A word about the flaws this country's founding

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