SCRIPTURE:  The [intrinsically] good man produces what is good and honorable and moral out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart; and the [intrinsically] evil man produces what is wicked and depraved out of the evil [in his heart]; for his mouth speaks from the overflow of his heart. Luke 6:45 AMP

QUOTE: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

– U.S. Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

THOUGHT: You know the old saying about the elephant in the room? Well, a whale is even larger than an elephant, and we need to be talking about it.

When Jesus said the mouth speaks out of the abundance of what’s stored in his heart, I find a little hope in it. You and I, with the help of the Helper, can discern between good and evil, choosing to store up what’s good in our hearts, our minds, even our bodies. Then, almost miraculously, when we open our mouths, what is good and right and noble and true will be on our lips.

Wow, what a concept.

But this is the whale in the room: Teach our children five ways to do math or spelling or history or reading and watch scores drop, decade after decade; train them in the confusion of pronouns on a sliding scale, gender as a choice on a spectrum and otherwise sexualize away their innocence; teach them equality is equity, hatred of one race is okay, and their country is deplorable. Keep poking holes in the safety net of our Constitution so the whale can go right through it, then cheer, and chant (like the Juneteenth parade goers in NYC two weeks ago), “we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re coming for your children.”

I say no. I say take your children out of public school and public university, where 70% of teens lose their faith. Teach them good and not evil, so they learn discernment and critical thinking and truth – and what comes out of their mouths is good too. Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it (Pro. 22:6) is a promise, and it’s one I cling to as I watch my own college-educated children wander, surrounded by faithless friends.

The founders knew about the whale. Even as they penned the incipient document declaring independence from tyranny, they talked about virtue and principle and life and liberty and happiness and natural rights and Nature’s God. Just 22 years after he helped write the Declaration, John Adams as president of the U.S. told the militia of Massachusetts, “we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Even if you heard no other words in the chaos that surrounds us, Adams’ words would explain what you’re seeing. Human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. A whale, straining at a net that grows weaker and weaker.

PRAYER: Oh God, mend our every flaw, confirm the soul of our nation by the self-control of its citizens and our liberty in law; refine all our gold, until all success be nobleness, and every gain divine.