It is often alleged in American media and popular entertainment that God-fearing conservatives and Christians are hard of heart and don't care about the poor and needy. It is said that we focus on obscure moral issues like marriage, family, and patriotism, and forget about the disadvantaged among us. Unless one favors a large, tyrannical government to dominate our lives, we must be unjust and lack compassion for the oppressed masses.
Such a view is not surprising from those institutions, and the elite in general, as they condescend upon the Christian faith and life and authentic American values. The condescension from the elite is very palpable and borders on outright hatred. As our Savior Christ taught us, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." (John 15:18-19)
This may appear simplistic in reasoning, so it is important to understand the nature of Christian love and charity. Our forefathers, the Pilgrims and the Puritans, their contemporaries and successors, who came to the New World in order that they may no longer have to hide in their homes to practice their faith, but could do so publicly and without fear, understood their Christian responsibility for each other quite well. John Winthrop, leader of the Puritans and governor of Massachusetts, stated this in 1630 in his famous sermon, Christian Charity:
For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
This faith in the power of men redeemed by the Holy Spirit was not lost on succeeding generations, including the Founding Fathers. The Constitution of Massachusetts, penned by John Adams in 1780, quite explicitly states what our forefathers believed, in Article III of the Declaration of Rights:
As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality, ... the legislature shall, from time to time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.
A conservative worldview that doesn't stress public piety and morality is an unrighteous and immoral philosophy. As Americans avoid their Christian duty towards each other, not only does it put us outside of Christ's love, but the very foundation of our freedom decays, and our civil rights and liberties erode. The institutions that our forefathers built are being delivered to those who have no loyalty to our fathers. Our new leaders place heavy burdens on our people: high taxes, intrusive regulation, and the removal of the liberties for which our fathers spilled their blood. The new postmodern "liberties" of sin and wickedness are proclaimed by our judiciary, having no basis in our founding documents, and seek to displace the true liberty that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As John Hancock, first signer of the Declaration of Independence and governor of Massachusetts, stated in a public supplication of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God in 1791, the same year as the ratification of the Bill of Rights, "... And above all, not only to continue to us the enjoyment of our civil Rights and Liberties; but the great and most important Blessing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: And together with our cordial acknowledgments, I do earnestly recommend, that we may join the penitent confession of our Sins, and implore the further continuance of the Divine Protection, and Blessings of Heaven upon this People; ..."
As Americans, if we are to reverse the calamity that has befallen us, we must return to God, and to each other. We must serve each other in the bond of brotherhood, realizing that everything we are, everything we have and own, is given to us from above. To find our way, we must rededicate ourselves in love and charity towards one another. As Christ taught us, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:43-45)
3 comments:
Forbearance writes:
"We must serve each other in the band of brotherhood, realizing that everything we are, everything we have and own, is given to us from above."
Forbearance, I agree that humans serve each other in the finest manner when they remain conscious that our existence and possessions come from a higher level. I would note that it is not only Christian teaching that leads to this view of things. I would respectfully point to Book XII, Section 26 of the pagan Marcus Aurelius' work "The matters addressed to himself" (which we usually refer to as the "Meditations"). Marcus states (translation by C.R. Haines in the Loeb Classical Library Edition [footnotes omitted]):
"In taking umbrage at anything, thou forgettest this, that everything happens in accordance with the Universal Nature; and this, that the wrong-doing is another's; and this furthermore, that all happens, always did happen, and will happen so, and is at this moment happening everywhere. And thou forgettest how strong is the kinship between man and mankind, for it is a community not of corpuscles, of seed or blood, but of intelligence. And thou forgettest this too, that each man's intelligence is God and has emanated from Him; and this, that nothing is a man's very own, but that his babe, his body, his very soul came forth from Him; and this, that everything is but opinion; and this, that it is only the present moment that a man lives and the present moment only that he loses."
I realize that it might be asserted that the notion of grace is missing from this. I would note, however, that the very notion of grace in the Christian sense comes from the notion of matters coming from above. I agree that devout Christians have been often defamed by the pseudo post-modern pseudo elite (I describe the pseudo elite as "pseudo post-modern" because far from going beyond modernity, most members of this pseudo-elite haven't even gotten out of their diapers in respect of coming to terms with what the Enlightenment wrought). I would beseech devout Christians to keep in mind that many of us who would not be classified as devout Christians recognize and condemn that defamation.
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