WHICH AMERICA IS IT?

There are at least two opposing views of the United States of America: America is good and America has failed.

French political thinker and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, wrote in 1835: "I sought for the key to the greatness of America in her harbors; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America ceases to be great."

Contrary to the thinking of old Alexis, to the liberal mind, at least as manifested in the philosophy and policies of President BO (President out of respect for the office; BO because his agenda stinks), America has failed for over 230 years.

According to that mindset, America's domestic policies have failed, her foreign policies have failed, economic policies have failed, her spiritual policies have failed and her moral policies have failed.

America, according to "them," was conceived in error (with a flawed document: The Constitution), grew according to the wrong economic precepts (capitalism) and raised her children with the wrong goals (liberty and rugged individualism).

The other way of thinking of America, that she is good, finds its roots in the thinking of those we call "the founders."

The most accurate way of determining the historical veracity of something, whether it be an event, a writing or whatever, is to get as close to its happening or source as possible.

The theory is that the people closest to the event have the best recollection of what happened and that the further from the event one is, the more likely it is that accounts of the event have been distorted and/or altered.

It's like that old parlor game "gossip." By the time the whispered "secret" gets to the end of the line it is likely much different than what was said to the first person in line.

So, to determine what the founders' attitudes were toward this new country they were putting together, we do well to go back to as many of their original writings, records of their speeches and their own testimonies as to their expectations as we can.

Mondays on this blog are devoted to some of those original writings, speeches and testimonies. It will take me several years to cover the ones I have.

An honest reading of those posts will bring one to the conclusion that the United States of America was founded on certain moral, just and religious principles that occupied the minds and hearts of the founders.

Almost all of the founders believed in God and sought His guidance for the establishment of the rules and morals of the government they were forming, basing their system of laws on those laid out in the Old and New Testaments of the book they nearly all revered, the Bible...hence the concept of our Judeo/Christian heritage.

To be sure, they were practical men, who applied those principles to the government in ways that would be suitable for all of society, which they divided into believers and non-believers (referring to the latter as "pagans" or sometimes "infidels").

Did they have philosophical struggles? You betcha!

They struggled with slavery. They struggled with capital punishment. They struggled with changing technology. They struggled with attitudes toward those who were different from them, such as Native Americans.

Their greatest struggle, though, was against the powers of tyranny imposed upon them by the country that wished to rule them, Great Britain and her monarchy.

Funny thing: we struggle with the very same issues today.

We have come to equate this volatile word, "racism," with slavery. Capital punishment has become "state murder," abortion and euthanasia. Changing technology has outpaced the government's ability to keep up with it.

"Tolerance" has become the by-word of the leftists, although they are the least tolerant of all people.

They think letting people do what they want, when they want, where they want, how they want and to whom they want, regardless of the mores of the majority is tolerance. They think everybody should be tolerant of everybody else, regardless of their moral fiber unless, of course, they happen to subscribe to the values of traditional Christianity. Then they justify their own intolerance under the guise of "not wanting to offend."

But it is OK to offend Christians. In fact, it is encouraged.

Don't offend Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, witches or celebrities (some of whom fall into one of the preceding categories), but go out of your way to offend the very people who gave you this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave...the Christians.

Never mind that Christian hospitals serve more people around the world than all others combined. Never mind that the first responders to natural and man-made disasters around the world are Christians, and in greater numbers than all of the governments and secular organizations combined (check out this truth about Katrina: Southern Baptists provided 500,000 to victims every day! Many, many other Christian organizations were involved as well, while the government dragged its feet with unbridled bureaucracy).

Never mind any of that stuff, because the liberal mindset is to refuse to believe what is actually true, only what they want to be true.

The collective mindset of the founders was that of the Judeo/Christian ethic, which they saw as essential to the success of this great experiment.

The Judeo/Christian mindset was regarded as good.

America began moving away from her goodness when she began moving away from and rejecting the Judeo/Christian values of her founders.

And when America "...ceases to be good, America ceases to be great."

Which America will it be for you?