The taunt was hurled at Jesus on the cross: “He saved others; himself he cannot save.” And if America cannot save itself, how is it to save others?

I don’t have any answers to my personal grief over the loss of loved ones, to the questions of why they are gone and I remain, of whether I will rejoin them when I die, whether life itself has any real meaning. There are things I believe that bring me a degree of comfort, but not answers.

Seeking for answers to the death of loved ones, untimely or not, is a commonality to all those that grieve over such a loss. And the answers, if answers there be are no closer to us now than they have ever been throughout human history. But most of us find some degree of comfort through friends who mourn with us whether it be by their presence, letters, gifts, prayers, the lighting of candles or any other form of sharing our grief. Good people remain good people whatever their beliefs, and good people do not attempt to force their beliefs on others. The distinction is one of major consequence throughout human history, one by which some convinced they serve God may find themselves actually serving the Devil.

There was no mistaking the credit those in the time of Emerson and Thoreau gave the Bible and our Constitution as the basic instruments of the very foundation of America and American society, Henry crediting those standing wisely by these and drinking from the stream of truth to be found in them. Are some naysayers now over nearly a hundred and seventy years later to revise the very history and common thoughts to which Emerson and Thoreau were closest, to which they gave voice and credited? I think not.

But the fault those like Henry gave voice to in his tract on The Duty of Civil Disobedience lay in the inability of the best of those in government not only seeming to be unable to further improve conditions despite this “stream of truth,” but seeming intent on denying it by their actions. Henry’s criticism extended further to the seeming inability of those in positions of leadership to progress because of their stopping at the stream and not seeking the very source of the headwaters feeding the stream, the result being Henry’s declamation despite the genius of the New Testament teachings to be found on the subject “No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America.”

But genius and politics have never seemed to keep company. And it isn’t a lack of the product of genius that could properly be brought to bear on politics, it is as I have said many times that politics not only does not attract good people, especially not good people possessed of genius, but attracts the very worst, those that are drawn to positions of power and authority over others. And what is true of politics is equally true of religion, where Jesus himself said his kingdom was not of this world and warned those who would follow him not to make their home in this world if they were honestly seeking a better.

Henry credited others besides Jesus for having genius, he even went so far as to write of those like Confucius and Eastern philosophers, even remarking the credit Zoroaster some gave him for establishing worship among men. But whether religion or politics, the way each seems despite often noble beginnings to degenerate into systematic organization of hatreds has plagued humankind throughout the history of our species.

Throughout my own studies of world religions there is a general theme to be found of people attempting to reach out beyond themselves to the metaphysical realm, and these attempts have been marked from the very earliest even among pre-Homo sapiens. If there is any one thing that credits life seeking answers for itself and its purpose it is this thing of reaching out beyond ourselves to the metaphysical. But in too many cases has the metaphysical resulted in systems of cruelty and brutality in attempts to appease the diabolical rather than elevating the good.

For longevity none have ever surpassed the ancient Egyptians as a civilized society. But to study their forms of government and religion while offering some hints of how the ancient Egyptians remained such a cognate civilization provides no conclusive evidence. Certainly geography played a major role, but no matter how much of that ancient civilization you study the only thing you come away with is the sense of their recognizing that there were good people and bad people and in the afterlife this would be the basis of final judgment. And every civilization worthy of the term “civilized” has followed this same pattern of metaphysical belief usually reflected in their methods of governance.

Thanks to the marvel of the Internet and search engines one no longer has to spend years “going through the stacks” to gain an overview of ancient Egypt and other like subjects. But you quickly discover there are major differing opinions among scholars on several points, whether it be ancient Egypt or any other of the ancient civilizations.

But one thing about which you will not find much in the way of disagreement is the fact that it is only when the words of men are taken for the words of some deity, men purportedly speaking for some god or gods that we find the extremes of cruelty and brutality practiced by followers of various systems of religion. In the worst cases such as those of Islam teaching all but followers of Islam are the enemies of God, such teaching easily lending itself to the extremes of brutality and cruelty to appease a bloodthirsty deity, and in its own way no different than any of the ancient superstitions requiring human sacrifice.

I choose to call Christianity a “civilized religion” because once past its bloody beginnings and early history, Christianity provided the basis for the very best of the arts and sciences, and as those like Thoreau credited them the Bible and our Constitution became a “stream of truth” by which America flourished. Christianity had become civilized, and from this arose the greatest of Western Civilization in general and America in particular.

However, this tremendous advance of the arts and sciences had to do with the education Biblical Christianity emphasized such as the building of universities in Europe, England, and America. And as the general populations became educated as a consequence, so with increasing education came the ability for increasingly large numbers of people to contribute to the general welfare. America has been enormously blessed by this emphasis on education with its Biblical beginnings, and the loss of such an emphasis on education is something for which we are paying dearly.

It is regrettable beyond words that politics attracts the worst rather than the best. It is beyond dispute that the most civilized practice birth control, giving needed thought to the future of their children. But this is a product of education by which a civilization worthy of the term establishes itself and progresses in the arts and sciences. But nowhere do we see education worthy of the term being given the needed emphasis in the nations of barbarism. And right here in America we see increasing barbarism being the result of a failed educational system.

But our leadership being politicians refuse to acknowledge America’s heritage, culture, language and secure borders are essential to educating and providing for our own children. America cannot possibly be of help to other nations if we lose our own children. And I would offer this is not a matter of belief, but of hard empirical and pragmatic truth. And if America cannot save itself, how is it to save others?