In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on SB 1070, Arizona’s immigration law and Obamacare I thought it good to repost my syndicated column from July 19, 2011. I can’t say it any better today than I did then:
Tragically, for a lot of people, Independence Day is/was a Will Smith big-budget movie, a case or two of beer, hot dogs, hamburgers and a picnic. But it’s so much more than that to those of us who know the factual history of our great nation and those who risked and sacrificed so much to bring our freedom from the crown to fruition.
One of the things I am most proud of, pursuant to our Founding Fathers, was their faith in and recognition of God. It offends me to hear the seditious ignorance of the foolish that fight to remove any and all references to God when, in fact, our Founding Fathers intended for God to be acknowledged and prayers to be offered in conjunction with good government and the observance of federal holidays and the ceremonies adjoining same.
The corrupters of the Constitution would have us believe that our Founding Fathers intended for the Constitution to be changed; they argue that the framers intended it to be a fluid document. And even more Erebusic, they argue that the architects of this nation mandated no mention or observance of God in, on, or around anything having to do with government – all of which are blasphemous lies.
I have long argued that the founders were intelligent, articulate men who were more than capable of saying exactly what they meant. But the corrupters of freedom, believing all wisdom to be embodied in themselves, have argued otherwise – even as to when the Constitution was signed.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin all wrote that they had signed the Constitution July 4, 1776, but there are some historians who argue that they signed a month later. So the question becomes, whom are you going to believe – the men who were there and participated, or PBS and the History Channel?
If the Founding Fathers had intended the First Amendment to mean what the courts have fallaciously and errantly allowed it to be subverted into, they would have specifically written it that way. But in a perverse way, the First Amendment has become exactly what they intended it not to be.
The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free expression thereof.” Yet that is exactly what is happening today. School districts are sued and bullied because they dare to hold graduations in a building with a cross on it. The Veterans Administration has ordered chaplains at the funerals of fallen military not to invoke God’s name or to make any reference to Him at the funerals. Children are forbidden to wear T-shirts to school with the name of Christ on them. Military cadets are forbidden to offer prayers of thanks for their meals in their cafeterias – even knowing that they may sacrifice their lives in service to their country. The prohibition of religion is precisely what is taking place today.
If the Founding Fathers meant no state-sanctioned religion as it is enforced today, why did they reference God so inclusively?
One of the clearest examples showing that the Founding Fathers never intended the First Amendment to be applied as it is today comes from John Adams. The day before he would sign the actual Constitution, Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail. The very first paragraph on the third page of that letter, Adams wrote: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by the solemn acts of God Almighty.” And for those who will hasten to say that Adams was just caught up in the euphoria of the moment, one paragraph later, in closing the letter, he wrote: “You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see the end is more than worth all the means. And that Posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even [although] we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.”
That hardly sounds like a man who, along with others, was on his way to sign one of the most important and substantive documents in history. Adams’ words also show he fully understood the gravity of their actions.
And for those who argue that the Constitution was intended to be a fluid document – they’re right, but only within a very strict matrix. The Constitution can be amended, but that involves all of the states’ participation and input. It isn’t done by subversive lawyers and activist courts, which ignore the will and participation of the people.
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After I dried my tears, and got over the shock of both of the Supreme Court decisions last week, I spent Independence Day writing a letter to John Roberts. Of course, I had to hold back and temper my words, but I very bluntly excoriated him for his deviation from the Constitution, for legislating from the bench, and for his giving in to bullying by the likes of Obama and Leahy. After finishing the letter, and attending a special prayer service at church, wrapping up the Fortnight for Freedom effort, I felt much better. The Founding Fathers and framers of our Constitution were so very wise it boggles the mind and is astounding. To have it all torn apart by lawless leftists is heart breaking. I pray every day that We The People will rise up in November and cut off the head of the snake that is currently occupying the White House.
sunnyvee: I pray we seek God and His kingdom first…everything else will fall into place from there…
Maybe 2 types of folks celebrating today’
Independents..freedom loving..hard working..moral and belief driven people. American Flag.
Dependents…..let them fly a different flag…these are moochers and Dependent people. They should fly the Obama Bumper Sticker 2012.. as their flag.
These will celebrate DEPENDENCE DAY.
Have a wonder filled Independence Day as you contemplate what we have been blessed to have and what we are on the verge of losing.
Evil people will crush our Liberty if through our collective immorality and apathy we allow them to. Don’t take my word for it; a perusal of the recorded history of the human race will confirm this truth. Evil forces will dominate if good men and women stand silently and allow them to have their way.
“I consider it an indispensable Duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of Our Dearest Country to the protection of Almighty God and those who have the superintendence of them into His Holy Keeping.”
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
He was turning the Office of President of the fledging United States of America over to his elected successor after completing two terms and having resisted the urging of many of his countrymen to accept the crown of kingship for life.
What could be said any clearer to show the intents and beliefs of our Founding Fathers? The history of our founding, the character of the Founding Fathers, and the subsequent history of our nation has been perfidiously twisted and purposely mangled to support what those who would rule us and the world want people to believe instead of the way they were. A day will soon come when those who have done so will be required to pay a very high price for their desecrations of truth and efforts to remove God from our national lexicon. Whether it will be in this dimension or the next, inevitably they WILL pay.
Mychal;
Again thank you for the truth and wisdom, GOD speed my friend stay safe.
To me, America is great because of our constitution. No other nation, in written history, established what America did. Our authors of the constitution came from a continent that endured tyranny for most of its history. In 1776, on the European continent, tyranny had ruled in the forms of religion and kings/queens – that history spoke to the authors of the constitution. Freedom of religion, separation of church and state, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms are so America. I don’t want to lose any part of our constitution. The old world tyranny exists in the modern forms of marxism, socialism and communism. “New world” names for the same “old world” tyranny. I am praying for strong, upright leaders who will “do that which is right in the eyes of God”. Our existing government may clamp down on God, but it will never clamp down on God in “we the people”.
Thank you Mychal, a very good word.
All the more important that we all fall out and vote against Obama and any Senator or Representative that has supported him. The very idea that he thinks the Constitution is “a basically flawed document” and his wife had never been proud of this nation until her husband was elected President say all that I needed to hear to convince me that his election was a basically flawed move and we’d rue the day.
Built into the Constitution is a method to modify it to fit extremely important changing times and needs. But it was never to be seen as having a way to eliminate the Bill of Rights. They were and are “self evident”, not subject to question or change.
This is what I have posted on my FB page:
New Dilemma…..Do we say “Happy Independence Day” or “Happy “Dependence” Day now? Let’s just leave it at “Happy 4th of July”!
It saddens me to say that…..but I will just have to live in the memory of when “Independence” Day, was just that! We are now fighting for the life we all once had, and it certainly wasn’t one like we are slipping into with each and every passing day and new regulation with it!
Mychal, your site is one of the few places on line where we consistently get a PRO – AMERICAN viewpoint. Thanks for your courage. And we need to make our statements heard loudly on November 6.
Again you are on the bulls eye. Revisionist history – aka lying – rules the day in government, schools, entertainment & with liberals/socialists.
I believe it was John Adams that said this nation was designed for a Christian people.
Happy Independence Day everyone! It’s up TO us TO throw off tyranny in Nov & restore the United States as the bastion of Freedom & individual liberty our founders intended going Back TO the Mayflower Compact, The Declaration of Independence & the Constitution! We’re here for such a time AS this!
I just wanted to share something with all of you. Today, the Houston Chronicle published an article by a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. If you’re interested, you can see it here: http://www.chron.com/default/article/Why-Independence-Day-is-more-important-than-3682689.php
I felt moved to respond with a letter to the editor, which I also forwarded to the professor. Just wanted to reproduce it here with the hope that it offers something positive:
I seem to remember that in the past, the Chronicle printed the Declaration of Independence in its entirety on the 4th of July. For some reason, you chose not to do that this year and instead published an article by UT Professor Sanford Levinson about the flaws of our Constitution.
Professor Levinson opines that “the Framers created a system that was fundamentally designed to make it difficult for government to respond effectively to the great issues of the day.” I’m no constitutional scholar, but it seems to me that our founders, being acutely aware of the dangers of an over-reaching, intrusive government, sought to limit the government to those things that only government can provide, e.g., national security. The problem is that some people have come to believe that the government should address and solve every problem encountered by the populace. It’s clear that those who politically are left of center view the Constitution not as a protection against aggressive government, but as an impingement on their wish to expand governmental reach. This was demonstrated clearly with President Obama’s remark that he viewed the Constitution as a set of “negative liberties”. That’s such an odd phrase to me.
The problem with having a Constitution that is a “living, breathing document” is that it then becomes vulnerable to passing fads and ideologies. Social and political trends tend to be cyclical: we go a little to the left, we go a little to the right, back and forth. Do we constantly want to be reinventing the Constitution to suit the whims of the moment?
I would compare the Constitution to the foundation of a house. It might need a little repair once in a while, but if you tinker with it too much, you risk undermining its integrity and the soundness of the structure which it supports. Thus it is with our Constitution and government.
With all the hype about removing God from every piece of Government paper, the Pledge to American Flag, and Government/School buildings, it is my understanding that our founding fathers took a couple years to come up with the correct and direct verbiage for The Constitution of The United States; to make sure there were no doubts about their writings. They referenced many sophisticated books including the Holy Bible. Most of the rules and laws came from the Holy Bible. So, God is imbeded deep within our Constitution. It all made sense at the time and to this day, makes a lot of sense. Those who wish to ‘change’ the Constitution are like those who are not real Christians and read ‘into’ the Bible and change the meaning to meet their own ends. Sharpton and Jackson comes to mind. Modern times does not cut it when someone wants to change the Constitution. The words/statements within are forever, like the Holy Bible. We have proof of what happens when the Constitution is not followed. The Federal Government Not following the Constitution has produced the mess we have with the Federal Government today. I am still seething about the Supreme Court ‘changing’ ObamaCare. They were to decided if the health care rag was constitutional or unconstitutional. Instead, Roberts actually changed some wording to make it constitutional. I know he did this for his own reasons but he was not supposed to change the wording; only declare it constitutional or unconstitutional. So I thought.
I have trouble understanding why people and organizations are so dead set against the mention of God. Is it somehow dangerous in that it will incite to riot or cause some type of harm? Is it offensive to other non Judeo/Christian religions? And if it is, why should Christians bow to others beliefs? Why should they not turn to Christian beliefs? The right to other convictions has been determined to be as it was ment to be. I’m not too sure that is a fact. I read that the government shall not establish a state religion which all much believe or at least adhere to. Not only does our bible say to turn your swords into plows, it also says to turn your plows into swords (not exactly, but close enough). To me this means to defend our right and our wish to practice those norms found in the bible entire, not just the New Testament, although I find the Old Testament frightening. A person’s religious convictions are personal and theirs to protect. Should others try to convince to another religious belief, fine. But when they demand that personal convictions be subservient to others, the bounds of personal freedoms are crossed.
I have very dear friends that claim to be both Episcopalians and Buddhists. In my mind that is not possible. To live up to the philosophy of Buddhism causes no harm and in fact is as logical and right as living up to the Ten Commandments. But to worship Buda as well as God violates the tenants of Christianity. I have told them that I can’t see how they rationalize their beliefs, but that is their wish. They claim that Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion. I ask why then are their prayers to God as well as Buda. They say they are one and the same. At that point I become confused. In my mind, my God is merciful and forgiving, but jealous and will tolerate no competition. If I’m wrong, that’s between God and me and my decision to make. Should someone wish to discuss why I should be other than Christian, that’s fine and mentally stimulating because it causes me to think. But if they claim that I’m going to Hell or some other punishment because I do not agree with them, I become agitated.
At its most basic, it is belief and faith that makes me Christian. A comment made to me when asking questions of a dear friend and Episcopalian Priest pretty much sums it up. “If I do not believe in God and am right that he does not exist, I lose nothing. But if he does exist as I believe, what have I lost?
As Obama, who I do not believe is Christian, would say, “At the end of the day, the bottom line is blah, blah, blah” as if he was the final authority ( I had to find some way to bring in my opinion of him). Nope, it’s my day and my bottom line, not his. I’m not very well equipped to discuss religion, but I am very well equipped to believe as I wish.