Resisting American Renewal
A flurry of stories in the news this week highlight the worldview clash taking place in the United States.
President Trump’s Saturday tweets–that his team was wiretapped by the Obama Administration in the run-up to the November election–was the first jaw dropper. Then the new Wikileaks missive exposed more secrets of the CIA. Next, repeal and replace Obamacare ramped up.
Before that we witnessed women’s marches, the Democrats slow-walking appointments on Capitol Hill, and other intelligence turmoil and leaks while a new American Administration tried to get on its feet.
What’s going on in the world’s oldest democracy? It’s plain and simple.
A multi-front war has been launched to resist an American renewal.
The news cascaded this week on so many fronts that it’s almost impossible to detail. Besides, most of them were very confusing, filled with speculation, and laden with weeds.
It might be best to take us up to the 36,000 mile level and look down on what is happening in the 21st century’s lone superpower.
Here’s my view.
First of all, let’s remind ourselves that the USA is a divided nation. An Associated Press/NORC Center poll recently revealed that truth in living Technicolor. Here is their 2017 finding (written by Matt Sedensky).
“Add one more to the list of things dividing left and right in this country: We can’t even agree what it means to be an American. A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds Republicans are far more likely to cite a culture grounded in Christian beliefs and the traditions of early European immigrants as essential to U.S. identity.”
“Democrats are more apt to point to the country’s history of mixing of people from around the globe and a tradition of offering refuge to the persecuted. While there’s disagreement on what makes up the American identity, 7 in 10 people – regardless of party – say the country is losing that identity.”
So America has an identity problem. Yes, we know that.
The article continues:
“‘It’s such stark divisions,’ said Lynele Jones, a 65-year-old accountant in Boulder, Colorado. Like many Democrats, Jones pointed to diversity and openness to refugees and other immigrants as central components of being American. ‘There’s so much turmoil in the American political situation right now. People’s ideas of what is America’s place in the world are so different from one end of the spectrum to the other,’ Jones said. “
“There are some points of resounding agreement among Democrats, Republicans and independents about what makes up the country’s identity. Among them: a fair judicial system and rule of law, the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, and the ability to get good jobs and achieve the American dream.”
That’s encouraging, but:
“Reggie Lawrence, a 44-year-old Republican in Midland, Texas, who runs a business servicing oil fields, said the country and the Constitution were shaped by Christian values. As those slip away, he said, so does the structure of families and, ultimately, the country’s identity. ‘If you lose your identity,’ Lawrence said, ‘What are we? We’re not a country anymore.'”
Fair point. Finally,
“The poll found Democrats were nearly three times as likely as Republicans to say that the U.S. should be a country made up of many cultures and values that change as new people arrive, with far more Republicans saying there should be an essential American culture that immigrants adopt.”
“Two questions, also posed during the presidential campaign, offered insight into how Trump’s election may have changed partisans’ views. The poll found about 52 percent of Republicans now regard the U.S. as the single greatest country in the world, up significantly from 35 percent when the question was asked last June.” (The AP-NORC poll of 1,004 adults was conducted Feb. 16-20, 2017).
Let me explain this poll in an historical sense and then define the current attempt to resist any form of American renewal.
American was uniquely founded in the 17th-18th centuries as a Christian based republic–the first country in history to be so birthed. Our charter, the Declaration of Independence, clearly reflected the centrality of God and biblical principles (“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”). Our Constitution–still the world’s oldest–put those ideas into the construct of law.
- Faith in God – our national motto, inscribed on our coins is “In God We Trust.”
- Family-based morality – strong and moral families led by godly wives and mothers (conclusion of Alexis de Toqueville in his seminal work Democracy in America).
- Freedom in business enterprise and from government tyranny.
Here is the American cultural equation for success: Faith, family, freedom.
When millions of immigrants streamed to our shores for hundreds of years they generally adopted those maxims. They became Americans. God providentially blessed that commitment and catapulted the United States into global leadership and influence.
We call this American exceptionalism. It’s exceptional because it never happened before.
Never.
For those first two hundred years, both political parties shared a common belief in what made America great. Then beginning in the 1960s, many forces began separating the U. S. from its belief in God (Bible and prayer removed from the schools), family life deteriorated (even re-defining marriage), and a growing government bureaucracy encroached on many American freedoms (EPA regulations, Obamacare etc.)
The Democratic Party generally encouraged this move away from biblical foundations to secular ideas. The mainstream liberal media joined the chorus. The election of Barack Obama and his eight years in office allowed secular constructs to reach a zenith–discouraging belief in God, creating alternative families, and taking away economic liberties. President Obama said he wanted to “transform” America.
He did.
- From faith in God to many gods and a powerful Government.
- From strong families to special interest victim groups.
- From freedom to the soft tyranny of the bureaucratic state.
Then along came Donald Trump–a most unlikely champion of original American values. He shared or spoke about many of them. He promised their restoration. He brought many godly men and women around him and promised a true America renewal (Make America Great Again).
Exhibit A: There are more people of faith (evangelicals) in the Trump Cabinet than any other in history. Donald Trump was elected to begin (at least on a governmental level), an American renewal.
So what is happening in the United States right now? As President Trump and his Administration move quickly to re-boot “America,” a vast secular resistance screams and thrashes to stop the U-turn. Many fronts are united in that cause:
1. The Republican Party establishment remains solidly entrenched in the DC bubble and are NOT committed to renewing America’s traditional values and culture.
2. The Democratic Party paralyzes Congress, slow-walks all of Trump’s nominees, and cries “Fire!”about Russian connections and wire-tapping when they are the ones who have strengthened the hands of our adversaries in past years.
3. The former Obama Administration, still embedded as political appointees in the bureaucracy, are leaking documents and creating havoc–like governmental IEDs planted in various agencies. Barack Obama personally stays in the capital city to launch a national community organizing group to preserve his legacy. He is the first former president to actively speak and work against his successor.
4. Mainstream liberal media (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post etc.) report 85% negative articles on the Trump presidency in his first 30 days to try and bring him down. Fake news is now the new norm.
5. Democratic billionaires such as George Soros continue to push the open borders agenda and hire naive know-nothings to march and riot in the streets and shout down Republican town halls.
6. Secular university profs and students pummel free speech by protesting and assaulting conservative speakers (Charles Murray in Vermont) and burning buildings (Cal-Berkeley).
7. Witches and Wiccans worldwide pronounce curses on Donald Trump and his people.
8. The real power broker group–the invisible demonic world–laughs and ghoulishly orchestrates the dividing and destroying of America. They know that if America fails, then their casualities will grow.
That’s the Big Picture as I see it.
If you’re a person who loves God, believes in family, and cherishes freedom, you are desperately needed to enlist in this culture war and fight to win.
Cry out in prayer. Grow in knowledge and character. Muster your talents. Do what God shows you to do.
We must righteously defeat the resistance against an American Renewal.
A Common Sense Proposal on Immigration
There are many big issues in our world today, but none cause more protest, unease, and even sway the elections of nations than the issue of immigration (think Trump in the US, Le Pen in France, and Angela Merkel in trouble in Germany).
In the United States, the battle lines on this issue seem set in concrete and have spilled over into chaos at numerous Congressional town hall meetings.
I believe it’s crucial we solve the immigration mess with both compassion and justice.
Here is my common sense proposal.
Before I share the ideas, let’s retrace how the immigration debate has changed in the past few years. To use a football analogy, the goal posts have been moved.
If we go back just one generation, let alone hundreds of years, it’s safe to say that the “goal posts” (fixed principles) on who got into this country were based on two common sense commitments:
1. Compassion for People – as evidenced in the words of the Statue of Liberty and seen in one amazing statistic: that the United States receives more immigrants to its shores than any other nation on earth (a million a year). Americans are a welcoming people. Caring for people is goal post number one.
2. Respect for the Rule of Law – for hundreds of years we welcomed those millions through an orderly system of receiving refugees, granting visitor visas, allowing people to get green cards, and applying for citizenship. We understood that nations have borders, the rule of law must be obeyed, and that justice is a pillar of any free society. Respecting borders and the rule of law is goal post number two.
In the last decade or so, radicals began moving both goal posts. Today, the compassion goal post doesn’t take into account that we are fighting a global war on terror and that some people who want to come to America have no no intention to assimilate, but want to kill Americans. This myopia produces blinded compassion by those opposed to extreme vetting.
More radically, the rule of law goal post has almost been taken off the horizon. There is a substantial movement in America toward open borders–anybody can come into the US if they want to without penalty. This insane policy comes in the form of a clever word change: illegal aliens to undocumented workers.
It’s a slick trick. Now we are fighting over whether criminal illegal aliens should be deported and if immigrants from terrorism-friendly failed states should be strongly vetted–while millions who crossed the border illegally get a pass. Trespassing a border is no longer a crime to the open borders folks.
Yet, simple common sense says that’s a lie.
I don’t know one open border, bleeding liberal, Hollywood celebrity who practices open borders with their own home. If they really believe that people have the right to live where they want, cross any boundary etc., then they should immediately remove all locks from their doors, security systems from their yards, and walls around their properties. We should demand they put a sign in their yard that says “All undocumented workers can use my house!”
Otherwise, they’re hypocrites.
That’s the insanity of the position. No one in their right mind would treat their family that way no matter how compassionate they are. Resources are limited in our homes and some people are dangerous. Why should we then allow the “American family” (nation) to be treated similarly?
Both nations and families need privacy and security.
The common sense goal posts of compassion and rule of law have been moved out of sight. On this vast field, with no sense of order, a potential civil war lies in front of us that could tear apart the American fabric unless we return to wise compassion and necessary rule of law.
Here’s my proposal, beginning with six governmental actions. Governments are ordained by God to execute justice and protect their people. Then there are four individual or private group applications. It’s in the individual domain that we are primarily called to show mercy to our fellow humans.
Both justice and mercy must be a part of our immigration solution because they are attributes of God.
JUSTICE – which applies primarily to the government.
1. Secure the border just as we lock our homes.
Praise God that President Trump, of all the presidents of the past thirty years, understands that you can’t have a nation without borders. Borders are a preserver of order, values, security and the uniqueness of societies. In fact, the Bible indicates that God Himself is involved providentially with the borders that make up nations (Acts 17:26).
Open borders is a satanic idea meant only to garner votes and create conflict in sovereign nation-states. They don’t work in a fallen world. We should move full speed ahead with building the wall and incorporating technology that will keep us safe. Nations should “protect their house” and their laws be respected. The sieve must be stopped.
2. Deport all criminal illegal aliens.
There should be no argument here. Those who commit crimes in this nation must be sent back to their country of origin. When you don’t obey the rules of the “home,” you get kicked out–with the exception of the crime of crossing the border (which I will mention later).
3. Extremely vet for extreme times.
It’s totally appropriate to call a “time-out” to figure out the best way to vet people from chaotic states. Terrorists want to come here and carry out jihad. We can’t stop them all–but many. This is not a Muslim ban, it’s just being smarter with cultures who believe killing others in the name of their god is okay.
4. Nationally implement E-Verify to stop business and individual cheating.
Make sure all workers in the US have permission to be here by expanding and nationalizing the E-Verify system. This will stop businesses from wrongly hiring illegals for cheap labor and illegals from breaking the rules with impunity.
5. Punish visa abusers with a ten-year ban from the United States.
Visa overstays contribute to a large portion of the illegal population. The penalty should be strong and swift. You take advantage of the privilege of coming here, then you lose that privilege for the next decade. That would put the fear of God into many a complacent student or visitor.
6. Change/clarify the foreign-baby law.
We need to stop the flood of Chinese tourists who have babies in San Francisco while on vacation and then claim citizenship for their child based on a loophole. Congress needs to clarify the law that “visitor babies” are no more American than calves born in a garage are cars.
COMPASSION – which emanate primarily from the attitudes of the people.
7. Re-commit to being the world’s leading champion of immigrants and refugees.
Let’s continue to lead the world in loving and caring for people. It just needs to be done legally and in an orderly fashion in our neighborhoods and states. That’s God’s heart and way.
8. Whole-heartedly accept Dreamers as US citizens (DACA).
Both presidents Obama and Trump are right that the children of illegal aliens should not be sent back to the country of their parents. Children are not responsible for the sins of mom and dad–clearly a biblical and common sense idea (Ezekiel 18:20 and Deuteronomy 24:16). It wasn’t their fault that they were brought here.
9. Give long-term illegal aliens permanent residence but no voting rights.
This is the fairest way to solve the dilemma of eleven million or more illegals aliens now currently in the United States. Amnesty spanks of injustice and deporting them remains unmerciful and disruptive. Let them pay a fine based on their years of illegality and take away the right to vote for twenty years.
This is neither amnesty nor cruelty. It is common sense mercy. The penalty for entering the country illegally should be forfeiture of voting rights for some time. Then they can apply for citizenship.
10. Declare a Day of Reconciliation & Renewal (R&R)
When the other major actions have been completed, the president should declare a national day of R&R–of Reconciliation and Renewal. On that day, all Americans should be encouraged to gather in their churches, city halls, businesses and homes to ask God’s forgiveness for the immigration nightmare we created, forgive and and seek reconciliation with one another, and proclaim the rebirth of freedom in the United States as a sovereign, just, and merciful nation.
This could be America’s Day of Jubilee (maybe a new national holiday).
Hallelujah.
Unconventional Messengers of Grace and Truth
I voted for Donald Trump. But I was not a big fan when he first ran for president. I didn’t like the loose tongue, three marriages and playboy past. I also had negative impressions of his wife Melania due to her many seductive photos on the Internet and super model past.
Both of my attitudes have changed–over time and after last weekend.
On Saturday, February 18, I tearfully watched Melania Trump do something that Franklin Graham says has never been done before by any First Lady in US history. Then I listened to Donald Trump’s speech in Melbourne, Florida from beginning to end.
Both of them might be unconventional messengers of grace and truth.
First, let’s put in context “grace and truth.” John 1:17 states: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Both of these attributes are foundations of biblical faith. Grace points to God’s willingness to transform repentant people; Truth refers to reality–what works in real life.
As Melania Trump introduced her husband Saturday evening, I was skeptical. Beautiful woman. Trophy wife. Super model. Heavy accent (though she speaks five languages of which English is the fifth).
Then I nearly fell out of my chair when she invited the 9000 people in the airport hangar (and thousands more outside) to join her praying the Lord’s Prayer.
You can watch the prayer here.
I can’t recall a president or first lady leading a public prayer since Franklin Roosevelt led the nation on the radio on June 6, 1944 on the eve of the D-Day invasion.
My impression of Melania Trump has changed. Though the prayer may have inserted by a speech writer, she didn’t have to do it. But she did. Says something about her (draw your own conclusion). Mine is, that at the least, she is open to spiritual matters. Maybe she is growing in her faith–and God used that to point millions of people heavenward.
Powerful. Uplifting.
At least on that occasion, Melania Trump was a messenger from God.
Then President Trump took the stage. The Melbourne rally was designed to re-create the campaign rally atmosphere which followed him throughout 2016. I haven’t heard the POTUS speak in person. I’ve never listened to any of his speeches from beginning to end. Only sound-bites.
This one I listened to completely. If you have 48 minutes to kill, you can watch it here.
Ater listening to every word, I can honestly say I agree with virutally all of Donald Trump’s positions. He spoke truth about the God-created domain of government from beginning to end.
I want you to judge for yourself.
I took the time to download the transcript of his 5200 word speech. Then I edited out the verbiage to the 33 main points. Lay your biases aside and see if you agree with the ideas that Donald Trump expounded. You might want to even put a check mark on a piece of paper–then add them up:
1. “When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it.”
2. “I know that you want safe neighborhoods where the streets belong to families and communities, not gang members and drug dealers who are right now being thrown out of the country and they will not be let back in.”
3. “We will have strong borders again. Gang leaders will be put in prison or sent home.”
4. You want great schools for your children.”
5. “You want good high paying jobs for yourselves and for your loved ones and for the future of your families.”
6. “Obamacare will be repealed and replaced. Our plan will be much better health care at a much lower cost.”
7. “You want low cost American energy also, which means lifting the restrictions on oil, on shell, on natural gas and on clean coal. We’re going to put the miners back to work.”
8. “You want us to enforce immigration laws and defend our borders.”
9. “You want fair trade deals and a level playing field.”
10. “You want lower taxes. Less regulation. You want to make it easy for companies to do business in America. And harder for companies to leave.”
11. “When corporations want to sell that product back across our border, they’re going to pay a 35% tax.”
12. “A great spirit of optimism is sweeping all across the country. Look at what’s happening to the stock market. Look at what’s happening to the every poll when it comes to optimism in our country.”
13. “Jobs are already starting to pour back in.”
14. “I followed through on my promise to withdraw from the job killing disaster known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
15. “My administration has begun plans to crack down on foreign cheating and currency manipulation which is killing our companies and really, really hurting our workers.”
16. “I’ve taken steps to begin the construction of the Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipelines.”
17. “We believe in two simple rules. Buy American and hire American.”
18. “Environmental Protection Agency. We won’t have projects going 10-12 years and getting rejected.”
19. “I’ve directed the Department of Justice to take a firm, firm stance to protect our cops, sheriffs, and police from crimes of violence against them. We will work with our police not against our police. We will always protect those who protect us.”
20. “We’ve directed the creation of a task force for reducing violent crime in America, including our inner cities. We’re going to make our inner cities safe again.”
21. “We are going to destroy trans national criminal cartels which are all over the United States and we are going to stop the drugs from pouring into your community, into your cities and poisoning our youth.”
22. “I’ve ordered the construction of a great border wall, which will start very shortly.”
23. “I’ve taken decisive action to keep radical Islamic terrorist the hell out of our country. We’ve got to keep our country safe.”
24. “I want to build safe zones in Syria and other places so they can stay there and live safely until their cities and their country are safe. We’re going to have the gulf states pay for those safe zones.”
25. “I’ve also directed the defense community headed by General Mattis, to develop a plan to totally destroy ISIS.”
26. “I have ordered the Department of Defense to begin plans for the great rebuilding of the United States military. We will pursue peace through strength.”
27. “And we’re going to make sure our veterans have the care they need when they come home. We love our veterans.”
28. “We’re going to down size the bloated, bloated bureaucracy which make the government lean and accountable. We’re going to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. I’ve already imposed a five year lobbying ban on the executive branch officials and lifetime ban on lobbying for a foreign government.”
29. “I’ve nominated a fantastic justice to replace the late great Justice Scalia. His name is Judge Neil Gorsuch. He will be a true, true defender of our Constitution.”
31. “We are working to lower tax rates in the middle class to reduce tax rates big league on businesses and to make our tax code more fair and very simple for all Americans so it’s understandable by everyone.”
32. “One trillion dollar infrastructure plan to build new roads and bridges and airports and tunnels and highways and railways all across our great nation.”
33. “All NATO nations need to pay their way.”
Okay, add up your check marks. If you checked ten or more, then you should have voted for Donald Trump. Very few, if any, of these policies would have been pursued by Hillary Clinton. They come from biblical ideas based on God’s designed domain for human governments.
And Donald Trump appears to be the straight-talking, bull-in-a-china shop kind of guy who just might get many of them done–despite his weaknesses.
President Trump ended his speech with these words:
“We have the chance now working together to deliver change for the ages…Let us move past the differences and find a new loyalty rooted deeply in our country. We are all brothers and all sisters. We share one home. One destiny and one glorious American flag. We are united together by history and by Providence [God]. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again. Greater than ever before. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America!”
Don’t miss the message because you don’t like the messenger.
Donald and Melania Trump just might be unconventional messengers of grace and truth.