I remember talking with some friends about the Iraq war before troops were deployed. I told them that I did not believe we would be able to free the Iraqis because they did not have freedom in their heart. For years I heard people talking about spreading democracy around the world as though this would bring freedom to people. In that statement there are two important signs that Americans are losing their understanding of liberty. The first is that no form of government can make people free if they lack the virtue and faith required for successful self-government. Just because people vote does not mean they are truly free. Second, the emphasis on democracy may imply the triumph of secular humanism in the fact that a democracy does not acknowledge an eternal standard of morality but instead determines ethics by the will of people. Our founders understood this and that is why America was founded as a constitutional republic that looked to God’s standards of right and wrong and biblical truth as a sure foundation for national blessing. Once the moral foundations of a society are destroyed society crumbles.
Recently I had a dialogue with someone online who demonstrates how we have lost our founding values. I responded to a video they posted that stated, “Homosexuality is found in 450 species, homophobia is found in only one. It is obvious which one is unnatural.” I responded with, “Reason is found in only one species. Apparently when we approve of acting like animals, we lose the ability to think. The laws of nature are understood by reason not the behavior of animals.” This sparked an interesting dialogue where I discovered the person who posted it is a homosexual, tarot reader, practicing witch, drug user and a professing Christian. That may sound like someone who is far away from the mainstream, but many of the values and perspectives he proclaimed were very much mainstream. The values we hold and the lifestyles we live are the foundation of the fabric of society. If they are contrary to God’s design, then the nation will stray farther into a world of darkness where people will suffer in a broken world separated from the love and presence of God. When people are no longer able to see self-evident truth, the solution is an army of people motivated by love and empowered by the Holy Spirit, that are armed with the rhetorical skills to captivate the hearts and imagination of a lost generation to turn the nation back to God. It is our sincere prayer that God will use Fortis Academy to raise up a generation that will restore the fear of the Lord to America.
One key to restoring liberty to America is education. Rabbi Sacks said, “To defend a land, you need an army, but to defend freedom, you need education. You need parents, families, and homes and a constant conversation between the generations to see that your ideas are passed on to the next generation and never lost. . . . You achieve immortality not by building pyramids or statues—but by engraving your values on the hearts of your children, and they on theirs, so that our ancestors live on in us, and we in our children, and so on until the end of time.”[1] That is one of the goals of Fortis Academy.
While the US Constitution has created a system of government that in many ways reflects a biblical social architecture, it is only as strong as the character and faith of our citizens. If we want to preserve the blessing of American freedom and faith for future generations, we need to engrave Christian faith and virtues on the hearts of our children and give them the skills to lead and govern society according to biblical values.
[1] Guinness, Os. Last Call for Liberty (p. 39). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
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