Carpenters' Hall and the Founders

 If there’s one thing carpenters understand, it’s the importance of a solid foundation to the longevity of a building. Not only a solid foundation, but one meant to match the purpose, details and use of said structure. Think of a nuclear power plant. How much trust would you have in the operation of said plant when you don’t know if the concrete in the foundation will withstand the pressures and heat created during the reaction? A new home is no different. Required building code inspections ensure homeowners the floors, basement walls and drywall partitions won’t crack because of a faulty foundation. If the foundation’s specifications are changed for any reason, the resulting damage to the home may be irreparable.

Have you stopped to consider how this same principle can be applied to the United States of America? Consider the foundation on which it was built—biblical principles. For instance, in Exodus18, Moses consults with his father-in-law about how to delegate authority to handle problems. “Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” This is the foundation of our Constitution.

We the people choose representatives at a local level, county level, state level and federal level. However, the founders also knew people would be lazy and not knowledgeable concerning federal issues. Hence, we elect members of the House of Representatives and we elect state-level legislators. The founders expected the state legislators to be wiser and more discerning relative to who qualified to be elected to the Senate. Those same founders understood common civilians would have no knowledge of or discernment of the complexities of international relations and created the Electoral College for the purpose of electing a president. These delegated election processes are the foundation of the government of the United States of America.

What we now experience concerns the crack in the foundation. Carpenters can’t fix cracks in the walls or a tipping house when the foundation is damaged. The foundation must be reconstructed, and the reason the foundation failed must be eliminated. Was there too much water undermining the footers? A proper drainage ditch must be installed before repairing the foundation. Was there new construction added to the foundation that caused the failure? The new construction must be removed in order to put the foundation back in place.

And so it is with today’s version of the Constitution of the USA. The most significant deteriorating factor of our foundation is the 17^th Amendment. This 1912 addition to our by-laws completely unbalanced the federal government. It replaced the election of senators by the legislative bodies of the states with a popular election like that of the House of Representatives. It completely removed the wisdom and knowledge of the statesmen in office and replaced them with the ignorant public. One of the ploys engaged in obtaining the change included telling the public all politicians are crooked, so how could we expect crooked politicians to elect statesmen to send to the Senate in DC? Therein lays the hinge that swung open the public vote consideration. No one spoke up and said, “What if we simply elected statesmen with the qualifications Moses demanded of his leaders?” Read Exodus 18 again. “…able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness…”

Another modern issue concerns term limits. The founders considered the options when creating the foundation. People were expected to elect statesmen. As long as a statesman did their job and made decisions based on what made America better, they’d keep their job. If a statesman made a turn and became a politician (one in government for his own good), then the people would replace him. In the meantime, those with experience, wisdom and knowledge of the workings of the government would contribute to the general welfare of the nation. It’s not term limits we need. It’s the election of statesmen in all of our representative forms of government from local school boards all the way to the House of Representatives. That’s where the foundational principles so aptly applied by our founding fathers holds up our Constitutional Republic like a building set on a solid foundation.

First Amendment Reporters

            Our First Amendment rights were designed for one reason and one only, to allow Americans the right to speak openly and publicly about their concerns as to which way the government is going. There were no intentions to allow profanity. There were no intentions to allow vulgar painting. There were no intentions to allow libel or slander. Those things all came along with social humanists sitting on the Supreme Court. The newspapers were the high tech method of providing information to as many people as possible in the shortest time-frame. Before that notices were posted on the church door, like Martin Luther did. It is because of the written word, the spoken word, and the communication of ideas about government with those words that we see the clause about freedom of speech.

            In earlier times, journalists took great pains to make sure all facts addressed in any given writing/speech were true. Absolutely true. The more important the individual speaking those words, the higher the likelihood of a bigger staff of researchers to ensure the legitimacy of the words. Are there journalists still around? I believe perhaps there are. These folks take the time necessary to cross reference quotes, dig into story background, and never ever print a statement they haven’t proven to be true. Today, even with the advent of the internet and all the words posted there, we have difficulty determining what truth is.

            The issue at hand remains the others. Perhaps we can get a better grasp of their inadequacy if we view them as reporters rather than journalists. A reporter has no conscious need of determining facts. Their word choice slides into one viewpoint or the other with enough slant to subtly influence viewers. They are rarely encouraged to think independently; hence they kowtow to the chief editor’s point of view. These are the people gearing their presentations to sixth grade education. They will pound the airways/internet with misinformation for as long as it takes to make their viewpoint considered to be true, whether it is or not, and they are generally paid well to do so.

            With all the reporters talking on the news shows, blogging across the internet, and making presentations on stages it’s no wonder our world is upside down. It’s no wonder our federal government extends its tentacles into every aspect of our lives outside of the Constitution’s original intent. Few have read it and fewer still speak to the abuse, especially the news who use reporters rather than journalists.

Who do you say?

The discussion in politics, especially in light of recent events, often turns to the phrase the lesser of two evils. This implies we have no real choice and either way we go will result in a continuation of the downward spiral of the nation. I have a different view. What the country has been missing for so long is a better choice, as my cousin recently noted on a Facebook post.

When we turn this old saying around and create a positive, we begin to see how our country can regain its place in world politics. Rather than accepting someone is a little less evil to sit in the Office of the President of the United States of America, let us look at the benefits of choosing the better one.

This simple process allows us the opportunity to find the statesmen amongst us. It is the statesman who judges the value of a law according to how it best fulfills the intent of the Constitution. It is a politician who looks at the value of a law relative to his own best interests. Statesmen in today’s world are far and few between. Most of the politicians have never held a job. Yes, it’s a general statement, but you get the drift. If they don’t know what work is or how things work at the ground level, how do they expect to know what’s right for the country?

Now the question remains, how do we find statesmen to run for office? It’s a good question and one requiring more answers than can be placed in this blog. There are, however, a few questions I would ask someone purporting to be a statesman in the United States. The primary one is, “Who do you say Jesus is?” The importance of this question surfaces in the First Amendment. One must understand the context of the founding fathers when they wrote this Constitution of ours. The US was a Protestant Reformation Christian nation. Many of the founders were graduates of the seminaries of the day, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary. God stood in the middle of their lives and they made decisions based upon their knowledge and understanding of the scriptures. The public, too, understood these concepts because their reading knowledge and skill came from scriptural lessons in the Bible, Primers and other educational resources.

Until we in the U. S. A. start seeking out statesmen to run for office, we may well have to suffer the lesser of the two evils. When we make the choice to pick the better of the two candidates, we power the move of God in the land where voting is a right established by Biblical principles.