[OBW]

I will be among the first to agree that America is among the greatest nations ever to exist. And the fact that there is a Judeo-Christian philosophy underpinning it and driving its basic ethos is part of the reason for that.

But no matter how far we try to take the Christian underpinnings, it is a secular nation. Everything in the little speech that guy gave was premised upon there being some contract between God and man concerning America that granted it blessing.

There is no such contract. This nation is what it is based upon the strength and will of rational people to choose good over evil.

The ongoing attempts by so many to recast it as some "walk through the carcass with God" experience just tugs at people's heart strings. It sounds so nice. Especially nice to have such a favored place before God. (Sound familiar? Just like we thought we had in the LRC.) And they are so sincere about it. So it must be right. It just feels right. That is how we get these crazy ideas. Someone feels it must be so and they play our emotions. And we dance. They may have good intentions, but the road to . . . .

It is an equivalent of discussing the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. It is a complete distraction from the very purposes of scripture and the righteousness of God. And even, as Paul might have said, if it gets people to repent, the question will become "from what are they repenting?" Will it be from their own failures, errors, misdeeds, etc.? Or will it be for the nation's acceptance of abortion, gay marriage, etc.? Will it be for the nation pushing prayer out of schools, the ten commandments out of government buildings, or nativity scenes out of public parks?

No matter how you phrase it, for me to repent that America has "gone astray" is a joke. It has not gone astray. It is composed of people who were born astray. Everyone one is responsible only for themselves. They can't repent for others just like you can't buy people out of purgatory. And if we are not the ones aborting babies and performing marriage ceremonies for gays, then how do we repent for it?

It is a misguided distraction. It is similar to a malaise that has taken hold of the country in which no one is responsible for themselves and instead we all carry on with the sense of angst for the fact that someone else chose poorly and now faces jail or some other consequence. Blame their environment. Blame the schools. But never allow them to face the consequences. Don't mark their school papers with red because it is distressing.

So now we should add on to repent on behalf of others. Don't we have enough repentance to do for ourselves? If we think otherwise, then we are seriously mistaken.

I listened to the nonsense that the guy spoke. You can listen to me. I don't claim that my stance is "biblical" or that there are 9 harbingers out giving a warning. But that guy did.