Checking the Foundations of the United States

In How Shall We Then Live, Dr. Francis Schaeffer recognized that the new world (the Americas) has followed the old world's (Europe) philosophies, and therefore, its artistic and cultural trends, by about a century. This process has fast-forwarded: International terrorism, and the reactionary Patriot Act, has the US flirting with National Socialism and Facism as Germany and Italy did in the 1930s.

Future acts of terrorism and use-of-force by law enforcement will test the strength of our current cultural foundation. Future states-of-emergency like Koresh, McVeigh, and 9-11s could place our country in a police state.

History can help us to see if the USA's foundation is strong enough to survive our dark future. Our liberties and freedoms have been so enshrined in this country because they are perceived as Inalienable rights: they come from a creator.

Thomas Jefferson was a fan of John Locke, who secularized Samuel Rutherford's theological work, Lex, Rex or "Law and the Prince." Prior to this thinking, it was the king who made the law. After Northern Europe's Reformation introduced basic theology into governmental form, Jefferson borrowed concepts like the right to revolution and separation of powers from Rutherford.

The United States is said to be the great experiment with law and liberty. What influence has the last 232 years had on our culture's foundation? Seventy-some percent of Americans claim to believe in God, but when push comes to shove, is human law the pragmatic highest authority?

Will the social tapestry of 2008 America give-way to a police-state for the sake of lawfulness?

What would that be like in a Superpower with our current military technology?

With the social security/ health care/ energy crisis-Great Depression II looming in America's path, the next decade will see the rest of the world closing in on the United States superpower status. China will be a formidable geopolitical force, and may surpass us soon. Another oil embargo would torpedo our economy.

Past our immediate challenges, we still have a for-profit healthcare system, and according to current mortuary-tables, the Baby Boomers will live into their eighties. The U.S. government proclaimed a woman's right to choose in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. When insurance company and health care lobbyists push for the elderlys' right to die with dignity, will we end up with euthanasia-clinics à la Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston, or Karen McSpadden's "Edge of Water" in the Light at the Edge of Darkness anthology?

Everything depends upon our foundation. If human rights don't come from a source higher than humans, rights can be both given and taken away by humans. Human rights originating in a Creator are crucial for people of all races. It's how we know that the Identity cult being run by white-supremacists is not to be confused with Christianity. Compassionate activism based on the Golden Rule is how our culture will rebound from the coming challenges. With this century's predicted genetic technology, DNA quick-fixes may be offered, but Eugenic and Transhumanistic perfect race blue-prints for humanity's future must be rejected.

Back in the early 1900s someone* is to have said "America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good, it will cease to be great." If you love your neighbor as yourself, it's easy to wake up in the morning. In the end, it's one's heart that will be judged.

*This statement has been attributed repeatedly to Alexis de Tocqueville. While it is uplifting and poetic it is also falsely attributed. It does not appear anywhere in Democracy in America, nor has any evidence been found to link to a speech of de Tocqueville.