The following appeared in The County Compass this week:

Analog America

We live in the age of digital recording—the tenth generation copy of a recording is identical to the original. Many of us grew up in the age of analog recording—each generation copy of a recording was a little less like the original. Unfortunately, our current government in America is like an analog recording of what the Founding Fathers created.

Ronald Reagan once noted, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

In 1607, English settlers reached Jamestown, Virginia, England’s first permanent American colony. One of the reasons for establishing the colony was to be a Christian witness to the native Americans.

The Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11, 1620, as the Pilgrims prepared to leave the Mayflower and begin a settlement in their new land. The Mayflower Compact includes the words, “for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country.”

Plymouth and Jamestown had a shared goal of spreading the Gospel to America. Now there are actually missionaries coming to America from other countries to share the Gospel. Many years ago, I met an African man who was a student at M.I.T. who told me that part of his reason for coming to America was to be a missionary—missionaries had come to his country and shared the Gospel. He felt that America needed the Gospel and he needed to return the favor.

Early education in America was generally home-schooling where children were taught to read using the Bible and books related to the Bible. A moral education was an important part of the foundation of our Republic. Thomas Jefferson once said, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

The Founding Fathers shared basic foundational beliefs. They were not all of the same religious sect, but held to basic beliefs about God. They believed in one God who created the universe, revealed basic moral principles, holds man responsible for his treatment of his fellow man, and they believed in accountability to God in the next life. These are the principles that established America.

Samuel Adams stated, “…While the people are virtuous, they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader…[Yet] if virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.” (Quoted from THE LIGHT AND THE GLORY by Peter Marshall and David Manuel)

Patrick Henry stated, “The great pillars of all government [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.” (quoted from THE LIGHT AND THE GLORY).

So where are we now?

America no longer follows Biblical morality. Divorce, homosexuality, sexual immorality, and abortion are all acceptable behaviors in today’s American culture. We have seen an academic decline in the past 50 years (test scores are down and cheating on tests is not uncommon). Crime and poverty have increased. We have removed prayer from our schools and removed the Ten Commandments from many public places. We ourselves have undermined the foundation of our country.

Harvard University was established in 1636 as a school to train pastors in the New World. Last month, the Harvard Chaplains’ Organization voted unanimously to elect an atheist as its president.

Our original founding has gone through so many analog generations that it is no longer recognizable. The “city on a hill” is rapidly becoming a garbage dump for ideas that have no basis in reality of morality as corruption threatens our freedom and our Republic. It is time to return to the original—acknowledge the God-given morality we were founded upon and secure that foundation.

The Bible gives us the blueprint for bringing America back to its foundation:

2 Chronicles 7:14 New International Version

¹⁴ 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.

This is the only way to return to the freedom and prosperity that we have been blessed with for so many years.