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hus saith the Lord,
Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they
said, We will not walk therein. 17 Also I set watchmen
over you, saying, Hearken to the
sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
(Jer 6:16-17)
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lessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the
people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12 (KJV)
Our nation has been most richly
blessed of the Lord from the days of her primitive founding until today. No
nation has enjoyed the security from invading armies, the abundance of crops
and of mineral resources, or the blessings of liberty and freedom with which
God has blessed this nation. But our liberty did not come by complacency of
spirit or by lack of the shedding of patriotic blood. The legacy of European
serfdom and oriental oppression compelled hearts that swelled with the fervor
for freedom to depart those oppressive shores and risk all in a new land of
promise – one in which men and women could worship God according to their
consciences and to live in the Liberty of the Law of God.
Today, traitorous philosophies and
political intrigue have begun to fashion the shackles of our former oppression
to fit the arms and necks of our children. They are largely ignorant of the
legacy of freedom bequeathed to them by the blood of Godly patriots spilled on
a thousand battlefields from Boston to Columbia, and from Tripoli to Baghdad.
They are ignorant of that Providential Hand that guided our Forefathers in the
establishment of a new Nation, “conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.” Our youth are not taught that
Liberty is a gift of God – not government. The education of our youth has
turned from its earlier foundation in biblical morality and has focused on a
worldly and sensual model. No longer are our children taught that all
legitimate law descends from the Supreme Law-Giver in Heaven.
I invite all readers of this letter to
double their efforts of reviving the spirit of Liberty and Godly conduct in our
forlorn nation. We must inspire our people once again to lay aside the forming
traces of slavery to mammon and restore the pealing toll of freedom in our
land. We are all, who are men and women of faith, watchmen on the walls to
sound the trumpet of obedience to God and to stand as defenders of Liberty in
America. If those whom we love hearken not to the call, then we shall have no
shame at the Judgment Seat of God.
Let us
remember the words of that grand old hymn of Liberty by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze
unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers
stood,
And fired the shot heard round the
world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward
creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft
stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are
gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children
free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
This 4th of July, let us resolve to again hoist
that shaft even higher in honor of our patriotic dead, and the futures of our
children and our nation. God bless America.
Godspeed,
Jerry L.
Ogles
Presiding Bishop
Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
