Reformation
America: You Must Be Born Again
By the end of tonight we will know how deep a political stirring is taking place in America. The 2010 mid-term election results will indicate whether a spark of freedom has once again been ignited to light the way forward, or whether we will continue down the road of national decline or suicide.
There is one deep desire within my heart for my nation.
America: You must be born again.
Jesus used that phrase when talking to a religious leader named Nicodemus. Here’s the encounter as recorded in John 3:1-8:
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
“In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'”
“‘How can a man be born when he is old?'” Nicodemus asked. “‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!'”
“Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.'”
Born again. What a wonderful concept. The context here is, of course, an individual being “born again”–making a fresh start in life. Jesus says that there is physical birth (he uses the metaphor of “water” signifying life’s essential ingredient) and there is spiritual birth. Spiritual birth means a change of heart and mind in the life of an individual. You’re been thinking and living in one direction, and you decide to start over and go another route.
Personally, I was physically born in 1953. I was spiritually born again in 1968 when I realized I’d been living for myself and needed to submit my entire life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. His love drew me, he forgave my sins, and changed my inner being to live for his kingdom.
America was born as a nation in 1776 following a great spiritual awakening and a war against tyranny.
In this early part of the 21st century, America needs to be spiritually born again.
Four things are essential to our nation’s turn-around. They are crucial activities that must take place in order to “start over” with God. We must:
Repent – of our personal and national sins. Conservative tend to overlook this vital step and liberals don’t understand it. But it’s always been a part of our American Christian DNA–when we’re wrong, we need to admit it to God, ourselves,and others and turn away from it. In the First Great Awakening that led to America’s initial birth as a nation, it is estimated that 50,000 people out of a total population of 250,000 confessed their sins to God and changed the way they were living. That’s 20% of the population changing their hearts and lives.
With a population of 310 million people living in the United States today, that translates to over 62 million people needing to repent of their sins. 124 million regularly attend church services. Of course, only God knows what is required to see his hand of blessing restored to this nation. What we do know is that scores of millions of Americans need to “humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways ” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Then there is the national repentance aspect. We have killed fifty million fellow Americans since legalizing abortion in 1972; We have poisoned our homes and air waves with sexual lewdness; We have destroyed the institution of marriage through divorce and now are experimenting with its re-definition; We have not cared for the poor and disadvantaged among us; We have lived for “things” and not for God and others; We have piled up massive debts and lived beyond our means; We have not protected our borders; And we have not reached out with compassion to the foreigners among us.
There need to be “solemn assemblies” in churches and city halls all across this land where we corporately ask God’s forgiveness for our many national sins. Without confession there is no grace. Without changed hearts and lives, there is no redemptive future.
Believe – re-establish our faith in God. This was the primary focus of the Restoring Honor rally held at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28. Glenn Beck and many others encouraged the 500,000 people in attendance to return to a basic faith and trust in God.
This is one of the unique tenets of the America experience: faith in God. “In God We Trust” is on our bills, and for generations it was in the hearts of most Americans. There have always been atheists among us. But they were the minority, and our religious tolerance allowed them to enjoy the blessings of a faith-based nation.
But non-believers were never the secret to America’s greatness. That was found in the hearts of fathers, mothers, youth and children, who put their trust in God and lived out his principles in their homes, factories, schools, neighborhoods and statehouses. America is a faith-based nation that can aspire toward limited government and vast human liberty through the self-control that comes from reverence for God. Americans are not superior to other nationalities. What makes this nation exceptional is our faith in God and the fruits of liberty it produces.
America–without faith–is not America. We need a re-birth of personal and corporate faith.
Reject tyranny –Humble hearts and renewed trust in God must lead to a rejection of socialist-statist policies which amount to tyranny. The 2010 mid-term elections are a wake-up call to reject the creeping forms of tyrannical rule.
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, famously said that “Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” That is the choice that America faces in this century. If we are not “reborn” to our faith in God, then the noose of government tyranny will grow tighter and tighter.
Rejecting tyranny has practical ramifications. We must repeal the national healthcare takeover, get the goverment out of the realm of business and commerce, keep the tax cuts in place (even drop rates further to create jobs), abolish the IRS (how about a just and fair flat tax?), reform our out-of-control entitlement programs (do we really want French-style rioting in the streets?), and keep electing leaders who will listen to the people and protect their Constitutional rights.
And finally, we must:
Love liberty– and fight for its renewal in our individual hearts, families, cities, and nation. Thank God for those in our military who are fighting for us all over the world. We need to join them on our own soil with the same commitment and discipline. Patrick Henry’s cry needs to become the vision of every American: “Give me liberty or give me death!”
If a significant portion of Americans repent of their sins, restore their faith in God, reject the tyranny around them, and live to advance liberty, then a new dawn will rise in our national history.
America: You can, and you must be born again.
Paychecks or Food Stamps?
Newt Gingrich continues to earn my respect and trust. He’s made some mistakes in his long political career, but at this stage in this life, he is one of the clearest voices for a return to faith, family, and freedom that exists in America.
I don’t generally think in terms or political parties, or “left” and “right.” I think terms of right and wrong, and in the coming elections it is the Republicans who have it right.
This insightful column puts the November 2 election in simple and stark terms. Though flawed and badly wounded by years of poor national stewardship, the Republican Party is being re-born through the Tea Party Movement and is returning to its Judeo-Christian principles of limited government and biblical principles of liberty. On the other side, the Democratic Party continues to lurch down the road toward socialism and moral confusion.
Newt Gingrich believes that the contrast couldn’t be clearer in 2010.
One party believes in paychecks and the other in food stamps.
What kind of America do you want? Your vote, one week from today, will take us one direction or the other.
Vote for liberty, paychecks, and the human dignity that they bring. RB
October 13, 2010
The Food Stamp Party “Doth Protest too Much”
by Newt Gingrich
There is a famous line from Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
In Shakespeare’s play, Queen Gertrude is referring to what she believes are overwrought vows from a Queen pledging fidelity to her King.
In modern times, the phrase has come to signify the tendency of a guilty party to so passionately insist on their innocence that they suggest their guilt.
Last week, we highlighted a memo I sent to candidates across the country suggesting the closing argument for the 2010 campaign be a choice between the Democratic Party of food stamps and the Republican Party of paychecks.
Watching Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats’ reaction to that memo, one couldn’t help but think “the lady doth protest too much.”
More food stamps or more paychecks? The choice for America November 2nd
The difference between the record of the Nancy Pelosi Democrats since they assumed control of Congress in 2007 and the last time Republicans took control of Congress in 1995 could not be starker.
From 1995-1999, when I was Speaker, unemployment fell from 5.6% to 4.2% and food stamp usage dropped by almost 9 million to an enrollment of a little more than 18 million Americans. That’s because we pursued a job-creating agenda of controlling spending, cutting taxes, reforming government and balancing the budget.
Compare this to the record of Speaker Pelosi, who since 2007 has presided over a rise in unemployment from 4.6% to 9.6% and an increase in the number of food stamp recipients from 26.5 million to a record 41.8 million–more than one in eight Americans.
That’s an additional 15 million Americans depending on government for nutrition, thanks to the Democrats’ job-killing agenda of higher taxes, bigger government, and more spending.
This record legitimately makes the Democrats the party of food stamps.
Meanwhile, Republicans have outlined a pro-growth, less spending, low tax, reform agenda for government similar to our program from 1995 to 1999 that resulted in less Americans on food stamps and more Americans receiving paychecks.
This legitimately makes the Republicans the party of paychecks. The food stamp party doth protest too much
Faced with the crippling reality of her record, Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the food stamp party have reacted to this accurate contrast in a way Queen Gertrude would find familiar.
Last week, Speaker Pelosi again made the absurd claim that food stamps and unemployment insurance are the best way to create jobs, rather than serve as a safety net for those who have lost their jobs. In addition, Speaker Pelosi hysterically accused me of trying to “stomp on the poor.”
Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the food stamp party are desperately trying to spin the accurate and devastating contrast between the Democratic Party of food stamps and the Republican Party of paychecks as a threat to take food stamps away from the poor and unemployed who need them.
But they ignore the actual historic record that repudiates their baseless attack. During my tenure as Speaker, we didn’t eliminate the food stamp program; we were, however, able to reduce the number of people receiving food stamps by pursuing paycheck policies instead of food stamp policies. Millions of poor and unemployed people went off food stamps as they took up jobs and work.
It may cause Speaker Pelosi a conniption to hear it, but it turns out that paycheck policies are better for the poor than food stamp policies. Far from stomping on the poor, the Republican Congress from 1995-1999 did more to help the poor by giving them jobs than the Democratic Congress has during the last four years under Speaker Pelosi.
Drawing the contrast between food stamp policies and paycheck policies is not an attack on food stamps or on those who depend on the program for nutrition. It is an attack on the job killing policies of the Democrats that have led to more Americans needing food stamps. And it is a pledge to enact job creating policies of lower taxes, smaller government and less spendingthe same formula that worked when I was Speaker, leading to more Americans with paychecks and fewer Americans with food stamps.
Don’t let the howls of protest from the food stamp party deter you. They’re just resorting to the same lies and distortions they always employ when faced with the failure of their radical left-wing agenda.
This time it’s not going to work. Americans are fed up with all the spending, all the taxing, and all the big government programs that are killing jobs. And they are going to make their voices heard on Election Day by electing job creating, “paycheck” candidates across the country.
How many “paycheck” candidates are elected is up to you.
At American Solutions, we have launched a project to bring 10 million new Americans to the polls on November 2. It’s called 10MillionVoters.com. Our website gives you easy ways to use Facebook, Twitter and other tools to maximize turnout for conservative candidates this fall. You can also recruit your friends to the effort. Click here to get started.
You can donate to specific, high value campaigns we have targeted at SolutionsPac.com. For instance, here are five key Congressional races we are highlighting this week.
The bottom line is this: there are just 20 days left until Election Day.
It’s time to win.
It’s time to win this election for every small business owner who has been crippled by the job-killing polices of this administration and Congress.
It’s time to win this election for every young American who will graduate in a few months into an increasingly bleak job market.
It’s time to win this election for every American family dependent on food stamps yearning for the independence of a paycheck.
In short, it’s time to win this election for every American.
Let’s get it done.
Your friend,
Newt Gingrich
Principles You Can Take to the Ballot Box
I have been saying for many months that the most important election of our lives may take place on November 2. The present administration in the United States is dangerously veering this nation down a road of reckless spending, social experimentation and class warfare.
As both believers and citizens, we must cry out to God for his mercy and grace and exercise our incredible right to vote for a change of direction. That vote will take place on November 2nd. My cell phone and e-mail box are already filling up with messages asking my opinion on how to vote.
Here are the principles that guide my own votes, and also some recommendations for Washington voters on how to navigate the many Initiatives on the ballot this year.
If you are a Washington State resident, please forward this e-mail to those it might help.
First of all, the principles.
There are a number of things I take into consideration when deciding how to vote for a candidate.
1. World view – Which candidate has the clearest and most consistent Judeo-Christian worldview both on economic and social issues? I actually put this before a candidate’s professed faith. You can be a Christian in heart but have a secular world view in terms of policy positions. This was the problem with Jimmy Carter in 1976. He professed faith in Christ but did not have a biblical worldview. That’s one reason why he was a poor and ineffective president.
2. Personal faith – this does make a difference. One who believes in God and has made Jesus Christ the Lord of his or her life will generally make wiser and more noble decisions in the public arena. A person of genuine faith is likely to have greater integrity and honesty than the secular candidate who has lesser restraints on his actions and words (a lack of the fear of God).
3. Do they believe in individual freedom in economic issues and government restraints on morality? This is the biblical balance. A strict libertarian believes in individual freedom in all areas, including morality. A consistent progressive believes in government controls in all areas. The biblical Christian desires freedom for business and commerce which encourages personal responsibility and prosperity but also supports government restraints on sinful behavior (abortion, pornography, homosexual marriage etc.). God wants people to both have liberty to soar and to be protected from sin.
4. Who is supporting the candidate? Endorsements tell you a lot about the views of a candidate. If I am in doubt about a particular candidate, I will look at his or her backers for a signal as to their beliefs. This is especially helpful when looking at initiatives. Birds of a feather flock together.
5. Who do I trust to have a wise and fair view of the candidates in question? I have a friend named Mary McQueen who for many years managed the Washington State Supreme Court. Mary is an attorney who shares a common faith and desire for good and principled leaders. She personally knew every judge and prominent attorney in the state. In many judicial races, where there just didn’t seem to much be information on the candidates, I would give Mary a call because I trusted her personal knowledge of the people involved.
Trust is the basis of most of the great decisions of life–including voting.
These are the questions I ask myself about candidates. For initiatives and referendums, there’s another set of questions that I use to make wise voting decisions.
1. Will this issue grow the state or empower the individual? This is the crucial issue of 2010. We are involved in a great struggle between statists (the world view of secular progressives) and freedom- loving patriots (think the Tea Party movement and average faith-based American).
2. Is this activity something that God has assigned to the governmental domain (protecting citizens) or to the private or eccesiastical spheres (providing for human needs)?
3. Will this law raise taxes? I always say no to new taxes. Why? Because biblical tyranny begins when government takes more than ten to twenty percent of personal income. We are now approaching fifty to sixty percent in America, and some European nations are over the seventy per cent mark. We don’t need more taxes. We need better use of resources.
4. Is this initiative pro-freedom and entrepreneurship? Motivated-and-lower-taxed individuals create the jobs, not government bureaucracies.
5. Will this issue protect the God-given family and our precious children? The family, and its crucial role in nurturing the next generation of children, is the bedrock of any enlightened society.
6. Does the Bible deal directly with this issue (such as marriage and various crimes)? God’s ways always produce freedom and blessing when followed by a wise people.
7. Does this issue encourage good stewardship of the environment and natural resources while looking market forces and individual decisions for direction (not rabid environmentalism)?
8. Does this issue encourage or squelch religious faith?
I hope this set of guidelines helps you make some wise and critical votes on November 2.
For fellow Washingtonians: I have never seen such a complicated initiative ballot than the one we’ve received in 2010. After studying those issues myself, I came across some information from the Faith & Freedom Network, that is extremely helpful to me–especially on Initiatives 1100 and 1105.
Here’s where the issue of trust comes in. Matt Shea is a Spokane-area representative that I know and trust a great deal. He’s one of the shining lights in our current legislature. Matt has taken the time to give his perspective on the labyrinth of initiative issues. I agree with his assessment.
BALLOT MEASURE ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Initiative Measure No. 1053 – Concerns tax and fee increases imposed by state government. This measure would restate existing statutory requirements that legislative actions raising taxes must be approved by two-thirds legislative majorities or receive voter approval, and that new or increased fees require majority legislative approval.
– Vote Yes. “All power is inherent in the people…” Washington Constitution Article 1, Section 1. The people decided to put another limitation and check on an out of control government. What’s more Republican than that?
Initiative Measure No. 1082 – Concerns industrial insurance. This measure would authorize employers to purchase private industrial insurance (a/k/a workers’ compensation) beginning July 1, 2012; direct the Legislature to enact conforming legislation by March 1, 2012; and eliminate the worker-paid share of medical-benefit premiums.
– Vote Yes. Washington is one of only four states that do not allow a private option. This measure would lower the L&I cost and provide much need relief to our struggling small business owners.
Initiative Measure No. 1098 – Concerns establishing a state income tax and reducing other taxes.
This measure would tax “adjusted gross income” above $200,000 (individuals) and 400,000 (joint-filers), reduce state property tax levies, reduce certain business and occupation taxes, and direct any increased revenues to education and health.
– Vote No. This violates the State Constitution Article 7, Section 1 which reads “All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax and shall be levied and collected for public purposes only. The word “property” as used herein shall mean and include everything, whether tangible or intangible, subject to ownership.” The State Supreme Court has correctly ruled on multiple occasions that income (defined here as the fruits of one’s labor) is property. That is consistent with the founding fathers view as well.
Initiative Measure No. 1100 – Concerns liquor (beer, wine and spirits). This measure would close state liquor stores; authorize sale, distribution, and importation of spirits by private parties; and repeal certain requirements that govern the business operations of beer and wine distributors and producers.
– Vote Yes. The role of government is to protect our God given unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property not run liquor stores. Like taxpayer funding of abortion clinics, it is also morally reprehensible to use tax payer dollars to distribute liquor.
Initiative Measure No. 1105 – Concerns liquor (beer, wine and spirits). This measure would close all state liquor stores and license private parties to sell or distribute spirits. It would revise laws concerning regulation, taxation and government revenues from distribution and sale of spirits.
– Vote No. This expands the size and scope of government through new mandates and licenses effectively trading one monopoly for another. It also proposes two tax increases.
Initiative Measure No. 1107 – Concerns reversing certain 2010 amendments to state tax laws.
This measure would end sales tax on candy; end temporary sales tax on some bottled water; end temporary excise taxes on carbonated beverages; and reduce tax rates for certain food processors.
– Vote Yes. Cuts taxes and eliminates a massive regulatory burden on businesses to figure out which items are “candy” and should be taxed.
Referendum Measure 52– Concerns authorizing and funding bonds for energy efficiency projects in school per EHB 2561 as passed by the Legislature. This bill would authorize bonds to finance construction and repair projects increasing energy efficiency in public schools and higher education buildings, and continue the sales tax on bottled water otherwise expiring in 2013.
– Vote No. This is deficit spending and dishonest. This would allow “projected energy savings” to be the asset against which to bond half a billion dollars at a total cost to tax payers of almost $1 billion.
Senate Joint Resolution 8225– The Legislature has proposed a constitutional amendment concerning the limitation on state debt. SJR 8225 would require the state to reduce the interest accounted for in calculating the constitutional debt limit, by the amount of federal payments scheduled to be received to offset that interest.
– Vote No. This is an accounting trick to allow the state to borrow more money above the current constitutional debt limit while our spending remains out-of-control.
Engrossed Substitute House Joint Resolution 4220– The legislature has proposed a constitutional amendment on denying bail for persons charged with certain criminal offenses. ESHJR 4220 would authorize courts to deny bail for offenses punishable by the possibility of life in prison, on clear and convincing evidence of a propensity for violence that would likely endanger persons.
– Vote Yes. This would restore the original understanding of when bail could be denied for “capital offenses.” Had this been in place it likely would have prevented the infamous Lakewood shooting.
Don’t forget to pray and don’t forget to vote on or before November 2. Edmund Burke wisely said that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
That’s another principle you can take to the ballot box.