A Nation Under Judgment By Richard Capriola. Our Founding Fathers believed the words were more than a political slogan. Have we strayed from their vision?

A Nation Under Judgment

By Richard Capriola

Genre: Nonfiction, Christian

Synopsis

What does it mean to be "one nation under God"? Our Founding Fathers believed the words were more than a political slogan. Have we strayed from their vision? A Nation Under Judgment examines issues currently facing our country, such as hunger, homelessness, poverty, marriage, the environment, income inequality and the power of political campaign contributions in shaping policy. Each of these issues is examined from a social policy and Scriptural point of view, empowering readers to decide whether or not our nation is moving away from God and headed for judgment.

Author Biography

Richard Capriola has been a hospital chaplain and completed four years of Clinical Pastoral Education in preparation for chaplaincy work. He has also led a church-based outreach ministry. In additions to his pastoral care experience, he has served as a mental health crisis counselor and has worked at both a regional mental health center and psychiatric hospital.

Links:  

www.anationunderjudgment.com

www.amazon.com/dp/B00NF0ML36

http://my.bookbaby.com/book/a-nation-under-judgment

EXCERPT

Over one hundred and fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln accepted his party’s nomination in Springfield, Illinois, to run against Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate. In his acceptance speech before one thousand Republican delegates, Lincoln addressed the issue of slavery and said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

            Today, the issue that divides us is no longer slavery. Now, it’s whether we will live up to

the words “one nation under God” and the very meaning of those words. Do we construct our national policies and our laws to honor God’s point of view, or do we develop them based on a political agenda? What does it mean for us to be “one nation under God?” Have the words become merely a political slogan? Do they have value only in times of national crises, when we feel threatened? Have we become a nation asking for God’s protection and blessing while ignoring His point of view?

            The evidence of our moving away from God’s point of view cannot be ignored. Since 1962, we have banned prayer in our public schools. We have enacted national policies that ignore God’s point of view on the beginning of life. In spite of our blessing of enormous wealth, we continue to allow millions of Americans—many of them children—to go hungry or homeless every day. Other evidence of our movement away from God’s point of view include the unchecked spread of pornography invading our homes through the Internet, our state governments sanctioning gambling losses to supplement revenue, and the extensive pollution of God’s environment in spite of His command that we protect it.

            If our highest priority is to be “one nation under God,” we cannot avoid asking how long we can be at odds with God. History is littered with the remains of nations like ours that rose to great power and wealth but are now found only in the pages of history books. Are we a nation being driven away from God by our national policies? Will God eventually judge us as He has so many other nations and find that we have strayed too far from His point of view? Are we any different from the other great and powerful nations that were judged and found failing before God? If wisdom is the ability to see things from God’s point of view, have we lost our wisdom as a nation?

            Have we abandoned God’s point of view in the midst of our national pride and enormous wealth? Abraham Lincoln believed so when he wrote, “We have forgotten God…and we have imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”

            Our Founding Fathers understood that we could not exist apart from God’s point of view. George Mason warned that providence would punish national sins with national calamities. Thomas Jefferson knew that God’s patience would not endure forever when he wrote, “ I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and his justice will not sleep forever.”

            The future of our nation may rest on our commitment to create policies and financial priorities that return us to living out the words “one nation under God.” Ultimately, we must decide if we will follow God’s point of view on issues like defining when life begins; ending hunger, poverty, and homelessness; protecting the environment, and equitably distributing our enormous wealth, or whether we will follow our current path and risk being a nation under judgment.