The Tea Party Is Radical!
By Leon Howard
On Sunday, March 4th, 2012, our pastor, David Parker, began the first of 4 Sundays, “Radical: Restoring the Edge of Faith”, and the first teachings was on “Radical Prayer” – A term I was totally unfamiliar with but became a very vivid learning experience.
I have always mistrusted the term “radical” because the adjective has always associated to me the Weather Underground, SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), socialism, communism and fanaticism – Groups I have always considered evil and un-American! This Sunday, I found out that “radical” is from the late Latin word “rādīcālis” – meaning ‘of roots’ or ‘to root’ (origin, source, foundation, intention) … Definitely not evil as I had thought it to be when associated with the afore mentioned groups.
But in prayer it means to pray for more than oneself … I am guilty of too often asking God for something for me; selfish prayer: “Please, Lord, help me through this situation and I promise to do (whatever)!” I have always been uncomfortable praying this way but I always added something to make me sound more generous to others (our military, for instance). Don’t get me wrong, I really want Him to protect our warriors in harm’s way but I added them to appear more generous to Him! The only one I was fooling was me!
I told you that to tell you this: The Tea Party is radical! Remember, “rādīcālis” means “of roots” (origin, source, foundation, intention) and that speaks to our nation’s origins, foundation, genetic code, and its very source of life and growth – The “grassroots”! The Tea Party and the other liberty/freedom groups are the “rādīcālis” of the United States of America!
I have always said we were “center-balance”, constitutionally, and that statement is true but the nation has strayed so far from it’s “roots” that the path we must take is radical for us to return to our founding documents, our “roots”! Our founding documents were divinely inspired and are for a moral society, so much of our return to liberty is predicated on re-establishing our moral foundation that keeps eroding due to our embrace of “political correctness”!
It is not our responsibility to judge others personal behaviors unless it interferes with the God-given rights of another but we must stand against that which is foreign to His teachings in the Bible – Our churches must begin, once again, to speak out against false teachings and stand for morality – This must be done from the pulpit as well as in public!
It is not my place to judge the lifestyle of homosexuals but I must stand for the sanctity of marriage! Until we can get the government out of the “marriage business”, we must protect marriage from anything but one man and one woman! The only thing important is that the man and woman are joined as one “in the eyes of God”! The “license” is totally unnecessary and is only a revenue generator for the State!
We, as a People, must re-engage our Judea/Christian values to, once again, be worthy of our divinely inspired Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights!
I have written a radical prayer that I now pray every day. One of the freedom groups member has called on all of us to say a prayer, daily, for the nation and Pastor David’s teaching enlightened me what a ‘to roots’ prayer entails:
“Father God, please lead me on the path to help restore the moral foundation of Your nation so we can, once again, be the Beacon of Liberty for the rest of mankind! I am Yours to use as You see fit in all things; do not let me falter or stop until Your goal is reached! Protect Your warriors throughout the world; bring them home safely. I ask these things in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ – Amen.”
