I copied this from an email I received from Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda of All Nations Church.

In a conversation with a young man this week, he told me of a discussion he was in with a group of 18 to 30 year olds who consider themselves born again and actively interested in serving the Lord. At one point someone blurted out, “I can’t stand Sarah Palin!” Since it was not necessarily something he expected from this particular group, he said, “Really? Why not?”

“What she represents about a woman’s right to choose!” was the immediate reply—apparently with the understanding that this was the accepted view of the present company.

Inevitably the conversation turned to the issue of abortion and dissolved into speculation as to when life in the womb is actually considered a life. The consensus of the group was in favor of the current abortion laws, to which this young man asked, “My brother was born two weeks before that arbitrary date. Does that mean he isn’t a life?” Later that same evening, this young man found himself in another conversation where the same girl, this time tearful, lamented the exploitation and murder of polar bears.

Vote your conscience seems to be the general exhortation people give to one another in America. Particularly if the conversation turns to specifics on which people disagree. But what happens when our so-called “moral conscience” has not been properly formed? Then “vote your conscience” can no longer apply.

Americans cling to the assumption of our personal “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as “bitterly” as we small-towners “cling to our guns and religion.” But a cursory glance over the lives of the average person who identifies themselves as a Christian in America suggests the honored three-fold list from the Declaration of Independence has become a mantra devoid of its original intent. The three have been inverted. Life is no longer the first right to be enjoyed; the “pursuit of happiness” has superseded it. After that, freedom is exalted. This is not the liberty the founders of this great nation prescribed. It is not the liberty that cost them their lives and fortunes that they might retain their sacred honor. Freedom seems to infer a right to freedom from want; freedom from hardship and difficulty; freedom from needs or obligations toward the rights of others; freedom from humility.

Liberty and freedom are not one and the same. The first bears responsibility while the second is dangerously autonomous unless it chooses otherwise. We observe that even truth becomes relative and open to interpretation when individual freedoms take precedence over the liberty afforded the human spirit as a creation in God’s likeness and image.

If America is to retain her freedom, we must regain our liberty: liberty to restrain ourselves; liberty to serve something larger than our pure personal interest; liberty to think beyond the next meal or movie date; liberty to think intelligently; liberty to recall our history and make it honorable once again.

If Christians in America are to retain their rights we must regain our responsibility: responsibility to do the right thing even when it costs us prestige or convenience; responsibility toward the next generation that delights to make a sacrifice for their sake; responsibility to speak out, stand up, stretch out and serve when we have for far too long tended toward silence, cowardice, self-interest and self-satisfaction; responsibility to offend evil.

Moral Responsibility

On August 3rd, Alexander Solzhenitsyn died this year at the age of 89. He was a clear and ardent prophetic voice warning against the dangers of post-modernist humanism and evil, morally and ideologically, which looms as a specter against the destiny and opportunity of this great nation. He said: “One cannot think only in the low level of political calculations. It’s necessary to think also of what is noble, and what is honorable—not only what is profitable.” He decried the fact that law was replacing moral responsibility of individuals and nations.

Mr. Solzhenitsyn had his moral conscience formed as a political prisoner in the Gulag of the Soviet Union for 11 years after which he was exiled to the West. It was there in the Gulag, lying on a filthy sodden straw mattress, that he said he learned “the line between good and evil does not run between ideologies or around borders of nations. The line between good and evil runs directly through the center of the human heart.” In the Gulag a man could get a job in the kitchen if he would become an informant on other prisoners. Once there, one could eat the portions allotted to the other prisoners. But since the daily rations were barely life sufficient, easing ones hunger pains with another man’s ration would mean his death. Daily choices became a “matter of sacrificing your life or sacrificing your soul.”

Solzhenitsyn went into the Gulag a dedicated Soviet citizen and a nominal Christian; He came out a man dedicated to the reclamation of his nation and an ardent disciple of Christ. He devoted the rest of his life to proclaiming the message of the principle doctrines of the faith: that mankind was created by God in His image; that by choosing evil over good, man fell out of that fellowship; that through Jesus Christ man could be redeemed – from himself, from sin, from death.

In a famous speech at Harvard in 1978, Solzhenitsyn observed that America was losing itself to a value system of social ill-restraint that was unbecoming of the purpose for which this nation had come into being. He said:

If (rationalist) humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot be unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it. It is imperative to review the table of widespread human values. Its present incorrectness is astounding. It is not possible that assessment of the President’s performance be reduced to the question of how much money one makes or of unlimited availability of gasoline.

The tendency to lose our ideals, he said, would cause us to lose our place among the nations. Among the trends Sozhenitsyn observed in his Harvard speech were:

• A decline in moral courage
• The lull of material excess
• The exaltation of the written law over a responsibility toward higher moral values
• The misuse of liberty
• The incredible abuse and manipulation of fact in so-called journalism
• The power of fashion to form human outlook
• The dramatic shift to embrace socialism, and with it, communism

As one who had lived and been shaped by a society that had a poverty of soul before his conscience was awakened in the Gulag, Solzhenitsyn had a clear understanding of the high cost and value of a well-formed conscience and soul.

Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Peace Prize in a day when the honor was truly meaningful and valuable. He stressed his firm Christian worldview and disdain for such demonstrations as the anti-war movement during Vietnam on the basis of a grander principle than immediate politics. He came to be ignored, if not altogether avoided, by the Western secular press.

The Choices We Make:

Opinion polls are just that. And yet we find that more weight and attention and ultimately more power in our present society is given to opinion polls than perhaps any other force---except perhaps the media. And it is interesting that the media and opinions form one another as they form us. This week we did a comprehensive review of American voter opinion polls done by a cross section of the major media outlets. Number one on the list of what voters are most concerned about is the economy. In a common list of issues ranging from personal economics, to energy crisis, to war, education, taxes and what most polls listed as “so-called” moral values, money matters topped the list with a four times greater percentage values of concern than any “so-called moral values.” This in a nation where 84% of its citizens still call themselves “Christian” when asked about religion. The polls do show a deep divide along political party ideology on nearly every question but energy. The two polls that actually named abortion specifically as an issue found it had a 1-3% importance in relation to economics which ranged between 70-90% of importance. In terms of moral choices the only other issue besides abortion on the list was the concern about the war which was in the middle of the scale of importance and gay marriage which rated lower than concern over abortion. In other words, America no longer recognizes true moral importance in general.

Vote your conscience doesn’t apply as long as polar bears are more important than human lives. Personal freedom and the pursuit of happiness is in vain if it only leads to death. Our national conscience has not been properly formed. What can break this vicious cycle? The answer is Who can break it. Someone outside the circle with more authority given Him. His moral handbook is the written word of God and for Christians there is no option but choice between good and evil as God defines them.

Isaiah said of Him, “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our King; it is He who will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). There we have it–the three arms of perfect government: legislative, judicial and executive ruled by One – an infallible and eternal administration. Human government is intended to be a reflection of the divine. In our quest for “freedom,” man has thrown off the liberty that comes from our Perfect Father, God. By elevating our personal opinion and “conscience” as autonomous from the rulership of God, we have, over the centuries, descended on a downward slope that has lost the value and moral compass that ensures Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness in its fullness. The worship of man and his material needs has become the standard by which our society has judged “good and evil.”

Perhaps this is no clearer than in the winning platform of the 1992 presidential elections. As an advisor to the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, James Carrville coined the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid!” It originated with a sign he made for the Little Rock Campaign headquarters that listed the three point message that would give their party control of the White House:

1. Change vs. more of the same
2. The economy, stupid
3. Don’t forget health care.

The strategy worked – twice.

But we see that there is a Lawgiver who encompasses all that we need for Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness, including our provision and health. Isaiah 33:15-16, 24 says, “He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil—this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him….No one living in Zion will say, ‘I am ill’; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.” As we vote in these elections, there is a higher law that must form our conscience as we make our choice.

In closing, I am reminded of a story that many of us were once familiar with–Pinocchio, the little wooden puppet crafted by the old clock-maker Geppetto as a companion to fill his desire for a son. In answer to Geppetto’s desires, the wooden puppet comes to life. But he is not yet a real boy. Pinocchio has to face some challenges and make some choices before he passes the test and is deemed worthy to keep the life given him. We find in the final scenes, after making many foolish decisions, that Pinocchio discovers the value of life and lays down his own existence in order to save Geppetto. Pinocchio demonstrates that he has developed a true conscience, and in return he is transformed from an animated puppet into a real boy.

As we cross the halfway point of these 40 days of Prayer and Fasting 4 America, we are praying for a spiritual awakening and transformation of America’s moral conscience that we might fulfill our destiny before God.

“The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.” Isaiah 33:5-6

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