By CRAIG E. CAMPBELL
The silence of the night was calming. A full moon illuminated the snow covered mountains with a bluish-gray luster.
Brilliant stars in the sky sparkled like a million fireflies to show us the way, for at Christmastime Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus.
Christmas is more than just exchanging presents, decorating the Christmas tree, egg nog, and family gatherings. It is a time for reconciliation of our human weakness with the gift we have been given for salvation. Christmas is a time for optimism, for taking account of God’s purpose for our lives, and for understanding there really is something greater than ourselves in eternity.
“I wanna fly, into the sky
I wanna fly to paradise
All through the night, into the light
I wanna fly to paradise”
Sarah Brightman, Fly to Paradise, 2018
The words of that song express the belief that better days are ahead and our future will be filled with joy and happiness. That through the darkness will come eternal light. So you ask, if that’s true, why is there so much hate, violence, and evil in this world?
We were all born with a free will that allows us to make individual choices. Sometimes, our choice may clash with another person’s choice, thus conflict. Conflict is not necessarily bad, if one strives to resolve conflict through peaceful means to reach an agreeable solution.
However, we were also born with hubris, that internal self-confidence that “I am right, therefore you must be wrong.” We struggle for the internal balance of resolving conflict without harming our hubris. This is not always possible, resulting in violence, hate, and evil.
This past year has been one of the most disruptive in memory. The China virus has taken a toll on society, with increased domestic violence, depression, alcohol and drug abuse all the result of illegal government mandates and violations of our civil liberties in the name of protecting public health.
Our government’s response to the virus has been anything but helpful, it has crippled the American economy and created serious consequences for our nation. We have witnessed violent city riots, significant increases in murders in many cities, and civil discourse has turned harsh and nasty between people. It is leading us towards a general breakdown of civilization and the end of our democratic republic. 2020 was a year of darkness.
In periods of darkness, there is no better time to reflect on our failings and commit to improving ourselves through our daily actions. Only then can we start to see the light and truly make this place a better place to live for everyone.
Christmas is a time to reflect on who we are, seek redemption for our failings, and give praise to God who gave us the means for salvation through truth.
In America, Christmas is the perfect time to understand the fact that we live in a nation that provides the greatest opportunity for individual achievement that the world has ever experienced. Every one of us should thank God we are an American.
The United States Constitution is based on a faith in God. It is not a document inspired by a vision for big government and socialistic principles, nor is it a racist document. If that were the case, the Colonists would not have desired change as they already had that kind of government under King George and the British Empire. Rather, our country was formed on a belief in divine guidance and individual liberty.
Our Constitution starts with “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It ends with “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”
America is the greatest nation ever created. We did it by the grace of God and inspiration from visionaries that understood that the convergence of human potential and divine guidance can reap extraordinary results. That’s the United States of America.
This Christmas season is the perfect time to recommit ourselves to an American renaissance. Was it not for God’s blessing and creating a place where we have the free will to conquer darkness with light, we would not have a country that provides us opportunity to forge our own destiny.
Christians come from a Jewish legacy. Jews, who have struggled against immense challenges throughout history and held a deep understanding of God’s purpose for humanity.
I am inspired by wisdom from those who understand the struggles we face and the path to enlightenment. From Jewish theology comes Christian values that provide us a peek at our future, best described in the following quote which beautifully summarizes our unified destiny.
“The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.” — Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, by Cornelius Plantginga, 1995
May peace be with you as we celebrate the virtues of goodness proclaimed by a Galilean Jewish virgin and carpenter’s son in a distant land over 2,000 years ago. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and belatedly a Happy Hanukkah.
Here’s looking forward to a wonderful 2021. Shalom.
Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor. He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation. He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).
Well said Craig. Only… you’re quoting from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution; and no one but a theologian will notice you misspelled Platinga’s name. Thanks, and Merry Christmas.
Rich,
Good catch on Declaration of Independence. Being factually correct is important, so I appreciate your correcting the reference.
Craig
Our Constitution starts with “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
This is from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. God is not referred to anywhere in the Constitution. Our forefathers were very aware that establishing a specific religion in the founding documents of our country was fraught with danger. We most emphatically were not established as a Christian nation, even though most Americans at that time were members of a variety of Christian sects.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…” This is what the Constitution says about religion. It specifically states no religion shall be given special standing as being that of the nation itself. It also states that no religion can be prohibited from “free exercise.” The United States is no more a Christian nation than it is a Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, or, ironically, Atheist nation. That’s one reason it is a great nation.
Greg R, the establishment of religion of which you speak was pertaining to a State Church. Like the Church of England. The free exercise of Religion was not to be curtailed and the State was NOT to be in the game of dictating religious beliefs. The Wall of separation that Jefferson spoke of was a wall to keep the State out of the Church. I really wish you would take the time to educate yourself and not buy into revisionist dogma. You seem to have an intellectual curiosity, for that I commend you, but please sir, the original documents are readily available. Kindly put away the revisionist mind set and be liberated by the real concepts put forth by the “Gods and Demi God’s “, ( Jeffersons comments when he learned who the delegates were) ,who hashed out our beautiful constitution.
You seem to be repeating what I wrote, i.e., that the Congress could not establish a state religion and it could not prohibit religions from “free exercise,” and then positing that what I stated, using the exact words from the documents, is revisionist.
I’m not a Jefferson scholar but my understanding is that he was a “deist” who denied revelation and accepted observation and reason as the basis for religious belief, which diverged significantly from the traditional Christianity of the time.
On the other hand, if you were to argue that paragraphs should be composed of more than one sentence, I would readily agree and plead guilty as charged.
For all four transgressions.
Greg, a State Religion was one sponsored by the State or a national church.. Again, please read Madison notes.
Pertaining to deism, it should be noted that Jefferson as a School Board member mandated that the Bible be required reading by all students. Franklin invoked prayer to the Almighty during the Constitutional debates as well. Hardly the actions of deist.
I suggest you read ” A Revolutionary Dialog, ” a book containing a collection of letters between John Adams and Jefferson in their later years.
When one tries to understand the past and the documents written in the past it is important to know the original concepts, or what it meant to those who read it at that time.
Which are always subject to interpretation, as each of us sees fit.
For many of our forebears religious belief was a very squishy thing, almost as squishy as independence. They had the foresight to rally together on independence. On religion, not so much. That’s why they didn’t want the establishment of a state religion. That and the fact that the British crown used it as a cudgel to beat the colonies into submission. It didn’t matter what you believed so long as it was what the crown dictated.
Our forebears resisted. The religious beliefs supporting their resistance were much less specific.
Going to be a nitpicker here…
“God is not referred to anywhere in the Constitution”
God is not referred to in the Declaration of Independence either. Their creator is used. Creator could be Mom and Dad, God, or random chance.
Yeah, good point.
I find it interesting that the Constitution doesn’t even mess with the idea of a creator, other than tacitly getting on with the messy business creating a new kind of nation.
So beautifully said Mr. Campbell! I pray that in this season of celebrating Christ’s birth we Americans will find our way to a more peaceful time!!
Sometimes the government needs to protect us from ourselves. Our form of government continued to spread worldwide, even if we weren’t the first to implement it.
This got weird, Judaism and Christianity were traditionally at odds with one another, Jews do not recognize Christ as their massiah, and the Talmud is explicitly hostile to Christianity.
We can share a message of unity with out wildly distorting reality and history.
Not true. Remember Peter was the first Pope.
@ Greg R. & CBMTTK. Craig did in fact mispeak. It is the Declaration that contains the text he is referring to. That said, to miss and/or dispute that the founing documents clearly referred to a Creator God, and in the minds of most of the Founding Fathers, the God of the Bible, is to display serious historical, literary, and philosophical ignorance.
The entirety of their dispute with the King of England, and the very basis for our form of government, was predicated on the belief that our basic human rights were given to us by that God and therefore could only rightly be infringed upon by that God, not by any government of humans, no matter what form it takes. This is clearly attested to by many of the Founders writings.
You can certainly disagree with the Founders if you choose but you don’t get to have your own version of what they clearly wrote and, and in many cases gave everything they had for.
The dispute with the King of England had to do with the divine right of kings. That right gave the king divine provenance over his kingdom, including the colonies. The colonies objected and came up with the idea of a separate but more equal divinity, known as freedom, to which they could appeal and subsequently embody in the Constitution, or the Declaration of Independence, or the whatever.
The colonies were a maelstrom of various religious and political beliefs. You can find whatever you want in the writings of the various founding fathers to support what you choose to believe. The one thing they had in common was that they were revolutionaries, and their lives were on the line.
Thanks, Craig. We do need to be reminded of the Divine Hand that helped our nation get formed. And today, implore the leadership of our nation to humble themselves in service to that Divine.
Merry Christmas.
What divine hand, and how did it help form our nation? Divine is a vague word which could mean whatever a person chooses to think is divine. There are a plethora of gods out there, and to each person who picks one, that is the one true divinity. This creates problems we do not need but currently have.
And whatever does, “…service to the divine” mean?
In your several statements above, you seem to be making the argument that because the Revolution and it’s aftermath happened more than a few years ago we can’t reasonably determine the context of what the Founders wrote, and so it’s valid to say they could have meant almost anything. If that’s true, then you have no way of defending your statements about what the Founders meant either. However, there is an enormous amount of primary evidence that gives plenty of context to what they meant. The fact is, if you actually read a selection of the founders writings and are willing to follow the evidence where it goes, instead of where you may want it to go, it is quite clear that our Founders based their concept of freedom on Judeo Christian principles and natural law. In essence, we have rights because God gave them to us as part of the ordered reality He created. As I said earlier, you may not like reality, but you don’t get to make up your own.
You are arguing, by proxy if not specifically, that the divine right of kings, wherein God gave the king the right to do and be all things, was somehow to be transferred to the creation of the United States. I believe the founding fathers would argue stringently against that. And how do you reconcile natural law with Judeo/Christian principles as they are being applied today by ultra conservative advocates?
Perhaps that an argument for another time.
Comments are closed.