Oh America, I Can Hear You Calling Me

I found this song on Thanksgiving day while working on my Principles of Liberty articles.  If you click on the title of this post, you will hear the full explanation of this song, which did not allow embedding, so if you like that sort of info, you can get it there.

This song really spoke to me, but from a perspective of politics, religion and spirituality.  I am going to type of the words with a few minor changes to how the words are spelled.  And I will add some additional insight into what speaks to me in this work.

Oh America you're calling. I can hear you calling me. You are calling me to be true to Thee, true to Thee I will be.

Oh America your weeping. Let me heal your wounded heart. I will keep you in my keeping til there be a new start.

And I will answer you, and I will take your hand and lead you to the Son. And I will stand by you, do all that I can do, and we will be as one.

Oh America I hear you. From your prairies to the sea. From your mountains grand and all through this land you are beautiful to me.

Oh America you call me. I can hear you calling me. You are calling me to be true to Thee, true to Thee I will be.

And I will answer you, and I will take your hand, and lead you to the Son. And I will stand by you, do all that I can do and we will be as one.

Oh America you call me.

I will answer thee.

Principles of Liberty -Principle #5

"All Things Were Created by God, Therefore upon Him All Mankind are Equally Dependent, and to Him They are Equally Responsible."

The Founders vigorously affirm throughout their writings that the foundation of all reality is the existence of the Creator who is the designer of all things in nature and the promulgator of all the laws that govern nature.

The Founders were in harmony with John Locke who said that a person who calls himself an 'atheist' is merely confessing that he has never dealt with the issue of the Creator's existence. Therefore Locke would say that an Atheist is out of touch with the most important and fundamental reality.

John Locke insists that everyone can know that there is a divine Creator. With Descartes each person can say "Cogito ergo sum'. With God, each person can say, "I AM!" Further more, each person knows that he is something. And something cannot be produced by nothing. Therefore what brought man and everything else into existence had to be something. In order for all of this organizing and arranging to be as such that it is, the Organizer would have to be all-knowing. The something would therefore have to be superior to everything which had resulted from this effort.

Locke taught that the Creator must be a cogitative being since man is cogitative. And that a non-cogitative being like a rock could never have produced a cogitative being like a man. Locke also taught that the Creator would reflect a sense of right and wrong, and a sense of indignation for violation of the law.

The American Founding Fathers agreed with Locke. They considered this truth as the most fundamental premise underlying ALL self-evident truth.

The Founding Fathers also relied on the writings of William Blackstone when it came to their foundation on God's revealed law. He stated that the will of God which is expressed in the orderly nature of the universe is called "the law of nature' and there are laws for human nature just as surely as they exist for the rest of the universe.

The Founders looked at the Creator as both intelligent and benevolent, and anxious and able to respond to people's petitions when they are deserving of needed blessings and engaged in a good cause.

Charles Bracelen Flood discovered in his research that during the Revolutionary War that there were at least sixty-seven desperate moments that George Washington acknowledged that he would have suffered disaster had not the hand of God intervened in behalf of the struggle for Independence. James Madison also acknowledged the hand of God during the Constitutional Convention.

We can now see that the Founders were quite sincere when they adopted the motto "In God we trust." And it is also now clear why they required all witnesses who testify to take an oath and swear before God that they will tell the truth.

In closing, a note from Tocqueville "A presiding judge remarked that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction (in law, that which gives binding force) of all testimony in a court of justice; and that he knew of no case in a Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief."

(The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from the book "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen. This article is also published at www.Myspace.com/angelsings www.LDSFreemen.com and the Cape Fair Cryer newspaper in Missouri.)

The 28 Principles of Liberty -Principle #4

Principle 4 "Without Religion the Government of a Free People Cannot be Maintained."

Many people today fail to realize the importance that the Founding Fathers felt religion played in the structure of the American Civilization that they hoped would emerge as the first free people of modern times. They felt that religion would be as important to us today, as it was to them then.

In 1787, the same year that the Constitution was written and approved by congress, they passed the Northwest Ordinance, which emphasized the essential need to teach religion and Morality in schools. Here is how they worded it:

"Article 3: religion, Morality, and Knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encourage."

George Washington, in his farewell address said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion...Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."

In order to avoid divisive religious teachings, Jefferson wrote a bill for Establishing Elementary Schools in Virginia that made religion a unifying cultural adhesive. It stated, "No religious reading, instruction, or exercise shall be prescribed or practiced inconsistent with any religious sect or denomination." So, the religious tenets in public schools would have been what was universally accepted by all faiths and fundamental in their premises.

Benjamin Franklin gave five fundamental points to be taught in the schools.
1. There is a Creator who made all things and mankind should recognize and worship Him.
2. The Creator revealed a moral code of behavior for happy living that distinguishes right from wrong.
3. The Creator will hold us accountable for how we treat each other.
4. All mankind live beyond this life.
5. In the next life mankind are judged for their conduct in this one.

The Founders often referred to these five fundamentals as the religion of America. Samuel Adams said that is group of basic beliefs constitute 'the religion of America and is the religion of all mankind." John Adams called these tenets the general principles on which the American Civilization was founded. America became great, because America was good. When America is no longer good then we can expect that the nation will cease to be great.

(The 28 Principles of Liberty are adapted from the book "The 5000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen. This article is also published at www.Myspace.com/angelsings www.LDSFreemen.com and the Cape Fair Cryer newspaper in Missouri.)

Overview of America