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Walking With God in America …
Anyone who doesn’t believe God has blessed America just needs to take a long walk and witness her beauty posits Ken Duncan, a world renowned Australian photographer, who visited all 50 states with his camera and notepad.
In the intro to his book, Walking With God In America, Duncan writes:
It might seem funny that although I am Australian, God has given me a real burden for America. No nation in the world has been more naturally blessed than the United States, and I believe God has done that so people will understand how much He cares for the nation. America’s faith in God is what had made it one of the greatest countries on earth, and faith is a beacon of hope for other struggling nations around the world.
From “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (the phrase was upheld in 2004 by the Supreme Court 5-4 because Sandra Day O’Connor argued that the phrase is “meaningless” — “any religious freight the words may have been meant to carry has long since been lost”) to removing references to God in textbooks on American history, the place or name of God in America’s public square — literally — is an ongoing political and legal powder keg.
I’ll defer any attempts at an argument that maintaing liberty requires virtue — and virtue requires true religion, to John Adams:
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
For now, I’ll leave debates on whether or Constitution intends for there to be freedom of religion or freedom from religion and follow Duncan’s simple advice to look for America’s spirit in her beauty!
Acknowledgments: Panographic photographs are (c) Ken Duncan and used by permission; all rights reserved. The quote from Sandra Day O’Connor and John Adams are from Rediscovering God In America by Newt Gingrich (Thomas Nelson).
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The State of Democracy in America – and the Ultimate Bribe
How is democracy in America doing?
In 1831 Alexander de Tocqueville was sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In typical French fashion, he took a couple wrong turns to enjoy his coffee at outdoor cafes, so when he returned to France in 1832, he provided a much wider view of the then fledgling country through his book, Democracy in America. Below are a few select quotes that continue to resonate today – including his wry observation on democracy and the ultimate bribe!
America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?
Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
In no other country in the world is the love of property keener or more alert than in the United States, and nowhere else does the majority display less inclination toward doctrines which in any way threaten the way property is owned.
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
