Note:  This article is a response to a recently published Harvard University study which claimed to prove, among other things, that persons attending Fourth of July parades tended to be more patriotic and to vote Republican, whereas those who didn’t tend to be Democrats.

The title of this little essay is not indicative of my position. It is what I can only imagine is the mercurial rant of liberal New England, socialist elite parents who recently had their fears confirmed that 4th of July parades and other exhibitions of patriotism breed Republicans.

After all, Harvard confirmed it in a new study, timed for release just before our nation’s most profound and sacred holiday.

I’m not “joshing” here, as the patriotic folk in rural Texas say. The press release for the Harvard study claims, “Attending one Fourth of July [parade/event] before age 18 increases the likelihood of identifying as a Republican by at least 2 percent and voting for the Republican candidate by 4 percent. It also increases voter turnout by 0.9 percent and boosts political campaign contributions by 3 percent.” In an era of narrow voting margins, we can’t have that, now can we?

We’ve known since the 1960s that most graduates of Harvard are liberal, most professors at Harvard are socialists (even Marxists), and most research coming out of Harvard confirms what we’ve known for years: Liberals hate America.

They hate it because, to them, it is representative of what is wrong with the world. They see it as the harbinger of the world’s wealth. They see it as an imperialist power. They see it as (dare I say?) an “evil empire.” And they see “these hicks” who have the gall to attend parades to exhibit their love “pro Deo, pro Patria” or “for God, for country,” as undereducated, disloyal to the “collective,” and simple people who cling to God and guns.

I recently had a discussion with an old acquaintance in which she said there were soon to be only two classes in America: upper and lower, rich and poor. She said that was all the fault of the fat cats on Wall Street and the Republicans who won’t raise taxes on the wealthy. She lamented that the “middle class” was dying.

I told her that I rejected the notion of “classes” in America. I will not have my views defined by the ideology of Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci and Saul Alinsky, where the bourgeoisie are at war with the proletariat openly or in the institutions that undergird society. I reject the “Progressive” rhetoric from Wilson to Roosevelt, Johnson to Carter, and Clinton to Obama.

But then I had an epiphany: “There are two nations within our borders.” I think I’ve known it for some time, but in light of recent events, it has never been more clear to me.

My nation is the United States of America, the greatest, most God-fearing nation in the world. It is the nation where countless men have fought and died to preserve the right of pulling a lever in a voting booth or sitting in a church pew on Sunday morning without looking over your shoulder or, worse, meeting in a cellar with the rats.

It is the America where the masses “yearning to be free” still come, obey our laws and start from nothing to achieve success. It is the America where life is prized and where neighbors still care for each other. It is the America where the blue collar man who works for 12 hours a day may possess more common sense on budgeting than the Washington bureaucrat with a Harvard MBA and 30 years of government largess under his belt.

It is the America that is still shocked when they see two men kissing on television. It is the America that waits to make a purchase until it can pay cash or, at least, make the payments. It is the America where being right isn’t a political position, but a way of living morally. It is the America where you need not disrobe for an invasive search before you board the plane for you flight to see your grandkids. It is a nation that stresses personal responsibility.

That is my America. That is the nation in which I grew up and cut my political teeth. It is a prosperous nation that, by its efforts to succeed, makes all of the nations of the world better. It is a nation that leads. It is a nation that realizes it is, in fact, a “city upon a hill.” The world looks to it, and in times of war, famine and political turmoil, the world asks, “What will America do?”

But things are different for Amerika. Amerika is not the land of the free; it is the land of moral inconsistency — the land where the name of the Son of God cannot be mentioned on television unless as a slur, but all other manner of speech rolls off the tongue like the verbal sewage that it is. It is a land where this same name cannot be voiced in a prayer, unless the speaker is willing to accept the jail time. It is the land where your founding documents guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but the government dictates what kind of lightbulbs you must use.

Amerika is the place where people say, “I support the troops, but I don’t support their mission.” It is the place where other people have decided, contrary to our most noble traditions, that we need not be as free politically or religiously as we used to be. It is where Christians cannot post a Nativity scene, but a Muslim holy day can appear on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service. It is the place where people say, “It is my body and if I want to terminate my pregnancy that is my right, but you … you accept this healthcare legislation. We will decide for you what you must do with your body.”

It is the land where liberal elites see education, rather than faith, as the solution to our problems. It is the land where the traditions of private property and accumulated wealth are thrown out in favor of progressive taxation and redistribution to slack-jawed yokuls who produce children at a rate similar to rabbits. It is a nation where getting ahead in your career is much easier if you can check the box for certain ethnicities when you apply for a job, regardless of your level of education and experience. It is a nation where an effort to liberate 50 million people and establish a form of democracy in the Middle East is seen as unnecessary.

Amerika is the place where people believe if we all just join hands and sing the Beatles “All you need is love,” everyone will get along. It is the nation that doesn’t understand that there are, in fact, around 120 million radical Islamists in the world that would like to see every Christian, Jew, Buddhist and Hindu submit to their conception of God and their rule — or die. And it is the nation that fails to see that should they ever gain the momentum and advantage, the remaining 2 billion Muslims would join the radicals in their global jihad.

And Amerika is the place where I dare not send my children across the street to their grandmother’s house without watching them from door to door for fear that harm may befall them.

How sad it is that this Amerika will consistently challenge what I teach my children as we sit around the dinner table and as we read God’s Word every night. It will tell them there is no God or that “God, whatever that is for you,” can be approached in many ways, that their parents are old-fashioned and even stupid, and that they can do with their bodies what they wish. It will tell them that the choice to kill an infant in the womb is theirs, but wearing the clothes they choose to school is not — that they must wear khaki pants and blue shirts and tennis shoes of one color.

That, my friends, is the othernation — Amerika.

So what do we do? We fight.

No, of course, we do not fight with weapons made with hands. We fight at the dinner table, on the couch at home, at the local school board, in our schools, at the city council, in the halls of Congress, and for the presidency. We fight for the survival of America. We teach our children to be holy, for their God is holy. We teach them to love Christ above all others. We teach them virtue.

We teach them the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We teach them the great political ideas from Madison, Jefferson, Goldwater, Reagan, Kirk, Hayek and Friedman. We teach them financial responsibility. We teach girls to be women and boys to be men — real men who can make a decision without consulting their mother. We teach them endurance and patience. We teach them love of country and love for their neighbors.

We fight on our knees in prayer every day for them and for our nation.

And we take our children to the 4th of July parade.

This video is taken from a gathering in Times Square on the Sunday evening it was revealed that Osama Bin Laden was dead….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4__MYjh64YE

The demise of this terrorist, the man behind financing the bombing of the World Trade Centers, brings with it a mix of emotions for me. Therefore, there are aspects of his demise that sadden me as well as aspects that gladden my heart.

The Aspects that Gladden my Heart

Many aspects of this capture/killing certainly gladden my heart. It certainly is a just war theory that brings about the searching for and destroying of al-Qaeda. It is also a principle of war that if one cuts off the head of the snake, the snake dies. While al-Qaeda is certainly a freak of nature in that other heads seem to be a part of this snake, the death of Bin Laden certainly has dealt a tremendous blow to the organization. Bin Laden is no longer among the living so can never again plot such a despicable, diabolical deed as the one this nation endured.

I am also glad that justice seems to have been meted out for the families of the victims in the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and the victims on the airplanes. Forty some passengers lost their lives, in a Pennsylvania field, trying to recover Flight #93. Their lives, while thwarting an attack, also meted out justice for those who had hijacked the flight. The best selling book authored by the wife of one of the passengers, Let’s Roll, expresses how Todd Beamer’s children were only 3, 18 months, and one still in the womb. Today we have children nearly 14 years old, 12 years old, and 10 years old that will only know their dad through published accounts. These are the children made famous because their mom had the where-with-all to put her emotions and thoughts in written form. What about those children whose parents never came home? What about those spouses who never came back that morning? What about that loved one who walked out of the house that day and the first thing their loved ones found was the half empty coffee cup left on the counter? These people have experienced just a small piece of justice with the death of Bin Laden.

I am glad that we have a President that made the call. This is a shock to many that know me as I have not always been one that believed in our current Commander-in-Chief. However, when the call needed to be made, he made it. Many have argued he used this for a political advantage. Others have chastised the media for giving our President credit when it was the Navy Seal Team 6 that went in. Whatever argument one comes up with, one only needs to be reminded this invasion would not have been possible without an affirmative word from the President of the United States of America. Thus, I am glad our President made that call.

I am glad that our nation, for a brief time, was brought together. For a brief time on that late Sunday night speech our nation was no longer Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or Independent. For that brief time on that Sunday evening we were Americans. We were not African-American, Mexican-American, Asian-American, Native-American or any other adjectival American; we simply were Americans.

The Aspects that Sadden my Heart

As the story grows about the invasion and killing of Bin Laden I am saddened on various fronts.

First, it is the spiritual front. I am sad that Bin Laden did not know the true living God–Jehovah. Bin Laden devoted his life to the false God, promoted and adhered to by the Islamic Prophet Mohammed. Mohammed proclaimed the false God, Allah, as one who holds in balance the works of man. According to the Quran, Allah rewards good deeds and punishes evil deeds. Thus, Bin Laden had a life of works he depended on to get him to the false prophet’s heaven. I am grieved and saddened that Bin Laden has to spend eternity in Hell separated from the love of the one true God, our Heavenly Father. This separation is not due to Bin Laden’s lack of good works it is due to his rejection that Jesus Christ is God.

Second, I am sad by the way some have responded to the news of Bin Laden’s death. As a Christian I am instructed by the Bible not to take pleasure in the death of the wicked. It gives me no pleasure to see a wicked person die. Should they die in order for justice to be served? Yes, they should. Should I shout and holler praises for someone’s death? No, I should not. It is this type of celebration that brings me to another reason I am sad.

Third, I am sad that various celebrations across America seem to delight as if some sort of vigilante justice has been achieved. The celebrations in the street, such as the one in the video, appear to be out of vengeance instead of patriotism. Yes, they are shouting “USA,” but it is in response to a man being killed, not the war on terror being advanced. Patriotism in America was founded on justice, not vengeance. The American Revolution was a revolt against the king for the right to separate from the Crown; it was not a result of a vengeful heart. Certainly December 7, 1941 is a day that will forever live in infamy. However, we entered WWII, not to revenge the attack on Pearl Harbor, but to see that justice was meted out on those responsible. Navy Seal Team 6 was sent into that compound, not to seek vengeance, but to implement justice.

If we are attributing our celebration to the death of Bin Laden then we are failing miserably in understanding the theory of a Just War. This theory contains within it, not only the criteria for entering a war, but also the criteria in the manner by which we fight the war.

a)     Just Cause – A war is not justified merely for revenge or to punish those you believe have done wrong, but only when there is an immediate threat to life.
b)    Just Intent – A war is not justified by hatred or economic advantage, but only by the effort to secure justice and peace.
c)     Last Resort – A war may be begun only after every other viable alternative, peaceful solution, conflict resolution, or negotiated settlement has been attempted and proven futile.
d)    Legitimate Authority – A war cannot be declared by just anyone, but only by duly elected officials and leaders of a country who secure the appropriate approvals to initiate the war.
e)     Proportionality – The benefit of waging the war must be proportional to its cost.
f)     Comparative justice — The injury suffered by the offended nation must be sufficiently one-sided as to justify the cost of the war in life and property.
g)     Limited goals – The battles must be only for military aims, not for total destruction or for disproportionate civilian casualties.
h)    Probability of success – There must be some reasonable chance that the evils can be redressed by the war; it cannot be a futile effort to exact revenge.
i)      Avoid Hurting Noncombatants – Every effort should be made to avoid hurting or killing noncombatant civilian populations, such as bombing civilian residential areas.

If the killing of Osama Bin Laden was the purpose for America entering the war on terror, we have failed miserably in fulfilling the criteria for a just war. America never enters a war merely to destroy or remove a dictator or terrorist. Unless, by removing that dictator or terrorist, the criteria of a Just War has been satisfied.

Conclusion

How does one respond when the emotions are at such opposite ends of the emotional spectrum? One responds carefully and cautiously. Carefully because one certainly wants to remember that people died and there needs to be some justice regained for those who lost their loved ones. Let’s not forget as one who did lose a loved one said; “Bin Laden’s death will not bring back my son.” Cautiously, because the hurt we experienced as we witnessed the carnage of the Twin Towers falling, the Pentagon’s gaping hole in her side, and the burned area of the plane crash in the Pennsylvania field has the ability to bring about a bitterness of spirit.

Let us be glad that we have taken down one who had no problem killing his fellow Muslims and certainly took pleasure in killing Americans. But, let us be filled with grief that a human being had paid the ultimate price for his destructive, killing spree. While his deeds are too terrible to mention in some places those Navy Seals are reported to have placed their hands over the eyes and ears of the children in the room. They did this because they had compassion on those children and they did not want the last image of their father to be one of a bullet going into his head. That is what makes us Americans; we show compassion even in the process of meting out justice.

As Americans, we do not place the lives of innocent civilians in jeopardy to fulfill some sort of gratification of vengeance. America entered the war on terror under the Just War Theory for alleviating the world, not of Osama Bin Laden, but of a terrorist network that has infiltrated many of the Middle Eastern countries. Thus, if our celebrations are due to Osama Bin Laden’s demise we are no more than Wild West vigilantes. Let us celebrate that Bin Laden’s death is a milestone achieved in the war on terror and let us remain resolute to rid the world of terrorist organizations.

Do not forget the lives of thos that fought for us and gave their lives, land, and even their families in order for us to have our freedom.  But most of all, do not forget the One who gave His life for us to be free from sin.  Have a great 4th.