Americanism

We just got back a little while ago from the first night of the Real Evangelism conference, being hosted again this year at FBC Indian Trail. These conferences are always excellent and this year Mike Huckabee was the keynote speaker.

If you're thinking "here comes a political rant"...wait. This is simply a collection of observations from Huckabee's speech, which will have a conservative Christian viewpoint, but will not be political. A semi random collection of thoughts from memory. Now decide to click "Jump" in your RSS reader or not.

Bailey Smith (of the conference name) provided the introduction for the Governor. One of the points he made was in providing several definitions of "Americanism" from the latest Webster's dictionary. It provided an appropriate segue for the main elements of Huckabee's speech.

Mike Huckabee spoke for almost an hour on Biblical values and morals in America, from the perspective of those values. To my recollection, he did not mention any sitting politicians by name, nor did he label any current directions in government.

What he did do is identify that our hope can not be in elected officials - and - our blame therefore cannot be either. Two points were identified that would collapse society: consolidate power into the hands of a few; release individuals of responsibilities and risk. Each individual was charged with the responsibility to live according to their beliefs.

There were a set of parallel structures in society he identified, which further illustrated personal responsibility, that went something like this:

- Parents equip their children to live independently
- Pastors equip their congregations to perform ministry
- Leaders should equip people to need less government, not more

There were many other historical points about America, parallels drawn from Judges 9 to current mindsets, the changeable nature of current society and many more topics. Overall an engaging, sometimes funny and overall excellent presentation.

So back to the original definition - Americanism: loyalty to the United States and its institutions. It was clear to all in attendance tonight that Mike Huckabee is most certainly a loyal American and an unashamed Christian.