A Twisted Crown of Thorns ®

When America’s puritan fore fathers departed Europe on board the Mayflower in 1620 they were determined to set up this idyllic nation (America) that would be the land of the free with one nation under God. They then set up large institutions of education like Harvard and Yale and many others so that people would learn to read and write and study the word of God and live meaningfully to the glory of God.

Unfortunately America no longer espouses this so called “God” any more. The fickle leaven of prosperity has brought with it an unbelief in this God that borders rank paganism. Now a deem shadow of what the founding fathers ever envisioned, has this once great nation  began its systematic deliberate decline into the cesspit of self destruction?

This recent news story clipping  summarises the moral turmoil in America …

Signing the declaration of independence...

Atheist Michael Newdow has been pestering the courts to rule that the phrase “under God,” found in the Pledge of Allegiance, and “In God We Trust,” imprinted and stamped on our currency, are unconstitutional. In 2010, even the usually liberal San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Newdow’s legal challenges that the references to God are unconstitutional and infringe on his religious beliefs. On June 13, 2011, the Supreme Court refused to review Newdow’s challenge to the lower court’s ruling (also see here).

These court decisions don’t tell the whole story. There’s something sinister going on in our nation. Three times in one month in 2010, President Obama left out a very important qualification about the source of our rights when he cited a portion of the Declaration of Independence. He said that “each of us are [sic] endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The complete text of the Declaration includes the phrase “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” The use of “Creator” specifies to everyone everywhere that rights are not granted by the will of the majority or the legislative action of the government but are a gift – an endowment – from God.

On April 12, 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid omitted the words “under God” from the Pledge on the floor of the U.S. Senate after telling the audience present how he is “moved to hear the Pledge of Allegiance when it marks the beginning of a new legislative day in the United States Senate.”

The latest redaction to things religious took place at the U.S. Open golf championship over the weekend during a taped patriot segment that included school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, or at least some of it. It’s not that the children did not say “under God.” They did. Somebody at NBC edited out the phrase. Twice!

Is this really the “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” that Thomas Jefferson dreamed of in 1776 when he drafted the Declaration of Independence? Is this the freedom that the puritan forefathers imagined in the land of the free when they sailed for the land o’er yonder? Can America sink any lower after butchering God out of its future?

Today, in her ever elusive search for liberty and freedom, America needs what North Korea needs and that is the gospel. She needs the gospel  back in its church houses, on its streets and its market places. And only when God gives Americans the freedom and true peace (in Christ Jesus) that surpasses all understanding will they enjoy everlasting liberty in this life and in the life of the world  to come.

In the words of one great American, Patrick Henry: “It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace … Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”