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I wandered in well into his remarks. Following my broadcast I had been in the halls reconnecting with valiant pro-life friends like Jill Stanek, Bobby Schindler, Rick Santorum, and Star Parker. Which if you missed you can catch on PodCAST heres Hour 1 and Hour 2. Our guests included the TownHall All-Stars, Dr. Tony Perkins, Presidential Candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter, Focus On The Family, and Bishop Harry Jackson.
But when everything had died down I wandered into the main hall again and listened to Newt Gingrich be better than I had ever heard him. (BTW... you can view any or all of the segments via the internet for a mere donation of $9.95. And from what I understand that is an unlimited access to the going's on for the entirety of the weekend.)
But back to Newt - he was drawing out the comparison between those who want to expunge any and all references to "God" and he applied it more simply than I had ever heard it put.
He painted the picture of 625,000 dead soldiers at the hands of ourselves. And following that moment of the Civil War president Lincoln realized that his nation was at odds with itself more so than it ever possibly would be again. After all we had taken up arms against our own.
So on the occasion of his second inaugural in the light of such circumstances he said these words:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugeral [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissole [sic] the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
If the secularists have their way... they would have to argue for the removal of THAT speech. That it would have to be sand blasted from the stone that it now sits engraved enshrined in at Lincoln's memorial.
One nation - under God, and we are always better for the reality of that truth being known!
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