Socialists Don't Sleep: Christians Must Rise or America Will Fall Chapter One  Why America is GREAT In the First Place  The year was 1775. Just a few months earlier, American delegates meeting at the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia had been arguing and weighing and mulling the merits of striking a bargain with Britain's King George III - versus the dangers of declaring themselves a free people, separated from the crown. All in attendance had agreed on the principle of colonists' rights and on the premise that the king, via his "Intolerable Acts," had overstepped his authority and unduly burdened the people. But not all saw separation from England as a viable solution. Not all thought crown-colonists' relations were irreparably severed - even though the king, in a speech to Parliament delivered shortly before the start of the Continental Congress, had openly condemned them for a collective "daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the law." The king's views of the colonists would seem clear. One example of that spirit of resistance? It's the stuff of elementary school textbooks, the stuff of American History 101, the Boston Tea Party of 1773. That's when a band of colonists, angry at unfair and excessive taxation from Britain and organized under the umbrella of the Sons of Liberty, dumped an entire shipment of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor. That's when the British Parliament responded with a punishment, via the Boston Port Act, that sent the Royal Navy to blockade the city harbor and the British Army to patrol the city streets. And that's when the good citizens of Boston really began to suffer oppression to the point of strangulation. Imagine being tossed to the side in your own home and ordered to give food and board to the very soldiers who were oppressing you. The gall of it all. Now fast-forward a bit. Circle on back to 1775. It's March. The hot topic of debate: What to do about these oppressors. It was with all that hostility in the backdrop that the well-respected lawyer from Hanover County in Virginia, Patrick Henry, took center stage at his state's Second Convention in Richmond in St. John's Church, and unleashed a hurl of rhetoric that still, to this day, sets patriotic hearts to pounding. "Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? ... There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery! ... Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" What a call to arms. What a breathless moment. What a proud moment to be an American that must have been. Truth be told, some historical texts suggest that Henry may not have uttered those words exactly as reported. Unlike other founders, Henry didn't leave behind a long trail of written papers and copies of his speeches. So the main recording of this famous "Liberty or Death" speech came by way of a biography written by a young lawyer named William Wirt who gathered his information from local newspaper accounts of the event, and through interviews with St. George Tucker, a great legal mind who had been physically present at St. John's the day Henry spoke. As such, historical nitpickers like to suggest there's really no surefire way to know, word-for-word, what Henry said that fateful day. But let the nitpickers nitpick. The case that Henry spoke either those exact words or something pretty darn close to those exact words is overwhelming. Not only was Tucker - who in his life served as an attorney, a judge, a scholar and writer - a highly esteemed source. But also, shortly after Henry's speech, the delegates indeed passed a resolution to prepare for military defense against the British. Shortly after Henry's speech, a group of Virginians who volunteered for militia service wrote "Liberty or Death" on their shirts. And again, shortly after Henry's speech, a man named Colonel Edward Carrington who had listened to the remarks from a window of St. John's was so impressed, he actually said, "Let me be buried on this spot." His widow, years later, actually honored that request. Nitpick away. Henry, without a doubt, with his words, lit a fire. And it's a fire that still burns today. "Give me liberty or give me death" - if there's one phrase that can encapsulate all that's great about America it's that one. If there's one phrase that can capture what's best about the American people, it's that one. America's great because Americans are irrepressibly free. You just can't keep a good American down. Breathe that in and reflect on that for a moment. Throughout our nation's history, that pull-up-from-the-bootstrap attitude and determination, our striving for rugged individualism and self-reliance, our commitment to sovereignty and self-governance, have led to some of our country's greatest accomplishments, to some our greatest wins, to some of our greatest causes. Beating the British in the American Revolution was just the start. From forming our new government to forging the West, to passing civil rights protections and ratifying women's rights to vote, to soaring to new heights in space and technology and the application of modern day science, the hunger for freedom, the drive to keep this country the leader of the free world, have been the basic motivations for creation and accomplishment. But it's not just the call of freedom that makes America great. America is great, too, because America is principled. On December 26, 1738, Thomas Nelson Jr., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was born. He was part of Virginia's aristocratic society - groomed for leadership, educated in England; connected at the hip by birth and marriage to money and property. Yet service-to-colony, service-to-country were his primary goals. Nelson was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774 and became a member of Virginia's provincial convention in 1775, where he helped form, and then command, the Virginia militia. Subsequently, and through various health trials, he served on the Second Continental Congress and in various leadership roles of the military, and finally as Virginia's governor, in 1781, succeeding Thomas Jefferson. But it was his character that shined brightest. From The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence comes this account: "In the spring of 1781, [when] Nelson was elected Governor ... [t]he Virginia Legislature was on the run at the time, pursued by the British cavalry commander Banastre Tarleton into Albemarle County. By early September the American and French armies were closing in on [Lord Charles] Cornwallis who had decided to await evacuation of his army at Yorktown. When the French fleet arrive his fate was sealed. During the siege and battle Nelson led the Virginia Militia whom he had personally organized and supplied with his own funds. Legend had it that Nelson ordered his artillery to direct their fire on his own house which was occupied by Cornwallis, offering five guineas to the first man who hit the house. Either the cannoneers were inaccurate or the event never happened, but there are three cannon balls still lodged on the outer wall of the house." The National Park Serve reports similarly - that "evidence of the damage" to Nelson's own home "exists to this day." Moreover, Nelson gave all, willingly, for the cause of the colonies. The $2 million he loaned of his own money to finance the costs of Virginia's battle against the British, and to fund the French fleet, was never repaid. He died a poor man - by worldly standards, anyway. But by spiritual standards? He was married with 11 children, beloved by his comrades, respected by the likes of George Washington - who publicly thanked Nelson for "bravery" in his general orders of October, 1781 - and further esteemed as "illustrious," "heroic," "splendid," "refined" and the like in a written tribute from his friend, Colonel James Innes. But perhaps the best summation of Nelson's principled character comes from the National Park Service, which wrote: "The war had ruined his business. ... Living on the edge of poverty, [Nelson] died of asthma eight years after the 1781 siege and was buried in an unmarked grave at Yorktown's Grace Church so that his creditors could not hold his body as collateral. When asked if he felt embittered about his treatment, Nelson stated, 'I would do it all over again.'" He'd do it all over again. How many of us, reared with the finest of educations, accustomed to the finer things in life, padded with wealth and secure in property, would not only sacrifice all for a principled cause - but then, when faced with the realities of broken promises and poverty-stricken ways, maintain an attitude of "so be it?" Nelson was certainly a patriot, more than profiteer. And his life exemplifies a facet of America's greatness. The best our country has to offer comes by way of those who willingly give the most, for a higher good, for a higher cause, expecting the least in return. It's one thing to claim a spirit of "give me liberty or give me death." It's another thing entirely - a perhaps much harder road to take - to lay claim to a spirit of "give me liberty in exchange for poverty." And then, when that poverty indeed comes, to shrug and say, "I'll do it all over again." That's the measure of greatness. That's a measure of recognized greatness in America. But it's still not America's biggest source of greatness. What is? In a few words, this: In America, individual rights come from God, not government. If you had to summarize in a single sentence what makes America great - what separates the United States from any other nation in the world, what sets us apart and on high, exceptional to the core - it's that remarkable notion. Our government doesn't determine our rights. Our God does. Our rights are natural, instilled at birth. And what's so remarkable and even revolutionary about that idea is that it means, by logical extension, that our government is not just subservient, in some sort of floaty pie-in-the-sky theory, to God, but also, in pragmatic policy and politicking, the day-to-day servant to the people who derive their rights at birth, from God. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," the Declaration of Independence reads. "[T]hat they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..." Yes, indeed. It's the mark of American birthright - the unequivocal, bold, uncompromising view that politicians are our employees. That they work for us. That when they stop working for us, they can be fired. It's our national DNA, the preservation of which upon all else, from liberty to principled living, depends. Legend has it that Isaac Potts, a Quaker famer who lived near Valley Forge, happened upon George Washington praying, on bended knee, in the snow, asking God to watch over his men and protect his troops from British annihilation. The story goes on that Potts later recounted the scene to his wife, assuring that "all will be well" because he saw "General Washington on his knees" and therefore, "our independence is certain." It's that image of Washington that's been captured in paintings and pictures for decades. Of course, the Potts legend is likely just that - a story absent historical proof. But it serves its purpose just the same. The reason why that story stands the passage of years and the painting, the test of time, is because it shows America's most beloved founding figure in one of American's most natural of states - in humble appeal to the true source of greatness: God. It demonstrates, in a few short words, in a few seconds' glance, just why America is so exceptional - because we Americans put our trust in God, pin our hopes on God, and commit our futures to God. We don't look to government for all the answers. We look to God. America is great because America was built on a foundation of God, on a rock of Judeo-Christian principles, on a belief in the might of the individual first, the collective, second. Consider that. Now read this, from 2018 - a headline from Scientific American: "The Number of Americans With No Religious Affiliation Is Rising." And then this, around the same time, another headline, from Business Insider: "A large percentage of millennials are embracing socialism." These two trends are not unrelated. Remove God from society, and government grows. And this is where we're at in modern day America. The rising secularized society is bringing with it a larger and more burdensome government, which in turn is training the coming generations in the Big Government mindsets and ways they should go - which in turn is paving the path toward an America that's completely adrift from its founding, small government principles. It's incumbent on those of the faith to stop this secularization. It's incumbent on those who can read the writing on the wall to put a halt to the socialism that's seeping into our American being. We've been asleep and derelict in duty for far too long. Excerpted from Socialists Don't Sleep by Cheryl K. Chumley All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.