Rethinking America: What Made It Great?

Mercurial Times ^ | October 22, 2001 | Dorothy Anne Seese

[Mercuria]

In 1830 Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States, and stated that he had found the secret of American greatness and strength. It was not in the textile mills, the shipyards, anything we had built, in fact, he didn't even mention our precious founding documents, although those documents permitted the activity that de Tocqueville discovered.

He found that America's greatness lay in the fiery preaching of the Gospel in America's churches. Simplicity of life, humbleness of mind, and a pervading sense of the presence of Almighty God and the accountability of His creation, mankind, to obedience to the faith, gave America her character and her strength.

Once the land was noted for her many churches, preaching the Bible as truth. We still have churches, but what are they preaching? Tolerance? Diversity? Something bland and inoffensive? The Gospel is offensive to sinners. All men are born sinners until they are reborn, so says our Gospel. Forgiveness of sins, absolution from guilt, accountability to the Creator of the Universe, keeps man from becoming proud, self-sufficient, rebellious toward God to the point of denying Him and desecrating His standards by flaunting man's achievements and sinfulness.

Before we try to rebuild America, or the Twin Towers site, perhaps we should first rethink America.

Isn't it time to reject the theories of the evolutionist, the babble of the secular humanists who offer no hope, and the globalists with their planetary village?

Americans aren't educated in spite of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on education by the federal government. Government itself dictates education, and the people have become stupid. That may be the point of government education, but it is not the goal of education itself. It should not be the goal of parents to bring up blathering nitwit children.

Americans are a particularly proud people, but God says that pride goes before destruction. Have we seen the beginning of the humiliation of America because of pride? Let the evidence speak for itself.

A once-honest people who could name its criminals ... Capone, Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde ... now have overcrowded prisons and folks who could care less about human life, whether they abort it before birth or shoot a teen/adult in a driveby. We've become a people with "relative" morality, which is no morality at all. And we're told these miscreants had a bad childhood. If they weren't told about God and His standards, imbued with a sense of personal responsibility and the relationship of cause and effect, they had a bad childhood. That applies whether they grew up in the ghetto or in an upper middle class home without values.

We were able to put fifty thousand workers in twin towers but we cannot fill a church on Sunday morning. We could draw fifty or sixty thousand to a ballgame, but couldn't get the family together around the dinner table.

It's time to rethink America.

We were founded on Christian principles, we were settled by Bible-believing Puritans and Pilgrims, we were established as a nation by God-fearing men who believed in the liberty that is proclaimed by our religion: ours was the liberty to be what God wants, not license to do as everyone pleases. We've forgotten what was once our original understanding of liberty.

We can't haul people to church at sword's point or baptize them at the point of a gun. That doesn't make character, it makes intimidated subjects. Christianity is a religion of freedom, of liberty, but within the boundaries of the "thou shalt nots" set down by the Almighty for our good.

It's time to rethink America.

American greatness was built on solid character, universities established for the education of students of theology (Harvard, Yale and Princeton weren't always wildly liberal, they were chiefly seminaries), and a belief in our founding documents. We were to permit others to worship as they pleased without harassment, but we were also to proclaim the Gospel at every opportunity in the faith that many would hear and understand.

Now we build monuments to man's achievements. We build towers, automobiles, resorts, great theaters, mansions, amusement parks and stadiums. We build, but to the glory of man and not to the glory of God, whose Name we desecrate.

To be sure, Christianity has suffered dark moments at the hands of politically-minded men who hid behind religious fervor. There were the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, and the Salem Witch Trials on our own soil. But our faith also produced St. Augustine, John Newton, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, David Livingstone and D. L. Moody. One Supreme Court, in the 19th century, proclaimed that the United States is a Christian nation.

At present, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Supreme Court, we're trying to prove it is not Christian. The trash on media, the burgeoning of topheavy, oppressive government and the moral decline (particularly in women's liberties to do as they please from sexual freedom to active combat roles in war) all testify to the fact that if we were once a Christian nation, we no longer can claim to be such.

It is time to rethink America.

Why would what once made us a great nation ... belief in the Bible and our accountability to God ... not make us great once again? It depends on whether one believes that man is accountable only to himself (humanism) that produces a vacuous sense of morality and endless tributes to self, or whether one believes man is created in God's image.

The churches are always full after a great disaster. Man's need for God was put there by God so that we would always have a great void until we came to rest in Him. But after we resign ourselves to the fact of tragedy, the churches are seldom full. That isn't Christianity ... it is bombshelter religion.

The Bible as God's written word was what was once preached from America's pulpits. Now we hear trivia. It is time to speak of sin and judgment lest they come upon us unawares, as did the events of September 11, 2001. It is time to speak of redemption and why we need it, every one, lest we step off into eternity suddenly and without remission of sins.

We must rethink America. While it is still here.

Dorothy Anne Seese was born in Southern California where she obtained her degree in political science. For the past forty years, she has made her home in Arizona where her primary career was a business systems analyst. Dottie is now retired and makes her home in an Arizona retirement city. She is the editor of The Flagship Log. Her e-mail address is dottie@politicalusa.com.

[Mercuria]

I am honored to have this fine American on my list of columnists. If you haven't read her before, you can get the entire list of her columns on her website. I posted my favorites of hers on Mercurial Times.

[Mercuria]

Using the AnnaZ ping list to call attention to another splendid columnist. Post your thoughts and comments freely!

For what it's worth...I think she makes powerful and spiritually insightful points!

[FReethesheeples]

bump

[Syncro]

Oh no!!!!!!!!!

Not AnnaZ's dreaded ping list....LOL

[glock rocks]

thanks, and a bump for an early (and i mean early) morning read.

[Anotherpundit]

actually, that's not really a precise analysis of de Tocqueville. While it's true that he said that america was a great nation because it was a good nation, and that if it ever ceased to be good it would also cease to be great, he didn't wholly ascribe that goodness to religous sources.

Here's his work online: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch14.htm

[VinnyTex]

Haven't seen ya around in awhile, Red? Where ya been? When's the next big radio show..???

[apackof2]

You shall know the Truth bump

[MissAmericanPie]

Wonderful post, thanks for the heads up, I'm bookmarking this one.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thank You for posting this!
I sense that many Americans have been woken up with the
tragic events of Sept 11 and are having similiar thoughts.
I believe that the change of direction is happening before our very eyes.
The real test will be the next time their is a major election and how many
unregistered voters realize that it is their responsibility also to make sure America gets back on course.
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." PLATO


God Bless America!

[WRhine]

Isn't it time to reject the theories of the evolutionist, the babble of the secular humanists who offer no hope, and the globalists with their planetary village?

You Creationist apparently will go to any length, including fabricating misleading articles, to slip in your agenda of ignorance. I was expecting to read an enlightening article about America's past and out comes Creationist babble. No, it is not the time, nor is it ever the time, to reject SCIENCE, which has been a cornerstone to America's greatness. Mixing evolution in with the words "globalist" and "secular humanist" is a case of comparing apples and oranges and any confusion that exists is limited to the closed minds of creationists. Want an education on this subject? Go to your local museum. If your brain fails you, maybe you can rely on your eyes.

[Captainpaintball]

The Gospel is offensive to sinners

What a simple, but powerful, sentence!

[Cold Heat]

I know for a fact that many Americans are in fact re-thinking. I hope and pray it is enough to turn the tide against moral relativism.

[Timesink]

What made it great?

[Truth Speaker]

For what it's worth...I think she makes powerful and spiritually insightful points!

I agree totally...America must Rethink and Return to her Spiritual Roots to Remain great.

Thank you so much for this article.

[freeman_of_mx]

That is such an oversimplification that I’m not sure it’s even accurate.

What’s offensive is the politicization of the gospel, not the gospel.

Take for example Jesus. He enters the world at zero (AD or BC). His interaction on the earth is basically with three classes of individuals.

1. The Romans
2. The Religious leaders
3. The average citizenry or population.

Now lets look at these three groups, surely everyone today falls into one of these three groups.

The Romans: They weren’t offended by Jesus; in fact, they found no wrong in him at all. Jesus did not come to politicize his message. Jesus never dealt with the “sin” of the Romans. Why was that? Were they really holy (the Romans)? I think not.

The Religious Leaders: They we’re definitely offended. As far as I can tell, the only real “sinners” offended by the gospel we’re these gents.

The Population: They loved the gospel of Christ. It offered freedom of spirit, healing, food, health, wisdom, in a word HOPE for a future with God. They surely weren’t offended by Christ gospel.

I hear all the time Conservative Christians validate their calling by all the people they offend. Something’s wrong here!

Either Jesus was wrong or many of todays evangelical leaders have more in common with the Pharisees than we like to admit.

Many of today’s Christian religious leaders are so busy politicizing the Gospel, Christ can’t even be seen anymore.

[freedomnews]

Freedommmmmmmm

[Penny1]

No, it is not the time, nor is it ever the time, to reject SCIENCE, which has been a cornerstone to America's greatness.

She did not advocate rejecting SCIENCE, but rather rejecting the "theories of evolution"

...and that is a crucial detail.

-penny

[WRhine]

She did not advocate rejecting SCIENCE, but rather rejecting the "theories of evolution"

Evolution is Science. Get an education.