“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” —George Santayana, 1905 (The Life of Reason) 

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an educated man. I’ve been self-taught most of my life, and at nearly 79, I find myself still learning.

Yet it continues to amaze me how ignorant most of us are of our Founding Fathers. We are especially uninformed about what our nation’s Constitution says.

For decades we’ve been told that the Constitution says there must be a clear separation of church and state. A simple reading of what the Bill of Rights actually says shows no such separation at all. It merely stipulates that government cannot establish a state religion; citizens are allowed to worship as they please: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (First Amendment).

This concept of “separation of church and state” was taken from an obscure letter President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury (Connecticut) Baptist Association in 1805 assuring them that the government would not interfere with their freedom to worship as they pleased.

The loss of our religious freedoms have accelerated over the past 50 years and left this nation not only spiritually adrift but also lacking the moral compass that once guided us.

I’ve shared in the past how the First Great Awakening prepared our nation for the struggle to throw off the tyranny of Great Britain and King George III. That Great Awakening, primarily led by evangelist George Whitefield, not only brought Americans together, but people from every denomination were drawn to Christ by Whitefield’s powerful yet simple message of salvation through Jesus.

It is believed that by the time of Whitefield’s death in 1770, 80% of Americans had heard at least one of his sermons. Christians of all walks of life found that they could come together under the banner of Christ. This brought the colonies together more than any other event.

Our Founding Fathers were deeply religious men. Revised history asserting anything else is blatantly false!

Let’s look at just one early leader who expressed his thoughts on religion.

Just before the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin, writing to friends in France, said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” Franklin believed that freedom requires virtue.

We live in a very free society today. Progressives believe that individuals should be free to do whatever seems right to them. We set our own standard of “right,” because nothing is taboo if it “feels good.”

This is not a new concept. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). The freedom to do as one pleases led to Israel’s captivity and enslavement to Babylon for 70 years.

Isaiah saw it in his day: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

I cringed recently when the governor of Massachusetts signed abortion legislation that allows the murder of preborn children up to birth. There was cheering and clapping in the entire room. Will America become like God’s chosen people? Both Israel (the 10 northern tribes) and Judah were led into captivity when they began sacrificing their children to Molech.

The slow march toward depravity may have begun over 100 years ago, but it has accelerated. We are now racing toward judgement, and our politicians and even religious leaders seem blind to what is happening.

Yet we are not without hope. America has been here before, just not as blatant.

Another Great Awakening is needed to save our country from national suicide. It can change the moral fabric of the nation because it changes men’s hearts.

Something to pray about!
Semper Fidelis