For those of you who believe God does not belong in the Tea Party Movement, you might want to move along to another article.  I’m probably going to irritate you so no need in that.  Just move along.  Move along.  Nothing here for you to read.

It’s Sunday morning and I woke up with this lyric in my head, “the only hope for our country is Him.”  This line comes from a song sung by Carmen in a video he made in the 1990s.  Who is Carman? 

Carman is what some call a Las Vegas showman and a Christian evangelist.  You might say he is a Rock and Roll Billy Graham.  Carman is not well known outside the Christian music world yet his record-attending event at the Texas Stadium in Dallas surpassed 71,000 attendees – more than U2, Madonna, Paul McCartney, and Garth Brooks could attract when they played there.

Carman was rising in popularity when my children were teenagers and his songs played constantly in our home and cars.  I loved it because his music resonated not only with the teenagers of the 90’s but the adults liked him too!  And the fact he was good looking didn’t hurt him either!

I was surprised to wake this morning and hear this lyric in my head after all those years.  I wondered what God wanted me to do with that.  When you wake in the mornings and you have a thought in your head – you need to heed and listen.  There is always a message there.

So for me, I got up, put the coffee on and went to Youtube to pull up the video with that lyric in it.  Before the sun rose in the sky and while the half moon was still illuminating the darkness of dawn, Carman began talking about our founding fathers on my computer screen.

All those years ago when my children were teenagers, I never paid attention to our founding fathers.  In fact, before the Tea Party Movement, I had not thought of them since high school American history and why would I?  But there was Carman talking about them at the beginning of his video and then he began singing his song, God in America Again.  I remembered the song, but not the talking points.  Why?

Because at that time in my life, Carman was a Christian role model for my children and I was not concerned about American history lessons.   They could learn that in school.  Carman was all about doing the right thing, living your life for Christ and letting others know about good and evil in the world.  That was what was important to me then where my children were concerned.  Not the founding fathers. 

Little did I know that the two were equally important and Carman had already gotten it right!  I knew God was important to raising our children yet I didn’t teach them about how important God was to our country and the continuance of freedom for all.  I was more focused on getting it right with them personally and the rest of the country could take care of itself.  I had work to do as a parent and that was a full time job in-and-of itself.

I’m glad to report our teenagers turned into great American patriots who are both self-sustaining adults with wonderful spouses.  They have grown up to become well-respected in their fields of endeavor and one has blessed us with adorable granddaughters and another baby is on its way.  (Our other adult child has some catching up to do with the baby making responsibility!)  Mission accomplished with raising our children!  We can mark the MOST important task off our bucket list with a note next to it – “JOB WELL DONE!”

As I finished listening to Carman’s video, I realized what God was telling me.  Yes, I had raised my children and although I hadn’t focused on my country, I was still making it a better country in the long run.  You see, my husband and I had raised our children to love others, to live their lives as responsible citizens, to do the right things, to be held accountable for their actions, to stand on their own two feet and to ensure they were making a difference in society.  In other words, we helped our country by raising our children with God’s love as the center of our home.  These two individuals were now great American citizens.  I realized -- when we speak of our country – we are speaking of its people not some imaginary thing.  Our country = our people. 

Those of us in the Tea Party Movement are on a mission to save our country from evil forces who want to destroy it and take us down.  No one can deny that those forces  - aka as “people” --   are out there.  The likes of them have been there since America was founded and every generation has a responsibility to defend it and keep us free from those who hate us.

The only way the next generation can do that is to raise up their children to be responsible people who will defend our country when their time comes and their time will come. 

So…for those who believe God does not belong in the Tea Party Movement, I beg to differ.  As Carman says:

Abe Lincoln said, "The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation
Will be the philosophy of the government of the next"
So when you eliminate the Word of God from the classroom and politics
You eliminate the nation that Word protects

We have eliminated God from our classrooms, our public institutions, our laws, our courtrooms, our legislation and now others are saying God should be removed from the Tea Party Movement. 

I, for one, will refuse that argument.  I will not force God down your throats and I will stand up for Him when called to do so.  America is God’s country and was founded on Godly principles.  When we refuse to repeat those facts and only talk about fiscal responsibility, we are NOT talking about the real issues at the core of our problems.

The real issues are egos, corruption, evil and wicked men in power, tyranny, multiculturalism and political correctness.  Those issues have nothing to do with fiscal responsibility.  They have everything to do with Freedom and Liberty – which comes from our Constitution and Declaration of Independence which our founding fathers drafted in part from the word of God. 

The Tea Party Movement keeps growing and the more people who come to it are concerned about so many things.  Yes, they are concerned about the fiscal issues, our debt problems and our economic problems.  They are also concerned about global governance, multiculturalism, border security, illegal immigration, corruption, land grabs, cap and trade, etc. 

All of these issues again equate to loss of liberty.  Loss of liberty equates to slavery.  That loss of liberty is handed over to a government which is comprised of men and women who we allow to rule over us instead of standing up for our God-given rights of self-governance.

All in all – the issues of the Tea Party Movement comes back to one thing --

We need God in America again

So on this Sunday which is known as a day of rest and a day to focus on our God, I encourage you to do your part to put God in America again.  If you feel overwhelmed, all you have to do is love someone today.  Tell someone about God.  Help someone out of a bad situation such as a job loss, lack of food to feed their family, or money to pay their bills.  Send a donation to Japan and help those who are without hope.  Hand a couple of dollars to a homeless person.  Go to church.  Spend time in prayer and meditation.  Look around and proclaim the greatness of our country to others.

Share yourself today and by doing so – you can put God in America again.

To hear Carman’s videos and the many others he has produced over the years, go to:  www.youtube.com and put in the word “Carman.”  Have fun watching his videos and encourage your children and grandchildren to watch them with you. 

Take a listen to "God in America Again" here...