Three Rights Make a Left

“America is Great Because America is Good”

Dr. Ryan Smith, the Family Life Minister at Eastridge Church of Christ is one of the best teachers I have ever heard. On Sunday he said something so profound I just had to talk about it in my column. What he said is that in the battles in the book of Numbers and Judges God gave them victory in battle, not by conventional means but in ways that made them certain that it was God who gave them the victory and not their own efforts alone. He went on to say that the same thing is true today. He used the example of Social Media and said that we can’t combat the enemies of God in the same social media forum, it just doesn’t work. It you think about it, God gave the nation of Israel victory after victory as they retook and held the promised land. It was their faith in God that gave them the victory and ultimately it was a waning of their faith that led to their being taken into captivity.

A faith in God has been the foundation of our success as a country. I have talked in the past about how our founding fathers believed that our that our freedom is a gift from God. However, in the last couple of decades we have seen an erosion of our faith.

A few months ago, a Gallop poll showed that the percentage of Americans who attend Church has fallen below 50% for the first time since polls have been taken. For well over half a century the percentage remained above 70%. However, the last few years have seen a steep decline in Church attendance. The most recent poll showed that only 47% of respondents said that they attend worship. The decline has been accompanied by a host of problems in our society.

In 1835 Alexis De Tocqueville, a French Historian wrote his observations of our new country in a work called “Democracy in America”. As an outsider he wrote one of the most beautiful observations about The United States in recorded history:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

If we want America to remain Great, we have the same challenge that Israel had several centuries before Christ. We have to be faithful and bolster our own faith and the faith of our children and grandchildren. As a people Covid has sent us for a loop. People have stopped attending worship and I fear we will suffer severe consequences because of it. The one thing we can to is redouble our commitment to our creator and each other and like coals of fire stoke the flame of faith in each other.