Happy Independence Day 2009
Posted: July 4, 2009 - 17:29 CT
For last year's Independence Day, I wrote about one of the liberal media's "Blame America First" articles. This particular article called upon us to offer a prayer for forgiveness of what he perceived to be our greatest sins, such as electing George W Bush as president, retaliating against those who murdered thousands of our citizens at the World Trade Center etc. This year, I'd like to feature an article which also calls for us to seek forgiveness of our sins, but for very different reasons. This excellent article, entitled The Nations 233rd Birthday - A Call for Repentance is written by Jane Chastain, a Southern California-based broadcaster, author and political commentator. She also includes a sample prayer which we encourage everyone to read along with her article.
Unlike the liberal's list of sins, Ms Chastain, a Christian, encourages us to repent of real sins which are in conflict with the will of the true God. Liberals however, tend to define sin as anything in disagreement with the god of political correctness, or a god who is an extension of their own views. In reply to a question of "What do you consider a sin?", then presidential candidate B Hussein Obama replied, "Anything that goes against my true nature". I sometimes wonder if Mr Obama prays to himself, asking himself to forgive himself for not being true to himself.
By contrast, Ms Chastain believes we need to repent, not because we have offended ourselves, but because we have offended the one true God.
In the last few decades, we have turned away from God, the way the Children of Israel turned their back on the great I AM. It is not surprising, that His hand of protection now has been lifted.
She then states, that with the majority of our nation claiming to be Christians, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
There is no excuse for what we have allowed to happen to this land. There is no such thing as a value-free law or a value-free piece of legislation. Therefore, if we aren’t electing lawmakers who are passing laws based on our values, somebody else is. The truth is that we, as Christians, have become too comfortable, too given to the pursuit of wealth, fame, entertainment and personal pleasures to spend our time watching what is happening in the halls of government. We don’t carefully examine the candidates before we vote. We don’t consider their stand, even on the moral issues. In short, we select our president and the rest of our representatives the same way a seven-year-old selects her Barbie doll. Once in office, we treat our elected representatives like kings and queens. We don’t hold them accountable for what they do. Most of us don’t even know how or where to begin.
Ms Chastain then goes on to list a few of the sins which she (and we) believe must be confessed.
We, as Christians, have ignored the Biblical prohibitions and warnings against borrowing and have allowed our country to become a debtor nation to communist China and other anti god nations.
We, as Christians, want the government to provide for our every need. We have elevated government to the place that God once occupied in our lives.
We, as Christians, have been afflicted with “terminal niceness.” We would rather wink and nod at immorality than confront it.
We, as Christians, pretend that we don’t know that an unborn child is a human being, created in God’s image, with certain inalienable rights.
We, as Christians, have allowed our tax dollars to pay for abortions and “safe sex” education that encourages our young people to experiment with fornication and homosexuality.
We, as Christians, have been silent and allowed good to be called evil and evil to be called good.
She then concludes that, It is, indeed, time to humbly fall on our knees, ask for forgiveness and be willing to turn from our wicked, slothful ways. When we do that we have the assurance that God will hear from heaven and heal our land.
The liberal writer did offer some words on which I think we can identify "We were so busy. Soccer practice at 6. A credit card balance to fret. The final vote on Idol... " Unlike the words of Ms Chastain, these words were written to blame patriots for not keeping the evil Bush in check, but they can also apply to those who are unaware or indifferent to the path that this current administration (BHO) is taking the country.
So, we see that Christians and non-believers both can agree on the need of praying for forgiveness on this holiday. The lingering questions are, "what do we consider as sin?" and "who will we be praying to?"