She asked the 3000 so-called progressives---"Why don't you be more like an American?"
America stands at the crossroads of identity. We are deciding who we are...and why.
Be informed.
In the same city where our Founding Fathers authored our Constitution---the most enduring document of its kind in human history---Somali refugee, Muslim and now elected US Representative to Congress, Ilhan Omar told the 3000 so-called progressives gathered in Philadelphia this weekend that America has to stop "living in hypocrisy."
While she says she's "accused of being anti-American," she actually "loves this country more than anyone that is naturally born."
Well, she is apparently hanging out with the wrong crowd. To her surprise, if she got out more often she would find that millions of Americans also love this country---but that's not my point.
She says (this is a quote):
"The great America. The land of liberty and justice. That is, you know, you ask anybody in, walking on the side of the street somewhere in the middle of the world, they will tell you, 'America the Great'."
Actually, Muslim nations refer to America as the "Great Satan" while referring to Israel as the "Little Satan."
And I think I've seen demonstrations against the US in some European and Asian countries as well---long before Ilhan came to America, or Trump became President.
She notes that "America" used to be "a positive thing" but is "continuing to live in its hypocrisy" that she and others are "working so hard" to change---"Why can't you just be more like an American?" she asks.
I agree. Let's be more like an American.
To be more like an American, we must look at what made us all "American" in the first place.
And...It all depends on what "Great" is.
The untold story in our current culture.
My friend the late Tim Lahaye, famous for his "Left Behind" series, also wrote a book titled, "Faith of our Founding Fathers."
He says,
"The untold story in American history (at least in the books written in the past 50 years) relates to the debt the people of this nation owe to the Christian faith...The overwhelming majority of our Founding Fathers were raised in and believed in the Christian faith."
Our first president publicly shared this prayer for our newly founded nation:
"Almighty God; We make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy Holy protection; ...Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Savior."
Now, 243 years later Ilhan is ashamed when we ourselves should be ashamed.
We have largely forsaken the founding principles that made America great. We have forgotten the paths we should have remembered. And we are paying for it. Far too many Americans are ignorant of the Constitution that was written to secure our God-given liberty.
Everything seems to be out of control. No wonder Ilan is confused. Most far Left progressives are confused.
Desperately confused, the far Left is running against and seeking to abolish the very principles that gave us the identity they now long for.
They know something is wrong, but have no idea how to fix it. And all suggested "fixes" are merely political.
Mitchell Shaw has written: "We are divided not on the grounds of principled disagreement, but by party affiliation.
"And both major parties," he writes, "are complicit in the ignorance that plagues America as well as in the erosion of liberty that results from that ignorance. America has never been more divided than now. The United States of America is a republic that calls itself a democracy and behaves like an empire. Nothing could be further from the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution."
The politics of our founding were rooted in our biblically based values and principles.
Ilhan: "We don't live those values here." But can she handle the Truth?
LaHaye noted that "There was a day when Bibles were freely distributed in our public schools---and no one complained about the "separation of church and state---not even Thomas Jefferson who voted for the Bible project."
In fact, one of the appropriations of the first US Congress---including Jefferson--- was for printing Bibles for the conversion of the native Indians.
"Separation" wasn't an issue. Neither was proselytizing native Indians.
Had Ilhan been around longer she would have noticed that the principles that made America be "America" have slowly and systematically been stripped from the culture.
Not just the Ten Commandments have been stripped from our culture, but the religious history of our nation has been revised to make what I'm writing here new to some readers.
Would Ilhan be OK with the Christmas story being reviewed in public schools at Christmas? That was regularly done during America's rise to greatness.
In fact, American Founder Noah Webster, who is also considered the father of public education in America, said this:
"Discipline our youth in early life in sound maxims of moral, political, and religious duties....Education is useless without the Bible...God's Word contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct...In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
This deep belief in Christian principles led America to ensure that all religions are welcome in America and free to worship according to their conscience. Or not worship at all.
What our Constitution was not intended to support was the dismantling of America's greatness while bowing before the gods of multiculturalism and so-called diversity, tolerance, and equality---under the guise of virtue and values, when they are actually a tool to destroy the nation from within.
The solution that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar claims to be seeking and working to restore, must first recognize what got us here in the first place.
It wasn't secularism or multiculturalism.
Can she and her fellow social pilgrims handle the Truth? Who knows, but we'll only find out when Christians lead, not only in the church, but in the culture as well.
Some of the verbal fire between individuals on social media may be an indication that the discovery process is already underway.
Speaking of solutions:
The ancient Prophet Jeremiah spoke to his people who were experiencing some of the same anxieties and confusion that Mrs. Omar and others are experiencing today. His solution was "Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls" (6:16).
They did not return to the "old paths"---will we?
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Pro-Active.