"But we have forgotten God"

The week of July 4 was fabulous, then awful.

I grew up in Dallas, Texas.  For almost 20 years my dad worked less than 2 miles from where the shootings took place on July 7, 2016.  Because a lot of my personal history was lived in Dallas, that event weighed heavy on my heart and soul.

But as tragedies often do, these events brought something front and center for me—something I have come to realize personally over the past several weeks, and I hope that others are starting to realize, too. 

That something is that these problems are not political anymore and have not been for years, maybe even decades.  What is going on in America, with all due respect, has nothing to do with politics—with #NeverTrump, #NeverHillary, Saul Alinsky, the left, the right, or anything else.

It has to do with God.

To explain what I mean by that, I must share what I have learned over the past few years about Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln was probably one of our most beloved presidents.  I am one of those people who believes that it was his courage and leadership that saved this country over 150 years ago. 

Well, it turns out that early in his career Pres. Lincoln believed in political solutions, too.  He was actually pretty good at politics.  In truth, his political instincts helped him become president in 1860.

An example of his political approach was on full display in his speeches and debates pre-1861.  They were principled, yes, but also full of compromise and conciliation.  A great summary of his political philosophy can be found in his first inaugural address (March 4, 1861).  In short, his proposed solution to the problems at hand was a political compromise.

Then Lincoln learned, after two years of painful war, that what was going on in America was not political.  

It had to do with God.

Beginning in 1862/63 Lincoln knew, after watching America pay a very, very heavy price, that this was a country who had forgotten God.

[May] we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God (Proclamation, March 1863).

Lincoln knew that what America needed more than anything wasn't a better Republican Party, wasn't "the rule of law," but a return to GOD.  At Gettysburg he said:

…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth (Gettysburg, November 1863, emphasis added).

“This nation, Under God.”

I invite you to read Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address—it is not very long and it is totally different in tone from his 1st. While reading, count how many times he references Heaven and the Almighty.  Just one example:

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right…

I believe that all conservatives, not only as individuals, but also National Review, RedState, The Resurgent, Conservative Review, Heritage, FreedomWorks, Rush, Hannity, Beck, Levin, Shapiro, (Mike) Lee, Cruz, Sasse, Romney, etc etc etc—need to understand this one point—that the REAL "bottom line" is that what America (and the world) needs now, more than anything else, is a return to GOD. Until then, all anyone's political pontificating will be is just wasted breath (and film and print).  

Politics is not going to save us.  Politics is not the answer.  God is.

Lincoln knew this, and he knew it very, very well:

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness (Proclamation, March 1863).

President Lincoln’s solution was to declare a national day of prayer. This day turned out to be a vital turning point in the great Civil War. 

Have we as a nation forgotten God? Do we need to humble ourselves before God and pray for forgiveness?

‪#GodBlessAmerica ‪#GodSaveAmerica ‪#PrayForAmerica ‪#GodWillProvide ‪#ThankGodForAmerica #LookingForLincoln