Conservative president? -- Yes, but not by opinion

By Michael Bresciani

That, I am not alone in the struggle to bring conscience, faith and the Bible itself back into the national psyche offers little consolation because, God seems to have required this at a time when it is anything but vogue. But of all the absurd attempts to remove any mention of God from the public, perhaps the latest effort tops anything that has happened to date.

District Judge, Ronald Lagueux ruled that Cranston High School in Rhode Island must remove a placard that has been in the school for decades because it ends with the word "Amen." The authoritarian 'out with it' was supposedly dignified by the judge in a forty page opinion stating all his learned and wise reasons to oust the placard.

Student, Jessica Ahlquist thought the banner should go, so she sued her school to remove the placard which has been in place since 1963. Up until April of 2011 students may have looked at, and pondered the message of the placard, while others passed by and gave it no thought. Now that one student, and one judge, who is an atheist, has formed an opinion, the history of the placard is finished. Ahlquist can now be found on You Tube explaining the launch of her new career as an anti-religion activist. Just when you begin to adjust to this kind of absurdity, along comes another high flying judge in the state where 'the wind comes sweepin down the plain.'

Seventy percent of voters expressed their view that Sharia law should not be practiced in the great state of Oklahoma, but the opinion of one has prevailed. The appeals court decided to stand behind Judge Vicki Miles — Lagrange, who said "When the law that voters wish to enact is likely unconstitutional, their interests do not outweigh Mr. Awad's in having his constitutional rights protected." Awad is the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma; who would have guessed?

Perhaps we have taken the fight against terror in the wrong direction. Maybe we need only send a few Christians to Muslim nations and go region by region asking for our civil rights and religious freedoms to be given place as it is here in the U.S. How successful would we be at that?

Besides raising the question of whether this judge ever heard the sage wisdom of Forest Gump's Mom, we can only guess that she has read nothing about honor killings, decapitations and limb removals that are commonly practiced, sanctioned and demanded under Sharia Law. Some say the nation is going down, who could imagine that some would want us to stop and pause in the seventh century just long enough to cast a few of our children off, before we slide the rest of the way down.

How dare we get cranky with Newt Gingrich for suggesting that federal judges be reined in, to be honest, some of them should be impeached, and others jailed. Give us some good ole American jurisprudence based on the Constitution, balance, equity and a good helping of common sense, and who knows, maybe even an apology from Newt's critics!

In Arizona a judge has told students they have a right to sue their school districts for bouncing La Raza that some see as an organization that is racially bent, hate mongering and anti-American. Arizona's HB 2281 was passed to ensure that no racially inclined courses can be taught in schools. The opinion of one judge is now calling for the students to ignore, fight against and overturn the law if it is their opinion that it is not fair. Here is a case of an opinion that is meant to spawn other opinions and change the law. How do you spell confusion?

When leaders begin to trust their own judgment above the laws of God or our own Constitution what happens is perhaps best seen in a statement made by one of the most ancient of biblical figures. Job, a man well tested and tried in the crucible of suffering, emerged as one who earned the approval of God. Job declared, "He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools." (Job 12: 17) Should we be rift with Newt for noticing that in America, today, this principle is still alive and well?

In many ways we are all becoming fools for thinking that getting one conservative president to replace Barack Obama will solve all the nations' problems. What have we done to bring the nation back around? How many of us are willing to return to the values we were once connected to and willing to live and die for if need be?

In a generation that is history challenged, morally decadent and socially operating on the pure power of liberal magic fairy dust it seems that we now believe that America is to be ruled by opinion rather than law. The Constitution may be an idea whose time has gone and if President Obama's adherence to that revered document is any example, we are all now free to float into the new charter for American jurisprudence and governance which we might call, the great doctrine of "I did it my way."

This is neither satire nor tongue in cheek, but it is the liberal rap of the day. The only thing more disturbing is that the polls tell us that millions will still vote both the president and the liberal judges' right back into office if they can. Is anyone listening, can we pull ourselves away from American Idol and the Good Wife long enough to change the channel to some relatively reliable unbiased news source. (If you could actually find one) God forbid we actually visited a watchdog site and spent a few minutes studying the actual records of both the president and the current field of candidates.

Benjamin Disraeli said "The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity," but unless they are taught to discern the truth before the sands of time run out on them or their generation's moment in time, they may as well be the trustees of a mess of porridge. Opinions are endless, but the rule of law is the foundation, the walls and the protective roof over any nation. Nations swayed by the trends of the day, have according to history's immutable record, all failed and ceased to be.

Opinion seems to have cheated the evangelicals out of an evangelical candidate. Who can explain why they did not rally behind Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry who were without doubt the only true evangelicals to have tried for the GOP nomination. Perhaps they were depending on some opinion rather than the very criterion they so readily espouse which is their own faith and doctrine. Are they now the proof of America's confusion and the very line of demarcation between a good church member and a poor disciple? If I believe that to be true, will they counter with the proverbial; that's only your opinion? Isn't it disturbing how easily one opinion can cancel or simply eliminate another?

It seems that this is not only the day of the petted opinion, but it has become a day of the consensus of opinions. If more people think it is more important to fix the economy than to fix America's dying and gasping morality, does that consensus equal a sure path for Mitt Romney? Or is it the day of opinions that yield up the best return for a nation clamoring for more creature comforts and security rather than some ethics, morality and Godliness which come at such a high price in personal commitment?

Can we suspend some opinions for others based on the personal gain factor? Can we ignore our opinions about flip flops, Bain Capital, offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, and a promise to leave Obama's 'don't ask don't tell' policy in place in our military, all because we think our jobs, bank accounts, retirement plans and Social Security will have a better chance to survive?

Can evangelicals suspend their opinions about Mormonism's doubtful 'Book of Mormon' polygamy and a Christology that reeks of error and bad exegetical bible interpretation, all because of some other opinion that is anything but evangelical? God knows, I don't want to know what that opinion might be.

Even as churches in the Middle East are being firebombed, Muslim converts to Christianity are being killed and threatened with execution and Christianity is under a full attack from every liberal from high school students to judges both in America and abroad, the truth is this, if you are a Christian your opinion counts for absolutely nothing. Christians have a Savior who we also call our Master, which means that we gave up our opinions at the foot of the cross. Whatever is antichrist we are against: regardless of how much wealth, security or comfort it might promise.

Wanting what is right, Godly and good for the country is a stand not an opinion. It will not be the shifting sand of trends and pop culture inclinations that will produce the best president in 2012. The founders, pioneers, statesmen and industrious of this nation were men and women whose legacy of conviction and moral fortitude did not waver through adversity, economic problems and times of uncertainty, it is the only stuff that can produce a legacy. They were men and women who counted the cost, (Lk 14: 28) rather than counting their wealth.

We have gay military personnel that gave up our secrets, occupy movements invigorated by union mobsters, high school students who are fighting the dreaded word 'amen,' and evangelicals that seem to have completely lost touch with what actually defines them. We have a president that is choking free enterprise, and rallying around the gay agenda like it was the greatest single cause in last two centuries, but isn't it just great, that we still have our opinions?

In the end will we be glad to have one last opinion about which way a great nation should fall? Some would say all at once, while others would insist it is better if it collapses slowly. We can fill the blogs and toast the endless editorials that say everything anyone has ever said about it; all the while they are saying nothing at all?

When opinions become the golden calf that we worship it is apparent that we are nearing the place where all standards are disappearing, in the ancient world that spelled the end of entire civilizations. Little in human nature has changed since then and nations and civilizations don't seem to have learned a thing. This is not an opinion but a historical fact, you know, one of those things we're doomed to repeat if we don't learn from it.

Only one generation has passed to come to the realization that religion is not after all the "opiate of the masses" as stated by Karl Marx, but it turns out that opinions are the real opiates. Can we vet, debate, discern, discuss and then decide on a president under the influence of something that by any other name is still, dope? Let's do our homework America and choose based on solid facts and nothing more.

I would be the first to admit that some, although very few opinions can be seen as devices to call for another view of a matter or its outcome. To the degree that they are exalted and glorified as true guidance above a higher standard they are simply devices that will dismantle nations one single thought at a time. To wit: "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts." (Isaiah 65: 1, 2)

© Michael Bresciani