Why Religion is Important to our Nation

Sunday’s gospel recounts the presentation of Our Lord in the Temple where Simeon and Anna recognize the infant Jesus as the Messiah, saying that He was the savior who was to be “a light for revelation to the gentiles… destined for the rise and downfall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” (Luke 2: 32, 34)  Although the Temple was considered to be the dwelling place of God, it was Jesus who was the very Presence of God.   The temple itself would be destroyed within 70 years of Jesus’ birth, but God’s Presence would remain in the world, through the salvation wrought for us by Jesus.  Despite our sinfulness, Jesus redeemed (re-deemed) us as the children of God.  Because of His saving act, we too can become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God.

As children of God, we too face the prospect of being contradicted by the forces of evil and those who would deny the truth of God’s revelation.  In taking the name of “Christian” we assume the responsibility to speak the Truth as revealed by God in scripture, in the life of Jesus and in Natural Law.  If you think about it, there can never be justice unless truth is revealed.  The purpose of going to court in our free country is to discover the truth, so that justice can be administered.  Without Truth, there can be no Justice, and yet many in our country deny the truths of Natural Law that humanity has widely recognized for 2 millennia.  This is why it is so important for Christians to discover and reveal Truth, even it means bringing about “the rise and downfall of many,” or if it contradicts conventional beliefs.  

Religion is vital to revealing and teaching these truths, as our founding fathers well-understood.  The very first sentence the Declaration of Independence proclaims that they were assuming “the powers of the earth… which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle(d) them.”  The second sentence says, “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.”   The Declaration of Independence is a Spiritual document!  It goes on to point out the many ways in which England violated the personal property rights and freedom of Americans, and ends with this sentence: “And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

In his farewell address, after refusing to serve a third term as president, Washington warned, “Of all the dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports.”  And, “… reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”  In his Thanksgiving Proclamation, establishing our perennial holiday, Washington wrote, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor.”  Clearly, we started out as a pious, God-fearing nation.  This is a far cry from the intentions of those who have twisted the First Amendment’s meaning to infer that separation of church and state means abolishing religion from the public discourse.   In recent years our country has repeatedly violated the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” not only abandoning but attempting to discredit and demean the importance of morality and the practice of religion.  One of the most egregious attacks on religious belief was NY governor Cuomo’s recent rant saying that pro-life Christians and those who object to gay marriage are not welcome in his state.  He and many others seem to have forgotten that it was religious conviction, publically proclaimed, that led to the end of slavery as well as the more recent civil rights movement 100 years later.

Not only has our president embraced Planned Parenthood (literally, hugging their CEO), and promoted their agenda with political and financial support, his administration repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, two flagrant examples of ignoring “the Law of Nature and Nature’s God.”  He has repeatedly and narrowly defined the practice of religion as limited to private discussion within church walls.  In his State of the Union address last week, he made several other assertions, misstating the truth of matters.   He said, “the debate on climate change is over,” dismissing scientific findings to the contrary, not to mention an historically cold winter, then went on to announce his intention to impose carbon taxes on businesses, as well as tax increases on oil and gas producers.   The truth is that American’s carbon emissions have declined more than 25% in recent years, not because of government regulations or taxes, but because the free market economy has been turning from coal and oil to gas.  All his proposal will do is increase energy prices which are conveniently left out of the CPI calculations produced by the government, hurting primarily the poor and middle class whom he alleges to be so concerned about.

Perhaps his most bold misrepresentation was that he has “cut the deficit in half.”  The truth is that the deficit continues to grow, although a bit slower.  Our national debt has nearly doubled during his presidency, now reaching $17.35 Trillion.  That’s more than $150,500 per taxpayer.  This does not include the $7.3 Trillion of debt owed by the States (mostly blue states, I might add).  As staggering as that is, the unfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare is at least $127 Trillion or $1.1 million per taxpayer.  But it’s even worse than that because 10,000 people retire every day, increasing this unfunded liability by $8 Trillion EVERY YEAR!  Where in the world will our country ever get the money to pay for all this?  Certainly not from taxes alone.  Even if the government took 100% of all the income from every corporation, they’d reap only $1.6 Trillion a year.  And if they took 100% of the adjusted gross income of everyone earning more than $66,000 a year, they’d get only another $6.7 Trillion.   Together, that’s barely enough to offset the growth in this massive liability without touching the principle.  The answer to this horrendous problem must include reform of these and other entitlement programs, but the president completely ignored his own bipartisan panel’s modest recommendations, even as he blithely infers that the debt is no big deal.

The Truth about our national debt and our profligate spending is that we are heading down the path toward a massive financial crisis.   Few Americans understand the extent of this problem and the threat it poses to our nation.   We have a moral obligation to our children and grandchildren to face up to this problem and finally do something about it.  Taxing carbon, oil/gas production, and the wealthy, has little to do with the solution.  This is as much a moral dilemma as it is economic, because we are in effect, stealing from our progeny.  Facing this Truth is an important first step toward addressing the problem.  It is our job to be “a light for revelation” even though it may lead to “the rise and downfall of many,” and it contradicts what passes for conventional wisdom (conventional ignorance?).  Let’s start there and pray for a new breed of leaders who will restore our sense of National piety, and return us to, “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, (and) mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”