Does Character Matter Anymore in America?

My writings are intended to be distinctly apolitical, yielding my only allegiance to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  But the abhorrent state of American politics requires a statement on how we ended up on the edge of the moral abyss, ready to elect a lying, self-seeking, narcissistic misogynist regardless of which candidate wins the election.  Though this post is a little longer than normal, I pray you read it to the end and take it to heart.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous 19th century French statesman and social philosopher, traveled to America in the 1830s to discover the reasons for the incredible success of this new nation. In his classic work, Democracy in America, de Tocqueville extols the virtue of America as being rooted in her religious character. Some particularly relevant excerpts from his writing include:

Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; …In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united…

Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.

In the United States, the sovereign authority is religious...there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America…

I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...; in her…fields and…forests; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her…Congress and in her matchless Constitution.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.  The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.

Two hundred years have brought amazing and wonderful changes in our country, but not all change has been good.  No longer do children learn Scripture in school – instead those who openly honor God and His Word are judged to be “hateful” because the precepts of faith allow no comfortable resting place for sin.  Righteousness is labeled as intolerance.  Godliness makes people uncomfortable.  And piety?  Who even understands the word anymore?  The Scriptures teach us:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?    (Jeremiah 17:9)

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.   (Matthew 15:18)

Do you know who is to blame for our current predicament?  WE ARE.  You and Me.  We have tolerated, compromised, conceded, and cooperated ourselves into this pathetic, lukewarm state of being where we have religious hearts, but our voices and efforts have been muted by a nation offended by the truths of God.  It would seem our “chickens have come home to roost”. 

Jacob

#characteralwaysmatters  #whathappenedtous?