Since I have been “on the internet” it never ceases to amaze me how much information is available. If you want to find out how much cholesterol is in a goose egg – just journey with GOOGLE for a few literal seconds and you will shortly find out you better forget enjoying a scrambled goose egg. If you want to find out how other wood craftsmen make a marble roll toy – you can have all the ideas you can use for the next five years (or more maybe) in a matter of 30 minutes of your time.

I have heard the phrase, which is typically mouthed by young people who struggle to find their niche in life, “I want to find myself.” The internet proved handy again as I read my subscription from Patriot Post, there it was, one of our own presidents gave some advice around the time of World War I. Here’s a portion of the text from a speech in which former President Woodrow Wilson uttered those same plaintive words about “finding ourselves”:

"We live in an age disturbed, confused, bewildered, afraid of its own forces, in search not merely of its road but even of its direction. There are many voices of counsel, but few voices of vision; there is much excitement and feverish activity, but little concert of thoughtful purpose. We are distressed by our own ungoverned, undirected energies and do many things, but nothing long. It is our duty to find ourselves." ---Woodrow Wilson

If President Wilson felt the need to “find ourselves” over eighty years ago we should not feel embarrassed or even dismayed that problems still plague us. Our problems are not new – they are as old as the hills. Of course the buzzword for problems now is “issues”. Somehow “issues” doesn’t get the juices running for me and this seven-decade mind considers such a ploy with words. Even after looking on the internet's dictionaries, “issue” lists five levels of definitions before it comes close to the meaning “problem” conjures up in my mind.

"More than two hundred years ago, James Madison wrote...that 'the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction and not by force or violence.' In this statement, Madison acknowledged our duty to our God. In our day, some have sought to alienate what Madison thought was unalienable. The attempt to drive religious free speech---and those who would speak it---from the public square must be resisted. We owe it to the martyrs of twenty centuries. We owe it to our fellow Americans. And we owe it to God Himself. Let us honor Him." ---Tony Perkins

Thanks, Tony Perkins, for giving me an opportunity to say “Amen” to a thought about some spiritual values. Here is the problem! Call it religion if you want, or call it “church” – but whatever you call it, what we have lost in our search to find ourselves is quite obvious; we have tried to replace the good sense many of our forefathers had within themselves (morally). We have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking church and state are not possible to co-exist. That is essentially the same as denying the possibility of man and wife to become one. Our parents, grandparents, and yea, great grandparents were of the opinion when a couple got married they become as one. Today, it is me and mine – not ours! "My place in line." "My turn." Even the United States Army has fallen prey to such when they call it an “Army of one.” Really? What about those men who rush to the front to scout out, risk their lives and those men back of the lines trying to keep resources coming. Somehow “one” all of a sudden became plural!

The body and spirit are mysteriously united when we allow ourselves to see spiritual values. It is important to “tell the truth”. It is important “to care for others”. It is important “to think of others”. Such values are not automatic with mere human nature.

Further it is almost as illogical to think that two hands with ten different digits could be trained to cuddle a newborn baby, type a missive such as you are reading, drive a car, use a power circular saw or hundreds of other tasks people perform every hour of the day. Who says the church and state cannot work together? The only thing the Constitution says is the government is not to dictate what “church” or religion we are to practice! That is further than a country mile from what the legislators are trying to prove today. Separate ourselves from the moral logic of the Ten Commandments? Hogwash!! No wonder we have reams of pink slips of Congress “admitting” they have “borrowed” funds from the Social Security with little or no intention of honoring those pink slips – you see, once we get rid of a standard of honor, ethics and integrity it is only a few steps until we are told we don’t need anything like religion or church – and now all we have to do is convince everyone else of this! (The following poem was written Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado.)

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws,
through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

Church and state must co-exist. Body and soul somehow have co-existed and we must not let humanism deceive us into thinking church and state have to be separate. Rebecca Hagelin brings us back to reality when she wrote:

"Before we point the finger at Hollywood, the government, or the business community for what is happening to America's youth, we must look at ourselves. I've worked on family public policy issues for 20 years, and I know the solutions to these problems do not rest in Washington, DC. Most of the solutions can be found in active, loving parenting. It doesn't take an act of Congress to take back your home... [A] 13-year-old boy [doesn't] have 60 bucks to buy a video game unless his daddy gave it to him. Eleven-year-old girls can't drive themselves to the mall, nor do they have the cash to buy trashy clothes that make them look like street walkers. And who pays for the cable television, orders the Internet connection and buys CDs for Christmas presents? Well-meaning moms and dads who are too busy or too absorbed with their own lives to see that their kids need them to push back against the toxic culture, not invite and pay for it to invade their homes. Many parents are more concerned about being their children's friend than they are about parenting. But kids don't need more drifting friends; they need their moms and dads. Our children are Feeling around for boundaries, for a firm foundation on which they can build their lives, for love and nurture." ---Rebecca Hagelin

Problems are not unsolvable. Let’s be honest and face reality. Some kind of standards must be set and used. Religion was not absent from the minds of our forefathers and we ought not think we are exempt from the need of such spiritual values.

THE WORDWRIGHT