In the late 1970s, many people quietly wondered if our country was over. Our great enemy at the time, the USSR (today’s Russia) seemed to be unstoppable. We had just suffered an embarrassing defeat in Vietnam, then had a worse humiliation to watch an ally be invaded while we merely sat on the sidelines, our national promise, our word given to another, tarnished. Then, at home, we had the misfortune to see the impact of greed, deceit and a macabre love for expose in the Watergate fiasco. Then, two oil embargoes connected with the overwhelming sense of economic failure to produce the stagflation that Keynesian economics promised could never happen–rising inflation along with a dead economy. President Carter, a good Christian man from the South, seemed incapable of directing the country into any successes.
When the 1980 election came, many conservatives were energized by the campaign of Ronald Reagan. Not only was he proposing to be proud of the country again while strengthening ourselves for the coming conflicts with the USSR, he also seemed to have an understanding of the historic values that had developed the nation. As I wrote a few weeks ago, we don’t like to contemplate how important Christianity is to the nation, important in our national history. FDR’s prayer is, another example of the idea that the USA was founded and sustained with a firm belief in our faith. We need to acknowledge this and consider again the importance of this idea. Reagan said it well in 1982.
To preserve our blessed land, we must look to God. And we must look to the hearthstone, because that’s where all hope for America lies. Families are the bedrock of our nation — teachers of cooperation, tolerance, concern, and responsibility. Rebuilding America begins with restoring family strength and preserving family values…. It’s been written that the most sublime figure in American history was George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. He personified a people who knew that it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness, that they must also seek help from God — their Father and preserver.
Where did we begin to lose sight of that noble beginning, of our conviction that standards of right and wrong do exist and must be lived up to? Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from him in our day-to-day life? It’s time to realize, I think, that we need God more than he needs us.
Well, let us come together as friends. We’ll never find every answer, solve every problem, heal every wound, or live all our dreams. But we can do a lot if we walk together down that one path that we know provides real hope.
The Book of St. John tells us that “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We have God’s promise that what we give will be given back many times over. And we also have His promise that we could take to heart with regard to our country — “That if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.”
Maybe it’s later than we think. Let us go forth from here and rekindle the fire of our faith.