As Americans prepare to celebrate Christmas, reflection upon the true meaning of the birth of Christ, and the true role of Christianity in the birth of our nation, is in order.

There was a very wise man named Edmund Burke who said the following (sic): freedom without virtue is not freedom but license to pursue whatever passions prevail in the intemperate mind; man’s right to freedom being in exact proportion to his ability to put chains upon his own appetites, the less restraint from within, the more must be imposed from without.

Stand back, read and re-read that, for what Edmund Burke is saying is the very foundation upon which our Founding Fathers built this nation – the idea of a limited form of government allowing man the greatest amount of freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness so long as man exercised self-restraint and self-discipline in all his pursuits.

John Adams further defined the words of Edmund Burke when he stated, “Our constitution is made for a moral and religious people, it is wholly inadequate for any other.”

In the same vein, this quote attributed to James Madison, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

When agnostics, pagans, hedonists, atheists, cults, existentialists, etc, claim “separation of church and state”, their goal is self-serving. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution does not establish the separation of church and state, it forbids a state-recognized religion; it does not forbid one exercising one’s religious beliefs within the halls of government or on public property. Far from it. Our Founding Fathers believed that the only way our nation would flourish and survive was if men of strong moral character, religious conviction and ethic walked the halls of our government institutions.

What our Founding Fathers knew, that so many today do not, because they know nothing of our history and our founding institutions, is that the only way our fledgling nation would survive is if the people governed themselves, controlled themselves, sustained themselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom, but license to pursue whatever passions prevail in the intemperate mind.

Do all the vices we see about us today, pursued in the name of personal “freedom,” conform to the Ten Commandments of God?

Ours is truly a spiritual battle. And unless the people of this nation take heed of God’s Commandments, fall on their knees, ask forgiveness of their sins, go forth and do better in abiding God’s word, this nation is doomed.

2 Chronicles 7:14: “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

© 2011 Lynn M. Stuter – All Rights Reserved

Submitted for publication to the Federal Observer by the author.

~ About the Author ~
Mother and wife, Lynn M. Stuter has spent the past ten years researching systems theory with a particular emphasis on education. She home schooled two daughters, now grown and on their own. She has worked with legislators, both state and federal, on issues pertaining to systems governance and education reform. She networks nation-wide with other researchers and citizens concerned with the transformation of our nation. She has traveled the United States and lived overseas. Visit her WEB SITE.