Shining City On The Hill

by Hilmar von Campe

There is an enormous confusion in the American mind about the role and nature of religion, about God, their relations with each other and to personal life, public policies, education, foreign policy, peace and war, tolerance toward other religions, to name only some areas of concern. The question of tolerance toward other religions has become especially explosive since the war on terrorism broke out. Practically all terrorists are Muslims. So what kind of religion is Islam?  However, there are non-Islamic religions that are not state religions but part of the national identity like Hinduism in India . The difference in this case is that Hinduism is not violent. 

There have been plenty of comments after the recent elections about the unprecedented hatred that surfaced and about the verosity of accusations, which were made. Remarkable also was the unrestrained lying even using fraudulent documentation through some media outlets like CBS. Lies and hatred go hand in hand. I have not only seen this hatred here in the United States but met it during several visits to Europe where I stated in lectures to various audiences my support for the President of the United States . 

Questions are being raised as to why America is so divided. What makes intelligent college professors hate the president? Did the media treat him fairly? Everybody laments the polarization in the country and I have heard several times from different people expressions such as “now the elections are over let’s all be Americans again and work together.” That, of course, is not going to happen where it matters, unless you go to the root of the problem and change the hearts and minds of those who hate and seek power for their own benefit.          

The elections showed that the need for values and the corresponding votes had the major impact on the results putting President George W. Bush for another four years in office. When the losing Democrats discuss what went wrong and talk about embracing American values, the question remains whether they will look for a more attractive label or a profound change of their political platform. Looking at what needs to be done, Republicans and all of us must not satisfy ourselves with good but secondary achievements. These four precious years must bring fundamental changes to American society and policies. At stake are the power of God in world society and America ’s global leadership. The world, and especially the Muslim world, does not accept the sexualized, abortion-infested and litigating American society as a showcase of a free society. They envy the wealth, become resentful and want America hurt.

The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty , and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Our liberties in the United States come from God and are not granted by any government or institutions like the United Nations. The Declaration states “all Men are created equal” thus referring to all of humanity. I do not think that Kofi Annan, Jaques Chirac or Vladimir Putin and their partners have the power God has and the truth He is, even though they would like to put themselves in His place. It is therefore self-evident that God is the source for freedom for everybody everywhere, for all nations, for all of humanity. America is meant to be the avantgarde of freedom. And that has been the mission of the Unites States since her birth as a nation and most Americans, who are aware of their national uniqueness, have a sense of mission in their bones.

But can you effectively establish lasting freedom anywhere if at the same time you destroy the source of freedom in your own society? Our government establishments voted into power by citizen, have during the last century pushed God out of our schools, out of public policies, out of school books, out of everything which has anything to do with government.  Furthermore, the Chief Justice of state’s Supreme Court was fired for posting in the courthouse the Ten Commandments of the One who is the source of our freedom. Is there anything wrong with “do not steal,” “do not lie,” “do not murder?”  It is probably the “do not commit adultery” commandment that gets under the skin of too many Americans, especially if you have a practicing unrepentant adulterer as president.

It is self-evident that such hypocrisy cannot bring lasting freedom to the world. We shall win the war in Iraq and democracy will prevail, and that is of course a great step in the right direction. But that still does not guarantee their citizens lasting freedom. The European nations are democracies but they are not moving toward freedom but toward enslavement in a Socialist environment, which their governments are imposing on the citizens in the name of democracy. They are godless, and that is the consequence. 

What is happening in Europe can also happen in the United States , and every last American bystander is responsible for the disastrous consequences of turning against God, for the double talk, which has become the rule for too many policy makers. For instance, the Declaration of Independence states clearly that our rights and our liberty are a gift of our Creator but in our schools teachers are not allowed to mention Him, but instead teach the pagan nonsense of Darwin . The Constitution and those who gave us freedom are scarcely mentioned. Our children and grand-children are being robbed of their heritage. Where are the Christian law makers, parents and teachers who can put an end to this perversion? Lying in an armchair and watching television? It is not enough to “leave no child behind.” Who is it who prepares the school books and who is it that allows the brainwashing of the young generation? The whole system has to be shaken and must be fundamentally changed.   

Christian religion and God are not identical even though religion is flourishing and the churches are full. God was around before any religion existed, before any human beings existed. God is not an expression of the personal faith of anybody, and His existence and Commandments are not subject to approval of any government or any believer or non-believer. Everybody is free to believe or not, but the Commandments remain obligatory for everybody everywhere.    

In spite of the full churches American society is not Christian. Who is running the media? Who is running the education? Who made the murder of the unborn legal, and who blocks any attempt to make it illegal?  What kind of people are making films that are being shown around the world resulting in certain impressions to be made about America ? There must be something wrong with Christians, as was the case in Germany before and during the Nazi years, since society is drifting away from God. Christian teachings are unique in the world; the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ, the commandment to love God in the first place and your neighbor as yourself, the promise of eternal life. But to present the Christian message as a personal matter, kind of comfort for the soul and a way to heaven without necessarily taking God’s absolute moral standards serious, falls short of the reality the Christian message represents: a revolutionary message to change the world. 

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton declared the Partial- Birth Abortion Ban Act to be unconstitutional. It is “irrelevant,” she stated in her reasoning, whether the fetus suffers pain, because the woman’s right to chose “is paramount.” Who put her into office and why is she not being impeached? What she says is pure Nazi ideology, one group of innocent people has to be killed for the benefit of another group.

“Whose God rules nation?” asked journalist James L. Evans in the Mobile Register describing the impact of religion on the result of the elections: “the process raises some troubling questions. For instance, how does the spiritualizing of the American political system impact the way our government functions? Are we a theocratic state, ruled by God through a divinely appointed leader? To whom does a divinely appointed leader answer?” He concluded that those who are elected answer to the people and not to God who therefore does not have the last word, - a concept difficult for Christians to swallow, he thinks. 

A theocratic state is not ruled by God but by man-made rules. Those who make the rules and govern refer to God or idols but in the final analysis are normally serving themselves in the first place. There were anointed leaders like Moses in the Judeo-Christian history but I do not think that that is an issue for today. Those who are value-oriented voted for Bush in this election because they thought that he is more likely to implement their values in his policy than Kerry is. I think they were right. 

God guides a nation through people who listen to him and who apply His commandments in their life and then implement them in the political, social and legal structures of society - as our Founding Fathers did. Disregarding those commandments means that there will be no functioning society, no freedom but death. Hitler did exactly what the ACLU and like minded enemies of freedom do, separating God and society. That philosophy destroyed Germany and cost 50 million lives. It will destroy America if they are allowed to continue with their lies. America is meant to be a nation under God. A theocracy means rules. A nation under God means character and motivation. There need to be God-centered leaders and not self-centered and self-seeking manipulators. God-centered people will produce such leaders.

Being tolerant does not mean making immorality equal to morality. America has been a very tolerant country and integrated millions of immigrants from all parts of the world. The moral decline in our society, however, creates the wrong kind of tolerance, tolerance of moral aberrations, and wrong philosophies. Integration disappears, and ideological schism surfaces. And that is why America is divided in two ideological camps.

A sovereign America is meant to be the “ Shining City on the Hill,” an example to all nations to see how people live together. Strong armed forces have to protect the nation so that this American experiment can take place. If God and His Commandments are being pushed out then there is no shining city which others want to copy, Instead there is hatred. Hatred and lies have to be overcome. How? By truth. The issue is what principle guides the exercise of power, and not what religion do we promote.  America is going to win if we stick to the letter and the spirit of our Constitution.

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