The National Prayer Breakfast of 2010 was held February 4^th at the White House, President Obama presiding.  I mention this, because in a moment I want to return to some of the comments he made.  The situation in the country as well as the comments he made, provide ample evidence that, to paraphrase Eisenhower, ‘The problems of the United States are so great that they won’t be solved unless the people get together and pray.’ 

 In the Book of Nahum, thematically significant to this year’s National Day of Prayer, its story doesn’t end well for the nation involved.  The language foreshadows the downfall of Assyria, according to which man’s actions result in the calamity.  “Woe to the bloody city!” (3:1) refers to a wickedness past redemption.  Why?  For her honorable men, “and all her great men were bound in chains” (3:10).  In other words, Nineveh’s government became an agent of evildoing.  The “shepherds slumber… [and nobles] dwell in the dust” (3:18).  The people and their leaders failed in their resistance and were rounded up.  Whatever combination of events and circumstances, something gross robbed this city of its original character and worth.  Its founders, and hence its moral foundation were overthrown.  And this is where I believe the lesson involves our own situation.  If I might also borrow from the blackboard of Glenn Beck—character matters, then and now: the character of a nation, as much as of a man.  If Faith, Hope, Charity, Self-Reliance, and Accountability are extinguished—if the Original Intent of our Founders no longer applies to the system of government they gave us based upon the Constitution and equal justice under the law, calamity is as inevitable as a wave lapping its shore. 

 It may do us well to remember too that it isn’t God who changed or changes, and if there is something wrong now with the relationship, it is with His People.  Assyria did not listen in time—will we?  Probably not, if we recur to President Obama’s sentiments, expressed at February’s National Prayer Breakfast.  You will find his comments on the web and a video on You Tube.  He starts off well enough, but (and I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried) he asserts: God’s grace “is expressed through…the efforts of our entire Government.”  God’s grace is also expressed “by Americans of every faith, and no faith.”  God’s grace is expressed through the State Department’s efforts in bringing gay rights to Uganda!  Albeit, you might be pleased to learn that traditional or semi-traditional marriage “is [still] integral to our anti-poverty agenda.” 

 The president observed “the face of God” is just as recognizable in (legal and illegal) immigrant families, and Planet Earth.  He admitted of a “higher purpose” too, saying “This is what we do as Americans in times of trouble,” as “crises call on all of us to act…recognizing that life’s most sacred responsibility is to sacrifice something of ourselves for a person in need.”  “Sadly,” quoth the president: “that spirit is often missing.”  Of course, that makes Government coercion necessary, but things may go down easier if you remember to keep a proper “spirit of civility.”  The President concluded, “Through faith, but not faith alone, we can unite people to serve the common good.”  He calls this the way of Democracy.  Hence, he asserts the role of his “Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships”—and if you had ever underestimated community organizing before, it is long past time to stop laughing.  The full Orwellian horror of it is writ large: Faith is No Faith; God is Government. 

 Traditionalists may object that making God out of Government is breaking the First Commandment and virtually assures that the prophecy of Nineveh becomes the prophecy of Philadelphia, L.A., New York.  My strong conviction is, however, that it is from this place figuratively and geographically the heart of Texas, Americans will learn what to do and how they ought to respond to the criticality of this moment.  It will involve prayer and all the human footsteps following the answer.  The answer could be, “Remember the Alamo!” but I hope it will be something allowing us at least, to survive beyond an example of heroism: more like the motto on flags we see at tea parties and taken from the Revolutionary era, such as “Don’t Tread on Me.”  Perhaps this New Nineveh, America will save its Founders and restore its moral foundations, before destruction visits. 

 If so, we need to remain steadfast in Faith (not “No Faith”); and we need to pray much more, recognizing the indispensable relation between faith and freedom, whereby they raise and support each other.  George Washington entreated all Posterity (and that includes us) with characteristic understatement from the depth of his despair at Valley Forge, “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion.  To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to laud the more distinguished Character of Christian.”  And so we as Texans strive to obtain that nobleness of character evinced by and recommended by the Father of our Country, to become more like Christ Jesus, that Great Friend and Master of men; Son of Man and Son of God; Immanuel, God with us.  

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Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford.  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he ran for U.S. Congress (TX-District 31) in the 2004 Republican Primary.  Article based on remarks to Central Texas Republican Women at their annual prayer breakfast in observance of the National Day of Prayer (6 May 2010), Temple, Texas.  Email: wes@wesriddle.com.