24 Mar 2011
The questions posed to us by so many on the ongoing crisis in Egypt have necessitated our writing of this article.
Let me begin by saying that I am appalled at the idiocy of our government. Not just the current administration, but previous ones as well. One has to go back to the Reagan Administration to find a shred of common sense, and even then there was no lack of lunacy. Do you remember Joan Quigley, the astrologer that Nancy Reagan consulted on the president’s daily schedule.
Regimes, like Hosni Mubarak’s in Egypt, have been propped up in the Middle East for years with millions of American taxpayer dollars. When the populace finally decides to come out from under the steel-toed boot of its dictator, we quickly turn on the dictator—who we have been aiding and abetting for a long time with American foreign aid—and side with the protestors—whose oppression we have been funding. Then, we wonder why those who have been living under an ironfist filled with U.S. dollars are suspicious of our motives and hostile to our friendly gestures.
The problem here is not that complicated, as our government would have us to believe. It is a simple matter of whether our foreign policy will be based upon what is right or upon something else perceived by our leaders to be more in our national best interest. What our government never seems to understand is that doing what is right is always in the best interest of our country. Doing otherwise always results in dire consequences, as has been proven once again by the present crisis in Egypt.
Instead of doing the right thing and dependingupon God for its protection and prosperity, the kingdom of Judah perceived that a deal with Egypt would be more in its best interest (Isaiah 30:1-5). The result was cataclysmic, since Egypt was a crumbling empire incapable of aiding or protecting anyone. Judah ended up taunted by the Assyrians for its reliance upon Egypt—the “splintered reed of a staff, which [could only] pierce the hand of anyone who leaned upon it” (Isaiah 36:6)—and conquered by the Chaldeans, who had crushed the Egyptians earlier at Carchemish on the Euphrates River.
America’s modern-day government appears no more adept than Judah’s ancient one. We too refuse to do right and reject reliance upon the Almighty for our protection and prosperity. Instead, we lean our nation’s foreign policy on the likes of a Hosni Mubarak, the “splintered reed of a staff, which [can only] pierce the hand of anyone who leans upon it.” The result, asis clearly seen in the streets of Cairo today, is cataclysmic.
The political fog continuously produced by today’s politicians with their smoke and mirrors arguments of the necessity of duplicity in our foreign policy driven by the ever-changing circumstances of a complicated world is pierced through by the simple and clear teaching of Scripture. The Bible says, “Righteousness [doing the right thing] exalts a nation, but sin [doing the wrong thing] is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Unlike the ever-changing circumstances of a complicated world, the truth of God’s Word never changes. It can be relied upon regardless of current or ever-changing circumstances.
The infamous Bush Doctrine, at least “infamous” in liberal circles, not only asserted our right to invade countries that harbor and abet terrorists, but also our right to export democracy to the rest of the world. As President Bush said himself in his second inaugural address, “There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom. We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”
In a 2005 trip to Egypt, Bush’s Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, boldly proclaimed in a speech in Cairo, “Throughout the Middle East, the fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty. It is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy.” Recently, Elliott Abrams, Bush’s National Security Adviser, attempted to justify the Bush Administration’s “Freedom Agenda” with the current riots in the Middle East. He wrote, “It turns out, as those demonstrators are telling us, that supporting freedom is the best policy of all.”
Elliot Abrams, like many neoconservatives, appears to be blind to the fatal flaw in Bush’s “Freedom Agenda.” It is easily seen, however, in the fact that once given a voice, many people, such as the vast majority of Muslims, won’t use it to sing “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Instead,they’ll attempt to sing the swan song of Western Civilization to the tune of Taps. Take Egypt for example; 84 percent of its population approves of the death penalty for apostasy from Islam. In other words, democracy in Egypt will result in the execution of anyone converting from Islam to Christianity. It won’t result in an American style democracy with freedom of religion, but in an Islamic style democracy with the persecution of all religions besides the Religion of the Sword.
Our championing of democracy as the cure-all for all of our world’s ills has resulted in Afghans voting to make their country an Islamic republic, a republic that must be run by a Muslim president and ruled by Shari’ah Law. Egyptians electing to their parliament members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization that is not only behind much of the present protests in Egypt, but that has also already received a nod from the Obama White House for playing a role in Egypt’s future government. Iraqis electing to their parliament several members of the Mahdi Army, followers of the radical Imam Muqtada al-Sadr, who has served as the chief figure in the Iraqi insurgence against U.S. Troops. The terrorist organization Hezbollah winning elections in Lebanon. And the terrorist organization Hamas actually being elected as the new government in Palestine.
Apparently, all the backers of the Bush Doctrine have conveniently forgotten the words of our second president, John Adams. According to him, “Our constitution was made for a religious [Christian] and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” Our Founding Fathers understood what most Americans today are ignorant of; namely, that no form of democratic government can succeed where human nature is unrestrained by Christian conviction. Only in a Christian nation can the majority be trusted with self-governance. This, contrary to popularopinion, is the secret to America’s success and longevity.
The U.S. statesman, John Caldwell Calhoun, once warned the United States Senate that democracy unchecked by Christian conviction becomes “the most tyrannical and oppressive” form of government ever devised by man. Is it not such a democracy, one stripped of its soul—the Christian faith—that is now being called for at home and championed by our country throughout the world? Ifso, is our country, unbeknownst to itself, not helping to usher in end time tyranny that will inevitably lead to unprecedented tribulation (Matthew 24:21)? This is a grave question demanding earnest inquiry.
Don Walton
|
