Hi Friend,

The tendency for each generation is to think the world has always been the way it is when their generation arrived on the scene.  It is nearly impossible for a millennial to conceive of a world without a cell phone, a computer or internet, or central air, or living in a one room house where dinner was cooked in the fireplace, or being transported to church in a horse drawn wagon with a heated brick to keep the feet from freezing.  But that is the way the world existed until roughly 150 years ago.

The age of modernity is different from the era of our great grandparents—and we fail to perceive that WE are different.  For most of the 6,000 years of man’s recorded history none of these things existed.  Even kings rode in primitive carriages, pulled by horses over muddy roads that could travel only twenty-five miles a day.

Worse, it was a feudalistic world where ninety percent of the population earned their daily bread by working on a farm.  The word feudal comes from the word “fee,” meaning the farmer held the land in “fee” to the master, who held it in fee to the lord, who ultimately held it in fee to the king. That’s the way man existed.

It was into this world that 15-year-old Henry Tudor unexpectedly became King of England when his older brother died.  Along with kingship, he was given the widow of his brother as a wife—in order to maintain the political alliance with Spain.

You would be correct to conclude that a 15-year-old was not qualified to rule over such a powerful nation.  The “system” provided a solution.  Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell would guide the decisions of the teenage king, signing legal documents and directing the Privy Council and Parliament for him.  Their decisions were largely dictated by the church.

Within a few years Henry tired of his wife and Cromwell attempted to obtain an annulment from the Pope.  The Pope refused and Henry VIII responded by banning the Catholic Church from England, rejecting Katherine of Aragon, and marrying Anne Boleyn.  Henry established the Church of England, declared himself head of the church, and executed over 50 Catholic leaders who refused to submit to his edict.

Eventually Henry died, succeeded to the throne by his young son, Edward.  Edward VI died after six years and was succeeded by Henry’s daughter, Mary, who earned the infamous nickname, Bloody Mary.  Mary, a devout Catholic, got the moniker by executing 342 Protestants who resisted her attempt to force England to return to Catholicism.  These public executions were barbaric torturous events, carried out in the local town square.

Bloody Mary died after ruling only five years, succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth I, the other daughter of Henry VIII.  Elizabeth returned the country to the Church of England and in the process executed a couple dozen Catholics who resisted.

Do you recognize a pattern here?  The continuous succession of monarchs, who each have religious beliefs that differ from the previous leader, results in the murder of citizens that disagree.

Suppose you lived in England—or any of the European countries during this period—and you had strong convictions about the worship of God that differed from the king.  What would you do—what would any sane person do to avoid being executed for holding sincere religious beliefs?

The answer for a multitude of those people was to flee to America so they could worship God without being persecuted.  Worship meant the freedom to speak your religious beliefs, the freedom to publish those beliefs, and the freedom to assemble to worship God as you understood Him.  The passengers on the Mayflower were Pilgrims—religious wanderers who created the Mayflower Compact—the first official document in this country.  It dedicated the country to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Later, the Founding Fathers established a constitution, the First Amendment of which declared that since our freedoms come from God—not the king—that Christians have freedom of speech so we can speak our beliefs without censure, freedom of the press to publish our beliefs and freedom to assemble so we can worship the God of the Bible.

And then those same wise men wrote the 2nd Amendment to protect the rights of religious people to defend their freedom if any government attempted to eliminate them.

Therefore, no government leaders—no tech giants—no media giants—no medical authorities—are constitutionally allowed to abridge the rights of Christians to do those things for which the 1st Amendment was specifically written to guarantee.  Such attempts are acts of treason against the people of this great nation, whose freedoms were secured by a long line of religious people who shed their blood to achieve.

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien