Then and Now

By Weylan Deaver

“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to laud the more distinguished Character of Christian.” General George Washington gave those words to his army at Valley Forge on May 2, 1778. Modern sensibilities and prejudices (allegedly enlightened and tolerant) would disallow Gen. Washington from even thinking about saying that out loud. Were he alive today, the Founder of our Country would be supremely unelectable and condemned in the court of public opinion. On May 12, 1779 Gen. Washington told some Delaware Indians, “You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ.” With today’s political-correctness run amok, that statement would be deemed totally unacceptable on so many levels. In March of 1778 Gen. Washington had a soldier drummed out of the army, “never to return,” for “attempting to commit sodomy.” Our current Commander-in-Chief does not seem proud of America’s historic beliefs and achievements (made possible by a gracious God), but he does take pride in homosexuality and seeks its tireless promotion and forced acceptance–even designating June 2013 as “gay pride month.” The cultural divide is quickly opening into a chasm so wide it will not be closed without one side’s defeat. We can seek our country’s roots, grounded in principles taken directly from the Bible, or we can continue transforming into an increasingly godless, secular, immoral, confused people who proudly tolerate everything except the very beliefs that got America off the ground. The difference in then and now is a difference of day and night. We are reminded of the sobering words of Thomas Jefferson, “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever….”