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Just look at the headlines in the daily news, on television and radio. It takes no effort to see that the world we live in is a very dark place, getting darker by the minute. America is beginning to suffer some of the same oppressions of other nations whose constitutions do not protect what the Founding Fathers said were unalienable rights endowed by the Creator. These rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, even though guaranteed in many more words by the governing document of the Republic, are being challenged because of lack of participation in the system by men and women of faith.
I believe firmly that the Founding Fathers were right in their assessment that, as George Washington put it in his 1796 Farewell Speech,
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."In those words, and in the words of many others, to keep a Constitutional Republic there must be vigilance on the part of the people - the moral people of God. It would appear that the people of God have become so apathetic and such believers in relative truth, that they have reasoned their way out of their responsibilities to the Republic by deferring to the immoral and unrighteous as stewards of the nation's business.
This is evidenced not only in the realm of government, but also demonstrated by American society. It has become outwardly immoral. It is difficult to watch a television program with your family without seeing some type of pornography thought of as normal salesmanship. Homosexuality is portrayed as a normal lifestyle. Tattoos and worldly hair and suggestive clothing are widely accepted even among "Christians". The things that would have been considered unholy by Biblical standards are widely practiced by members of the Church. It seems that everyone wants to be accepting of everyone else's weirdness without applying a Biblical standard.
All this said because I believe there must be a renewing of the mind by Christians - all of us. This nation is worth saving because it is the nation that reaches out to the rest of the world and preaches the gospel. But where is our credibility as salt and light, if we have adopted the practices of the world and rationalize them? Jesus Christ said in John 8:12,
"I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."And in John 9:5, Jesus said,
"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."Jesus is still in the world through each of us who know him as our personal savior. Let us be keepers of that light that it might be good for us, for our nation and for the world.
