Part 3 | Country

I wanted to pick up the theme of exploring loyalty to the truth again, for while the previous sections were more focused on what I learned about Christ as I journeyed into the church, that journey also revealed a lot of insights about our great nation. Yes, becoming Catholic helped me understand on a much deeper level what it means to be American. I understand better the roots of our nation, going back not only to the colonies, but further back to England, Rome, Israel and even back to the garden of Eden, our paradise. Like a key that unlocked the world’s mysteries, I found the key by which to understand our world, our church, and our country. Yes, more than the Catholic religion came into focus, so did our nation. For our nation, and even Europe, is firmly rooted in the Judeo-Christian principles and ideas taught by the church. And so, let me share a few insights on how the American republic was built on Judeo-Christian principles, including the work of many great Protestant men and women who adhered closely to Catholic wisdom and culture.

Declaration

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

When we learn American history in school, we don’t learn much about our English forefathers. Yes, the first Americans were Englishmen. What circumstances would lead Englishmen to reconsider the oaths their English royals and rulers demanded? What would compel Englishmen to rethink their previous way of life, willing to sever ties that bound them to an empire and begin anew not as Englishmen, like many of their own ancestors and forefathers, but as Americans? No longer colonists, but countrymen; no longer part of an empire, but forming a new nation on the world’s stage; these men were willing to sacrifice all, even their lives, for the hope of a new nation, the United States of America. And the Declaration of Independence records and memorializes the reasons for our separation. How beautiful a Declaration it is! What a wonderful witness! What a great historical record! The Declaration of Independence was more than a new beginning, it was a transformation.

Englishmen declared they were no longer English. These brave settlers were going to start anew in the brave new world they now belonged to. They were Americans now. They declared a new nation into existence. They declared a new creation out of the old. They declared their God-give rights had to be respected and protected by government. They taught that the chief aim of government was to protect mankind’s divine rights, among these the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They fought for freedom, willing to lay down their lives. “Liberty or death” was their battle cry. Yes, they desired a government that would protect their rights and they said no to tyranny. They declared independence. They became something new. They taught us what it is to be American by being the first Americans. They were great men and women.

And they declared other things too. They declared our ideals as a nation. They declared our beliefs as Americans. They declared a new nation could exist by the will of the people. They declared that governments were enacted by the consent of the people. They declared our ideals, and they were willing to sacrifice their own fortunes and sacred lives to achieve these ideals. What beautiful ideals our forefathers wrote down when they declared independence and created a new nation! What beautiful ideas they fought for! Yes, the moment our English forefathers declared themselves Americans, they truly became a light to the world and a hope for mankind.

The fact that our forefathers wrote these declarations in a written text and published them for the world to know was wisdom indeed. They recorded the reasons for our separation from an empire, and in a time of fake news and half the story never being told, it was wise to tell the story of their oppression. America is the ultimate underdog story, a modern-millennium David and Goliath, and our victory was secured not only by the blessings of divine providence but his guidance in the hearts of men and nations who rallied to such beautiful ideals, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, our forefathers expressed our ideals on dusty pieces of parchment and then secured them by their blood. By their blood, they liberated millions upon millions. By their ideas, billions know the principles of freedom. I am not aware of a country, save the Ancient Jews, with greater nor more public ideals published for all to see, know, and marvel at. Yes, out of the many marvels and great accomplishments of the English, there may be no better achievement than the creation of the United States of America.

But when we declared independence from an English empire, we also declared independence from a church. England was a Protestant nation with a State church, of which the royals of England are still, even today, at the head. As Americans, it’s an absurd idea now, that the King of England could strive to take the place of the King of the Jews or even the Pope. That the Queen of England could try to take what only the King of the Jews could give. Yet, sometimes, we do not think deep enough about what our forefathers declared independence from – yes, a country, an empire, the English empire. And yes, a tyrant, the tyrant King George whose abuses are well chronicled in our Declaration of Independence. But we also declared independence from a church. We were no longer Anglicans; we were no longer subject to the whims of English royals who pretended to be leaders of the church. Yes, we were freed from the religious mandates of the head of the English church. Yes, this point is often overlooked, but we were freed not only from political tyranny, but religious tyranny. We not only declared our independence from a nation but a church. Our dissent was made complete, we were free to become Christian once again.

Yes, the English may have tolerated Protestant sects since 1688, but their religious rights were trampled. And that’s not even to mention the rights of Catholics. Some Catholics had some form of freedom to practice their religion in some colonies (like Maryland for a time), but that was about it with respect to freedom of religion or even freedom of conscience. England, whose history is rich and varied with Catholic religion, was a totalitarian state for hundreds of years, going back to the time of Shakespeare’s father. England, who was so fervently devoted to the church and her mother that they were given the nickname of “Our Lady’s Dowry” by the rest of Christendom, was ruled by tyrant royals that severely punished the faith of their forefathers. The crown punished any and all Christian recusants, dissidents, and nonconformists. The English royals tried to unite their people by creating a uniform religion, a state institution, the Church of England, but in doing so, they violated the consciences of all other English Christians. English royals severely punished the old religion that forged the island nation. And while the devil had his day in England, as his hatred for Christ banished the eucharist for a time, or at least tried too, God blessed the recusants that kept the true religion alive in Our Lady’s Dowry by granting some form of freedom in the colonies. And when these recusants united with their fellow colonists, all Christians were able to secure their independence from not only England, but also England’s church.

I had not thought much of these details before becoming Catholic, but by becoming Catholic I started to learn history differently. I started to see God’s hand upon the work of the world. And for us Americans, with freedom from an empire, a Protestant empire, came also freedom from the State church. By becoming Catholic, I saw the beginnings of our country a little differently. Now did the roots of our belief in the separation of church and state begin to make sense, it was freedom from government mandating a particular sect of Christianity as supreme, and pitting other sects and denominations or forms of Christian religion against each other. Yes, I finally began to see the origins of the argument of separation for the first time. And it was largely thanks to Shakespeare’s stories that I even began to realize these origins. The origins of our American belief in the separation of church and state are because of a tyrant Catholic king who started his own State church. Yes, the first English settlers in America were fleeing religious tyranny that occurred when an ex-Catholic, King Henry VIII, forsook his vows to his wife and his church, and created a new church that would grant him a decree of divorce. This was the beginning of what would cause so many Englishman to flee the demi-paradise of England for faraway shores and distant lands, willing to risk raging seas and uncivilized lands in hopes of finding places of peace and prosperity.

Yes, many Christians were fleeing England because English monarchs pretended they could lead Christ’s church. But we Americans declared our independence from such foolishness. We no longer wanted to be a part of such sacrilege, we no longer wanted to be part of a State church, we declared our independence. We are a free people thanks to our founding fathers. And we are free to return to the Catholic roots of our forefathers, our English forefathers, the Catholic men and women of England before the reformation, a time before English royals pretended to be defenders of the faith – “defenders” who nationalized a universal church and created a State institution; “defenders” who behaved more like  Latin American dictators than church leaders; “defenders” who were tyrants and thieves; “defenders” who were not worthy to be called leaders nor defenders; “defenders” who were in fact destroyers.

What’s interesting, many of our founding fathers would not have recognized this issue as such at the time. Because of State propaganda and lies, some even had their own anti-Catholic bias. And so, when they declared independence, many did not realize they had also freed the country from the religious heresy that engulfed England for hundreds of years – the heresy of the divine right of kings. Our forefathers created a new nation without forcing the new nation to be a part of a particular form of Christian religion. In creating America, they united us not solely by one particular religion, but by a set of ideals. Yes, they declared a system of values that all Jews and Christians could unite under because our country’s framework is a set of ideas and ideals – and that set of ideals can be held by most any sect of Jew or Christian. Those ideals can be held by all people of goodwill, by any God-fearing folk, by all kinds of believers, by any person of faith and even by some who doubt.

It doesn’t matter the color, creed, religion, tribe, tongue, or nation you or your ancestors once belonged to, now you can come to the United States of America and take up the set of values and ideas and ideals as your own and truly and justly and rightly become “American.” As Americans, we believe in God – the God of Moses who freed the slaves, the God of Jesus who saves from sin – and we know that governments exist by the consent of the people to protect our God-given and unalienable rights – the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Like the Christian faith, the barrier to entry is simply belief. But if you believe the ideals of our nation, and act accordingly, you will be and become American. And sadly, in these last days, few know what our ideals are, even though they were written down in old and dusty parchments for us to memorize and memorialize. It is on us to learn them once again; it is on us to remember our history and reclaim our heritage.

Anyone can be American, our motto “out of many, one” is true. You simply need to be able to take certain values, ideas and ideals as your own so we can form a deep bond of brotherhood as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Out of many tribes, one people. Out of many nations, one people. Out of many continents, one people. Out of many religions, one people. Out of many languages, one people. Yes, in this New World exists the closest to what heaven will be like when God calls his people out of the many tribes, tongues, nations, creeds and continents all over the earth to build his kingdom. And that closeness is America. That’s why the devil hates us and wants to bring our downfall. In this New World exists people from all over the world who created something new – a free people, a nation under God, a place for life, liberty and justice for all. The exodus from England is finished, we are inheritors of the promised land our forefathers gave us.

Yes, the beauty of being American is it allows diverse peoples to live in harmony. This was something that the Old World struggled to achieve, for Europe had been torn apart for hundreds of years by all sorts of divisions in religion. The devil will do all he can to divide. The devil hates unity, he wants division but will settle for uniformity. The devil hates truth, he wants lies. The devil hates freedom, he wants slavery. And yes, we Americans taught the Old World that different people could live in freedom, in truth, and be united. And the devil wants to destroy this. Yes, we Americans taught the Old World that Christians could live in harmony. And not just Christians, but any people of goodwill, passionate for truth and justice. And the devil hates this. We took all that was amazing of the Old World and created something new, something better, something more beautiful. By the grace of God, we created a new nation under God out of all peoples and tribes and tongues. We declared independence from the old ways and brought forth a new creation. Not unlike the early Jews who created a universal church, our forefathers forged and created a new nation – the United States of America. And the devil hates what we represent and will always seek to lie, divide, and destroy. God bless America and heal us of our sicknesses and infirmities and give us the strength to stand our ground against the demonic lies attempting to divide and destroy us.

“O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in’t!” – The Tempest

“Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking to devour.” – Saint Peter to the chosen sojourners

Constitution

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America…”

The Declaration stated our ideals, the Constitution was instituted to protect them. We needed to form a more perfect union. Our first attempt as a nation at self-government, under the Articles of Confederation, fell woefully short; the Articles needed to be superseded with a better form of government, the form of government made possible by our Constitution. If not, the great American Experiment would be ended a decade after it began. Thankfully, God had other plans, and so the Articles of Confederation were superseded, and they made way for our beloved Constitution.

Our heavenly Maker granted unique and amazing and timely wisdom to some of the most brilliant political minds since Moses created a nation out of former slaves. These men, our founding fathers, with the wisdom of God in their minds and the love of freedom in their hearts, set forth with a Constitution by which they could forge a Republic that would last. And though the church is the only thing on earth guaranteed survival until the last day, our country’s Constitution has lasted as long as constitutions do. Today, ours is the oldest in the world. Hard to believe, that the first nation in the new world would write the oldest constitution in the whole world, but it is so. Two hundred and some odd years might be young for a nation, but it is ancient as far as constitutions go. It’s no wonder that when the devil mounts his attacks on our nation, he focuses not only on dividing such a diverse people and slandering our forefathers, but he also attempts to destroy the principles and ideals expressed in our Declaration of Independence and guaranteed and protected by our Constitution. The devil’s war is against anything that memorializes life, liberty, and love. The devil’s war is against justice, tranquility, and freedom. The devil’s war is against the essence of what makes America great. And we patriots must stand for freedom, we must stand for life, and we must stand for what makes America great. We must stand not only on the valiant principles of our Declaration of Independence which we were founded on, but we must also stand for our Constitution that protects our key principles. In doing this, we truly can be a nation under God and a blessing unto others.

It is a miracle that our country exists. That the colonization of the new world would lead to a unification of all worlds, that a Protestant empire would birth a country that allows people of all religions to live in harmony, that a colony once governed by a State church would give way to the separation of church and state, that our founding fathers – who were mostly Protestant – would build a Christian Republic based on Catholic principles – yes, it is a miracle our country exists. Our existence is a divine gift. And miraculously, this Republic, built by many great men and women of varying religions and thirteen colonies, is a refuge to the religious wars engulfing the rest of the world. This is only part of the miracle that is the United States of America. But many of us are asleep to the spiritual battles in the heavenly places seeking the ruin of souls. America was formed and forged to impart Christian principles to the world, and live up to our Judeo-Christian traditions and command to be a blessing unto others.

Now, the thrust of this book has been a discovery of truth leading to the Catholic religion, but at this point I do not mean to limit only to the Catholic influence on our nation, I do want to turn our attention onto how the unity of all Christians – Catholic and Protestant alike – created this great nation, and how some of the insights from our Judeo-Christian religions forged our Constitutional Republic. This unity of God’s people for goodly and godly purposes finds precedent in the Old Testament scriptures.

Israel’s twelve tribes were once united under their greatest King, David son of Jesse, a man after God’s own heart. His son Solomon ruled an incredible empire, built the temple, and continued the prosperity of Ancient Israel. Unfortunately, this Davidic dynasty fractured under David’s grandson. The taxes had become too burdensome, and the tribes split into two kingdoms. The northern Kingdom of Israel was composed of ten tribes and the southern Kingdom of Judah was made of the remaining two tribes. Both kingdoms were God’s people, but the heavenly promises of God were retained within the southern Kingdom. The southern Kingdom included the tribe of Judah and the Davidic king, this is the kingdom which retained the forever promises of God. Both kingdoms were composed of God’s people, and prophets were sent by God to both kingdoms, but only one had the promise of the Messiah, the son of David. In fact, some could easily argue that the greatest prophets until the time of Christ were Elijah and Elisha, and they were of, and sent to, the northern Kingdom. Yes, these great prophets were sent to proclaim the Lord’s message to the ten tribes of the northern Kingdom, the ones who did not retain the forever promises of the Davidic messiah. So, while the southern Kingdom had the most important promises and covenants, the northern kingdom certainly was not forgotten. It is similar today.

While the Catholic church retains the most important promises of our Lord through the eucharist and his bodily dwelling, the Protestant churches still retain great heroes and prophets, and many of our greatest Americans. In fact, the greatest Americans that will be discussed and named in this book were almost all Protestant – for example, most of our founding fathers, Abraham Lincoln, and Dr. King. In the United States of America, both religions work in harmony to accomplish God’s will for all his people. And so, yes, our colonies were once part of a Protestant empire, but when these Christian colonies declared independence, they naturally became a Christian nation – only rather than specifying a type of Christian religion, like the Anglican church, they welcomed all religions, Christian and otherwise.

The context of declaring the colonies independent from an Anglican nation wasn’t to separate itself from Christian religion, but to allow the expression of a variety of Christian religions. In that context of freedom, they welcomed not only all types of Christians but people of any religion that kept goodwill towards mankind. Yes, the context was to give freedom to the many people of differing religions – to form one nation under God, not uniform in religion, but united in Christ. And in doing so, we’d become a refuge to men of goodwill everywhere, whether Jew or Christian, Catholic or Protestant, agnostic or otherwise – but people of goodwill. We relied on God to secure our independence, and we protect the right of people to worship God in Spirit and truth. To protect these God-given rights (and self-evident to every early American), we formed a Republic. A Republic built on Christian culture and Catholic wisdom.

Yes, our Republic was a mixture of the many learning lessons throughout history. Our founding fathers looked to the universal (‘catholic’) human experience to form our government, including the history of the ancient Jews and their forefathers, the early democracies of Greek city-states, the old empires and republics of Rome and elsewhere, the medieval history of England, and our own many models of government found in the colonies. This wide variety of governmental forms and models found throughout history helped shape and fashion our own form of government, and American way of life. American geniuses, our founding fathers, secured a way for us, their heirs, to live free under God.

From the ancient Jews, we trace the idea of the separation of powers. God granted three offices to guide the people of Israel – the prophets who declared God’s word to his people, the king who ensured his word was executed, and the priests who guided and judged the people to the right application of his word. From this, we built our own three separate branches of government. Our congress who creates the laws, functioning like prophets; our executive branch who ensures the laws are executed, functioning like a king, but ‘our king’ has term limits; and our judicial branch which resolves disputes of our laws, ensuring their proper interpretation and right application, functioning like priests of our Lord. Because our founding fathers understood the corruption of human nature, they ensured there were checks and balances and independence in each branch of government to ensure the proper execution of the whole government. As James Madison wrote in The Federalist papers, “But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Our three branches were modeled off the three main offices God used to govern his people – the prophets, kings, and priests.

From the ancient Greeks, we learned about the benefits of democracy and its weaknesses. Plato had mentioned in one of his great works, The Republic, that the danger of democracies was how quickly it went into tyranny. The rule of mobs quickly leads to the rule of tyrants. A democracy quickly devolves into dictatorship. And in our own day, we see this played out over and over in communist countries, many of which start as “socialist democracies” but quickly become communist dictatorships. As the people are awakened to the demonic evils of communism, only tyrannical dictatorships can keep power. Hence socialist democracies quickly lead to reigns of terror that become communist states. Unfortunately, many are lied to and never taught about the demonic roots of communism, and therefore few see communism for what it truly is, slavery. Communism is slavery. Communism is demonic in its ideals, hence everywhere communism takes root becomes a hell on earth.

From the ancient Romans, we learned of the necessary problems that plagued ancient Republics and likewise the ways they became empires. We also learned of the “mortifying examples of the prevalence of foreign corruption in republican governments.” And we decided the solution for our Republic was not to consolidate power in any one person or branch of government, but to disperse power to the people. The separation of powers, the frequent need for fair elections, the various checks and balances in our system of government, these were all designed and put in place to ensure we were a government by the people, for the people, and of the people. We decided the fatal flaw of ancient Republics could be corrected by Christian morality that valued service, that our Republic was not on a quest for power but in service to others. Service is a virtue and the greatest among us are those who serve, not lording power over followers but enabling people to flourish. And so, we strove to create a government that did not live off its people like a parasite, but served its people enabling human greatness.

On our Republican roots, James Madison noted, “it may be concluded, that a pure democracy, by which I mean, a society consisting of a small number of citizens who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction…Hence it is, that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found in compatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths…A republic…promises the cure for which we are seeking.” Yes, we are a republic, not a democracy. More so, we are a republic for a reason.

From the medieval English, we learned the importance of specifying the rights of the people. We learned the greatest minority to protect is the individual, whether that minority is defined by religious belief, skin color, or tribal affiliations. We saw how the English continued a path of ensuring the government protected the people’s rights and learned of the idea that the people must consent to the government. Obviously, we withdrew our consent to be governed by English government for a variety of reasons, but it was the ideals of self-governance that our English forefathers fought for that taught us how to fight and achieve the dream of liberty. We are sons of Englishmen, but more importantly, we are sons of free Americans.

From the colonies, we experimented with many forms of government and attempted to draw out what works best from each and filter out what didn’t work. With 13 colonies, we had 13 experiments in state government. We had countless other experiments in running houses, churches, farms, cities, townships, counties and the like to help us grow in our ability to self-govern. In these many experiments, we learned to live as free men and women, guided by God and groomed for government.

And from the church, we learned the importance of everlasting principles and practices. One peculiarly Catholic-like solution was in the institution of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Yes, these many Protestant men realized that the land needed to be under the authority of a supreme law, the Constitution, and that supreme law of the land needed a body of interpreters, our Supreme Court, made up of some of the finest legal minds our nation possesses. Yes, they followed a Catholic model in this. For if we remember our earlier discussions on scripture and tradition, the first Protestant churches were founded on the erroneous religious innovations of Sola Scriptura. They believed that a religion could be founded off a text alone, that all that was needed to understand a religious text was personal interpretation. Our founding fathers, in setting up the judiciary branch, corrected this erroneous idea. And like the Catholic church, who interprets the sacred scriptures as one body, our founding fathers instituted a Supreme Court which was to have final and authoritative interpretive powers. The Supreme Court was to have final decision-making powers and was formed to be the true interpreter of our laws.

Alexander Hamilton wrote, “Laws are a dead letter, without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation. The treaties of the United States, to have any force at all, must be considered as part of the law of the land. Their true import, as far as respects individuals, must, like all other laws, be ascertained by judicial determinations. To produce uniformity in these determinations, they ought to be submitted, in the last resort, to one supreme tribunal. And this tribunal ought to be instituted under the same authority which forms the treaties themselves. These ingredients are both indispensable. If there is in each state a court of final jurisdiction, there may be as many different final determinations on the same point, as there are courts. There are endless diversities in the opinions of men. We often see not only different courts, but the judges of the same court, differing from each other. To avoid the confusion which would unavoidably result from the contradictory decisions of a number of independent judicatories, all nations have found it necessary to establish one tribunal paramount to the rest, possessing a general superintendence, and authorized to settle and declare in the last resort an uniform rule of civil justice.”

Alexander Hamilton and our other founding fathers rectified the old mistake of the earliest Protestant Christians, we needed not private interpreters of our laws but public interpreters of our scriptures. We needed not a single person but a corporate body to make sense of the scriptures and laws. And so, we created a Supreme Court which would function as the interpretative body, just as the church interprets the sacred scriptures not in private but in council. Our founding fathers restored this Catholic principle in forming our Christian Republic.

Now, our differences in religion helped Americans form our Republic and find a new way to live. Just as we were able to take the best of each state, we also were able to take the best out of each Christian religion and the many churches. And we found a way to form a new nation, under God, a refuge for all other nations. A place that anyone, anywhere, could come to make the most of life. And our founding fathers, though slandered often in this new age where we hate what came before us rather than honor our ancestors, these great men and women birthed our Republic and secured liberty for countless souls. Remember, to honor thy father and mother is the first commandment with a promise, and our forefathers should be very well honored. For they created a nation by which we all can live free, not under tyrants who enslave, but as a free people in a nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowered by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness – that to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its founding on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

Bill of Rights

“AMENDMENT I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. AMENDMENT II. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed…”

The beauty of the Constitution is that it is a living document; able to be amended, the Constitution is perfectible. The Constitution wasn’t perfect, but it was better than we had before under the Articles of Confederation, and it can be perfected. It can be improved. The Constitution is a living document. And when the Constitution was passed in 1788, the free people of America felt that it contained one major defect, that it didn’t more fully secure the rights of citizens. And that defect was quickly corrected through the passage of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Yes, by 1791, the Constitution was amended to more explicitly protect the rights of the greatest minority that exists – an individual.

Our Declaration declared there was such a thing as inalienable and God-given rights, among these the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – and now the Constitution explicitly expressed what are some of those other core rights. See, our first Americans were concerned for the day that tyrants would come to power in our nation. They had just thrown off the yoke of a tyrannical government, and unique to the history of the world’s revolutions, they did not seek power for themselves but power and freedom for the people. Yes, they wanted to protect people from future abuses of power, and agreed on 10 key areas that a citizen needs to be explicitly protected from their own government, hence our first 10 amendments, commonly known as the Bill of Rights.

See, in a similar manner that the new testament transformed the old, realizing its ideals, so too did the Constitution transform the Articles of Confederation, not by abolishing it but fulfilling it in a more beautiful and firm manner, expressing in greater detail the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence. Moreover, the Constitution is not perfect, but it was better than what existed prior. And since it is a living document, one immediate improvement demanded by the people of the United States of America was the need to explicitly ensure certain rights retained by citizens against their own government.

There is nothing so weak as an individual person. And yet, our country, in its greatness, seeks to protect and serve the weakest segment of society by securing a person’s inalienable and God-given rights. Our country is truly unique and great in doing this, even if we sometimes fall short of our ideals, we have the courage to state ideals that are worth striving for, including ideals like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as well as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press, the right to protest, the right to think, and also the right to bear arms.

As a Catholic convert, it was interesting to find out James Madison’s inspiration in composing the Bill of Rights was his knowledge and study of English Catholic history. Studying how the Crown violated the rights of English Catholics gave James Madison insight and inspiration to which rights should be fundamental to individuals. He learned through tyrannical English royals which rights they violated to terrorize their own subjects, and composed the Bill of Rights as a protection against suffering at the hand of government. Under King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth and others, English Catholics were denied the right to worship; they were denied the right to speak; they were denied the right to print, publish, or write; they couldn’t assemble nor could they petition the government for redress of grievances or even protest the government without being labeled as traitors and subject to impoverishment, imprisonment or impaling on stakes and city gates. All of these violations of basic human rights are protected in our first amendment alone! English Catholics did not have other basic rights, including the right to bear arms or the right to trial by jury, and thankfully, Madison’s knowledge of English Catholic history gave our founding fathers the knowledge, wisdom, and fortitude to compose and ratify our own Bill of Rights, forever enshrining and explicitly stating key rights that individuals retain against our government. These rights are our protection from an overreaching and tyrannical state. The wisdom of our forefathers was to love truth so much that they protected key principles which would become the basic principles for all Americans. These principles, forged through suffering, found through hardship, became our inheritance – and what a rich inheritance we have as Americans!

Now, every American born is given the right to worship God in spirit and truth, we have freedom of religion. We have a Congress that “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Congress may not limit our freedom to worship God in spirit and truth, to worship the God of truth in public spaces, and pray with fellow Christians in any and every instance we see fit. Hence, our politicians take oaths on sacred bibles and our people have the freedom to pray and worship God throughout this great land. It is a right that the devil wants to destroy, he hates our freedom to worship God and hopes we forget this freedom, or he finds ways to try and violate it. And the devil often uses the government as his tool to destroy our divine rights. But thanks to the first Americans, the freedom to worship God in spirit and truth is our God-given right. It is a right enshrined and protected by our Constitution. It is our divine right.

More so, now, every American has the right to say what they think. They also have the right to think by speaking, not fearful to say the wrong things because the best way to deal with bad ideas is not abolishing speech but answering with even better ideas. Abolishing speech hinders our ability to think because we aren’t exposed to all ideas and therefore can’t develop the ability to think without the right to speak, even if it means that from time to time, we say the wrong things. Yes, thanks to the first Americans, the freedom to speak and think is not only our God-given right, but also our Constitutional right.

More so, now, every American has the write to publish. They have the right to record their ideas and share them with the world, and deal with the consequences. This means we have the write to the truth and this right is not only our God-given right, but thanks to the first Americans, it is also our Constitutional right. The devil hates this right, as the father of lies, he wants to keep us enslaved to lies. But the truth shall set us free, and in the United States of America, truth tellers are free to speak and proclaim and print and publish truth, no matter how hard or difficult it is for people to see or hear. When we forget this principle, our Republic is in danger of demonic takeover. But thanks be to God for our founding fathers, this right is not only a divine right, but a Constitutional one.

More so, now, every American has the right to peacefully assemble, to peacefully protest the government and even petition the government for redress of grievances. The great shall serve the lowly, and the greatest service the government does is to hear the complaints of the weakest members of society and judge justly. This is not only our God-given right, but as Americans, it is also our Constitutional right. It is something our founding fathers fought for so that all Americans could live in freedom, not subject to tyrannical governments but protected from an overreaching state that is quick to enslave others. The devil hates freedom, and he’ll use any tool to enslave others, whether lies and propaganda, or even the government. But we Americans, we the people, have a great inheritance in our Bill of Rights.

And yes, so far, we have only spoken of our first amendment! Yes, the first amendment alone is a thing of beauty! There are many others! But the founding fathers understood that for a people to succeed, ideas needed to be available to take habitation in men’s minds. The first Amendment is all about ideas, and offering a country and a home for the best ideas to flourish. The rise of American greatness started because we were founded on great ideas – the right for men to live, be free, and pursue their passions – and we protected those great ideas in the first Amendment! The first Amendment is about ideas, starting with God and moving to the people through printing presses, platforms and marketplaces before returning to government, a government we can protest and petition and make better by forcing the government to constantly consider the best ideas. The best ideas win only where there is freedom. Freedom for them to fail, to be challenged, tested, and refined; freedom to experiment; freedom to improve, to learn, to find wisdom, to succeed; and freedom to find the best and brightest challengers and be shaped into the most beautiful ideas that the world has ever seen. But this doesn’t happen by banishing or purging people or ideas, even bad ideas, it only happens by being challenged and bested by even better ideas. A free people need freedom – freedom to speak, think, say and do the right thing. And this starts with the freedom to consider the best ideas and be challenged by both good and bad ideas. This is the foundation that helped America achieve greatness in the centuries that followed its founding. And we owe a huge debt of gratitude not only to our founding fathers but our English forefathers who helped guide us to maturity by forging their sufferings into wisdom for us.

There is a battle for our nation’s soul, and it’s a spiritual battle. It’s a battle fought in the plane of men’s minds, a battle of ideas. And it’s a battle that’s been fought before, since the beginning of mankind when the devil tempted humanity with the promise “ye shall be as gods.” But as the poet Homer noted, “the gods never die,” and yet we mortals do. But truth is everlasting and true ideas are eternal. And the greatness of our founding fathers was to create a country where ideas flourish – and that’s the heart of our First Amendment. The following Amendments hold key ideas to protect citizens, but the First Amendment is not only about protecting individuals and citizens, but about protecting ideas. Let’s consider briefly key ideas found in the remaining Amendments to our Bill of Rights.

Our 2nd Amendment functions as protection for all our other God-given rights. And this is beautiful, our founding fathers were so revolutionary that when they won the revolution against a tyrannical government, they let everyone have access to guns and the right to bear arms. They knew the government cannot keep people in servile fear if the people can protect themselves. And they wanted a responsible citizenry, as that alone holds the government accountable and checks its powers. If the government forgets its place, as servant to the people, the people have recourse to protect their life, liberty, property and prosperity because of our right to bear arms.

The 3rd Amendment doesn’t allow unlawful quartering of soldiers. Prior, Americans may have been forced to care for the very imperial power that was oppressing them. The 4th Amendment forbids unreasonable search and seizure, though nowadays our government is trying to find their way around this through special courts under the guise of our “war on terrorism.” The 5th amendment guarantees specific rights to those accused of crimes, ensuring we all have due process of law. The 6th Amendment guarantees the right to speedy and public trial, as well as a fair trial. The 7th Amendment guarantees the right to trial by jury and the 8th Amendment guarantees that bail nor fines shall be excessive, nor shall punishments be cruel nor unusual. And the 9th and 10th Amendments function as “catch-all” amendments, the 9th being a catch-all on rights retained by the people and the 10th being a catch-all on powers retained by the States or the people.

Again, the amendments of the Bill of Rights were rights all denied to English Catholics under Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth, and future English royals. These rights were denied, of course, until our founding fathers secured them for us in America. English Catholics would continue to be denied these basic American rights for hundreds of years, but Catholics in America were freed from this oppression. Our basic American rights were won by our founding fathers. Our founding fathers secured them for all generations, hence, the explosion of Catholic immigration from European countries in the 18th and 19th centuries. But for many centuries, starting with King Henry VIII and under his daughter Elizabeth, Catholics could neither practice their religion, nor own or bear arms; they were subject to innumerable searches and seizures of their property; they were not guaranteed speedy trials as many were locked away for years for the simple crime of being a Catholic in England; they were not tried before their peers but by governmental courts that denied them due process, fair trials, and even trial by jury; and their punishments were cruel and unusual. Catholic lay people were impoverished and even imprisoned; Catholic priests were imprisoned, tortured, and impaled on city gates; and the devil sought the destruction of the ancient religion that built the glorious island nation of our forefathers. Our ancestors did not win the rights we take for granted easily; they were earned by the unjust shedding of holy blood. “Civil laws made civil hands unclean,” as Shakespeare eloquently wrote.

As Americans, we have a wonderful inheritance in our Bill of Rights. Thanks be to God who granted wisdom, experience, and knowledge to our founding fathers to right the injustices of the past. That these fathers and patriarchs were so mightily attuned to God’s will and wisdom, as well as the sufferings often afflicted by the devil on God’s children, that they would create so great a nation and so grand a Republic that would protect the weakest minority there is – the individual. We are mighty fortunate and blessed by our Lord! Yes, thanks be to God!

“Noble patricians, patrons of my right,
Defend the justice of my cause with arms.
And countrymen, my loving followers,
Plead my successive title with your swords.”
– Titus Andronicus

Liberty

 “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!
While God is marching on.”

Now, just because we were founded on great principles and ideas does not mean we lived up to those wonderful ideals. We fell short from our beginning. When the colonists secured their freedom from the English empire, they did not at the time secure freedom for all Americans. It would take another 90 years until all Americans could stake a claim to freedom. Our country inherited the original sin of slavery at our birth. But our founding fathers were people who believed in life and liberty, and they ensured future generations would have the seeds of liberty not simply imprinted into our hearts but also sown into our founding documents. Yes, our forefathers ensured we Americans had the means to enforce liberty and abolish slavery. Our dusty parchments proclaimed from our beginning that “all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and it would take us nearly a century to live up to our ideals that were with us from the beginning. Ideals are worth striving for, especially ideals like life and liberty.

Let us never forget, the devil has always sought to enslave humanity. By helping us doubt God’s word and just decrees, he knows we’ll become slaves of sin and death. Only a little bit of poison corrupts the whole, and Satan has spoken in humanity’s ear from the beginning, making promises that he knows will enslave us. He’s always promising us lies in order to seek the ruin of souls by making us slaves of sin and bringing us into the dominion of death. His question is always “did God really say that?” and his lie is “ye shall be as gods.” Instead, we find ourselves slaves to sin and sentenced to die. There is no escape, but there is hope because God’s children are free, and his people are eternal.

And so, we must be realistic about where our hope lies, and it’s not in government but in God. Never did truth speak “in Government we trust” but instead “in God we trust.” In fact, government has often been a tool of the devil to enslave and oppress. Because when the devil controls the government, through a few he affects the many. He’s able to influence many through the evils of only a few, like a Shakespearean tragedy brought to everyday life. It was governmental laws that allowed slavery. And it was only when the people rose up to abolish it did the government acquiesce.

Thankfully, we are a Judeo-Christian people. And the reason our sacred scriptures even exist is because God chose to free slaves and desired that they walk in freedom. And whereas the children of Abraham had a prophet Moses to lead them to freedom, all Americans were given our own Abraham to lead us to true and everlasting freedom. Honest Abe was the man God chose to raise up, properly named due to his impeccable character, which is why when Honest Abe was elected the first Republican president, the powers and principalities of the world hated it! The devil hates the just man, just as Job, Joseph or Jesus.

But God had his plans in place. Abraham Lincoln, named after Father Abraham, the patriarch of the Jews, his name means “father of the multitude.” And Honest Abe truly was, for he was the only president to govern American nations, and he wouldn’t let America be torn asunder. The topic of liberty was too important, and we couldn’t let it divide us. We had to live up to our name, United States could not be divided states. Instead, we needed to unite in a deeper and more profound way, we needed to unite over our common ideal of liberty, and not live half-slave and half-free. And so, he led our fight for freedom for all Americans. We needed the North and the South to be free, not a house divided, we needed all Americans to be free, none could be slaves. Only then could we live up to our ideals. Only in this could our divisions end and we truly live up to our calling, E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.”

It was governmental laws that allowed slavery, and it was the people that rose up to abolish it. In the late 1800s there was a movement of freedom across the world. England had abolished slavery, Russia abolished serfdom, and it was also necessary for the United States of America to live up to our Judeo-Christian values of freedom and abolish the unjust slavery of African descendants. We fought a war to ensure every American could be free, regardless of skin color, wealth, or religion. Every human is made in the image and likeness of God, and as Americans, that means every human has the God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, in many nations slavery still exists today, especially in the form of communism. But the devil is always seeking to enslave humanity and the ruin of souls. And he’ll use political ideologies and even governmental laws to enslave people. But America has taken our stand and made not only our Declaration of Independence but also our Emancipation Proclamation. And shortly after Abraham freed the slaves, the 13th Amendment was passed which read,

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Thank God the story of the Jews and Christians is one of a God who sets slaves free and helps them walk in freedom, because it is that God who helped ended the ugly sin of slavery in our country, nearly 90 years after our birth. As our Battle Hymn of the Republic states, “As Christ died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!” In a Christian republic, it is right and fitting that men would willingly lay down their lives so that other men could be free. These men, by the grace of God, made the supernatural seem natural. We take for granted that men engaged in war to set slaves free. In the history of the world, normally the victor takes on the defeated as their slaves. In the American Civil War, the victor set slaves free and helped rebuild the defeated territories, truly living out Christian ideals in our nation’s actions. As the Apostle John wrote, “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Americans showed this great love when they laid down their lives to free slaves.

Thankfully, in the mid-1800s, our own Abraham, who was the father of two nations, led millions of men and women to stand up for righteousness, called by God to remind our nation that our founding documents spoke of liberty, not slavery. Our principles were independence and freedom, not dependence and slavery. And Honest Abe steered our nation through tempestuous times. So, for us now, it is only fitting that we hear his wise words at the conclusion of our civil war, where brother not only slew brother, but more importantly, brother fought to free brother. Let us hear Honest Abe, our 16th President of the United States of America, as he ascends to his office for a second time and at the conclusion of our bloody civil war. Let us hear his account of what we did and suffered through, what we shed our own blood for…

At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it – all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war – seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern half part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! For it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

In God We Trust

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be… No one can serve two masters. He will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” – Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings, Lord of Lords

The root of our greatness as a nation is in freedom, a gift from God. Our freedom to do good. We have experienced the abundant blessings of the 20th century because we used our freedom not as an excuse to do simply what we want but to do what was right. We aligned to righteousness, or at least attempted to. When we forget the truest reason for freedom is for the opportunity to do what is right and just, rather than simply serving our fickle passions, we will have our reckoning, we will have our day of judgement. When we use our freedoms to serve ourselves rather than serve others, to follow the flesh rather than fervor for a faithful God, to look inward in ego and arrogance rather than outward in love and humility, then we will fall. A just Father will discipline us, a just God would rebuke us, and he would be righteous in doing so. And if we heed not his warnings, he’d be just to allow our destruction. Hopefully discipline wins the day and not destruction. But God only relents for those who repent, he promises not only mercy but also justice. He hears the cry of the oppressed and he has promised them truth, freedom and goodness. He keeps his promises. One day, evil will be no more.

Our nation, like every other nation, is in the midst of a spiritual battle, a battle of powers and principalities which are not easy for the human eye to see nor the human mind to discern. But our country made a choice at our beginning. We called on God to secure our liberty. We formed our government to respect the God-given rights of every American. We passed a Bill of Rights that protect the divine rights of the greatest minority there is – the individual. And we proclaim on our currency, “in God we trust” because it is God who offers freedom, not government. Government is simply the tool, for either slavery or freedom. It’s the communist governments that enslave, it’s the totalitarian governments that enslave, it’s only God that frees. For in him alone is life, and life abundantly.

Interestingly, even in the earliest stories about God, freedom was for the purposes of serving him. For the Jews were freed from being slaves of Egypt for the purpose of service and worship. When we hear Moses say to Pharaoh, “let my people go a three days’ journey in order that we may offer sacrifice,” their freedom was meant to worship, honor, and serve God. Likewise, when our forefathers crossed the seas to settle these colonies, that freedom was to honor God. The Europeans that came were largely driven for religious freedom, not simply financial opportunity. They were longing for freedom, the freedom to serve God as he revealed on their hearts, and that’s why it’s the first Amendment. It’s the very first freedom they sought to secure for themselves and their descendants. Hence, even on our currency we write “in God we trust,” let alone in our court buildings and houses of law all across our nation and its capitol.

Is it not a wonder that a group of colonies would not only earn our freedom from an imperial power but in the following two centuries become the global currency? That power was because we held to God’s principle, freedom is meant to do what is right. Ultimately, the greatest freedom is to honor the true God, to worship him in Spirit and truth. And our politics enshrined this right for all Americans, and our economics followed our politics. We became a global economic power because we built an economy on freedom and service, the freedom to serve our neighbors and earn a living while doing so.

In a free market, we don’t get to serve our neighbors any way we want, but we have to find ways to serve them how they want. We have to offer something valuable. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, offering sacrifice to God, offering not what was left over but what is valuable. Likewise, we earn our living in the U.S. not by offering what we want to, but by offering something valuable to others. Yes, we became an economic power based on the idea of service, a Judeo-Christian idea, one that we offer products and services that meet the needs of our neighbor, rather than steal the products and services they create. That would be slavery. And we have left the house of slavery for the land of freedom.

And we proclaim God’s name on our currency not because we are perfect, we are human, we are imperfect. But our goal should be and often has been to strive for perfection. And in the tail end of the 20th century, before the days of credit cards and digital payments and crypto currencies, when we used cash regularly, our country become an economic and global powerhouse and our currency became the de facto world currency used everywhere. What an amazing story! For a brief moment, decades in the 20th century, when people all over the world wanted stable money, they accepted the money that gives testimony to the God that frees slaves, the God of Moses and Jesus, the money emblazoned with the message “in God we trust.” That was the mighty proclamation Americans made before the world, “in God we trust.” We served God, not mammon; we served God, not government. We aligned money and government, politics and economics, to be tools to achieve God’s will on earth. We became strong because we believed and served God. When we forget this, we will become weak. For God will not let his name be used in vain for long.

With our proclamation comes a responsibility, for God will not long abide us taking his name in vain. We must align our behaviors with our dollar’s proclamation, “in God we trust,” to be those of love, goodness, kindness, mercy and justice. For those are the qualities of our great God.

Those trusting in God are like Mount Zion,
unshakeable, forever enduring.
As mountains surround Jerusalem,
the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever.

The scepter of the wicked will not prevail
in the land allotted to the just,
lest the just themselves turn their hands to evil.

Do good, Lord, to the good,
to those who are upright of heart.
But those who turn aside to crooked ways,
may the Lord send down with the evildoers.

Peace upon Israel!
Peace upon America!
– Psalm 124

Civil Laws

“You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern… The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Our forefathers may have freed slaves, but the devil does not like it when freedom reigns. Very soon demonic laws began to take root in the South, attempting to shackle human dignity. The segregation laws that separated countrymen on the sole basis of skin color was a grave evil that sought to ruin the great ideals our founding fathers strove for and recorded in our founding documents. Our republic was built on freedom, and separating people on the basis of arbitrary whims of evil men who create evil laws is not freedom. It is tyranny. And it is evil.

So, the United States of America had another major struggle after our slaves were freed. This time the devil possessed the halls of state governments to create laws that divided, separated, and segregated people based on ungodly reasons. Thankfully, once again, like God did with our own Abraham, God raised up another great American to show us this way. This time, God gave us a new King worth celebrating, a Martin Luther worth honoring.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a true reformer. He didn’t seek to begin a new country, but instead reformed our existing country from within. He sought to remind us of our ideals, and he demanded we live up to them. And he showed us the power of love and a willingness to suffer for righteousness. For he waged a righteous war against the powers and principalities of our nation bent on the demonic ideas of racism, segregation, and hatred. As Dr. King wisely noted, “we will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.”

It was governmental laws that allowed segregation, and once again, it was righteous people who rose up to protest and defy evil laws. Civil disobedience reformed an uncivil nation. Dr. King used our individual right to protest to organize mass protests, protests that did not lead to violence by the protesters but confronted the violence of governmental authorities with the soul power of love. Dr. King lived up to the teachings of his savior, “to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.” It is right and just that we celebrate his birthday every year as a nation, for he taught us how to reform without using violence. He taught us how to align our civil laws with the moral law. He taught us how to serve our fellow Americans by reminding ourselves of our godly ideals and godly ways. And he showed us how to change for the better when we discover we’ve fallen into demonic habits and devilish ways. He taught us to obey the higher law of love, and he raised the consciousness of our nation.

The struggle is government unchecked will always strive to become a false god, an idol that needs to be done away with. In America, we trust in God, and government is simply a tool to be used by God for goodness. When government forgets its function, it’s on the godly people of our country to stand up for truth, justice and mercy. But when “civil laws make civil hands unclean,” as Shakespeare wrote, it’s up to us to reform those civil laws and conform them to the higher law, the moral law, the law of God.

Christians and Jews are commanded to adhere to the higher moral law. The civil law is the lower standard, and when it falls too far from the law of God, and violates the civil rights of God’s people, we must raise the civil laws so that civil hands remain clean. Our earliest stories confirm this. For when Pharaoh’s decree demanded that Hebrew boys be killed, the midwives “feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live.” And “because the midwives feared God, God built up families for them.” From the earliest stories that shaped the Hebrew nation and Christian people, we have stories of defiance against tyrants and people who stand up to revere God. They are a model of civil disobedience; they are a model of Godly obedience.

For us Americans, we are lucky to have our own heroes who stood up against evil laws and fought for justice. And that the weapons of that fight were godly disobedience, the power of love, and a striving for righteousness and goodness. Dr. King taught us to respond with love and take Christ’s teachings seriously, “to love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.” And as Americans, it is good that we celebrate the birth of this important king. We have two kings we rightly celebrate.

Every December we celebrate the nativity of our Lord and savior and the king of the Jews. And every January we honor the birth of our other great king, Dr. King, the reformer who challenged our unjust laws with righteous disobedience. These two birthdays are celebrated in a very unique manner. For these are the only celebrations where the gifts are not given to the one whom we are celebrating, instead we give gifts to everyone else. With Christ, we celebrate by giving gifts to children, family, and friends. We give to others because he first gave to us. And with Dr. King, we honor his legacy by serving others on his birthday. We serve others because he served us. He taught us to remember our foundational precepts, “all men are created equal,” and he righteously protested the inhumane ways we were making people unequal.

Whereas Jesus upheld the law of the old covenant in order to fulfill it and usher forth the new covenant, Dr. King had to break unjust segregation laws to usher forth new laws of equality that allowed us to remember our original principles, “all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights.” And when Jesus was crucified for righteousness, Dr. King was often slandered for demanding righteousness. He demanded righteousness in our cities, righteousness in our states, righteousness in our country. The greatest Martin Luther showed us the way to keep reforming, to keep striving and attempting to live up to our ideals, to call out hypocrisy with love, hatred with kindness, and confront violence with soul power. The greatest Martin Luther showed us how to change a nation from within, how to live out our religion in truth, and how to achieve a just and everlasting peace built on goodness and brotherhood. The greatest Martin Luther is the one all Americans, whether Protestant or Catholic, can happily honor and celebrate.

Let us end this section with the wise words of Dr. King about the way the children of God have waged righteous disobedience to tyrants and tyranny and unjust laws in the eternal fight for just civil rights and good civil laws that keep civil hands clean. Whereas the devil desires hatred and division, Dr. King won love and unity. He truly was made in the image of his savior, thank you God for Dr. King.

“Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany…”

Life, Love, & Patriots

“This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the Lord, it’s God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared, the word itself is banished from their speech.” – the Prophet Jeremiah

The devil is not content simply to enslave people, ultimately, he wants to destroy human life. He wants hate, not love; he wants slavery, not freedom; he wants death, not life. And the greatest battle of our time is the battle for life, for we are in a culture where demonic lies are proudly proclaimed, and words have lost their meaning. “Pro-choice” is denied to the innocent lives slaughtered, for young humans are not given the choice to live but are coldly killed because the slogan “a woman’s right to choose” has covered for the deeper truth that the right certain people are fighting for is not one of choice but murder, in truth, it is not a right to choose but a demand to kill; “planned parenthood” is not about planning for parenthood but ending parenthood; and “healthcare” is used as a ruse to kill, making murderers out of mothers, killers out of fathers, turning hospitals into slaughterhouses and making executioners out of those sworn to protect health and life. Instead, those sworn to provide healthcare are purveyors of death and enders of life. Yes, we are living in a time of doublespeak, were words have lost their meaning and humans have become possessed by devils.

These “lucrative terms” and deceitful slogans sound nice but are pure evil when truly understood. This is the doublespeak that has become a part of our culture, our native language, a language where the father of lies cloaks his evil in slogans of decency. And when good is called evil and evil is called good, what can the just man do? We must return to the root of our nation’s primary principles, which is not death, slavery, and the pursuit of hatred but instead life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, we are a people who celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We must return to the principles that once made us great. We must contrast the demonic slogans like “pro-choice” and “fact checkers” with the true and clear and simple words and ideas of our Declaration of Independence and the Judeo-Christian values and principles that formed our nation and shaped our American way of life. We must be a people dedicated to our original precepts – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the true patriots, for they are the ones who have not lost the American way.

What is the cure for our country? Love. Love covers a multitude of offenses; love offers a place of forgiveness and healing. Lover offers redemption. Love never fails. Love is the answer. Love leads to life, love leads to liberty, and only in these core principles is the possibility of happiness even possible. And the greatest Americans are and will always be those who loved our country so much that they lived for love, life and liberty for all Americans. Unfortunately, we’ve returned to the old days during the birth of Christ and even Moses when innocents are slaughtered, and now we find we must fight not only for freedom but also life. We must fight for love.

We have had many great Americans, and a few wonderful presidents. But the greatest Americans of all will be the ones who win this war on life. Whether it’s Southern states that show us the way, showing a true repentance to the shackles against human dignity they once held, or it’s other groups of people who light the consciousness of their communities, true Americans are a people who promise to honor the God-given right to life that every human has. The devil had his day with Roe vs. Wade, but one day the false lies of the enemy will penetrate the hard hearts of Americans. One day, we must become a people who live out our godly ideals, “among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” One day, we must be a people who end this culture of death and usher in the new age where not only liberty and the pursuit of happiness are respected, but one where life reigns. The last enemy isn’t defeated if we continue to kill and commit murder. The devil still holds sway if we slaughter and destroy. Our only hope is in the God who grants life, and life abundantly. And one day we must be a people who honor life, from conception to natural death. Otherwise, we find ourselves not as sons of the light but doers of darkness; not sons of liberty, but handmaidens to death; not givers of life but midwives of destruction. Let us return to the light. Let us obey the higher law of love, honor the divine gift that is life. Yes, let us be a people of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is true religion and true patriotism. And that is the day we’ll live up to the ideal of what it means to be American.

 “On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.

On this mountain, he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations. He will destroy death forever…

On that day, it will be said: ‘Indeed, this is our God, we looked to him and he saved us! This is the Lord to whom we looked, let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” – the Prophet Isaiah

Next: Last Writes

“The world deceived me, and the Church would at any time have undeceived me.”
– G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion