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Holding to the Good News in a Corrupt World

The time to renew our sacred covenant is nearly missed. Our beloved United States are on the verge of yet another war, a war waged within, for good and evil. It will be unlike that of a century and a half ago. It will destroy us.

The opposing forces in government pay little attention to the large constituency and even less to the Founders’ spiritual ties to Deity. We are on the platform of a station with a conductor yelling, “All aboard” all while we are dabbling in argument over left and right.

The government is “of the people, for the people and by the people.” Nay, it is not; it has instead become a tool of power and greed. However, our government should be for the people. The partisanship has devolved into evil. Almost without exception, that which government has entered upon has been made trivial and corrupt. Government’s size has allowed for loopholes and oversight mistakes that have created opportunity for corruption and evil. Longtime agencies have been politicized on both sides.  

The people have noticed. According to the Pew Research Center, in the late 1950’s, 73% of people trusted the U.S. government. In 2022, only 29% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans trust their government. People know. Will you send them back?

Education is corrupt. The military is weaker. Instead of building the best and the brightest in these organizations, the government worries about feelings: we want everyone to feel good about themselves. In reality, these goals make everyone feel less like being better. To be equal in everything is to drive mediocrity. One only has to look at government housing to see the level of quality that people are subjected to.

Regulations stifle growth and creativity. Those same regulations destroy small business owners that can’t compete with large corporations. This is evident in almost everything Congress touches. 

Look at pharmaceuticals. The U.S. creates some of the best medicines in the world. Yet those medicines can be purchased in Canada and Mexico much cheaper. The reasons are complex, but the bottom line is because of regulations placed on the industry. To keep their margins, they feel they must raise prices. These are the same makers of the product that is sold elsewhere. 

But government intervention and interference cause costs to skyrocket — wherein the opposing sides both take credit for lowering prescription prices while doing just the opposite as prices continue to rise. A few years ago Republicans claimed to have lowered the cost of insulin. Democrats recently made the same claim. Local pharmacies are often paid less by Medicare (a government agency) than the product cost. Big pharma doesn’t lower their margin. The pharmacy has to eat the cost. How can a small business stay in business when they are required by law to sell for less than they are paying for a product?

Congressional leaders buy and sell stocks based on information unavailable to the rest of us.  Former presidents become rich beyond imagination. Pockets are lined in backroom deals that are exposed in the next election and forgotten by the public with corruption being rewarded with another term or two or more. If the other candidate does win, he or she falls into the same lure of ease after they are elected. The current reality perpetuates itself, and the constituency struggles to put a roof over their heads or meals on the table.

The good news is “The Good News.”

America is a country founded on self-reliance. It is a country founded on dreams. It is a country founded in God. Should we continue to turn our backs on the Holy Father, we will perish as a nation. We are promised in scripture that we will prosper should we obey a handful of rules. We will be a beacon unto the world. Indeed, we have been. Nobody is trying to get into Venezuela or Cuba or Russia. The American Dream brought us, save our Indigenous peoples, all here.

As the reader reads these words, he or she will assume they know me, or my type. “He is a right-wing, anti-government, fascist, religious nut.” Or, “She is a left wing lunatic.” But I AM YOU.* I want the same things you desire. I want peace and prosperity. I want my children, and later my grandchildren, safe from harm and evil. I want to provide for them. I love dogs. I understand the stewardship we have for our planet and its precious waters. I know the earth is getting warmer.

I have responsibility to my community, to my country and to my family. Nobody should force that responsibility upon me. We all should take that as a sacred honor and live to better ourselves. And we should help each other, not because we are forced to by our government; rather, because it is the right thing to do.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Abraham Lincoln declared as a candidate for the Senate in 1858. Should we not live the lessons of history from biblical times — throughout history: the dark ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the migration to America and then on to the West, to near modern times — we will certainly fail. Every time a culture has turned their backs on Deity, every time, they have suffered and been destroyed.

The good of the earth must remain good. Repent. God loves us and wants us to return to Him, victorious. As an analogy, we can save ourselves by building our ark against the floods of corruption.

There are those who will laugh at our efforts. Let them! Already, it is starting to rain.

by Kenny Bryce, Bryce Valley

Feature image courtesy Chris Kane.


*Editor’s Note: The Byway welcomes these voices from YOU, provided your argument is positive and civil as Mr. Bryce’s is.