What if God No Longer Has America’s Back?

“God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America.”                                                                                                                        ― Otto von Bismarck, 1849

When Bismarck spoke those words, the United States was a nation that overwhelmingly followed the Judeo-Christian legal ethic.  Most everyone attended weekly church. Courthouses were erected with the Ten Commandments posted thereon or therein. Children prayed in schools. The U.S. still had the horrific evil of slavery but a dozen years later 620,000 Union soldiers gave their lives to achieve its defeat.

 

One of the reasons America was willing to fight wars on the opposite side of two oceans in the 1940’s was because we realized that Hitler’s brand of socialistic-nationalism was an evil, atheistic empire and that Japan was a nation that worshipped its emperor, not God. It had a long history of extreme torture against non-citizens to attain its geographic and political gains. Thanks to our nation’s devotion to God, we recognized evil when we saw it and the dangers of allowing that evil to fester.

 

In the post World War II era, the United States' populace enjoyed a level of prosperity unparalleled in world history. Not only was the nation as a whole well-off, the prosperity was spread throughout the population. I’m so old that I remember arguments whether it was moral for the CEO of a company to make more than 15 to 20 times than least-paid full-time worker. Walt Disney, even though he was the owner and took great personal risks to grow the company, did not make an extreme salary. Owners were supposed to get their rewards through the appreciation of the business as a whole, not through gargantuan paychecks. 

 

Today, you can find non-entrepreneur CEO’s making 3,500 times the lowest paid full-time employees. Obscene. 

 

The same approach to finance applied to the nation as a whole. Up through the Eisenhower Administration the nation often ran a budget surplus and Social Security enjoyed huge inflows of funds. 

 

For the thirty years following World War II, America was unparalleled in prosperity and power. With the civil rights laws of the 1960’s and the moon landings, the future of America seemed as bright as the sun. 

 

According to reporter/historian Daniel Warner, based in Geneva, 

There is no question that the United States reached its peak power from 1945 to 1975.

So, America's peak ended in about 1975.

 

One might wonder if it is a coincidence the end of the period of American dominance coincides with the1973 Roe v Wade ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Based on fraudulent information, the count found a ‘right’ to abortion in the 

 

…the "penumbras" formed by "emanations" in the Bill of Rights, as Justice William Douglas so imaginatively put it.

 

In other words, there was no genuine legal basis for Roe. For the first time in modern history, the U.S. made giant break away from both morality and the rule of law. 

 

While in office, President Obama – less than two generations after Roe --  said, if one of his daughters made a “mistake” he “didn’t want them punished with a baby.” A baby. God’s greatest gift. Roe has hollowed out our collective senses of morality as effectively as swallowing Drano – and, we have swallowed the Drano more than 62 million times. And, in spite of what we hear in the media, 98.8% of abortions are not due rape, incest, fetal deformity or health risk to the mother.  

 

The corrosion has spread across our society the last fifty years and continues eat at us today; to the extent that most of our ‘leadership’ class has little respect for God or even ethics.

 

We denigrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior’s, dream of a society where people are judged “by the content of their character” in favor of a bastardization of his dream called “critical race theory.” 

 

Without a sense of shame, the same “leaders” have no compunction doing business with the modern-day slave drivers of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has Uyghur slaves sewing their tennis shoes. To close the circle, the CCP created their modern-day Auschwitz to punish their citizens for their religion. Sound familiar?

 

During World War II, we didn’t trade with the German Socialist-Nationalist (Nazi) Party; to do so would have made the average American sick to their stomachs, even before the Holocaust was generally known. We didn’t trade with the Soviet Union for similar reasons. 

 

The U.S. of the pre-Roe era would have tarred and feathered Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and the numerous other politicians and ‘intelligensia’ that palled around with Jeffrey Epstein and his stomach-turning exploitation of girls. Instead of condemning and prosecuting their despicable behavior, the Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez generation of politicians grew up believing America’s biggest problem is a stereotypical Baptist minister from Tyler, Texas. 

 

We used to understand that hypocrisy was a sin against the Eighth Commandment. Today, we see billionaires – the same who make 3,500 times their lowest-paid full-time employees -- and government officials flying around on private jets (by far the most carbon intensive form of travel) to receive environmental awards. These same people have the chutzpah to tell the ordinary Americans – in an era of high unemployment caused by COVID --  to endure higher energy costs, loose our jobs and to cut our already, by comparison, tiny carbon footprints. 

 

Sixty years ago, almost all of the Fortune 500 companies were American. American manufacturing was the envy of the world. Now, Boeing can’t even make reliable spacecraft and aircraft. 

 

Our nation, which once valued thrift, has $157 trillion dollars of indebtedness (state, local and corporate). According to one economist, it would take 10% of the gross national product for the next three generations to pay all of it off. And, to whom does the federal government owe much of it? China. That’s like owing our national debt to Hitler. 

 

Given the events of the last ten days, the churches should be packed with people fervently praying for forgiveness both our personal and national sins. We need to understand that our precious Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and, especially, the Bill of Rights have a background in belief in, and respect for, God. 

All of us are children of God and deserve, at minimum, courtesy and respect. The personal demonization that has become all too common in our age of social media needs to stop. While we can “hate the sin,” we must “love the sinner.”

 

Regardless of our personal religious preferences, please consider The Ten Commandments:

1. I am the LORD your God. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

Please note, they are not “suggestions,” they are commandments. We disregard them at our peril. Before you wave them away, ask yourself:

Is our nation better today than it was a quarter-century ago when we were more religious?

 

If you haven’t been to church, synagogue or temple recently, this weekend would be a wonderful time to resume the habit. We desperately need the prayers for the world, our nation and for ourselves. 

 

In the interim, ask for God’s blessings and forgiveness (all of us need both!) in your home and in your car. It is a good habit to begin. 

I see it as the only hope for our nation at this 11th hour.