America Faces a Time for Choosing

“Without God, there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, we will be a nation gone under.” - President Ronald Reagan

Jonathan Cahn, in his amazing book The Harbinger, makes the case that America is now in the midst of a time of divine judgment, and that we are still ignoring the voice of God as he calls us to repentance. We have not learned from the experience of 9/11.

That awful national wake-up call had a few brief positive results. We found a new appreciation for the liberties and blessings that we had taken for granted. There was a refreshing spirit of patriotism and self-sacrifice sweeping across the country. For a few short months, there seemed to be a stirring of some national spiritual awakening.

There were thousands of special worship services across the country in the days following the attacks. For the first time since D-Day in 1944, a U.S. President declared a National Day of Prayer. On the Sunday after 9/11, churches across America were packed with people seeking consolation and guidance from God. 

Sadly, it did not take us long to put our thoughts of God back up on the shelf and once again turn our attention to self-gratification. We soon went right back to business as usual.

What Really Happened in Ferguson?

Historically, black Americans have had a tough time living here.

The horrors of slavery are almost unimaginable to us today. Later, when slavery was abolished after the Civil War, blacks had to endure ingrained racial prejudice, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and segregation.

After World War II, when the Civil Rights movement began to really build up some steam, the struggle between black and white America reached a fever pitch. I was a goofy white grade-school kid in the 1960s, and I vividly remember the TV news coverage of the peaceful Civil Rights marches in the South, and the often violent push-back from white police departments.

Black Americans have a painful history with the white power structure. The distrust built up after centuries of abuse and mistreatment is hard to get past. I get that.

Even today, racism still rears it's ugly head much too often. I have a black friend who was seriously hassled last year while traveling through French Lick, Indiana. I'll spare you the details, but the cops gave him a really hard time, and ended up impounding his car, for totally bogus reasons. Had he been white, none of what happened to him would have happened.

This is just another example of the kind of "slow drip" soft racism that keeps black resentment simmering towards American society. I get that, too.

Let's Stay Rational in Spite of the Grief

A final round of funeral services was held yesterday for the last of the victims of last week's killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

This attack was so heinous and senseless that it defies any rational explanation. What snaps inside a human being to bring him to perform such a depraved, evil act?  I doubt anyone can answer that question.

Twenty families were forced to live every parent's worst nightmare: receiving the news that their child had been murdered. Six adults at the school were also killed by the deranged gunman.

This is a senseless crime that forces each of us to take stock of our priorities. It reminds us that life is a fragile gift. It should cause us to hold our children a little closer, and to more earnestly appreciate the blessing of having our loved ones alive, healthy and near to us.
 
The people of Newtown need our prayers for healing, for comfort, and for the capacity to forgive and move on. The residents of this community have been emotionally shattered, and many of of them will never fully recover.

I cannot imagine how they must feel. I wish these wounded people could be left in peace to deal with the awful sorrow they must bear. I wish the liberal media would leave them alone, instead of using them as political pawns to advance another round of attacks on the Second Amendment.

American leftists are playing their usual game of "never wasting a crisis." They are callously exploiting the nation's grief over the Sandy Hook massacre to advance their anti-gun political agenda while people's emotions are raw.

It is important to remain logical and remember that it was a sick, evil person who killed those innocent victims.

It was a madman who murdered those children; a young man who was deeply mentally disturbed, and somehow failed to receive the psychiatric help he needed that might have prevented this awful tragedy.

Restricting the constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens will not bring back the victims of Sandy Hook, nor will it prevent future madmen from committing terrible crimes.

Better processes for diagnosing and treating the mentally ill might have made a difference in this instance. A few trained and armed staff members at the school could have radically changed the outcome of this attack.

We live in a fallen world. There will always be evil people with evil intentions. We all need to take responsibility for preparing to defend ourselves against unexpected threats.

The police cannot be everywhere. As long as there are sinful people with murderous notions, there will be occasions when a law-abiding armed citizen may be all that stands between an innocent victim and a deranged attacker.

I wish this were not so. I wish we could just declare every public area a gun-free zone and know that our children would be safe. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous delusion that leaves law-abiding citizens defenseless against criminals who will always be armed.

A person intent on evil does not respect gun laws, or gun-free zones. All a gun-free zone does is advertise to criminals - "Come on in! We are defenseless here."

Again, I wish this were not so. I wish we lived in a kinder, gentler world. But we have to contend with the sad reality that there will always be evil perpetrators in this world, and they must be opposed with force. 

It is important that we understand and acknowledge hard truths, such as this simple fact recently declared by National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

A Breath of Fresh Air

I attended a very unusual wedding this afternoon.

Unlike so many of the weddings I have been invited to over the past 30 years, the bride was not pregnant.

It was a first marriage for both bride and groom. There were no past abortions; no fatherless children from past relationships; no STDs to be concerned with.

I have known the bride since she was a young teenager at my church. Amy has always impressed me as a beautiful young woman with a gracious spirit, who puts the needs of others ahead of her own. She is held in high esteem by everyone who knows her.

Soon after graduating college, she accepted a position at an English-language school in Guatemala, teaching first grade students of missionary parents. During her time in Guatemala she met, and fell in love with, a handsome young man named Daniel, a native Guatemalan who worked as a youth pastor and helped his father in ministry.

Their love story had the usual twists and turns of doubt, angst, and separation. Ultimately, however, they could not stay away from each other. When Daniel proposed in December of 2011, Amy said, "Yes!"

And so, today, I attended their very unusual wedding.

It was heartwarming to see the two of them as they exchanged vows. It was refreshing to see a young couple who honored God and kept themselves set apart until they were married. It was nice, for a change, to see two young people do it the right way -- the way God intended it to be.

In today's world, a majority of people will laugh at the idea of purity, of faithfulness, of saving yourself for marriage. Come to think of it, the kids I knew back in the day were laughing at these "old-fashioned" notions 40 years ago.

But when I look around at the decay in our culture, I cannot help but wonder how much better off our society would be if there were more people like Daniel and Amy.

Since we Americans are so hell-bent on throwing off the "shackles" of religion, and so busy mocking any suggestion that God might have an opinion about our behavior, should we be surprised at the results?

"Look out any window," goes the Bruce Hornsby song.

When I look out my window I see a community filled with fatherless children. I see welfare moms with 4 or 5 kids from 4 or 5 different "baby-daddies" buying junk food with their food stamps. I see young women having multiple convenience abortions. 

I see broken-hearted men and women going through their third or fourth divorce. I see splintered families, where the parents are so enmeshed in their own self-centered dramas that they don't have anything left of themselves to invest into their children's emotional needs.

I see young people hooked on crack, stealing from their own parents' homes so they can afford their next high. I see withered lost souls hoisting their cardboard signs at the interstate ramps, hoping to pick up enough spare change for the next bottle of cheap wine.

Ever since American society decided to flip God the bird, things haven't been so good around here. Yet nobody seems to make the connection: When a nation walks away from God, there is nowhere to go but down.

A day like today lifts my spirits, and gives me new hope. Watching Daniel and Amy begin their covenant journey reminds me of how beautiful life can be when people choose to walk in obedience to God.

It's a shame that is so unusual today.

Economics and the Bible

Rabbi Aryeh Spero wrote a great column in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year about what the Bible says concerning economics, and not surprisingly, free market capitalism seems to be the closest thing on earth to the biblical model of fair commerce.  READ MORE

Who Crumbled the Girl Scout Cookies?

Indiana State Representative Bob Morris caught a lot of flak this past week after he decided not to endorse a resolution from the Indiana House honoring the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts.

His fellow Republicans immediately threw him under the bus. He was ridiculed on local radio stations and in the Indianapolis Star. The story quickly went viral. He was lampooned in the national press and even got slammed by Dave Letterman.

It's awfully easy to jump on the bandwagon and poke fun at a man who disses the Girl Scouts.

It takes a little bit of thought and effort to examine the facts and get some perspective on the reasons for his decision.

Like most Americans, I have always held the Girls Scouts in high esteem. I was a sucker for all those annual Girl Scout fundraisers. How could you turn down a sales pitch by one of those cute little cookie-pushers?

What could be more American, more wholesome, more unassailable than the Girl Scouts?

There are millions of American women who cherish fond memories of the scouting days of their youth; women who are proud of their association with the Girl Scouts, and rightly so.

So I decided to poke around and check out some of the anti-Girl Scout sites on the web. I regret to report that there seems to be a huge difference between the Girl Scouts of yesterday and the Girl Scouts of today.

Before you tolerant liberals start sending me nasty hate mail, please indulge me in two requests for objectivity and rationality.

1) Don't go off like the morons who have posted sarcastic comments about "commie pinko leftist" Girl Scouts selling cookies at the mall. My dispute is with the agenda of the national leadership, and certainly not with any of the local Girl Scouts who are being exploited.

2) Do a little research. The most persuasive site I visited is hosted by two teen-age girls who spent eight years together in the same local scout troop. They became uneasy with some of the aspects of their scouting experience, so they made the difficult decision to resign from the Girl Scouts.

They now host a website called Speak Now Girl Scouts that exposes the broad influence of left-wing advocacy groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL, with today's national Girl Scout leadership.

I'd ask you to visit a couple of other sites established by former Girl Scout supporters. Keep in mind when you visit these sites that they are hosted by young women who felt compelled to leave the local Girl Scout troops that they loved because they felt their convictions were being betrayed. Check out Honest Girl Scouts and 100 Questions for the Girl Scouts.

And if you are the parent of a teen-age girl, download the Happy, Healthy and Hot brochure that Planned Parenthood produced for teens and then tell me if this is the kind of message you want inculcated into your daughter's impressionable young mind. Did you really sign her up for the Girl Scouts so that she could learn more about homosexuality, masturbation and condoms?

(*These discussion topics don't seem to square with the stated purposes in the national charter of Girl Scouts of America, as foot-noted at the end of this blog.)

Now there are many fine local Girl Scout chapters that would never intentionally support this kind of garbage. However, they DO unintentionally support this agenda by retaining their affiliation with the national Girls Scouts organization -- and 50 cents of every box of cookies they sell goes to the national headquarters.

That's right, headquarters gets a bigger slice of the pie than the local chapter, which only gets to keep 10%.

The Girl Scouts have historically enjoyed great support from church groups. For decades, many Christians have been involved with scouting because it re-affirmed the traditional moral values that parents taught at home. Sadly, that no longer seems to be the case.

I've got to stand with Bob Morris on this one. I admire what the Girl Scouts of America used to be. I am disgusted over what the national leadership has done to undermine it's founding principles.

So instead of being angry at Bob Morris for having the courage of his convictions, why aren't more people angry at the sleazy left-wingers who have hi-jacked what was once a great organization and turned it into just another avenue for indoctrinating young girls into a sexualized, amoral, humanist world-view?

This is a perfect example of well-worn radical-left strategy: Gain control of a reputable organization; politicize it with your agenda; and if anyone dares to object, then you ridicule your opponents and accuse them of playing politics.

So far, that con-game is working flawlessly.

Just ask Bob Morris, the man who had the temerity to refuse to endorse the defilement of an iconic American tradition.

[*Footnote -- from the "Purpose" section of the Girl Scouts' National Charter]

-CITE-
36 USC Sec. 80302 01/07/2011

-EXPCITE-
TITLE 36 - PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL OBSERVANCES, CEREMONIES, AND
ORGANIZATIONS
Subtitle II - Patriotic and National Organizations
Part B - Organizations
CHAPTER 803 - GIRL SCOUTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

-HEAD-
Sec. 80302. Purposes

-STATUTE-
The purposes of the corporation are -
(1) to promote the qualities of truth, loyalty, helpfulness,
friendliness, courtesy, purity, kindness, obedience,
cheerfulness, thriftiness, and kindred virtues among girls, as a
preparation for their responsibilities in the home and for
service to the community;
(2) to direct and coordinate the Girl Scout movement in the
United States and territories and possessions of the United
States; and
(3) to fix and maintain standards for the movement that will
inspire the rising generation with the highest ideals of
character, patriotism, conduct, and attainment.

The Wonderful World of Sharia Law

The next time you hear some doofus media commentator, or a Muslim apologist from CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations) extolling the benefits of Sharia Law, take a deep breath.

Once your head is clear and your heart beat is stable, perhaps you should consider, as an example of Muslim tolerance, the sad plight of Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old newspaper columnist from Saudi Arabia.

The young man made the fatal mistake of speaking his mind, and by doing so, he failed to give the proper respect to the Prophet Muhammad. Saudi clerics are demanding that Kashgari be charged with apostasy, and then executed after a fair trial.

Kashgari received more than 30,000 responses and a number of death threats as a result of a posting he made on Twitter. He decided to flee Saudi Arabia after more than 13,000 people joined a Facebook page titled "The Saudi People Demand the Execution of Hamza Kashgari".

Saudi authorities somehow persuaded Interpol, the international police agency, to put out a "red notice" which flagged Kashgari as a wanted criminal. He was detained by local police in Malaysia, and will most likely be returned to Saudi Arabia to stand trial.

Exactly what heinous crime did this young man commit? What awful blasphemies did he spew against the Prophet Muhammad?

His tweet, which the authorities have since deleted, simply read: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you … I will not pray for you."

Under Sharia Law, that kind of smart-alecky free speech gets your head chopped off.

That is all you need to know to understand why we must never allow Sharia Law to gain a foothold in America.

You can read more about this story HERE.

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

It's time again to recall these wise words from our greatest President

These days, in post-Christian America, we suffer a chronic (and perhaps terminal) case of historical ignorance.

For example, many are unaware that our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November was established by Abraham Lincoln at the height of the civil war.

Lincoln's proclamation holds valuable lessons for us today. To gain some perspective on how far we have drifted from our foundations, try to imagine President Barack Obama speaking the following words in a televised presidential address in 2011.

Here is Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation:

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures--and proven by all history--that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations like individuals are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justify fear that the awful calamity of Civil War, which now desolates the land, may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins--to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace--too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our benevolent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

A. Lincoln

Occupy This

"Life is tough...even tougher when you're stupid." - John Wayne

During a recent visit to Wall Street to discuss the status of my vast investment portfolio with E.F. Hutton, I heard a commotion going on some short distance away.

I followed the scent of urine that seemed to float on the breeze, and before I knew it, there I was in Zuccotti Park.

I was surprised to see a familiar face grinning at me from beneath a hoodie. It was my old high school buddy Slug. I hadn’t seen him since I helped him to get on-line a couple of years ago.

“Dude, have you come to join us?” he asked.

I was distracted for a moment by a pirate on a unicycle, and when I turned back around, Slug was standing beside me, holding a crystal pyramid in the palm of his out-stretched hand, waving it in circles over my head.

With his arm raised so close to me, I couldn’t help but notice that Slug had been neglecting his personal hygiene.

“Slug, what are you doing?” I asked as I tried to hold my breath and back away.

“Can’t you feel the aura? I just want you to become part of the vibe we have going here,” he replied earnestly.

Suddenly, Slug grabbed me by the collar and yanked me off the sidewalk just in time to save me from being knocked down by a tattooed kid on a skateboard wearing a Spiderman mask.

“Dude,’ he said, “You gotta watch yourself around here. The 99% are restless and on the move.”

“I see that,” I commented as I looked around at the milling crowd.

“So how long have you been here, Slug?”

“I was here the first week, man! I got to see Roseanne Barr give her speech.”

“That had to be a Kodak moment,” I interjected.

Slug ignored me and continued. “When I saw that first night of protest on TV, I knew I had to come down and join my brothers and sisters. The spirit of the 60’s is back, man! Look around, dude, it’s almost like being back at Woodstock.”

A young woman, with more hair than clothing, walked past us while beating a drum and chanting, “Shame on you! Shame on you!”

“Slug, you weren’t at Woodstock! Your mom wouldn’t let you go, remember?”

“Yeah, dude, but I was there in spirit! I saw the movie AND bought the album.”

I jumped back to avoid being hit be a stray Frisbee and stepped right into a pile of poop.

“Slug, this is disgusting! How can you hang out with these slobs? Can’t you people poop in a bag or something?”

I was starting to get a headache. Between the smell and the noise, I was just not feeling the aura. I said, “Slug, aren’t you getting tired of living out here in this noisy park?”

“It’s not so bad, man. We have people cooking for us, and there are rallies every afternoon when the TV crews arrive. At night we have campfires and some pretty good jam sessions. It sure beats sitting around the house.”

“Speaking of home, how is your mom doing?”

“Mom’s fine, dude. I’m sure she misses me, but she told me to stay here as long as I want. I’ll tell her you asked about her whenever I go back.”

My head was still throbbing. “Okay, Slug, so just what exactly are you protesting?”

“I’m here because of the injustice of the capitalist system. The 99% of us struggle for survival while the elite 1% gets rich off of our labor. I want my share of the wealth. I want to have decent housing, free health care and a guaranteed pension when I retire. The corporate power structure owes us for what it has stolen from us!”

I was reaching the limits of my patience.

“Slug, what are you going to retire from? You’ve been mostly unemployed and living at home with your mom for the last 12 years.”

“Hey dude, the system is rigged so that a guy like me can’t find a decent job. I’m not going to just do manual labor…I’ve got my pride, you know.”

“So you’re too proud to take a job loading trucks, but you’re not too proud to collect food stamps, unemployment and a free unfunded pension?’

“Dude, you just don’t get it. You’ve sold out to the man. You’ll never understand how we’ve been oppressed by the system!”

“Slug, I have to go. Take care of yourself, and try to keep in touch.”

“Dude, just give me your email. As soon as my IPad recharges, I’ll make sure you’re in my address book.”

I watched Slug wander off into the crowd: A crowd of Gen-Xers eating free food, camping illegally in a public park, texting and video-recording and organizing themselves with all the technological wonders produced by the capitalist system that they claim to despise -- the same capitalist system that created the national wealth that makes possible a society rich enough, and free enough, to tolerate the immature and ungrateful behavior of a group of left-wing wackos like Occupy Wall Street.

Slug was right. I don’t get it.

If the Government Ran Auto Insurance

As much as it irritates me the way that insurance companies seem to rule the world, I will grudgingly give them credit -- they operate in the realm of reality, and they respond to real-world market forces.

For example, if you are a careful driver with a long accident-free record, you get discounts and pay some of the lowest insurance rates.

If you are a mad-dog lead-foot with 8 points against your license and a couple of accidents on your record, you are in the high-risk category, and you are going to pay much higher insurance premiums that reflect the consequences of your behavior.

This is as it should be. Good behavior is rewarded. Bad behavior is penalized.

Because each driver pays a rate that reflects an accurate cost of their insurance risk, the auto insurance industry exemplifies a sustainable business model that serves the customers' needs and returns a profit to its shareholders.

This is a perfect example of free-market capitalism. It is a win-win situation that is based upon personal accountability and common sense.

If the government ever got involved in this, it would be a whole different story.

Liberal politicians would cry that it is unfair for the poor driver with the bad record to have to pay such high rates while others, who were fortunate enough to have good driving records, refused to pay their "fair share" so that everyone could have insurance at an equal cost.

So the liberals would implement a program to make all auto insurance premiums the same, regardless of the driving records of anyone in the program. This would make auto insurance "fair." Then everyone would be treated "equally." And once again, our government would have removed personal responsibility from the equation.

The results would be predictable: Insurance rates would rise for all the good drivers, while rates for bad drivers would decline to whatever mandated "average" rate the government established.

Minus the punitive disincentive of higher rates, bad drivers would become worse drivers. Good drivers would worry less about their driving records, since there was no longer any penalty for bad behavior.

Accident rates would increase. More drivers would speed. Insurance rates would have to rise to reflect the growing risk exposure of the insurance companies. Before long, EVERYONE would be paying a rate that was as high as the highest punitive rates that bad drivers used to pay under the original insurance system.

And if the government refused to let insurance companies raise their rates? Companies would begin to go out of business. Auto insurance would become more difficult to obtain.

If the government continued to smother the ability of insurance companies to make a profit, they would cease to operate, and the government would step in and become the auto-insurer for the nation.

Since a government program is NEVER as efficient as a private business, insurance costs would continue to rise. If you thought the private insurance companies (that had to compete with each other) were gouging you, wait until you have to do business with the monopoly of a government bureaucracy.

This is the problem with socialism. It sounds good. It sounds compassionate. But the results are always the same: Socialism eventually ensures that everyone is equally miserable, equally poor, and equally powerless.

Socialism turns responsible free citizens into dependent wards of the state.

That is not the kind of world I want to live in.

The Great Roots of a Great Nation

"If you wuz born in America, you got a 90-yard head start in a 100-yard race." - Earl Pitts (alter-ego of radio-host Gary Burbank)

As we prepare to celebrate another Independence Day, it is fitting that we consider the blessings of living in America.

We live in an exceptional country, though we are not exceptional people. There is nothing extraordinary in our DNA. We are no smarter or nobler than anyone else on the planet.

But we have the good fortune to live within the most dynamic political system ever devised by man. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to that group of statesmen who declared American independence back in 1776, and who stood firm throughout the military and political clashes that followed to successfully establish the world's greatest democratic republic.

Has there ever in history been such a gathering of political, philosophical and spiritual leaders? Could America have been birthed without the contributions of men like Patrick Henry, John Witherspoon, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, John Hancock?

We are free today because we stand on the shoulders of these giants.

Admittedly, in practice, America has not always lived up to the ideals of her founding. The national sin of slavery took generations to resolve, and even today we still deal with some of the consequences of that shame. Our treatment of the native Indian populations was unconscionable. We have had our share of crooked politicians who abused government power. At times greedy industrialists have exploited the working class.

This is not a perfect country. But as Winston Churchill so famously observed, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

No other nation on earth offers the opportunities for common people to improve their lot in life like America. Nowhere else are people so free to pursue their dreams and ambitions. No country on earth is more diligent about protecting individual liberty than the United States.

America is a great nation because we are united by great ideas, which are proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence: "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."

These are revolutionary notions. They turned the world upside down in 1776.

Take special note of that phrase "endowed by their Creator" because it is fundamental to understanding America.

The men who founded this country shared a faith in God. In their declaration to the world of our independence, they boldly asserted their belief in a Creator who endows us with individual worth, because we are each made in his image.

They shared a biblical worldview, and an understanding of our fallen human nature. That is how they were able to craft a system of government founded on noble and lofty ideals, yet still designed to work practically in the day-to-day tumult of the sinful human condition.

Sadly, America has been drifting away from God for several generations now. We are turning away from our spiritual heritage. If our nation, founded on faith in God, chooses to deny His providence, what hope is there for us?

As John Adams wrote, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

After studying American society for several years, the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville concluded in his classic 1835 book Democracy in America that “America is great because she is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

If we hope to pass on the blessings of liberty to our children, we need to turn our hearts back to the Creator who made all of these things possible. Can any reasonable person study the history of America's founding and not perceive the hand of God orchestrating the creation of this great experiment in self-government?

We ignore the Creator who established this country at our own peril.

We are not great people, but we do live in a great nation, bequeathed to us by great statesmen, who understood the power and authority of our great God.

I Still Want My Summers Back

This blog was originally posted in August of 2010. You may have missed it. Now that summer is fast approaching, I want to bring the issue up again. I want my summers back! Come this August, when we are baking in the sun, school will start again and cut short the best part of the year. This is just wrong!

Ah, the dog days of summer. The sun is high in the sky, baking the parched grass. The beach is warm and inviting as the waves lap against the shore. The aroma of coconut oil wafts across the pool at Garfield Park, and for some reason I cannot fathom: KIDS ARE STANDING AT THE CURB WAITING FOR THE SCHOOL BUS!

Whatever happened to summer?

This ever-earlier encroachment of the start of school on summer vacation has irked me for years, and the situation is only getting worse. There are elementary schools around here that started on August 2nd. My neighbor began his "fall" semester at Southport High School on August 10th.

Again I ask: whatever happened to summer?

Educators tell us that we need a longer school year to pump our students' heads up with more knowledge so they can compete in an increasingly high-tech world. Okay, I get that. But if you are going to add days to the school year, why not add them in June, when it is cooler and less humid. Why screw up the month of August, the best part of summer?

I have heard educators say that adding days in June is not productive, since kids are looking forward to the end of the school year, and they begin to lose focus on their studies.

Well, duh! The reason kids begin to lose their focus in April is because they know they are getting out of school in May. If we move the school calendar back, then students can begin to lose their focus in May because they know that school will end in June. I see no real problem here.

When you live in a place like Indiana (as I have for my entire life) summertime is a precious and fleeting season. If you enjoy outdoor activities like swimming, boating and camping, there is a narrow window of opportunity to indulge in these pleasures.

May is totally unpredictable, and the water in our lakes is too cold to allow most us to swim. June is almost as bad, with lots of rainy days and cool nights. In addition, in June many of the state park reservoirs are flooded from the spring rains, which closes the beaches, and sometimes the marinas.

For summer junkies like me, that leaves July, August and maybe the first half of September. A mere two and half months to enjoy our summertime, and then we face another long dreary wait through fall, another brutal midwestern winter, and a soggy cold spring before we can play out in the water again.

Life is short. In my opinion, we all work too much and play too little. There are too few pleasures as it is, and for our schools to steal away the best part of summer just doesn't make sense to me. Summertime activities are wonderful ways for families to spend time together and make memories.

As I write this, on Wednesday August 11, it is 88 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. The high today is forecast at 96 degrees. Days like this are created for people to relax, work on a tan, and play in the water.

But today, the beach at Eagle Creek Park is closed. The pools in the Indianapolis city parks are closed. It's hitting 96 degrees in the middle of August, and there is nowhere nearby to go swimming BECAUSE THE LIFE GUARDS HAD TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

Conversely, you could go to a city pool in early June and shoot off a cannon without hitting anything but a pigeon, since no one in their right mind wants to go swimming when it is 75 degrees and raining. But that's when our pools are open, because we don't have enough sense to schedule summer vacations during the time that it is actually summer!

It is ridiculous to lose our summers like this. We are all cheated out of one of the best parts of the year because we can't get the schools to schedule summer vacations during the summertime. If you want to help change this situation, join the Save Indiana Summers campaign.

No Room for Jihad Sympathy Here

Indianapolis resident Kathie Smith made headlines this past week when Fox News reported that she has drawn the attention of the FBI and Homeland Security after posting a YouTube video that featured her and her husband, Salahudin ibn Ja’Far, dressed in jihadist garb and glorifying a group of terrorists who had attempted to bomb a US military base in Germany.

In a recent interview on a local news channel, the 46 year-old grandmother (who now goes by the Muslim name “Zubaida”) complained about being targeted for extra scrutiny by Homeland Security agents when she is flying to and from Germany to visit her 28 year-old Muslim husband.

DUH...ya think?

Gosh, a Muslim convert who posts jihad videos on YouTube and "friends" herself with Islamic terrorists on Facebook...what possible concern could the TSA have with a passenger like that? I can only hope she has gone through an enhanced pat-down if she is ever sitting next to me on a flight!

In the eyes of an Islamic jihadist, we in America are the infidels. The United States is the "Great Satan." According to the tenets of Sharia Law, we must either convert to Islam or be subjugated and destroyed. We, along with Israel, the "Little Satan", are the primary targets of the worldwide jihad.

What it clearly boils down to is that anyone who supports jihad is advocating violent acts of war against the United States. People with common sense might reasonably classify that as treason.

Smith claims she is being hassled because she is exercising her First Amendment rights to free speech. I am the strongest supporter of the First Amendment that you will ever meet, but when it comes to treasonous speech, we have to draw a line.

Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution states: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."

Could a reasonable person conclude that associating with known terrorists and making videos sympathetic to their cause is adhering to the enemy and giving them aid and comfort?

My heritage traces back to German immigrants who came to the Midwest in the early 1900s. Indianapolis is home to multitudes of German descendants.

During World War II, you absolutely did NOT find any local German-Americans strutting about wearing swastikas and singing the praises of the Fuhrer. This is because these people were Americans first, and loved this country, and would never want to support an enemy of the USA.

Also, anyone crazy enough to have done such a thing would have been locked up, and rightfully so. We have wonderful freedoms in America, more than anywhere else in the world, but we do not have the right to betray our country.

Kathie Smith has no more right to live in Indianapolis and advocate our destruction in 2010 than my grandparents would have had to fly Nazi banners from their front porch in 1942.

Any culture that is so muddle-headed that it allows foreign enemies, or home-grown traitors, to operate with impunity is a society slowly committing suicide by stupidity. It's a kind of cultural Darwinism -- a nation too spineless to defend itself will eventually become extinct.

Our Constitution is the most magnificent political document in human history. All Americans cherish the guarantees of freedom it contains. But our liberties do not constitute a suicide pact. We all have a responsibility to defend the United States from enemies foreign and domestic. Our elected officials and military personnel declare an oath to that effect when they are sworn into service.

For the preservation of our culture -- for the sake of our children -- we have an obligation to deal swiftly with traitors.

Kathie Smith should be charged with treason and jailed, or deported to the Islamic utopia of her choice. Under no circumstances should she, or anyone else advocating jihad, be allowed to operate freely in our midst.

Such people have chosen to betray us. By supporting jihad, they are supporting the war against America.


For more information on this story:
Keeping Tabs on Granny Jihad
Fox 59 News Report

Jesus Who?

I've heard about everything this Christmas season except "Merry Christmas!"

Looking over the cards we have received here at Smith Manor, I am struck by the amazing number of ways we can weasel around saying anything that has to do with baby Jesus. You remember him - the God-Man, born of a virgin, came to offer himself for the sins of the world - yeah, that's the guy I'm talking about. We used to understand that Christmas was celebrated in his honor.

But now, well, it is "Happy Holidays", "Season's Greetings", "Winter Greetings", whatever. Anything but "Merry Christmas."

The Daily Mail website recently reported that the British Red Cross has banned Christmas references from any decorations in its fund-raising shops in Britain, so as not to offend Muslims.

Another recent Daily Mail article reported on some interesting facts about Christmastime in Nazi Germany.

No surprise, Hitler was not a big fan of Christmas. The Mail article states, "Hitler believed religion had no place in his 1,000-year Reich, so he replaced the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas with the Norse god Odin and urged Germans to celebrate the season as a holiday of the ‘winter solstice’, rather than Christmas."

It is always the same with tyrants: Religion has to go. No worldview or belief system can be tolerated that might challenge the supremacy of the all-powerful state.

So when people try to tamp down public expressions of faith, or marginalize the role of Christian values in our society, or make it politically incorrect to say something as simple and beautiful as "Merry Christmas", I not only become irritated, I become alarmed.

Because whenever people feel the need to suppress faith in God, there is an agenda involved. And it never leads to anything good.

How Not To Be Poor

Living in such a rich country, it is easy for us to take things for granted. We can forget how blessed we are. In a recession economy, we can become discouraged, and neglect being grateful for the many things we DO have.

Many Americans are facing tough economic times right now. People have lost jobs and homes. Many have been forced to take lower-paying jobs, perhaps working two jobs to make ends meet. Some people have been forced to draw unemployment while they try to find a job.

Most of us have faced tough times before, and the traditional American way of dealing with them is simply to buckle down and work through them. When times are hard, you do whatever you have to do to make things work. It's not easy, it's not pretty, but that is life in the real world.

With the exception of facing health issues beyond their control, anyone in America who is willing to work, and is careful with their money, will find a way to take care of themselves. This is still a land of opportunity. No one can guarantee that you will be wealthy or have everything you desire, but no one in America has to live in poverty.

I had heard Walter Williams speaking on the radio recently, and he discussed his four rules for avoiding poverty. I thought he articulated a great, common-sense approach to avoiding the welfare trap that too many Americans find themselves in these days.

I found an article he had written on the Internet that laid out his four rules for avoiding poverty, and here is the essence of his essay:

"Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior."

The more I read of Walter Williams' work, the more I love the guy. He deals straight up, lays his cards on the table, and gives you a look at life through the lens of reality.

So, if his prescription for economic health seems overly simplistic to you, I advise you to observe and take note of the people who end up on welfare. Everyone I've ever known in poverty has violated one or more of these simple principles. As my granddaughter so often tells me: "I'm just sayin'..."

To read Walter Williams' pithy essay in its entirety, go to
http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/politics/poverty/4223-How-Not-Poor.html

Give Us Back Our Summertime!

Ah, the dog days of summer. The sun is high in the sky, baking the parched grass. The beach is warm and inviting as the waves lap against the shore. The aroma of coconut oil wafts across the pool at Garfield Park, and for some reason I cannot fathom: KIDS ARE STANDING AT THE CURB WAITING FOR THE SCHOOL BUS!

Whatever happened to summer?

This ever-earlier encroachment of the start of school on summer vacation has irked me for years, and the situation is only getting worse. There are elementary schools around here that started on August 2nd. My neighbor began his "fall" semester at Southport High School on August 10th.

Again I ask: whatever happened to summer?

Educators tell us that we need a longer school year to pump our students' heads up with more knowledge so they can compete in an increasingly high-tech world. Okay, I get that. But if you are going to add days to the school year, why not add them in June, when it is cooler and less humid. Why screw up the month of August, the best part of summer?

I have heard educators say that adding days in June is not productive, since kids are looking forward to the end of the school year, and they begin to lose focus on their studies.

Well, duh! The reason kids begin to lose their focus in April is because they know they are getting out of school in May. If we move the school calendar back, then students can begin to lose their focus in May because they know that school will end in June. I see no real problem here.

When you live in a place like Indiana (as I have for my entire life) summertime is a precious and fleeting season. If you enjoy outdoor activities like swimming, boating and camping, there is a narrow window of opportunity to indulge in these pleasures.

May is totally unpredictable, and the water in our lakes is too cold to allow most us to swim. June is almost as bad, with lots of rainy days and cool nights. In addition, in June many of the state park reservoirs are flooded from the spring rains, which closes the beaches, and sometimes the marinas.

For summer junkies like me, that leaves July, August and maybe the first half of September. A mere two and half months to enjoy our summertime, and then we face another long dreary wait through fall, another brutal midwestern winter, and a soggy cold spring before we can play out in the water again.

Life is short. In my opinion, we all work too much and play too little. There are too few pleasures as it is, and for our schools to steal away the best part of summer just doesn't make sense to me. Summertime activities are wonderful ways for families to spend time together and make memories.

As I write this, on Wednesday August 11, it is 88 degrees at 9:00 in the morning. The high today is forecast at 96 degrees. Days like this are created for people to relax, work on a tan, and play in the water.

But today, the beach at Eagle Creek Park is closed. The pools in the Indianapolis city parks are closed. It's hitting 96 degrees in the middle of August, and there is nowhere nearby to go swimming BECAUSE THE LIFE GUARDS HAD TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

Conversely, you could go to a city pool in early June and shoot off a cannon without hitting anything but a pigeon, since no one in their right mind wants to go swimming when it is 75 degrees and raining. But that's when our pools are open, because we don't have enough sense to schedule summer vacations during the time that it is actually summer!

It is ridiculous to lose our summers like this. We are all cheated out of one of the best parts of the year because we can't get the schools to schedule summer vacations during the summertime. If you want to help change this situation, join the Save Indiana Summers campaign.

Look Out Grandma, Big Brother Has Got His Eye On You

"And though the past had it's share of injustice,
fine was the spirit in many a way,
but it's protectors and friends have been sleeping --
now it's a monster and will not obey."
-- from the song The Monster by Steppenwolf

Here is another example of what happens when we allow the federal government to "help" us, and it proves the old adage that "Whoever pays the piper calls the tune."

Senior citizens dining at the Ed Young Senior Citizens Center in Port Wentworth, Georgia have offered a prayer of thanks before their meals for as long as anyone can remember. Now these elderly Americans, members of the greatest generation who sacrificed so much of their young lives to fight for our freedoms, are being told they can no longer pray together before their meals.

Federal regulations have graciously allowed them a moment of silence for private prayer - at least for now.

An outift called Senior Citizens Inc. has been contracted by the city of Port Wentworth to provide meals at the Senior Citizens Center, at a cost of about $6 per meal. The seniors pay only 55 cents for the meal, and the federal government makes up the difference.

So now, prayers before the meals are an issue - a violation, in the all-seeing eyes of our Big Brother in Washington, of the separation of church and state.

The rationale is that since the federal government is paying for the meals, federal guidelines must be followed in all areas related to the meal service.

First the kids couldn't pray in school. Now senior citizens can't pray aloud over their government-subsidized meals.

I wonder -- if you are eating food at home that was purchased with food stamps, will the government someday decide that your private meal-time activities must conform to federal regulations? You may laugh, and say that is ridiculous. But how ridiculous is censoring the prayers of senior citizens?

When we keep giving more money (which means more power) to the federal government, and keep inviting the federal government to get ever more deeply involved in every facet of our daily lives, we encourage the government to dictate the conduct of everything we do.

Should we be surprised that the government now tells senior citizens they can't pray aloud before a meal? Isn't this just the kind of power that liberals love to lord over us, the unwashed masses?

The bigger our government grows, the more of this we can expect. It is an irrrefutable lesson of history that power corrupts. We have created a monster, and as it grows more powerful, it will only become more corrupt and arbitrary in it's use of power.

How far will they push us before we push back? Just another reason to "Remember in November." The coming 2010 election will decide if we can reverse this tyrannical tide of government control, or continue to march towards the "brave new world" of the nanny state.

Check out the full news report at http://www.wsbtv.com/news/23495797/detail.html

A Toddler Is Beaten Without Mercy

A young Indianapolis man was sentenced to 55 years in prison last week.

According to the report in the Indianapolis Star, Tayuan Chism was sentenced after pleading guilty to the murder of 15-month-old Lilliana Goodmann, the daughter of his girlfriend, Rachel Goodmann. In March of 2009, Tayuan spent over an hour beating the child with a belt because she "disrespected him" by not eating her food.

During the beating of 15-month-old Lilliana, her mother Rachel did nothing to interfere. Rachel has pled guilty to felony neglect, and will be sentenced on Feb. 26.

The newspaper's account of the incident states: "Her mother stood by, but two other people who were in another room eventually grabbed the girl and took her to a hospital. Lilliana, who had internal bleeding and a skull fracture, died two days later."

As incomprehensible as it sounds, the fact is that a little girl -- a toddler in diapers -- was beaten to death by one drug-crazed adult, while her mother, and two other adults, stood by and did nothing.

They were all in the apartment at the time of the murder. For over an hour, they listened to little Lilliana cry and scream as Tayuan raged against her with his belt.

They listened, for over an hour, to the "smack" of the belt as it landed across her back, her legs, her arms, her face.

Did little Lilliana try to run away? Was she knocked to the floor after the first couple of blows, laying there helplessly, crying in pain? Did she scream after every lash of the belt against her tender young skin? Did one of the blows to her skull eventually knock her out, thus sparing the adults in the apartment the unpleasant sound of her weeping?

Were the other adults in the apartment afraid of Tayuan? Were they afraid he might hit them with the belt if they dared to interfere with his beating of 15-month-old Lilliana? Even if they were such craven cowards that they would allow a toddler to be beaten in their presence, couldn't one of them have mustered up enough human decency to sneak off and call 911?

No other mention is made in the article about the other two adult witnesses, who stood by and did nothing, except that they finally took little Lilliana to the hospital after she was already beaten senseless. Was there no crime to charge these people with?

Four adults are responsible for the death of a defenseless toddler. Tayaun has received his sentence of 55 years. Rachel will be sentenced soon, and could receive up to 30 years.

There are two other adults who should be sentenced, for the rest of their lives, to sleepless nights of guilt and shame. They should hear the pitiful screams of little Lilliana in every nightmare they have. How can such heinous actions ever be atoned for? In my mind, allowing the brutal murder of a child is beyond the pale.

These people have only one hope for redemption. There is only one thing that can rescue them from the misery that they deserve. Only Jesus can turn their despicable lives around, and free them from the crushing weight of such unbearable guilt.

It is this same salvation that God offers to each one of us, to cleanse us from the countless sins we have all committed in the course of our lives.

"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)

President Lincoln Knew Who To Thank

These days, in post-Christian America, we suffer a chronic (and perhaps terminal) case of historical ignorance.

For example, many are unaware that our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November was established by Abraham Lincoln at the height of the civil war.

Lincoln's proclamation holds valuable lessons for us today. To gain some perspective on how far we have drifted from our foundations, try to imagine President Barack Obama speaking the following words in a televised presidential address in 2009.

Here is Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation:

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures--and proven by all history--that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations like individuals are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justify fear that the awful calamity of Civil War, which now desolates the land, may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins--to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace--too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our benevolent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

A. Lincoln

Thinking of Thanking Anyone?

My grandchildren enjoy watching videos of Jay-Jay the Jet Plane. If you don't have small children around the house, you may not be familiar with Jay-Jay, but trust me, he is really big with the pre-school crowd.

Recently, while I was watching a holiday-themed Jay-Jay video with little Miranda, I became troubled.

Jay-Jay and his friends were flying around (as they so often do) while discussing the meaning of Thanksgiving. Jay-Jay didn't understand the concept of being thankful, or even what to be thankful for. His little jet-friend Tracy set him straight, to some degree, by reminding him of the good things in his life and teaching him to appreciate his friends, his job, and the comforts of home at Tarreytown airport.

What bothers me is the fact that my grandhchildren are being taught a lesson that is only two-thirds complete. Watching Jay-Jay, they will learn to count their blessings, and they will learn to be thankful for them -- but aren't these two concepts rather aimless unless they learn WHO to be thankful TO?

That Jay-Jay Thanksgiving video represents what is wrong with us in America today. We have enough sense to realize that we are fortunate to live in such a prosperous, free and open society. We know that we should be thankful, but we have forgotten who to thank.

Sadly, Barack Obama was spot-on when he recently declared that America "is not a Christian nation." We have drifted a long way from our cultural roots. Back when I was young, and dinosaurs roamed the Great Plains, public acknowledgements of God were still common and non-controversial.

It has been a grim experience to witness, in my lifetime, the decline of America into an increasingly humanistic, secular and fractured society. We have allowed God-hating people to run rampant over our culture. We cannot pray in school. Nativity scenes are being banned all across the country. The Ten Commandments have been removed from public display in courthouses. Political correctness dictates that you say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." There is a movement to have the words "under God" stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Anything that hints of God is being eliminated from our public life.

Ironically, we are free today, as Americans, because our forefathers believed in God and acted upon that belief. It was a shared faith in God's authority and power that gave those early Americans the fortitude to persevere against all of the challenges they faced. Without God, this country would never have been born.

The people who founded this country shared a biblical worldview that molded the structure of our government and laws. It was a common acceptance of biblical principles that led them to establish a constitution that upheld the concepts of liberty and individual freedom. An individual had intrinsic worth, because he was created in the image of God.

That alone is reason for overwhelming thanks. But even more, God has blessed this country bountifully since it's founding. We have rejected the sin of slavery, emancipated women, liberated entire continents from tyranny, cured horrific diseases, and elevated the common man's standard of living to heights never dreamed of before in human history. We are blessed to live in a great country. God has been good to America.

Yet, in the face of such divine magnanimity, we have rejected our God.

Listen to the Thanksgiving shows on TV. Watch the parades. Unless you are watching Christian television, you will hear no mention of God. Thanksgiving Day has been reduced to a national pig-out, and the start of the Christmas shopping season.

As we become more secularized, and more forgetful of who has been buttering our bread, we teeter ever closer to that tipping point where God finally withdraws his protection, and allows judgement to proceed. I believe that the decline of America is already underway. We are growing weaker and poorer, both materially and spiritually, with each passing day. I shudder to think of the country that my grandchildren will inherit if we do not reverse our course.

We can learn from the Old Testament how the people of ancient Israel suffered terrible judgements as a result of their continued rejection of God's authority. A great nation was reduced to a wasteland, because the people forgot the God who sustained them.

At the height of Israel's glory, when King Solomon had just finished dedicating the temple in Jerusalem, God appeared to him and made a sobering declaration. It was a promise of blessing for obedience, and a promise of judgement for sin. Americans today would be wise to heed the words that God spoke to Solomon so long ago.

When Solomon had finished the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the LORD and in his own palace, the LORD appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

"As for you, if you walk before me as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to rule over Israel.'

"But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.' "
(2 Chronicles 7:11-22, NIV)

America needs to return to God. We need to discover anew just what Thanksgiving Day is really all about.