United We Stand: Divided We Fall

If a nation does not understand its historical past, it is prone to make the same mistakes in the future. A phenomenal scientist, Einstein, stated it in this manner: “doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result is insanity.” President Lincoln spiritually said it: “United we stand divide we fall, because a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is a spiritually powerful warning: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation so conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…” Question: can we survive the desire of the GOP for White Privilege Dogma? God in an ontological eternal silent voice said it best in the Life, Teachings, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ: “There is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptations, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1: 15). Moreover, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (universality) (Romans 3: 23).

Democracy is a universalized governing ideology concerning human dignity and human rights, and cardinal spiritual moral truths: “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—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”

Democracy is not about vulgar White Privilege Corporate Capitalism. Democracy is not about materialism as an economic way of life. Unfortunately, in American society, the GOP promote and misrepresent democracy as vulgar corporatism. In so doing, the GOP has fostered societal confusion, ungodliness, and hate speech and hate crimes. Hatred engenders violence, and violence is not problem solving. In the twenty-first century, we are experiencing the spiritual moral decline of civility and decency in the family, and the spiritual walls of multi-cultural democracy are being ripped down. Consequently, we are experiencing the age of emotional family trauma and societal stupidity in America rather than the age of spiritual enlightenment and brotherly reconciliation, based upon the eternal question: “Am I My Brother’s Keeper.” Civil society is based upon being your “brother’s keeper.” Jesus said it, Presidents Lincoln, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, G. H. Bush, G. W. Bush, Obama, and now President Biden is saying it.

Eternal happiness is found in personal relationships, ontological (being) and healthy socio-psychological family relationships. Happiness is not found in material things, because individuals cannot purchase happiness in department stores. Thus, vulgar materialism as a way of life produces stupidity, and stupidity creates violence. The Bible boldly declares that God knows our material needs. Therefore, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6: 33-34).

Sadly, in American culture, there are some among us who are hell-bent on absolutizing free speech, without spiritually understanding that in a democracy individuals should walk and talk in wisdom, and: “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” (Colossians 4: 6).  Individuals should never, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit” (Proverbs 26: 4-5). America, get right with God and get right with each other in our families through God, and we can come together as a multicultural democratic society. Amen!