An Irrational Dream Regarding Millennials and the Culture

Standing in a dimly lit room for a long period of time, our "awareness - o - meter" is not spiked when the room grows gradually darker.

To expect a generation to be rattled by a moral decline, an oversized government that continues to grow, or the impact that broken social values have on our economic and cultural structure - is a dream. An irrational assumption, and a fairy tale dream.

However when a small light appears on the scene of the described dark room, while we may not immediately sense the need to pivot to it, we may eventually notice it. Our intrigue will grow as the light increases in size and quantity. The greater the presence of light, the darkness runs into the shadows. Once we see the authentic truth of the light, and its fruit that bears resemblance to no other, its appeal will woo us and we will recognize we're ready to move on from the dullness of the night. Realization will strike us that "our room" is dark and ill-fitting to our intricately woven purpose sown into our dna that we crave to pursue. We will respond.

In translation from analogy to reality - the room is our culture and "we" are the Millennial Generation (young adults between the ages of 24 - 35).

If you as the Presidential Candidates of 2016, community leaders, concerned parents, corporation CEOs, or anyone in between - want to convince us our nation is headed down the wrong path, you need to show us a light to walk towards. Convince us by your personal and genuine display that the world we currently reside in is pitiful compared to what we as Americans, and children of God are meant to - and can - embrace.

• Get your finances in order before pointing fingers at us and our irresponsibility.
• Decrease your dependence on government before telling us we lack responsibility and need more independence.
• Get your relationships right among friends, morally, sexually, and among a fellowship of community before telling us we should not be isolationists.
• Live out your patriotism, and American dream. Show us your story of why America matters to you.
• Respect authorities and the rule of law if you want us to appreciate and do the same.
• You want us to have a grasp on history, and a vision for the future? Do you?
• And are your words proceeded by actions? 

Do not leave us alone to abide in our growing abyss of destructive darkness. But instead live out an example - shine a light by your own life.

The purpose OF this post is not to extend guilt or condemnation, but to offer a perspective. Your heart grieves at the apathy of Millennials and our perceived lack of patriotism and engagement. Recognize that we do not appreciate the full depth of a danger we are in because we have grown up in a "gradually increasing dark world" for most of our lives. It is what we know.

But YOU ... you have the ability to draw us to a better way. Start the redemption process of America story - with you. By your living example, you can remind us of the foundations, stoke our passion, demonstrate we have hope to move towards, and illuminate how the "wrong way" things are being done now provide a dismal future.

Standing in a fully lit room, we'll see the truth and in turn we will cause the beacon on the hill to shine bright once again.

- ajh

You Ignored Your Market. (Part 2 of 2)

(Continued... from yesterday's part 1)

Millennials have to be ready to, without much persuasion of, invest in a system. We’re a generation that has been raised on systems. And we’ve seen them fail immensely. We want people to benefit and to have their needs taken care of (because, we do care about others). But to convince us we have to personally dump money (and a lot of it) into a system to help someone else, but not knowing if it’s going to work or not – is a far reach. Why not just go volunteer and help them directly ourselves?

You Ignored Your Market. (Part 1 of 2)

It’s perplexing to me how those who designed Obamacare did not accurately evaluate the market they would ultimately have to rely on for its success. The Millennials. 

The creators of this bureaucratic healthcare machine had access to the greatest minds in the areas of marketing, branding, technology, cultural studies and framing the debate. Therefore, it’s befuddling how and why they did not cover all their bases sufficiently to ensure our buy-in.  

Deception Has Cloaked the Devil - Planned Parenthood and Its Founders' Agenda

I’d like to offer dignity to those who have utilized their services yet didn’t know. Your role in this narrative is non-important. What is important is the foundation of this entity, the agenda of its founder and what it looks like in the future.

Enter Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger.

I forget what source I was reading that highlighted this book Killer Angel, written by George Grant. The description that it was short, credible and a historical depiction of a life that few know about drew me to purchase it. The words on the page gripped me. The story of this woman makes you wonder how a person can be guilty of this level of evil and yet go unknown.

The author eloquently put Margaret Sanger’s life, the same generation and age range of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini, in context:

“…Stalin would see to the slaughter of at least fifteen million Russian and Ukrainian kulaks… Mussolini would massacre as many as four million Ethiopians, two million Eritreans, and a million Serbs, Croats, and Albanians. As the wildly lionized Fuhrer, Hitler would exterminate more than six million Jews, two million Slavs, and a million Poles. As the founder of Planned Parenthood and the impassioned heroine of various feminist causes … Sanger would be responsible for the brutal elimination of more than thirty* million children in the United States and as many as two and a half billion worldwide.” (page 19; bold emphasis my own)

Our records of history and culture have justifiably branded Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini as cruel humans whose evil intents knew no bounds. But for some reason Margaret Sanger’s story has been hidden, cloaked in robes of glory, praise and justification. Our culture continues to live with this destructive chemical weapon in our back yard yet our understanding of it resembles that of the leaders of her day whom bought into her agenda. We, like her plethora of supporters did, prove ourselves fools, uneducated simpletons by allowing this monstrosity to continue.

Here are a few facts taken from Mr. Grant’s book:

• Margaret Sanger was a very troubled, broken and lost individual from youth until death. She was a sex addict beyond all reason. She was a gifted movement leader. And Planned Parenthood materialized from a small passion to implement the following ideas:
• She was a dedicated Eugenic… “thoroughly convinced that the ‘inferior races’ were in fact ‘human weeds’ and a ‘menace to civilization’.” (Page 83)
• Margaret’s efforts and business was “… from its inception implicitly and explicitly racist…evident in its various programs and initiatives: government control over family decisions, nonmedicinal health-care experimentations, the rabid abortion crusade, and the coercive sterilization initiatives.” (Page 85)
   
• She strategically placed her “clinics” in areas populated by those she saw as “unfit” for her crusade to ‘save the planet’. (Page 78) Her targeted cultures included those of the “Blacks, Hispanics, Amerinds, Fundamentalists, and Catholics” (Page 85) as well as Jews. She had no limits as to what she would do to accomplish her agenda.
• Around World War II, she and her colleagues “determined that all Planned Parenthood associations – regardless of social, cultural, or political contexts – make ‘legal access’ to ‘unrestricted abortion’ a ‘high priority.’” (Page 94)
• Margaret and her peers “made certain that each national affiliate would develop and implement ‘value-free’ sex-education curricula and programs…using perverse off-the shelf commercial pornography in elementary classrooms, undermining traditional values, usurping the authority of parents, and encouraging promiscuous activity…” (Page 95)
• Hitler and Stalin empathized or implemented her theories; one of her close friends was Hitler’s director of genetic sterilization, involved in the Nazi Society for Racial Hygiene. 

Somehow this story, depicted here by even a few points, goes untold while her facilities and their destruction reside in many communities in our states. They continue the agenda of a woman who wanted to eliminate those she deemed worthless. And we as Americans have let this atrocity continue.

Here’s a link to find Planned Parenthood corporate offices in your state or a list of facilities (example here is Michigan; see tab on upper right hand side of page for your own state info).

Our goal is not to demonize the people who are innocently involved, but to rescue them from destruction, as well as the women, fathers and unborn babes who are unknowingly caught up in this destructive agenda. This is where laws, local governments and alternative pregnancy resources centers play a role.

Here are three challenges:

1. Educate: Find the closest Planned Parenthood in your region. Educate yourself on this story and share it with your friends.
2. Pray: Network with others and start a prayer effort, specifically asking God: How can we help the people intertwined with this entity, and how do we remove this place and its agenda from our communities?
3. Act. Now. Take God’s instructions, and the wisdom of others – and act. 

“Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?” (Proverbs 24:11 – 12)

Bless those who have not known. Love those who do not believe. But together set the story free to be told and to be known.

May our generation be written about in the history books: that in our time, Planned Parenthood was no longer utilized. Margaret Sanger, your poison has been exposed and your agenda will be inoculated.

Carry on Life Preservers… we have a job to do!
- ajh

*Please note the book was last published in 2001. The number over abortions is over 54 million in the US now.

The Millennials

This piece is written a few months ago, as a response to the concerned American Patriot who sees the direction our country is headed and desperately wants to awaken the “next generation” before it’s “too late”. But they do not know how to get the young person’s attention and they wonder if it’s worth the attempt. But before an action plan is formed, it is vital that they understand this generation, its culture, and worldview.

The Millennials 

Written by Amy J. Hawkins, a Millennial from Michigan

Josef Stalin once said: "America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."

As the Millennial generation, our world is very convoluted. Everything is relative. There are few absolutes and of those that do exist, many are morphed from their original intent. We have been raised on crumbling bedrock of diluted and re-created “truths”. It would not be surprising if we have the most discombobulated worldview since the fall of the Roman Empire.

This young adult generation has grown up in a culture of death. Our understanding of the value of life, from the unborn to the aging senior, is non-existent because we do not value our own. And, sadly, many times death is more appealing than life.

Our worldview is defined by the images on the TV screens and by our peers. We have not been raised with a reliance on God but have been conditioned that humanism is sufficient. The terms like honor, goodness, integrity, morality and character are antiquated and not understood. We are wandering and very lost. Nothing is simple in our lives.

We have seen the breakdown of the traditional family first hand, to the point we barely recognize what that family structure is or why it’s significant. We half-expect our parents’ self-destruction, failures and even successes to be repeated in us. We have barely a thought that God might have a good (or different) plan for us regardless of our heritage or role models.

Fidelity is a foreign word. We’ve seen parents show us it’s easier to leave than work things out. Our families are broken, displaced and patched together again, oftentimes resulting in too much experience of one parent homes. Many of us do not doubt our parent figures’ love of us but they are desperately wounded from their own struggles, let alone able to help us with ours. We live in the greying shadow of parents who have experienced divorce in their own childhood, troubled growing up years or abortions in their own wombs. Brokenness and conflict has leeched onto the spirits of our homes resulting in us serving as walking portraits of unseen and demoralized battlefields.

Many of us have grown up in homes that find us to be inconveniences or something to be controlled and scheduled. Our schools treat us as numbers and our communities and neighborhoods oftentimes find us a bundle of irresponsible attitude and therefore a “problem to be solved”.

In some situations, from childhood we are trained that busy is synonymous with a normal life. Our experiences include a whirlwind of sports, hobbies and experiences. When we grow old, silence and reflective stillness seem so irregular that we run from it every chance we get. We are individual islands, walking around at 90 mph in fashion that sends a message needing a psychology degree to decipher, eyes averted on our phones, ears plugged with the latest noise - all outward attempts to protect ourselves within.

We have little comprehension of time, generations or the fruitfulness of understanding history. We are raised among generations that don’t talk about their experiences, observations or reflections. We ‘kind of’ remember when abortion was a rarity, divorce a scandal and Playboy a naughty word. But our lives are void of those who take the regular moments to tell us stories and lessons learned, teach us the truths that need remembering, or to ask us questions and listen to discover our hidden potential.

We also are confused by the principle that sacrifice leads to reward. And we do not fully understand the military’s role in our lives.  The fact that freedom is not free, that evil must be fought and that defense must be a priority is lost on us.

We do not recognize perversion as it has become our reality. We find amusing the things God despises and therefore think nothing of compromising lifestyles. Lust, drinks and drug induced highs are euphoric moments that move us from our reality into something that seems more bearable and appealing. We’re taught to experiment with everything and everyone without limit, hardly looking toward the consequences.

We have watched old systems fail not only for ourselves but for our communities: marriages, peer groups, political parties, education institutions, and foster care, prison or government programs. Our trust is hesitant and temporary; our walls of defense are high; and unconditional faithfulness, while desired, is more-so not realistically expected.

Sadly, America’s young adults are not cultivated or equipped for Divine excellence but instead taught satisfaction with secular mediocrity. We are not entrusted with a vision or shown how to obtain our dreams. Success has been defined to us in terms of money, accomplishments, relationships and sex appeal. We are not around others who noticeably model Godly living standards, therefore how would we know they are worth obtaining?

Education is a social club, not an institution worth serious pursuit. Thoughts of content and substance aren’t necessary. We can use acronyms and “tweets” to communicate the messages we want to get across so why use the art of conversation? Technology is equivalent to oxygen. Our self-expression comes in many different forms. We are not taught to live with long term mindsets. Life for us is in the here and now. Patience is not a virtue. As a “microwave generation”, anything more than thirty seconds is too long. We are spoon fed philosophies by professors, while intentional critical thinking is not encouraged. 

We expect things to be given to us, relishing more in the life of careless beach babes than ambitious scholars or entrepreneurs; the idea of hard work seems an inconvenience; and there is no comprehension of running out, thanks to parents’ generosity, credit cards and the government’s enabling means.

Some of us have ideas but we don’t know where to start. And we are distracted by our obsession to live in others’ realities. Something is never enough, we always want more; our thirst is quenched by the purchase power; and government is already our default for provider and salvation. If we can get out of it we will; if we can’t, we’ll do the minimal to get by.

The commercials and talking heads tell us we are the answer: we can take over the world, solve issues of poverty and mass hunger, find homes for abused animals and make the planet sustainable. The challenge to “save the day” quickens our spirits for purpose but what we are not told is that their prediction rests on humanism, youth and idealism, dismissing the truth that efforts without God will leave the same tasks to the next generations that follow. And we will be left with the same emptiness as when we started.

Why don’t these bold voices mention that nothing but God will complete us? 

I am grieved at the fact that my generation cares more about those in another country than they do about those in their backyard. And I am ashamed at their unabashed attempt to demonize America. My peers are so painfully blinded by what’s not true that when an accurate account of history is put before them, it is blasphemed.

As a young and middle age adult, I am so very disappointed in our leaders whether in our churches, elected offices, universities, political parties or even families who oftentimes insult our intelligence and potential as young adults and lead us away from the truth. In our formative years, everything has been skewed and now as young adults we live within a twisted worldview, leaving us dangerously mis-led and out of balance.

My generation is reaping the consequences of the church’s faulty translations. And Americans of all age groups have overlooked the connection between God and morality and economic and cultural well-being. We - especially my generation - have detached the idea that beliefs, words and behavior have consequences. And, delightfully unaware, we suffer in the quake of moral absence.

The safest and most grounded place for us should be in the church. But, it oftentimes seems today’s church is gravely mis-led, as they do not exude the power and truth of the Gospel, but peddle a false idea of its comfort, ease and benefits. In the church, if we are there at all, we are encouraged to believe in God, but not to surrender to His Lordship or acknowledge our need for a Savior or rely on the God of Power. We are not presented with the truth that there is a Divine Destiny for our lives; that a Heroic and Loving God yearns for a relationship with us or the stability of law versus grace is necessary for true wholesome living.

And of grave concern is what the radical Muslim agenda is attempting to do to our country, how we have been infiltrated from within, and how their strategy continues a fast and subtle encroachment from every side. Sadly, I see the ignorance of my peers, oblivious to the presence of evil, denying that “anyone” would intentionally target and attempt to destroy our way of life and freedoms.

My generation is wandering, hurting, and even unconsciously feeling the repercussions of those missing from our generation (the 53 plus million aborted). We’ve been dumbed down, deceived and duped. We are medicated, wounded, manipulated, pre-defined, alone, distracted, broken, hopeless and lost. We need help.

Why doesn’t the older generation understand: the help we need does not include giving us life on a silver platter? We do not need more coffee shops and lattes or more incredible tools of technology. We do not need more “green” messages, catchy songs or twisted movies to attempt to solicit our attention and give us purpose and life. We don’t need parents for best friends; we need parents who establish guidelines riddled with mercy and forgiveness.

We do not need permission to surrender to our base humanity therefore eliminating all moral, respect and honorable boundaries under the mis-understood idea that we need ‘freedom to be ourselves.’ We do not need to be coerced into action, or coddled for fear of discomfort. We don’t need unfettered permission.

What do we need? We need truth. We need healthy families. We need righteous relationships. We need to observe and experience character, integrity and morality. We need boundaries, balance and consequences. We need help confronting our guilty hearts and assistance in unraveling the web of lies we’ve come to know as reality. We need someone to listen to us. We need someone to tell us we are beautiful and handsome and that our identity and worth must not be defined by the culture but by a Holy God.

We need help turning off the noise and learning to not be afraid of confronting our vulnerabilities with a Redeeming God. We need to feel safe and accepted. We need help “getting out” of our cultural, ancestral and peer groupthink. We need to know God rejoices in us not works against us.

We need healing, restoration and forgiveness. We need to know there’s nothing wrong with us! We need the relentless pursuit of unconditional love. We need silent support and public praise; we need to know our parents are proud of us and that we are not the ones who have messed up their lives. We need perspective. We need older people who will be resolved to invest in us. We need to be able to recognize goodness and see there is something more appealing than bequeathing life to our sinful nature. We need to know we’re not alone and that there is Someone worth living for.

Those with liberal agendas use bold and voracious attempts to claim our minds, hearts, spirits and souls. They might be winning the airwaves, our attention and the conversation but they are not winning our spirits. Deep down inside we know that something is still amiss.

Obviously not all of us fit into these depictions. But I think most of us have encountered more than one of these lies and wrestled with these battles of a sinful nature.

I fear we are in the day that Stalin hoped for: as a generation, our patriotism is waning, morality is lacking and spirituality is muddied. This status report applies to my generation but also to those preceding, let alone those who are watching and following us. I want my generation to cherish America and not dismiss it as an entitlement or a worthless cause. But most importantly, I want my generation to recognize what light is and come to the revelation that they are standing in deep darkness and, with the Help of a Savior, to then embrace their God-ordained destiny and purpose on this earth.  

In light of the despair I observe, the grief I feel and the agony for my generation I work to expose, I am resolved to rely on the God of Hope. And I know based on history, even with only a remnant, this nation can be restored. This can also be true about a generation.

With revelation of a Mighty God, and repentance towards His Principles, I am confident that America is not done, that we can do better, that my generation can become the second Greatest Generation. But the question of so many conservatives, including my own heart, remains: Where do we go from here? How do we reach the younger generation? And who will listen to those of us who “get it”?

There are a small few of us as millennials who want to serve as translators of three worlds: we appreciate the past, recognize the danger of the society we’re living in today and yearn to turn things around for tomorrow’s history books. We have one hand gripping on the truth of yesteryear, trying in the midst of this whirlwind of a culture to understand the truth of today, and with the energy that is left attempting to plant seeds for the future while hunkered down fighting for our lives. And sometimes it feels like we are losing.

If leaders took time to help us process all of the afore mentioned, understand our culture, determine how to translate the never changing absolute standards into language we understand, they might find the next American greats. The future George Washington Carvers, Ben Franklins, Harriet Tubmans, and Abigail Adams are diamonds in the rough waiting to be discovered.

Please help me awaken my generation so that Josef Stalin’s dream does not come true. I do not want the founding fathers' America to die. The agenda and marching orders of the 21st century's Stalins must not win. I do not want to lose more of my generation mentally, spiritually and physically. Please do not give up on us.

Too much blood has been spilled and sacrifice made for me not to do my part in fighting to save our freedoms and preserve this country.  So, with God’s help and examples of leadership like yours and many others, I will continue to stand my ground with resilience and not surrender my blessed and free America.

Gratefully, your fellow patriot, servant and friend,

Amy J. Hawkins

Michigan

Note: Please do not reproduce without permission. Thank you (amyjaynehawkins@gmail.com). 

Truth & Lies: A Reflection On Us

The truth is our calibration to true north, the perfect formula for deriving an accurate assessment and the source to unbelievable peace and happiness. In the latest headlines, involving corrupt government leaders, misguided public policy debates and political scandals galore, the ability to find the truth seems to be a whimsical fairytale.

When we were children, it was emphasized to us repeatedly that under no circumstances was telling a little or big lie justifiable or honorable. In fact, if we did attempt such a feat, there would be great consequence. But older years taught some that to tell a “fib” can get one out of an unwanted situation and sadly, that scenario was the more appealing choice at times versus getting “caught”. When the act of lying becomes an art of familiarity, we eventually become desensitized to the lies coming out of our own mouths. And, the nerves connected to our conscience become numb to the guilt.

It is true that at times the truth is hard, painful, inconvenient and disappointing. But, the truth is right, wise and brings Providence’s blessing. To mock its existence and gird ourselves with another layer of lies is of monumental consequence to us, those around us and our world.

The aroma of the national narrative is putrid, and the successive confusion overwhelming. The list seems endless: Benghazi, IRS fiasco, NSA leaks, scandal of Fast and Furious, manipulation of the news media, deception in the US Justice Department, leaders getting caught in heinous acts, political agendas controlling court rulings. The list of discrepancies does not seem to end.

However, I believe Americans must look deeper. If we have high expectations of those in governing authority, we should have higher expectations of ourselves. After all, it is you and me who are in some way contributing to these leaders being in office (yes, elections matter). If we are expecting excellence from our leaders, honesty in all of their exchanges, and integrity in their personal lives, should we not ask the same of ourselves?

Are we being truthful in our own lives, with our families, with our pocketbooks, with our local communities? Are we living lives of excellence that our children, and nieces and nephews, neighbors can aim to model and spouses respect?

In no way am I excusing the poor behavior, mis-management of our tax dollars and dishonorable activity of some of our current leaders. But as we point one finger at our culture’s leaders, I think it is important to consider how many fingers are pointing back at us. How can we expect exemplary behavior from them if we are not doing the same for those looking to us, as their leaders?

In the natural progression of anything, things grow one on top of another. Until someone peels back the moldy layer, stops the domino affect or quits adding another layer to the faulty pyramid, the progression will continue. The elected leaders, government department heads and reporters in the media should be held to a high standard both on national, state and local level. But so should we. And perhaps now as we pray for truth to be revealed in all scenarios, and consider whom we should elect next time to replace certain leaders, it’s also a good time to examine our own lives.

When you and I justify certain rationale for reasons we did this or that, we may not be judged in the headlines or voting booth. But as individual people the only judgment that truly counts is our conscience before God.

Aristotle said: “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.” You and I are experiencing a culture where lies have been multiplying, configuring and building upon one another for decades. While the penalty of our nation’s ways does not necessarily rest on our shoulders, its redemption can. The truth is best for everyone. In order for the truth to do its job and accomplish its purpose, the lies must stop. And the truth’s success starts with you and me.

Description of America – of Yesterday & for Tomorrow

We have to get more people engaged in local government. Russell Kirk, one of the Foundational Thinkers who helped Americans understand the roots of conservatism (and who lived in Michigan!), has described America in a succinct way for me. I have included three paragraphs below. Don’t be dissuaded from reading by their size. 

He has presented the basics that should be common sense to every American. But even to me, a passionate and engaged citizen, has received great revelation and clarification in his prose. I have taken the liberty to embolden certain words that hit home for me…

These powerful passages are from his book, The American Cause:

“…the United States is not a centralized democracy. It does not have government from the top downward; on the contrary, it has government from the bottom upward. Strictly speaking, our government is federal, a union of states for certain explicit purposes of general benefit. Federation is very different from centralization. The theory of federation is this, that fifty sovereign states have conferred, of their own free will, certain powers upon the federal administration, to promote the interests of the several states and of the people within those several states. The United States are united voluntarily, and are united only for the purposes, and under the conditions, described in the federal Constitution. In the matters which most immediately affect private life, power remains in the possession of the several states; while within those fifty states, the people reserve to themselves control over most walks of life. The state governments, like the federal government, have been hedged and checked by constitutions and public custom.

“…Everywhere in America, individuals and private voluntary associations jealously reserve to themselves the rights of choice and action in those spheres of activity which most nearly affect the private person. The state touches these private concerns only upon sufferance, or not at all. Religious belief and affiliation are matters wholly of private choice; economic activity, by and large, is left to the will of individuals; social relationships are voluntary and private relationships; where one lives, and how, is not determined by political authority. Quite as much as in England, an American’s home is his castle. A great many Americans live their lives through without ever conversing with a civil servant, or even saying more than good morning to a policeman. Americans have no official identity card, or internal passports, or system of national registration. Until 1941, America never experienced peacetime conscription into the armed forces. Nowhere in the world is the operation of government less conspicuous than in the United States. If an American citizen desires to abstain altogether from political activity, even to the extent of never voting, no one interferes with him; and for millions of Americans, their only direct contact with government is their annual submission of income-tax reports. Private life looms much larger than public life in the American commonwealth.

“Even in those concerns which have been opened to local or state or federal political activity, the theory persists that political authority operates only as a convenience to private citizens. The public schools, for instance, are intended simply to facilitate the education of young people, not to enforce the educational doctrines of central authority; although the states require that children should be schooled in some fashion, parents with the means are free to educate their children privately, or in denominational schools, if they prefer such methods to enrollment in public schools. The American assumption is that education is primarily the concern of the family and the individual, not of the political state; and this frame of mind extends to many more activities in which the state acts as servant, rather than as master.

“…So in America the things in which people are most interested generally remain strictly within the jurisdiction of private life. And in matters of public concern, it is the American habit to keep authority as close to home as possible. The lesser courts, the police, the maintenance of roads and sanitation, the raising of property-taxes, the control of public schools, and many other essential functions still are carried on, for the most part, by the agencies of local community: the township, the village, the city, the county. American political parties, in essence, are loose local associations: the state and national party organizations are the reflections of local opinion in caucus and town meeting. “

-          The American Cause by Russell Kirk, page 69-71.

Part of the reason this text is so poignant to me is that Russell Kirk tells me what America used to look like, what it should look like and what my generation should work towards making it again.

The older generations are alarmed at the absence of young adults’ participation in the cry to oppose the growing government. Russell Kirk’s book was initially published in 1957 (it has had updates since then). Since that first printing, much has happened to the culture where those born in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s need to read a book like this not only to understand, many for the first time, what government’s role is supposed to look like but who and what America truly is – a haven for a free, independent and responsible people.

For your convenience, here is a direct link to Amazon. When you’re purchasing it – say a prayer that these powerful descriptions of the beauty of America become obvious again to the generation who is stepping up to lead it.

- ajh

Our Words are Backwards

"But I didn't actually mean what I said!!!"

Not only have I heard this general phrase too often, I am sure I've voiced it myself one too many times.

The general category of "words" has fascinated me for a long time. Things like what a name really means, that God created the world with words, that the root of their meaning has substance greater than our own perception, and that our words cause life and they cause death are examples of what has captured my attention. The coining of words is like art; their relationship like a dance; their rhythm like a bubbling brook. The author can pen them how they please, create images and understandings in powerful ways, and potentially influence with lasting impact.

Words are meant to mean something. The art of language was not designed  by God to be used to blaspheme His name, to curse one another with slander, complaints or disdain. They were designed to deliver truth.

But what happens if these tools have been completely morphed from their original intent and design? If they have little value among us anymore, can we fully appreciate and utilize them for the use they are meant to provide us in our own journey? If their poignancy is irrelevant both from our lips and to our ears, why do we even bother seeking wisdom, asking questions, or listening or speaking at all? If the thing you ask for means something only when you want it to do so, is it really operating in its intended use?

There are people in the world, even outside of our own American culture, who say what they mean and mean what they say. But if in our own personal lives, the value of words has been so diluted, how are we to be properly aware of the intention of these voices of danger?

My hope is that my words will be honoring to The Creator of The Word. If we are going to have the full quality of life God intended for us, and part of that includes appreciating His tool by valuing it appropriately, we must change our standards.

And please, fellow Americans, wake up. Pay attention to the words that are being used with the hope of destroying us before it's too late. May we utilize words intentionally and awaken to the intentional meanings from others. May we not be like the people laced through history who  had they only spoken up, had they only listened, had they only heeded the warning their destiny would have been a different story.

And may our words count for more than an depiction of debase humanity but instead, may they accurately reflect a honest, trustworthy, truth-loving and very good God.