America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles…….there is no question about it. Our founders protect other faiths and set up an even playing field for all. But, at their core, the founders were Christians and set up a government based on Christian principles.
Separation of church and state is a phrase that we hear a lot…… but it is not found in the Constitution or in the Declaration of Independence. What the Constitution does say is that there can be no official state sponsored religion and that the government cannot interfere with the practice of any religion.
And yet, in the name of “separation of church and state”, Christianity has been slowly driven out of the public space.
Part of this is due to the failure of the Christian community to live the Christian life……. Love God & Love your Neighbor………but a lot of it is driven by a small vocal minority of atheists…….and their attorneys.
This month I am reading Jeremiah. It is a history of a time when the people of Israel voluntarily walked away from God. Then a lot of bad things happened. Jerusalem and the temple were wrecked. Their nation was destroyed and they were exiled to Babylon. Jeremiah describes this as God’s punishment for Israel’s abandonment of God. Ultimately, Israel returns to God. God then heals Israel and sends them back home.
If you look at the history of the United States of America, you can see a long period when we thrived. We grew from a bunch of rebels angry at the strongest nation on the planet to become the strongest and most prosperous nation on the Earth. But, I would argue that America is now past her peak. National debt, Abortion, Extramarital Sex, Sexual fluidity, our toxic politics, hate, constant war, drugs, the entitlement culture, the poisoning of the planet……..these are all symptoms of the downhill slope that we are entering.
We have also seen two eras of our public life……..the Christian era and the post-Christian (secular humanist) era……..the first era when we recognized God’s authority (even if we didn’t follow it) and the second era when the only authority is “whatever we want”. An unborn child is a human being……only if it suits our needs. A man is male and a woman is female…….only if they want to be.
You can call it coincidence if you wish, but it is hard to deny that America thrived as a Christian nation and is beginning to fail as a secular humanist nation……………Just as Israel failed when it walked away from God.
I believe that a national revival………a return to our Christian roots is the key to rescuing America. We need to return to plan A……..which was working. And phoney, superficial posturing won’t do it. It must be centered on love……..for God and for our fellow man. In Jeremiah, Israel turned around and recovered………so can we.
Or we can continue our experiment with secular humanism. The secular humanists keep telling us that they have the solutions to our problems. They say give us more time and resources……….step a little further away from God………..and we will fix it all………you can have whatever you want. But the problems keep getting worse. And we keep listening to them.
There are promises in the Bible too. I keep coming back to this one.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
God, NIV
As for me………..plan A sounds pretty good.