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A Shining City on a Hill
In the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for John Roberts' confirmation, Senator Kennedy made these astounding comments.
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SENATOR KENNEDY: ...From the start, America was summoned to be a shining city on a hill. But each generation must keep building that city.
Even in this new century, some Americans are still denied a voice at the ballot box because of their color, denied a promotion because of their gender, denied a job because of their age, denied hope because they are gay or denied an appropriate education because they are disabled.
Long-established rights to privacy are under heavy siege. We need a chief justice who believes in the promise of America and the guarantees of our Constitution, a person who will enter that majestic building near here and genuinely believe the four inspiring words inscribed in marble above the entrance: Equal justice under law.
I look forward to hearing from Judge Roberts about whether, if he joins the Supreme Court, he will uphold the progress we have made and will guarantee that all Americans have their rightful place in the nation's future.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
SPECTER: Thank you, Senator Kennedy.
Day 4 of the Senate Judicial Committee Hearings of Judge John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
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It is easy to dismiss these comments as simply rhetoric as a politician tries to shore up his liberal base. At the same time, most of us remember Ronald Reagan using the term "a shining city on a hill" as part of his positive outlook on America's attraction to the rest of the world.
Of course this has nothing to do with the liberal agenda Kennedy outlined above, so eloquently but without factual basis. Obviously President Ronald Reagan would not have agreed with Kennedy's (or even Sen. John Kerry's use during the last election). So, who is right?
It gets worse. Consider the origination of the phrase "a city on a hill". Jesus Christ.
Matthew 5: 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Reagan took it from John Winthrop. He was a Puritan preacher who spoke a sermon on his storm tossed ship in 1630 as he and other Puritans were making their treacherous journey to the new land.
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John Winthrop 1630
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the Counsel of Micah, to do Justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, for this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly Affection, we must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, we must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality, we must delight in each other, make others Conditions our own rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in the work, our Community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his own people and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of his wisdom power goodness and truth then formerly we have been acquainted with, we shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of god and all professors for God's sake; we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into Curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whether we are going: And to shut up this discourse with that exhortation of Moses that faithful servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israel Deut. 30. Beloved there is now set before us life, and good, death and evil in that we are Commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his Ordinance, and his laws, and the Articles of our Covenant with him that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whether we go to possess it: But if our hearts shall turn away so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced and worship other Gods our pleasures, and profits, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good Land whether we pass over this vast Sea to possess it;
Therefore let us choose life,
that we, and our Seed,
may live; by obeying his
voice, and cleaving to him,
for he is our life, and
our prosperity.
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According to Winthrop, in the right context of the original meaning given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Kennedy has condemned himself with his words. Our nation has also condemned itself to "we shall surely perish out of the good Land". People died in the aftermath of the hurricane because we have not followed God's direction.
We are under God's judgment and are rapidly becoming a "byword through the world" as they see unbelievable evil manifested in New Orleans and see our sinful nature leaving us foundering under stress and burying ourselves into financial ruin.
Thanks to John Lofton of http://www.theamericanview.com for pointing this out again.
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