A Must Read From Paul Harvey
I don't generally do this, but I'm giving my blog space away this day to Paul Harvey. I hope he don't mind and I hope you don't mind. I was sitting in the drive thru on Saturday at noon and heard this broadcast from Paul Harvey and thought it was worth typing and sharing it with my blog family. It's a bit long, and if you'd rather hear it go to to www.paulharvey.com. It broadcasted on on July 1. Let me know what you think.
In our nation’s Declaration of Independence, have you noticed that there is a significant declaration of "dependence" also? Because one without the other won’t work. So our text for today is taken from the next to last sentences in our Nation’s Declaration of Independence. Understand that I am no preacher, the pulpit is a responsibility infinitely higher than anything to which I would aspire, but I am an historian and inevitably our professions overlap.
Our nation’s 4th of July celebrations have tended to focus on the word "freedom." And yet even as our nation’s founders offered their lives and their fortunes to win for our fledgling nation freedom from British rule, in that same document, they sought the blessing and guidance of the Almighty. They appealed "to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our institutions." Rectitude–that’s God’s standard of integrity and honesty.
Our founders proclaim themselves free to do whatever they want? No hardly. No they proclaimed themselves free to do what they ought. There’s a distinct difference. They prayed, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth." They bound themselves to God’s will. That’s when, in an instant as historical time is measured, our little 6% of this planet’s population began to accumulate more than half of this world’s good things–collecting on God’s written promise that believing on certain things and behaving ourselves all else would be added, and so it was.
It was only recent generations of Americans mouthing platitudes about freedom that obscured the very meaning of America. And now all over the bleak, black, bloody front page it’s apparent that self-government without self-discipline won’t work. And you can say that another way that capitalism without God is no better than communism. The Third Reich was a classic example of capitalism without God. The land which had produced Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, ended up producing Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald. Self-government without self-discipline won’t work.
And today once free Americans have to be searched before boarding an airliner, not because there is a dictator in Washington, but because there are a handful of irresponsible ingrates running around loose. Because some who are free don’t deserve to be–none of can be. Again, not because there is tyranny in government, but because there is anarchy in the un-buttoned brains of a handful of looney-birds. And it’s down that road of thumbing our noses at rightness and wrongness–it’s down that road that whole nations go from regulation, to regimentation, then to tyranny. Self-government without self-discipline won’t work.
Much more important than our nation’s declaration of independence from foreign domination is our declaration of dependence on divine providence and sacred honor. You ignore the guidance system that was built into our republic, and we are like any unguided missile–inevitably destined to self-destruct.
In our nation’s Declaration of Independence, have you noticed that there is a significant declaration of "dependence" also? Because one without the other won’t work. So our text for today is taken from the next to last sentences in our Nation’s Declaration of Independence. Understand that I am no preacher, the pulpit is a responsibility infinitely higher than anything to which I would aspire, but I am an historian and inevitably our professions overlap.
Our nation’s 4th of July celebrations have tended to focus on the word "freedom." And yet even as our nation’s founders offered their lives and their fortunes to win for our fledgling nation freedom from British rule, in that same document, they sought the blessing and guidance of the Almighty. They appealed "to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our institutions." Rectitude–that’s God’s standard of integrity and honesty.
Our founders proclaim themselves free to do whatever they want? No hardly. No they proclaimed themselves free to do what they ought. There’s a distinct difference. They prayed, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth." They bound themselves to God’s will. That’s when, in an instant as historical time is measured, our little 6% of this planet’s population began to accumulate more than half of this world’s good things–collecting on God’s written promise that believing on certain things and behaving ourselves all else would be added, and so it was.
It was only recent generations of Americans mouthing platitudes about freedom that obscured the very meaning of America. And now all over the bleak, black, bloody front page it’s apparent that self-government without self-discipline won’t work. And you can say that another way that capitalism without God is no better than communism. The Third Reich was a classic example of capitalism without God. The land which had produced Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, ended up producing Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald. Self-government without self-discipline won’t work.
And today once free Americans have to be searched before boarding an airliner, not because there is a dictator in Washington, but because there are a handful of irresponsible ingrates running around loose. Because some who are free don’t deserve to be–none of can be. Again, not because there is tyranny in government, but because there is anarchy in the un-buttoned brains of a handful of looney-birds. And it’s down that road of thumbing our noses at rightness and wrongness–it’s down that road that whole nations go from regulation, to regimentation, then to tyranny. Self-government without self-discipline won’t work.
Much more important than our nation’s declaration of independence from foreign domination is our declaration of dependence on divine providence and sacred honor. You ignore the guidance system that was built into our republic, and we are like any unguided missile–inevitably destined to self-destruct.
posted by Keith Davis at
6:20 PM
3 Comments:
"And now the rest of the story."
Good post Bro.
My favorite Paul Harvey memory comes from 1983. We were driving from Cocoa to Colorado with another couple. We were passing through the berg of Dalhart, Texas with the radio playing when we all heard Paul Harvey say, "Sad day in West Cocoa."
Talk about your attention getters. He was reporting on an incident of animal cruelty at a kennel near our home. What a thing for your hometown to be known for. We love people but keep your dogs away from us.
By
cwinwc, at 9:05 AM
Good post! I'm coming to North Alabama next week to help my Mom and sister out at the old home place for a few days. No place quite like Maud.
Peace.
By
Steve Puckett, at 9:10 AM
I will see what works out while I'm in North Alabama. Maybe we can find a slot to "hook up."
Peace.
By
Steve Puckett, at 10:21 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home