By: Nelson Abdullah
Conscience of a Conservative
“The Prayer at Valley Forge,’’ by Arnold Friberg
Have you ever heard of the famous quote attributed to St. Augustine? “Pray, as if everything depended on God. Work, as if everything depended on you.” Every great leader in American History was deeply attached to prayer. Just read the documents of our Founding Fathers with references to Our Creator as being the source of our inalienable rights. But unfortunately, many good people of faith look upon government in the same way they look upon God and this is envisioned as beholding to only the first half of St. Augustine’s famous words. Substituting government for God as the source of our freedom and liberty leads to slavery. Pray as if everything depended on the government is the backbone of the welfare state. Work as if everything depended on you is the cornerstone of capitalism and free enterprise. When God is reinstated to a higher position than government then people will truly become free. When our great Republic was struggling to assert its independence Thomas Jefferson wrote: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Truly, Freedom isn’t Free.
When a minister, priest or rabbi stresses that we should all pray as if everything depended on God and fails to include the second part of St. Augustine’s advice, we mentally prepare ourselves for a time when all hope is lost and death becomes inevitable. Like the passengers on the Titanic in the moments before the ship sank, they flocked to the minister to pray. Had they also heeded the warnings of the crew and dressed warmly some could have survived the frigid water. How many clergy advise their flock to work as if everything depended on themselves, while still keeping an open thought to prayer?
How many clergy will say, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”? Shouldn’t we begin to ask?
