American Faith

“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.”  Ronald Reagan

In one of my columns last year, I wrote of Dennis Prager’s notion of three national mottos all found on our coinage that make America unique. These are “In God We Trust”, “Liberty” and “E Pluribus Unum.” I have taken them to heart and refer to them often to make the point of our National uniqueness and the exceptional notion of our National Mission. We are the laboratory for an experiment in governing that has not previously been tried. Our Republic is unique. It was passed to us by Creator inspired men who set our governing principle into a living document that has guided our destiny for almost 250 years.

Our founders were not uniformly optimistic about our prospects for success. Franklin, as he was leaving Independence Hall after signing the Constitution exuded his pessimism in his famous response to Mrs. Seaton’s question regarding what had been produced by the assembly. He chimed, “A Republic so long as you can keep it.” Washington, Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson all have noted the importance of morality and religious faith as the guiding spirit of our population in order have any hope for our Republic to endure. To listen to them, it is a wonder that we have lasted as long as we have. Jefferson particularly had a jaundiced view of the prospects for peaceful progress of our new Republic and noted, “Every generation needs a new revolution.” and: “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”

Alexis de Tocqueville particularly noted that democracy’s breed their own downfall. In his volume on Democracy in America, he notes that men in a democracy are so absorbed with their own affairs, they have no time to allot to the affairs of government and leave to it the responsibility without truly minding the store (-my words, not his.-) The only institution of any real stability is the central government which, attentive to itself, does what governments have done throughout the ages: grow and erode individual rights, ultimately dictating individual behavior and destroying personal liberty.

What gave hope to De Tocqueville for the future for this land was the separation of church from state but the inseparability of the religiosity of its people from the operation of our democracy. De Tocqueville puts it this way, “I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning.  I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”

De Tocqueville came to this judgment in the 1830s, but all of our founding fathers, including those who allegedly were agnostic or theistic felt the same. If we wish to keep the beneficence of our Creator, Washington requires it of us in his parting message. Adams speaks of our Constitution being designed only for “a moral and religious people”- any other would see our Constitution unravel “like a whale through a net.” And Jefferson, who regularly attended church in the Great Hall of The Capitol, said “God, who gave us life, gave us liberty.  And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God; that they are not to be violated but with His wrath?  Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

I call each of you within reach of my words to an accounting to preserve this great land. Be responsible in your own actions; require your Representatives to be responsible in theirs. We have strayed so far from financial prudence that we must come back from the brink this year- not just wait for some hoped for “man on a white horse” to make it all right in the future. We are collectively that “Man on a White Horse.” We must act and act now or slide into penury and the loss of our liberty that President’s Reagan has warned cannot ever be regained.

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