As we approach another Fourth of July, our country seems as divided as it has ever been. It isn’t the first time it has ever been divided. It was, of course, terribly divided in the days of the Civil War. By God’s grace, the country managed to unite after that war. I remember all the demonstrations protesting the Vietnam War. That was another time of great division.

The division we face today is especially difficult because of all the deception we find. In the early days of our nation, newspapers were openly partisan. Today many media sources pretend to be neutral while slanting the news severely for political agendas. This is causing many Americans to be misled.

Even political positions have been skewed. There is a gross deception about the nature of nationalism and fascism. Definitions have been distorted for the political convenience of some.

For me, and I believe many others who would call themselves nationalists, “nationalism” is merely a love of country and a belief that each country should be a separate entity and look after the interests of its people. Yet there is an attempt to associate this kind of nationalism with the extreme kind, as in the Nazis, who believed they were a superior race and wanted to conquer other countries. This is not a reasonable link.

There are also attempts to link nationalists with “white nationalists,” who believe that whites should reign supreme. The truth is, many nationalists have nothing to do with white nationalists and would strongly condemn their racist beliefs.

Some have tried to call fascism a “far-right” entity. This is completely wrong. Those on the right are for greater freedom, whereas those on the left are for more government control. Fascism is definitely a form of strong government control, so it is completely illogical to try to place it on the right. Below is a line graph that corrects this misconception. I saw this graph concept used in a book shown in a presentation, but I could not catch the title of the book. It may have been a very interesting book. You will find a number of political graphs online, but some may be misleading.

Whether or not they support Donald Trump, every American should be concerned about the dishonesty of the media (and even the FBI, such as in drumming up the “Russian Hoax”) in regard to President Trump. One example of this is President Trump’s comments following the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The media took his comment that there were “fine people on both sides” completely out of context and repeated it over and over and over. If you watch the video below of the whole press conference, it will give an entirely different picture.

Dishonesty is a sign of moral decay. There are many other signs of moral decay in our nation. Although our Founding Fathers didn’t want people to be forced to attend a certain kind of church, the great majority of them were strong believers in the teachings of the Bible.

Here are some quotes from Founding Fathers. From Patrick Henry: “ . . . Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed.” From John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

It’s time for us to pray for our nation. We must pray for a return to belief in God and the teachings of the Bible. There is a great divide between those who believe in the morals taught in the Bible and those who don’t.  In Matthew 3:24 [NIV] Jesus said, “ . . . if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln echoed that thought in a speech of June 6, 1858, famously called his “House Divided” speech.