Posted on 08/28/2002 1:22:47 PM PDT by Starmaker
Are you pleased with the condition of our nation today? Are you happy with the political, economic and cultural trends now dominant? Do you feel good about our ability to defend ourselves from terrorists? From China? Do you think you´re apt to make more money in the next ten years than in the past ten? Are the public schools teaching our children what they need to know? Are you confident that we have the men and women in government who have the good sense and courage to preserve and promote the prosperity, freedom and opportunity you and I have enjoyed?
On another front, are you satisfied with your own spiritual condition? Do you understand your place and purpose in this world, regardless of the condition it´s in? Have you settled in your heart and mind where we came from, and how we got here on this little speck of water, dirt and rock floating in the vast universe? Do you know why you´re alive, or have any idea of how you should be living?
Some would say that the political and the spiritual are opposite poles of man´s life, that they have absolutely no connection and thus cannot be considered together. But that´s exactly how we´ve ended up in the sorry state of affairs we confront today. Actually, man´s political obligations and behavior are linked to his spiritual understanding and behavior. In fact, I´d argue that the two are irrevocably entwined. How so?
Most men and women have at one time or another confronted the question of our existence: Where did we come from? Are we just a cosmic accident, as the evolutionists claim? What´s life all about? To be sure, there are myriad answers to those questions. But the explanations ultimately come down to just two: we´re an accident, the result of chance…or we are the creation of a higher power, one we normally refer to as G-d. Cut through all the theorizing and philosophizing and those are man´s choices.
While we hear regularly from those who definitely choose G-d and those who definitely choose the accident explanation, I believe that the great majority of people in the U.S. today don´t choose anything. Why? Well, it´ s a serious and difficult question, and one that carries some pretty far-reaching implications and consequences. And most Americans are not ‘into´ consequences; they prefer to not be accountable for their choices. Doesn´t that mean they´d choose the accident position, then?
No, and here´s why: To make a definite choice in either direction is to incur consequences, at least potentially. To choose the belief in a creator G-d means obligations and responsibilities, anathema to most Americans. And to conclude definitely that there is no G-d is to stake eternity on flimsy theories. But the question of G-d can be put off with, seemingly, no consequences at all. We can tell ourselves that there´s just not enough evidence, or that we´ll decide on that later, or some other dodge…and there are no immediate consequences. That´s the perfect American solution: we´re required to do nothing, and nothing happens to us as a result. So we can continue to watch TV, ride our jet ski, play golf, have affairs, etc., to our heart´s content. Why complicate the good life, after all?
That´s a fantasy, of course. By delaying or ignoring the choice about G-d, we´re not avoiding our spiritual responsibilities; we´re just fooling ourselves. A ‘no decision´ is the same thing as rejection of the sacrifice G-d made through Jesus Christ to restore us to fellowship with him, which we broke through sin. And that rejection means eternal separation from Him, the direst of all consequences. Refusing to believe that a loving G-d would make us choose doesn´t alter the Truth one whit, no matter how many rationalizations we whistle in the dark.
Saying ‘yes´ to G-d means giving up too many of the worldly things we´ve grown to like—drugs, booze, immoral and (especially) self-centered behavior, etc. Since saying ‘no´ is too big a risk, we go halfway; we stall for time, put it off, while immersing ourselves in the worldly pleasures we so enjoy. And try to believe there are no consequences. Like one in four single adult Americans are infected with a sexually transmitted disease. Like alcoholism and drug addiction. Like the lack of love in families. Like one-third of American babies are illegitimate. Like letting people in this nation of plenty go hungry.
In exactly the same way, most of us also live our political lives halfway. Oh, we may claim to be a staunch supporter of this party or that. We may vote, or a few of us may even work for some candidate´s campaign. But just as we try to dodge the issue of G-d, we don´t really want to bear the consequences of political choices. So we go through the motions, perhaps voting and maybe even talking up this candidate or speaking out on that issue. But do we really know what´s at stake? Do we ever seek out what´s to be the real and practical result of proposed legislation or other political actions? We rationalize that ‘politics doesn´t really affect us directly,´ and so are complacent in our detachment.
Doesn´t affect us directly? Has your retirement fund lost anything in the stock market this past year? Do you know that much of what´s happened in the corporate scandals is the direct result of Congressional legislation in the early 90s? Do you know how many scientific or medical breakthroughs have died among the 40 million aborted babies these past thirty years? Or how many engineering or technological discoveries we´ll do without? How many symphonies, plays or great works of literature we´ve missed because of the pro-abortion death lobby? Are there places you used to go but can´t now because of crime, or because of increasingly putrid public behavior? Do you know how much in taxes you now pay to government?
Perhaps you like it that eco-nuts dictate much of our environmental policy, or that wealthy pseudo-farmers absorb billions in farm subsidies? Or that the Congress and federal bureaucrats share values that are alien to most working Americans? Doesn´t affect us directly? Did you see the video of the airliners crashing into the World Trade Center? Do you not know how incredibly inept, incompetent, corrupt, self-serving and yet complacent our federal government has become?
In the past several presidential elections, less than half the American electorate even bothered to participate. Which is just as well, since even the half that did vote showed so little wisdom and discernment. Imagine George W. Bush and Al Gore being offered for the presidency during the time of Jefferson and Madison, John Adams and Patrick Henry…both would have been laughed to scorn, as would Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, and most of the other presidential candidates and presidents of the past three decades. Yet we meekly accept that these are the best this country has to offer.
It´s hard to get too incensed about slimy politicians while the power to set this nation back on course still lies in our own hands. Politicians are, after all, simply being true to their natures. But without the moral and ethical standard of the Bible, the guiding principles of which are entwined in this nation´s founding documents and philosophy, what is there to guide the electorate? What gauge do we apply to those whose arrogance so far exceeds their abilities? Is it merely our pocketbooks? Or one pet issue?
Half the people in this country think the government should provide everything for everybody. The other half think the government should just provide them with tools to take advantage of the other half. It should alarm us that the Founding Fathers feared nothing as much as the government that both Democrats and Republicans are so intent on expanding and to whom they both want to give more power. The government they both want is not compatible with a democratic republic, nor with individual liberty and opportunity that once marked the American experience. But then, neither is the behavior of the American electorate.
Americans have chosen the material over the spiritual, living lives of empty pursuits and trivial pleasures, rather than the abundant and joyful lives offered by the G-d Who created and blessed us. And we who have the power to govern ourselves choose instead to cede it to small, unworthy men and women who manipulate that power to their benefit, and to the detriment of liberty. We have abandoned the two great promises with which we´ve been entrusted, one spiritual, one political. For that unfaithfulness to the truth of our G-d and to the principles and freedoms established by men of whom we are not worthy, we are more deserving than any people in history of the current chaos our half-hearted lives have wrought, and of the hell that is to come.
To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Paul at pescates@earthlink.net .
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