America's Unique Gift

The more I learn about history and the “human condition” and the more deeply I look into what is happening in America and in the world, the more I love and value the American ideal. I am amazed at what our Founders established in our Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights. I am amazed at the foundational simplicity and profundity of “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” I am inspired by the idea of a government established to limit its own power instead of garnering power for itself. I am thankful that our Founders recognized the invasive and corrosive tendencies of the lust for power in the human heart, and established a government ingeniously designed to limit that power. I am amazed, when I look at the course of governments in history, that our Founders founded our Republic on the understanding that “all men are created equal” with “inalienable rights” that were and are “endowed by {our} Creator”---not doled out by the whims of those in power. What an amazing gift has been given to us by our Founders. But I fear for the American ideal. Our Founders knew from the beginning that a democracy is fragile and dependent upon the spiritual maturity of the people governed. Our enemies are betting that we will not be able to attain or maintain this level of maturity. Government “of, by and for the people” depends upon people who are capable of maintaining a bond of unity based upon the common good, transcending selfishness and what Geo. Washington called the “party spirit”---a malady characterized by a greater allegiance to a party or faction than to the nation as a whole. There are many factions in America today; not just two political parties. And there are many, especially in academia, who seem to hate America. They not only major on her faults [and, of course, America, as all nations, has her faults] but they tend to morbidly exaggerate them and overlook her goodness and strength. They have the wisdom of viruses or cancer cells which, if successful, destroy the host that they invade and themselves in the process. They speak the language of hatred. They magnify and feed on the discontent of citizens. And discontent is a spiritual malady that cannot be healed by politicians or systems of government. Until we discover the Source of contentment, we will not know how to govern ourselves. Our Founders knew this Source, and desired all to have free access to it. That is why they established “freedom of religion.” It is also why they, early on, established free public education; so that citizens would be able to read the Bible and judge politicians and the laws that would in the future be enacted by its gold standard of Truth [If you doubt this Google “Old Deluder Satan Act”. And/or visit historian David Barton’s “Wallbuilder” site]. The roots of our democracy are inextricably intertwined with the roots of Christianity. This is an undeniable historical fact. Christianity has provided the fertile soil and basic truths upon which this great nation has been founded. Christianity has been the immune system of this nation, protecting it from the invasive “viruses” and “bacteria” of hateful polarizations, the lust for power, and the demise of civil unity. As the knowledge and application of the Bible and the Spirit that it fosters has deteriorated, so has peace, unity and harmony in our nation. The unfounded fear of theocracy [Christ would never allow it] and the false belief that the secular mind, bereft of spiritual enlightenment, can govern itself have been corrosive to the American ideal. If we extricate Christianity from democracy, we will certainly destroy it. It will not have a unifying foundation and fabric suitable for its survival. It will degenerate into factions and parties selfishly vying for power and “rights”. And this will always have the volatile potential to escalate into violence enacted to procure that power and those rights.

The most potent way to preserve America is to promote the Christian Faith. Anyone who deeply understands the New Testament will certainly see this truth. And the fact that many do not have a deep understanding of the New Testament is a symptom of the problem here being elucidated. Our Founders had a profound understanding of and allegiance to it. They quoted it profusely, publicly and privately. If you are interested in pursuing the facts and ideas of this post, I encourage you to examine the following sources:

1. Geo. Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796 https://www.ourdocuments.gov/print_friendly.php?flash=false&page=transcript&doc=15&title=Transcript+of+President+George+Washingtons+Farewell+Address+%281796%29 [A must read for anyone interested in American government

2. Dinesh D’Souza’s movie “America….” 3. Wallbuilders website

Democracy and Christian Evangelism

“Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.” George W. Bush, Jan., 2001.

The media is that wind. And we now have the opportunity to sow the seeds of democracy, and the personal freedom that it provides, to all the people of earth. But it should be the people, the common folk, not the government who sow those seeds. In other nations where tyranny reigns, the government sings its praises and intimidates the populace to do the same. Fear is induced to keep the people singing those false praises---false because in secrecy those people whisper about the hypocrisy of their government. Their “loyalty” is loud in proportion to their fear of disloyalty. They force themselves to believe that which they dare not disbelieve. In America there is no fear of disloyalty to the government, and God forbid that there ever should be. But there should be loyalty, free and uncoerced, because this nation has brought something very valuable into the world—unprecedented prosperity and personal freedom. We have the blessing of a government that is divided against itself--something we should celebrate rather than lament. The governments of North Korea, Russia and China are not divided against themselves. Division is not allowed. Everyone must be loyal to the one party, which comprises the government in its entirety. There can be no dissenting voices. And there is no power above the government—no “one nation under God” from Whom our “inalienable rights” come [not the government].The division and dissension within American politics keeps the government from gaining the power to erode the freedoms of its citizens. Unity in government is not something our Founders envisioned, but rather the good governance that is forged in the fires of open dissension—freedom of speech and press; three branches and eventually two parties to contribute to the spreading of power. Let the politicians ramble on while we enjoy the freedoms their wranglings have afforded us , and let’s tell the world what a good thing we’ve got here and encourage them to read our wonderful Constitution [and we should read it more ourselves, and celebrate it and protect it as it has protected us for two centuries—something no other system of government can claim.] We must not stop examining ourselves as a nation, and exposing our sins. This is necessary in maintaining our republican democracy. But if we define ourselves by our problems and fail to see the tremendous good that has come through our Founding Fathers and this nation, then we will not have the loyalty and healthy national pride necessary to be all that we have the potential of becoming, not only for ourselves but for all the peoples of earth living under tyranny. We must fight against self loathing and wallowing in regret and self condemnation. We must stop looking for the person, people or party to blame. We must look instead to the amazing accomplishment of our Founders: they were geniuses of government with a profound understanding of the dangers of power. We must receive with gratitude all they have given us and take it to new levels, as we have in fact been doing [the Civil War and the Rights Movements for women and Afro-Americans]. We the people must be good, which the French historian DeTocqueville recognized as the source of our strength. We need the vitality of an authentic and sincere Christian faith nourishing that goodness. Without it we drift, unanchored into many forms of darkness such as we see in its evolved forms in other nations and in the worst of ourselves. We need to be sincere in understanding Jesus Christ—His teachings and His heart. And we must try to spread this understanding to the world—to encourage the increase of the Family and Kingdom that He instituted and informs. This is parallel to being evangelical about democracy and our blessed form of government because, just as our democracy was born and nurtured in the fertile soil of Judeo-Christianity, only in that same fertile environment can democracy thrive. This is true because governments do not transform the human heart. They can only enslave or constrain it by force. Only Christ transforms the heart of a human, making him someone who can be a safe and proper steward of freedom. Without the constraints of the Love of Christ, there can ultimately be no freedom. The human heart is too fraught with evil seeds that subtly grow, without those constraints, into something that is monstrous and destructive for the human family. Surely we have enough recorded history and evening news reports to convince even the most optimistic humanitarian of this truth.

I am a proponent of Christianity because I am so thankful for what has been wrought in its Spirit, both for me and my loved ones personally, but, on a larger scale, for the government that was born in its Spirit; a government that has provided its citizens unprecedented freedom and prosperity. I am alarmed to see the fading of the Light of Christ in our nation. I see in this spiritual regression the natural parallel of national shame and self-loathing—a deep unrest that strains for change, just as happened in the Bolshevik Revolution, which led to millions of deaths to forge a new government that has now crumbled under the weight of a different manifestation of the same evil that it sought to destroy---an evil that is undiscernable and overpowering outside of Christ. I pray for a new awakening of reverence for Christ, love for each other and gratitude to replace the insufferable suffering of entitlement, feelings of victimhood and deprivation. I pray that we will come to see Christianity as the amazing, liberating and empowering gift that it truly is---perhaps the only theology on earth that has the power to deliver us from the worst that is in us while preserving the beautiful uniqueness of various personalities, cultures, races and nations. I pray we can see the revolutionary power in the Spirit of Christ to channel our desire for a better world in the only healthy direction---away from hatred, blaming and the violent attacks against the old order in order to establish the new, accompanied always by bloodshed and misery, leading only to doomed new forms of the old order, managed by a younger generation of blind fools who thought they were doing the world a favor, or, better, laying in the bloody dust of defeat like the Nazis, having been overcome by a better and more powerful force, which is no less vulnerable to the same subtle evil that blossomed into Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia, and even North Korea. Christianity in its true manifestation is our national immune system against such regression. I don’t see what can substitute for it except more laws and more powerful enforcement of those laws, constraining the growing frustrations and hatred of people who cannot love each other through their differences as Christ commands.

Mark Graham 5/30/20

Little Boys

LITTLE BOYS

I've known little boys. Little boys are transformative.

They transform oil-slicked water into rainbows.

They transform roadside ditches into rivers with minnows, tadpoles, frogs, and occasional wonderful snakes!

They transform clouds into elephants, horses, dragons, and butterflies.

They transform the neighbor's yard into a battlefield where you can be chased down and tickled or attacked by a bear.

They transform weeping willow branches into a jungle.

They transform kitchens into balloon bouncing marathon arenas.

They transform walks into adventures.

They transform sofas into wrestling rinks or mountain cliffs,

And driveways into race tracks.

They transform quiet, dark houses into bright rousing circuses.

I've known little boys.

Little boys have transformed my world.

Mark Graham 4/20/20

Anxiety

Anxiety flows like a river. You dam it up here and it breaks out over there. It’s like an inner trembling energy that is drawn out like lightning at one perceived threat after another. Then we mistakenly think the perceived threat is the problem rather than the trembling, inner energy. It is like an inner fire that flares up with the gasoline-like dousing of one perceived threat after another. The fire subsides but never goes out. The spark is always there, easily ignited by the hint, shadow or illusion of threat.

Faith and Truth extinguish the fires, again and again, until even the spark is extinguished and the inner trembling energy dissipates and a mysterious, palpable peace arises like mercury in a thermometer on a warm Spring morning; like the dawning of the sun, shining brighter and brighter, warming the very soul; like the slow relaxing of an infant at its loving mother’s breast.

Curiosity

 I love curiosity. Curiosity is one of the colors in the magnificent rainbow of Love. This is true because the more curious you are about people, the more you learn about them, and the more you know about someone [their joys, fears, sorrows, relationships, etc.] the better you can love them. And of course, that’s what this is all about. And the more curious you are about the world, the more you discover the awesome mystery of everything. And the more likely you are to come to admire the infinitely intelligent Creator Who has woven all this magnificent universe together in Love. I love curiosity because it will ultimately lead to the Truth that Jesus said “sets you free”. “Stay curious my friend.”

America: What I Love About Her

What I love about America:

The best that is available to all humans is free. Why should we fight for what is free and available to all? America does not fight to impose its will upon others. We do fight to protect and keep the blessings of freedom and democracy for ourselves, and we do the best we can to make sure that these blessings are available to the people of earth--- to those who desire them. The best that America has discovered and appropriated is what we are trying to give to the world. Those who fight against America, or who consider America their enemy, fight against the loss of power to a free people. They fear freedom; and if they are addicted to power, they hate it. America has not always used its freedom wisely and compassionately. We admit that. And America’s enemies point to our licentiousness and entitlement as reasons to stand against her. Our contemptuous conflict and division gives our enemies fuel for the fire of their contempt of us, and it empowers them in their efforts to exclude their citizens from the blessings we enjoy and offer to the world. Our civil unity amidst our differences is perhaps our greatest asset, and a necessary element of democracy. What we are learning [sometimes painfully slowly] is that freedom of the soul converts into material prosperity. This is true because freedom of soul means that the soul is free from fear, greed and the lust for things in the world that are ultimately contrary to the forward movement of the human family. The soul is only ultimately free when it is supremely motivated by Love for the entire human family, which is a manifestation of and product of Love for the God Who gives us all life. [The Bible says that “God is Love.” ] And when people generally live in an atmosphere of consciously chosen Love---respect, kindness, civility, honesty, compassion, patience, goodwill, etc.---this prosperity of soul manifests outwardly as material prosperity--everyone has what they need. And this is true, not because a governmental power tries to force it or make it happen, but rather it issues out of the Love in individual hearts who work peacefully together to insure it. It is a process that is not “top down” but rather “grassroots” so to speak. Socialism and communism do not trust that this can happen. Democracy does. It is a brave venture of faith in humans to govern themselves, or more deeply, to be governed by the internal Law of Love. No governmental system will work ultimately without this internal motive in the hearts of the governed. Those who are motivated by the base desires of human blindness must be controlled by power and fear. Spiritual immaturity [not the lack of education] leads to tyranny. Education is only valuable to the degree that it fosters spiritual maturity. Knowledge without wisdom can be dangerous. Our Founders instituted free public education specifically so that young citizens would be able to read the Bible and hold future law makers accountable to its precepts. {Google “The Old Deluder Satan Act”}.

What I love about America is that it has provided us a magnificent opportunity to be out from under governmental tyranny long enough to expand the limits of spiritual growth in an environment of prosperity, which presents its own subtle and powerful temptations. What can we do with our freedom besides trying to accumulate wealth and pursue pleasure? [It is clear now that these pursuits do not lead to happiness.] With our freedom and our prosperity, what can we unselfishly offer the world? How can we use our freedom and prosperity to facilitate the psycho-spiritual evolution of the human family?

I see and feel in the Christian Faith—in Christ Himself---the culmination of all the good I see in all world religions and philosophies. And I am free, in America, to practice Christianity openly and to even openly encourage it [that is ,Christ] to the world. We can know that America is truly a free nation as long as this continues to be true because a true Christian can never be a slave to tyranny. That is precisely why tyrants hate the Bible and kill Christians. This is what I love about America.

Fear of Christianity

When you worry, or are even concerned [which can become a healthy replacement for “worry”] about what people may think of you if you actually, radically lived and spoke in the Holy Spirit of Christ, remember what people thought of Him: heretic, possessed of evil, a criminal worthy of death. He loved even those who judged Him, but, thank God, He did not allow their judgments to deter Him in His God-ordained, loving, redemptive mission. Our fears about what others will think of us have two basic roots: our uncertainty of the origin of our thoughts and deeds [“Is this really from God?”; or our egoistic pride in not wanting to be mocked or looked down upon by the arrogant, blind eyes of the world [sometimes manifested through those in our own household or social circles]. One aspect of our sanctification is to allow the Love of God in us to drive out those fears.