America Adrift Without a Rudder

There is no doubt that America today is adrift. We are a ship without a rudder, compass, or even a goal. We do not know where we are going because we have forgotten from where we came.

It is impossible to be an intelligent conservative unless one knows what it is he is trying to conserve, therefore, let me offer a few philosophical considerations that will provide a theoretical framework for our conservative agenda:

• Every nation in history, without exception, has been founded upon some theistic or anti-theistic foundation—whether you go back to the ancient pagan nations of Egypt, or Rome, or consider the modern nations today of England, China, or even the U.S., all have been built upon some theistic or anti-theistic foundation.
• Out of this theistic or anti-theistic foundation (this religious foundation) there inevitably grows a set of ethics or morals. These grow out of the religious substratum, or foundation. An example of that would be to consider the difference in reaction that would take place from killing a Brahma bull in America, or doing it in India. In India, it may very well cost you your life.
• Out of these sets of ethics or morals there grows, or is enacted or codified, legislation. All legislation is simply the enactment of some ethical standard that grows out of some religious foundation. This is seen in many places.

When we understand this, which is so utterly fundamental to understanding the world in which we live, we see through some of the big lies we have heard so frequently in our time, such as, “You can’t legislate morality.”

The truth of the matter is, you can’t legislate anything but morality.  We pass laws because something is moral or immoral. We have laws against murder because it is immoral to murder;; we have laws against rape because it is immoral to rape; and we have laws against child abuse because it is immoral to abuse children.

Another big lie is that you can’t make people good by passing laws. It is true that you are not going to make people good in the sense of making them acceptable to God by passing some law. On the other hand, what would happen to our society if all laws against theft or murder, or any other crime, were suddenly removed from all of the books? Do you think it would make any difference in how people act?  Just look how they act when the electricity goes out in New York or a hurricane hits New Orleans—when they just think those laws are not going to apply.

How about this: “You can’t impose your morality on others.” The truth is every law ever passed by any legislature has always been the imposition of somebody’s morality on someone else.

The secular humanists have given consideration to drawing up a set of humanist ethics like gambling, pornography, consenting sex with any consenting individuals (not necessarily adults), euthanasia, and abortion. And they are busily engaged in imposing these on the entire American people!

The only moralities we really have to choose between are not mine and theirs, but God’s and man’s. The ultimate choice is between God’s morality and man’s immorality.

That is the choice America is facing today. What we see going on right now is a struggle for the very soul of this nation, a struggle to steer the ship either into the safe harbor of liberty and godliness, or to steer it onto the rocks of atheistic and socialistic tyranny.

Source Based on a sermon by Dr. James Kennedy