In a paragraph tucked in this book, I stumbled across the following:’ As you read and re-read and study the Constitution, I trust you will conclude with a never-wavering, unshakable conviction that it is part of our civic duty to be moral in our conduct toward all people. There is no place in responsible citizenship for dishonesty or deceit or for willful law-breaking of any kind. As a group of immigrants from every race, color, and creed, but are all in the same boat now, may we unite as citizens living together as “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. ‘ (I’ll link where I bought this book in the comments.)

This post isn’t about politics. It isn’t about my rights vs your rights. (In fact, aren’t they the same?) This post isn’t about republican vs democrat. This isn’t a post about masks. This post is about ALL OF US TOGETHER being citizens of the United States. Maybe it’s a history lesson for some. Maybe it’s a refresher for others. This isn’t about who you voted for, IF you voted, if your vote was counted three times / not at all, or if your dead grandfather voted.

This post is about DEMOCRACY. Do you know the definition of that word? Can you explain democracy to someone from another country if they asked? I’ve been in that position.

Travelling in Romania within several years of them overthrowing their communist tyrant… we had many of these conversations. It was explained to us during one of our visits that my dad (a pastor) had just preached the word of God from a stage where communist rulers used to meet in order to manipulate the people of their country. A room that used to be used for darkness was now being used to share the LIGHT. And the Romanian people celebrated their choice of freedom to worship AGAIN that day! And we were with them. THIS IS A MOVING EXPERIENCE! It’s from this experience I share this LONG post that has been stirring in me for some time.

My last trip to Romania was in 1999, on the 10th anniversary of their freedom – and the scars from their misaligned leadership (and LACK of democracy) were still burned on the faces of the people. In fact, to this day… it still lingers.

American citizens – open the books. Read to understand WHY the leaders in the late 1700s penned the Declaration of Independence, and later The Constitution.

And for my American Christian friends, put on love. We are called to do that before anything else. Now, read on…

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Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence… “WHEN in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed – that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world…. “

The long list of facts laid out NEXT in the Declaration of Independence explain the need to write this declaration (and later the Constitution). Over the next 3 1/2 years from July 1788 through December 1791 the work continued in earnest.

When was the last time you read it?