I believe it might be nearly impossible for the citizens of today’s cultural climate to understand why our forefathers were so passionate about the wording of the Constitution. In my opinion, the words “We the People” were possibly to them the most important three words of the entire Constitution, because they had lived under both the strong arm of the King of England and the equally controlling arm of the Anglican Church. They believed that under God they could have a free society truly governed by the people. That is why they were very careful to write into the constitution the clear and unequivocal laws to protect the free speech of every citizen.
May God give me a morsel of the courage of one of our early forefathers to jump from the quill pens of 1776 into our current “Twitter File” debates and the push and the pull of the right and the left of our national political extremes! It is blatantly obvious is that it is still just as true today as it was then! “We the people”, the common people, from the poor to those of Billionaires Row” want to have a voice, and we want to be heard, and want to be treated as equals in this land we call America! I believe I know why they so aggressively carved that into our constitution. I believe that I have lived a small piece of what they lived.
Growing up in a small farming town in rural Pennsylvania, I had a micro-glimpse of what it is like to live under the prejudice and hatred of a wealthier ruling class, although It was certainly not to the degree of the strong arm of the class-conscious British royalty, let me describe how a small-town country boy experienced a very small taste of what our forefathers felt.
During my father’s boyhood, his family lived on three different tenant farms, surviving on a small stipend salary and milk and scrap meat from the butchering on the farm, and what vegetables they could grow and can for the winter. His father earned extra money as a ditch digger, starting to dig at sunup and not coming out of the ditches until the sunset each night. His parents never owned a home or a vehicle. I can remember sensing that we as the grandchildren were looked down upon in some prejudicial ways by some of the wealthier families there. Now, as an adult looking back, I realize that although we were inside that microcosm of a small town, it had many of the social structures of a larger community. I am not sure how much that impacted me as a child. All that I know for sure is that I always felt empathetic towards people of color and have been disturbed by reports of them being misused and abused and treated as if they were somehow of less value than the bigoted white folk of their community. When you are under the thumb of “rich folk” control, you truly feel as if you do not have a say in the decisions that affect those that you love.
As followers of Christ, the six thousand years of Judeo-Christian history give us a biblical perspective on government. The Bible reveals that whole nations can and did slide away from God’s heart, subsequently reaping the fruits of the seeds of their sin. The demise of entire civilizations can be traced back to a gradual sliding away from God’s heart. Biblical history shows God using over and over His prophets to shout the warnings of the coming of God’s judgment as well as the promise of the hope of revival. The prophet Ezra, records in 2nd Chronicles 7:14, that God spoke to Solomon, saying, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land. If “we the people” understand the promise of “If my people” and practice its’ admonition, then that becomes a glimmer of hope for our current politically non-United States of America!
