General

I’ve been thinking lately about “family” from a number of standpoints.

This week we finalized the sale of our family home–the house we birthed one child in and in which we raised five others. We treasure many fond-memories from that quarter-of-a-century of blessing.

All of our parents are in their latter years–the pillars of the two families we brought together through marriage in 1976. Most days I’m in town, I go to visit with my 93-year old dad and faithful mom who cares for him. I cherish these family moments which will soon be altered.

Last night I heard a passionate commentary from Bill O-Reilly on the desperate need to re-build the African-American family. You can watch his moving video here.

But Michael Barone puts in historical perspective why the American family is our secret to national success.

Michael Barone, senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner, and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is one of the wisest and studious analysts on the American scene. In the following article, based on the new book America 3.0 by James Bennett and Michael Lotus, Barone argues that it is the genius of the nuclear family that stands at the apex of American exceptionalism.

What he doesn’t say is that the American idea of family is a God-given concept that comes straight off the pages of the Bible.

The influential founders of this nation were God-fearing, Bible-based people who came to the New World to practice their faith unhindered by governmental restraints. Their beliefs had deep roots in Christian Europe and its magnificent Reformation which gave rise to civil liberties, free enterprise capitalism, faith-based republics, and an array of discovery and freedom that changed the trajectory of the world.

America’s European colonists took those ideas one step further–building their societies around the nuclear family where husbands loved their wives and were “prophets, priests and kings” in their homes, and wives respected their husbands and raised their children in the “fear and admonition of the Lord.”

This best-in-history expression of the Christian nuclear family is the secret of American freedom, prosperity, mission and greatness.

Read Barone’s article below and add America 3.0 to your summer reading list.

And treasure the family you came from (even with its heartaches), build the family you have on the sure biblical foundation, and pray for all families to experience a re-birth of greatness.

With Its Roots in the Nuclear Family, the Nation Evolves Into America 3.0

By Michael Barone

The Fourth of July is always an occasion to think about what the United States of America has been, is and will be. A good way to reflect on that is to pick up a copy of “America 3.0” by James Bennett and Michael Lotus and ponder its lessons.

As the title suggests, Bennett and Lotus see the nation as having evolved from an agricultural America 1.0 to an industrial America 2.0 and struggling now to evolve again into an information age America 3.0. That’s a familiar framework.

Where they differ from other analyses is that they see the roots of American exceptionalism, our penchant for liberty and individualism, stretching far back — more than 1,000 years — beyond 1776. Back to the Anglo-Saxon invaders of England after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Drawing on the 19th century historians Edward Augustus Freeman and Frederic Maitland and contemporary scholars Emmanuel Todd, Alan Macfarlane and James Campbell, they argue that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them a unique institution, the absolute nuclear family, “the continuous core of our distinct American culture.”

In nuclear families, individuals, not parents, select spouses; women have comparative freedom and equality; children have no rights of inheritance; grown children leave parents’ homes and are not bound to extended families.

On each point this is contrary to longstanding family patterns in the rest of the world.

This enduring family pattern has consequences. It has made Americans liberty-loving, individualistic, keen for equal opportunity but not equal outcomes, venturesome, mobile and suspicious of big government.

From early on in England and then in America, the absolute nuclear family fostered a market economy, property ownership and the common law, which evolves through individual court cases rather than a rigid code like Europe’s Roman law.

These mores have promoted economic growth and enabled societies to adapt to economic changes. America 1.0 had very decentralized government, with new states left to pursue their own policies and courts determined to protect the common law. It peaked at the end of the Civil War.

Economic innovations required changes. Railroads and giant corporations required military-style bureaucracies. Rapidly booming cities required larger governments.

The result was America 2.0. Politicians experimented with German models but settled in the 1930s for a “Social Lockeanism” that “wisely left room for individual initiative and entrepreneurship.”

World War II policies put 16 million Americans in uniform, rationed food, controlled wages and prices, and converted factories to war production. “The end of World War II,” Bennett and Lotus write,”was the moment of maximal centralism and minimal autonomy in America.”

Wartime success gave great prestige to America 2.0 and confidence that it could continue in place indefinitely. But with economic change it started sputtering. “2.0 corporations, unions and governments,” the authors write, “have been rendered unworkable.”

Big corporations flailed, and government got bloated. Lower birth rates meant there wouldn’t be enough taxpayers to finance benefits for the elderly.

Responses included deregulation in the 1970s, lower tax rates in the 1980s, welfare reform in the 1990s. But that was not enough.

Barack Obama has made the trajectory worse, the authors say. They ridicule “the strange assumption that Americans genuinely want government-run health care.” Polls back them up.

They believe public debt is unsustainable and call for discharging much of it in bankruptcy (“the Big Haircut”). They grant that the Treasury can keep selling bonds, but only so long as other countries’ credit is worse.

They see families moving far out in the exurbs (using self-driving cars) and earning money increasingly from individual enterprises rather than W-2 jobs. Therefore we should abolish the federal income tax and devolve government except for defense, civil rights and free internal trade to states and localities.

Most ambitiously, they would allow states to split into parts or to form compacts with other states, so likeminded citizens can have congenial policies.

Looking abroad, they see “a global collapse of the 2.0 model.” America should continue to purchase weapons (but get rid of defense procurement rules) and maintain our alliances.

But the U.S. should give up on nation-building and democratization. Other cultures — Iraq, Afghanistan — simply don’t share our concepts of freedom.

America’s main task is to police “the world’s maritime and aviation commons” — which Britain or America have been doing off and on for three centuries.

I don’t agree on every point. But I share the authors’ optimism that America can once again adapt consistent with our enduring values.

I agree!

Especially if we fight for the revival of the biblical family.

It wasn’t as riveting as the OJ Simpson verdict a generation ago, but last weekend’s acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin certainly captivated the nation and led to some violent protests in the streets.

I teared up when the verdict was announced.

I followed the case closely, primarily because of Fox News ( it wasn’t easy to escape the 24-7 coverage). CNN and MSNBC also chose around-the clock coverage–as if nothing else was happening in the world.

What can we learn from this Florida verdict and apply to our life and times?

First of all, for those of you who don’t tune into American cable news, here are the facts of what happened on February 26, 2012:

• A seventeen year old African-American named Trayvon Martin was visiting his father’s home in Sanford, Florida, He purchased some items at a convenience store and was walking home in the rain to his father’s house.
• 28 year old Hispanic resident, George Zimmerman, was on neighborhood watch that night in the vicinity where Trayvon Martin’s father lived. The area had experienced a recent crime wave. Zimmerman was lawfully carrying a concealed weapon.
• At some point, the two had an encounter, a fight ensued, and Trayvon Martin was shot and killed. George Zimmerman said from the outset that he shot Trayvon in self-defense. The mainstream media–especially NBC–labeled it a white-versus-black hate crime, and the African-American community and the Obama campaign used it to stir racial tensions during the 2012 presidential election (The president opined that “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin.”
• At first, George Zimmerman was not charged due to lack of evidence and belief in his story that he acted in self-defense. But after national pressure built, the Sanford police chief was fired, a special prosecutor was appointed by FL Governor Rick Scott, Zimmerman was arrested on second degree murder charges, and the case proceeded to trial.
• On Saturday, July 13, a six member, all-woman jury pronounced Zimmerman not guilty of either second degree murder or manslaughter.
• Since that time, various protests have been launched demanding “justice for Trayvon.” 

I learned long ago to try to see people and events through the eyes of Heaven. That means seeking for the truth from God’s perspective, keeping in mind that there is a demonic realm that wants to destroy us, and that we live in a fallen world.

Having this desire doesn’t give any human being exact vision in our murky world, but I believe things become clearer when we’re humbly striving to understand things from God’s point of view.

Here’s my analysis.

1. As many people have stated, including both legal teams, the event was a tragedy in which there are no winners. Trayvon Martin’s family have lost a precious child and George Zimmerman and his family will be impacted for life due to the incident.

Some people said that it was a tragedy that never should have happened. That is true except for a point articulated by Zimmerman’s lead attorney, Mark O’Mara, who stated that Trayvon Martin’s pummeling of George Zimmerman gave his client “no choice” but to react in defense to save his life. At that point, it “had to happen” to save his life.

2. The state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman acted with malice in the killing of Trayvon Martin. In fact, many of the prosecution witnesses actually bolstered the claims of the defense.

Though one can haggle the details, the overall evidence in the trial  backed up George Zimmerman’s story that Trayvon Martin was the aggressor in the fight, that Martin was on top of Zimmerman hitting him the face and pushing his head against the asphalt (confirmed by the only eye witness), that Zimmerman was the person heard screaming on the 9-11 call (five of six jurors agreed), and that Zimmerman pulled his gun and shot Martin during the scuffle because he believed that he was in grave danger (confirmed by ballistics experts).

As tragic as Trayvon’s death was, a man is innocent until proven guilty. The facts in this case clearly pointed toward George Zimmerman’s version of events. The vast majority of legal analysts agreed. “Facts” in human life are rarely one hundred percent. The jury took their limited facts and made a fair decision.

3. The jury of six women should be commended for their courageous decision, diligence with the details, and sound reasoning that led to the not guilty verdict. Juries make mistakes as the infamous trials of OJ Simpson and Casey Anthony demonstrated to the world. That’s because all human institutions are fallible–even majority votes.

But using citizen groups–in this case–demanding unanimity in a decision that could lead an individual to spend thirty years in prison–is a wise check and balance in a fallen world. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best imperfect human beings can do.

I want to be honest here. For some time, I’ve been pondering an article on the problem of juries in America because of the way people are weeded out and the general lack of character in our culture that has eroded wise jury judgment. Bad cultures produce bad juries (just like bad constituents elect bad leaders). A jury is never better than the “content of the character” of the individual jurors.

And oftentimes, people of strong morality and character are the very ones not allowed to serve.

However, the jury in the Zimmerman trial has delayed that article and restored my faith in the jury system. The six women, five of whom were mothers, did not respond with emotion or without sound moral judgment. On the contrary, though half of them initially leaned toward convicting George Zimmerman of “something,” their better instincts and understanding of the law led them to unanimously vote for acquittal.

They should be applauded for their diligence. They helped restore our confidence that human systems of justice can be impartially fair.

I stand corrected and encouraged by the Sanford Six.

4. This case was used by race hustlers and profiteers to ignite racial animosity in our nation during the heat of a presidential election in which the black vote was very important.

Let’s blame the mainstream media first, and in particular, NBC News. It’s now a well-known fact that they deliberately altered their reporting of the 9-11 call to make it appear that George Zimmerman was a white racist who had profiled Trayvon Martin. Unfortunately for them, and probably good for America, they will probably be sued and lose a good chunk of change for their refusal to report the truth.

George Zimmerman was not a racist. He mentored black youth, lived in a home with people of color–and during 36 FBI interviews, not one person reported that he had any grievances toward the black race.

He was also not white–but Hispanic.

NBC lied–and they will pay for it. Other liberal outlets followed, creating the racial hysteria.

But the greatest culprits were race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Benjamin Jealous (president of the NAACP) who took the bogus facts and used them to lead marches and protests to “turn out the base” and aid in their fund-raising campaigns.

Let’s face it. Some people make money off kindling the fires of racial division. The unthinking masses are guilty too, but let’s rightly place the greater blame on the Pied Pipers who stoke the fires.

America in 2013 is not America in the 1950’s–or 1850’s for that matter. We elected an African American president twice. I’d guess that 90% of all American’s–including southern ones–are not racists. We believe in equal opportunities and rights for all.

The race hustlers are wrong and are perpetuating strife. Let’s hold them accountable.

5. Here’s another interesting reality: It now appears that the African-American community is more racist in America than the white one. This has been confirmed in a number of recent polls, including data on what black Americans think about themselves.

It’s time for American blacks to stop blaming and defaming. Ditto for any white race hustlers.

6. We must get real about serious violence and justice issues and not focus on one tragedy in Florida. Chicago is currently the unequivocal murder capital of the United States with over 200 murders committed over the Fourth of July weekend alone.

Over 90% of those murders were blacks killing blacks.

Murder rates are related to poverty and the chaos it produces. Poverty comes primarily from broken homes and absent fathers–which is endemic in the African-American community.

If we want to deal a death blow to racism, and help minority (and all) communities in this nation, then we should concentrate on strategies for building healthy marriages and families. That’s the debate that should rise the the forefront.

7. There is a demonic world behind the  hatred, injustice, murder, and race peddling in our nation and  world. They are also behind the rioting which takes place after verdicts like the Zimmerman case. When people smash windows and loot stores to protest what they believe is injust, you know that you are looking at the invisible incitement of demonic hordes.

Think about it. Unjustly breaking windows to protest injustice? That kind of logic only works in hell or places influenced by it.

8. Justice on earth will always be tarnished by human sin and mistakes. However, societies who fear God, strengthen families, teach character, and enact laws based on biblical principles and God-given rights, will experience the greatest amounts of justice and freedom.

Only in eternity will perfect justice be rendered.

What really happened between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman on that fateful February 26, 2012 evening, will only be fully known when we all stand before the Judge of the Universe. Only then will their hearts and actions be fully revealed.

So will be yours and mine. Are you ready for that truly just moment through repentance for your sins and faith in Jesus Christ?

Our hope is not be found in justice, but redemption. That’s how we should pray for both the Martin and Zimmerman families–and the healing of American race relations.

I met Doug Simpson in 2006 when I made an unsuccessful run for state office. At that time, Doug was known as one of the smartest political consultants in the country. He’d also just published Looking for America:Re-Discovering the Meaning of Freedom. It remains one of my favorite books on liberty and the principles of good government. (Would make great summer read!)

Below is a recent article Doug sent to friends that clearly explains why America is in trouble. It is brutally honest, very insightful, and rightly encourages us as believers to 1) Win the culture before putting our trust in laws, 2) Focus on training (education) the next generation, 3) The church is the key to freedom being enjoyed in a nation, and 4) God is guiding history, and we need to cooperate with him in the next spiritual awakening he might have up his sleeve.

Are you wondering “What’s Next?” for spiritual and political activism in the US?

Here’s the hope you’ve been looking for.

WHAT’S NEXT?

By Doug Simpson

Twenty-five years ago I embarked on a personal mission to change the faces sitting in the seats of government.  At the time, I had been awakening to the lessons of history and didn’t like the direction our country was headed. Like many others, I believed that slugging it out in the political arena was the only way to right the listing ship.

I was wrong.

That’s not to say that political war isn’t one part of the solution. But, now I see that it was only half of the equation, and that the other half is probably even more important.  So, the best I could have hoped for was to buy time.  But, time for what?

I now see that, like Vietnam, we had lost the war before it started and – surprisingly – for the same reason we lost in Vietnam: we had lost the culture. When that occurs, you’re finished before you begin.  Almost nobody now remembers why we went to Vietnam in the first place. I do.  Here we were, 12,000 miles away, supposedly battling the evil of communism, all the while, its ideals were infesting our society and undermining our way of life here at home.

That’s exactly what is going on in the political arena.  We are off to Olympia or the other Washington to do battle against the ever-encroaching tyrannical socialism through political warfare; meanwhile the masses are being educated by a leftist media, in collusion with a self-serving socialist bureaucratic education establishment paid for with our tax dollars.  In essence, we’re paying for our own demise.

Now, 25 years later, I look back and see what our founders knew from the start:  You cannot defeat ideas on a battlefield. You defeat them inside your own culture through ongoing education.  Only in this way can you make your culture impervious to invasion. Too many of us never learned about our history until way too late in the game. Unfortunately for us, and the country at large, we relegated the “education” of upcoming generations to the very minds who stand against the American way of life.

So, throughout most of the past 25 years, it never dawned on me that the Vietnam thing was happening all over again.  We were winning a few battles, but losing the war and we knew it.  Today, our foes control every major institution in America – starting with public education – not to mention a large part of the church and both political parties.  Right under our noses, even as youngsters, our adversaries have stolen two generations of Americans by undermining children’s education on their way to capturing the flag.  They’ve done a great job of it, since most of America and the church never hear the good news about the great foundational principles responsible for the great nation we once were.

If we would pay attention, we could learn a lot from our adversaries. They’ve certainly taught me, and now I see that political warfare and education go hand-in-hand. Political warfare fought single-handedly doesn’t work.  You cannot make godly laws for an ungodly people – a people who no longer have a common purpose, or history, or umbrella societal code.  They will either reject such laws by repeal, or ignore them altogether – exactly what we are witnessing today in our liberal courts.

Who would have guessed 25 years ago that today we would see legalized homosexual marriage, open marijuana usage, government approved and funded murder of innocent children,and euthanasia? What’s most amazing is that these changes in law here in Washington State were not enacted by the legislature, but by the people themselves through the initiative process. So, here’s a lesson.  If you don’t have the people with you, you have lost the war before you start.

Again, simple observation reveals so much.  Take Iraq or Afghanistan for example:  just like Vietnam, wars of independence cannot be won without cultural education. In other words, how can you fight for people’s liberty, yours or someone else’s, or get them to want to, if they have no comprehension of what liberty is in the first place?

Here at home, who would have believed that a government once erected to protect the inalienable right to life and liberty would become its greatest enemy?   This would not surprise our founders who had seen it in history and feared a civil government that reached outside its proper jurisdiction – exactly what propelled them to war with King George. A Constitution or rule of law to an ignorant and waffling-minded people has no value.

So, what now?

First, we need to grab a hold of the truth that ideals and political-ism’s are won or lost inside our own culture, not through political or actual warfare.  The biggest threats we face are here at home, not in some foreign land.  It isn’t about nukes in suitcases, suicide bombers, or fanatics with, so-called, assault weapons.  All that is merely an endless line of boogeymen created to scare you into bigger government.  So is global warming, and other environmental and ideological terrorism.  If you’ve lost the culture, you’ve already lost the war against terror anyway.  The real war is about people with empty heads and contaminated hearts.  Like the Sons of Issachar, we need to understand the times we live in, in order to know what we should do. There is nothing happening that surprises God, nor is there anything new under the sun.

Second, if we’re going to retake the culture, the church is the only institution capable of leading the charge.  Jesus will have it no other way. We need to renew our understanding of just what the real job of the church is; what real evangelizing truly is.  The Word of God translates into real everyday world living or it isn’t worth much.  That is to say that the Good News of redemption, salvation, forgiveness and – doing unto others – was the foundation of the America now lost.  It is these principles that are the foundation of all our laws and culture and, therefore, the reason for our past success and prosperity.  The more we’ve wandered away, the more we’ve ventured into no man’s land. Gone are the days when great principles reigned above lawlessness in the land.

Third, we need to get our minds around the understanding that liberty is the highest ideal and comes at the highest of prices.  Our Father in Heaven gave us the greatest example when He shed His Son’s precious blood on the Cross for our spiritual liberty – the precursor to any civil liberty.  And blood is, and will always be, the ultimate price of liberty.  Quoting from Looking For America.“The great paradox lies in our understanding that to avoid the bloodshed we so abhor, we must always be willing to bleed in the first place.”

Last fall, right after the Election, I had a friend ask me what happened.  How, he asked, did Obama get re-elected? Many others have been asking that.  Why are you asking me that question, I asked?  He looked dumbfounded.  So I asked him if he had ever put a sign in his yard, ever given money to a cause, or to a candidate he supported?  He responded by saying no and no.  Yet whenever we are together, he is always full of good opinions about politics.  So, I asked him what he thought would happen when he and countless others don’t join the fight? 

Do you see … opinions aren’t worth much if you don’t put your money where your mouth is.  Freedom and liberty costs.  And if you let it get away from you, it costs three times as much to get it back.

Finally, this …

The principles of Christianity are the only road to civil liberty, freedom and prosperity.  There is no other path. Without them, liberty cannot possibly be manifested into a civil society.  Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “Whosoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.”
 We did that once as a country and it worked.  If the mission of America that began with the Pilgrims was another waypoint on the road to establishing His Kingdom on earth, then hope remains.  I never figured it would stop where it has.

I personally believe that without some providential intervention, we can never get the great ship righted.  That’s why I believe God will do exactly that. Maybe not by judgment in the traditional way of thinking, but by natural consequences that occur when you defy His principles.

When I look back over the past 25 years, it pains me and I feel tired, even that I have failed.  The America we grew up in is long gone and we need to stop using the terminology that says we’re “going to save it.” The fact is we’ve lost nearly every major battle, and now the war.  But we’ve only truly lost, if we don’t learn from it. 

Perhaps, this past 100 years is but a step back, before the two steps forward.  I hope so, because our children and their children, who for the most part are not paying much attention, are coming upon a rude awakening just over the horizon.I want to help them if I can. They are the ones who will have to rebuild from the rubble.

Thank God for redemption.