adolescent america.

my dad's message today was entitled, "was the american revolution biblical," and at first, i was a little worried at to how it might be received (even though i didn't have a clue as to what his answer would be). anyways, it was so good and yes, that may sound weird to be rooting for your father and appreciating so much what he has to say in church, but i can't help it...it was that good. he talked about war and I Peter 2:17 (i think that's the reference) and how the men and women during the american revolution struggled with the idea of going to war or "rebelling" against the british b/c most of them were biblically sound and knew I Peter 2:17...where it talks about respecting humanity, loving all believers, and honoring the king (the authority). my dad talked about how appealing respectively to authority and requesting alternatives to war/revolt/rebelling is much more biblically sound than just going to war whenever we're not happy with life or someone who's in power over us. it got me thinking about how bad we are these days when it comes to "honoring" those above us--whether it be parents, teachers, or just older people--most americans under the age of 40 fall into the trap of dishonoring people and for christians (and myself) this is even more a shame. my dad also brought up the point of how young we are as a nation and how we so quickly jump to being against war (in any manner) b/c we see people dying or some extreme people who are involved on either side of th war's unethical and immoral actions or just b/c we think peace comes easy...like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something. unfortunately, so much of history points in the other direction and we've seen how costly freedom is. it's interesting when you think about the possibility of what the american revolution would've looked like had it been taking place today with all the mass media out there today. i don't think we could've seen 200 years down the road, and seen what benefits or luxuries we would've experienced b/c of it. we are, as my dad says, an adolescent nation...young and immature and often, following in the same footsteps culture-wise as our friends over in europe are. we want the immediate fix and aren't willing to be patient with tough decisions like war and certainly are always too quick to jumpt to one "side" or another. i do it too. i know. i realize this. the other day, i was talking to my dad about "Fahrenheit 9/11" and i was saying that although it was horribly bias and liberal and anti-republican / pro-democratic...it still had a little bit of stuff in it that is good to think about, as long as your willing to filter through all the crap. after telling me this, my dad told me about some of the things in the film that were wrong chronologically and how many dates were switched to create a more convincing story...but then he read me one quote from michael moore taken from a speech he gave after the film screened a month or so ago in great britain. moore said something like this: "i'm sorry that you all have to be tied to a country (b/c of tony blair) who's present day actions in war are forms of terrorism, and who's country who's history is known for being violently sadistic and vicious, always exploiting and terrorizing the poor, etc, etc." now he said much more, but his main gist was how horrible america is and how sick america is and how blah-blah-blah america is, and i couldn't help but think of what a disrespectful, totally dishonoring and ignorant human being he was. i'm not saying nothing he said was true, but do you think he thought about the millions of people who've died for our country...in order to give him the freedom to say such horrible things? i know his quote was worse than what i paraphrased, but you get the idea. this doesn't mean i'm saying to not see the movie...i'm just more frustrated now with supporting financially a man who's so blatantly disrespectful and ignorant when it comes to the country he calls home. my guess is 30 years from now, he won't be remembered like a gandhi of our day---although i think that's how he views himself sometimes. anyways...enough ramblings on the subject...i was just convicted today when i thought about how quick i am to be against something like war when it's one of those things that's extremely har to see through clear right now. maybe in 30 years we'll regret where we are now as a country and what we're doing over there in this war...maybe we won't. my hope is the latter of the two.