August 15, 2009

The Town Halls: This is a Spiritual Problem

By: Pastor Bill Randles

The recent shockwaves of public frustration, coming out of town hall meetings across the nation, have stunned both the media and elected representatives from both parties. It has become increasingly obvious that they don’t know what’s going on. The real problem is more than mere politics, and goes much deeper than the healthcare issue. The real problem is spiritual.

This is a conflict between the traditional American vision of personal responsibility, private property, productivity, individualism, and self-government, as opposed to the new vision -”change”- i.e.: collectivism, cradle to grave government “compassion”, equality of outcomes, leadership by an elite anointed class, and yes the “S” word - (Socialism).

One could almost liken it to a clash of two revolutions, the American Revolution and its Judeo Christian ideals, and the failed promise of the Atheistic French Revolution, of ”liberty, equality, and brotherhood”.

The frustration and rage of the once “silent majority”, (one eloquent protestor told Arlen Specter that he had “awakened a sleeping giant”), comes out of the realization by many that after more than forty years, due to the constant undermining of our institutions and the incremental implementation of Socialistic agenda, we are losing our merit based, productive, and responsibility oriented society. The vicious and disconnected reactions by our political and media elites, ranging from ignoring them outright, to impugning their motives and accusing them of being a phony grassroots movement - ”astroturfers” - underscores the suspicion of many, that not only do they “not get it”, but that they refuse to “get it “ in any way.

The impasse is almost unbreachable, because this is the clash of two different worlds. How could the play by the rules, pay your own way, responsible and productive America, even begin to understand the world of the Alinsky community organizers, Acorn and other agitators, union bosses and pay to play politicians?

This problem cannot be reduced to simplistics such as Republicans versus Democrats. In fact the Republican Party itself is largely silent, and perhaps as many of those expressing outrage are Democrats as well as Republicans or Independents. The Republican Party sold its soul to the leftist consensus long ago, and most conservatives know this.

By saying it is a spiritual problem I am not saying that this is about Christians versus the lions. Of course not all who object to the collectivist coup of our nation are Christians. People of many faiths and even some of no faith are feeling the “sinking feeling” that we have been losing this country at an accelerating pace. But it is the Judeo Christian vision of our nation that is being usurped.

It is spiritual on the level that those who drink deeply of the original vision of the Founders, of a self-governing nation, based upon personal responsibility, merit, respect for private property, and individualism are partaking of a Christian vision of life. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. God is God, not government.

Those who have mainlined on the vision of the left, of an all-sufficient government, cradle to grave care, collectivism, larger than life, personality cult leadership, equality of all outcomes, etc., whatever faith they may profess, are imbibing an Atheistic vision of “the good”. There is no God, but Government. How can there be any reconciliation between the two?

Ours is a torn nation, a house divided cannot stand. I conclude with this simple promise from the God of the Bible,

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and bow down to Me, then will I hear from heaven and heal the land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)