“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is...executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”—Samuel Adams
Changing America
by David Barton
It was the plan and intent of our Founding Fathers for godly people, and thereby godly principles, to be intimately involved in the political, judicial and educational realms. The founders believed that only the godly would understand the unalienable freedoms provided by God and thus protect them in our government. They never intended for Christian principles to be divorced from public affairs.
Unfortunately over the years, Christians en masse have voluntarily removed themselves from the political, social and legal arenas. Whenever the godly depart from any arena, their godly values depart with them. A person in office always legislates according to his personal beliefs and convictions, and herein is the wisdom of Proverbs 29:2 made evident: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan” ("New King James Version").
Christians, through bad doctrine, political inactivity and apathy, handed over the reins of the nation to leaders who awarded lifelong appointments to justices eager to uproot Christian values that had been the heart of this nation for centuries. Quite frankly, the court’s religion-hostile decisions were merely an outgrowth of what the Christian community at large had permitted and encouraged in the decades preceding those rulings.
A biblical description of how this process worked is given by Jesus in Matthew 13:24-26. In that parable, good people had a good field growing good seed. However, an enemy came in and planted bad among the good, thus contaminating the entire field. What afforded the enemy such an opportunity? The stark answer is found in verse 25: “While [the good] men slept, [the] enemy came.”
Jesus never faulted the enemy for doing what he did, for it was his task and purpose to destroy. Jesus placed the fault on the good men who went to sleep, thus allowing the enemy the opportunity to contaminate the field. Very bluntly, what has occurred in America happened first because the Church went to sleep—and then because the enemy came in and caused the damage.
20 : BVOV
