AMERICA - WHAT WENT WRONG?
by Jim Kaness

America stands at a crossroad today. Shall we continue in those traditions that made us what we are today, or shall we follow a different path as we move into the future?

America was settled predominently by northern Europeans who brought with them their laws, their customs and their faiths. Many had been thrown out of their homes by tyrannical governments that severely restricted the peoples' freedom to speak their minds, to worship as they pleased, and to follow in the profession of their choice. Our founding fathers identified these core principles and established a government based on their common heritage but which ensured opportunity for all based on their talent, ambition, and perseverence rather than on their family connections and ancestry. One thing our founders held in common was their Christian faiths. The details and denominations varied, but their faiths all took their tenets from the Bible, and from the Ten Commandments in particular. Of course, not everyone practiced one of the Christian faiths but they all accepted those values as worthy rules for living together. The majority prevailed in choosing the rules we should live by.

The abundance of cheap land and natural resources offered opportunity for prosperity and many prospered. Some were greedy and sought to prosper at the expense of others by killing off the natives and importing slaves from elsewhere to work for meager subsistence rather than fair wages. Thus we began to repeat those un-Biblical customs and conditions that our founders rejected when they sought a better future. The concept that money and position could purchase justice and opportunity became a cancer in our society, and all too often was supported by a tortured interpretation of the Bible by many churches. As it had in Europe, Christianity was blamed for those excesses and injustices condoned by the churches although condemned by the Bible.

The new government of America was a Republic of elected representatives who were nominated and elected by a popular vote of the people. School boards, city, county, and state governments were meant to be occupied by persons well enough respected by the citizens that the citizens would willingly submit to their decisions. But, as the population grew the nonination of candidates passed from the people to political parties who nominated candidates for the good of the party rather than for the good of the citizens. How many of the candidates on your ballot do you personally know and respect?

Today, as history is being "re-written", we are taught the Ten Commandments are outdated and that our government was "never" founded on Christian principles. That is a lie. But, a lie told often enough and loudly enough will be believed by many, especially those who for their own reasons would like to believe it. We are turning away from being a Christian nation and becomming a secular nation. And while the new apostles of this secular approach have loudly rejected Christian values and principles, they have never to my knowledge replaced those principles with any particular secular principles and values of their own. Freedom has been replaced by anarchy in which we should be free to do anything we want. Representative government of, by, and for the people has been replaced by representative government of, by, and for the special interests who have gained control of the ballot.