The problem with our country is that we have a broken moral compass. The part of our compass that DOES work is warped by almost 54 years of rank relativism resulting in a compass that cannot point us in the right direction.
It reminds me of the old pun that tells of a man who had a compass. The compass was of a special kind called a Tates. It had the North pole marked on the East side of the compass, the South pole on the North side, the West at the South and the East on the West. The moral of the story is that in the middle of a forest, he who has a Tates is lost.
Facts are funny things. They are what they are. Facts are facts. The problem comes not from facts, but from the proper, logical straight-line thinking when understanding those facts.
One of the MAJOR factors that has resulted in the warping of America's moral compass was a Supreme Court ruling in 1963 which said, effectively, that for a public school to have and engage in a specific time of prayer was unconstitutional. The argument for it centered around what was supposed to be some "...wall of separation between church and state," something that is not even obliquely addressed in our constitution.
The phrase comes from a letter penned by Thomas Jefferson to a church in Danbury, Connecticut. Its intent, according to Jefferson, himself, was to ensure the members of the church that the government would not be engaged in violating their freedom to worship as they please.
The whole idea was twisted by "progressive" minds to mean the EXACT opposite of what Jefferson meant by it, and that twist continues to this day.
People who imagine the greatness of their own minds and thought processes will vehemently disagree, but the facts are the facts. While the letter meant to keep government out of the church, the twist made it seem like the church should be kept out of government. (Kinda weird, since Jefferson actually held worship times in the capitol and wrote his very own version - if greatly subverted - of the Bible).
Today we have organizations whose sole purpose for being is to keep religious thought and practice out of the "public" arena. That, in spite of those who practice convoluted thought patterns that result in false conclusions, is a perversion of what this country was SUPPOSED to be about, according to those who formed it.
Let's take a brief moment to look at the actual phrasing of the Constitution of the United States of America. It won't take too long, and it's pretty easy.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Four items are mentioned: religious establishments, speech, the press and peaceful assembly for the purpose of addressing grievances against the government.
Notice that it does not say that I cannot make a law, that you cannot make a law, that local and/state governments cannot make a law. It says CONGRESS shall make no law. Since the Constitution is a federal document, it is obviously referring to the federal government, not other entities.
It says that Congress can make NO law. NONE. NADA. The Congress of the United States of America, whether the House of Representatives or the Senate, cannot make a law that has to do with (respecting) an establishment (not the establishment) of religion or its free exercise, abridges (affects) the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of people to gather together to express disagreement with what the government is or is not doing.
That's it! Done! Constitutionally, Congress just can't get involved. Period.
"Well we all know that you can't yell 'Fire" in a crowded theater."
Actually, you can. At least you cannot be prevented from doing so by the federal government. Not according to the Constitution.
Having said that, it is a very bad idea, unless there really is a fire, but Congress can't keep you from doing it. The local gendarmerie, can. Just not the feds.
All of that being said, for the Supreme Court to have ruled anything about prayer at all violates both the word and the spirit of the Constitution.
Since that time, a wild series of crazy "progressive" restrictions, rules and regulations about a myriad of issues has brought us to a time of so-called, political correctness, that has resulted in societal intrusion into freedoms and fear among the nation's inhabitants.
Each intrusion resulted in moving the moral compass's directional indicators to a place they don't belong (like the Tates, above).
Thus we are lost.
So I say again: The problem with our country today is NOT guns, knives and bludgeons. It is NOT poverty. It is NOT right wing or left wing politics. People with a good moral compass don't ever even consider using a weapon of any kind to inflict harm on another without just cause. It just does not happen.
The problem with our country is the total lack of any national moral compass at all.
I don't know how far is too far from which to return. We might already be there. If we are (and both Clinton and Trump give some evidence that we might be), then we are doomed to dissolve into the annals of history, replaced by some unrecognizable entity that lacks both liberty and freedom.
Neither you nor the federal government can keep me from praying, so I pray that we soon discover that our moral compass is found in, and only in, a right relationship to God through His son.
Yep. That's my prayer. It's even my prayer for you.
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