At first glance it may not seem appropriate to offer this
subject under a banner that claims Heaven always matters most. However, if you
will stick with me, I think I can show how this issue is very important to
those who hold Heaven in high regard. Secondly, I will admit that my answer to
the title question relies on traditional meaning rather than proposing what it
might mean to be American by some novel, progressive definition. Finally, it is
the outlandish protest of the far-left fringe against the Donald Trump
presidency that motivates me to write. It seems to me that to claim a duly
elected President is “Not My President” is to declaim being an American.
Governed by laws
To be an American means to swear allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States, as evidenced by the oath taken by those
applying for citizenship, those in military service, and all elected federal
officials. Those of us born here may never have to take the oath literally, but
it is an assumption of citizenship that one agrees with the law of the land. To
be governed by law means that there is no higher standard of civic behavior
than the Constitution. To refuse the rule of law places one in jeopardy of
losing the freedoms granted by the law.
Admittedly, there are at least two opposing views of
Constitutional interpretation. The traditionalist view, to which I hold,
demands that the founding documents of our nation must be read considering what
they meant to the original writers. I believe we must ascertain the intentions
of those who initiated this experiment in government by law if we wish to
maintain their concept of it. The progressive view of Constitutional
interpretation, on the contrary, says that each generation must adapt the words
of the founders to whatever circumstances are presently at hand. This fluid
view eschews the idea of original intent in favor of dynamic reinterpretation.
By this means we have invented rights and protections that would have been not
only foreign to the founders, but surely abhorrent to them.
By applying the principle of dynamic interpretation, we
often arrive at a curious predicament. The “right” of a woman to murder her
unborn child ignores the rights of the child. The “right” of a transgendered
person to choose which bathroom he/she prefers ignores the right of a woman to
privacy in rest room facilities. The “right” to health insurance which included
the forced purchase by all citizens tramples the right to hold property secure
from government confiscation. Similar conflicts arise with the “rights” to
minimum wage, affordable housing, protection from offending speech and many
more.
America is a Republic, not democracy
It was part of the genius of the founders of America to
institute republican government rather than a true democracy, although many people
today mistakenly call our government a democracy. In a democracy, each citizen
votes directly for the rules and regulations that govern society. In our form
of government, citizens elect representatives who make law on behalf of those
who elected them. While citizens are free to elect whomever they choose, those
elected must swear to uphold the Constitution, thus avoiding lawlessness at
least in principle. However, as I previously mentioned, this process has
brought into question whether the Constitution is in fact being upheld or disregarded.
Another ingenious aspect of our republic is that it limits
the ability of a majority to trample the rights of a minority. Without going
into great detail, let it simply be said that properly addressed, laws written
regarding issues that hold majority support will also protect minorities. This
is particularly true of religious minorities which I will address below, but it
holds true for other minorities as well. A curious turn of events has taken
place with the move to abandon the original intent of the framers of the
Constitution: some minorities are now exercising a form of tyranny over the
majority. (More on this in
Stormy
Weather.)
Property rights
One of the principal reasons our forefathers broke from
British rule was the practice of taxation without representation. The colonists
believed they had the right to determine whether they should be taxed for
certain commodities and activities. The British king held that he had the right
to impose taxes at will. The inalienable rights to life, liberty and
property (as
John Locke originally
wrote) were central to the colonists’ Declaration of Independence. While it is
true that the Constitution does give the federal government the right to tax
citizens, the expansion of government beyond its original limited form has
brought about new “rights” and the need for additional taxes to provide them.
In theory, the American system of government gives citizens the means to
restrict the reach of government into their pocketbooks.
Education for all
Another feature of a representative government is the
absolute necessity of an educated citizenry. To make intelligent choices
regarding representation, the voting population must understand the issues they
face. The type of education that makes this understanding possible was
traditionally called a liberal education, liberal meaning expansive. By this it
was intended that students would be educated in a wide range of subjects and
viewpoints. Although education was of paramount importance to the founders, it wasn’t
until several generations after the founding of America that the institution of
government funded “free” public education became the norm.
It is interesting to note that most of the early supporters
of free public education were the ancestors of today’s progressives. And today,
the teacher’s unions, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, agitate
for a continuation of their monopolistic enterprise which is failing miserably
in its primary task. Not only do American students test embarrassingly low on
basic skills, they are also leaving school bereft of any sense of moral values
or civic responsibility. One does not have to be religious to understand that
absent a moral foundation, a nation of laws will descend into anarchy. Values
clarification and indiscriminate tolerance for all opinions as taught in
today’s schools will eventually lead to the deconstruction of everything
America once stood for. This is not progress; it is regression. If this
situation is allowed to continue, life will become, as noted by philosopher
Thomas Hobbes,
nasty, brutish and short.
Religious freedom for all
Finally, it is ironic to note that the religious freedom
guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution is being undermined by
the pull of progressive thinking. A lie often told by the progressive left is
that the founders of America were not Christian in any real sense. This cannot
be maintained if one reads the founding documents they created, the
FederalistPapers in which they explained their motives, and the letters of the men
themselves. If, as the left claims, some of them were Deists, this still makes
them theists, not atheists or anti-theists as many progressives assert. The
Founders wanted to protect freedom
of
religion, not freedom
from religion.
(For more on this thought, read
What
Price Freedom.) Many of the early American settlers came explicitly because
of government restrictions of their religious views.
To be an American does not mean to be a Christian, but it
certainly means citizens have the right to free exercise of their Christianity
under the First Amendment. So do Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and any other
religious faction that does not prohibit others from exercising their rights.
The progressive left, which for all practical purposes is atheistic, is
attempting to de-establish Christianity from the public square. Nothing could
be more unconstitutional. In a free republic, all citizens have the right to
express their views in the public dialogue and the voting booth. A majority of
Christians cannot by voting stamp out all other religious practice, but neither
can the atheists stamp out all religion.
This is where Heaven begins to matter to this definition of
what it means to be American. If Christians want to maintain some semblance of
the rule of Heaven on Earth, we must maintain what I have defined as the
traditional American condition. For the time being, Christians represent a
majority belief in this country. We have a Constitutional right to express that
belief. (For a discussion of how this might work, see
A
Timely New Book.) If progressives are allowed to redefine what it means to
be an American, Christians will lose the right to free expression. While I
believe the Bible does describe a time at the end of human history when such a
state exists, I do not wish to speed its coming. Although the Holy Spirit is
the ultimate force restraining evil in the world, the American system of
government as originally conceived has been a tool to the same end. I pray we
do not allow the enemy to redefine America so that it no longer cooperates in
that work.
