Art of Conservatism—A word about the
flaws this country's founding
August 23, 2017 (the day after
the great hoax of the eclipse!)
I mentioned in another episode of Art
of Conservatism, that I attend two Christian churches, both liberal
in focus, but different in approach. The Episcopal Church, located
deep in the suburbs of Chicago, tends to stay out of political
discussion of any kind, period. There, it is easier to be a
Conservative, and I know who most of the Conservatives there. A few
are on the emailing list for Art of Conservatism.
Not so with the Presbyterian Church I
also attend, located deep in the heart of the Lake View neighborhood
of Chicago---read that, “Boys Town”. The depth of its political
activism approaches that of the Miriana Trench in the Pacific, and
that activism starts right at the top, with the pastor. This parish
is up to its neck in 'social justice' issues, sanctuary cities and
churches, and rights for gays, gay marriage, and other hot button
Leftist issues. And the parish doesn't shy away from actively trying
to shame those who are not of the same mind as they. I know. Some
there have tried with me--and failed.
As I said, the pastor of this parish has given
whole sermons about the evils of Donald Trump. You know the drill:
Hater, Nazi, etc. Recently, the Pastor did a real hum-dinger along
that line, as well as writing a similar front page piece in the
bulletin. Oh, yes, she got a piece of my mind during the Hospitality
Hour that followed---which she rejected. Surprise.
The assistant Pastor of the parish, a
much younger lady and a fairly recent Seminary graduate, is more a
Liberal and less of a hard lefty, and as such is much more
open-minded to arguments made by a Conservative. Surprise again!
After the sermon I just mentioned, she and I engaged in a somewhat
spirited debate, joined in progress by a fellow parishioner who told
us that he is of mixed race Black, with slave blood, and Native
American. The subject turned to America's Flaws from its founding, and it
was a teachable moment for both them, and me.
The subject of the Flaw of Slavery was
discussed there, as it has been previously on this blog. For those
who've missed, the Constitution dealt with this Flaw in two ways:
first, by imposing an arbitrary, mandatory deadline on the
importation of slaves from Africa (the year 1808); and second, with
the Provision within the Constitution which stipulated the counting
of each male slave as 3/5 of a person for purposes of the census.
While there are those who have blatantly lied about this provision by
calling it racism, this latter provision was insisted on by the
abolitionist North, and had the effect of reducing the population of
the South in comparison to that of the North, the goal of which was
to increase the relative clout of the North, thus to aid in the
process of dismantling slavery in the future. That almost worked, but
as we all know, it ultimately took the Presidential Emancipation
Proclamation to seal that deal. That knowledge put part of our
discussion to rest.
However, there is that other Little
Matter (there's that word again!) of the treatment of the
Native Americans at the hands of the white man, almost literally from
day one. This is a perfect case of me coming up with the clinching
argument long after our
little three-way discussion was over and we'd gone our separate ways.
My
response should have
been, and is now, the following: If we Conservatives are going to
believe that the founding of this country was aided by the Hand of
God, and that, as President Ronald Reagan so eloquently put it,
America is “the Shining Beacon on the Hill”, we are going to have
to compare the Founding against the settling of Palestine by the
Israelites those many thousands of years ago. What did the Israelites
have to do in order to make for themselves a nation? The answer is
simply, “take over a land already occupied by others”. God
promised to Abraham, nee Abram, to make of him, Abraham, a great
nation, for the Glory of God Himself. No nation can be considered a
nation without a share of real estate. But to do it, the tribes of
Israel had to clear out that real estate of everyone else: The
Hittites, Elamites, Midianites, and the Phillistines. The Israelites
couldn't do that without God's help. And of course, God helped, for
as long as the Israelites chose to worship, serve, and glorify Him.
That's the key, of ultimate importance. As long as the Israelites
chose to stay close with God, they kept that land that they had taken
from the other peoples of the Middle East, and prospered on it. When
they didn't...... well, you know the rest..... or should. Remember
Babylon?
Fast
forward to the North American continent, at the time of its first
settling by the Europeans. The parallels are clear. The Renaissance
was a zenith of the Worship of God. The Reformation, born of the
Renaissance, had helped God to better reach the average man, and many
of those average men responded. Those who were the thinkers and
pray-ers and doers of the Reformation came into conflict with the
established churches
of Europe of the time (see a parallel with today's political
upheavals here?) and that's when God, in my opinion, stepped in. Out
“there” (North America) was a possibility of building a great
nation, one which would adhere to the Commandments and the Worship of
God. It just needed to be settled. And it was.
The
major thrust of those who settled this land and made this great
nation was both the need to worship God in what was considered to be
the most personal way, and virtue.
This virtue, wide-ranging, extended even to one aspect of the sin of
slavery: Black slaves, back in Africa, came from a wide variety of
religious backgrounds, but in the New World, their masters made
Christianity the defacto religion for everyone, just as was the case
in the rest of the country, and in the slaves God found some of his
greatest adherents to the teachings of Jesus. I would suggest that
God's will was done here.
All
this begs the question of, “How does the White Man's treatment of
Native Americans relate to the experience of the Israelites?” That
must be answered with its own question: “How much did God care
about the peoples that the Israelites conquered?” We don't hear
much about how the Hittites, Midionites, et al, fared after they were
conquered, do we? They may have done well, relocated to other areas
to regroup, but in the main, we don't know. They may have disappeared
altogether. While many of the things which were done to Native
Americans by the Europeans across the centuries are now considered to
be deplorable, and even despicable, some
of those who are left have become involved in the American dream.
And
again, who is to say that, like the situation with the Israelites and
their adversaries, the founding and settling of the North American
continent wasn't God's will? And, following the same parallel as was
the history of the Jews, aren't we in danger of losing all that we
have gained because, in great measure in this country, we as a people
have turned away from God, we've lost much of our virtue, and with
those losses, we've lost something more important----trust, including
in God. And, as I've said before, the operational definition of hell
is when no one can trust anything.
Without our dependence on God, and without virtue, and with the loss
of trust, we as a nation are headed there; indeed, we are at the
precipice, just as the Jews of the era of Jeremiah were.
Benjaman
Franklin was asked by a citizen, right after the Constitutional
Convention, what form of government had been created for the new
nation. To which Franklin replied, “A Republic, if we
choose to keep it. (Emphasis
mine.) It's true, but by the same token, it is just as true that we
also have a sovereign nation under God, if
we choose to keep it.
Do we
choose to keep it? Then, I would strongly suggest that we get over
most of our guilt trip as to how this nation came to be and get back
to thanking God for the fact that this nation exists. I truly believe
that the founding of this nation was of the will of God, period. To
suggest otherwise is to push this nation over the precipice.
For
more on this, read Michael Medved's book, “The American Miracle”.
For
Art of Conservatism, I'm Art Reis
