Today's Daily Rant Column by Roseann Salanitri

    As usual Roseann Salanitri 'hits the nail on the head.'  She also offers suggestions of what we can do to remedy the situation--including forwarding her article to others.

Our Perishing Nation

by Roseann Salanitri on September 30, 2015 in Daily Rant, Faith & Family, RoseAnn Salanitri

Over the last two decades Americans have become increasingly aware of the nation’s decline. It has taken many forms, including a public school system that was once the envy of the world now ranking behind third world countries; a judiciary that makes up laws as it pleases; politicians who promise the world but serve their own interests once elected; lukewarm churches that preach a watered down Christianity to disinterested congregants; and a biased media that does more to control the news rather than report it.

Our national problems are many, and it can be argued that they are so numerous that the death of the American Dream seems eminent.  In order to save this country in the time we have left, we need to clearly identify the root causes of our woes that are destroying us from the foundation up.

But where do we begin?

As usual, the Bible has answers that are as relevant as they are powerful. The solutions require that we stop listening to the buffoons, liars, and incompetents that have led us down the path of destruction in the political, religious, and social realms. Instead, we should listen to the words that have been carved into our conscience from the beginning of time, which are recorded in the Bible. After wrestling with this dilemma for years, I keep coming back to two verses. Psalm 11:3 states, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” and Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” It is my opinion that the key to getting back on the right track resides with dealing with the root causes of the issues we are facing instead of with the symptoms.

Additionally, we need to understand that we have become victims of the successful lies of the devil that have infiltrated the very soul of our nation. I believe they are as follows:

• Lie Number 1: You can be like God. This lie first deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden and continues to tempt our children by promoting secular humanism, relativism, and hedonism. Our children have been taught by symbols of authority in their classrooms that they can decide for themselves what they believe is right and wrong and that they are entitled to live as they please – without the restrictions of the passé doctrines that were embraced by archaic-thinking generations (most notably, their parents).  They have also been taught that America has always been an evil nation and that our Constitution is wholly inadequate for modern times. These teachings have created anti-American citizens where no standard exists and the individual’s opinions are all that matter. In this America, truth it whatever the individual prefers it to be, making the individual their own god – even in matters of life and death, which becomes their choice.   Scripture says: “There is a way that seems right to man. But its way is the is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12.
• Lie Number 2: Everything evolved through natural means; translation: either God doesn’t exist or He is a liar. Few embrace the severity of this teaching and how it has turned our once Christianly-oriented nation into a nation of apostates. Much of the destruction we are witnessing today “evolved” from this teaching. This belief system supports the propagation of the lie above.
• Lie Number 3: Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics, or you can’t mix religion and politics. It is noteworthy to mention that it seems perfectly fine to those that embrace this point of view that you can mix medicine with politics, or the school system with politics, or the justice system – or a plethora of other issues with politics – just not Christianity, and just as long as it’s their politics. Dr. Ben Carson recently took a lot of abuse for expressing an understanding of this lie. He was right to consider someone’s religion who was running for public office. What any person believes is more of an indicator of how they will act than what they say. And where there is a conflict between what a person believes and our system of Jurist Prudence, they will usually act in accordance with their beliefs. It has been said that when Christians don’t make it into public office, Christian principles don’t make it into that office. The Bible puts it this way: “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” Proverbs 29:2.
• Lie Number 4: It’s already too late, and we’re in the last days and this is to be expected and accepted.

I am not writing this to assess how we got ourselves into this position. I am writing to help others understand that there is a biblical prescription.

Here’s my conclusions/goals/suggestions.

Conclusion/Goal #1: Our foundations are crumbling. While electing the right person for the presidency is important, we must rebuild our foundations or eventually this country will fall. This can and should be done through the faithful churches that are still left or through the private school system. I have often written that all that can, should take their children out of government-run schools ASAP. I also realize that this just is not possible for everyone. So here’s the plan. Teach what the schools are not teaching and teach the truth where it is being perverted. This can be done through Sunday School programs or during the week as either an after school program or a summer school program – but we must reach the masses of students in the public school environment. And what do we teach? We teach the real American history – warts and all. We teach government/civics, using the Founders’ own words when possible. And we teach the increasing volume of data supporting Creation Science that has been censored from government-run schools around the country.

Conclusion/Goal #2: In accordance with Hosea 4:6 as quoted above, we need to start flooding our communities with the knowledge of the truth in addition to teaching the truth. Case in point: I recently had a conversation with someone I thought was politically-astute. When the conversation drifted to the field of presidential candidates, he commented that he thought Hillary was the best qualified. After all, she had been Secretary of State – and who knows if the email-thing was really true. I maintained self-control because I realized that this person was simply regurgitating the flawed information he had probably received through traditional news networks. And it further occurred to me that this exactly what Hosea 4:6 meant. But in our case, it can be personalized: our country is being destroyed for lack of knowledge. Our counterpoint: start broadcasting facts.

Most of us realize this is the repercussion of a flawed media. Bad information is being broadcast while good information is being suppressed. However, that does not absolve us from the responsibility of spreading the truth through whatever means possible. It would be wonderful if someone with the assets of George Soros would rise to the occasion and provide what was needed to establish a nationally-syndicated news channel. But that is not our only option – and it is not an excuse for not doing what you can. You can use all the social media options available to you and circulate articles such as this to your personal databases; you can create a small newsletter that consists of nothing more than a two-sided piece of 8″ x 11″ paper run off your personal printer and place those newsletters anywhere possible: on local community billboards, in the entrance of your local dinner or restaurant, and wherever else you can think of; you can write letters to the editor for your local newspaper; and you can do any number of things that help spread the words of life to a dying nation.

The point is that if you don’t do something, anything you can, Lie #4 will cease being a lie and become a condemnation of our current citizenry. Jesus said that if you are not for Him, you are against Him. Now is the time to prove whose side you’re really on.