http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/18025.html

by Gary Kelly
Complacency or Virtue?
September 05, 2006 10:27 AM EST


Are you too busy to learn exactly what the candidates on your ballot stand for? Are you too busy and therefore need to rely on your elected officials to uphold your values, fiscal responsibilities, education, and social services? Are you too busy to take the time to distinguish between the candidates which ones will most likely provide the best choices in determining the quality of life your descendents will have?

Your voting determines if you want government to become a cradle-to-grave-nanny-state which demands higher taxation, increased bureaucracy, and as evident from the past, increased corruption and inadequate emergency response and healthcare. Your vote also signifies either your compliance with a secular progressive worldview promoting more government regulations, or a Biblical worldview of personal responsibility, commitment, and respect.

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user." Theodore Roosevelt

"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it." Woodrow Wilson

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." Norman Thomas, Socialist Party Presidential Candidate in 1940, 1944 and 1948, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

What is your worldview?

The First Amendment says, explicitly, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Your vote is either for “freedom of religion” or the secular “freedom from religion.” Then depending on the candidates you vote for in turn will nominate judges who hold either this secular or Biblical worldview.

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them."…"The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Islam, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects." From: "Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States" (1840) by Joseph Story, Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, A founder of the Harvard Law School.

"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed." James Madison's original draft for the First Amendment

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers' let it be impressed upon your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends upon the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted...If a republican government fails...it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws." And "It is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion." Noah Webster

Are you secular or Biblical?

Unlike when America’s founders and Martin Luther King Jr. called upon all religious leaders to impress upon our politicians and Congress to uphold “unalienable Rights” as “entitled” by “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” today’s proponents of a secular worldview would have you deceptively believe that today’s religious leaders are after a theocracy, when in fact the Constitution which was signed by 54 Christians and contained 115 Biblically-based laws, still did not create a theocracy. Will your candidate support disease and death or “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” when it comes to promoting same-sex marriage, abortion, and assisted suicide?

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." The second paragraph continues: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...." Declaration of Independence

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

James Madison writing to Thomas Jefferson in the year of the Declaration’s 50th anniversary, he wrote of its supremacy over our nation’s Constitution: “On the distinctive principles of the Government...of the U. States, the best guides are to be found in...The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental Act of Union of these States.”

"No power over the freedom of religion is delegated to the United States by the Constitution." Thomas Jefferson, the person whom secularists attribute “separation of church and state.”

Gun Control and Eminent Domain or Constitutional Rights?

Your selection of candidates reveals your support of either increased gun control or upholding the Second Amendment.

"...the Constitution does not say that government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says '... the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'" Ronald Reagan

I would remind my colleagues that policies prohibiting the private ownership of firearms were strongly supported by tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung." Rep. Ron Paul

"It is a basic principle of a tyrant to unarm his people of weapons, money and all means whereby they resist his power." Sir Walter Raleigh

"A government that does not trust its law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is itself unworthy of trust." James Madison

"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions." James Madison

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free." George Washington

Monopolies or Free Enterprise Competition? Education or Indoctrination?

Does your voting align you with forced Union dues, which is the equivalent of a big-business monopoly, and where government-run schools will continue to demand more money, which has never been enough, or ever will be? Or perhaps your vote will favor competition and school vouchers where foreign countries have proven success rates of higher academic results than that of the more expensive U.S. schools. To vote to maintain the status quo in government-run schools also means the current move to rid God and Christ (the Light of the world) in favor of GLSEN and Kevin Jennings (darkness), and teaching UN global citizenship over America’s Christian foundation and history.

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." Groucho Marx

“Every economics textbook says monopolies are bad because they charge high prices for shoddy goods.” John Stossel

In an article published September 20, 1789, in the Palladium magazine, Fisher Ames wrote: "We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We're starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools...little books into the hands of children containing fables and moral lessons... We are spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools... The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other manmade book."

"The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." Abraham Lincoln

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again." Ronald Reagan

Deception & Coercion or Upright & Impartial Honesty?

Is your vote going to be determined by deceptive and coercive sound bites, which have thus far succeeded in duping many politicians, school administrators, and more disturbingly judges? Has the misuse and redefining of discrimination, diversity, tolerance, bigotry, and hate to target Judeo-Christian faiths, fooled you into believing compromising with evil is justified?

"Knowledge unenlightened by the truth of God is dark knowledge. We may have a B.S., an M.S., and a Ph.D., but without the Lord all we have is dark information. It may help navigate us in the world of darkness, but by itself will never lead us to the truth. Apart from the revelation of the Spirit of God, none of us could ever find our way into the light. Darkly educated people are like those whom Paul described to his young protégé', Timothy, as 'always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.'" (2 Timothy 3:7) Rediscovering the Kingdom by Myles Munroe

Compromising laws & social services or Virtue & Respect for Law & Order?

You vote will elect leaders who will either uphold the law of the land or allow multiculturalism to continue to weaken and diminish tax payer services, healthcare, education, etc. by subsidizing and enabling immigrants to refrain from reading and speaking English and assimilating into the American way of life. The leaders you support will also determine border security, whether to remain vulnerable to attacks and disasters, or tightly secured preventing gangs and terrorists to freely enter.

“Now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . .it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.” James Garfield 20th President

“We are really enabling immigrants to avoid learning English and assimilating into our culture because we give them everything they need so they don’t have to learn to speak English or become part of the traditional melting pot. By enabling these people, we build an enclave for them that looks like the one they ran away from at home...” Michael Reagan

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." Patrick Henry

"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment." George Washington

"The one absolute way of bringing this nation to ruin, or preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. we have but one flag. We must also learn one language and that language is English." Theodore Roosevelt

"Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American. American institutions rest solely on good citizenship. They were created by people who had a background of self-government. New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship. America must be kept American. For this purpose, it is necessary to continue a policy of restricted immigration. It would lie well to make such immigration of a selective nature with some inspection at the source, and based either on a prior census or upon the record of naturalization. Either method would insure the admission of those with the largest capacity and best intention of becoming citizens. I am convinced that our present economic and social conditions warrant a limitation of those to be admitted. We should find additional safety in a law requiring the immediate registration of all aliens. Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America." Calvin Coolidge

The War on Terror: Presumptuous Negotiations or A Firm Hand

Your vote will decide how the war on terror will be fought, whether coddling with the Islamic caliphate or addressing it for what it is with all vigor and effective unwavering diligence.

“It is long past the time when we need to start ‘playing’ the equivalent of smash-mouth football with these [islamofascists]. They’ve got our number, but we don’t yet have theirs. The British are still shocked that people who are born in their country, go to their schools, have British accents and eat fish and chips would kill their fellow Brits. They do so because their allegiance is not to Britain, or to the Queen, but rather to their perverted view of God and the instructions from the hate preachers telling them to go bag some Jews, Christians, Westerners and other ‘infidels.’... This isn’t about ‘civil rights’ and constitutional protection. These people use our Constitution to protect themselves so they can kill us. And this is decidedly not a game. It is life and death. We want to live and they want us dead. Any questions?” Cal Thomas

"Our enemies may be irrational, even outright insane, driven by nationalism, religion, ethnicity, or ideology. They do not fear the United States for its diplomatic skills or the number of automobiles and software programs it produces. They respect only the firepower of our tanks, planes, and helicopter gunships." Ronald Reagan

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom...crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" Samuel Adams

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." George Washington

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." John F. Kennedy

"[In war], there is no alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war there is no substitute for victory." General Douglas MacArthur

U.N Charter or U.S. Constitution?

Your vote determines if you will uphold and defend America’s power and sovereignty or select candidates who will obsolete the Constitution and hand over control to the United Nations Security Council. Your vote here will also determine whether or not you support the coercive Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) which is in truth an Americas-Union, a like-minded European-Union. (http://www.spp.gov) Your vote may determine our descendents will either enjoy individual freedom or become global citizen drones. Your vote may decide whether your descendents will continue to elect American statesmen and maintain three legislative branches or be subject to one unelected Security Council. Your vote may determine if we continue to turn over America’s National Parks to the UN Heritage Foundation and allow the deceptive “sustainable development” agenda to revoke existing property rights.

"My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth."…"But if we are to be told by a foreign Power...what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little."…"Against the insidious wills of foreign influences, the jealousy, of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government."…"My ardent desire is, and my aim has been...to comply strictly with all our engagements foreign and domestic; but to keep the U States free from political connections with every other Country. To see that they may be independent of all, and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." George Washington

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none." Thomas Jefferson

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world." Daniel Webster

“A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts.” James Madison

Continue to Maintain Inadequate Programs or Reform them?

Your vote chooses how if and how necessary reforms will be impacted. Taxes: A simplified and fair tax code or the current inadequate and immeasurable tax code which is unfair and provides for immeasurable corruption as well. Social Security: This temporary solution has grown into what FDR feared it would, a permanent dependence on government to provide what the workers could now easily provide for themselves. Healthcare and Medicare: As evident from the shortcomings of both those countries with socialize healthcare, and our elderly having to choose between medicine or food, these failed programs must now require a gradual return in phases to the private sector. The government’s federal responsibilities have grown far beyond what our founders defined for good reason, the incapacity to produce the necessary results.

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents...."…"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions." James Madison

Unaccountable Government Spending or Transparent Accountability?

Will the candidate you vote for wisely spend your taxes or will that candidate also become embroiled in pork-barrel funding in lieu of lobbyist donations? Will term-limits be required to remedy this lack of virtue among long-term politicians? Will your candidate support the bi-partisan bill S. 2590, the "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act?" This bill will create a Google-like search engine and database to track approximately $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, earmarks and loans? Americans will be able to view how their Congressmen spend their tax dollars.

"Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. ... The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty." John Adams

"When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country." Noah Webster

"The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it." Woodrow Wilson

"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our prosperity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity. Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits." Daniel Webster

The States can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market." …"Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction." …"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. ... A wise and frugal government ... shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. ... Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated. ... Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands?" Thomas Jefferson

Choices: Our descendents will reap what we vote.

Will your votes in Election 2006 and 2008 produce a more secular or Biblical worldview for your descendents? Will your votes result in a world of virtue or selective evils for your descendents? Will you vote for temporary monetary secular cures or Biblical virtue? You cannot serve both God and mammon.

"Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them." --James Madison

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

Apathy or Action?

Perhaps you don’t care? Perhaps you feel your one vote doesn’t count? Perhaps your not affected by these issues? Perhaps you feel safe and secure? Perhaps your are content and complacent and therefore apathy suits you just fine? Perhaps you are not even registered to vote? Perhaps you are comfortable with letting other determine the future for your own descendents? Then, will your descents know virtue?

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." George Jean Nathan

"If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security." Samuel Adams

"The world is a dangerous place to live -- not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." Albert Einstein

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual...but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." Samuel Adams

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation , to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. John Jay

When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan. Supreme Court Justice William Paterson reminding his fellow justices of Proverbs 29:2. United States Oracle (Portsmouth, NH), May 24, 1800

"When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine

"We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world...We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God." Abraham Lincoln

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." …"Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction." Thomas Jefferson

Summary

"Let a general reformation of manners take place--let universal charity, public spirit, and private virtue be inculcated, encouraged, and practiced. Unite in preparing for a vigorous defense of your country, as if all depended on your own exertions. And when you have done all things, then rely upon the good Providence of Almighty God for success, in full confidence that without his blessings, all our efforts will inevitably fail." John Jay, First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

"Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally-I do not mean figuratively, but literally - impossible for us to figure what that loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves."…"In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at or ignored their religious needs, is a community on a rapid down-grade."…"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." Theodore Roosevelt

"The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans—ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country...Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." John F. Kennedy

"[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." John Adams

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and what never will be." Thomas Jefferson

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." Daniel Webster

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Thomas Paine

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln

"Independent of its connection with human destiny hereafter, the fate of republican government is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian religion, and a people who reject its holy faith will find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions and of arbitrary power." -- Lewis Cass A member of the Democrat Party, served as a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State for President Buchanan and was the Democrat Party's Presidential Candidate in 1848.

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." -- Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence

"In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." Edmund Burke

"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves." Joseph Warren