Issue 5: American Leadership and the World - American Leadership and the World

tyrantsTyranny of a different sort, but just as vial, also prevailed whenever hedonistic philosophies purged a society of it spiritual and moral heritage. The 1960's counter-culture, its sexual revolution and its spawned self-absorbed popular culture of today romanticizes the ensuing behavior as "modern," "liberated," "progressive," but it turns a bv01820blind eye to the real consequences of the new standards; lives that are ruined by inordinate, uncontrollable addictive, self-destructive behavior.

Patrick Henry reminds us that these types of “freedoms” are nothing more than the chains of slavery.

“Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom.”

2. To share the fruits of America's blessings.

The second important area where America’s can contribution is to share with the world the abundant material blessings of God. There exists today a strong debate on how much and in what manner should America give to the world. Some say we should give more while others question the value of “State” giving and foreign aid projects. giving

Is America a generous nation? Most American's like to think of their nation as being generous. There are two distinct views of this. One view sees America as being able to give much more. James Miskel provides the following assessment:

Western nations can clearly afford to spend more to address the problems afflicting impoverished nations. Only the Scandinavian countries invest more than 1% of their gross domestic products (GDP) in foreign aid. The United States, Japan, Germany and the other leading economic powers spend proportionately much less. The United States spends only 0.12% of GDP -- one-eighth of one percent -- in overseas aid The Debate About Foreign Aid - James Miskel

Miskel's criticism comes from the perspective that national giving is exclusively within the sphere of State-initiated and managed foreign aid programs. Carol Adelman at the Hudson Institute has a different view. She has studied how much Americans give privately in foreign aid. She says it’s a myth that Americans are stingy.”We’re one of the most generous people in the world, and that’s because of our private philanthropy,” she said. Adelman published her findings in the institute’s “Index of Global Philanthropy,” which found that while the U.S. government gave about $28 billion in foreign aid in 2005, privately, Americans gave $33.5 billion.

bv01821When we examine the status of American assistance to the world, in terms of what amount would be the proper volume of giving, one is drawn to an indisputable fact. One reason Americans aren't giving more is because so much of the nation's resources and so many of its citizens are involved in addictive behavior.

Hard core drug users and casual users - spend approximately $60 billion dollars a year, according to U.S. government estimates. That alone, is more than twice the amount of both public and private giving combined. USA Today recently reported that Internet porn alone has become a 13 billion dollar a year industry. PornoTube, started nearly a year ago, generates 10 million to 15 million hits a day — making it one of the 200 most-popular sites on the Web, according to Alexa, which tracks Internet traffic.

A nation losing its virtue bares a heavy fiscal burden as a result. Consider the ever increasing expense of law enforcement and the incarceration of 7,000,000 Americans presently within the penal system. "In 2003 the United States spent a record $185 billion for police protection, corrections, and judicial and legal activities. Expenditures for operating the Nation's justice system increased from almost $36 billion in 1982 to over $185 billion in 2003, an increase of 418%" Source: Hughes, Kristen A., "Justice Expenditure and Employment in the United States, 2003" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, April 2006), NCJ212260, p. 2.

The Purpose of Freedom is to Give

bv01823The purpose of freedom is fulfilled when we live in love for the sake of others. Galatians 5:15 tells us clearly that freedom is for giving to others, not self-indulgence.

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. . Galatians 5:13

It is only in an environment of freedom that love can exist and living for others can be experienced. In fact, when we are no longer capable of altruistic behavior, we lose our freedom. The more we direct life to our own selfish purpose at the expense of others, the more we are subject to self-destructive habits and inordinate, uncontrollable desires and obsessions. We lose empathy with others; our own desires become singular and paramount. The path culminates with a desperate turn toward the State. We call on the all-encompassing State to compensate for a broken society helpless to provide for its self-absorbed citizenry.

As Truman had warned us, the decrease of virtue amongst the citizenry leads to the increase of totalitarian government. The people, themselves, call for it. In truth, Americans do not need more government programs, government hand-outs, government bureaucracy for local, state, national and world charity. This is not giving, this is a form of slavery. America needs to restore virtue and freedom. If America can restore the spiritual root of it's heritage and manifest the virtues thereof, then the ideals delivered in the "sermon on the mount" will guide the nation in all that it does; not because of the government, but because of the character of its citizens.

3. Stand as a Model of “One Family Under God.”

bv01824In 1969 the first color photo of earth was transmitted from Apollo 10. It revealed a view never before seen by the human eye. There before us was our planet, hanging in the blackness of space; a luminescent blue orb with fields of brown and swirls of white spinning clouds. Most noticeable was that the magnificent earth in the photo was unlike any globe placed upon any teacher’s desk. How utterly different than any map. Before this, our image of earth was one tethered within an imaginary net of boundary lines that defined the nations. But now, as we gazed, in awe, at this first photo from space, we realized in that instant that the boundary lines defining the nations were all imaginary; they didn't exist. There were no nations, only one home for humanity. It made us feel that we were all, somehow, connected.

chromosomeIt’s interesting that both genetic science and the Bible show that there is a single origin of molecule. According to genetic science we come from a single male ancestor. In the Bible too it is mentioned that there is a single male Adam and single female, Eve. Dr. Spencer Well, Geneticist

In his book, The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, Dr.Wells follows a genetic trail through DNA back-tracing to a single human ancestor some 60,000 years ago in what is now Namibia in Africa. The entire human race has chromosomes from this original ancestor. This conclusion is remarkable in that it is the same conclusion of Genesis: we are one family. However, we are a family that has lost its common sense of origin and heritage.

atombombThus the actual story of humanity has been a tragic one characterized by the rise and fall of estranged peoples of unrelated identities, each with an indigenous myth of origin, each driven to cordon off a territory in which to display their own separate cultural identity distinct from the surrounding sea of “others.”

slavesIt is the story of distrust, hatred, ethnic cleansings, genocide and wars. Each act of atrocity justified as a necessity in order to advance, or to avenge, "my people." It was a history predicated on the false premise that there are those who are my people and there are those who are not. The greatest truth of this age is the undeniable reality that there have never been others. There has always only been us. All humanity are my people, genetically, spiritually, literally; we are one family under God.

bv01825Some believe that God heard the prayer of the Pilgrim Fathers and made a Covenant with them as he had done with the Israelites in the wilderness. So too, the prayers of African slaves, chained in the darkness of the hull bottoms of slaveships named "Brotherhood" and "John the Baptist." They were praying for a land, to form a nation reflective of the value that they had discovered at the root of their faith. A nation not based on the definitions of aristocracy and peasantry, freeman or slave nor beholding to the whims of divine kings. A nation flagbased upon a new view of human value. That all were created equal and as such were endowed with the rights of a people so loved by their Creator. This is the root of the declaration that we are truly One Family Under God.

It is also the basis of God's hope and purpose for America; that America would be a shining example of love and service to the world so that the world might know that they are loved even as God has loved America and shared His abundant blessings with her. With that altruistic value, "living for the sake of others," America's leadership in the world would forever be welcomed and embraced. The value that brings together mind and body, husbands and wives, parents and children, would define the character of the American and, thus, the character of the nation.

America was to live for the world bringing true freedom into the world as a model of the good news that we are truly one family. It is God’s enduring Providence to bring that wondrous news to every land in the hope that it could be the ethos of every nation, every religion, every family and every person. It is an immutable truth that existed before all prophets and all religions. It stood even before the dawn of time, this dream; it is God's dream, it is a part of him and is with him for all time.



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