Conservative> Chuck Norris> I Believe In The Resurrection Of America

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I Believe in the Resurrection of America

What's so disheartening about America's present political environment is that those in Washington are truly convinced that more and bigger government is America's primary solution for recovery, future growth and security. President Barack Obama even declared early in his presidency that "only government" is our savior.

Our Founders had a far better solution than only government. And it's probably a good time, during Christendom's Holy Week and with heightened frustrations toward government across the country, to recall that solution and that, though our Founders initiated our government, they didn't expect it to usher in any form of Utopia.

As proud as they were of their newfound republic, our Founders' trust and hope was not in government, but in God. For what? For most of the things that people today often look to government to provide: life, liberty, happiness, provision, salvation, decency, civility, morality, honesty, restraint, equity of power and future hope, to name a few. Tragically, in modern times, government has usurped God's role in our republic and Americans' lives.

But if our government and even public schools won't remind Americans of our godly heritage (and hence the way out of this national mess), who will? The answer: we patriots. The least we can do is to remember and recall to others the Creator's place in our republic, in hope of reawakening just one more American, especially during this Easter week.

For America's Founding Fathers, God and government were intricately linked. As Thomas Paine echoed in 1775, "Spiritual freedom is the root of political liberty. ... As the union between spiritual freedom and political liberty seems nearly inseparable, it is our duty to defend both."

It is no coincidence that the Declaration of Independence begins with a spiritual emphasis: "When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People ... to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes. ... We hold ... that all Men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."

Even to the Framers of our Constitution, which often is hailed by critics of religion as a godless document, God was behind its monumental words. As James Madison wrote, "It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in (the Constitution) a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution."

To our Founders, God was the source of our human rights, which put limits on government power.

Even more, God was (and should be) the ultimate agent for national sustenance and renewal. That is why we are dreaming if we think we can correct the ills in ourselves, our government or our society without his aid.

Ben Franklin was particularly eloquent on this very point while addressing those who attended the Constitutional Convention: "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us, who were engaged in the struggle, must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?"

If Franklin, a presumed deist, could believe that "God governs in the affairs of men," it is certain that all or nearly all of the Founding Fathers did, as well. That belief shaped our country; it is part of our heritage. And I do not believe that we can neglect or repudiate that belief — that we are responsible to God — without endangering our future.

As Franklin declared, the American empire cannot rise or (I would add) resurrect "without his aid." That is also why an entire chapter in my new paperback expanded version of "Black Belt Patriotism" is devoted to the role God played in the founding of our republic and must play in America's reawakening.

Friends, I am a patriot and an optimist at heart. I, like many of you, believe that we can become a great nation again, known more for who we are than what we have. I believe in the resurrection of America. But that's not going to happen by traveling down the same road we've been on. If America has lost its way, its heart, its moral compass, the answer is to return to the old path, the path followed by our Founders who put God first, trusting in him — not big government — to be our salvation.

When human government seems lost and without hope, let us remember not only that we the people have the power to make changes in government but also that our hope is ultimately not in men or government. It is in God and his future government, upon whose throne will be a crucified and risen Messiah and about whom this prophecy was given: "Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever."

No wonder the term "gospel" means "good news."

To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

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Thanks for your latest item, Chuck. Here is some good news from the latest newsletter of Dr Sam Gipp, KJB all-weather Baptist evangelist. "Is God Fighting for America? No one would have believed that just one year after the News Mafia anointed "messiah" took office that the seemingly unstoppable tyrant would be so devastated by current events. You can call the Nov. Republican upsets no more than anti-Obama backlash, but no one would have believed a year ago one of the most vicious liberals in the Senate would be dead and his seat taken by a conservative Republican in one of the most Liberal states. It gets my attention! I am watching to see if there is a Divine trend here. But there is no doubt that God was in the elimination of Ted Kennedy and the election of Scott Brown. The future bears watching." As St Paul said, 2 Corinthians 2:14, " Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place."

Comment: #1
Posted by: Alan O'Reilly
Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:24 AM

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Since you're obviously a fan of the founding fathers, you might be interested to read what Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists: "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." Government has no place in religious, and vice-versa, and there are universal truths that transcend individual belief. Religion is a moral compass for people to govern themselves by, not a guideline for the government of a country.

Comment: #2
Posted by: Eric Alder
Thu Apr 1, 2010 8:28 AM

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Thomas Jefferson wrote the letter to the Dansbury Baptist in response to a letter the Baptist wrote expressing fear that the government was going to try to run the church. Jefferson's proper response was in light of the fact that the Bill of Rights limited the government. The wall was a block on the actions of government, not the church. Also, by using the phrase “a wall of separation” Jefferson was using words of a Prominent Baptist minister of the time, Roger Williams, in which a wall of separation protected the garden of the church from the wilderness of the world. [e.g. the wall protected the carrot (church) from the Rabbit (government), not the other way around].
Why rely on a statement in a letter written 13 years after the passage of the First amendment by a man that was NOT a member of the Constitutional Convention, and NOT member of Congress, but was serving his county in France. Why not rely on Jefferson's official actions: Jefferson, as President of the US, was President of the Washington DC public school board which had the Bible and Watt's hymnal as reading text; In 1803 Jefferson recommended money from the Treasury to be used in a Treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians to provide a minister for seven years, he did the same in treaties with Indian Tribes in 1806, and the Cherokee in 1807.
Why did the same Congress that passed the First Amendment also pass the Northwest Ordinance [Note: This legislation was passed under the Article of Confederation first and was passed again 1789 under the Constitution, as was the First Amendment] in which Article III states “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encourage.” It was required for states to teach religion [please see Webster's definition under his first dictionary to properly understand what religion meant ] to join the United States. Looks like the authors of the First Amendment are the biggest violators of its meaning.
Jefferson, in a letter to Justice William Johnson in 1823, stated: “Carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the test, or invented against it, conforms to the probable one in which it was passed.” Even Thomas Jefferson is telling you to NOT rely on his letter to the Dansbury Baptist, but to look farther back to the records of the time of James Madison, Fisher Ames, and others who debated the wording of the First Amendment.

Comment: #3
Posted by: Lee Sila
Fri Apr 2, 2010 4:24 PM

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