Patriotism
Glenn Beck & 8-28: Pointing Us the Right Direction
Some friends attended the August 28 rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. spear-headed by talk-show host Glenn Beck. Most estimates pegged the crowd at 250,000 to 300,000 people. That’s an incredible turnout for a hot summer day. My friends came away amazed, excited, and encouraged that God is indeed at work in our nation.
I wasn’t able to be there due to attending a reunion in Montana. But from Big Sky Country I interceded for our nation on 8-28 from a golden wheat field in the morning and joined a prayer group at night in one of the farm houses that dot the landscape.
I believe August 28, 2010 was a special day for re-directing America.
Unfortunately, many members of the main-stream media missed it. The once illustrious New York Times–the paper that famously says it gives you “All The News That’s Fit to Print”–buried the story on page fifteen though Glenn Beck lives and does radio and TV from their fair city. Apparently this type of gathering was not “fitting” to their their secular progressive agenda. To its credit, the Washington Post put the story on its front page, but CNN labeled the rally “Conservative” and highlighted the large number of white people in attendance.
When was the last time you saw an environmental rally called a “Liberal” rally? And last time I checked, the United States was 65% made up of Caucasians–so they usually predominate at all rallies.
Obviously, the “Conservative” and “white” labels were deliberately used to create the impression that the people who attended 8-28 were “out of the mainstream” “fringe” and “extreme.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The 8-28 Rally was grassroots America awakening to a time of desperate need. It represented the true mainstream American.
I believe that libertarian Mormon Glenn Beck heard a word from God and obeyed him in calling for the 8-28 rally. He’s not Billy Graham, and he’s not the prophet Jeremiah. He’s not even an evangelical Christian. But he’s a concerned citizen with a respected voice that is pointing the way forward to liberty and renewal.
That’s a desperately important message because the current course of America is backwards–toward tyranny, poverty and mediocrity.
Now–after the rally–it’s time for the leaders of the American Church–pastors, teachers, evangelists and prophetic voices–to flesh out that direction for our people and nation and guide us back into the favor and blessing of God.
Here’s where the 8-28 rally pointed and how we must go forward.
HONOR – this was one of the rally’s great themes. Beck used the occasion to greatly thank the American troops who’ve been laying down their lives for freedom, both at home and around the world.
It’s time for the spiritual leaders of this nation to teach and preach the importance of courageously fighting evil during our time.
CHARACTER – The 8-28 rally took place on the same day that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the same location–the Lincoln Memorial. Some of Dr. King’s most famous words were prominent at the Beck event–that we should be “judged not by the color of our skin, but by the content of out character.” Glenn Beck exhorted America to “self-regulation”–what used to be called “self government”–which is at the heart of successful societies.
Self-regulated people do not seek entitlements or allow themselves to become slaves to a growing welfare state. They agree with the words of James Madison who said: ” We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.”
It’s time for our spiritual leaders to equip God’s people to live lives of holiness, self-control, and to speak out against the sins of our day that are destroying our families and our children.
PRAYER – The 8-28 Rally didn’t focus on prayer as Washington For Jesus did in 1980, but prayers to God were uttered, expressing our need to turn to Him. Returning to God begins with prayer as humble intercession is the doorway to friendship with our Creator. God made us to be dependent beings on Him. One of our great sins of our affluent time period is the spirit of independence which brazenly reveals itself in prayerlessness.
It’s time for our spiritual leaders to lead the way back in prayer! We must fast and pray, make prayer a prominent feature in our corporate life, and learn once again that “what a person is on their knees before God, that’s what they are–nothing more.” (Robert Murray McCheyne). A growing prayer revival is the most certain means to national reformation.
REPENTANCE – This vital area was not taught in detail at 8-28, but it was implied by the very gathering itself. Glenn Beck said “We need to return to God.” That’s the basic definition of repentance–a U-turnaway from self-centered living into a God-centered lifestyle that serves and blesses others. Repentance is change from a me-orientation to a God-and-others outlook. It’s having the necessary humility to admit where we’ve gone wrong and to change directions.
It’s time for the spiritual leaders in our churches to call their congregations, cities and towns, to repent before God. We need to learn once again to hate sin and love righteousness. This was the greatness of past American revivals: the pastors of the nation led the people in repentance and faith. It is needed once again.
UNITY – This was one of the crowning achievements of the 8-28 gathering numbering hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C. . They dropped their petty differences, theologies, races, and issues, and came together in heartfelt unity to call the nation back to God. When times are desperate, you shouldn’t care whether a Mormon, a Quaker, or even dumb donkey calls you to attention. What’s important is agreeing on the truth of the message. I’ve read some people who take issue with Glenn Beck’s Mormonism or possible motivations. I don’t care. His message is from God.
Jerry Falwell got this right during the days of the Moral Majority, which, at the least, retarded the pace of cultural decline in America during the 1980s. Dr. Falwell, a strong fundamentalist, didn’t care who joined the coalition to improve American morality. All hands were needed on deck. When the ships going down, it doesn’t matter who mans the bailing cans. The 8-28 rally ended with hundreds of different leaders uniting in prayer and common commitment.
It’s time for the spiritual leaders of America to call for sacrificial unity among people of good will. United we can stand tall once again. Divided, we will collapse as a nation and civilization.
VALUES OR WORLDVIEW – At the center of the 8-28 rally was the recognition that our nation was built upon Judeo-Christian foundations that are the secret to liberty and prosperity. In fact, the American Revolution was a quantum leap in applying Christian maxims to governing institutions. A decidedly Christian worldview is the genius of the United States of America. That worldview shows great toleration to people of all faiths and those of no faith.
But you can’t have America without Christian beliefs. This is why the people gathered on 8-28. Our current leaders are trying to dismantle the Christian foundations in this nation and replace it with a godless secularism. That is the wrong direction. We must turn back to faith in God and put his principles back to work in all aspects of our culture. America can’t exist without a Christian worldview.
The spiritual leaders of the US must teach the Christian worldview to their people and the nation. We must once again believe that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Glenn Beck and the 8-28 rally are pointing us the right direction. Honor, character, prayer, repentance, unity and Christian values.
Spiritual leaders of the USA: Rise to your duty and lead us all the way home! May your pulpits once again be aflame with righteousness for the glory of God.
The Last Year of Freedom?
“Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
This year our church had the vision to hold a Fourth of July outdoor service down on the waterfront of our picturesque town. Hundreds of people showed up at Marina Park in Port Orchard at 11am where a praise band (that included our son Ryan) played over twenty tunes of Christian and patriotic music.
I had the privilege of leading the group in the Call2Fall application–a time of repentance and prayer on our knees before the God of heaven. We were joining thousands of others across the nation who were also on their knees confessing their sins and asking God for a desperately needed national revival.
First Christian Church pastor Kevin Hestead, gave the morning message as the sun broke through the clouds. He discussed the idea of freedom–and what a precious gift it is.
His remarks reminded me of the famous encounter that Ben Franklin had with an older women who’d come to hear about the results of the Constitutional Convention in the 1787. Upon seeing Mr. Franklin leave the meetings, the woman innocently asked him, “What have you given us, Dr. Franklin?”
His reply was one for the ages: “We have given you a a republic, madame–if you can keep it.”
If you can keep it.
I first pondered those words in 1976 while reading Rus Walton’s classic book One Nation Under God. They struck me as wise, prophetic–and a warning.
Liberty can be lost in one generation. It can be here one year and gone the next.
As I listened to the sermon on Sunday, July 4, 2010, a disturbing thought came to my mind:
“Could this be the last year of liberty?”
At first glance that thought seems rather foolish. America has known an unprecedented degree of freedom as a nation for two hundred and thirty-four years. The Statue of Liberty in New York harbor speaks to the nation and world of our love of liberty. For over a hundred years we have been the freest and most prosperous nation on earth–with only 6% of the world’s population producing over fifty percent of the world’s goods and services.
But this year, for the first time, we dropped from our lofty pedestal as the world’s champion of freedom. As I pointed out in an earlier blog, the United States is no longer the pre-eminent beacon of liberty in the world. That ranking goes to Hong Kong (part of a Communist nation) and Singapore where much investment capital is headed. The Index of Economic Freedom has the US plummeting to eighth in the world in economic freedom and sinking fast.
Due to the staggering Obama administration deficits, the Congressional Budget Office now predicts that the US debt load will reach 62% of GDP by the end of the year–far above the normal level which has averaged between 36%-40% for decades.
Debt is slavery–not freedom. “The borrower becomes the lender’s slave” (Proverbs 22:7) is the true axiom from Scripture. But there are other considerations in liberty versus bondage.
Human freedom actually has a number of dimensions–and they work in a general order.
The first is spiritual freedom–what my pastor shared on Sunday. Jesus Himself said, “If you abide in my word then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The beginning of liberty in a human being is being set free from the power and penalty of sin through faith in Jesus Christ. Being “born again” is a description of the spiritual freedom that comes through submission to God and casting off of “self.” It is the first step of human liberation.
The second is moral freedom which is the result of Christ’s work in our hearts. When we are reconciled to God, the Holy Spirit begins to empower us to make the right moral choices and become the kind of person we can never be in a self-centered, unredeemed state. Faith gives birth to morality in free peoples.
Moral freedom leads to economic freedom and prosperity, including increased creativity and a strong personal work ethic. It is faith, morality, and hard work that changed America from a mediocre group of colonies into an economic powerhouse in the 20st century. Prosperity is s fruit of faithful, moral character. This was the secret to America’s greatness in past generations.
And economic liberty leads to national security, which is military freedom. It was America’s rebirth of faith, morality, and economic vitality in the 1980s that defeated the Soviet Union and caused the fall of communism on a global scale. It is “right that makes might” as Abraham Lincoln once told us.
I am concerned for my nation in all of these arenas–faith, morality, economics, and national security. Freedom in our nation is on its last legs–and it may not take much to lurch us off the cliff.
And something is coming in less than six months that could just be the nail in the coffin.
Author and radio host Ken Talbott, of TheWalkShow.com has alerted me to the following possible death blows to American freedom. In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:
First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief
In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011:
Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:
– The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
– The 25% bracket rises to 28%
– The 28% bracket rises to 31%
– The 33% bracket rises to 36%
– The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%
Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.
The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.
Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.
Second Wave: Obamacare
There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:
The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).
The “Special Needs Kids Tax” This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.
The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.
Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes
When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:
The AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.
Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”
Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.
Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.
Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there. (PDF Version. Read more: http://www.atr.org/sixmonths.html?content=5171#ixzz0skDBRGLz.)
These areas describe the economic bondage that will take an exponential jump next year. I personally believe they are the result of the first two–increasing unbelief and elimination of God from the public arena, and a dizzying array of immorality in personal lives and families.
But I am not giving in. Freedom can be reborn and it must begin with me.
Let’s re-kindle the passion and power of Patrick Henry’s famous speech delivered at St. John’s Church in 1775. His remarks are famous for the line, “Give me liberty or give me death!” But the speech in its entirety says so much more about the cause for freedom. Here is Henry’s call to every American in every generation:
“There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending-if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained-we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!”
Is this the last year of American liberty? Over my dead body! While I’m alive, I will confess my sins, pray to God, look to Christ, live morally, work hard, vote and work for change in November, and put my trust in a mighty Redeemer.
“Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
Keeping Perspective on the 4th of July
So much of our life depends on keeping things in perspective.
If you have a terminal disease, reminding yourself of the joys of eternal life is a desperately needed life-preserver (if you are in right relationship with God through Christ). It makes the pain bearable. For the rest of us, it’s important to keep in perspective the “half full cup” of the blessings of life rather than dwell daily on the “half empty plate” we all experience.”
Perspective is vital.
I remember the last basketball game of my high school career. After riding a fourteen game winning streak into the final eight of the state tournament, we got slaughtered by forty points! As I stood on the floor to accept the consolation trophy–my three year dream of a state championship shattered–God quietly reminded me it was only a game. That “perspective” helped me move on into the more important events of my life.
To help you celebrate America’s Independence Day this year, there are a number of things to keep in perspective to fill the holiday with meaning. The 4th of July is much more than a day off work, a barbecue with friends and family, and fireworks in the evening.
The 4th of July is meaningful because of five things that are essential to it:
- God – the day has no significance outside of His actions in United States history.
- The Bible – the true source of our American concept of liberty.
- The Declaration of Independence – our corporate “charter” as a people.
- The US Constitution – the political document that created a faith-based government.
- Freedom – which is the fruit of obedience to God.
Let’s examine these five pillars of America’s Independence Day.
God
There is no understanding the 4th of July outside of faith in God and his sovereignty. Thomas Jefferson, probably one of the least religious of our founding fathers was dead on when he said “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be sure once we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” The resounding answer is NO.
The God of the Universe “favored the undertaking” of the Pilgrims, established Christian self-government in many of the early colonies, led the colonial founders to resist and defeat tyranny from Great Britain–and worked many miracles (including George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware) to allow the United States to become a uniquely established nation on Christian principles of government. As opposed to the atheistic and bloody French Revolution, the American Revolution was a revolution in biblical principles that God Himself providentially empowered.
There is no understanding American Independence without faith in God. He is its true Author.
The Bible
America’s foundations as a two-hundred-and thirty-four year civilization–still young by historical standards–cannot be understood outside of its founding book–the Bible. It was the most read book in the America colonies. It was published by the government during the War for Independence. American pioneers and frontiersmen were known to carve out new territories with “the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.”
George Washington, the father of our nation, said these poignant words about the Bible in his farewell address to the nation in 1796: “It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are the indispensable supporters. Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
Two decades ago, Constitutional scholars and political historians at Georgetown University assembled 15,000 writings from the Founding Era (1760-1805). They counted 3154 citations in these writings, and found that the book most frequently cited in that literature was the Bible. The writers from the Foundering Era quoted from the Bible 34 percent of the time. Even more interesting was that about three-fourths of all references to the Bible came from reprinted sermons from that era.
America’s freedom had one primary handbook–the Bible. We need to its eternal wisdom.
This amazing document–whose signing and ratification we celebrate on the 4th of July–is really the founding charter of the American national experience. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, with help from John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, it begins with these immortal words:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed 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 new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
It ends with this almost holy vow:
“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.”
Read these vital words out-loud during your 4th of July gathering. Discuss their contents and meditate upon their meaning. Then “mutually pledge” your own lives for the rebirth of freedom in our land.
The US Constitution
There is rightfully much talk about the Constitution in our day. During the Elena Kagan hearings, the subject will be continually brought up as the senators determine whether Ms. Kagan will be a strict constitutionalist or a liberal judicial activist.
The US Constitution is really the political expression of Christian principles. It is America’s handbook for Christian self-government that, according to W. Cleon Skousen, was The 5,000 Year Leap in bringing freedom and dignity to human society. Skousen quotes many founders on the beauty and efficacy of the United States Constitution:
George Washington: “The adoption of the Constitution will demonstrate as visibly the finger of Providence as any possible event in the course of human affairs can ever designate it…The Constitution approaches nearer to perfection than any government hitherto instituted among men.”
Benjamin Franklin: “The Constitution was in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omniscient, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being” (a quote from Acts 17:28).
John Adams – “The Constitution is the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen…I have repeatedly laid myself under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution…What other form of government can so well deserve our esteem and love?”
Benjamin Rush – “the hand of God was employed in this work (ratifying the Constitution) as that God had divided the Red Sea to give passage to the children of Israel or had fulminated the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai.”
James Madison –The happy union of these states is a wonder; their Constitution is a miracle; their example the hope of liberty throughout the world. Woe to the ambition that would meditate the destruction of either!” Happily for America, happily we trust for the whole human race, the founders of the nation pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution that has no parallel in the annals of human society…They formed the design of a great confederacy which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.”
If you don’t have a pocket “Constitution” to study, get one. Ponder it’s simplicity and beauty (it’s not a 2000 page Congressional bill monstrosity), and commit to “improve and perpetuate it.”
Freedom
The biblical reference inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia which was well known to the early American colonists was Leviticus 25:10:
“Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own clan” (New Living Translation).
Here’s how our ancestors viewed the often-distorted definition of freedom. When one submits to God through faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit produces freedom in the human heart which leads to morality, self-government (self-control), and thus limited civil government to manage human affairs.
This biblical equation of success made the United States an exceptional nation: God, Freedom. Morality. Strong families. Hard work. Small government. Blessing, security and prosperity.
Sadly, in our day, the American equation is being perverted to: Removal of God. Pessimism. Immorality. Dysfunctional families. Welfare. Big Government. Problems, National weakness, recession, and a falling standard of living.
There needs to be a rebirth of freedom in America again that is trumpeted to the ends of the earth.
This Independence Day, don’t just sit around eating hotdogs and watching the fireworks. Keep these five pillars in mind, and establish them in your perspective on the day. Here’s a final summary:
1. Worship God! (not America, the Declaration, the Constitution etc.).
2. Read and obey the Good Book.
3. Be grateful for our magnificent Declaration.
4. Honor and adhere to the Constitution in your citizenship practices.
5. Live and die for true freedom, not encroaching tyranny, in our generation.
Happy Fourth of July.