It’s quiet.  It pretends not to exist.  It lives in the shadows, hidden and rarely talked about.  It is the political fringe.  Conservatives have historically claimed that the fringe live on the far edge of the left, while progressives claim that it exists solely on the right. Both sides are wrong.   In the last several years we have seen this fringe boldly poke its collective head out of the darkness and into the light.

This small group of radicals holds as true that which most Americans, both on the left and the right, view as unacceptable.  They hold the opinion that nothing is forbidden to the individual.  Heroin, crystal methamphetamine, marijuana should all be available for distribution and recreational use, they claim.

A “left wing” member of the fringe like Barack Obama makes the case that abortion is a human right.  It is unthinkable, he might claim, to tell a person that they do not have “reproductive right” to end a pregnancy or even commit infanticide.  Ron Paul, an example of the “right wing” fringe, would say that life begins at conception, but that it’s up to individual states to decide whether or not that life is protected.  That position has the benefit of fooling people into believing that fringe politician is anti-abortion, while doing nothing to further the cause of life.

The presidency of Barack Obama began with a world apology tour.  He was apologizing for nothing less that the existence of America.  America has made many mistakes, mistakes that lead people to hate us.  If one were to couple the apology tour with the words of Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright, concerning the attacks on September 11, 2001, it becomes clear that President Obama believes that America is fully to blame for the horrific loss of American life on that terrible day.  We would expect someone on the “right,” even a fringe member like Ron Paul, to take the opposite position, but instead, we are subjected to mindless lectures on “blowback.”  Blowback is a term used to hide anti-American sentiment by Ron Paul, Alex Jones and fringe organizations like Code Pink.  Ron Paul stops just short of outrightly blaming America for the attacks, he does say, however, that it is understandable that the radical Islamic Jihadists (that he claims don’t exist) attack us.  After all, America has a military that works to protect our nation, our allies and our interests around the world and people just don’t like that, do they?

Both Barack Obama and Ron Paul have offered their vocal support of the Occupy movement, another fringe movement, hoping to reap political support.  As the world ushered in the New Year, Barack Obama announced plans to cut the budget of the United States Military, weakening our ability to combat those who have declared war on us and our way of life.  Ron Paul has advocated similar plans, but much more severe.  Mr. Paul has, in the past, worked with Barney Frank and partnered with George Soros’ cronies to dramatically cripple our Nation Defense.

There are even more similarities; the belief that American jurisprudence is inherently racist, the denial of the existence of radical Islam, the idea that Palestinians are an innocent, oppressed people, the notion that Israel is to blame for all of the trouble in the Middle East are all views that those on the fringe share, to some extent.

I submit to you that there is no such thing as a “left wing” or a “right wing” fringe.  There is only the fringe.  They are more alike than either will admit; in fact they are so dissimilar that it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart.

The fringe is out there, pretending not to exist, pretending to be main stream.  It is time for Americans on both sides of the aisle to admit the truth.  The future of our Great Republic hangs in the balance, and We the People have a responsibility to examine those within our ranks for the telltale signs of this dangerous fringe.  We need only shine a light into the shadows where the fringe exists to expose them.  Wherever members of this fringe are found, they must be treated like the outcasts that they truly are.  Only when the divisiveness of this fringe is exposed and expelled can those who call themselves moderate, conservative and yes, perhaps even liberal begin to find common ground.  Only then can we save for future generation that Shining City, that last best hope for mankind, the worlds’ longest lasting constitutional republic:  The United States of America.

We, as conservatives, are under a microscope.  Progressives on both sides of the aisle are watching us, just waiting for us to err.  They are waiting for us to misspeak or misuse a word.  As members of the conservative laity, we must present ourselves, our candidates and our Cause in the best light possible.  One of the ways that we do this is with our words.  We must be reasonable; we must be logical; and we must be meticulous.  Sometimes we’ll use incorrect grammar.  Sometimes we might use a comma when a semi-colon is more appropriate.  What should never be in question are the words we use and their intent.  Words have meanings and we should, as our Founders did, say what we mean, and mean what we say.  Words are the tools of persuasion and must be used properly and carefully if we are to further our Great Cause.  Recently, we have seen someone that has been considered to be a Conservative stalwart commit an act, albeit unintentional, of sabotage against the Conservative movement.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit to you that I have been a Glenn Beck fan.  I have read many of his books, I watched his great television show on Fox and I listen to his radio show every morning.  I have defended him to my friends and family when they said he was crazy, but recent statements made by Mr. Beck are indefensible.

Glenn Beck has stated that Newt Gingrich is a big government progressive and that Mr. Gingrich is no different than President Obama.  I would like to go on the record here and state that I am not necessarily a Newt guy.  I have not donated to his campaign, and I am far from sold on the idea of a Gingrich presidency.  Having said this, while it may be true that Mr. Gingrich has some progressive tendencies, we must not forget that he has also done some very good things for our Republic; he led the charge in the House of Representatives to balance the budget, and he fought for and passed welfare reform.

Mr. Beck has stated that he would vote for Ron Paul as a third party candidate rather than voting for Newt Gingrich in the 2012 Presidential elections, should Mr. Gingrich receive the Republican nomination.  Mr. Beck has received some deserved criticism from the right, Tea Party Conservatives included.  Tuesday morning I tuned into his radio show, as I often do on my way to work, while Mr. Beck was railing against this criticism.  He could not believe that we were not on his side on this one.  My question is, “Why would we be?”

Regardless of what Mr. Beck says, the Tea Party is principled.  By and large, we hold many of the same principles that Mr. Beck has stood for:  Limited government, states’ rights, fiscal conservatism and the restoration of the United States of American to the Constitutional Republic that She was founded as.  What the Tea Party seems to have, that Mr. Beck is missing, is a sense of pragmatism.  We understand that no candidate is perfect (http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/11/were_not_electing_a_messiah.html) and that we don’t always have the luxury of putting forward our ideal candidate.  Most claiming to be Conservative understand that our Republic cannot withstand four more years of President Obama.  Most of us also agree that should we split the Conservative vote between the GOP nominee and a third party candidate, we will have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on November 6, 2012.

William F. Buckley once said when asked who the wisest Republican choice would be “The wisest choice would be the one who would win.  No sense running Mona Lisa in a beauty contest.  I’d be for the most right, viable candidate who could win.”  I believe that if we combine our Conservative principles to Mr. Buckley’s pragmatism, we will undoubtedly achieve victory in 2012.

I understand that Mr. Beck may have been making a point; however, he has given the liberals, Democrats and progressives ammunition to use against the Tea Party, Conservatives and ultimately the Republic.  Had Mr. Beck been more careful about the words he used, this controversy would have been avoided.  Already the left wing media is having a field day with the careless words of Mr. Beck.  George Washington cautioned that “Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.”  How can we expect to successfully defend our principles if those on the front lines of this ideological battle willingly give up territory? I have myself been careless with my choice of words at times, but this incident is a wakeup call for me and, I hope, for all Conservatives.  We will be in a far better position to defend Conservatism if we will all do our best to think before we speak.

Our nation, for over two hundred years, has been a beacon of hope and liberty for all the world to see and marvel at.  Anyone could come to America and experience liberty.  We have been free to worship as we choose.  We have been free to live our lives in the way that we see fit. Our civil society has existed to serve as an example of how men might govern themselves.  That is who we have been.  That is our legacy.  Today, however, the beacon dims.

It’s evening in America.

We have failed to tend to the fire of liberty that once burned in each and every American.  We, as a people, have bought into a lie.  We were promised “hope,” but today are we a hopeful people?  Do we have a sense of optimism about the future of our Great Republic?  Can we look at the state of our Union and shout a collective “Huzzah!” in celebration of what we have achieved in the last few years?

Today, our national unemployment sits firmly over nine percent.  46.2 million Americans now live in poverty.  In August of this year, zero jobs were created.  When our leaders go abroad to give advice on economics, the world laughs at us.  Islamofascist regimes hold American citizens in prison for years, and the American President does nothing.

It’s night time in America.

Our cities are being “occupied” by communists, anarchists, Nazis, Islamists and misguided, uninformed youth.  Those misguided children have bought into the ideology of entitlement and redistribution.  They have believed the lie that says that capitalism and our Republican form of government are “worse than Al-Qaeda.”  They stand, hand in hand, with those whose greatest desire is to see America self destruct.  They gleefully revel in debauchery and lawlessness, while claiming to represent the interests of 99% of American citizens.

It’s midnight in America.

Our Republic is in trouble.  We have been blind.  We have squandered the precious gift of liberty bequeathed to us by our Founders.  We have allowed our President to rule us through fiat.  He and the thugs and cronies that he has placed in our government continually thumb their noses at the rule of law.  Our Constitution, a document created to ensure liberty and limited government, has been intentionally violated by this administration.  Our system of federalism, which is the sovereignty of the individual States, had been almost completely ignored by the two Houses of Congress and the President.  The will of the body politic has not just been disregarded, but maliciously maligned.  All of these things are true and all of these things are immensely disheartening.

We must not become discouraged!  Just as dawn always follows night, so, too, will a greater day for America follow this sad chapter in our Nation’s history provided that We the People, have the courage to make it happen.  Our hope does not rest in a single individual; rather, it rests in the wisdom and ideals of liberty as set down in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  Our greatness does not come from massive legislation or entitlement programs; our greatness comes from our goodness.

We must take heart.  We must be courageous.  We must steel ourselves for the coming fight.  We must remember what America has meant and continues to mean, not just to us, but to the world.

As we move ever closer to November 6, 2012, and our opportunity to save our Great Republic, let us remember the words of President Ronald Reagan speaking about our Shining City:  “After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”

What do I believe in? What matters in my life? These are questions that every person will ask themselves at some point.  These are the questions that define our existence.  I have been asking myself these fundamental questions more and more.  For some, these answers are quite clear.

Shahbaz Bhatti was a member of the Pakistani Federal Cabinet, and a Christian.  Pakistan, being a primarily Muslim country, has been trying to pass and enforce blasphemy laws. These laws make it a capital crime to say anything negative about Islam. Shahbaz Bhatti was one of only a few people publicly speaking out and working against these laws. As a Christian, Mr. Bhatti represented a small minority of Pakistanis, about five percent. His Christian faith and his vocal opposition of Islamic Sharia Law made him a target. Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered on March 2, 2011 by Muslim extremists. Al-Qaida and the Taliban have claimed responsibility for his murder. A note left at the scene said, “With the blessing of Allah, the mujahedeen (those waging jihad) will send each of you to hell.”

Mr. Bhatti knew he was a target and that Muslims would try to kill him, yet he stood firm in his faith and his beliefs.  In a message taped four months before his death he said, “I believe in Jesus Christ who has given His life for us.”

I read an article about his death the morning after his murder and posted it to my Facebook wall, without giving it a whole lot of thought. But as I was driving to work that morning, I heard the audio of his pre-recorded message played on a radio show, and his words hit me right in the chest. This man stood up for what is right. He stood up for liberty, human decency and his Faith in Jesus Christ.

Youcef Nadarkhani is a Christian pastor in Iran.  He was arrested in 2009 for apostasy, the renunciation of Islam.  He is expected to be executed by hanging next week.  He has been given several opportunities to recant his faith in Jesus Christ, but has refused.

He first came to the attention of the Iranian authorities because he had the courage to speak out about a constitutional violation.  The Iranian Constitution, in Article 13, officially recognizes Christianity as an accepted religion.  The Christian Post reported that “The government had recently passed a law stating that Islam must be imposed on children in local school, and even on Christian children.”  Pastor Nadarkhani protested this new law as a violation of the constitutional rights of Christians. I’ve been following Pastor Nadarkhani’s story for quite some time, and I never fail to be amazed at the political courage he has shown as a result of faith.

Christian history is filled with martyrs, people who were persecuted and killed because of their unwavering faith in Jesus. We read the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” James tells us to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

We go to church most Sundays, we read our Bibles when we get a few minutes and we pray when we remember. The anti-Christian left says that our children can’t pray in school, and we back down. Our nation proudly speaks of a woman’s right to choose, while slaughtering millions of babies. Even some people who call themselves Christians support this new holocaust, and we refuse to condemn them. Our own President marginalizes any positions that we may take by telling the world that we’re just bitterly clinging to our religion. The mainstream media paints us all to be home-grown terrorists.  I fear that this is just the beginning.

Shahbaz Bhatti and Youcef Nadarkhani have both displayed an innate understanding of a simple principle that continues to evade most of us here in America; faith and politics are connected.  They have both taken a stand of faith on political issues and have been willing to pay the ultimate price for that stand.  This is something that, by and large, we’re missing.  Our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in the quest for liberty and religious freedom.  Our Founders understood that faith and politics were connected, and as a result of that understanding they were willing to risk everything.  Politics is an extension of morality, morality is an extension of faith, and therefore politics is a direct reflection of faith.  Never let anyone tell you any different.

I have four kids, and like any father, I worry.  I worry that when my oldest son is climbing a tree, he may fall and get hurt.  I worry about my eight year old daughter getting bullied at school. I worry that my kids will make the same mistakes in life that I have, causing disappointment and heartache that should be preventable.  Lately, however, I find myself worrying for a different reason.

We have found ourselves blessed to live in the greatest nation to ever exist.  Our Grand Experiment of self governance and free market enterprise has lifted millions out of poverty.  The idea that all men are created equal and therefore have an equal opportunity for success has changed forever how we view both ourselves and our fellow man.  All of these things together have made America a beacon of hope to the downtrodden in every nation for generations.  That is not to say that our Great Republic has not faced trials.  We most certainly have.  As difficult as it has been, we have always had the courage to face our problems, deal with them and come out on the other side stronger, wiser and better able to lead.  Today we find ourselves in a position where we have more problems than we have courage.

We have spent ourselves into a debt so large, that most of us have trouble conceiving its enormity.  We have borrowed money to pay for massive social safety nets; Social Security, Medicare, Welfare and Unemployment “insurance.”  We give billions of dollars in foreign aid to nations whose people would be only too happy to see our nation wiped off of the face of the Earth.  Much of our debt is owned by Communist China, a nation that represents an ideology so evil that our Nation once had the goal of eliminating it for all time.  We punish the success of our citizens through “progressive” income taxes in the name of economic justice and fairness while forgetting the words of one of our Founders, Thomas Jefferson, who said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

My parents taught me that America was a place where hard work was rewarded.  America is a place where anyone can succeed.  Success achieved through hard work is something to be sought after with vigor.  My parents had hoped that they, and their generation, had conveyed this message properly to their children.  They had faith that they were leaving us not only a Nation that was at least as good and as strong as the one that they had inherited from their parents, but that they had provided us with the necessary tools to achieve even greater things.

Today I worry because I know that without the courage and fortitude to once again look our problems directly in the eye and face them, our Great Republic will be lost.  I worry because it will require a great measure of selflessness to secure the continuation of our Grand Experiment; a selflessness that both the electorate and its representatives no longer seem to have.

We must take courage.  We must encourage our Senators and Representatives to stand firm as they face enormous pressure from the President to spend and tax even more.  We must be willing to sacrifice our present in order to ensure a strong future.  We must begin again to celebrate achievement and success.  This we must do, not for ourselves, but for my children, and for all our children.

Our Republic was founded on the belief that mankind is capable of governing itself.  The Founders believed that the power of government comes from the consent of the governed.  They knew that rights are not given to mankind by men or by governments, but by our Creator.  They knew this and thus they based our Constitutional Republic on the Biblical principles of liberty and personal responsibility.  Our first President, George Washington, understood this to be so important that he said, “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”  He knew that morality and correct governance work together, hand in hand.  The latter cannot exist without the former.

For the last several years, Conservative media has been full of examples of the “religious left.”  Thanks to talk radio, Conservative blogs and news publications, we have learned about Jim Wallis and his attempt to turn Jesus Christ into the quintessential hero of revolutionary Marxism.  Wallis tells us that the redistribution of wealth, what he calls “social justice,” is what Jesus was all about.  Wallis tells us that all property should be used by the State to achieve not equal opportunity for people, but equal outcomes.  Pope Benedict XVI has recently
regurgitated the progressive idea that business should only exist to promote “the common good.”   We know about the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s rejection of key Biblical principles in favor of liberal propaganda.  The ELC excuses abortion as understandable and will not defend the sanctity of marriage.  We have also recently seen Christian Churches open their doors for Muslim services.  We see these things happen and there is no doubt that these things are dangerous, not just to the churches themselves, but also to our Republic.  Marxism, appeasement and multiculturalism are not the only dangers from American churches to threaten our Republic.

There is a growing belief in our churches that is proving to be just a damaging; the belief that the Christian Church, including the attendees, should be apolitical.  For example: The Assemblies of God website states that “The Assemblies of God is apolitical.” The American Baptist Churches USA website proclaims that they are “committed to religious liberty and to the separation of church and state.”  The result of this is that many pastors are unwilling to take a public stand against politicized moral issues such as abortion, redistribution of wealth and individual responsibility.  The thought seems to be that Christians, especially pastors, are supposed to be above political issues as they are simply worldly issues and the focus should be on the spiritual.  The fact that spiritual, moral and political issues are inseparable is completely forgotten.  The religious freedom guaranteed to us in the First Amendment of the Constitution is a prime example of this.  Without the will to engage in politics, the fundamental right regarding the moral issue of religious freedom would not be realized.

This policy of moral and political appeasement has not stopped politicians from involving themselves in moral issues, however.  As more and more pastors cede their moral authority to the State, we see that the government and politicians are filling that gap.  Take for example the statement made by then candidate and Senator Barack Obama in Johnstown, PA in 2008, that if either of his two daughters were to “make a mistake” he wouldn’t want them “punished with a baby.”  On January 22 of this year, the 38^th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, President Obama made the statement “Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.”  He was not simply making political statements, but moral judgments.

The refusal of the Church to take a stand on political issues, which are almost always moral issues as well, has weakened the moral authority of not only the churches, but of our Nation.  How can one lead if one is unwilling to take a stand?  We see pastors in churches today who seem to think that their effectiveness is measured in how many people attend each Sunday.  Pastors are simply unwilling to make people uncomfortable, because if they’re uncomfortable, they may find something else to do on Sundays.  Politics makes people uncomfortable, so it’s avoided.  But if there is Truth and righteousness in a political stand, it must be talked about!  American pastors in the past have understood this to be true and have found that their unique role has been effective in promoting liberty, personal responsibility and righteousness since well before the founding of our Republic.

This is not a condemnation, but a desperate plea:  Pastors, Church, people of faith, take a stand!  Be courageous!  Find your voice!  Be effective again!  If you don’t do it now, you may find that it’s too late to speak up and be heard, the fate of our Great Republic will be decided without you.  If you do not speak up, you will be held just as responsible as those who actively pursued the goal of fundamentally transforming the world’s greatest beacon of freedom into just another oppressive regime.

President Ronald Reagan made a similar plea to the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8, 1983 regarding the Cold War; “I urge you to beware the temptation of pride –the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.”  President Reagan’s words may be even more meaningful today than they were in 1983.

The time has come for you to make a choice:  Will you speak out against tyranny, or will you accept its rule over the lives of yourself, your congregation and the entire Nation?  Ronald Reagan cautioned that if we fail to stand, “history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.”  We need our pastors and our churches to stand for all things right and true. We need them to reclaim their moral authority from the State and lead with a passion for preserving the unalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.