Securing a More Stable Future

Reactions to yesterday’s Supreme Court Decision run the gamut. I’ve seen celebration, surprise, relief, anger, fear, animosity, apathy, ignorant bliss, worry, and sorrow. I join the camp of those who disagree with the decision. I understand it is a serious matter, and yet I also am not provoked to anger or fear over the outcome. Neither reaction would change anything. It is almost like we think we are accomplishing our civic responsibility by sounding off on our social mediums such as Facebook or Twitter our particular view on the matter.

I must admit, I turned first to Facebook after hearing the news to see what was being said. But I realized, that it didn’t really matter what I or anyone else was saying, because most of us were not in places of influence to where it made any difference what we said.

It would seem that our perilous times would drive us into our history. We would begin to dig into our heritage and rediscover our civic responsibly to this Republic. I have always admired the Founding Fathers and enjoyed the colonial era of history, but I now have an even greater appreciation of their sacrifice and the people of this nation that lived in those formative years.

Regardless of your political persuasion, I think we can agree that we need men and women with the character and resolve of our founding generation. We all recognize the economic crisis. We all should know that what we have been doing isn’t working.

Some are focused on social security and Medicare needs. Others are concerned about job security. Others are concerned about their investments. Still others are worried about their health insurance premiums. Then you have the matters of liberty, the national debt, the failing businesses, the unsustainability of the government programs, or the state of education in this nation. No matter our particular concern, we all have to unite together, just as they did in the early days when the states had to put aside their fears and unite under one Constitution so that they could secure a more stable future.

They lived for us, and yet we live for ourselves. We don’t live to preserve their sacrifice, or to ensure the freedom of our future generations. Most of us are concerned first and foremost for ourselves and our own generation. We have to think beyond our own needs and the needs of our own generation. It may be necessary to give up temporary comforts, for the future security of a now fledgling nation. It may be necessary to provide for ourselves, regardless of the entitlements available to us, just so that the nation doesn’t incur more debt.

There is a poignant scene in The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith. Will’s character approaches a government agency service window with cash and coins in hand to pay back every cent that was given to him while he was in need. What if we thought like this? What if, we the people, took responsibility for our local and national debt?

We have to start thinking about the problems differently. The solutions are simple, but we get too impressed by the complexity of the problem to see them clearly. The same principles that create a happy healthy family, creates a happy health business, and a happy healthy school, and a happy healthy government. It’s all very simple. We have just lost our way so severely that we apply elaborate and expensive band aides to cover the symptoms without ever touching the root issue.

We also have the tendency to declare the whole nation a sinking ship, forgetting we are on board. We then look for ways to provide a life jacket for ourselves, having given up on the ship itself. Or we believe, for spiritual or financial reasons, we will be immune to the sinking of the ship so we figure we might as well sit back and let it sink, because it won’t ultimately affect us. 

Sadly, few see themselves as having any role to play that could make any difference. As long as we think like that, we won’t make a bit of difference. But we will be just as responsible as those who are sacrificing and working to right the ship.

The reality is that every American has a role to play. Not everyone will be in a prominent role directly affecting their city, state, or national officials, but a vital role just the same. It comes in the form of being educated and educating others about our foundational history. It comes from voting. It comes from getting or staying out of debt. It comes from loving our neighbor, our spouse, and our children. It comes from serving our city. It comes from not taking what we don’t need. It comes from giving more than we take. It comes from not wasting what we have. It comes from honest business practices, both as an employer and employee, as a consumer, and as a producer. It comes from keeping our word and honoring our elders.

We cannot take these things too seriously. This is what makes a nation great. Not doing these things is what fills our jails, bogs down our courts, and increases regulations. This is why the Founders lamented that children must receive a good moral education in order to secure this Republic. They, for the most part, did not mandate this by law, but they did promote it in their speeches and writings meticulously preserved for posterity.

America, it is time to wake up. It is time to preserve the sacrifice of our ancestors and secure the stability of our future generations. We can keep or lose this Republic. We will either be the source of the blame or the source of the victory. The choice is ours. I choose victory, for I will not give up on this great Republic. 

Final Authority and National Identity

In a court of law the legal counsel will present a case often based on precedent. This means that the attorney will consult prior cases where the same or similar facts of the case were dealt with and ruled upon. The attorney will present that prior ruling, or a collection of prior rulings, as a justification for the plea he is making before the court. Similarly the opposing counsel will seek to find prior rulings to support his position in the matter.

At the Supreme Court level this presentation of established precedent is also the common method used to win a case. However, something has changed in the worldview of this culture that does not presume the past ruling to be justification for a present matter. It simply does not matter to the Court if the Justices of old ruled a certain way and interpreted the Constitution a certain way. What matters is how they see the matter today and what they decide today is an appropriate ruling. The wealth of history is often sacrificed to modern ideology.

I began to consider this situation. On one hand the abandonment of the authority of history seems like a dangerous thing. It is like building a house on sand with no sturdy underpinnings leaving the power of the justices to be a matter of political position. However, on the other hand, if the past were blindly accepted as always accurate authority then errors of the past would continually be perpetuated to future generations with no hope of course correction.

Thus it would seem that precedent alone should not be sufficient justification for the Justices to decide a matter. Just the same, their own opinions are not satisfactory to making such important decisions that affect a nation.

How then should they rule? On what basis should their rulings be made? If historical precedent has no ultimate authority, then on what authority is their authority based upon? If none, why should their authority matter?

If there is no final authority, no place for the buck to stop, how can any court of justice actually do justice?

There was a day when it was commonly acknowledged that the final authority was God and that any justice we employ in this nation ought to be aligned with the Justice of heaven or else the ruling was not worth the paper it was written upon.

This is why this nation has a National Day of Prayer. It is a day of commemorating the subservient position of our nation to our God. Of course, this ought to be lived out all year through, but it is still good to have a day set aside where we remember our national identity in light of His Sovereign Identity.

It is precisely because of our subservience to God that we enjoy the freedom and equal value of life that we do in this nation. This is why this Day is so very important to America and why it ought not to be taken lightly. Nor should its purpose be overlooked in light of the current controversy. Moreover, let our observance of it not be undertaken in such a way that we trample on the freedom of others who do not wish to participate. Let us not get caught up in whose to blame for the current disregard for this holiday, but let us exercise our freedom to pray for our country to the only One who can restore our heritage and renew our nation.