American News Commentary

WE MUST HAVE HIT A NERVE in last week's
issue, if we are to judge from the responses we have
received. Most were emphatically in agreement with
the viewpoint we expressed, and apparently feel even
more strongly than we do about what is happening to
the America we used to know. As a result, we are
more than ever persuaded that this is no time to quit!
Our nation is worth reclaiming! Share your thoughts
with us at: american_news_2008@yahoo.com
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SOMETIMES OUR FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA
DESCRIBE THE PREVAILING SITUATION
MORE CLEARLY THAN ANYONE ELSE

First, this brief essay which is prompted by excerpts
from an address before the Parliament of New South
Wales, Australia, on April 15 by Dr Stuart Piggin,
Director of the Centre for the History of Christian
Thought and Experience. at Macquarie University --
a man recognized as probably Australia's premier
Christian scholar.

After referring to a recent statement by an Anglican
Bishop that Australia is the best and last hope to be
a Christian democracy, with the greatest chance to
show the world what a Christian democracy should
look like, he made this perceptive analysis: "America
has blown its opportunity of showing to the world
what a Christian democracy should be like by
mistaking its military might and material power
for the blessing of God. America's great problem
is that it has used its spiritual capital to Americanize
Christianity rather than to Christianize America."

He went on to explain that Europe has already given
up its opportunity to show the world what Christian
democracies should be like by failing to even identify
Christianity as being part of its heritage in the new
constitution of the European Community. It prefers
to observe the heritage of reason over its Christian
heritage. Much like America, Europe has secularized
Christianity rather than Christianizing secularism.

Dr. Piggin is correct in his conclusions, of course,
and accurately describes the problem we face here
in America -- we have "Americanized Christianity"
instead of "Christianizing America." However,
he makes a commonly occurring error in portraying
America as a democracy. Even Hillary Clinton, our
Secretary of State erred -- quite seriously for one in
her position -- when in speaking last week to the
European Parliament, she said that she had: "never
understood multiparty democracy... I feel the same
way about our own democracy, which has been
around a lot longer than European democracy."

The localized error in that statement did not go over
well with her European audience, because Europe
has always been considered to be the birthplace of
democracy -- specifically Athens in ancient Greece,
where a form of government called "demokratia"
was instituted approximately 500 years BC.

The other error in her statement was the assumption
that the United States is a "democracy." Such a term
is never used in the Declaration of Independence, or
in the Constitution, where in Article IV, Section 4,
these words appear: "The United States shall
guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican
Form of Government.." It is true that we observe
certain democratic practices in elections. etc., but
we are and always have been, not a democracy,
but a constitutional republic. Recall the Pledge of
Allegiance, which specifically mentions the flag
"and the republic for which it stands."

It has been said that Democrats (liberals) like to blur
the distinction between a republic and a democracy.
They want voters to think that their party's name
"Democrat" equates to a democracy, rather than for
those voters to equate the party name "Republican"
to a republic.

But the challenge before us as Christians remains
for us to Christianize America, rather than to permit
the present trend to continue -- in the guise of
"progress" -- to Americanize Christianity.

On a strictly temporal basis, we have just reached
the 100th day of the Obama presidency -- and it has
become an American custom to make an evaluation of
a new president's performance at the 100 day mark.
In the present instance, it is very difficult to arrive at a
consensus opinion on President Obama's performance.
There are too many elements in so many undertakings
to achieve such an evaluation with any degree of
unanimity.

If you rely on polls for developing such an opinion,
overall they are favorable . . . and pretty much the
same as for the past three presidents' poll ratings on
their first 100 days. Obama's performance index, as
measured by the Rasmussen daily surveys, has been
decreasing steadily from the January Inauguration
Day, when it was around +20, to the lowest level to
date -- reached last weekend -- at +2, and is hovering
around +4 or +5 today.

(By comparison, other surveys place American voters
opinion of Congress at: 34% approving, with 59%
disapproving. For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the
approval rating is 35% and disapproval 60%. And for
Senator Harry Reid, his approval rating is 29% and his
disapproval rating 45%.)

Among the most important events in the first 100
days of the Obama presidency was the series of TEA
Parties ("Taxed Enough Already") which attracted
more than a million participants earlier this month.
Despite the strong efforts of most of the media to
suppress the news coverage of the events, word did
get out, and this true "grass-root" effort will likely see
many similar events across the country yet this year --
already announcements are appearing of more such
observances being planned for July 4. In spite of the
ignoring and belittling by the administration and the
elite media, the right of American citizens to exercise
their freedom of expression cannot be denied them.

Although the President is generally considered to be
the best informed person in the world, when these
TEA Day observances were taking place on tax day,
April 15, his press secretary, the usually glib Robert
Gibbs, said the president was "unaware" of those
events. The reason for this lack of knowledge was
based on the "busyness" in which he was involved at
that time, including his overseas trips when -- among
other activities -- he bowed humbly before King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia .. he engaged in a weird
finger-linking greeting with avowed Communist
President Chavez of Venezuela (who called Obama
an "ignoramus") ... he sent entreating "outreach"
messages to Israel's and the West's avowed nemesis,
Iran's President Ahmadinejad ... he made warm and
friendly overtures to Cuba's dictator Raul Castro,,,
and apologized to America's friends and enemies
for our "arrogance" and "divisiveness."

As for President Obama's apology to Europeans for
America's "arrogance," he can probably be forgiven
for his lack of understanding of the facts of history
because he is too young to have experienced World
War II. That war marked the second time in the 20th
century that America stepped in to save Europe and
the world from the savage onslaughts of German
nationalism -- at a cost in American lives of over
520,000 (that's more than a half million) ... with over
400,000 in World War II alone. As the son of a
World War II veteran commented a few days ago,
"Americans need not apologize to the world for
their arrogance; rather, Americans should
apologize to their forefathers for the arrogance
of their president."

But enough of the 100 days of Obama-phobia. The
facts, or approximations thereof, can and will be
interpreted to fit the preconceived notions of the users.
Already the Internet, and some publications are
displaying editorial type cartoons which portray
President Obama with a halo, signifying his deification
in the minds of his followers. Another shows him riding
up to the White House seated on an ass, as Jesus
entered Jerusalem. And yet another one, by artist
Michael D'Antuono, titled "The Truth," and showing
Obama with his arms outstretched in front of the
Presidential Seal, and wearing a crown of thorns on
his head, is being displayed today in New York City's
Union Square. This is the same Barack Obama whose
supporters anointed him as "The One," and who
boasted in his nomination victory speech on June 3,
2008 that his election would be remembered as "the
moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow
and our planet began to heal." Not quite so
messianic is the Los Angeles Times portrayal of him
as "the nation's first 'hip' president."

Obviously, our responsibility, as Christians, continues
to be to Christianize America , and not to encourage
the present trend toward Americanizing, or moreso,
Obamizing Christianity. Regardless of what some of
his more gullible followers may think, he is not the
Messiah, he is not the Savior of the United States or
of the world. At the moment, at this 100 day point
in time, his anti-Christian plans and proposals appear
to make our task more difficult, but the promise of
the Word of God is true, that "greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the world." (I John 4:4)

In the news today, and claiming the most attention,
is the current "Swine flu" epidemic, now centered
in Mexico where more than 1,600 cases have been
reported with 175 deaths, followed by 150 cases
in America, still with no confirmed deaths, but
with "reported" cases showing a sharp increase as
the incubation period expires for more individuals.
New cases are now being reported in other states
and other countries around the world. Further
expansion of confirmed cases and numbers of deaths
are to be expected according to authorities. A major
problem is the lack of accurate informational statistics
concerning "reported" or "confirmed" cases. The best
current advice as to what we should do, comes, oddly
enough, from President Obama who says we should
stay calm and not panic. Addressing a similar subject
in 2005, then Senator Obama with Senator Richard
Lugar issued a report, "Grounding a Pandemic." The
subject was the 1918 flu pandemic which had its start
in America and then swept across the world killing
perhaps 50 million people. Of this pandemic, John
Barry in his "The Great Influenza" noted, "Influenza
killed more people in a year than the Black Death
of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed
more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in
24 years."

Of those vast numbers of deaths, more than 500,000
were in America. Subsequent flu outbreaks such as the
Asian flu epidemic in 1957 took 70,000 American lives,
and the Hong Kong flu epidemic in 1968 took another
34,000 lives in our country. Thus the "Keep calm -- do
not panic" advice is sound, up to a point. We need to
keep informed and follow health authority instructions.
It will probably be helpful to have a Secretary of Health
and Human Services -- although the just confirmed
nominee, Governor Sibelius from Kansas, is, like
President Obama, an outspoken advocate of abortion.

From one of our Founding Fathers: "God who
gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties
of a nation be thought secure when we have
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the
minds of the people that these liberties are of the
Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but
with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just; that His justice
cannot sleep forever." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1774

Some Random Afterthoughts . . .

Our readers seem to enjoy the "one liners" that
we come across in our research -- like this one from
Abraham Lincoln: “It is better to remain silent and
be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and
remove all doubt.”
Then there is this classic from Ronald Reagan: "The
trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're
ignorant; it's just that they know so much that
isn't so."
And speaking of President Obama, former Senator
Fred Thompson said this week: "I think it’s a case
of naiveté, ineptitude and unbelievable arrogance
and lack of experience."

We never like to overlook Global Warming,
given the strong efforts of the Obama administration
and its Democrat controlled Congress to pass the
Cap and Trade proposal. Last week Al Gore, the
prophet of Global Warming, appeared before the
House Energy and Commerce Committee to try to
scare them into passing Cap and Trade. Not helping
in the Gore effort was Democrat Representative
John Dingell, who said, "Nobody in this country
realizes that cap and trade is a tax, and it’s a
great big one." Part of the maneuvering was the
refusal of the Democrats to allow Lord Christopher
Monckton, former Science Advisor to Prime Minister
Thatcher, to appear at the hearing Al Gore addressed.
Monckton said that when his plane landed from
England he was advised that he would not be
allowed to testify alongside Al Gore. "The House
Democrats don't want Gore humiliated, so they
slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,"
Monckton said; "They are cowards."

America's largest Protestant denomination,
the Southern Baptist Convention, released statistics
for last year, which can be summed up as follows:
Giving, Attendance, Number of Churches: UP; but
Membership and Baptisms: DOWN. Despite the
economic crisis, Southern Baptists gave 2.3% more
to missions, established more churches, and had
larger total attendance, but lost some members, and
baptized the fewest people since 1987, according to
the Annual Church Profile prepared by LifeWay
Christian Resources.

Two interesting news items: (1) The Presbyterian
Church USA, has retained its constitutional rule that
its officers practice “fidelity within the covenant of
marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity
in singleness.” Thus the denomination has maintained
the church's historic position, and has held the line on
the moral issue of homosexuality. (2) Richard Cizik,
former vice president of the National Association of
Evangelicals, we was forced to resign because of his
Liberal views, has reappeared, speaking with the
environmentalists on Creation Care at Earth Day
observances.

From an early national leader: Robert Winthrop,
who served as speaker of the U.S. House, and as
Secretary of State in the mid-1850s, set forth these
options: "Men, in a word, must necessarily be
controlled either by a power within them or by a
power without them; either by the Word of God
or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible
or by the bayonet."

A thoughtful word from a Founding Father: "But
what do we mean by the American Revolution?
Do we mean the American war? The Revolution
was effected before the war commenced. The
Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the
people; a change in their religious sentiments,
of their duties and obligations... This radical
change in the principles, opinions, sentiments,
and affections of the people was the real
American Revolution." -- John Adams, 1818