What have been the ramifications of an economical viewpoint of history?

A quick look reveals the results. Today, we live in a nation that still contains a large group of Evangelicals (those known for their belief in God and following of the Bible). In recent elections, over 45% of Evangelicals stated that their primary factor in deciding who to vote for was an economic one. National leaders are criticized or commended based on the nation’s econimc status. In fact, a recent presidential debate had the word ‘jobs’ mentioned over 157 times while the word marriage was only referenced once. There has been a paradigm shift.

Ask the majority of Americans living today what the reason for the declaration of Independence was and they will say, “Taxation without Representation.” This was reason number 17 in the Declarations long list of 27 grievances against Great Britain. In fact, 11 issues were based on representation, 7 on civil issues, 4 on judicial issues, 2 clauses dealt with moral issues, and there were religious issues as well. Charles Carroll & Sam Adams openly declared that, “Religious freedom was the reason they became involved in the revolution.”

Or take for instance the VA Charter upon which the Jamestown colony was founded. Ask the average American of the reason behind this colonization and you will hear that the explorers sought gold. This was number 20 something in a list that had as one of the highest goals the perpetration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A majority of the charters issued during that time had similar goals.

Today we live in an economical focused nation. Out of the 10-13 thousand pieces of legislation faced by Congressman today, the issues most publicized are ones affecting our economy. Christ as the center of our culture has been replaced by the love of money. How imperative it is that we as Christians awake and recognize our tendency to be inoculated by the culture.

During his 4 year tour of America (1831-1834), Alexis De Tocqueville  noted several key qualities that made America substantially different from other nations. Their chief force was Christianity – they take care of the poor. The compilation of his writings have been taught in colleges for 100 years.  Today, however, the abridged version has removed all of the religious and moral records of De Tocqueville leaving behind only those technical evaluations of government and, yes you guessed right, economics.

1Ti 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Ro 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Notes taken from Wall Builders’, “American Heritage Series.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 9:28 pm and is filed under HIS-story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.