The 15th of April – A New Independence Day?
The 4th of July.
We say it differently than other dates because it has a special meaning in America’s history.
The 15th of April.
Months or maybe years from now, will it be a national holiday that commemorates the re-birth of the United States in the 21st century?
April 15, 2009 will be long remembered by those those who attended the over 2,000 Tax Day Tea Parties that took place this week across the America nation. Rallies such as in New York and Atlanta, brought tens of thousands of concerned citizens. Hundreds of smaller rallies–we had forty in Washington State alone–were filled with colorful signs and patriotic chants by an energized electorate. Millions of people took a stand for real change in America.
I attended the largest rally in our state, on the steps of the capital in Olympia. The Seattle Times claimed there were five thousand people at the event, but it looked more like eight-to-ten thousand to me. On a beautifully sunny day, the gathering between the Capitol Dome and the Temple of Justice was packed with adults, youth, children, thousands of creative signs, and the thunderous praise and applause as a variety of speakers called on the various governments in our state to:
- Stop the unfettered growth of Big Government.
- End the wasteful spending spree of tax-payer money.
- Restore the God-given rights of the American people to life, liberty,and the pusuit of happiness.
- Return the nation to its God-blessed cultural moorings.
It was a day to shout, cry, send a message to law-makers, and receive great encouragement that a new American revolution has begun. As I stood among the excited throngs, something rose up within me that whispered, “This is a new day. What you’ve been praying for for many years is about to take place. Remember this moment. Seize the day. The tide has turned.”
My heart is deeply stirred with these thoughts and possibilities. For decades I’ve been concerned about America’s spiritual, moral, and more recently, economic tailspin. The past election only seemed to solidify the death grip of secular forces on American culture. Barack Obama has stated very openly that he doesn’t want America to be a “Christian nation,” and all of his policies so far have been as anti-Christ as anything this nation has ever known.
When a good friend of mine first heard Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention–his coming out speech as a national figure–my normally meek-mannered friend turned to me and said, “Ron. Could this man be the anti-Christ?”
I was shocked at the comment, and said I didn’t know.
I still don’t know, but I do know this: America has been under spiritual and moral attack for two generations, and the present administration is taking us further and further away from our godly and historical roots. The Bible says prphetically that “Righteousness exalts a nation. Sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). America became the most prosperous and generous nation in the history of the world because of the abundant application of biblical principles in our laws and Christian attitudes and actions in our people. As our government steers us away from biblical truth and our people forsake the ways of our Creator, some very dark clouds of judgment and chaos loom on the horizon.
In fact, the same afternoon of the Tax Day Tea Parties, the Washington State House of Representatives passed on a 62-35 vote the expansion of domestic partnership benefits to homosexual couples–effectively ratifying Homosexual Marriage in our state. Here’s how Faith & Freedom’s Gary Randall broke the sobering news:
“Washington State Legislature Approves Homosexual “Marriage” –without the name—for now. Washington State lawmakers passed SB 5688 yesterday afternoon, thus giving the homosexual activists what they want. Gov. Gregoire will sign it.
We will seek to overturn it by referendum. While the lawmakers were voting in favor of homosexual marriage in the Capitol, I and several other leaders in the faith community were meeting a few blocks away, finalizing details before filing a referendum to overturn this legislation. A more detailed press release will be forthcoming following the Governor’s signing of the bill into law.
The bill, the homosexual activists in the Legislature initially called “Every Thing But Marriage,” but dropped after we called them out on it, elevates homosexual relationships to that of traditional marriage, thus eliminating any legal difference between domestic partnerships and marriage. Their next step will be an easy one them. Litigate, correctly claiming there is no legal difference, then claim discrimination and it’s a done deal.
They will have successfully done an end-run on the State Supreme Court ruling which upheld DOMA and will have dismantled the Defense of Marriage Act. Except, we We can overturn this legislation with our referendum. Joshua once asked the people of God to, “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house,” he proclaimed, “We will serve the Lord.” This is that kind of moment. Do you believe in homosexual marriage?
If you do not, stand with us.”
I was one of those leaders behind closed doors, praying and planning a frontal assault on this sad and destructive legislation. After seeing thousands of people stand up at the Olympia Tea Party for God, faith, government accountability and responsibility, I, too, believe that the tide is turning–and that we can win the battle for marriage in the state of Washington.
But it will take all of us, moving forward with commitment, wisdom, compassion and prayer.
The 15th of April. Our new independence day.
Please join the army to push away the clouds of darkness and bring back the bright and glorious sun of personal salvation for many, and cultural renewal for all.
Tax Day Tea Parties – April 15, 2009 – Yes You Can!
On April 15, 2009 millions of modern day patriots of our American Christian nation will do a very peaceful and Christian-like protest of the present misguided and irresponsible course of our Federal Government and many state governments.
“Change We Can Believe In” has become a “Nightmare We Can’t Tolerate”–and less than one hundred days into the present administration, a grassroots revolution is building to take back America to the economic and social principles that made her great.
It’s Tax Day Tea Party Time–and we encourage all Americans who love this nation to take part. If you can’t attend a protest rally, then make your views known at work, school, and in your communities.
The April 15 events, in hundreds of cities across America, will be reminiscent of December 16, 1773 when a handful of men dumped tea into the Boston Harbor. That one act set in motion a chain of events that birthed the most free and prosperous nation in the history of the world. That freedom is now in jeopardy.
Today, many Americans feel helpless as they watch an over-reaching government destroy our Constitution and 237 years of liberty. The first American Tea Party birthed a nation. The second American Tea Party could help save it. Just like our Founding Fathers, many Americans are deeply concerned about the direction our leaders are taking us. It’s time to say:
- NO to the growth of bigger government and the abandoning of free enterprise.
- NO to the war on the successful and the rich to pay for the government growth.
- NO to the class warfare or taking from one group to give to another.
- NO to to the destructive redistribution of wealth.
- NO to trillions of new debt to advance a fascist or socialist vision.
- NO to tax increases to pay for egregious and irresponsible spending.
- NO to bankrupting future generations of American citizens.
- NO to tax cheaters being appointed to positions of power in Washington.
- NO to irresponsible Congressional earmarks.
- NO to the White House power grab of politicizing the US Census.
- NO to ACORN as census-takers under the Department of Commerce.
- NO to open borders for illegal immigrants.
- NO to blanket amnesty for illegals, their families and their friends.
- NO to the mis-named “Free Choice Act” which is a payback to unions.
- NO to closing Guantanmo Bay and bringing terrorists to America for trial.
- NO to the new hostility and harassment of gun owners.
- NO to giving up American sovereignty to world courts.
- NO to being a puppet of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
- NO to visions of a One World Government and currency.
- NO to destruction of American moral values and principles.
- NO to the destruction of marriage under the guise of homosexual rights.
This could be a pivotal day in the battle for America. Columnist Michelle Malkin comments:
“As unemployment soars and anger over Wall Street bailouts mounts, public outrage will seek an outlet. Populism could go in many directions — and could easily ebb when the economy revives. But if it takes shape as an anti-spending movement, it could revive conservatives much as the 1970s tax protests did.
To be sure, the protest sizes so far are a far cry from the left’s anti-globalization and anti-war demonstrations of the past decade. But they appear to have grass-roots origins. The organizer of the Kansas protest, Amanda Grosserode, calls herself a home-schooling mom who is “fed up” with the spending in Washington. She has been a member of Fair Tax Kansas City since last fall.
“My husband and I were feeling frustrated that the stimulus had passed with very little debate and no one had read it,” “I said, ‘We need to do something.’ ” She began contacting family and friends, and eventually received attention via Fair Tax Kansas City and local talk radio.
“I think the taxpayer revolt is the new counterculture,” said Grosserode. “People want to stand up and say, ‘Hey, I’m paying for that, I do not support that.’ “
Malkin concludes:
“Don’t wait for somebody else to move. Don’t make excuses. Don’t think you can’t pull one off because you’ve never done it before?
Yes, you can!”
I encourage you to get involved in this new American revolution. If you don’t know where to participate, go to Tax Day Tea Party.com and find the locations where rallies and meetings are taking place on April 15. There are two major rallies in the state of Washington, one in Olympia and one in Spokane. You can find the details HERE to those events.
You can also send a symbolic virtual tea bag to our president and Congressional leaders to let them know that you’re a part of the movement to change directions.
Thomas Jefferson’s famous words of July 4, 1776 are as true today as when they were written:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..”
This is not the time to abolish, but the moment to “alter” our current national trajectory back to the wise and trusted ways of the past. That wisdom includes re-affirming our God-given unalienable rights to:
- Life – now being trampled by the most radical pro-abortion Administration in history.
- Liberty – being suffocated by out-of control spending, massive debt, and crippling regulations to the private sector,
- The pursuit of happiness – “property” – in the minds of the founders that are over-taxed and being taken away from the productive and re-distributed to others.
If you can’t attend a Tax Day Tea Party event, please pray for America, our leaders, and for those who are taking a stand.
Wednesday, April 15, could be a day that changes a nation.
Yes, you can!”
Smiley-Face Fascism
Barack Obama ran on the slogan “Change You Can Believe In.” Since his administration came to power in January, many Americans and people from all over the world have wondered what those changes will be. Would he be a far left ideologue (he was the most liberal-voting US Senator), would he govern from a center-left position (Bill & Hillary Clinton), or would he form a bi-partisan coalition from both sides of the political spectrum to deal with the nation’s problems (John McCain)?
I have also anxiously watched the moves of the new administration and listened to much commentary on the style and policies of our 44th president. I’ve heard the term “socialist” used to describe the new president. Some have even wondered whether there are “communist” leanings among his appointees and approach to various policies.
Like many of you I’ve been intermittently prayerful, worried, frustrated, burdened, and confused about the road America appears to be taking in 2009. The bad signs include:
- The federal government passing a “stimulus package” that increased our debt by nearly one trillion dollars. It was too much debt that got us into this mess.
- The so-called stimulus package contained over 9,000 pork barrel earmarks–basically paybacks to certain groups and constituencies that voted in our current leaders.
- Certain banks, financial institutions, and now the auto industry have been partially nationalized. Government is becoming the master of some businesses, their profits, even salaries.
- Now we’re about to add a nearly four trillion dollar Federal budget–meaning that in less than one hundred days, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress will have spent more than all past presidents and Congresses combined. Remember that four trillion dollars is equivalent to spending four million dollars a day since the birth of Jesus Christ.
- Certainly all this out-of-control spending will lead dangerous inflationary pressures, the tanking of the dollar, and maybe even a Depression.
On April 3, 2009, during the G20 summit in Europe, Barack Obama announced, “Let me say this as clearly as I can: America is changing.” What does he mean? What direction does he want to take us?
Many years ago I learned during my basketball-playing days that you can’t be effective on offense if you don’t understand the defense you’re up against. That understanding will dictate your offensive strategy. We the people of faith and commitment to the American Dream must understand what we are up against in 2009 in order to win the battle for our nation and civilization.
We are fighting against an American version of fascism.
Let me explain.
A very prophetic and insightful book was written in 2007–well ahead of the 2008 elections. Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg became a New York Times #1 best-seller. I read it soon after it debuted and marked it up extensively. Though I thought it was a little extreme two years ago, I realize now Goldberg was amazingly prescient about the changes some people wanted to bring to America. Barack Obama, not willing to let “a good crisis go to waste” is now the supreme change agent. The change in the air is moving America from freedom to fascism.
What is fascism? Here’s the Webster’s definition: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” Oxford scholar and historian Robert Paxton further explains that “fascism is a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victim hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
Do Moveon.org, ACORN, or blame-America first community activists come to mind?
Goldberg points out that fascist states like Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany didn’t nationalize all businesses. They just controlled enough private businesses to achieve their social and political ends. Whereas socialism is total control of industry, and communism is complete control at gunpoint, fascism is a milder version of the same philosophy–a “partnership” between government elites and private commerce for the collective purposes of the “common good.” That’s where we’re headed in America today.
Jonah Goldberg states that American fascism has been a long time in the making. Teddy Roosevelt had fascist tendencies; Woodrow Wilson was the first truly fascist American leader. An intellectual, like Obama, he pursued grand visions for global government–the league of Nations which morphed into the UN; Franklin Roosevelt’s New deal was a quantum step forward in government control of private industry; LBJ’s Great Society was the social program format, and even some Republican presidents allowed the tentacles of Big Government to invade private industry under their watch.
Yet, the American version of fascism has a unique face. Goldberg says, “the American fascist tradition is deeply bound up with the effort to “Europeanize” America and give it a “modern” state look that can be harnessed to utopian ends. This American fascism is very different from its European variants because it was moderated by many special factors–geographical size, ethnic diversity, Jeffersonian individualism, a strong liberal tradition, and so on. As a result, America fascism is milder, more friendly, more “maternal” than its foreign counterparts; it is what George Carlin calls “smiley-face-fascism. Nice fascism.”
Goldberg’s book cover shows a smiley face with a Hitler mustache on it. Not very comforting.
It’s important to understand that liberalism, socialism, fascism, and communism are all cousins that are rooted in the same world view–atheism. They are man’s attempt to dethrone God, overthrow individual liberty, and force collective, politically correct behavior through an all powerful State. There are really only have two choices of final authority in a fallen world: under God or under men. Self-government under God brings liberty and prosperity to societies who live in freedom. Man-worship via the State brings bondage and poverty. William Penn said it best, “Men will either be governed by God or ruled by tyrants.”
America is again facing that choice in 2009. Will we restore our republic to being “one nation under God” or will we abandon it to Big Brother because we’re either asleep at the wheel or not willing to stand up and reform our own lives and institutions? American fascism–and maybe global fascism–is arising quickly in the body politic. What are we going to do about it?
We must begin a new American revolution to bring our nation back to God and his ways of liberty. I suggest the following points of action:
1. Commit to pray regularly and fervently for awakening among the people of God and repentance and faith among the nation as a whole. Get involved in the National Day of Prayer in your community–Thursday, May 7, 2009–and other local prayer thrusts.
2. Educate yourself on the threats to liberty that we face. Order Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, and study it well. You can also purchase the latest book on this subject, another #1 book New York Times bestseller, called Tyranny or Liberty by Mark Levin. Mark is a constitutional lawyer and radio host who makes the alternatives as clear as day and night. His book reminds me of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense which so stirred the American colonists to action some 250 years ago.
3. Probably the clearest television thinker on this subject is Glenn Beck on Fox . Glenn is a passionate and funny communicator that tends to extremism at times, but I think he’s got the right approach on this one. His TV ratings are soaring at the moment for good reason.
4. Join a Tea Party being held all over the nation on tax day, April 15th, to peacefully protest the growing government takeover of America. We, the people, need to take a stand for right. It is “right that makes might.”
5. Vote for a change of governmental direction in 2010 (House and Senate) and 2012 (Presidency). We made a terrible wrong turn in 2008. We must elect leaders who believe in God, liberty, and limited government.
Otherwise we will all live under smiley-faced fascism.