I've been on sort of a hiatus because there is too much news in too many places heading in too many different directions and my head is telling me that pushing the wrong buttons can be worse than pushing no button at all.  My observations are telling me that too many people are pushing the wrong buttons while hardly anyone seems to know what the right button is.

I guess I'm a bit old-fashioned but it seems to me that first cause should become first priority.

I've received any number of questionnaires recently from organizations wanting me to give my opinion as to what I think we need to do to remedy the problems of big government  in Washington, D.C.  Some of these approach the problem by asking me which problem I see as most pressing or whether I think tax reform is more important than overspending or do we need to channel our efforts at stronger defense, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

None of the multiple answers they supply for my response touches near what I really think needs doing first.  And multiple choice is essential for scoring and analyzing; there is no way they can read a few sentences from the thousands of replies they might receive.  This is just one more evidence that the questioners fail to understand the  essential problem that I see as the first cause.  And all of them are, of course, wanting me to send some money to help them get the job done that we are all working so hard to do.  I sometimes think that maybe all the problems were created to provide ways, other than taxation, to separate we the people from the dollars we may have been able to put aside for a rainy day.

It isn't that some of these efforts aren't worthy efforts, most of them are.  It's just that none of them have their finger on the proper button.  If you try to tell them what the proper button is they will not acknowledge it.

We did not come to where we are suddenly.  It took great planning and much stealth to gradually move us along their paths of progress to bring us to where we now find ourselves.  First, they had to convince us that we are much smarter than we really are.  They had to educate us away from the belief system our Founding Fathers honored as they were laying the nation's foundation.

They held a trial that convinced us that schools that failed to teach the evolution of the species were not providing our children a proper education.  At first, of course, it was okay to continue to teach about God and His creation, but eventually that was mocked to the point that it had to go and only “good science” could be taught.

As the years passed and we grew smarter and smarter  it became evident that God was a non-essential and a hindrance to our further advancement.

This turning away from God and our heritage is what I see as the first cause.

Until we (especially Christians) acknowledge our condition and our dependence on Christ for everything and seek His face, all the political posturing and conservative maneuvering in the world will not reverse our course.  Christ is the Truth and only the Truth sets men free.  Our first cause response should be to honestly and seriously invite God back into our national government.  If a few get offended by that, so be it.