Thanksgiving Message 2015
Dr. Alan Keyes
I am sending you this Thanksgiving message with a prayer that your day may be filled with the joy of faith and family. But I am also sending a national alarm. Unlike ever before in this great nation's history, our ability to freely, publicly profess our faith and thank God for His blessings is under grave repression by our own government, and Americans must prayerfully gird themselves to face a tumultuous New Year.
Christian and constitutional dissent against the destruction of our rights and liberty is no longer protected by OUR government as a God-given right to free expression and free speech, but is viewed as deviation to be PUNISHED.
Why?
Because our fundamental First Amendment rights threaten the metastasizing exertion of control over every aspect of our lives by government corrupted at every level, wielded and controlled by Godless, self-anointed establishment factions. Their dominant leaders sit in Washington, DC – foolishly elected and reelected by We the People – while our children are "educated" against liberty by progressives choking off debate in our institutions of learning.
America is no longer a nation of voluntary, patriotic assimilation in which "All Men are Created Equal," but has become a nation in which all are NOT THE SAME BEFORE LAW. We are increasingly a nation in which certain opinions and groups are falsely deemed "more equal" and thus more worthy of protection than others, while those in opposition are tarred as outliers subject to persecution in the public square and even prosecution under unjust "laws."
Unchecked, all that is great, exceptional, and blessed by God about America will soon cease to exist, defeated from within by the reach of a New World Order irreverent of Him and His Law and intolerant of the deepest convictions of the human heart. We are already seeing the future play out in the violent dissolution of Middle Eastern states, where Christians are being slaughtered as those in authority in the West refuse to act.
In spite of all this – or especially because of this – I call upon you to join me on this day of dedicated Thanksgiving to our Father God for His great and continuous mercies to America, and offer it also as a special day of contrition for our blessed land.
While we still can, let us give thanks to Almighty God for our manifold blessings, even as we as citizens and families seek to discern God's will for our nation in these troubled times.
And as we do so, let us emulate our nation's two greatest presidents, who bequeathed us this day of national Thanksgiving, in asking with all humility God's continued blessings and protections for our nation, and His forgiveness for our countless transgressions of His will.
For we know the stinging truth: America's many problems stem, above all, from decades of faithlessness, of failure to live fully, openly, and unashamedly in righteousness as we are called to do.
We are assured in our nation's very Founding creed – our Declaration of Independence – and in our Constitution, and in all our Founding documents, laws, and institutions, that our government will stand upon natural law in establishing and preserving the ordered liberty that is America. This philosophy stands unique in human history as the God-honoring champion of human equality and guarantor of unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property of every human person, and as the defender of the rule of law.
A paramount obligation of the state, because of the duty owed to the Supreme Judge of the Universe, is respect for the God-given right to the free establishment and exercise of decent, God-fearing religion. America's founding Judeo-Christian religious faith and convictions form the moral and intellectual foundation of the American regime.
Yet with what vigor and boldness – can we truthfully claim – have we publicly lived out the very blessings of liberty entrusted to us by our great American experiment in responsible self-government under God?
We, as God's people, still allow our politicians, courts, and bureaucrats to keep taking step after step to erode our God-ordained freedom, outlaw public expression or evidence of our faith, and deny the spiritual foundations of our great nation! The banning of God from our national common life – from our courthouses, our public schools, our military – proceeds apace. Legal protections, and religious and moral equivalence, are accorded to murderous schemes and depraved practices that are the antithesis of the true sanctity owed to our Creator God.
For God to bless America, as our troubled society so desperately needs Him to do, outspoken leadership from the humblest to the loftiest levels must call our nation to repentance, and to action. And there is no better high ground on which to make our stand than to seek an end to the reigning tyranny in Washington that mocks God and continually subverts our troubled society.
To put a halt to these usurpations requires us to humble ourselves, to pray, and to act with courage – and to insist that our public officials, from our city councils to the Oval Office and our Congress, halt the government's encroachments upon our free exercise of our Judeo-Christian faith.
As we enjoy this day of Thanksgiving with family and friends, let us pray for forgiveness for our many sins and affronts to our Heavenly Father. No virtue of ours, but only His infinite grace and mercy, and the glorious promise of the resurrected Christ, can provide hope for us.
Let us pray for strength and fortitude to openly defend God's authority over the sovereignty of the American people – a power of self-governance and self-mastery entrusted us in our human equality by God the Father. Let us pray that we may no longer suffer from a lack of clarity and forthrightness about how America must address crucial issues of justice, moral law, national security, and the requirements of constitutional order.
For America's sake, let us today commit to step beyond the weak conventions of professing only "private" faith and summon the courage to be a strong advocate of national, public obedience to the authority of our Creator God and His moral law.
Let us remember that far too many of our fellow countrymen now accept the false doctrine of absolute "separation of church and state," as if embarrassed to bear witness to the faith of our Fathers.
History teaches us this truth: nations tend to follow the moral example of their leadership. So let us re-read the wise and humble words of our great leaders, Presidents Washington and Lincoln, who knew that "those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."
Let us make Thanksgiving Day this year a day of contrition, in obedience to 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
And then let us resolve to act decisively, in our own communities, to live our faith. For only by so honoring God and his Supreme Authority in the affairs of men may we return America to its necessary constitutional order, sovereignty, limited power among our branches of government, and sound ethics in public service – and become once again a nation and a people remotely worthy of the gift of God's unfathomable grace.
Keep Faith,
Ambassador Alan Keyes
Honorary Chairman, RenewAmerica
November 26, 2015
I am sending you this Thanksgiving message with a prayer that your day may be filled with the joy of faith and family. But I am also sending a national alarm. Unlike ever before in this great nation's history, our ability to freely, publicly profess our faith and thank God for His blessings is under grave repression by our own government, and Americans must prayerfully gird themselves to face a tumultuous New Year.
Christian and constitutional dissent against the destruction of our rights and liberty is no longer protected by OUR government as a God-given right to free expression and free speech, but is viewed as deviation to be PUNISHED.
Why?
Because our fundamental First Amendment rights threaten the metastasizing exertion of control over every aspect of our lives by government corrupted at every level, wielded and controlled by Godless, self-anointed establishment factions. Their dominant leaders sit in Washington, DC – foolishly elected and reelected by We the People – while our children are "educated" against liberty by progressives choking off debate in our institutions of learning.America is no longer a nation of voluntary, patriotic assimilation in which "All Men are Created Equal," but has become a nation in which all are NOT THE SAME BEFORE LAW. We are increasingly a nation in which certain opinions and groups are falsely deemed "more equal" and thus more worthy of protection than others, while those in opposition are tarred as outliers subject to persecution in the public square and even prosecution under unjust "laws."
Unchecked, all that is great, exceptional, and blessed by God about America will soon cease to exist, defeated from within by the reach of a New World Order irreverent of Him and His Law and intolerant of the deepest convictions of the human heart. We are already seeing the future play out in the violent dissolution of Middle Eastern states, where Christians are being slaughtered as those in authority in the West refuse to act.
In spite of all this – or especially because of this – I call upon you to join me on this day of dedicated Thanksgiving to our Father God for His great and continuous mercies to America, and offer it also as a special day of contrition for our blessed land.
While we still can, let us give thanks to Almighty God for our manifold blessings, even as we as citizens and families seek to discern God's will for our nation in these troubled times.
And as we do so, let us emulate our nation's two greatest presidents, who bequeathed us this day of national Thanksgiving, in asking with all humility God's continued blessings and protections for our nation, and His forgiveness for our countless transgressions of His will.
For we know the stinging truth: America's many problems stem, above all, from decades of faithlessness, of failure to live fully, openly, and unashamedly in righteousness as we are called to do.
We are assured in our nation's very Founding creed – our Declaration of Independence – and in our Constitution, and in all our Founding documents, laws, and institutions, that our government will stand upon natural law in establishing and preserving the ordered liberty that is America. This philosophy stands unique in human history as the God-honoring champion of human equality and guarantor of unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property of every human person, and as the defender of the rule of law.
A paramount obligation of the state, because of the duty owed to the Supreme Judge of the Universe, is respect for the God-given right to the free establishment and exercise of decent, God-fearing religion. America's founding Judeo-Christian religious faith and convictions form the moral and intellectual foundation of the American regime.
Yet with what vigor and boldness – can we truthfully claim – have we publicly lived out the very blessings of liberty entrusted to us by our great American experiment in responsible self-government under God?
We, as God's people, still allow our politicians, courts, and bureaucrats to keep taking step after step to erode our God-ordained freedom, outlaw public expression or evidence of our faith, and deny the spiritual foundations of our great nation! The banning of God from our national common life – from our courthouses, our public schools, our military – proceeds apace. Legal protections, and religious and moral equivalence, are accorded to murderous schemes and depraved practices that are the antithesis of the true sanctity owed to our Creator God.
For God to bless America, as our troubled society so desperately needs Him to do, outspoken leadership from the humblest to the loftiest levels must call our nation to repentance, and to action. And there is no better high ground on which to make our stand than to seek an end to the reigning tyranny in Washington that mocks God and continually subverts our troubled society.
To put a halt to these usurpations requires us to humble ourselves, to pray, and to act with courage – and to insist that our public officials, from our city councils to the Oval Office and our Congress, halt the government's encroachments upon our free exercise of our Judeo-Christian faith.
As we enjoy this day of Thanksgiving with family and friends, let us pray for forgiveness for our many sins and affronts to our Heavenly Father. No virtue of ours, but only His infinite grace and mercy, and the glorious promise of the resurrected Christ, can provide hope for us.
Let us pray for strength and fortitude to openly defend God's authority over the sovereignty of the American people – a power of self-governance and self-mastery entrusted us in our human equality by God the Father. Let us pray that we may no longer suffer from a lack of clarity and forthrightness about how America must address crucial issues of justice, moral law, national security, and the requirements of constitutional order.For America's sake, let us today commit to step beyond the weak conventions of professing only "private" faith and summon the courage to be a strong advocate of national, public obedience to the authority of our Creator God and His moral law.
Let us remember that far too many of our fellow countrymen now accept the false doctrine of absolute "separation of church and state," as if embarrassed to bear witness to the faith of our Fathers.
History teaches us this truth: nations tend to follow the moral example of their leadership. So let us re-read the wise and humble words of our great leaders, Presidents Washington and Lincoln, who knew that "those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."
Let us make Thanksgiving Day this year a day of contrition, in obedience to 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
And then let us resolve to act decisively, in our own communities, to live our faith. For only by so honoring God and his Supreme Authority in the affairs of men may we return America to its necessary constitutional order, sovereignty, limited power among our branches of government, and sound ethics in public service – and become once again a nation and a people remotely worthy of the gift of God's unfathomable grace.
Keep Faith,
Ambassador Alan Keyes
Honorary Chairman, RenewAmerica