The Greatest Threat to America
Dennis Prager is one of the relatively few people these days who understands completely what America is about, and about the responsibilities that come with being worthy of being called “an American.”
At this event at the University of Denver, Prager powerfully addresses the issue of Americanism. At the beginning of the video, he is asked to identify the single greatest threat to our country. While some people would be tempted to say “Obama,” Prager makes it clear that President Obama is not the greatest threat to our country.
I believe the greatest threat facing America–and I’ve believed this my entire adult life–is that we have not passed on what it means to be American to this generation.
He is so dead-on right! I talk every day with people who have not the slightest clue what it means to really be an American. They know how good it is to enjoy the freedom here, they know how good it is to enjoy the material prosperity we enjoy here…but they are utterly clueless as to how this great freedom and prosperity came to be, how to maintain it, or of our responsibilities as Americans to those things.
A society does not survive if it does not have a reason to survive. That’s true for individuals…where there is a why, there is a how. I hate to tell you who said it, Nietzsche, but nevertheless it remains true. We have lost the “why.” The greatest generation did not teach my generation what Americanism is. It’s not its fault; it wasn’t taught. This goes back 100 years to John Dewey, to the importation of European professors to our universities, to a whole host of issues.
The average American who deeply loves this country and even has conservative values cannot articulate what those values are. It’s no one’s fault but that is the greatest threat. When we understand this “American Trinity“–in God we trust, liberty, E Pluribus Unum–that is uniquely American, that is not European…When it is understood what America stands for, when it is understood that there is a moral dimension to a smaller government. It is not an economic question, it is a moral question. We give far more charity per capita than Europeans do. Why? Are we born better? No. The bigger the government, the worse the citizen. They are preoccupied in Europe with how much time off, where will they vacation, when will they retire. These are selfish questions; these are not altruistic questions.
So the goodness that America created is jeopardized by our not knowing what we stand for. That’s our greatest threat.
Prager has many more profound words in this video, so be sure to watch the whole thing; you owe it to yourself to watch the whole thing. We owe it to our country, we owe it to posterity, we owe it to ourselves to learn what America is about, and then pass that on to our children and to everyone with whom we come in contact.
America is the greatest secular gift God ever gave to mankind (and even that is not truly secular). God help us not to squander that gift.
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Prager does not know what our Founding Fathers said:
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god.” – Thomas Jefferson (letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787);
“Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.” – Thomas Jefferson;
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of… Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”- Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason, 1794-1795.) ;
“Lighthouses are more helpful than Churches”, Benjamin Franklin.
It is obvious that it is YOU who are clueless about the founders.
It is true that Jefferson and Franklin were among the least religious of the founders, and that Paine went pretty much completely apostate.
However, the overwhelming majority majority of the founders were serious, devoted Christians. The evidence is far, far too huge to include here, but I suggest you read as many articles here as you can to educate yourself: http://www.dakotavoice.com/tag/church-and-state/
Just a few quick notes on Jefferson and Franklin before I go, though.
Jefferson, though very unorthodox in his religious beliefs and dubious whether he was actually a Christian or not, undoubtedly believed in God, though I have no doubt he deeply examined that question as you cited.
Consider just a few of the statements which demonstrate his belief in God and his recognition of the importance of Christianity and morality to our society:
- The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.
- A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate. (and the “laws of nature” at the time was recognized as God's overriding moral law, re: Blackstone)
- With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves.
- I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
- No government can flourish without religion.
Remember, too, that Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence which cites our Creator as the source of our rights, and declares our hope in God's providence for the success of that independence.
And some food for thought on Franklin, too, that we have him to thank for our tradition of prayer at the beginning of legislative sessions, as he stated in congress:
In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible to danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered… And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?…I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel…We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages…I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.
Prager most definitely knows what he's talking about. You need to stop dining on liberal revisionist propaganda and get familiar with the founders. You won't regret the eye-opening experience that most of us have encountered at some point or another.
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