Vice-President of PeaceMakers Speaks!
The following is a speech delivered by the Vice President of PeaceMakers Institute, at a Tea-Party gathering in the Orlando Florida area.
We Need the Divine Influence of God
by Rev. Douglas Bankson
We are truly one nation under God!
If there was ever a time in history that we need the divine influence of God upon our hearts and minds, it is today. As we stand celebrating 233 years of precious liberty, we find ourselves fighting for the principles of that liberty in the midst of a culture war vying for the corporate conscience of our nation. Abraham Lincoln once stated, “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.”
This blessed Constitutional Republic given to us by our forefathers is being attacked from within by ideologies that would mock our core beliefs as archaic and out of touch with the mainstream. However, these purveyors of a new mainstream “pop-politics” refuse to see that the rapidly increasing current is leading toward a destructive waterfall of economic and moral calamity. As Ronald Reagan so aptly stated, “If we forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
Scripture guides us to the fact that “righteousness (alone) exalts a nation” but “if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Our foundations are based upon certain unalienable rights that were endowed by our Creator. Therefore, it is God and not government that is the source of our liberty and is the benefactor of our blessings and security. His Word clearly teaches that, “it is the gift of God for a man to enjoy the fruit of his labors.” Therefore, it is an inherent wrong for those labors to be taken unjustly and used contrary to the very conscience of those who have earned them.
Let me be clear: I am not against taxes. I am against unconstitutional and unjust taxation which extracts our earnings and forces us by a secularist moral code to redistribute the wealth contrary to the laws of just recompense for labor. It is called taxation without representation; in other words, taxation levied by government without the consent of the governed through a duly elected representative. To put it in laymen’s terms, “the saddle shouldn’t be bigger than the horse!” (Incidentally, the phrase “No taxation without representation” was coined by Rev. Jonathan Mayhew in a sermon in Boston in 1750.)
There was once a pastor that was ready to receive the weekly collection. He asked the congregation to stand. Then he said, “Now reach into your neighbors’ pocket and give like you have always wanted to give!” We laugh, because of course, that’s a joke! However, it is not a joke when, through the guise of public interest, our politicians reach into our pockets and give according to the lobbyists that put them into perennial power. Like the wedding planner in “Father of the Bride,” it’s always easier to spend other people’s money.
But there’s another name for giving without our consent: THEFT! We don’t need government taking our wealth and then giving us back a stipend of our own money and calling it a “Stimulus”! I’ll tell you what will stimulate me… GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF MY POCKETS! LET THE LAWS OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND COUPLED WITH PERSONAL INGENUITY FUEL THE GREATEST ECONOMY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH!!
Let us then look for a moment at the preamble to our Constitution. The word preamble means, “the introductory part of a statute stating it’s purpose, aims, and justification.” The word literally means “to walk before slowly.” It was with deep and deliberate thought and daily prayer that our forefathers crafted this enduring document, based upon biblical principal and moral conviction. Springing from the justification denoted by the Declaration of Independence and based on our inalienable rights endowed by our Creator, they gave us 5 specific purposes for our Constitution and began by writing:
“We the people” (the government of the people, by the people, and for the people), “in order to form a more perfect Union” (the aim of the Constitution – a Union of free and independent states with rights of self determination and a common interest)…
Then the five stated purposes of the Constitution were delineated:
1) “Establish justice” (a rule of law for the protection of each citizen)
2) “Ensure domestic tranquility” (freedom from fear of tyranny)
3) “Provide for the common defense” (a standing army protecting our corporate interests)
4) “Promote the general welfare” (not provide the individual welfare, but support an infrastructure that promotes and aids our free trade system, such as standard weights and measures, interstate commerce laws, etc.)
5) “…and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” (to protect our right to the free exercise of religion, free speech, freedom of the press, right to bear arms, etc.)
(It is for this aim and these purposes that we, the Congress of elected representatives) “…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
“To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…” Isn’t that why we are here today? My grandmother, who is here and will celebrate her 91st birthday this month, always told me to leave things better than you found them. Isn’t that our calling as citizens? It is not only our right, but also our duty as citizens to educate ourselves, inform and inspire others, and to be actively involved.
I leave you with this statement: Freedom is like a fire; it only belongs to those willing to tend it. Unchecked it can either do great damage or burn out entirely. Let us continue to embrace and carry the torch of liberty that future generations may bask in its sweet glow and walk in its clear light.
May God truly bless America!
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” – Proverbs 3:6
