Heritage...

This month has held a lot of significance for me. Today, we was the the fulfilled prophecy of Martin Luther King Jr. in that an African-American was elected President of the United States. Today marks 45 years since then... ...but from my vantage it is a wonder that such a thing has not earlier happened.

I might have rather seen such a thing happen to Condi Rice or to Clarence Thomas, or perhaps even Colin Powell; but I am sure that Mr. Obama will answer well his duties as well as any politician, and I hope and daily pray that he does better, and exceeds my expectations.

Add to these events the significance of many citizens supporting, honoring and remembering this month the ideals of human life, and my heart is both heavy and committed to big things... ...perhaps things that I am not talented enough to write about.

We have a great heritage in this country. It has been at times the most morally upright, God-honoring nation that the world has seen, yet today we are in crisis both morally and economically. I need not list the litany of calamities to show the results. I have to believe that our heritage has been forgotten.

What is a heritage? One dictionary meaning is that it is something possessed by birthright or birth... But the kind of heritage that we have must be passed down carefully and purposely.

For example, stories to the kids gives them depth and roots to you or to Grandma, etc. I want my kids to understand what things were like when I grew up, when Grandpa grew up, and when George Washington crossed the Potomac. But I also would not want my kids to exclude themselves from being a part of our present community, preferring to isolate themselves to only our family. Somehow, our heritage has been given little attention... ...and the moral patriot is the outcast today.

"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..."
(Declaration of Independence)

The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Battle for Civil Rights - these were costly times for the patriots and their families. Abraham Lincoln, dedicated to the notion of a unified nation, was largely unpopular throughout his Presidency, and through pictures we can watch the tall man from Illinois visibly erode under the burden of war and difficulty. History, it seems has been a rare friend to one of our most notable heroes. I do not see that the men we celebrate for their work actually pursued much happiness - the times required sacrifice and backbone and they stood there sometimes rather alone.

There is a dangerous teaching being floated today, maybe even pushed on us in many ways, that a life that is inconvenient or burdensome to others should be ended in some "humane" way. They use terms like "quality of life," or "contributing members of society" to vaguely quantify something that until recently was decided by God and protected sacrificially by the able.

I pray that our nation's values for human life will exceed our perceptions of color, age or of individual contribution to society. Human life is unique in all of Creation and in all its forms because God the Creator made men in His image. Our founding fathers recognized this and eloquently staked their lives on these principles. I am afraid that our "need" for economic relief in the form of health care, banking, or some other issue will be sold at the cost of our heritage.

I want to believe that the principles and values that the United States were founded upon can be resurrected.

I remember how proud I was to hear Reagan speak proudly and deeply of this nation and I miss him every time I hear another politician make another u-turn, or read another scandalous headline. In the meantime, I pray for our leaders and our President in this difficult time. Most of all, I pray that we will remember our Creator and honor Him by valuing life - life that only He can create.

As a father to three wonderful little girls, I am continually wounded as I see our country teaching itself to dishonor the gift of life by taking it away from the defenseless and the invalid. We now think that there is a sophisticated argument to offer assisted suicide to the ill, instead of offering hope and a fight - whatever the cost to ourselves. This is not sophisticated, but instead it is crude, to use a nicer term, selfish and short-sighted.

So, yes we need to honor our heritage - the one in which all men are created equal... The one that does not qualify that right to anything beyond basic humanity - created in the image of God Himself.