The race to succeed Barack Obama is on, but remember this: Important as the 2016 election will be, whether the Republicans or the Democrats prevail is not going to keep our country from rolling into 2017 faced with the same ominous symptoms of decline. Another centennial for the USA is far from assured. Maybe our country will be around to celebrate 2076, but maybe America's goodness and glory will be but a sad memory by then. Historians warn that great nations undo themselves with moral and fiscal laxity after about 250 years. My timely book, Responsibility Reborn: A Citizen's Guide to the Next American Century, looks at our chances and maps the way forward. I argue that Uncle Sam's insolvency is only a symptom; irresponsibility as indulged by all of us is the fatal deficit we face. Saving our country starts with individuals looking in the mirror. Can we do it? Damn right we can. To learn more about the book and order your copy today, go to centennialccu.org and click Centennial Institute Store.
“End of discussion” won’t occur if Centennial Institute can help it
As chairman of the annual Western Conservative Summit, I was pleased to invite back for this year's edition our longtime friends and political allies, Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson, to talk about their important new book, End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free. Both have spoken at several previous Summits, and Guy has road-tripped to places like Grand Junction CO and Scottsdale AZ on behalf of the Institute’s freedom message. Why the invitation? Because I see timeliness and urgency in Ham and Benson’s defense of the American ideal of open, spirited, civil debate in the public square, and in their case studies of assaults on that ideal by progressives. Their book valuably reinforces our mission at Centennial Institute, as Colorado Christian University’s think tank, to equip citizens "to be seekers of truth [and] to debunk spent ideas” (quoting from the CCU Strategic Objectives).
It is precisely for that reason, because America needs better citizenship and lots of it, that any good citizen with a thoughtful message is always welcome on our speaker platform. We’ve had Marxists, Darwinists, Freudians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and gays, not in most cases to present a worldview we reject, but to further the discussion on great issues of the day, worldview aside. That open forum, all comers given a hearing, has been and will remain our policy.
Thus when Guy Benson recently stated he is gay — putting it on record for intellectual honesty and putting it in perspective as a mere footnote at the back of his and Mary Katharine Ham’s book — we viewed the disclosure as immaterial to our reasons for having invited the two authors months before. Neither is coming to the Summit to speak on gay marriage or on gayness in any way. They are coming to speak on keeping the public square open. What a surrender if Centennial Institute moved for its closure by suddenly declaring them unwelcome.
We program the Western Conservative Summit by weighing our invited speakers’ capability as advocates and the merits of their civic vision, not by appraising their personal lives. We’re not confident how well any of us could stand such an appraisal ourselves, if the secrets of all hearts were known. Rather, as followers of Jesus and servants of a Christian university, in our dealings with every individual, we want to live out what St. Paul called “the Gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).
Benson and Ham’s book title calls out one side of the political divide, the Left, for trying to shut down debate and thus make America less free. But neither side is guiltless. Centennial Institute, committed as we are to freedom, faith, and family, will not waver on those core truths as biblically proclaimed. Nor will we yield to anyone’s ad hominem call to end discussion, be it from Left or Right. Let the discussion flourish unafraid, we say. Let truth and error freely contend. We’re certain the truth will prevail.
Practicing prayer when God seems silent
National Day of Prayer was observed on May 7 with thousands of gatherings across America. I had the honor to keynote the Northern Colorado Prayer Breakfast in Loveland. God's oxygen, God's ark, and God's ambassadors were my word-pictures for the day, expanding on NDP's 2015 theme, "Lord, hear our cry" (I Kings 8). We're all grateful for the many times He has heard our cry and we knew it, I said. But what about the times when God's answer is "wait" or "no," or when all we seem to hear is silence? Then we need vividly sustaining images of who He is, what He offers us and requires of us. We need practices to keep us thinking and living prayerfully. I suggested three:
1) Breathe God's oxygen. God's oxygen is spiritual conversation between the Father and his child, you or me. We breathe it in with Scripture and breathe it out with prayer. And it's not optional! To think we can live without it for a day or even an hour is suicidal folly. Nor is God ever really silent to us when we have His written word in the Bible and his incarnate word in Jesus Christ, both constantly speaking to us and feeding us.
2) Build God's ark. God's ark is the visible structure of His truth, His love, His law, and His liberty, anchored for our rescue in a drowning world. Prayer must be not only said, but lived and put into action for our own and others' benefit. That visible structure honoring and reflecting God's order takes form in the church, to be sure, but also in families, schools, businesses, communities, civil and political societies. Our work is to secure them before evil's rising flood submerges everything.
3) Be God's ambassador. God's ambassador is that man or woman who purposefully and fearlessly brings others into the oxygen, into the ark. First the CPR, then the boarding pass. Who is waiting right now for us to get them inhaling and exhaling with Him, then show them aboard his vessel of refuge? Role models in the Bible include Andrew bringing Peter to Jesus (John 1, fairly easy), Philip bringing the Ethiopian to baptism (Acts 8, less easy),and Ananias helping Saul become Paul (frighteningly hard).
"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, the Christian's native air," says an old hymn. "We enter heaven with prayer." So what are we waiting for? But the initiative is always with the Father, Son, and Spirit. Our own unaided effort is never enough. The breath of life God gave man in Genesis 2 wasn't just molecules of gas; it was that spiritual conversation between Maker and image.
Likewise the restorative breath for dry bones in Ezekiel 37. Likewise the risen Jesus breathing upon his disciples in John 20. With their inspiration and respiration you and I can be energized to breathe God's oxygen, build God's ark, and be God's ambassadors.
Some us who presented at National Day of Prayer Loveland event. Organizer and chairman Sosamma Samuel-Burnett is at right, John Andrews is next to her.
RTD Board: Republican Candidates ID'd
The Regional Transportation District in metro Denver is Colorado's fourth largest government as measured by spending. Its power is immense, yet the 15-member board has a low political profile and elections remain nonpartisan despite efforts by some of us to help inform voters by identifying candidates with the Republican or Democratic or whatever party brand (corresponding roughly though not exactly to more or less fiscal discipline and respect for markets). With help from my conservative friends Natalie Menten, a current RTD director; Neil Quinlan, a former director; and Dennis Polhill of the Independence Institute, we've pegged the following 2014 board candidates as Republicans. The list is alpabetical by district. Francone is the one I'm really high on.
District J - Larry Hoy District K - Rich Monroe District L - Lorraine Anderson District N - Tina Francone
Election 2014: How I'm voting
Here sits my Colorado general election ballot on the kitchen table, ready to mark and mail. I wish it were not an all-mail election, but that's another discussion. For the information of many who always ask, and for discussion with readers who may agree or disagree (which makes the world go round), my intended votes on candidates, ballot issues, and judges are listed below.
As always, I am voting a straight Republican ticket. That's not with animosity toward Democrats or the minor parties, but simply because I'm convinced the GOP adheres best (albeit very imperfectly) to America's original and never-improved-upon "operating system," the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Our communities, state, and nation are most likely to survive and thrive under the Republican principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, peace through strength, and Judeo-Christian moral truth.
Thanks for your interest. Comments and questions are always welcome.
Federal Offices US Senate: Cory Gardner (R) US House, CD6: Mike Coffman (R) Elsewhere R's for Congress: Ytterberg CD7, Leing CD2, Walsh CD1
State Offices Governor: Bob Beauprez (R) Attorney General: Cynthia Coffman (R) Secretary of State: Wayne Williams (R) Treasurer: Walker Stapleton (R) CU Regent, CD6: John Carson (R) State Representative, HD-37: Jack Tate (R) Elsewhere State Board of Education: Fattor CD2, Mazanec CD4 Arapahoe County Offices Commissioner: Nancy Sharpe (R), Tory Brown (R) Clerk & Recorder: Matt Crane (R) Sheriff: David Walcher (R) Treasurer: Sue Sandstrom (R) Assessor: Corbin Sakdol (R) Coroner: Kelly Lear-Kaul (R)
Ballot Issues I am a no vote on everything except Prop 104. That includes local tax increases, not specified here, and expansion of marijuana sales (prevention of which in Lakewood requires a YES vote on Measure 2A).
If you want further discussMark Hillman, former state treasurer and state senator, contributed to our Centennial Institute blog a thoughtful rundown on the four statewide issues, aligning to my position with but a single exception.
No on Amendment 67: Define "person" to include the unborn I believe life begins at conception, and I would like to see state and federal law reflect that. But this poorly drafted and ill-advised measure wouldn't survive in court and only abets the pro-abortion fear mongers who want no conservatives in public office. Hillman aptly calls it "heartbreaking and hopeless" for pro-lifers like him and me.
No on Amendment 68: Expand casino gambling to horse racetracks Gambling is morally and economically corrosive to individuals and the community. We have more than enough of it, run by public and private entities, in Colorado already. Here I must part with my friend Sen. Hillman.
Yes on Proposition 104: Open meetings for teacher union negotiations Schools shouldn't be unionized like factories in the first place. But since they are, let's prevent sweetheart deals in secret between them and the school boards they often control via political money and muscle. Teacher union contracts weren't always even an open record until the school collective bargaining sunshine act I sponsored in 2001. Here's our chance to shine light on the bargaining process itself.
No on Proposition 105: Food labeling for genetically modified organisms Another move by the environmental scare lobby to demonize the poverty-fighting advances of scientific agriculture and burden free enterprise with needless costly regulations.
Judges for Retention I will again vote no on all judges. It's been my practice for many years.
Not all my friends will agree with this, even the most conservative. But I reason that nearly every judge will be retained, the best and the worst, deserving or not, despite some of us casting a principled protest vote against the toothless evaluation-and-retention system itself.
We need to put all the judges, and the legal profession they spring from, on notice that a substantial minority of Coloradans object to our state's minimally accountable judiciary.
Take for example this year's two state Supreme Court justices up for retention, the conservative Brian Boatright and the left-progressive Monica Marquez. I'd be glad to see Marquez return to private law practice, and I'd be thrilled if Boatright stayed on the court till retirement age. But for the reasons stated, neither gets my yes vote this time.
Let me also recommend Matt Arnold's excellent work through Clear the Bench Colorado, really the only vigilant watchdog out there, including his careful and objective ratings of judges' constitutional fidelity - far more useful than the tame, state-published Blue Book evaluations.