Research Paper

Alright, I need you all to tell me what you think of my research paper. It's on the shift our government has taken from the principles it was founded on to where it is today. This is only the rough draft, but I need some input so if you have the time to read through it and leave me a comment I would really appreciate it. And don't be afraid to tell me something is whacked! Thanks! Here it is:


In the two hundred and thirty three years that the United States has been a country, we have never experienced the kind of economic and moral crisis we are experiencing right now, nor have we been farther ideologically from the principles that our country was founded on. If we are ever to truly pull out of this crisis then we must return to the principles that this country was founded on.

When this country was founded, over 200 years ago, we were established as a Christian nation. We were considered a Christian nation, because the principles and morals we were founded on were derived from the Bible. As the years have gone by though, we have moved farther and farther away from our Christian roots. We have moved away from the God-centered nation that we were founded as and have become, instead, a man-centered nation. Gary Demar, in his book God and Government, says:
The values and laws of the United States reflect the beliefs of the people who
make up the nation. If the people and the representatives they elect view
themselves as the final authority in lawmaking, then the Constitution will
implement man-centered (humanistic) laws. If the people and the representatives
the elect see God as their judge, law-giver, and savior (Isaiah 33:22), then the
Constitution will implement biblical laws and values. Thus, elected
representatives will either implement the laws of God or the laws of men. There is
no third way. (151)
Every decision that our elected representatives have made that has gone against the principles of the bible has also gone against the principles of the founding fathers. The removal of the bible and prayer from schools is something the founding fathers never would have even thought about doing. They knew that the continuance of our nation would depend on having the young people of the nation educated in sound biblical teachings. The legalization of abortion is another example of a move toward a humanistic form of government. Abortion is direct violation of the Right of Life as well as a violation of what the Bible says about the sanctity of life, in that “God created man in His own image” (Gen. 1:27). There is no stronger statement about the value of human life than that.

The founding fathers also knew the importance of having a sound biblical structure for our national government. In his book The Beginning of the Republic, Clarence B. Carson says it like this:
They [the founding fathers] believed that government was necessary, of course. It
is necessary because men without government would do violence to one another;
the strong would prey on the weak; the clever would take unjust advantage of
others; disorder would prevail. (107)
They knew government was necessary, but they also knew it must be limited and restrained. They understood that the government is a living organism and that if given the opportunity it would grow and seek to obtain more and more power. With that in mind the founding fathers set our government up so that the power would be in the hands of the people. Not directly, or course, but through the election of representatives. The people elect representatives that they feel will best protect the country and their personal freedom. That is what our government’s original purpose was: to protect our country and our freedom. As of recent years though, we have seen the government grow in power as a result of we as a people becoming more and more dependent on it. We want the government to do everything for us instead of doing the work ourselves. We would rather, as Glenn Beck says, “…be cared for, fed, clothed, housed, and told what’s best for us by the parent-like state” (Common Sense 13) instead of working for ourselves and bettering ourselves through our own labor. This dependence on the government has made us forget what it means to work for something. We are like children, as illustrated in the quote above; apparently not capable of supporting ourselves, so the government has to do it for us. The government is there to hold our hand and give us everything we “need” and in turn we do whatever they tell us without hesitation. That is not freedom, that’s bondage, and it is what is happening to us as a nation. We live in fear of the government instead of the government living in fear of us (the people). Glenn Beck remarks that “the power of the government is limited to the power we have lent it” (Common Sense 78). What will it take for us to realize that the only power the government has comes from us?

Capitalism by definition is: “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision rather than state control, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 204) It means that anyone that possesses capital goods is free to invest them, sell them, or distribute them as they see fit. The state (government) has no say in what they can or can’t do with their property, as long as it is nothing illegal. Capitalism is what has made this country great. We have grown from the thirteen original colonies to the most powerful country in the world in two hundred and thirty three years and that is because of capitalism. People who are free to work and reap the benefits of that work have greater incentive to work than those who are under a system such as socialism where no matter how hard you work you always get the same amount of profit or gain. Capitalism follows the biblical teaching of sowing and reaping in that if you are willing to work hard at something you will be rewarded in the end. The Bible says that “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6). Socialism, on the other hand, is set up so that even if you work twice as hard as another person you still get the same amount of profit. Likewise, the person who barely works at all will still get as much as the person who was working diligently. History has shown that this system does not work. The colony of Jamestown and how it was started is one of the best examples from our own country’s past. In American Government and Economics they explain that when Jamestown was first being established they tried a communal economic system where all the food was gathered into one big community store house and was distributed evenly among the people. This system failed miserably. Most of the English gentlemen were more interested in finding gold than working in the fields to grow crops, but after a long day of doing nothing they expected to be fed just as much as those who had spent the day working in the fields. It wasn’t long before the settlement had changed from the communal economic system to a system of private ownership of property and individual responsibility (375). Captain John Smith wrote an entrée in his diary after this change was made, this is what it said:
When our people were fed out of the common storehouse and labored jointly together, glad was he who could slip away from his labor or slumber over his task. He cared not, presuming that howsoever the harvest prospered, the general storehouse must maintain him. Even the most honest among them would hardly take so much true pains in a week under the public ownership and common storehouse system, as now for themselves they will do in a day. So that, we reaped not so much corn from the labor of thirty as now three or four will provide for themselves. (375)
It is very easy to see the prosperity that comes from a private ownership and individual responsibility system versus a socialistic communal or state regulated system. It is this system of private ownership and individual responsibility that has made America great, but we our government is changing. The bigger our government gets, the more regulation there is going to be on our personal property and freedom and when that happens, we are not too far from becoming a socialistic country.