I have been reading lately several stories about the republicans and how they are just “so puritanical.” I find this incredibly hard to believe. I find it hard to believe because the puritans would never have put up with the likes of the politicians that we have today. I have heard many people tell me and tell every one listening to the news that the people that founded this nation were not all that different from us. I have heard it said of them that they lied, cheated, stole, committed adultery, and took money from the “special interest” groups just like the politicians of today. I am sorry but that is just not true.
Let me start with the Puritans. They were a group of people who believed in an absolutely pure LIFESTYLE. They did not drink, cuss, or carouse. They went to church seven days per week and they stayed awake or they were “awakened” by a feather tickling the women or a knock on the head with a wooden ball on the end of a stick for the men. They were not allowed to stand up to stay awake and they could do nothing to “interrupt” the service by sneezing or coughing. They lived a life very much like our Amish brethren do today. But they made the average Amish look like a wanton sinner in their narrow way of walking according to the Word of God. The Puritans did on occasion laugh but never in church. They did not build “pubs” for they had no use for them.
The puritans did NOT “force their religion” on anyone outside of their small communities. They rejected those who would not live within their societal rules. BUT they were also the most charitable of people when some one needed their help. They would go out of their way to assist those in need even outside of the small community in which they lived. Charity or love is what they lived by. Their great love of God and their fellows in the community was such that they would enforce the rules on each other because they did not wish to see any perish. The smallest of sins was punished to keep the community pure and clean. But the greatest of sinners from outside of their community could expect to be treated with a kindness not found any where else as long as they did not stay and continue in the sins they brought with them. Harsh? Yes very harsh. But the people of that day were incredibly strong in their minds, bodies, and spirits and they supported one another in the best way that they knew how to do.
Many people look at those of us who are trying to lead a pure life and failing miserably as hypocrites. I say, “Worship God give your life and sins to Jesus and put them under the blood and ask forgiveness.” I am called a hypocrite because I still need to ask forgiveness for my sins. I am not yet living in the perfect spiritual body that I will receive in heaven. I am living in this sinful flesh with all of its temptations and pleasures. I am living in a world corrupted by sin and the pervaded by sex every where I look even here in Iraq. I am amazed that I have resisted the sins of the flesh as often as I have been able to with all of the temptations that are around me every day.
So think about this. If I were a politician today and a lobbiest found my weaknesses how much greater would the pressure be to commit sins then? How strong do our “public servants” need to be to resist the majority of what is thrown at them? How strong are those who have looked temptation in the face and fallen and then faced up to the responsibility of the sin they committed by resigning their position of power and influence? If I were to run for office I believe that I would never be elected because I would have a life that is an open book and I would answer truthfully the questions put to me. If by some miracle I were elected and I sinned I would not wait for some one to come along and tell me I had done wrong I would just resign. Moral failings are the only things I think our public servants should be impeached or called on the carpet for.
What are moral failings? Lying, selling their vote, adultery, (heterosexual or homosexual) murder, rape, and several others. But there are many things in this world that may be wrong but they are the every day temptations that we all fall into and should not cause the ones we elect to rule over us to be impugned. They are too many to list. Should we hold those who we do elect as rulers to a higher standard? Yes most deffinately they must act better than the average person because they set the example for all of us to follow. If you are perfect then maybe you should run for office. I am not so I think that I will wait a few years until the perfection of wisdom begins to pervade my very being and then I will run and see what happens.
I will finish this later because I have gotten a bit off the subject I originally started with.
In His Service
A Real Man
