Guest Spot: Critical election for American Christians

With a very important Election Day coming up Nov. 8 and a lot on the line for our land of the free and home of the brave — by and for the people — here’s what America’s founding fathers believed:

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people,” declared John Adams, America’s second president.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president and author of the Declaration of Independence said, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

General George Washington, our first president proclaimed, “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”

Then we have America’s fourth president and primary author of the United States Constitution, James Madison, who said “We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.”

What wonderful words of great wisdom from such a faith-filled man and a true patriot.

Then there’s old Benjamin Franklin, last but not the least on my short list of America’s founding fathers. A signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution, founder of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the leading theorists of the American Revolution, who declared in his love of country and great intellect, “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” Wow! I say.

So here we are today, with one of America’s highly respected and loved faith- and freedom-loving leaders, Dr. Ben Carson, saying: “I think [Faith & Freedom’s] importance is critical. In 2012, 30 million evangelicals did not vote. If you got just a fraction of those people involved then you could change the outcome. Faith is not a dormant thing; it’s an active thing. I know some people have the attitude of ‘Well, God’s in charge.’ But he uses us! So we have to be involved as well.”

And then we have in these trying times when freedom, religious liberty and the Constitution are under attack right now: Hillary Rodham Clinton warning all Americans on April 25, 2015, to be on notice, “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

So do we have to say more? Let all these insightful words speak for themselves.

God bless America! And let freedom ring! Vote your conscience on Election Day. Your vote matters.

The author lives in Mattituck.