Americans should embrace religious principles for stronger nation: Parker

Americans should embrace religious values to move past government dependency. — Image credit: Getty Images

The relationship between religion and state has been a subject of heated political debate since long before the United States was born, and that debate still endures in American politics today. The provision of “general welfare,” written into the U.S. Constitution itself, also persists as a highly relevant issue in modern American politics.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Star Parker argues that as our attention to personal responsibility has waned, dependence on government has grown. She contends that we’ve lost focus on the “religious principles” George Washington emphasized in his Farewell Address, sacrificing the health of American society.

Be the first to know when Star Parker publishes a new opinion! Download the Straight Arrow News app and enable push notifications today!

The following is an excerpt from the above video:

Our founders believed in religious freedom, but they also believed in timeless religious principles. In his Farewell Address in 1796, President George Washington said: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports…Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Educator and civil rights pioneer Booker T. Washington famously said: “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by the majority.” This founder of Tuskegee University reminded us that there is good and evil in the world, and they are transmitted through the principles of the Bible and our faith. Democracy can be the means through which a nation accepts or does not accept these eternal truths, but democracy does not invent them.

As we enter the final days of a very contentious election season, it’s important to remember that our nation’s founders conceived of a nation rooted in core truths, which, by limiting government, would enable individual liberty. Our founders believed in religious freedom, but they also believed in timeless religious principles. In his farewell address in 1796

President George Washington said end quote of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports whatever may be conceived, to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. End Quote, educator and civil rights pioneer Booker T Washington famously said in quote, a lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by the majority. End Quote, this founder of Tuskegee University reminded us that there is good and evil in the world, and they are transmitted through the principles of the Bible and our faith. Democracy can be the means through which a nation accepts or does not accept these eternal truths, but democracy does not invent them. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964

the given assumption to for too many Americans was that, although there was a new law protecting freedom, civil rights law, that freedom for all low income black Americans, well, they weren’t prepared to be free, nor capable of being free. And this flawed presumption ushered in a new era of big government and welfare state socialism creating major problems, new problems in many of our communities, especially it decimated the families in those poor communities. And since the introduction of these programs, single parent homes and out of marriage, births have skyrocketed, and seeking to bring the failed welfare state socialism of the broken parts of our country to the healthy parts of our country, rather than to bring the capitalism of those healthy parts of our country to the broken areas. Progressives seem to celebrate government dependency and therefore inequality. Look we know that the key to success of our American economy is freedom and competition, and that competition produces excellent yet in a sphere where excellence is possibly the most important value, the most important thing that we can do, the education of our children, we don’t have freedom. We don’t have competition in order to transmit the values and address the gaps in educational achievements and earning power. Families need freedom to make the best choices for their children, meaning absolute choices for their children, whether we’re talking education, housing, health insurance, retirement security, freedom and personal ownership will help reduce dependency on government, and it will build a stronger community for all of us, all American communities. So as we root for whatever team we’re rooting for and the outcome the election, we can be assured that, just like with the well baseball and what just happened there with the World Series, whether you’re a Dodger fan living in New York, or whether you’re a Yankee fan living in Los Angeles, we are all Americans, and this country will not be destroyed regardless of the outcome of this election. We battle in the voting booth, and we will continue to battle in the voting booth every election so that this country will be free. So.