Where Patriots Are Not Fools and Presidents Are Not Kings

Preppers are people who think that America is about to turn into a lawless free for all, so they are stocking up on food and supplies and heading for remote sites and bunkers to wait it out. Then comes the leavers, they think it's time to choose another country to live in or some distant island of the sea.

America is at a tipping point and while those who think it's time to hide or leave may not be wrong, no one would dare call them patriots or fighters. Is this the right way to deal with the day? Has a serious voice for good lost its power and does a vote, every vote, count for nothing?

Even in this land of 350 million souls we can take comfort that the God who watches the six billion people of this planet has not lost his grip. The bible clearly says that he counts the very hairs on the heads of every last one of us. (Mt 10: 30)

God knows the way of a nation as clearly as he knows the ways of an individual and he responds to us on the basis of that knowledge according to the great prophet Jeremiah.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." (Jer 17: 9, 10)

If an individual's life is ordered by God why would we assume that he is not interested in the lives and the pathway of an entire nation? America has been a light to the world, guided by the principles of the Bible, the Constitution and men and women who believe that freedom is a gift from God to be enjoyed and used to create both a refuge and a place of great opportunity.

People and groups that have never fought for anything are now proving that Americans have not all given up. Lawyers, the brunt of many slurs and jokes, have banded together to stand by thousands of pastors. On October 7, 2012 thousands of pastors across the nation will be sharing their political views with their respective congregations. In defiance of the uncontested the 1954 Johnson Amendment they will be sending their recorded sermons to the IRS. The lawyers have promised to stand with the pastors and take the issue to our highest courts if necessary. If the much maligned lawyers of this nation can take a stand, are we not encouraged?

The mistake that many foreign countries, and some Americans make is thinking that because we are not bullies we must not be very good fighters. Fighting for what is right is the very reason there is a place called the United States of America. More than patriotic rhetoric this fact is our heritage, our legacy and our history.

It is, not knowing our own history that is part of the problem. It is the reason that millions of people are still hell-bent on going to the polls to vote for Barack Obama even though he is leading the nation to moral and fiscal bankruptcy. In fact, the thrust of his re-election effort is predicated and largely dependent upon the ignorance of a generation many times more prone to side with a pop-culture hero than a patriot, a great statesman or simply, someone who shows evidence that they deeply love this nation and its people.

It is too easy to just say that people who have forgotten or never knew their history would have no clue about what the Bible says about them, or more accurately, to them. It is the height of presumption to think that God only speaks to believers and has nothing to say and no authority over the unbelievers.

If God's message is only for those who are pre-disposed to believe it, then we are forced to ask the most serious question of all, why does he spend so much time, space and energy to warning, calling and pleading with the unbeliever? Is he like a preacher who just started a new church down the block, hoping for a better headcount in his kingdom or did he already cover that question with the following words spoken by Christ.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Mt 7: 13, 14)

But in America we are free to give God his walking papers if we think he's too bossy, and we can mock and dismiss the Christians if we think they're too pushy. We can opt for John Lennon's world with no religions if we choose, but our history (missed or not) will not allow us to do these two things without assaulting the truth.

The first thing we can't do is call those people fools who gave their lives, stood on principle and labored on every front, classy, dignified, smart, entrepreneurial, and yes even godly. Patriots are not fools.

Secondly, After defying England's King George, writing provisions into our constitution to prevent tyrannical rulers from usurping personal freedoms and fighting wars in which our bravest and best gave their lives to add meaning to it all, we can safely say that in America — presidents are not kings.