The Catholic Defender: CCC 407

President Ronald Reagan once said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free" I became politically activated in 1980 when President Ronald Reagan ran against then President Jimmy Carter. At the same time thankfully I had recently returned home to my Catholic Faith. It was not long that I found the importance of my faith when considering who I was going to support. In 1973, the Supreme Court legalized Abortion which I could never accept as anything I could support.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 407 became very important to my understanding:

CCC 407 The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man's situation and activity in the world. By our first parents' sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free. Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him who thenceforth had the power of death, that is, the devil". Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals.

You have probably heard that the devil is in the details, how true that is as we see what is happening with our education, politics, social action, and morals. We need to pray for America like never before and the Rosary is the weapon.

I brought this core belief with me when I joined the United States Army. The core values of the military in its rhetoric fit perfectly with who I am. The colors of the the American Flag became my patriotic stance. I found the military to be a source to bring back the precepts that made our country great.

"The stars are a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun."

Alternating in red and white, the 13 stripes also represent the 13 original colonies that joined together to declare their independence from Britain in order to establish themselves as a sovereign nation.

White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valor, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice."

The Red, White, and Blue just naturally represents the good guys in white hats, and the need for Christians to place a voice in the town square was extremely important. The Constitution is based from it's biblical foundation and probably the most important document since Constantine's "Edict of Milan" which principally gave the Church freedom. The foundations of many Nations would be founded upon Biblical foundations.

President George Washington said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion… reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

Article I Section 8 concerns taxation, commerce with foreign nations, Immigration, citizenship, providing our Military, our Founding Fathers applied Leviticus 19:34 as a resource for building this Article:

You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.

A small portion of Article I Section 8 states, "To be President, not only must you be a citizen, but you must also be natural-born." (Also Article II Section 1)

Deuteronomy 17:15 States, "you may indeed set over you a king whom the LORD, your God, will choose. Someone from among your own kindred you may set over you as king; you may not set over you a foreigner, who is no kin of yours."

There is much more, Consider our Three Branches of Government? Our Founding Fathers took Isaiah 33:22 as a means to explain our purpose:

"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he it is who will save us."

The Congress makes the laws, our Judicial system ensures our laws are followed (supposed to) and the President acts as our leader. Not a king as the Lord is King, but someone who take the place to govern.

I am thankful that my faith was solid throughout my enlistment in the military and was in the position many times to have positive outcomes for Soldiers all along. The challenge today is to maintain our standards without compromising who we are as a people.

President Ronald Reagan would warn:

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

It is important that we take the threats against America seriously, especially that which is coming from within.