I recently made my way towards watching the 2006 release of ‘Superman Returns’ staring Brandon Routh. Perry White, the great archetype of a newspaper editor, in speaking to his staff utters the classic Superman line “…truth, justice, and all that stuff.”

All that stuff?

All that Stuff?!

What happened to truth, justice and the American way?

Wait a minute, what did happen to the American way?

What is the American way? I believe that the moniker of America and the American way is dispersed in part amongst her many great writings but in particular the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Here in the case of the Declaration we discover that the driving value of the American way is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not because the state has so graciously granted it to us, no, because God the creator of life has. Because of this, and in order to create a more perfect union, the American ideal was carved out to eventually find a home in the Bill of Rights. Of this way the freedom of speech has been paramount earning its way, not as an amendment to be added after some years but in the First Amendment. 

The significance of this amendment, by virtue of what it says, and by virtue of its position, tells me that all other amendments hinge upon these first five assertions. If I can’t speak freely, the amendment might argue, then what is the point! It was in a harmonious concert with this right that our Founding Fathers, contrary to the state, signed the Declaration of Independence  - in effect signing their death warrant. 

Yesterday while at work I happened on the fortune of speaking with a couple of individuals about current affairs in America. In the process, a woman exhibiting fear over speaking her thoughts saddened my heart. As we spoke of public virtue and those who would move contrary to virtue and moral, I could see her hesitancy to speak against any ideals that stood against her understanding of virtue and moral. Post modernity at it’s best.

Not long after that I happened to come into conversation with a pastor who was to be ministering to the men in Chino prison that evening. He began to recount how he was told to no longer pray in Jesus’ name because it had offended one inmate. One inmate! What about the many that received grace? A few minutes latter as we spoke of simply the work of another individual, I was caught off guard as he dramatically lowered his voice while mentioning research that reflected poorly on Iraqis. Why did he feel the need for that?

So what do we stand for? Over the years we once doted on the common vernacular of the great American melting pot. The idea being that regardless of origin, immigrants can become part of the Great American culture, the freedom, the dream. But now is it the American way that has melted?  When Americans fear their right to speak their minds in public, or fear to stand for what they believe is right without the fear of government oppression have we not lost our way?  So what do we stand for? Do we bow our knee to political correctness or do we stand for truth? Do we stand for nonconfrontationalism or independent thinking? If the Founding Fathers thought and acted as we do today, would the United States exist or be a land of foreign controlled territories? Will we carry on in their footsteps or do as the Hebrews did, that when led out from Egypt grumbled against the Lord because they would rather live as slaves then die as free men.