It is hard to believe, but right here in the heartland of America, in Iowa, we have children that have decided they identify as dogs and cats, are barking and meowing at their schoolteachers, and are demanding litter boxes in the bathrooms of schools. Even more incredible, is the fact that some parents are supporting this nonsense. Perhaps we should not be surprised. When God is removed from decision-making, and our value system is based on pop culture, Tik Tok videos, and “feelings,” there is no limit to the depravity and idiocy that awaits. John Adams warned us this was coming when he said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” To restore sanity in America, we must get back to basics. The solution, the only true answer, rests in spiritual revival, and in a return to the basic foundational values upon which our nation was built: Faith In God, Self-Reliance, & Limited Government.
FAITH IN GOD – There are many in our nation today who want Americans to rely on the government, not God, and herein lies one of our biggest challenges. Belief that our natural rights come from God is a big problem for those who want government to control our lives. Therefore, it is essential that they destroy the faith of our people so that they will instead rely on government for solutions. Denying Americans the right to worship during COVID has thus far been an effective step, as recent reports reflect that church attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Silencing the church and its people has never been more important to those who want to build an America of a different kind.
With the concept of greater government control comes many dangers to a free people, for whatever government gives, government can also take away. It is true, as has been said by many leaders in our history, that government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.
As people become more dependent on government for cradle to grave services, there will be less and less producers of wealth and more and more takers of it. Ultimately, as has happened in many nations throughout history, our economy will collapse in bankruptcy. Until that time, there will be greater and greater scarcity and less opportunity to escape it.
The loss of our faith-based values does not only have financial consequences. The moral depravity that has come from the loss of our Biblically-based values is grimly evident to those of us who have lived for a while. While no time in our history has been perfect, and there have been many mistakes made in the past, it is also true that the moral landscape has drastically changed in our country to the point at which our nation is almost unrecognizable today compared to even 40 years ago.
Prosecutors refuse to enforce the rule of law if it does not align with their political ideology; smash and grab mobs loot and steal, while businesses are blamed by politicians for not having enough security; young people are taught to believe concepts that are neither scientific or logical and are extremely harmful for their mental health and emotional development; shame for any conduct, no matter how reprehensible, has vanished under the guise of tolerance; cancel culture attempts to silence anyone who does not tow the line of today’s moral bankruptcy; Hollywood and most of mainstream media demean basic American values, people of faith, and patriotism; personal attack and character assassination, regardless of the facts, are OK if they advance the agenda; the manifestation of our national struggle and sacrifice, the Stars & Stripes, is disrespected by overpaid celebrities and professional athletes; Americans are left to die in foreign lands without accountability; once proud American cities are burned to the ground without consequence while homelessness and crime make many of our cities a shadow of their former selves; laziness is encouraged through endless entitlement payments and promise of universal income; the killing of unborn children through abortion, once proclaimed by supporters as needing to be safe and rare, is now celebrated as an act to be proud of; under the cover of COVID fear, personal liberty is assaulted as never before; the federal government, under both political parties, spends trillions of dollars we do not have, damning our children to a difficult and uncertain future; the list goes on.
The faith that has sustained our nation through depression and two world wars is vanishing. If we are to endure as a Republic and restore sanity to our nation, we must renew, through revival in our churches and communities, the Faith of our Fathers.
Self-Reliance through Hard Work – Rugged individualism, now condemned and ridiculed by many, helped build this nation. Today, the American work ethic is being assaulted through government handouts that massively increased during the COVID pandemic, with no sign that it will ever return to normalcy. Our safety net to help those truly in need has become a hammock of entitlement and laziness to many who are perfectly capable of contributing to society. Once again, shame has vanished from this equation, with seemingly no awareness that those capable of working but remaining on welfare are in fact stealing from their neighbors. As businesses struggle to find workers just to keep the doors open and continue normal operations, the Biden Administration advances an agenda of more handouts and universal income ideology. These beginning steps of socialism are already resulting in high inflation levels and increased national debt, with the promise of more misery to follow.
To restore sanity, we must return to the concept of Self-Reliance through hard work. We must once again embrace the concept of helping those truly in need, while recognizing the evil of laziness and the toxicity of enabling it.
Limited Government – Limited Government means limitless opportunity and freedom for our citizens. The concept of Limited Government recognizes that in most cases, the private sector can do it better. It embraces the idea that government should only do that which private individuals and organizations cannot do for themselves. It recognizes the worth and importance of the individual and their liberty. Under these concepts, America became the most powerful economic engine in the world, prosperous and free in a way that became the envy of all. Our economic power and liberty are in danger of ending in short order if we do not stop the march to big government socialism.
The concept of Unlimited Government, the opposite of the founding concepts of the nation, will ultimately also produce the opposite result of prosperity and freedom. The takers will outnumber the givers, and as has been the case in numerous failed communist and socialist states, economic prosperity, opportunity, and individual liberty will be destroyed under the weight of government control. Ronald Reagan wisely told us that as government expands liberty contracts. Despite our challenges, a free nation with unlimited opportunity for all willing to work for it is far superior to the shared misery of scarcity and overwhelming government control.
To restore sanity, we must reject big government and the false sense of security that government handouts produce. We must once again embrace personal responsibility and individual liberty and reject cradle to grave government interference in our lives, that in the end will produce only misery and loss of all that we hold dear.
To restore sanity in America, we must get back to basics. We must once again embrace Faith in God, Self-Reliance, and Limited Government as the pathway forward to address almost every challenge our nation faces. These principles made us exceptional in the past and they can do so again.
How do we get there? I am reminded of this passage from 2nd Chronicles 7:14:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
