Educating Ourselves About America's Foundations

I watched Glenn Beck’s 912 Project Update show the other night (5/1/09) and was inspired (although admittedly not reassured) and then read an article this morning on how the SF school district is shamelessly "celebrating" the homosexual lifestyle on their website and indoctrinating school-aged kids and KINDERGARTENERS with it, to which I wrote them the following:

"Hello,
I am looking for the webpage which celebrates the heterosexual lifestyle... I haven't been able to find it here. Can you please give me the link to that page, so I can share it with my 7 year old daughter along with this page? I am trying to make sure that she is able to learn about all of the diverse lifestyles that we embrace as Americans.
Thank you."

Of course, my aim was to shake them up a little - to perhaps get them to question their own integrity and hopefully realize that they are (at the very least) hypocrites - while also projecting a sense of genuine compassion for them and even for the unfortunate, misguided minorities that they are obviously biased towards and so blatantly promoting.

But, I am writing here now mainly because of what I believe has led us to this strange place and because of what one guy said at the end of Glenn’s show about how we need to educate ourselves etc.

I think that education is indeed the key to saving America, but the real question is: Educating ourselves about what exactly? You see, I also believe that too many of us seem to be tip-toeing around the "main thing".... i.e. God, and His ultimate importance to our liberty and prosperity, both individually and collectively.

Whether or not we see ourselves as religious individuals per se, I sincerely believe that America's ultimate downfall (heaven forbid) will be preceded by the ignorance or blindness of her citizenry to the fact that all of her Founders were either deeply religious Christians or were raised in an environment which certainly honored and even encouraged the Christian way of life. No matter how the history books of today might try to gloss over it or avoid the subject, true history clearly reveals how America (even long before the Founding) was primarily forged by Christians fleeing the religious oppression of Europe.

All of this is to say that nothing was more important for our Founders, in the formation of their world-views, and indeed nothing is more important for each of us than our moral foundations.

Even today, or perhaps especially today, we can see the importance of one's moral foundations everywhere we look... For example: In a general sense (relative to Baby-boomers and Generation-Xers etc.) today's Senior Citizens, though certainly not perfect, are largely and relatively more respectful, humble and just plain decent people. Note: this point can only be fully appreciated when viewed in general terms. That is, I am certainly not prejudiced against Baby-boomers or Gen-Xers - heck I'm a Baby-boomer myself.

I contend that this arguably significant generational difference exists primarily because the so-called "Greatest Generation" had typically been raised in a home and culture that honored godly values... considerably more so than the home and culture of their children and grandchildren... Especially since the 60's, American culture has moved away from God, and as a result, in general, Baby-boomers and Gen-Xers simply did not grow-up in an environment with anywhere near the same level of emphasis on God and/or Christianity as did their parents. To the contrary, they were and are very often exposed to or force-fed anti-religious and (particularly now) anti-Christian sentiments - indeed, those very foundations which our Founders relied upon above all else. And this environment - de-emphasizing God and religion (largely due to a misinterpretation of the Establishment Clause) - has unfortunately shaped or indeed misshaped all of us to some degree.

In other words, yes, we need to educate ourselves about the Constitution and what it really means etc., but additionally, and much more importantly, we need to understand those "foundational" godly principles which shaped the great minds of our Founders and which they would no doubt point to, above all else, as having inspired them to conceive of it.

This incredible challenge for each of us requires that, as we are educating ourselves, we cultivate or renew a genuine reverence for (at least equal to that of our Founders) God and/or the profound message of Jesus. For, just as many of our Founders knew and wrote about, it is not so much that we speak out about the economy or illegal aliens or any number of other, equally serious concerns, as much as it is that we understand how only through our own deep humility to God, and our commitment to doing His will, as individuals, will real strength and true wisdom live to protect and preserve Liberty.

Finally, as Lincoln said,

"We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth."

I believe this to be very very true; as without America, individuals will lose their ability to objectively and freely choose to learn about, to live for and to raise their kids to honor those same sacred foundations.