At a Time Like This it is Worth Revisiting George Washington©

My wife and I just returned from Washington, D.C., for a two-week visit with our daughter and her family.  While there we took the opportunity to visit many historical sights including the places of the Founding of America at Valley Forge, in Philadelphia, and Mt. Vernon in Virginia. All taught us things we didn’t know about George Washington.  That information coupled with what we learned when we visited the Yorktown battle sight earlier in the year, gave us a new interest in the Father of our Country.

In Valley Forge and Yorktown we learned of his immense physical courage and dedication to the Revolution and its principles.  We also learned of the “miracles” that seemed to follow him as a man of faith and morality.  In Philadelphia and Mt. Vernon we learned that following the War he resigned his commission and returned to private life, though there were those who wanted to make him a king.  He was not power hungry or self-serving.  He came out of retirement about seven years later when he was UNANIMOUSLY elected the first president of the United States, but here too, after two terms he voluntarily relinquished the position.  He died at age 67, yet a fairly young man in today’s terms.  A film we watched about him at Trenton at Christmastime in 1776 where he crossed the Delaware river to surprise and defeat the enemy ended in an interesting way.  It said something like “Will there ever be another Washington?  Perhaps, if we are smart enough to keep his principles.”

Washington bequeathed to us a great personal and political legacy if we are smart enough to keep it and the principles he fought for, and the kind of man he was. It left me pondering. Of course that pondering highlighted the immense contrast there is between his character and leadership with the consequent legacy bequeathed to us, and the sorry sleaze and the future they will produce which we find ourselves having to choose between in 2016.  

We have lost our way, and from my point of view an important cause is the rise of secularism and the loss of faith largely resulting from prosperity and materialism and the gradual erosion of our political values and institutions due to the liberal spiral downward to the lowest common denominator. As a FB post I read the other day said,“The Left created the culture of absolute sexual license, but now condemns Trump for his participation in it.” That is one of the major problems we face today and an example of the hypocritical tied-up-in-knots paradoxes leftist liberal philosophy produces.

Will we ever have another Washington? Given the dominant political, social, and religious philosophies in America today it is almost impossible. This critical situation has driven me deeper into my own religious faith. When I expressed my view that under such circumstances I believe if we remain true to God’s moral law he will bring us through, this brought laughter of scorn -- "lol, how is that working our for you?" -- from another reader. That’s the way it is today isn’t it? Marginalize faith from the public square by laughter and scorn. But I was reminded by something I encountered on FB this week from the book of Judges which my laughing friend may benefit from reading:

And the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver your from the Egyptians ... Amorites, ... the children of Ammon, ... the Philistines ... and the Zidonians  ... the Amalekites ... and the Maonites..... Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.  (Judges 10:11-14)

Judgments are promised upon those who forsake their God. One is his abandonment of them in the time of tribulation. This is sometimes the result of political decisions in violation of God’s commandments. We are in such a time of tribulation. However, we have hope. A book of my own faith repeatedly promises things like:

Wherefore, this land [America] is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever. (2 Nephi 1:7)

Or,

But if you will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.  (Mosiah 7:33)

The “lols” of the mockers and scorners notwithstanding, I believe if we are ever to see another Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln, it will be because we serve the God of the land and keep his commandments.  It will be because we do not settle for the lesser of two evils–which is still evil.

Let's think together again, soon.