socialism but we will have to shoot our way out.
© 2023 Roger Anghis – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Roger Anghis: roger@buildingthetruth.org
