Convention of States is the one organization today that reflects the good that is the soul of America from its foundation over 240 years ago — rooted in the truth, God’s truth.
If “We the People” are who we say we are now, then we ought to live up to the virtues of liberty, courage, integrity, honesty, honor, and truth. The vice of lying does not belong to “a moral and religious people.” Like many Americans, I am Christian and take my guidance from God as I understand Him. (The verses below reflect the Christian perspective of God, but are not intended to exclude other perspectives that generally revere the same values of truth and virtue.)
When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded. “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” (John 18:22-23)
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. (John 18:37-38)
I guess one might say this essay is a reminder of our God’s words. It’s probably not as extensive of an essay as would cover the span of time since Jesus lived and spoke truth. But certainly an observation of the contemporary human condition, “lying” or being subjected to “lies,” of which many of us are well-versed and yet so utterly unaware of truth buried in our history by centuries of revision and lies. And half-truths that should be canceled, because they are really empty cups by way of cancellation, neither half-full nor half-empty. Or as God revealed to John in Revelation 3:15-16:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Therefore, the concept of lying itself doesn’t require much man-splaining from someone who identifies as male based on a biological truth. Recognizing lies and liars is way more complicated since we rationalize away that character flaw in ourselves and our idols.
And what idolatry has consumed much of our energy? Our love of money. God’s invitation of love for the participation in the creation of prosperity and wealth goes unnoticed when we chase after an accumulation of material possessions while overlooking the misrepresentation of real wealth in the form of fiat money, the consequences of consumption and spending only, lack of capital investment, and our true well-being: wrongly assuming that science has proven we exist only in a materialistic world, with no supernatural or spiritual dimensions.
Maybe some examples of living with lies are necessary for those hiding in their basement or presidential bunker, who have given up on distinguishing lies from truth. Unfortunately, this essay necessarily has content that is unimaginably disturbing to the point of depravity and hellish evil; but just looking away, as many are inclined, will not stop the downward spiral into the abyss for our society.
And yes, you can fill in the blanks with “your truth” and stop reading. Full stop! Or give truth a chance, given the chaos and disorder of life in America and the world, since John Lennon’s call for peace and his [imagine]ation and vision for the world didn’t do the trick.
The reader can uncover or may have participated in lies, denial, and dishonesty, but common sense or truth is an upstream, not a mainstream path today for most people. Truth is certainly the path necessary to achieve order in nature here on Earth. It can be random and dangerous, and yet our ordered path through periodic chaos to eternal life after this one requires it. If culture does not ring true, neither will society or its political leadership.
“Politics is downstream from culture and not the other way around.” (Timothy S. Goeglein)
“Pursue happiness” is often my salutation to those reaching a milestone, like a birthday. I witnessed our country reaching that same milestone in on July 4, 1976, two hundred years after the birth of our nation and the memorialized words in the Declaration of Independence:
“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…”
It was also the year I graduated from college.
I didn’t learn much as a graduate from a state college. Gradually, I taught myself how to learn and how to think for myself. I have been living the American Dream, but early on I didn’t know it. I used to take my good life for granted.
Rather, my knowledge of truth was distilled over years from my grade school and high school experience, Austrian School Economics, my father’s perspective, my working life after school, a recent in-depth study motivated by my involvement with Convention of States, a life long immersion in Western civilization, and a less on-going study of my Christian faith.
It was my uniquely individual American self-discovery of the Bible, our history, our Declaration of Independence, and our US Constitution. A unique journey of discovery, but maybe not a discovery unlike yours, as a fellow American.
We are blessed to have been born here in the US. I was told this until it sank in around middle age because I didn’t really have the awareness of God, blessings, or the opportunity and prosperity that was not as vibrant in other parts of the world. However, I was aware in my youth that economic and cultural conditions in America were changing gradually at first, and then at an ever-increasing rate.
Along the American timeline, there were many warnings — Biblical, economic, political, and societal going as far back as our Founding: from the advice of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, up to George Orwell’s 1984, CS Lewis’ many writings, economist Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom, Paul Harvey’s once famous audio essay If I were the Devil, and countless other notable accomplishments by notable people.
From our independent beginning, unique in all of history because it recognized the dignity and sovereignty of the individual, Benjamin Franklin answered a woman inquiring about the nature of the new US government after he exited the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
And John Adams added another important warning, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
But why now are those voices silent? They aren’t, yet. You can still find them, but only if you look for them anywhere other than legacy media organizations or if you do a specific search in opposition to Big-Tech-Media algorithms. There is an orchestrated effort to censor and cancel those past and present people who question the “popular” narrative, drowning out decent so that society descends into chaos. (Destruction of a market economy is required by those who want a command-and-control political economy — something Karl Marx envisioned and the Soviets made a real living hell on Earth. 20th and 21st-century history — Wash. Rinse. Repeat.)
The latest journalist “casualty” to be canceled by the dominant media: Tucker Carlson. Our saving grace and Tucker’s is that firing him from FOX will only make him more popular, will make our fellow Americans aware of falsehoods in reporting and the establishment, and will expose the fools for whom they are.
The predominant promoted culture now wants you to believe that there is nothing wrong with the government and media propaganda advancing an agenda that is contrary to the good life we once knew. Instead, our children are exposed to (1) critical race theory, (2) diversity based only on skin color, (3) perverse sexual behavior not appropriate for children or adults, and (4) an ideology of transsexual change at an age when reason is not yet developed. At the same time, our children are robbed of a standard of basic skills and knowledge necessary for becoming well-adjusted adults. Are we raising children as people able to meet the challenges of life and loss, while still reaching for success and excellence?
Children are told that they are fine just the way they are. No. That is why they are in school: to learn about themselves and the world around them. And even if it were the case that the mental condition of youth today is reasonable and they are fine the way they are; and even if we consider the imposed ideas that sex is fluid and the increase in youth suicide is due to a lack of access to sex transitioning for impressionable young minds; then why do some “adults” feel it necessary to impulsively and thoughtlessly mutilate the physical nature of biologically defined boys and girls if they are fine physically? Which condition is easily reversible as boys and girls mature, and whereby doctors first do no harm?
Sadly, the agenda of dumbing-down society in both public and now private education, in general, has been in operation for a good number of generations still walking the Earth. There are currently generations of mature “adults” in chronological respect only.
Previous turning points toward self-destruction in our past are well recorded, but we have always managed to right the ship of society by turning back to God. What is troubling now — and is a reflection of our culture and of so many human weaknesses evident in our culture — is the reaction to a manufactured fear brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t the actual virus that caused the decline, but rather the worldwide official and institutional reaction disproportional to the minimal viral threat to humanity. A threat that could have been managed much better with lower death rates if central-control government health agencies and large corporate medical institutions had stood down, or had never evolved into the bureaucratic establishments that now intentionally provide sickness care and discourage prevention and good lifestyle choices.
And in all of this, where is God? He’s not in the public schools. He’s not in the universities. Our churches are apologetic in the face of this heretical “new age Gaia” culture. Our parochial schools tell parents that all views are presented with equal credence to our children. Many of our “healthcare” institutions are named after saints, but the business models of the administrators and regulatory burdens of big government outweigh the needs of patients and ignore the inherent healing properties of the human body, alternative noninvasive or less invasive therapies, and prayer.
God is rarely mentioned in the media, other than pejoratively. Our government and big corporate institutions never invoke his name or guidance. Some have come to believe in themselves as gods or our idols, or simply not in the Creator and Author that created the universe and everyone and everything in it.
Our godless virtual replacement culture, as proposed by Friedrich Nietzsche, will not fill the void our “experts” and “leaders” have induced upon themselves and forced upon every one of their subjects in the name of “the greater good.”
The undercurrent of lies throughout time has accumulated to such a cacophony of evil that the bowels of hell have spilled out onto the world with the explosion of child sex trafficking. It is the absolute corruption of humanity, whereby absolute economic and political power corrupts absolutely.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” (Lord John Dalberg-Acton)
You, the reader, ought not turn a blind eye from our reality. Even the famous, aware, and well-educated are affected personally by our society’s errant ways.
If you have read to here and have stomached the unthinkable, take courage in knowing that there are many organizations, businesses, churches, and like-minded people today living the truth, living the faith, and fighting against evil. Convention of States is one such organization. Get involved, volunteer, demand your and our children’s liberty, and do as God wills. Humility before God is a virtue. Meekness is quiet courage. Human freedom is sacred.
“Duty is ours; results are God’s.” (John Quincy Adams)
