History

Is America God’s Country?    

Veteran American political insider, Pat Buchanan, posed the question 13 years ago, ‘Is America God’s country?’

That hint of despair in his question came during the furore involving the removal of the granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court. 

The melancholia levels have only risen, under eight years of Obama, and many devout Americans are concerned, like Buchanan, as to where the Great Republic is headed.

History is always instructive and American history in particular.

The first Great Awakening was a spiritual tsunami that hit the colonial colonies of North America in the third and fourth decades of the 18^th century, with a peak intensity between 1739-43.

Religious revivals are essentially a manifestation of God; it has the stamp of the deity on it which even the unregenerate and uninitiated are quick to recognise. Revival makes an impact on a community.

 Theologian, Dr Wilbur Smith, outlined nine outstanding characteristics of major revivals and it is interesting to apply them to America in her formative years.

1)    They occurred in a day of deep moral darkness and national depression

This was certainly true of the Puritans of New England as by the third generation strains had developed, there was generally perceived to be a lack of spirituality in the community with what historians have labelled the ‘half way covenant,’ being an attempted remedy. Under this policy they could participate in the Lords Supper but were not full members of the church until they had made a personal profession of faith. However, some ministers then allowed communal confessions rather than for individuals.

The great colonial clergyman Jonathan Edwards also wrote he was concerned about ‘the licentiousness (that) prevailed among the youth of the town’ while ‘the state of society and morals were becoming more and more corrupt.’

2)    They began in the heart of one consecrated servant of God who became the energising power behind it, the agent used of God to quicken and lead the nation back to faith and obedience to Him.

There had been small revivals in the 1720s, notably inspired by the preaching of Dutch Reform minister Theodore Frelinghuysen, in New Jersey, who in turn inspired Presbyterian minister Gilbert Tennent.

But it was Edwards preaching, that triggered off the most far reaching events that started in 1734 and quickly accelerated with 300 commitments in six months.

From the town of Northampton Mass.,it spread to over a 100 towns,including other colonies. Edwards was no village ranter but rather a well read and educated theologian. His record and analysis of the Awakening came to the attention of a young British evangelist, George Whitfield.

3)    Each revival rested on the Word of God and most were the result of preaching and proclaiming God’s law with power

In 1739, God’s lightning’ was to hit all the colonies when Whitefield started his crusades –the Billy Graham of his time.

No less a person than the American colossus Benjamin Franklin, scientist-writer-diplomat-politician, and a confirmed agnostic was astonished by ‘the extraordinary influence of Whitfield’s oratory on his hearers. Indeed to such an extent at one meeting parting with his money despite earlier determining ‘that he (Whitefield) should get nothing from me.’

Franklin, who befriended the young evangelist, was particularly impressed with the power and clarity of Whitefield’s delivery that could be ‘heard and understood at a great distance’ by some 30,000 people according to the great American. That is a huge crowd as the total population in 13 colonies was no more than 2.5 million people. It was also an era without microphones.

Was Franklin, the first truly scientific observer of lightning, listening to God’s lightning rod?

4)    All resulted in a return to worship of Jehovah

The Great Awakening is estimated to have added 250 new churches and 200,000 conversions throughout the colonies with substantial changes in the age composition of church membership. Some 50,000 new souls were added to the churches of New England (out of a population of 250,000) that revolutionized the moral and religious nature of the country and ultimately determined its political destiny during the same century.

5)    Each witnessed the destruction of idols where they existed

As the Puritans, and many other Protestants, were not High Church the bulk of churches had no statues of dead saints, or of Mary, or of anything that smacked of Romanism or Anglicanism.

What they did have was a rigid hierarchical system where public speech was rigidly circumscribed and limited to a college elite. Not for them lay preaching, campfire meetings and the separation of church and state-all part of modern America and Low Church life today.

Thus, it was the tearing down of this ‘idol’ that preserved preaching and prayer to tax supported clergyman and this destruction not only came about because of the activity of the ‘Grand Itinerant’ (Whitfield) but also through their own Jonathon Edwards.

The concept of an itinerant or wandering ministry cut across the Puritan concept that ministers must be settled and the democratisation of the pulpit eventually led to far reaching changes for both religious and secular society.

As historian Perry Miller noted the greatness of Edwards was to perceive the need for changes in worship and bring people, by participation, into a more meaningful relationship.

6)    In each revival there was a recorded separation from sin

The great secular observer, Ben Franklin summed it up:……‘it was wonderful to see the change so soon made in the manners of inhabitants. From being thoughtless and indifferent…..it seemed as if the whole world was growing religious; one could not walk through a town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families in every street.’

7)    In every revival they returned to offering blood sacrifices

In the literal Biblical sense of sacrificing an animal this is not applicable. However, in the sense of warfare providing blood sacrifices it is indeed relevant. The War of Jenkins Ear (1739) was only a small scale affair but it morphed into King George’s War (1744-48) which at that time was the largest of the American colonial wars. This was ultimately supplanted a decade later with the French and Indian War part of the Seven Years War, a global struggle.

8)    Almost all recorded revivals show a restoration of great joy and sadness

As Edwards noted, in the ‘spring and summer, following 1735, the town seemed to full of the presence of God as it never was so full of love nor so full of joy…as it was then.’

Further, in a long letter (12/12/1743) to Rev. Thomas Prince of Boston, Edwards reflected approvingly on the past nine years of revival, including the second wave of the Great Awakening that had occurred in Northampton following Whitefield’s visit. According to him there was also more seriousness, decency, clean talking, together with a decline in lewdness and ‘tavern hunting’ that made the era the best for 60 years.

9)    Each revival was followed by a period of great national prosperity

Economic historian Marc Engel, in tracing the development of the 13 colonies between 1720-75 states the period of most rapid growth was between 1745-60 or the period immediately following the Awakening!

True, there were also strong secular arguments for increased productivity (new techniques, increased prices for exports etc) that admittedly was stronger in the north then the south where economic development was less pronounced. But where was the revival the weakest? Is it only co-incidence, that according to historian, Marc Simmons, ‘in the older areas of the southern colonies the effect of revivalism seems to be far less pronounced?’

Even so the democratisation of the church wrought by the Awakening would ensure that the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian revolution permeated throughout all the colonies. The Baptists had 96 churches in 1740 but 40 years later with the American Revolution raging had 457 making them the second last denomination.

The Baptists and Methodists would replace the Congregationalist (Puritans) and Anglicans, as the two largest denominations, within half a century after American independence.

Indeed, the Great Awakening presaged the American Revolution by making Americans into participants and protagonists in God’s cause against the mighty of whatever rank and station and once freedom is gained in one area it becomes impossible to stop in another. (That was something that Gorbachev, in our time, discovered when he tried to contain reforms in the USSR).

Thus, the American Revolution was truly an extension of the earlier spiritual revolution that became a harbinger of profound social and political changes.

Those who wish to sneer and jeer at arguments for a God-in-history role may continue to do so, after all from the days of Lot there have always been mockers and scoffers. Nevertheless there is enough historical evidence to conclude American history cannot be argued just from a secularist viewpoint.

It is indeed His story.

Accordingly, Pat Buchanan’s question is resolved in the affirmative and Americans would do well to reflect on that great revival period of their history.

WA Racing

SOMETHING GOOD

Steven Parnham had every reason to look contented after the $150,000 Group 3, Northerly Stakes (1400m), at Ascot on October 15.

Parnham is always reflective, never brash, with a quiet unobtrusive personality that commands, and gets, respect. There are never outbursts of emotion, either for good or bad from this young veteran of the saddle, who has fully savoured the highs and lows of the Sport of Kings.

But he knew his last stride win on rising galloper Lite ‘N In My Veins was something special and he rated it highly, perhaps only behind his three Group 1 Kingston Town Classic successes- with Playing God (2010-11) for his father, Neville, and then with Ihtsahymn (2013) for Fred Kersley.

Parnham knew, upon dismounting, he had delivered something special, again, for Kersley, breeder Neville Duncan, and part-owner Reg Webb. Their feelings never overstated were palpable and Parnham is one of the most cerebral jockeys in the business. He read their feelings like he had read the race.

Kersley and Duncan, in particular, are not outwardly emotional men but both were clearly touched that their promising young galloper had won this race.

 The great trainer had prepared the great racehorse in his outstanding career and now those famous gold and black colours had triumphed again, in a race that bore Northerly’s name.

Webb, for whom Parnham has delivered plenty of winners for over the years, including the 2013 Kingston Town Classic, said he had a major heart surgery only four months ago. At the presentation he quipped he thought he was going to need another bypass as Lite’n In My Veins thundered home to snatch victory from the Bob Peters owned pair, Ideal Image (Joe Azzopardi) and Perfect Reflection (William Pike).

Imploring Parnham not to cut it so fine, in future, this veteran owner also said it was great to have a trainer older then himself in which to discuss things! This win will clearly be high on their list when they reminisce in future.

Parnham, in fact, had his horse nicely balanced, being just slightly worse than mid field for most of the race and although Azzopardi had given his mount every chance the Parnham late surge had the look of inevitability about it, even though the margin was only a half-head.

Will the promising four year old run in the Railway Stakes (1600m)?

Certainly Neville Duncan considers, potentially, the galloper’s best distance would as a ‘miler’ with 1800m the outer limits, the latter distance being the Kingston Town distance.

Steven Parnham may well have an interesting Christmas carnival ahead, and his association with Messrs Kersley, Duncan and Webb, remains unfinished business.

MISSING MITT: A QUESTION OF CHARACTER

In an election in which Americans seem appalled by the choice of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the world’s most important elected office, it is worth reflecting on what might have been.

Four years ago Americans turned their backs on Mitt Romney.

The Democratic Party portrayed the then Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney as a cold flint hearted man, devoid of any feeling for ordinary folks.

They were partly right. Romney was no ordinary man but rather an extraordinary one.

Instead they re-elected arguably the weakest US president in history, Barack Obama.

Romney’s strength of character can in fact be deduced, and contrasted, by some of his critics in the ‘lamestream’ media.

Amy Davidson, writing in the New Yorker, (‘Mitt’s Binders and the Missing Women, 17/10/12) was typical of that pack.

She sneeringly dismissed Romney’s statements about having ‘binders full’ of qualified women who would be able to serve in a Romney Administration, and then moved to abortion, the idee fixe of feminists.

Davidson thundered that if it hadn’t been for Roe v Wade then may women would have wandered the streets and some of them would have died.

Her piece de resistance came at the close; ‘Would Romney have led a search party for them?’

This was a cheap shot at  Romney who remarkably went searching for the kidnapped 14 year old daughter of one of his business partner’s, in a superb display of compassion and determination.

The distraught father, Robert Gay, has no idea where she was after her disappearance from a rave party, three days earlier, in New York City, in July 1996.

Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to NYC to help find Gay’s daughter.

The employees scoured NY talking to prostitutes, drug addicts, indeed anyone they thought might have information.

A phone lead, traced by police, led to her discovery in a New Jersey basement, suffering from withdrawal symptoms. She probably would not have survived another day.

Nor was this a one-off act of concern.

Two years earlier when Romney was campaigning (unsuccessfully) against Senator Ted Kennedy, he discovered that a Veterans hospital badly needed milk.

Being a bit gauche, politically, Romney suggested that learn to milk a cow!

Having checked out the Veterans hospital Romney apologised for the flippant remark and then did something else, covertly arranging milk supplies for the next two years.

The hospital tried to find out who their benefactor was but it was only when the milkman retired some years later that he spilled the beans…or perhaps the milk, in this case, as to who epitomised the milk of human kindness.

Romney has a long list of such acts.

In 1979 when 14 year old David Oparowski  was dying, Mitt and one of his sons, Tagg, were frequent visitors to the hospital. Indeed, Romney helped the young boy draft a will so he could leave his cherished possessions to members of his family.

Ted Oparowski, father of David, commented on the Romney solicitude thus: “You cannot measure a man’s character based on words he utters before adoring crowds at happier times. The true measure of a man is revealed in times of trouble, the quiet hospital room of a dying boy with no cameras and no reporters-that is the time to make an assessment.”

That powerful statement by a father contrasts with the mean mindedness of Romney’s critics with arguably the worst effort coming from an Australian hack.

Canberra journalist Robert Macklin’s effort, in the 2012 US presidential race, would certainly be a worthy winner of the War of Jenkins Year award.

According to Macklin, Romney was a Mormon who once drove to Canada on a family holiday with his dog strapped on the roof of a car.

Golly, gosh what a revelation and only-28 years after it happened!

Actually, what Romney did was to build a rooftop carrier, complete with shield, to make the journey of the much loved family canine more comfortable.

Macklin’s ‘scoop,’ apart from qualifying to be  in Evelyn’s Waugh’s novel of the same name, belongs in the communication era of colonial America.

American history aficionados may recall the length of time taken between incident and response time in the War of Jenkins Ear.

In April 1731 a Spanish coast guard sloop intercepted a British merchant ship and the Spaniards boarded that ship. Heated words ensued between the two captains resulting in the Spaniard, Juan de Leon Fandino slicing off one of Robert Jenkins ear.

Seven years later, March 1738, Captain Jenkins reported this incident to a committee of the House of Commons and the British saw that as a reason to declare war –in October 1739.

That cynical delay in an era of slow communications was one thing; Macklin’s 28 year wait to pontificate that Romney was unsuitable to be the US president in 2012, based on false claims, was simply in a class of its own!

Maybe the Canberra hack has lived in the Australian ‘bush ‘capital for too long and has forgotten that many dogs in both Australia and the US  ride on the back of truck and utes all the time-without seat belts too! (Hold the front page).

This manic media behaviour was similiar to the flak Romney, gained at home, for using his business acumen to save the Utah Winter Olympics (2002).

A group called PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) protested about Romney arguing for a rodeo at the Games and also that he had gone quail hunting. (The latter referred to the succulent bird, not former VP Dan Quayle-only another former VP, Dick Cheney, is allowed to hunt humans!)

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance but it also means that a man who epitomises American decency can be dragged down by pissants.

Romney’s innate decency was reflected in the last days of the 2012 campaign.

 Obama thundered at the people not to boo Romney but rather take their revenge at the polls.

 Romney simply replied it was incumbent for people to vote for love of country, not out of revenge.

Romney was defeated in that election but the real loser was America.