It would be a tragic mistake not to honor the American Founding Fathers for their remarkable and unprecedented accomplishments. We must also honor them by carrying their work forward. To do this we must learn from their mistakes so that we do not continue to make them.

     After the miracle of winning their independence and designing a government like the world had never seen before,  America was an infant in comparison to all of the other nations. Even the most perfect infants are messy and vulnerable. As we approach 300 years as a Republic, we are still very young in relation to other great nations. We still have a lot of maturing to do, and it is foolish not to expect problems like all who are maturing tend to go through. 

     The biggest mistake made by the Founders was not to implement what they declared in The Declaration of Independence—it is “a self-evident truth” that “all men are created equal.” The result of that failure was The Civil War, the most deadly and costly war in America’s history.

     We are still dealing with the compromises of our stated core values that led to The Civil War. That war may have eliminated slavery, but it did not eliminate discrimination. This is still a root problem of our most potentially deadly conflicts today. To have been blessed with this great revelation, and to have articulated such a truth with eloquence and power in The Declaration of Independence, was extraordinary. Yet, to not implement what they proclaimed almost destroyed their great work in founding the nation. 

     To be trusted with truth is a great blessing, but also a great responsibility. Scripture affirms that it is a greater sin to know the truth but not live it, or know to do good and not do it. Great proclamations can accomplish much if we back them up by how we live. This is one we’re still trying to live out.

     To this day the minorities in America have trouble seeing the importance of our Constitution because it did not work for them. Progress has no doubt been made in correcting this, but if we truly believe this “self-evident” truth, we must resolve to see all racial discrimination ended and what is declared in our founding documents applied to all. Until we are a country where there truly is liberty and justice for all, we are not what we have been called to be. 

     The fault is not in our founding documents, but in the failure to apply them. This is a common problem. It is usually much easier to say or write something than to live it. Sometimes it takes time to apply a truth to our life, as instant change for human behavior is difficult and rare. For this reason, we must seek to address these failures by our national fathers and mothers with humility, praying for the grace to live what we believe and state as a nation.

     Our founding documents remain the greatest ever written as a charter for a government. But even more powerful than the truth articulated in them is a nation that lives them. Almost all of the crises we’ve faced, and are still facing as a nation, are the result of not living the truth declared in our founding documents. The solutions to these crises are to return to these declarations of our purpose as a nation and resolve that we will adhere to them without compromise.

     For this to be accomplished we must understand that passing laws can change behavior, but does not change hearts. The civil government can only do so much. It is the responsibility for us, the people, to address and confront the evils of bigotry. We must resolve that this will be a land where no one is judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. This was not just the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.—it is sound biblical truth and the true American dream.

     To change hearts is a special mandate of the church. The church was given to be a light for the world. This means the church has the responsibility to shine light into darkness and have answers for the world’s ultimate problems. It was not just the government’s failure, but also the church’s failure that made both The Civil War and Civil Rights Movement necessary.

     When our nation falls into darkness, it is because the light is not shinning from the church. When corruption increases in the land, it is because the church is not being the salt it is called to be. We may need better leaders in government, but we also need true shepherds as leaders of the church. 

     This is not to imply that the church in America has not done anything to address the evils of bigotry and discrimination. It was the church that gave birth to the Abolitionist and Civil Rights Movements. However, even then the vast majority of churches remained silent and neutral. As the Scriptures declare, to be a watchman that did not sound the alarm, or a shepherd that did not confront what threatened God’s people, is a fearful thing on the day of judgment. 

     Regardless of whether this was done because of cowardness or for political expedience, for the church to remain silent on the major issues of the times is the worst kind of dereliction of our duty. 

     Once while I was at a breakfast in Washington with about twenty senators and congressmen, I had been calling for boldness and courage to face certain issues. After I had finished, one of the congressmen pulled me aside and said, “You would see a lot more courage in Washington if we saw any courage in the church.” I could not argue with that.

     While in a meeting with then candidate Donald Trump, he asked, “Why does a bum on the street have more boldness to speak out on issues than pastors in the pulpit?” The answer one church leader offered was that the tax-exempt laws threatened to take away churches’ tax-exempt status for taking political positions. That is not true, as that would be a very basic violation of the church’s constitutional rights, and no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status for doing this. 

     This is not true about the tax-exempt laws, but it is the perception. The church has been generally silenced by a rumor. Even if it were the case that the government would take our tax-exempt status, no true shepherd would neglect declaring truth just to save their tax-exempt status, their jobs, or even their lives. The truth is our most valuable possession. For any Christian leader to compromise it, or fail to declare it, they have at best become a hireling and are not a true shepherd. To compromise the truth is to fear men more than God and deny the One who called us. Is this not the reason why we see that the cowards are the first to be thrown into the lake of fire on the judgment day (see Revelation 21:8)? 

     Cowardice has no place in Christianity. “The righteous are bold as a lion”(see Proverbs 28:1). True faith in God is demonstrated by our salt—our light in the midst of darkness. If we are to survive the present distress, the salt and light as well as prophetic boldness of the church must be recovered.

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Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion…reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.   – George Washington

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

© 2020 by Rick Joyner. All rights reserved. 

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