As I sit at my desktop on this the day before Election 2012, I can't help but think about all of the efforts of the last few years by so many people that I could never mention them all. In these last four years I went from being a music deejay to a talk show host (for better or worse). I've watched folks who were genuinely not interested in political things get heavily involved in the process, anything from running for Precinct Committee Person to running for political office to joining a party to getting out the vote and even just voting for the first time themselves.
All this to say, it's been a wild ride that MAY or may NOT culminate with tomorrow night's elections.
Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Constitutional, Progressive, Green, Working Family, Libertarian or got your own Party, there is something we ALL need to know:
GOD is sovereign whether you believe it or not. I believe that the mess this nation has found itself in is not due to A party or A leader. It's because this nation, once so firmly tied to God, has distance herself from Him.
Let's go back in the recent past and see where we may have asked God to leave our country in three separate decisions by our Supreme Court:
1 - "The separation of Church and State". Though there have been many Supreme Court and other lower court decisions on this topic but really this is the one that changed America forever:
Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947) was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which applied the Establishment Clause in the country's Bill of Rights to State law . Prior to this decision the First Amendment words, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"[3] imposed limits only on the federal government, while many states continued to grant certain religious denominations legislative or effective privileges.This was the first Supreme Court case incorporating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as binding upon the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision in Everson marked a turning point in the interpretation and application of disestablishment law in the modern era.
The case was brought by a New Jersey
taxpayer against a tax funded school district that provided
reimbursement to parents of both public and private schooled children
taking the public transportation system to school. The taxpayer
contended that reimbursement given for children attending private
religious schools violated the constitutional prohibition against state support of religion, and the taking of taxpayers' money to do so violated the constitution's Due Process Clause.
The Justices were split over the question whether the New Jersey policy
constituted support of religion, with the majority concluding these
reimbursements were "separate and so indisputably marked off from the
religious function" that they did not violate the constitution. However both affirming and dissenting Justices were decisive that the
Constitution required a sharp separation between government and religion
and their strongly worded opinions paved the way to a series of later
court decisions that taken together brought about profound changes in
legislation, public education, and other policies involving matters of
religion. Both Justice Hugo Black's majority opinion and Justice Wiley Rutledge's dissenting opinion defined the First Amendment religious clause in terms of a "wall of separation between church and state".
2 - The removal of prayer from the classroom. Again a topic that was brought up in courts many time but in 1962 the nail in the coffin:
The issue of school prayer has been hotly debated in the United States
since the early 1900s. In the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries,
schools in certain localites of the country customarily opened with an
oral prayer or Bible reading. Religious minorities would sometimes object to the distinct observations performed in the local schools. For instance, in the Edgerton Bible Case (Weiss v. District Board (1890)), the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of Catholics who objected to the use of the King James Bible in Wisconsin
public schools. This ruling was based on the state constitution and
only applied in Wisconsin, but, like other challenges elsewhere in the
country, provided a precedent for federal rulings to come later.
The legal climate for school prayer in the US began to change in 1955, when the New York Board of Regents developed a prayer recommended (but not required) for the school districts under its purview. Seven years later, Steven I. Engel would bring action against Union Free School District No. 9 for its adoption and subsequent prescription of the so-called "Regent's prayer," arguing that it constituted the state-sponsored establishment of religion in violation of citizens’ First Amendment rights via the Fourteenth Amendment. Use of the Regent's prayer would be initially upheld in both New York State Court and in the New York Court of Appeals, prompting Engel's to petition the US Supreme Court.
In two landmark decisions, Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the US Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state-sponsored prayer in schools. While the Engel decision held that the promulgation of an official state-school prayer stood in violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause (thus overruling the New York Courts’ decisions), Abington held that Bible readings and other (state) school-sponsored religious activities were prohibited. Following these two cases came the Court's decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), a ruling that established the Lemon test for religious activities within schools. The Lemon test states that in order to be constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
any practice sponsored within state run schools (or other public, state
sponsored activities) must adhere to the following three criteria:
- Have a secular purpose;
- Must neither advance nor inhibit religion; and
- Must not result in an excessive entanglement between government and religion.
3 - Abortion made legal. In 1973 we began the legal murdering of babies.
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. Decided simultaneously with a companion case, Doe v. Bolton, the Court ruled that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment
extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that right must
be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating
abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting women's health.
Arguing that these state interests became stronger over the course of a
pregnancy, the Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion to the trimester of pregnancy.
The Court later rejected Roe's trimester framework, while affirming Roe's central holding that a person has a right to abortion until viability. The Roe
decision defined "viable" as being "potentially able to live outside
the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid", adding that viability
"is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur
earlier, even at 24 weeks."
In disallowing many state and federal restrictions on abortion in the United States, Roe v. Wade prompted a national debate
that continues today, about issues including whether and to what extent
abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion,
what methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication, and what the role should be of religious and moral views in the political sphere. Roe v. Wade reshaped national politics, dividing much of the United States into pro-choice and pro-life camps, while activating grassroots movements on both sides.
I believe that these three decisions were America's way of saying "we don't need you God and we don't want you".
When you vote, if you haven't yet, I'd like you to consider that it isn't the Constitution that will save the US. It isn't a political party. It isn't the right man/woman. It isn't even being a good patriot. It's about whether or not we as a nation are going to truly humble ourselves, admit we have been a sinful nation, that we have blasphemed God, we have disobeyed Him, we have mocked the name of Jesus, we have taken Him out of our very fiber and allowed "other gods" into our lives and our country. That we are sorry and that we truly want to regain His favor.
No matter what happens on Election Night 2012, I hope you'll consider the following Bible verses as we move forward as a nation.
James 1:20 - "The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God". Involvement in politics should be wise, intelligent and from deep conviction not from anger or hostility.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 - "Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say". Don't write or say something about our political leaders that you wouldn't be willing to say before God Himself. It does not help.
Proverbs 15:22 - "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed". Whomever you vote for or support after the election, they need to surround themselves with Godly advisors.
Daniel 2:21 - "He removes kings and sets up kings, He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding." God will determine who is in authority but we stil have a responsibility.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 - "I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." We MUST pray for those in leadership roles.
Proverbs 29:2 - "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan". Choose with this thought in mind.
This one is the one I choose to pray for my country daily. If, like me, you believe the Bible is not two separate books, one for the Jews and one for Christians, that it is ONE book about the redemption of man by a loving God and all points to Jesus, then this text is just as important for ANY nation as it was for Israel.
2 Chronicles 7: 12-22 - "the Lord appeared to him at night and said:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’
“But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land,
which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated
for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”
So, back to my title: "Who Really Wins On November 6"? GOD wins!
God Bless America and may God bless you!
