I grew up in a pretty apolitical family.
I’m not talking about not voting or not caring about the leadership of our country altogether. I memorized the Constitution and learned about the three branches of our federal government. I knew we voted straight Republican and we were conservatives, but that was the end of it.
We were inactive citizens. We did the bare minimum of what was required of us. We attended church, we were home-educated, and we voted in local and federal elections.
Granted, my father fought in the first Gulf War, and two of my brothers serve in the military, so there was a sense of duty we adhered to, and I would not belittle that sacrifice.
But I was taught that we were citizens of Heaven, and the implication was stark that our citizenship here in America meant little in light of eternity.
I wonder how many of us grew up in households like this. Maybe not even religious households, but apolitical households where the importance of activism in our community and government was never stressed and rarely encouraged.
It reminds me of the Scripture passage in II Timothy 3:
Always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Of course, the passage is talking about the last days and the appearance of godliness that leads to destruction and death. I believe, however, that it can have great significance in how we treat our time on earth as tenants of a temporal dwelling.
It makes me wonder how much this mindset has played into the decay and destruction of our once-great nation.
We are constantly learning from online media, news channels, radio shows, podcasts, blogs, and--for the old-schoolers--the newspaper.
We soak up information often in overwhelming waves that make it difficult to analyze and come to our own conclusions.
So we pull out the brief talking points and one-liners from our favorite news gathering sites and hope that is enough to get us through a discussion at the family Thanksgiving Day meal.
Maybe we sit in on a school board meeting or a town hall and it feels good to be “involved” in our community for a moment.
Then life happens, and we have kid’s school activities, church obligations, and that backyard garden that’s growing more weeds than vegetables.
And we put off any idea of activism until the next election, hoping that this time, the candidate will keep their promises and knowing they won't.
"Oh, well," we say. Maybe next election then.
Convention of States President Mark Meckler believes that activism has become something of a lost art in this country, and I agree with him whole-heartedly.
What was once an honored and privileged duty for every American citizen has become one more thing on a to-do list that’s already a mile long and, well, priorities have shifted.
We’ve grown complacent in our privileges and prosperity, along with the slow, insidious regulation of our rights and freedoms by an increasingly gluttonous government. Now we see the consequences of our laziness.
Oh, we’ve continued learning, but we’ve stopped taking that knowledge and putting it into practice. We’ve grown isolated in our own lives and offended by our differences to such a degree that even our discussions with others skirt any potentially divisive issue regarding politics, religion, science.
So we quiet our conscience, and activism takes a back seat.
Is it any wonder we have to face the possibility of losing our nation to tyranny and destruction? We’ve lived on the privilege of borrowed time for so long, we’ve even forgotten a more recent President’s warning that:
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on to them to do the same, or we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
-Ronald Reagan
John Adams once stated,
You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.
He was right.
The blood, sweat, and tears that went into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were no small thing. They were wrung from gunpowder-filled battlefields where the blood of men flowed like rivers.
They were won in hot, humid rooms where orators and legislators wrestled with every word and every decision for a fledgling nation, not knowing whether it would survive after the last gun was fired.
Patrick Henry himself gave one of the most rousing inspirational speeches during those dark days of the war.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbit it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Benjamin Franklin warned that,
Those that can give up essential liberty to gain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
We have become a people who, in many ways, deserve neither liberty nor safety, but we do not need to remain undeserving of them.
Activism is rooted in the belief that we have a cause worth fighting for, and we would be remiss if we remained silent and still. Not only that, but we would be morally complicit in our nation’s destruction.
Our nation and its Constitution is worth fighting for. It is worth keeping as a beacon of hope and light to the world. It's worth preserving and protecting for future generations who wish to live in the one place on earth where our freedoms were established as God-given and not government-regulated.
We have no sovereign or tyrant we answer to, for We the People are this nation’s government and its only hope.
Yes, empires rise and fall on God’s command, and our Founding Fathers knew this. Yes, we are temporal, but our eternal significance is wrapped up in what we do here on earth. Which is why the Founders strove for a government that would honor the divine authority-giver, while preserving a nation of virtue and liberty for all those who seek it.
This great temporal experiment was founded on eternal truths and we cannot miss this.
We are all called to be activists. What does it look like for each of us? That is up to you.
You can choose to give financially for causes like COS, which value liberty and God-given rights.
You can choose to volunteer for different roles within COS or within your state and local governments. You can speak out at school board meetings (even if you homeschool) or educate yourself about candidates during election years. Sit in on city council meetings and ask questions.
You can meet members of your community on common ground, like meals in your home, neighborhood cleaning days, or in church outreaches.
You can courageously start conversations on controversial topics and invite others to join you, especially if they disagree. Not everyone will want to dialogue with you, but those who do may prove to be lifelong friends and allies.
There are so many different ways you can become an activist, and the most important way is within your own family. It starts in the home.
Teach your children what it means to be a citizen of both heaven and earth. Teach them what it means to have the privilege to be an American and a follower of God. It’s not either-or. It’s both-and.
In the end it comes down to the words of Benjamin Rush:
The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without it there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object of all republican governments.
Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them.
We must first educate ourselves in the founding principles of this nation, then put that education into practice if we intend to live in a nation of liberty, justice, and truth.
We cannot falter or forget that while the Revolutionary War is over, the American Revolution is and should be ongoing.
