God Is Not a Republican …

… and neither is he a Democrat.  “So, what is he, an Independent?”, someone reading this is probably tritely asking.

Actually, what God is is faithful.  America has been enjoying the benefits of God’s faithfulness.  Washington knew this to be the case. In his famous farewell address he made no bones about the importance of being a moral nation.

Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports……. And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. George Washington,  September 17, 1796

What made Washington great was not his eloquence, or his oratory, but his character.  Sure he was a smart guy, but he wasn’t the smartest of the Founders by a long shot.  Hamilton, Franklin, Adams and Jefferson probably had him beat in the brains department.  But Washington was the man people would follow – because of his example, he emerged from the Revolution a mature man, a man of principle.   He was not a man of many words.   But he was a man of character.   His life exemplified his beliefs.   Washington endured great physical hardship, betrayal, abandonment, and at times, bleak hopelessness and anguish, but out of that crucible, he was galvanized.  His example on the battlefield, and as a reluctant leader after the War, spoke in truth what the great words of others, could only dimly shadow.

Washington and other Founders felt the hand of Providence throughout the course of the Revolution and even in the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention.  To the Founders, like Franklin, the formation of this nation was nothing short of miraculous.

The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

My dear friend, do not imagine that I am vain enough to ascribe our success [Revolution] to any superiority…If it had not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, we must have been ruined. If I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity! — In a letter to William Strahan, August 19, 1784

I must own I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler. — On the impact of Independence

The will of God is that we choose Him freely.   That we live freely.   That we pursue Truth freely.    The enemy of freedom has always been the enemy of God Himself.    The thieves of liberty on the Left today, have no concept of character.  They have no faith in anything above themselves.  They see no overriding moral authority.    They are under no sovereign God.   They are sufficient in their own eyes, and therefore condemned to be stunted as adults like children forever screaming about the unfairness of the world, without any concept that sacrifices bear the fruit of forbearance, endurance and a character refined.  The fruits of freedom under a loving God will never be tasted by those who wallow among themselves in their own small, closed and putrid circle, never to be uplifted and never to be improved. Never to be glorified by Him who must be glorified.

Alexis de Tocqueville, in his monumental Democracy in America, expounded on the role of religion in the American polity. Tocqueville attributed the success of the republic to the combination of religion and liberty, and also its survival. Freedom by itself, without the tempering influence of religion, would degenerate into anarchy and finally oppression.   “Despotism may be able to do without faith,” Tocqueville wrote, “but freedom cannot.”