God and America: Lukewarm Is Not a Strategy

By Bradley T. Farrar

Americans no longer have the luxury of water cooler debates between ACLU members and the religious right over whether someone may be irreparably harmed by hearing a prayer before a high school football game. There are people around this world, which is getting smaller, more crowded, and easier to access than ever before, who are really into their religionand they are interested in how you feel about that. They love and consider their god to be exclusive. They dont believe your god is equal to theirs, and they dont care how that strikes you. Political correctness does not impress them. Their god does.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512732085

Bradley T. Farrar

>Bradley T. Farrar is a lawyer, novelist and screenwriter. His book Silent Partner is the first in the Sean Piper mystery series, with the second release, No Good Deed, coming Summer 2016. >He regularly teaches strategic planning and the principles of God and America to groups interested in leveraging the secular benefits of godliness. He lives with his wife and three daughters in South Carolina.

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Copyright © 2016 Bradley T. Farrar.

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3207-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3209-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3208-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016902945

WestBow Press rev. date: 4/15/2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Author's Note

Introduction

PART I Building Blocks

Chapter 1 What's the Deal with the Title?

Chapter 2 Protecting Your World

Chapter 3 How It All Began---And Why It Can Work Out for You Regardless of the Answer

Chapter 4 Society---When Did I Sign Up for This?

Chapter 5 Rights and Wrongs

Chapter 6 Strategic Vision, Thinking and Planning

Chapter 7 Do What Works

Chapter 8 Strategic Culture and Why It's Important

Chapter 9 United States Strategic Culture (Today)

Chapter 10 United States Strategic Culture At Its Founding: Are We a Christian Nation or What?

Chapter 11 Critical Vulnerabilities, Centers of Gravity and Instruments of National Power

Chapter 12 Omitting God and Expecting a Different Result

Chapter 13 Strategy. What is it Good For? Absolutely Everything! Say It Again!

Chapter 14 The Secular Benefits of Godliness

Chapter 15 What True Believers Believe

Chapter 16 What True Believers Believe (Part II)

Chapter 17 The Lukewarm

Chapter 18 How God Negotiates

Chapter 19 How God Permits Free Will

Chapter 20 The Crucible of Sin

Chapter 21 Surely It Can't Happen Here

PART II GOD, Domestic and Foreign Policy

Chapter 22 God and Domestic Policy: Law and Order, Taxes and the Economy

Chapter 23 God and Domestic Policy: Poverty

Chapter 24 God and Domestic Policy: Healthcare, Wisdom, Knowledge and Education

Chapter 25 God and Domestic Policy: More of Life's Code God Deciphers for Us that We Ignore

Chapter 26 God and Foreign Policy: Terrorism

Chapter 27 God and Foreign Policy: Selected Issues

PART III Separation of Church and State is Man's Best Attempt to Destroy Both

Chapter 28 Render Unto Caesar...Everything

Chapter 29 Winning, Apologies, Travel Ball and Turn Signals

Chapter 30 The Way Ahead

Appendix A Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

Appendix B The Declaration of Independence

Appendix C Deuteronomy 28

To Carole.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special mention is due to all of those who provided endless encouragement and support for this book, chief among them my wife, Carole, whose editing, insight, grounding and inspiration remain invaluable, our children, Elizabeth, Grace and Caroline, my father, Dr. Ronald Truman Farrar, and sister, Janet Farrar Worthington, both accomplished authors and boundless sources of motivation. I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mark, Blair, Andy, Josh, Kyra Schreivogel, Bini, Didi, Lucy, Penny and Franny, Scott Price, Dr. Jim Glatz, Paul Cubby Culbertson, Det Bowers, Perry Bowers, Irv Philpot, Sam Hunter and all the men of Advances past and to come.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The original manuscript for this book contained no Foreword, as the Introduction has the necessary prefatory remarks. But the week it was sent to the publisher, a young man walked into a community college, made a number of students lie on the floor, told them one-by-one to stand and asked them about their religion. The ones who said they were Christians he shot in the head. He asked the questions in English, and killed all of his victims...in America.

This book is not a work of science fiction. It comes too late for that. I hope you will read it anyway, as America has no choice but to start where it is. Fortunately for us, the arm of the Lord is not too short.¹

INTRODUCTION

This book is intended for every American, those aspiring to become Americans, those who have benefitted from their relationship with the United States, including any country that ever has received U.S. foreign aid, or had any American fight and maybe die for that country or its interests in a declared or an undeclared war. And also for anyone who believes that while the world may not be ideal, it would be worse without the United States' contributions to the international economy, industry, its military power projection and defense of nations disposed to beneficent values, its unparalleled research and development, exploration of the seas and space, leadership in medicine, including finding cures for diseases, and its role as the world's principal guarantor of freedom, liberty, democracy, and the conditions that promote self-actualization and increase human lifespan.

In it I focus on three audiences---1) Unbelievers, those who do not believe in an intelligent designer of the universe, however that designer may be known; 2) True Believers, those who pursue holiness in a life of salvation, sanctification, the peace that passeth all understanding, and a hopeful expectancy of eternal bliss with their Creator in a place or state called Heaven; and 3) the Lukewarm, those who profess some sort of religious preference but have not surrendered the outcome and are holding onto the world---who know about God but do not know God.

You may not fit into any of these groups, or may at times feel as though you've been in more than one of them. That's good, because I'm not trying to put anyone in a group. As I have said in many court hearings to opposing counsel who tried to bully my client, You don't get to pick the witness' answer. In that spirit, I cannot, and do not attempt to pick anyone's answer. These broad categories are used to set up contrasts in major lanes many Americans find themselves in at various stages of life, and how those groups relate to each other as we consider the state of the American Dream.

If you are an Unbeliever, this book will show you how to take advantage of others, in more noble than Machiavellian ways, to improve your life, enhance your physical safety, protect your things, advance your country's interests at home and abroad, and maximize your secular existence for as long as you live, all the while having those you exploit thank you for it.

For True Believers, it will show you how to practice your religion publically without ever again having to worry about whether you're violating the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

If you are among the Lukewarm, it will encourage you to move to either of the first two groups.

If you're none of the above, you may find the value of belief in God, regardless of who the believers are and irrespective of whether or not they're right, presented in the most utilitarian sense you've encountered---what it means to the major domestic and foreign policy issues facing America.

The United States is a great country, still. My hope in the pages that follow is to remind us why, and to challenge us to consider how we can take it to an unprecedented level by using the most powerful untapped resource at our disposal before the chasm to that resource becomes too wide and deep to cross.

PART I

Building Blocks

CHAPTER 1

What's the Deal with the Title?

I considered using the word creation on the book cover, and even more politically incorrect, the Creator (as in the only one), but was cautioned that I might lose half of my audience. I hope not, because in the fashion of the day I seek inclusion, especially since we only have one planet, and gravity to ensure that we don't fall off of it. Thus, the multiple audiences set forth in the introduction. And I'm probably not going where you think I am with creation. In fact, as you'll see, how we got here is not as important for the theory I espouse as how people believe we got here. That's what perception being more important than reality is all about.

I don't happen to believe that perception is more important than reality, but lots of other people do. So I can lament that, disagree with it, curse it...or I can leverage it, and leverage it expressly to my advantage. Judo works because it accepts another's energy---doesn't dispute its existence---and redirects it. That principle is not limited to hand and fist fighting, but can be applied to how we deal with other people's most deeply held beliefs, even if (especially if) we don't agree with those beliefs.

I'm going to show you how to do that with religion generally---leverage it---and Christianity specifically, since despite our best efforts to purge it from American consideration (which is directly against our interests), the United States is least dysfunctional when operating as a Christian nation. Soon I'll share with you some of the views of America's Founders on this point and then we can try to reconcile them with those of today's leaders, or unfortunately, today's managers.

Just the Facts

Beliefs are a big deal. People will die for them under the right circumstances. The prophets did, and so did many disciples. Missionaries, too, to this day. Others will die for their beliefs as well. Terrorists come to mind. It is worth noting that people don't frequently die for something they don't believe in, although some in a bureaucracy may.

So what is this book about, and why did I write it? I'll answer the second question first, as it is always a good idea to ask the why question. It helps define where you're going, what victory looks like, stuff like that that lets you know when you're done. Like the things we don't know in Iraq or Afghanistan, or if we do, we don't know them clearly enough so that anyone can readily explain them. That's a problem. It's a problem for mission accomplishment at the back end, and for the buy in to the mission on the front end. Lack of clarity affects not only the mission, but the morale of those performing it. If you can't explain the why, then the what, when, where and how have no context, and thus little meaning.

Why this book? One word, the Truth (okay, that's two words, but I didn't count the article). This book is about the capital T Truth. And here's various ways in which I don't mean it.

First, I don't mean Truth as in I have it and no one else does. And I don't mean it in a holier than thou way either, as in do what I say or I'm taking my toys and going home. For the Truth to have meaning, we must be completely open to what it holds, the good, the bad and the ugly. In fact, it's more important to know the Truth than for you to believe that the Truth comports with your desires when it in fact may not. That's known as delusion---an unhelpful state when trying to make decisions in your own or others' best interests.

Critically, I don't mean Truth as in "some version of the truth," as Jack Nicholson said to Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give, where it is spun to selfish ends. Nor do I mean it in the way Jack said we can't handle the Truth in A Few Good Men. We absolutely can handle the Truth, especially if it enables us to maximize our lives on earth---and for true believers, in eternity. In other words, the Truth does set us free.

I mean it in the most practical sense. When I talk about the Truth, for most purposes it makes no difference to me what the Truth is (which could be helpful to me if my focus were on an agenda). But I do need to know what it is, since my focus is not on a political decision, or on winning or losing, but instead on wisdom as wisdom is best understood---prudent decision making to advance the ball for society. I'll give you an example (and I'll stop capitalizing truth, for the most part).

When I was on active duty I used to keep a journal, a bulky green government notebook, listing all of the clients I represented as a Marine Corps judge advocate. Once I got into the thousands I put my client log book away. Many of those clients were seen in an office setting, where I counseled them for legal assistance matters, domestic issues, consumer (the Nissan with rims that cost more than the engine that a Marine had to have on Friday night and then couldn't pay for on Monday morning), and employment issues---the usual stuff. And a few hundred were court-martial clients---criminal cases, but most folks in that situation were just stupid guy, as opposed to truly bad guy. But every once in a while we got a real, no-kidding, criminal. Something different about the wiring. You could see it in their eyes. Nothing was wrong unless they got caught, and then it became a game for them to beat the charges as opposed to seeking the truth. So they lied. Shocking.

Clients lie. Not all of them, but enough to give those who don't a bad name. Criminal clients especially lie. This is morally concerning and not meritorious, but those byproducts are irrelevant to what a lawyer is charged with achieving in defending someone charged with a crime. As such, I did not care what their stories were, but I did need to know what they were in order to defend them.

Since situations like this don't come with instructions (no one charged with a crime sits across from his or her defense attorney knowing what to do or say), some preliminaries were in order. When it became clear to me that a client's story was implausible and would be flayed by the prosecutor, the advice went something like this...

"Son (most of the defendants were male), let me tell you something. I'm your lawyer. If there's anyone in the world you can level with, it's me. I don't care what you've done. You could walk in here and tell me you just robbed the U.S. Mint and I can't do anything about it. I can't even tell anyone, unless you authorize me to tell them, which I don't get the sense you're going to do. Even if you told me you just killed someone, that has to stay in this room. The only exception is if you tell me you're going to kill someone, or commit some future crime, then I have a duty to warn that person or potential victim. Other than that, you can tell me anything."

A surprised look would come over their faces, the wheels would turn, they'd say they understood, and then they'd begin to tell me a different set of lies. But you get the point---the more information they armed me with, the more effective a weapon I became...for them.

Thus, the reason it was important for me to know the story---the real story, and all of it---was so I could give them competent representation. It's hard to do that without the facts. Can you imagine applying stupid guy's approach to healthcare as opposed to a court-martial? Well, Doc, I have ten symptoms, but I'm only going to share two of them with you. Now what's wrong with me? Or, I have an x-ray in this sealed envelope. Without looking at it, tell me if the bone is broken.

Sounds basic, but forgiveness versus permission is the way a lot of people roll. Sequencing is important, and the sequence that historically works best across the breadth of human endeavor is to get the facts and then act on them rather than shoot and ask questions later. There is no more value in an X-ray unseen than in an apology never delivered.

Please understand this includes some assumptions. For example, it is assumed that the patient wants to get better---or to at least be reassured that nothing is wrong with him.

Second, it assumes that he's not a lunatic---not permanently insane, or temporarily insane at the time of the doctor's appointment. Put differently, it assumes that the patient is a rational actor and doesn't enjoy poor health.

Lastly, it assumes that he values his doctor's opinion, and specifically, that in comparison to his layman's opinion, the doctor's opinion is authoritative. He accepts it as the truth, or closer to the truth than he got on his own, especially since his diagnosis consisted of looking up his symptom---a headache, for example---on the Internet and concluding that he has most of the nine hundred medical conditions for which a headache is associated. Or he has chest pain and determines that it can only be a heart attack, and that the two hundred pushups he did the night before after not exercising for three months had nothing to do with his general musculoskeletal pain.

The patient wants some assurance, and the way to get that is to disclose as much relevant information as he can to a doctor he believes in enough to pay so that the doctor, a professional, can heal him, or give him assurance of his already good health. Again, armed with the facts, and all of them, the patient ensures the greatest chances of reaching his goal as a rational actor pursuing his interests.

So garbage in, garbage out applies, as does bad facts make bad law, and maxims of this sort. The truth matters. But remember, what people think the truth is may be as important. At this point, we need not worry about agreeing with anyone else's beliefs, we just need to focus on knowing what they are. Doing that will open a door you may never have known was in the house.

But here's a tricky nuance. There's truth about truth, and then there's truth about perception. Huh? Did former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld join the conversation and lead us down the rabbit trail of known knowns, and unknown unknowns? Not exactly.

Truth about truth is absolute truth, as in the kind of clarity one has where no Dream Team of lawyers or spin doctors, or public opinion, could ever dissuade you from believing---the kind of truth you're willing to be a minority of one in believing. The I know what I saw with my own eyes variety.

Truth about perception is the same, only different. What we seek in truth about perception is what one might call the view from space as opposed to ground truth. Simply put, truth about perception is taking an objective look at what others perceive and believe to be the case, whether it comports with the real truth or not, and, critically, whether you agree with their perceptions or beliefs. So for purposes of religious beliefs, truth about perception seeks to understand what various religious groups believe, for the further purpose of understanding how they may act in accordance with those beliefs, which for them may be ones they will die to advance. Thus, the end game of such an inquiry, especially from the point of an Unbeliever, would be something like this...

"I live in a community where a lot of people believe, or profess to believe, in a god, in this case what I generally understand to be the God of the Bible. That then means that Jesus figures in there somewhere, and also something known as the Holy Spirit. I don't really understand any of that, and as a non-believer, by definition I don't believe any of it. But they do, which means they may very well act in accordance with those beliefs. However, the 'Lukewarm' may claim to be religious, also, but may not act as consistently in furtherance of those beliefs as the 'True Believers.' Nevertheless, the bottom line for me, the non-believer, is that I now have a key piece of information about a lot of those who live around me, and if I think about it, knowing how they are likely to act can benefit me. And even though I may not believe in God, I'm not a bad person. In fact, I'm a pretty good citizen. So in benefitting me, that does not mean I seek to do anyone else any harm. If I can be better off without it being to anyone else's detriment, how exercised am I, really, if those I don't agree with, or understand, believe something different that I do?"

This book is about seeking the truth regarding those you live with in society, and how to use that truth to your advantage as a rational actor, both at home and around the globe in a world that gets smaller as its population grows larger.

First World Problems

Now I said there were two questions, the why, just discussed, and the what. Specifically, to what focus will this truth be applied?

I've alluded to it above, but let's just cut to the chase. Americans no longer have the luxury of water cooler debates between ACLU members and the Religious Right over whether someone may be irreparably harmed by hearing a prayer before a high school football game. There are people around this world that is getting smaller, more crowded and easier to access than ever before, who are really into their religion---and they are interested in how you feel about that. They love and consider their god to be exclusive. They don't believe your god is equal to theirs, and they don't care how that strikes you. Political correctness does not impress them. Their god does.

We live in a world where only Westerners, and chiefly, Americans, have a problem declaring their god. Islamists, by contrast, seem pretty sure about what they believe. We seem sure that we believe in political correctness. Who do you think will win the race between passionate religious practitioners who will die for what they believe, and the politically correct? We have in this world those who are moving a thousand miles an hour exclusively in the direction of their religion. Their commitment is unwavering, their patience endless, and their numbers growing. We counter by ignoring that movement and offering every solution but to consider where we stand on the issue of God. Terrorists do not respect American political correctness. They are disgusted by it. They are disgusted by people who don't stand for something. It is hard to fear someone you don't respect. It is bad to be hated. It is disastrous to be hated and not respected.

All but the Obvious

Imagine if your car broke down and you tried everything in the world to address the problem---looking under the hood, checking the battery, the oil, the radiator, attempting to start it again and again, searching the Internet for troubleshooting advice, finally calling a mechanic---everything except consulting the owner's manual. Who knows more about your car than the people who built it? Why not try them? Why, then, would we not be interested in knowing what the Intelligent Designer has to say about Intelligent Design?

This book is about God and what others around you believe about God, and how to use your knowledge and their beliefs to improve your life, promote the health and welfare of your country and restore national security so that Americans don't have to spend the rest of their lives filing through metal detectors to see their kids' school play, or worrying that the passenger sitting beside them on an airplane will detonate his underwear. Is that any way to live?

There are a few building blocks along the journey, and I have to distill several years' worth of political theory, scripture, strategic planning, law and order, societal organizing principles and the origins of the universe into the remaining pages. I hope to make it entertaining while keeping in mind the seriousness of what's at stake---sort of the way comedy and tragedy relate. Let's get moving.

CHAPTER 2

Protecting Your World

What matters to you? What relationships, situations, circumstances, vocations and avocations, even real and personal property (God doesn't forbid us to enjoy things) do you have in your life that if you