This post inaugurates what I expect to be a series of articles on a recently published book by Os Guinness, Last Call for Liberty. While not associated with the Convention of States movement, Guinness understands, as we do, that America is currently undergoing a crisis of freedom and without addressing it, the nation envisioned by Washington, Jefferson and Madison will not survive.
Ironically, Guinness is not himself American. The son of British missionaries, he was raised in China and returned to England to receive his university education. He has lived in the U.S. since 1984 and calls himself a "visitor" to this country.
However, it is clear that he understands the principles of the founding of our nation more profoundly than most American citizens, and recognizes our unique historical role in Western civilization.
Last Call for Liberty is the not first of Guinness's many books to address the American political situation. He also wrote A Free People's Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future, published in 2012. The title is based on a quote from Abraham Lincoln, where he asserted that America would never be conquered by a foreign power:
No, if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
Os Guinness, along with many of us who love America, recognizes that to continue on the path we've been on for the past 100 years would be suicidal.
I view Os Guinness as a truly prophetic voice to our nation and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on his message in upcoming posts.
Part 2: A Tale of Two Revolutions
Part 3: Positive and Negative Freedom
Part 4: The Golden Triangle of Freedom
Part 5: What foundation for freedom?
Part 6: The Abrahamic foundation for freedom
Part 7: America, your choice is before you
