OPINION:
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, in an op-ed published in the Western Journal, warned of “dark forces” stealing into America and robbing freedoms, upsetting law and order and overturning the democratic-republic — and then he called for more prayer, labeling it the “greatest weapon” against those who would destroy this great country.
Yep. It’s a battle of principalities taking place out there, all right, and the sooner freedom-loving Americans recognize these “dark forces” as the true enemy, the sooner freedom-loving Americans can get on with the business of winning back the country.
It’s only common sense.
A nation that was founded on a principle of individual rights being derived from the Creator, not government, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, can only hold fast to those individual rights so long as the Creator is kept in charge.
So turning from God means putting in new leadership.
If morality and virtue, as based on some higher authority, aren’t the guiding compasses, what comes are men and women with their own interpretations of right versus wrong — men and women who are quite vulnerable to the political whims and wills of the day. And today, look around: Lawlessness seems the will.
But we get the government we deserve.
“Revolutionary forces are causing every American citizen to question which direction the country is heading,” the former national security adviser wrote. “To determine the outcome, we must examine our nation’s history to project ourselves forward into the future.”
So let’s examine. It’s our Western values, our Judeo-Christian principles, our national understanding of God-given versus government-granted — these are what keep America free. Properly moral compassed people, after all, don’t need laws, don’t need government nannies, don’t need cradle-to-grave bureaucratic overseers.
Conversely, it’s our scorning of this truth, of this historical truth, that opens the door for big, bigger, ever-bigger government to come in and fill the shoes of God — to become the provider, the protector, the solution, the comforter, the healer for all.
Voila. America, 2020.
“In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace,” Pew Research Center reported in late 2019.
“Four in 10 American Embrace Some Form of Socialism,” Gallup reported in mid-2019.
“U.S. Church Membership Down Sharply in Past Two Decades,” Gallup reported in early 2019.
“Big Government? For Now, Most Americans Say Bring It On,” The New York Times wrote this past May.
That last was due to the coronavirus — or, more to point, to fears about the new coronavirus.
“Battered by the coronavirus, the American public is increasingly looking to the federal government to provide an economic lifeline,” the piece went on to report.
Government must provide.
Government must save.
Who needs God when there’s government. So goes the progression of thought.
“Freedom is oxygen,” Flynn most succinctly wrote.
Freedom is also reliant, in America, on the preservation of that core great principle that separates this nation from all others — the one that says individual rights, granted at birth, take precedence over the collective.
If we don’t want socialism, or communism, or globalism, or collectivism, or any of the other “—isms” that ultimately lead to choking losses of freedom, we must have God. It’s as simple as that.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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