Conservative Response to Liberalism - Part #3 - Government's Role

I would like to take a moment this morning to post the last part of my conservative response to liberalism series. (PART 1 HERE) - (PART 2 HERE) I haven't touched on this for a while now, since the topics of discussion were leading elsewhere, but I do feel it necessary to finish what I started. So, here is my last response to Mr. McKinley's Proud to Be A Liberal article.

To quote;
"Liberalism is "The Pursuit of Happiness." It is the freedom to create an environment where the individual can excel. What is freedom if it cannot be used to better our lives? A truly free society must be one where its members can rise above their limitations and expand their futures. We call it "The American Dream," and it's alive and well in the heart of the Liberal. Liberals believe in equal opportunities for all to rise above our means. Liberals believe in equal opportunities to rise above our education levels. Liberals believe in equal opportunities to rise above our social status. And Liberals believe each and every family should have an equal opportunity to make this world better for their children."

Once again, we are met with Mr. McKinley stating that liberalism is creating freedom. I cannot except this as true, however. Liberalism seems to do nothing but get in the way of freedom, and in the process, get in the way of the pursuit of happiness (as they are often times one in the same).
Liberalism is about growing government bigger. The modern liberal holds that the government can solve all the problems of the day. This 'big government' does nothing but block the individual's freedoms; it stops them from living as they want to. The bigger government gets, the less chance any individual has to do with there life what they want. If laws are put in place saying a person can't own a gun unless the are screened for months, register yearly, report there comings and goings, and face charges if their gun is used (even if they aren't the ones using it), than you are putting forth a situation where many wouldn't bother owning a gun. A freedom taken away. (This freedom is even constitutionally defined)
The modern American government is in our life constantly. It is telling the schools what to teach our children, and discouraging those who disagree and wish to homeschool. This is called, in many cirumstances, indoctrination. Don't get me wrong here, I don't believe that every class in every school is some type of government indoctrination. However, when the government says that the school cannot teach Creationism as an alternative to evolution, that is indoctrination. It is presenting only one side of the issue at hand and not letting any type of free decision to be made; it is stopping free-thinking from ever occuring.
In the end, do we really want the government to be growing, giving a small group of people more and more power? Sinful man, in his fallen state, cannot in most cases be trusted, unless fervently seeking God. Yet, our government has turned away from it's Christian founding. This government was founded by God-fearing people who looked upwards for the solutions to what they saw around them. The constitution was written on the premise that the government needs to stay as small as possible to allow freedom and liberty to reign across the land. The founders admitted their fallen, sinful nature and understood that power would corrupt government; they knew that the size of the government needed to be small to preserve the nation; and they knew that it was from a gift of God that they had a chance to form this country.
So where are we today? Our government is growing (along with the national debt), our President publicly states that we are not a Christian nation (even though we were founded on Christianity), our President is going around the world apologizing for our actions (instead of being proud of our heritage and what we have acomplished), and our people are turning their backs on God, leading to the moral deprivation of the individual.
Liberalism the pursuit of happiness? No, it's not. It is going farther and farther from it everyday. Only when man understands his governments role, and this nation is truly One Nation Under God, will this country be free and the people free to pursue happiness.

Morality - Absolutism v. Relativism - Response to a Comment

I have received a lot of great feedback from people to my last post about morality and relativism in modern society. (Thank you all) It has set off a lot of hot-button issues (abortion, faith, morality) that I believe really need to be talked about openly, so I am going to break from my 'conservative response to liberalism' series for a moment and talk on this some more.
The latest comment left by an anonymous person chastised me for calling humans "infinitely more valuable" than animals. I want to take a moment to answer them very directly.

To The Anonymous Poster - While I may be wrong because I can only look at what you have written here, I believe you are an example of what I was talking about earlier; someone who has taken moral relativism and evolutionary theory to their full extent and drawn the only conclusion that can come from it - humans are not of any higher value, but are actually equal to animals, since we are just animals in the end. This theory, then put into action, leads directly to using a program like eugenics to selectively breed only the best humans to make a better and stronger race. (Hitler was trying this with his Aryan race experiments) (It was also, interestingly, started in the US around the time of the Depression, but was ended very quickly when people found out what was happening) While most would see this as a very dangerous path to go down, it really truly is naturally where relativism leads to.
Here's how I see it. This world was created in six, twenty-four hour long, days. When man was created, he was set apart from the rest of creation, made in God's image. (Gen. 1:26) And, as we all know how the story goes, Man became sinful and fell from God's glory (Gen 3). This was the start of redemptive history from the beginning of time, and continuing now. Man was told to "...subdue the Earth", (Gen 1:28). He was not told to walk along side animals as equals, nor was he told that he came from animals in a great evolutionary system, but that he was created "...from the dust of the ground" (Gen 2:7). This world is made for us by God to have dominion over (Gen 1:28), and as humans, we have spirits within us, we have reasoning minds, and we have a huge range of emotions, longings, and desires, as well as a conscience (Rom. 2:14-16), helping us to discern right from wrong (essentially, helping us follow God's word).
In our fallen, sinful world, we are taught by the "modern culture" that this type of thinking is foolish, yet it has never been proven wrong, and continues to show how right it is everyday. We are taught to have "open-mindedness". However, as the pastor John MacArthur says, having an open mind is a dangerous thing. It lets in all things, not discerning or sorting out information, but excepting it all. It's like having a house and leaving the door open at all times. Anything could come in at anytime, and if the door's open, who's to stop it. Of course, things could also leave at anytime. MacArthur's analogy fit's the modern "open-mindedness" perfectly, and we see where it leads people everyday.
So, in the end, you and I have two different places we are framing this argument from. I am looking at it from a biblical, moral absolutist standpoint (through faith in Christ), and you are looking at it from a moral relativist, evolutionary standpoint (through faith in naturalism). We are both assuming a starting point and going from there. To an outside observer, we really need to start this argument, then, from a new point - where did humanity come from, apes or God? Why do we have reasoning? Where did this world come from? Why? This would then allow us to move into questions such as the value of human life, the absolute or non-absolute morals that guide our day to day life, etc.

I hope not to offend anyone with what I have said, but I also hope that it makes people think about their situation in this life and where they stand in the grand scheme of things. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and as always, feel free to leave comments and let me know your thoughts. Thank You.

Tax Day TEA Party - My Impressions

I attended the TEA Party in St. Paul, MN yesterday, to show my support of fiscal responsibility, (the government not overspending), limited government, (the government not in the way of peoples freedom), and free markets, (the government letting businesses work).
The crowd estimates for this party were between eight to ten thousand people. Multiply that by the hundreds of tea parties going on across the country and you have a huge event. Now I hope the country was listening.
Of course, many media outlets were not willing to just report the story as it was happening. CNN even went so far as to demonize and harass those attending. ((Watch the video here)) This is showing what conservatives have been saying for a long time; the media is blatantly and unashamedly bias. Every report I could find either hugely downplayed what was happening or linked the people in attendance to "extremists".

Extreme? How extreme is a rally that starts with the Pledge of Allegiance? How extreme is a rally that numerous times broke into chants of "USA, USA"? How extreme is a rally of people who see a news helicopter and turn around to wave? (I thought that was a bit corny myself, but it did go to show how peaceful the demonstration was). Most rallies are liberal in nature. They involve screaming and chanting, they often times have some violence thrown in (RNC Welcoming Committee for example), and tend to be very resentful to any authorities. This is why the media loves to report on rallies. There tends to be something violent happening, and something 'exciting' to show on TV. These TEA Party rallies were not like that. They were sane, peaceful, and had a very easy to understand message - stop spending our money like there is an infinite supply of it.

So, as the country moves forward, where do we go? I sincerely hope that we can move forward in a direction where the conservatives of this country are not afraid to say what they believe; not afraid of being demonized by the media or even those around them. I hope for the country to hear the conservative voice and listen to what they say. But most of all, I hope for a country that is informed about what is happening and willing to get involved with what is happening. Let's all be open to debate, open to conversation, and open to involvement in the process of this country. I leave you now with my favorite picture from the rally.

The Faith Our Country Was Built On - Not Worship of the State

I will start of by saying that this is a sensitive subject. Perhaps if you would like a longer discourse from me on the subject, you can email me at kelbylovelady@gmail.com and I will try to go into a bit more depth than I do here. But, as with any subject of serious significance, it is always going to be argued and fought over. So anyway, here is the video clip of President Obama in Turkey.
((Video Here))
In this video, Obama treads into water that I feared him going into, and does so on an international stage. He calls us a "secular nation" and also a "nation of citizens". In other words, a nation which doesn't have it's guidance in God or faith; doesn't have it's morals coming from a firm foundation, but instead uses a moral system that changes with the times and situations (moral relativism); a nation of people who have to look somewhere for guidance and will lean on their government, not themselves, their faith, and the freedoms and liberties granted to them.
It may not seem like a big statement that Obama made, but every person has to put there faith in something. I have learned this is always true, and with some deep self-searching, it can be figured out to be true by anyone who is honest with themselves. Where that faith is put determines a lot about the person. If a person puts their faith into God and religion, they have moral absolutes, right and wrong, black and white, a reason and purpose for their thoughts and actions; if a person puts their faith into government or self or any other man made group/thing, you then end up in inevitable moral relativism, loss of sanctity for human life, and a de-valuing of human experience.
So, what did the founders of this country think of religion in the citizenry? Here's John Adams, the second President of the United States:
"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were. . . . the general principles of Christianity. . . . I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature."
How about Benjamin Franklin, one often pointed out as the 'un-Christian' founding father of this country. What did he have to say?:
"I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe; that he governs it by his Providence; that be ought to be worshipped; that the. most acceptable service we can render to him is doing good to his other children; that the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as be left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it."
How about one more? Thomas Jefferson, perhaps:
"I, too, have made a wee-little book from the same materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigm of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
I don't mean to force any thoughts or religion on anyone. I only mean to demonstrate hear that this country was founded on religion. This country was founded on faith and belief and moral absolutes and working towards a higher purpose. This country was not founded on moral relativism, worship of self and of state, worship of material things, or any other.
Mr. Obama, you have worked hard in your overseas trips to make friends with the nations of the world, and for that I applaude you. But, please be careful in how you speak. Do not take away from our heritage as a country founded on the principles of religion. We do not worship government, or hold to government, but hold strongly to freedom, to liberty, and to faith given to us from above.
As the Declaration of Independence states (added emphasis mine):
"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."