What would the Founding Fathers say if they were here today?
According to asset protection speaker G. Kent Mangelson, the Founders would make four suggestions for healing America.
- Acknowledge that our freedoms come from God.
- Restore and preserve the spiritual foundation of America.
- Commit to learn the principles of the original constitution and abide by its precepts.
- Become personally involved in civic affairs.
Mangelson says "our constitution and unique government were a gift from heaven." The Declaration of Independence recognizes that our freedoms are from God. "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.”
During its birth The United States was preserved only because of the intervention of God, says Mangelson. During the founding of America 67 times the cause would have suffered disaster had not the hand of God preserved it by miracles.
The Founders were religious men who had faith in God, says Mangelson. George Washington, for example, was preserved by the hand of God to fill his role in the founding of America. At Monongahela near Pittsburg, PA on July 9, 1755 the British soldiers were ambushed by the French and Indians. Nearly half of the troops were hewn down and all of the senior officers except Washington were killed. Washington escaped unharmed although his clothing was filled with gunshot and several horses were killed from under him. Fifteen years later Washington was invited to a council of Indians. A great chief of the Indian nations, Menawa, who had attacked the British at Monongahela told the council that he had specifically told his warriors to kill Washington. “Let your aim be sure, and he dies.” But, “a power mightier far than we, shielded him from harm.” He continued, “The Great Spirit protects that man and guides his destinies – he will become the Chief of Nations, and a people yet unborn, will hail him as the Founder of a mighty Empire!” http://bulletproofgw.com/default.aspx
According to Mangelson, we need to ask for and be thankful “for powers of freedom we get from God.” First, to heal America we must “acknowledge that our freedoms come from God.”
Then, he says “we must restore and preserve the spiritual foundation of America.”
George Washington claimed that the structure of the American nation will fall if we don't preserve a spiritual foundation. John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Samuel Adams declared, “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”
According to Mangelson, the Founders knew that what you teach a child will eventually become the standards of society. They knew the importance of teaching virtue, morality and decency to children in schools. William Holmes McGuffey developed the McGuffey readers that, not only taught children to read and write but to be better human beings. The McGuffey readers were the basis of 19th century education. 120 million copies of McGuffey readers were sold.
These values made the United States great, said Mangelson. By the early 1900s the United States had 4 - 5 percent of the world population and was producing 50% of the manufacturer goods. But, starting in 1900s Godless philosophies have become standard of society and the political and educational elite stripped out virtue and morality from schools.
The result has been the destruction and elimination of American family, so that today 40% of children are born into homes without a mother or father.
Thomas Jefferson said, "No government can continue good but under the control of the people; and . . . their minds are to be informed by education what is right and what wrong; to be encouraged in habits of virtue and to be deterred from those of vice . . . . These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the structure and order of government."
Third, to heal America, Mangelson said “we must commit to learn the principles of original constitution and abide by its precepts.”
Never was a group more prepared than the 55 men in 1787 spent four months in developing the U.S. Constitution. They were remarkable experts on government, having studied the Greek, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and English history. The vast majority of forms of government have created disaster for their citizens. Typically, the governing elite have always been the masters and the citizens have been the slaves – subjected to bloodshed and death because of the tyranny of their leaders.
Only two civilizations have put people first. In each case, individual rights are part of a divine plan and not granted by government. Benjamin Franklin said, “Freedom is not bestowed but a right from God.” The only purpose of government to protect the God-given rights of man. Less than 1% of human family have enjoyed these freedoms.
However, starting in the early 1900s we began losing our freedoms, said Mangelson. Thomas Jefferson feared that it was people’s nature to slowly start to want to depend on government for everything and give away their freedoms to obtain it. Thus, government become masters and we become servants.
Thomas Jefferson stated, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
One good educational source about the Constitution, according to Mangelson, is Arthur Stansbury’s “Elementary Catechism on the Constitution.”
Congressional leaders and the courts are chipping away at every major clause of the Constitution until a crisis exists, says Mangelson. School districts spend less and less time on studying the Constitution. Americans need to read, ponder, and understand it. “You are the only ones left to defend it,” he says.
So, he says we must become personally involved in civic affairs. “You are going to have to learn to do politics or politics will do you,” he adds.
“I want to go on record we will save this country. We don’t have to save this country by ourselves.”
In 1746 a miracle occurred that saved Boston and the colonies. Duc d'Anville and thousands of French soldiers left France to recapture Acadia. They were ordered to "consign Boston to flames, ravage New England and waste the British West Indies." News of the expedition spread fear throughout New York and New England.
On a day of fasting called by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, Rev. Thomas Prince stood before the gathering of Bostonians in the South Church and prayed, "Deliver us from the enemy! Send thy tempest, Lord, upon the waters to the eastward! Raise Thy right hand. Scatter the ships of our tormentors and drive them hence. Sink their proud frigates beneath the power of Thy winds.' He had scarcely pronounced the words when the sun was gone and morning darkened. All the church was in shadow. A wind shrieked round the walls, sudden, violent, hammering at the windows with a giant hand.
A hurricane destroyed much of the French expedition. In addition, many of the soldiers, including d’Anville, died of disease. The mission was a complete failure and the remaining French returned to France.
America’s history would be far different had the French been successful. A 10-year-old boy named John Adams stood in that congregation and listened to Prince’s prayer. On that day he became a patriot.
“The same God will unleash powers of heaven and assist and magnify our efforts” to heal America, says Mangelson. “Your heart will tell you that these are the four steps that will save this country.”
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